Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 80

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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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80. Falling Behind (2)

“The exploration is very easy!”

The words thrown out by the Young Knight caused massive ripples throughout the party.

Olive was horrified and Ying raised one eyebrow.

Count Randy furrowed his brow and Serena also instinctively sensed an ominous feeling.

“Ah, Knight! Those words!”

“Yes? Did you mishear me? It’s easy!”

“Aaah, he did it. He said it. The Knight said it!”

“Why, why are you acting like this? What did I say wrong?”

“You just did.”

“What, what did I do wrong?”

“How could you say it’s easy? That’s bad luck.”

There are several taboo words in the world.

The resurrection spell “We got him” that turns the hard work of defeating a strong enemy into futility.

“It’s quiet today” which makes the boss happy but saddens part-time employees.

Those were the two that Serena knew.

Today Ralph said a taboo word that horrified Olive and Ying, adding one more.

Words that should never be spoken in the Labyrinth: “This Labyrinth is easy.”

Assuming the aforementioned two bring results opposite to what’s desired, the result that saying “the Labyrinth is easy” brings is:

“The Labyrinth difficulty increases or unlucky things happen.”

The instinctive ominous feeling Serena felt after hearing Ralph’s words originated from here.

The Grandmother who raised Serena in her previous life told her not to show off or boast even when good things happened. She said listening ghosts would become jealous and bring misfortune or interfere.

It was groundless superstition. And it was common knowledge that the more dangerous the profession, the more superstitions flourished.

“Aaah! This exploration is cursed! Let’s quickly return to the 1st Floor! Yo!”

They had only walked a short distance after coming down the stairs when the Guide turned around.

Ralph panicked and grabbed Olive.

“Did I do something wrong? Can’t I take it back?”

“You already said it, so taking it back won’t make the words disappear. Sigh. You should never say such things in the Labyrinth.”

“Did I mess up badly?”

When Ralph became visibly frightened, Count Randy defended the Young Knight.

“Don’t be too harsh on him. It’s just superstition, isn’t it?”

“You can’t ignore intuition in this industry. Yo. When you feel something’s ominous, going back is the way to survive. Yo.”

“I’m sorry. I spoke without thinking…”

The young man who had been in such a good mood drooped and made a tearful face.

Serena rolled the candy still remaining in her mouth and comforted the Knight.

“Don’t worry too much about it. I was just about to suggest we return since this floor has plenty of loot anyway.”

“Sob, thank you, Princess.”

His teary brown eyes held gratitude that was too much for Serena to handle.

‘Ugh, so pure.’

Serena was a rotten adult who couldn’t look directly into the Young Knight’s pure eyes.

Serena also turned around.

“Let’s go back now.”

“Let’s go up quickly.”

“Sniff, yes.”

Ralph sniffled and was about to follow his sister when his watery eyes blinked.

“There’s a monster over there! I’ll quickly defeat it!”

As if trying to make up for his verbal mistake, the Knight enlarged his shield and charged forward.

Olive tried to grab Ralph but missed and shouted.

“No! There’s a trap there!”

“Aaaah!”

“There is one…”

The brick floor opened and Ralph, who had been charging at the monster, fell down below.

Olive lowered the hand she had extended toward Ralph and made a subtle expression. Serena grabbed the back of her neck.

‘Is it time to die?’

They couldn’t lose their reliable tanker.

Moreover, Ralph was a starting companion who had shared life and death with them since the 1st Floor.

As Serena hesitated whether to ask Ying to kill her, Ralph’s voice came from the trap.

“I’m okay!”

“How are your injuries?”

“I’m not hurt at all! But it’s too dark here so I can’t see anything!”

Fortunately, Ralph had fallen into the trap but was alive.

When the group approached the hole in the floor to rescue Ralph, the Labyrinth Chicken on the other side of the hole flapped its wings and jumped across the trap.

The Labyrinth Chicken attacked the group. From across the trap, a Goblin shot arrows.

Ying demonstrated the miraculous skill of hitting a flying arrow with her own arrow, then killed the Goblin Archer with her next arrow.

Olive used her small stature to burrow under the Labyrinth Chicken and struck its feet with her axe.

Serena shot an ice arrow into its neck while the Labyrinth Chicken was suffering from leg pain.

Cluck.

The Labyrinth Chicken fell with a pitiful cry. The group worked together to move the Labyrinth Chicken and approached the trap.

“Are you still safe?”

“Yes, I’m fine!”

They had worried something might happen to Ralph while fighting the monsters, but fortunately Ralph was unharmed.

Serena examined the trap. Just as Ralph had said about not being able to see anything due to darkness, the interior of the trap was dominated by the Labyrinth’s strange darkness.

“It’s pitch black and I can’t see anything.”

“Same here. Can you see well, Lady Serena?”

“Yes. Sir Ralph is down there. It’s not that high, seems like about one floor below.”

Traps that drop you to lower floors can sometimes become shortcuts depending on the situation.

As Serena was thinking this, Olive half-opened her round eyes and shook her head.

“No, Princess. I told you before. You can’t trust what you see. It might look like it’s right below, but it could actually be several floors down, or in severe cases, he might have fallen to a different floor entirely. Yo.”

“Really?”

Ralph, alone in the darkness, sniffled.

“I’m sorry. Because I said strange things and acted thoughtlessly…”

“What are you talking about? Sir Ralph was just being brave trying to defeat a monster and made a mistake. Don’t blame yourself and think positively.”

Saying negative things like “I knew this would happen” or “You jinxed it by saying such things” would only deepen his self-blame and provide opportunities for more misfortune.

In situations like this, thinking positively was the best approach.

“If I reach down, is it a height where you can grab on and climb up?”

“It seems possible.”

Serena created a ball of light with magic and sent it down into the trap.

Only then could they see Ralph’s head at the bottom of the trap. Count Randy reached his hand down into the trap.

Ralph grabbed the Count’s million-gold hand. When he jumped up to escape from the trap, he seemed to rise a little, then:

“Ugh!”

Count Randy couldn’t bear Ralph’s weight and his upper body sank into the trap.

“Oh my.”

Olive and Ying, who had been standing by next to the Count just in case, quickly grabbed Count Randy.

Count Randy, who had almost fallen into the trap together, gasped for breath.

“I’m, I’m sorry! I forgot about the weight of my bag and armor.”

“No. I had forgotten too.”

“I couldn’t see so I naturally thought you had taken them off! What a surprise!”

Startled by the sudden situation, everyone was missing a screw.

If Olive, who was most accustomed to various unexpected situations, had known Ralph’s condition, she would have told him to remove his armor beforehand, but she couldn’t say anything because the inside of the trap was dark and only Ralph’s head was visible.

“Let’s tie the armor and bag to the rope and pull them up separately.”

Serena added a light orb and lowered the rope into the trap. Only then could Ralph’s full figure be faintly seen.

Ralph secured his removed armor and bag to the rope.

Whether it was because he was scared and tense being alone in the darkness, or because he was injured from the fall, his hands were shaking and he kept making mistakes.

“I’m sorry.”

The Young Boy was shedding snot and tears.

“Sir Ralph. It’s okay to be slow, so calm down. Yes, eat some candy to soothe your mind.”

“Yes. Sniff.”

Ralph accepted Serena’s suggestion and put his hand into his chest.

The sound of candy rattling in his pocket and Ralph sniffling could be heard.

While waiting for Ralph to calm down, the adults with nothing to do counted the bricks on the walls.

‘When we conquer the Labyrinth, we can rebuild Heuji City with these bricks.’

It would be good since it would cost less for materials. Building the entire city with the same bricks would look quite nice, wouldn’t it?

Serena, who was having such thoughts, blinked her eyes. Something seemed to have changed slightly, but she wasn’t sure what had changed.

‘What is it?’

Serena was about to look at the others to alert them of the unease she felt when she realized what had changed.

“Sir Ralph! Come up quickly!”

“Yes?”

“Quickly grab the rope! It’s a trap!”

When Ralph fell, there was a hole throughout the entire corridor, but now the floor of the corridor adjacent to the walls was being filled in.

“The floor is being restored! Quickly!”

“Yes!”

Ralph abandoned his bag and armor and grabbed the rope.

Four people clung to and pulled the rope, but like playing tug-of-war, the rope wouldn’t come up.

Even when Serena lowered her magic staff down, it was the same. It was completely blocked and couldn’t be pulled up.

To extract Ralph who had fallen into the trap, hands absolutely had to touch hands.

“Sir Ralph! Grab my hand!”

Count Randy risked danger and extended his hand down again. Ralph hurriedly grabbed his hand, but the speed of the floor restoration was getting faster and faster.

“It’s dangerous!”

Judging that if left like this, Count Randy would also fall into the trap together or have his arm cut off, the Guide pushed the Count away.

Serena hurriedly threw her bag into the shrinking hole. Seeing this, Ying also threw her bag after it.

As soon as the two bags went down into the trap, the hole disappeared.

“…”

Silence descended. Olive deliberately tried to step on the trap to activate it, but the closed floor wouldn’t open.

“Ugh.”

Serena made a groaning sound while grabbing the back of her neck. She looked up at the sky for the first time in a while, but the stuffy brick ceiling blocked her view.

‘The 3rd Layer was nice because it had a sky, even if fake.’

Though she had grown sick of the 3rd Layer because of her sibling, at least it was wide open and not stuffy.

Serena forcibly filled her stuffy chest with air and spoke.

“We must save Sir Ralph.”

Everyone agreed with the Princess’s opinion.

“The problem is where the Knight fell. As I said earlier, there’s no guarantee it’s directly to the floor below.”

“Since there was that strange darkness, wouldn’t it be the 4th Layer?”

“Other layers could have that kind of darkness too. This strange light and darkness could be this Labyrinth’s characteristic.”

Serena bit her lips with a gloomy heart.

Count Randy sighed deeply enough to make the ground cave in, and Olive anxiously shook her legs.

‘Should I ask them to kill me?’

Serena looked at the archer who remained expressionless even though a party member had fallen behind, then pulled herself together.

It was still too early to give up. There was also the possibility that Sir Ralph had fallen directly to the floor below.

‘Right. Let’s think comfortably. If he’s dead or we can’t find him, I can just rewind. I’m capable of that.’

Thinking this way, her stuffy chest felt a little relieved. With her chest at ease, blood flowed to her head.

Serena talked about the positive aspects.

“Since Ying and I threw our bags down, food, water, and potions should be fine for a while.”

“Right. Princess, that was a very good judgment.”

“You displayed excellent quick thinking in that urgent moment.”

She hadn’t brought up the topic to hear flattering compliments.

Serena continued speaking.

“Food and drinking water are fine for a while, and Sir Ralph’s martial arts are quite excellent, so there’s little worry of him being defeated by monsters. The problem is that the place where Sir Ralph fell is dark.”

“It’s tricky because of the Undead. Even if you’re skilled, many people get defeated by Undead. Even if you win the fight, if your mental strength is weak, you can’t withstand the Undead’s morale drain. Especially since this Labyrinth’s darkness is disgustingly dark where you can’t see anything.”

“It must be very scary for the still young Sir Ralph.”

“It was good that we put magic stones in the lantern.”

Since he was separated from Serena, the light orb created by magic would have disappeared too.

If Ralph had fallen into the trap without the lantern he got from the treasure chest, it would have been really dangerous.

“Then let’s quickly go save Sir Ralph.”

“Princess, wait! There’s something I forgot to mention.”

“What is it?”

“Just because it’s a trap that makes you fall down, doesn’t mean you necessarily fall to the floor below.”

“What do you mean…”

“The Knight might be on an upper floor instead of below.”

A Labyrinth where anything could happen and you shouldn’t be surprised no matter what occurred.

The Princess sighed while pressing her right eye.

“Since we completely conquered the 1st and 2nd Layers, it’s definitely not there, but the 3rd Layer is…”

The 3rd Layer was damn wide.

“I understand, so you don’t need to say more.”

Serena pretended to press her right eye while searching through the shop window with her left eye.

‘Is there anything useful?’

Unfortunately, there were no useful items in the shop window for this kind of situation.

Wouldn’t it be convenient to just die and start over? While being tempted by such bad thoughts, a good idea suddenly came to mind.

“Count, try holding this.”

Serena handed the magic map to Count Randy.

‘The Count’s upper body went into the trap. Perhaps?’

When Count Randy held the magic map and thought of the trap’s location, a single black dot appeared on the blank white paper.

The map of the floor where you arrive when falling into the trap was displayed!

“Oh! Lady Serena, how did you think of this!”

“Princess! As expected of an educated person! A genius among geniuses!”

“Agreed.”

It wasn’t flattering compliments but sincere admiration that burst forth. Even the taciturn archer praised the Princess.

“Sir Ralph is on a lower floor, not an upper floor!”

“Let’s quickly go down and save the Knight!”

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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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