Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 95

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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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95. Walking Only on Flower Paths (2)

Just climbing a ladder and crossing over one wall had changed the temperature.

As the party advanced, the temperature rose, forcing the priests to remove their outer priestly robes.

‘It feels like being under the scorching sun without there even being a sun.’

The party walked while fanning themselves with large leaves plucked from the walls.

Marine killed a Brush Wolf, whose body foliage had grown even more lush to match the Summer Garden atmosphere, using only her axe without fire.

To make matters worse, there was a problem that fanned the party’s heat.

“Which blooms first, morning glories or sunflowers?”

“I wonder.”

“I don’t know.”

Everyone was sensitive to spring flowers but didn’t know when summer flowers bloomed, so they couldn’t tell which direction led to autumn.

Hazel said she specialized in harvesting and gazed at distant mountains, while Serena also shook her head.

“I don’t hold tea parties in the garden during summer, so I didn’t pay much attention to flowers. I preferred to avoid going out when it was hot.”

“Serena, you hated summer. Ugh, it’s so hot. Could you do that thing?”

Muffin, fed up with the heat, made a request to Serena. Rihua, who was sweating profusely, asked.

“What thing?”

“In summer, Serena would make shaved ice with magic and share it with us. Even without syrup or fruit, just having ice would be nice. Ugh, so hot.”

“Shaved ice, you mean? Rather than that.”

Serena concentrated and created an ice spike in mid-air.

Cold air flowed from the large chunk of ice.

“I’ll maintain the magic, so it would be better to travel like this.”

“Will it be alright for you to maintain the magic?”

“I’ve practiced, and I’ll stop if it becomes dangerous, so it’s fine.”

If it’s difficult to cast magic while moving quickly, then cast it beforehand and maintain it.

It was a moment when Grey’s teachings shone.

‘I need to return quickly.’

Serena didn’t want to hear Lavenda crying like that again.

Sob. Sniff.

The shock had been so great that the sound of the Mysterious Stranger’s sobbing echoed faintly in her mind.

Sniff.

The sound of a woman crying sorrowfully.

As the sound kept getting louder, Serena abandoned her dignity and rubbed her ears.

Sniffle.

The sound grew even louder. Serena frowned and looked around.

The priests’ expressions were serious.

“Shh.”

Hazel put her index finger to her lips.

Only then did Serena realize that the crying wasn’t a hallucination but a real sound.

Someone other than Serena and Seraph’s party was crying.

Sniff, sob!

Serena tensed upon hearing a woman crying sorrowfully.

‘Who is it? Someone consumed by the labyrinth?’

There were as many as 100,000 people trapped after being consumed by the labyrinth.

It was about time to encounter ordinary people besides family and associates(?).

“We must rescue them quickly.”

The Knight, who wore a vow of silence necklace as decoration, spoke quietly and tried to step forward.

Hazel stopped Marine.

“Wait a moment.”

At the suggestion to observe rather than rescue immediately, Marine frowned with displeasure but agreed.

‘It could be a monster.’

Hadn’t the Labyrinth Deer, a formidable enemy even on the 3rd Layer, wandered around making sounds similar to human screams?

There were many monsters that lured prey with crying sounds, making it dangerous to approach recklessly.

Moreover, could one feel safe just because it was a person trapped in the labyrinth?

This was also not the case.

‘Both good and bad people were consumed without distinction.’

Humans came in all varieties, and Serena had already encountered Lucas, one personality out of 100,000.

There was also the possibility of encountering a murderer, one out of 100,000.

‘Even prisoners locked in jail all entered the labyrinth. I must be careful even with people.’

Serena and the priests moved carefully to observe the sobbing woman.

Long, voluminous green hair reaching down to her hips was the first thing that caught their eye.

When the woman, sensing their presence, lifted her head, a beautiful face was revealed beneath the green waves.

A round, white forehead with eyebrows as clearly round as if drawn with a brush.

A straight nose and rose-red lips. She was a fantastical beauty with mysterious green eyes where tears sparkled like stars.

“Is someone there? Please help me! Save me!”

‘Wow, she’s pretty.’

The green-haired woman was quite a beauty even in Serena’s eyes, whose aesthetic sense had heightened from living with Philia, the most beautiful in Heuji.

Serena looked at the crying, lovely woman and felt pity.

“Farewell.”

She fired the ice arrow she had been maintaining for cold air emission.

“Gah!”

The ice spike hit the woman’s beautiful face.

Though it was a horrific sight, the priests didn’t startle or panic at the princess’s sudden attack and nodded.

“It would be hard to distinguish outside the labyrinth, but inside the labyrinth it’s easier to tell than expected.”

“What kind of monster was that? It was incredibly pretty. Not as much as Countess Randy though.”

“It seems to be a plant monster called a Dryad. They disguise themselves as beautiful women or men to lure people, then bury them alive and use them as fertilizer. This is my first time seeing one, Priest Muffin.”

“It is indeed a Dryad. I’ve seen them several times, but distinguishing whether it’s a real person or a Dryad was quite difficult. Dryads that have devoured many people absorb the memories of those they used as fertilizer, improving their acting… Oh my.”

Hazel, who was about to tell a story about encountering a Dryad that had taken over an entire forest, raised one eyebrow and grabbed Marine.

“Knight Marine has been charmed by the Dryad.”

Marine was caught by Hazel while trying to attack Serena with a dazed expression.

Serena, who had nearly been slashed by the sword due to carelessness, was startled.

“The charm doesn’t break even though the Dryad is dead?”

“Powerful Dryads create duplicates to dominate forests. That was probably a duplicate, not the main body.”p>

As soon as Hazel finished speaking, the Dryad with a hole in its face, missing nose and eyes, let out a ghostly wail.

“Kyaaaah! I’ll have revenge! Revenge!”

“Ugh, so noisy!”

When Muffin delivered a decay kick, the Dryad, now missing its lower face as well, fell silent.

“Ugh! Urgh!”

Perhaps because the main body was still alive, the charm on Marine didn’t break.

Rihua examined Marine’s condition and bowed her head.

“I’m sorry. I haven’t learned magic to break charm status.”

“It’s not Priest Rihua’s fault. In times like this.”

“Is there another method?”

“Hit them.”

The High Priest’s holy fist mercilessly struck the Knight’s dazed face.

“Ugh! There was a girl being attacked by monsters here?”

“Like this, Dryad charm uses not only romantic attraction but the target’s goodwill itself, so you must be careful. They might appear as children asking to be saved.”

“For such a thing, the Dryad that just appeared was immediately recognizable as non-human.”

Even Serena, seeing a Dryad for the first time, could easily tell it was a monster.

Green hair could be accepted since this was a world with pink hair.

Meeting a beautiful woman crying out of nowhere in the labyrinth? Anyone with a brain should be wary.

‘Ralph also asked if Philia was a spirit or witch when he first saw her.’

Hazel added supplementary explanation to that.

“As I just mentioned, in the labyrinth it’s relatively easy to deal with monsters like dryads that disguise themselves as humans or are highly intelligent and cunning.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Such monsters know how to exploit human psychology. However, labyrinth monsters are somewhat lacking in such abilities. For example, the dryad that dominated a forest I mentioned earlier tried to seduce all the villagers adjacent to the forest to block the subjugation team.”

“The subjugation must have been very difficult.”

“Yes. The dryad was so cunning that it claimed to be not a bad monster but a good monster that only ate villains, trying to persuade the subjugation team. It hadn’t actually seduced all the village residents. It saved good residents from wild beasts, gave flowers and fruits to children and played with them, pretending to be a benevolent guardian of the forest.”

Muffin tilted her head after hearing Hazel’s words.

“If it acted that way because it didn’t want to be subjugated, that’s not so bad, right? Did it really have to be subjugated?”

“Do you know how many people were needed for the dryad to become so cunning? Three villages adjacent to the forest had already been completely wiped out.”

Muffin’s expression turned serious and she trembled. Rihua also clung to Muffin and trembled together.

“Ugh. It was a terrifying monster.”

“My goodness.”

“In comparison, dryads that appear in labyrinths have less intelligence even though their power is stronger than external dryads. They don’t know how to grasp human psychology and lack wisdom gained from survival. Among floor bosses that have repeatedly failed conquest attempts, there are monsters that become increasingly cunning while facing labyrinth explorers, but this is a new labyrinth. It should be easy to distinguish between humans and monsters.”

“I see. That’s fortunate.”

Marine, who had been keeping quiet due to the guilt of being seduced by the dryad, couldn’t hold back and spoke up.

“The goblin shaman from the 4th layer also normally fights cunningly using traps and terrain features, but it did participate in fair combat. I lacked experience and didn’t know this fact, so thank you for telling us, High Priest Hazel.”

The dryad was poor, perhaps because it was a clone.

Serena pretended it was an accident as she kicked the dryad’s corpse.

‘There was one more easy thing besides dying in the labyrinth.’

In labyrinths, it’s convenient to catch monsters disguised as humans or those that exploit human psychology.

Serena memorized this useful information well and cast ice arrow magic. With the ice gone, it felt even hotter.

***

Buzzzzzz-.

Whiiiiine-.

Hummmm-.

Whether it was because the season was summer, or because there were beehive traps nearby.

The party frequently encountered labyrinth wasps.

Single labyrinth wasps were no match for the party so they defeated them as they went, but they had to avoid or hide from wasps traveling in groups.

Defeating these was also quick.

The problem was that when wasps traveling in groups entered combat, one wasp wouldn’t join the fight and would loiter around, then immediately flee if it looked like they would lose.

These escaped wasps brought back not just groups but entire legions.

As this situation repeated, Serena and the priests would drop to the ground or hide against walls the moment they heard the distinctive buzzing of wasps.

“Aren’t the wasps being a bit too aggressive?”

“I’m not the only one who thinks so. They seem to be tracking us.”

“We destroyed one beehive, could word have gotten out?”

“Since we’re moving following the flowers, maybe we’re just encountering them by chance?”

Everyone offered their opinions, but there was no hypothesis that seemed right.

‘It’s hot enough to die and now the wasps are being annoying too.’

Being constantly chased by wasps made it impossible to maintain magic, so she had to give up on the ice.

Every time they heard wasp sounds they had to drop to the ground or hide in bushes, but wasps appeared so frequently it felt like being trained like a dog.

‘Maybe I should have gone in reverse seasonal order. Then it would have been winter and incredibly cool.’

Serena displayed her sheltered upbringing for the first time in a while.

Winter was better than summer.

It was a thought only a modern person who had never felt the fear of freezing to death despite being poor, and a princess who had lived without knowing cold after reincarnation, could have.

‘Should I lure the wasps with goblins? But they’re attracted to the trumpet sound. Ah, I shouldn’t have killed it.’

Summoning goblins would be useful in many situations, but the trumpet sound that spreads widely when summoning was the problem.

‘I’ll have to summon them in advance from now on.’

To make matters worse, another enemy pursuing the party was added.

The dryad that had shouted about revenge began appearing before the party that was avoiding wasps.

Since it was a clone and not the main body, Serena could defeat it alone, but after dealing with the dryad, somehow wasp legions would swarm over.

Avoiding wasps led to meeting dryads. Meeting dryads brought swarms of wasps.

Dealing with brush wolves and carnivorous flowers in between while paths kept changing and the day was hot.

Eventually Serena and Rihua, who had weak stamina, reached their limit.

While the three people who still had stamina to spare stood guard, Serena and Rihua sat on the ground eating water and salt.

“Huff, huff.”

Priest Rihua’s pale face flushed red.

Serena dampened her handkerchief with water and pressed it to Rihua’s face.

“I’m sorry. You must be hot too, Princess.”

“I’m still fine.”

“Seeing the Princess, I should take another look at the Prince.”

‘You don’t need to look.’

Perhaps not in her right mind from the heat, Rihua spoke her inner thoughts aloud.

Serena pretended not to hear again and closed her eyes, then was startled.

[You have defeated the Winter Garden Leader. Shop 1 coins have been awarded.]

The 5th layer was so vast that each season occupied one floor.

She had received a coin notification when the party with her sibling defeated a floor boss earlier, and now another notification was added.

‘They’ve reached the autumn garden.’

Serena and the priests hadn’t even found the summer garden’s leader’s chamber yet, but that side had a fast conquest speed.

‘Our combat power is better though. This is why you need a guide.’

Buzzzzzz-.

“Excuse me.”

The princess and priest of light hadn’t recovered their stamina yet, but when wasp sounds were heard, Hazel and Marine quickly lifted them up.

The high priest’s embrace was literally cozy and comfortable like being held in a mother’s arms.

Serena felt this way despite never having been held in her mother’s arms in either her past or current life.

After quickly moving locations, Hazel apologized as she set the princess down.

“I apologize, Princess. I was rude in my haste to move quickly.”

“Not at all.”

Serena gazed wistfully at Hazel’s embrace and took a deep breath.

Perhaps thanks to the good experience, her mind exhausted by heat and fatigue rebooted.

“We can’t just keep running away like this. There’s something I want to test briefly, will you help me?”

The priests gathered at the princess’s request.

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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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