Volume 7, Chapter 47 – Sea of Sunset Flowers

“Lady Yisi, there seems to be a dead end ahead…”

Andrea, who was leading the Cerberuses, turned her head. Just as she said, after walking out of the hunting ground and taking a large detour following Yisi’s directions, they had arrived at a dead end that would force them to turn back. Not only was the path narrow, but many plant tendrils also hung down from the ceiling, obstructing their view. The cold, damp air, combined with the gray, dusty walls not far away, would make any rational person choose not to enter.

“Ah, you have to do this here.”

Smiling and waving at her companions, Yisi bent down and walked into the dead end. When she reached the moss-covered wall that Andrea had pointed to, she reached out her white-gloved hand, placed it lightly on the wall, and then poured magic power into her palm.

“[Collapse].”

[Collapse] was a first-tier earth-type spell, one of the most basic. A beginner could generally only make a palm-sized, half-finger-deep dent in the ground. Even for a very skilled magic chanter, the target of the spell was often limited to the ‘ground’. Only a magic chanter with a certain level of mastery, above level 30, could possibly change the target from the ground to a wall. However, by that level, a magic chanter could use other, more efficient spells to destroy walls, so very few people on the continent still knew that [Collapse] could be used on walls.

As the magic power was infused, the green moss-covered wall gradually softened and finally crumbled into a small pile of earth without a sound.

Yisi beckoned to her companions behind her.

“You can come in now.”

To put her companions at ease, Yisi was the first to step into this unvisited area.

It was a view so beautiful that it made one forget they were in a labyrinth.

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Following closely behind Yisi, Andrea, the second to step into this sea of sunset flowers, stood frozen in place.

“It’s so beautiful…”

Unlike the cramped and damp impression of the labyrinth, this was a vast land filled with a sea of flowers, forever suspended in a state of sunset. Although they were underground, there was a sun and a sky illuminated in gold. Thin clouds were reflected on the surface of the lake, which rippled with the wind. Combined with the fragrance of flowers and the moisture that filled the air, it would not be an exaggeration to call this a wonderland where unicorns lived.

Everyone who entered here had the same reaction as Andrea upon looking up, without exception, stunned by the magnificent view before them.

Her companions’ reactions gave Yisi a sense of pride. Although she had also been stunned like them when she first saw this place, now she was the one introducing it to them. It gave her a sense of accomplishment, like showing off an invention and being praised by others for it.

Yisi couldn’t help but place her hands on her hips.

“What do you think? It’s great, isn’t it?”

“It is indeed very nice… but is everything we’re seeing real? No matter how you look at it, this is the surface world. But even if the passage we just walked through led to the surface, it should be night outside, right? It’s dusk here.”

Because the scene before her was so stunning, Evelyn began to suspect that this was a world of illusion.

“Except for the sun and the sky, which are an illusion barrier, everything else is real. The lake, the sea of flowers, the hills, they’re all real. This is the guardian room of the twenty-first underground floor.”

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“I see. So we’ve already reached another floor.”

If someone in the know, like Dominic, had heard this, their jaw would have surely dropped to the floor. But here, apart from Refina who had gathered some information, no one else knew much about the labyrinth. Especially Evelyn and Andrea, who were here for the first time, so they had no concept of skipping from the eleventh floor to the twenty-first.

As for how Yisi knew about this place, it was naturally a discovery she had made two days ago while searching for the Source of Mana deep in the labyrinth, rummaging through the guardian’s treasure chests floor by floor. The guardian here was a monster called a [Sub-Whale]. Although it couldn’t leave the lake, it was still a very dangerous monster due to its many long-range spells.

Similar to the Cerberuses, because it had been unable to exchange matter with the outside world for a long time, when Yisi saw the [Sub-Whale], it was just lying on a riverbed where the water had completely evaporated, leaving only mud, struggling to survive. If Yisi had arrived a little later, the massive Sub-Whale would have surely died of dehydration.

Even though it was a whale, it lived in a lake.

As long as her companions were having fun, that was all that mattered. As if she had done something insignificant, Yisi waved her hand.

“Well, it would be too slow to challenge the guardians floor by floor from the thirteenth, like the other adventurers. So I just took a little shortcut.”

What Yisi didn’t say was that the wall she had just destroyed with [Collapse] had been enchanted with an extremely powerful reinforcement barrier. It might not have been destroyed even if it were bombarded by fourth-tier magic. In a game, this wall was like a bonus point set by the game designer at the player’s starting point. Although the player could see the treasure inside right at the start, they couldn’t get it. They had to persevere patiently to get the key and take the treasure. The item to break the barrier was in the treasure chest of the fourteenth-floor guardian. The only difference was that whether one could find this wall depended entirely on the adventurers’ luck.

“More importantly, how about we go over there and start preparing for the picnic? This is, for now, the best environment in the labyrinth. Also, don’t get too close to the lake. There’s a monster there.”

“Is it strong?”

Tiffany tilted her head.

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“Although I don’t think it has time to bother us, it’s still better not to get too close.”

As if in response to Yisi’s words, a hill-like behemoth suddenly surfaced on the wide lake. Amidst an echoing whale song, a huge column of water shot up under the golden sunset.

“I-indeed… I think it’s better if we don’t get too close to the lake,” perhaps because she couldn’t use magic now, the current Evelyn had much less courage than usual. “Let’s have our picnic right here.”

“If we have our picnic here, we won’t be able to enjoy the full view. That hill over there is perfect. Don’t worry, not only will Sub-Whale-san not treat us as enemies, but it will also treat us as—”

“Food?”

“As guests. You’re overthinking it, Evelyn.”

Although the Sub-Whale was not as easy to win over as the Cerberuses, and its intelligence was a little lower, whether it was because it knew how to repay kindness or because it was overjoyed at being revived, after she had taken a glacier from Mount Hermion out of her inventory and placed it at one end of the lake to melt and form a vast lake, the Sub-Whale had been playing happily in the water just like now, completely ignoring the changes in its surroundings.

Also worth mentioning is that this room originally had no sea of flowers due to the lack of water. The flowers had only appeared after Yisi had created the lake. The flowers on the ground were not ordinary plants, but a type of plant-based monster that could grow and bloom in just one hour as long as the conditions were right.

“Master, we’re heading over first~”

“Wait for me.”

“And about the cooking! I will definitely defeat Mary in cooking today!”

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Mary, Tiffany, and Andrea were the first to run towards the hill Yisi had mentioned. And hearing the challenge about cooking, Camilla, who couldn’t go with them, wore a look of frustration.

“Hmph.”

Yisi couldn’t help but smile. She proactively took the staff from Camilla’s hand and tilted her head with a smile.

“Shall we go over too?”

Knowing that Yisi had noticed her thoughts, under the golden twilight, a blush appeared on Camilla’s beautiful face. She took Yisi’s hand along with the staff and nodded lightly.

“Yes.”

“Hoh~ hoh~ hoh~”

Although she could hear Evelyn’s voice, clearly enjoying the drama, Yisi pretended not to hear.

I’ll just walk over holding Camilla’s hand.

¹ picniccc