Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 79

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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79. Falling Behind (1)

“Hyaaaah!”

Ralph bravely charged at the Labyrinth Rat Leader. The Labyrinth Rat Leader attacked the charging Ralph with its beak. He could feel the powerful force that could split even a decent stone head.

Ralph blocked the beak attack with his shield and struck away the claws coming from below the shield with his sword.

Clang. The royal knight’s sword clashed with the animal’s claws, making the sound of weapons colliding.

Whoosh.

The goblin riding on the Labyrinth Rat Leader aimed for Ralph’s opening and shot a poison dart.

The poison dart hit the upper part of his helmet and bounced off. Ralph’s expression became serious as he realized he had nearly been in grave danger.

“…Now.”

When the goblin was about to shoot a poison dart, the archer was also waiting for a chance to shoot an arrow.

The arrow that left the bowstring was blocked by feathers just before reaching the goblin, as the Labyrinth Rat Leader flapped its wings.

Serena and Count Randy tried to support the knight with magic.

Olive, who had declared non-participation in combat and stepped back, stopped them.

“It’s the 11th floor now. The knight needs to build up some real combat experience too~”

Ralph was in a situation where he was busy just blocking the combined attacks while fighting 2 against 1.

When Serena pointed out that it might be dangerous, Olive shook her head.

“It’s fine~ If it gets really dangerous, Zero will help. Since there was no fighting on the 3rd layer, he needs to fight hard from here and build real combat experience.”

“You’re not copying what Grey used to do to me because it looked fun, are you?”

“Haha, you caught me? As expected, the princess is quick to notice~”

Olive laughed playfully and then gestured for Serena to look at Ralph.

The knight, who had been busy just defending, was now deflecting attacks to create openings and increasing his attack frequency.

Now he wasn’t startled by the goblin’s poison darts aiming for openings, but deliberately showed openings to lure attacks and even controlled the intervals when the goblin reloaded poison darts.

‘Ooh.’

“Look, look. He’s learning quickly.”

As expected, a knight with current 3 stars and two more grey stars attached was something different.

Though lacking flashy techniques, Ralph steadily blocked attacks and struck when he saw openings, cornering the Labyrinth Rat Leader and goblin.

“Hyup!”

Ralph’s sword went deep into the Labyrinth Rat Leader’s body. The chicken collapsed, spitting blood from its beak.

The startled goblin jumped down from behind the Labyrinth Rat Leader.

Kik kik. Kieek.

The goblin was small enough to reach Ralph’s waist. The goblin tried to escape using its small frame and quick movements, but Ralph’s hammer strike was faster.

Kiek!

The goblin cried out its death throes and died.

“Huff, huff, huff.”

Ralph breathed roughly enough to make his upper body heave, then looked back at his companions.

“Did I catch them by myself?”

The knight had a blank expression as if he couldn’t believe he had defeated the floor boss alone.

Serena chuckled.

‘This guy.’

“Yes. You caught the floor boss alone.”

“You fought 2 against 1 and won. Sir Ralph’s martial prowess is remarkable.”

“Knight, you were really cool!”

“Ehehehehe.”

Ralph seemed pleased yet embarrassed by the party’s praise, blushing his freckled cheeks while grinning with his mouth open.

“But you know you could have caught them faster, right? That first poison dart attack was dangerous too.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s do better next time.”

“Yes, understood!”

Both the goblin and Labyrinth Rat Leader had magical energy. Serena examined the goblin first rather than the Labyrinth Rat Leader.

‘So this is a goblin.’

Obviously, Serena was seeing a goblin for the first time since her reincarnation.

Unless one had a hobby of collecting monsters, where would a princess living in the royal palace have occasion to see monsters?

Perhaps because of this, the goblin she saw for the first time in her life felt fascinating.

She had seen other monsters since entering the labyrinth too.

‘But they were animal monster versions, so it didn’t feel real.’

Rats, cattle, spiders, frogs, condors, bats, chickens. Even the undead monsters that should have been scary didn’t feel very impactful since the base corpses were rats and chickens.

But goblins are different.

Goblins. The beings considered representatives of low-level monsters in countless media Serena had encountered in her previous life.

Goblins in novels usually appeared in chapter 1, on the 1st floor.

In Heuji’s Labyrinth, they made their first appearance as a boss on the 11th floor. It was generous treatment for a goblin.

Serena was immersed in emotions that no one else could possibly understand, carefully observing the goblin’s corpse.

The emotional moment was brief. Brain matter and blood flowed from the crushed head, making her feel increasingly uncomfortable the longer she looked.

Serena handed the goblin over to her companions and leaned against the wall, closing her right eye and opening her left.

[You have defeated a floor boss. Shop 1 coin has been awarded.]

Even with two monsters working together, only 1 coin was awarded.

After finishing collecting useful materials, the party opened the door in the leader’s chamber.

Unlike the leader’s chamber that was blindingly bright without a single shadow, after opening the door and going out, light and darkness once again occupied half the space each.

Olive clicked her tongue seeing the stairs divided exactly between light and darkness.

“They even did this to the stairs? Harsh, so harsh.”

The treasure chest was a bit better than ordinary ones – painted and rimmed with gold. The guide who confirmed there were no traps or monsters called the knight.

“Knight! Come here!”

“You mean me?”

“Since the knight fought and won alone, I’ll yield this chest to you~”

“Thank you!”

Ralph immediately opened the treasure chest. The reward from the chest was three glass bottles containing green liquid.

Count Randy spoke as soon as he saw the color of the liquid in the bottles.

“Those are intermediate antidotes.”

“Antidotes are important! Good drop~”

“Is that so? I’m glad it turned out well!”

Because Serena had recruited Count Randy and reduced potion worries, but without Count Randy, the antidotes would have been truly useful rewards.

When conquering the 2nd layer, hadn’t the party’s three main forces nearly died from poison?

‘That time was really hair-raising.’

Ralph took one bottle of antidote, Serena took one, and Olive carefully stored the remaining bottle that Ying had yielded to her.

“We’re continuing, right?”

“Yes.”

Light and darkness. If I say it like that, Ying would grumble about why light always comes first, so should I say darkness and light instead?

Olive stepped onto the stairs divided exactly between darkness and light.

‘My eyes are a bit tired.’

Whether dark or bright, both strain the eyes.

Serena tried to go down the stairs on the dark side to rest her eyes that had been tormented by the light.

Then the guide called for her to come under the light.

“Oh, Princess. Not that side, this side.”

“You can’t.”

It wasn’t just the guide – even the Loyal Servant of Darkness, who preferred darkness, tried to pull Serena away from the dark path.

“What’s the matter?”

When Serena asked the reason in puzzlement, the experienced labyrinth explorers revealed the reason.

“You can get separated from your party when floors change.”

“Do such things happen in labyrinths?”

“The more you know, the more amazing it is.”

“If we’re lucky, we can scatter and regroup on the same floor of the same labyrinth. If we’re unlucky, we could end up on different floors of the same layer and suffer terribly.”

Olive pointed to the light and darkness.

“This mechanic usually appears after the 30th floor. But look how blatantly they’ve divided it here. If the whole party is walking in the light, there’s no need to risk walking alone in the darkness, right?”

“Your words are truly wise.”

Even Ying, who seemed to love silence, stepped forward. There was a very valid reason for this.

Serena immediately moved toward the bright area and descended the stairs.

***

The party descended the stairs and reached the 12th Floor of the 4th Layer of Heuji’s Labyrinth.

The 12th floor presented a crossroads from the very beginning. There were two choices: light and darkness.

Olive walked briskly toward the bright path as if there was no value in hesitation.

“Labyrinth Chicken and two goblins ahead!”

One goblin that spotted the party quickly mounted the Labyrinth Chicken and charged at them.

“Please leave it to me!”

Perhaps encouraged by his victory in a 2-on-1 fight against the Floor Boss, Ralph stepped forward.

Since regular monsters were weaker than Floor Bosses, Ralph quickly won even in a 3-on-1 battle.

The goblins carried iron weapons, though crudely made.

‘I can get meat, feathers, claws, organs, combs and other alchemical materials, plus metal from the weapons the goblins carry. Magic stones are appearing frequently too.’

If they didn’t take the path of darkness, the spoils obtainable on the 4th layer were considerable.

Indeed, Count Randy was so pleased to have a finished weapon, even if crudely made, that he discarded the chicken meat and took the goblin-made dagger instead.

“These fellows don’t have poison needles. How disappointing.”

To Count Randy’s disappointment, even the goblin that appeared as the 12th floor’s Floor Boss didn’t seem to have poison needles.

Unlike its kin who wore only loincloths, this Goblin Champion was armed with tough leather armor and a greatsword much larger than itself, and it roared a battle cry to boost its attack power.

Kiiiiiiaaaaaak!

“Hraaaah!”

Ralph also charged while roaring, not to be outdone.

This time, a fair 1-on-1 warrior’s duel unfolded.

The fair duel ended so anticlimactically that the battle cries the two warriors had let out beforehand seemed wasted.

Ralph achieved perfect victory by stabbing the weak points exposed between the Goblin Champion’s armor with swordsmanship that incorporated practical experience into orthodox techniques.

“I’m still chewing jerky.”

I was trying to chew some jerky while watching the fight, but it ended in an instant.

“I won!”

“Oh, well done! That was cool!”

Olive looked disappointed, but when Ralph turned around, she changed to a smiling face and gave him a thumbs up.

“Your skills are improving by leaps and bounds.”

Serena also smiled broadly and praised the knight who had won the life-or-death battle.

Collecting spoils was the victor’s privilege. Since the subspace bag’s capacity was tight, they had to remove items to make space if they wanted to take the Goblin Champion’s greatsword and armor.

Count Randy took out miscellaneous items from the subspace that wouldn’t spoil when stored and could fit in the party’s bags. Serena couldn’t avoid it either, so her bag became a bit heavier.

This treasure chest was an ordinary treasure chest. Olive looked disappointed but again yielded the chance to open the chest to Ralph.

“Pray for something small, light, and useful to come out!”

“Something small, light, and useful?”

Ralph looked confused as he opened the treasure chest.

Inside the chest was a small pouch.

When he lifted the pouch, small round things rattled inside.

Ralph untied the string sealing the pouch and looked inside.

“It’s candy.”

“Candy~ We’re probably the only party that gets candy from labyrinth treasure chests.”

“A-are you disappointed?”

“This is great!”

A growing boy is also an adolescent boy. He smiled at the candy, became dejected at Olive’s words, then became happy again – his changing expressions were entertaining to watch.

Ralph offered the pouch of candy from the treasure chest to the princess. Serena declined.

“Since you worked hard on this floor too, keep the candy. It’s yours.”

“May I really have it?”

“Of course.”

The boy’s mouth stretched from side to side.

Ralph chuckled and opened the candy pouch to show the party.

“Please take your favorite color.”

“You should eat them all yourself.”

“There are so many, it’s fine.”

“You’re giving us candy? Then I’ll take five!”

“Olive. Don’t steal snacks from a growing teenager.”

“One then.”

The party amicably put one candy each in their mouths. Serena chose an orange candy. It was tangerine flavored.

The direct sweetness, different from fruit, made her tongue feel like it was melting and tingling.

‘We shared candy like this back then too.’

When she first fell into the labyrinth, the five of them shared candy as they went down to the 2nd floor.

Ralph had shared the candy then too.

Recalling memories that had become nothing, not only her mouth but her chest felt tingly.

“This has jam inside! I should have picked red!”

“The red one is strawberry flavored.”

“That sounds delicious! The one I picked is lemon flavored, so sour!”

The party that went down the stairs back then was gored by horns and wiped out.

‘It’s different now.’

Such a thing wouldn’t happen again.

They had two reliable labyrinth explorers, one genius alchemist, and a 3-star knight with five whole stars.

The fact that Serena had also diligently practiced magic was a bonus.

The party reached the 13th Floor of the 4th Layer of Heuji’s Labyrinth. It was an exceptional pace.

‘We have a lot of luggage, so should I suggest we head back now?’

Just before Serena was about to make that suggestion.

“We’ve made tremendous progress in just one day! This exploration seems very easy!”

The teenager, excited from being praised by his respected princess and pretty older sister and even getting candy, recited the forbidden incantation.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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