The Adventures of Liana

A streak of light flashed. The arrow resting at Liyana's fingertips a moment ago had already pierced through a monster's throat the next.

"So amazing!"

"That's Lady Liyana for you!"

Liyana quite enjoyed the gasps and praises around her. She waved her hands repeatedly, putting on a humble front, though in reality, her ego was soaring through the clouds. "It was nothing, really! Just a little parlor trick... hahaha!"

In Xia Lun's party, she never received this kind of treatment.

Even if she showed off her skills in front of Mo Lini, the girl would only blink and let out a flat "Oh!"

She was obviously comparing her to Xia Lun and Aina. How could there be any comparison?

It all came back to that old saying: you shouldn't meet someone too incredible when you're young... If Liyana had been the first person Mo Lini met, the girl might have been so awestruck she would have become her girlfriend by now.

Well, to be honest, after adventuring together for so long, despite their usual bickering and joking, Liyana seemed to have lost any romantic interest in Mo Lini.

She missed her little lion back at the academy a bit... It had been over a year since she left. Delyan was an upperclassman; perhaps she had already graduated by now?

Though they occasionally exchanged letters and shared amusing anecdotes, Liyana wondered if Delyan would still claim her as a girlfriend when she finally returned.

Her thoughts were wandering too far.

Liyana shook her head and snapped back to reality.

Having some free time on her hands earlier, Liyana had decided to explore a labyrinth in the Libyan Forest.

She happened to bump into an elven squad sent to exterminate monsters. Once someone in the group recognized Liyana's identity, she joined them on their journey.

This labyrinth was known as the Endless Forest Sea. It was an already conquered labyrinth, so theoretically, there shouldn't be any danger, but...

"Have you found any clues?" Liyana looked back and asked the squad of guards.

"None... Lady Liyana, we still haven't been able to contact the missing squad," the captain leading the group shook his head regretfully.

The previous squad sent to exterminate monsters had vanished here.

Clearly, they had encountered some sort of accident. This seemingly peaceful forest was likely hiding concealed dangers, which was exactly why Liyana had decided to tag along with them.

Without Xia Lun and Aina by her side, and considering how much she had let her skills rust over the years... Liyana honestly didn't have much confidence.

The guards, however, had an abundance of confidence in her.

"We are incredibly lucky to have run into Lady Liyana during this mission."

"With her here, no matter what we encounter, she can easily resolve it, right?"

"Of course! Lady Liyana is the archer of the Hero's party. Rumor has it that the fatal blow that vanquished the Demon King was her masterpiece!"

Liyana nearly choked on her own saliva. She could only pray that they wouldn't run into any major accidents this time.

Well, she could still handle ordinary, minor troubles...

Liyana's gaze drifted through the squad. Hmm... there were actually a few pretty cute elven girls among them.

It was purely out of aesthetic appreciation, of course. She had no intention of doing her little lion wrong.

Among the elves, the gender ratio was quite balanced, and there was no shortage of highly skilled female archers.

However, many male elves also liked to keep their hair long. Coupled with their somewhat uniformly handsome and elegant features, it was rather difficult for outsiders to tell the males and females apart when they were all wearing standard light armor.

Being an elf herself, Liyana knew the trick: male elves had ears that were relatively angular and appeared somewhat rigid, whereas female elves had softer-looking ears with more rounded contours.

The squad continued deeper into the labyrinth.

Although it bore the title of Endless Forest Sea, it was merely an exaggerated name given by the adventurers who first conquered it. This labyrinth obviously had an end; otherwise, it could never have been cleared.

"The labyrinth's exit is just ahead... There hasn't been anything unusual at all," someone in the squad muttered.

Liyana breathed a quiet sigh of relief. No accidents meant a good day.

"But where did the previous squad go?"

"And we haven't encountered a single monster along the way."

"Maybe they were completely cleared out by the previous squad?"

The group discussed amongst themselves.

"When did the previous squad go missing?" Liyana looked back and asked.

"A month ago. Logically, once they finished exterminating the monsters, they should have emerged from the exit... but we've been waiting to no avail," someone in the squad replied.

"A month... The labyrinth should have respawned by now. How could we not run into a single monster?" Liyana muttered to herself. She then slowly raised her head to look at the labyrinth's exit.

The exit was an ordinary-looking spatial rift that led to the outside world.

Liyana suddenly felt that something was off. She blinked her slightly dry eyes but still couldn't pinpoint what was wrong.

However, her intuition as an adventurer screamed at her not to take another step forward.

"We are turning back. We'll leave through the entrance we came from." Liyana's expression grew slightly solemn. As a powerful expert, an intuition for danger was never a useless decoration or mere paranoia.

Her reasoning was simple: since she felt uncertain, she would just head back and call Xia Lun over to take a look.

Her life was far too comfortable right now; she wasn't willing to take even the slightest risk.

"Lady Liyana, did you notice something?" The squad members behind her exchanged bewildered glances.

After all, they were here to investigate. If they failed to uncover any information and returned empty-handed, it would be hard to explain to their superiors outside.

At the moment, this exit seemed to be the most likely place to find a clue.

"Hmm..."

Liyana thought for a moment. She casually drew an arrow from the quiver on her back, nocked it to her bow, and fired it directly at the spatial rift.

"Squelch—"

To everyone's astonishment, the arrow wasn't swallowed by the spatial rift. Instead, it stuck into it as if piercing an oil painting, and fresh blood began to ooze out with a sizzling sound.

The spatial rift itself began to blur, resembling an oil painting that had a palette of paint spilled all over it.

"Roar—"

A deafening roar erupted from ahead. A massive silhouette slowly materialized from the void, shifting from transparent to solid.

Liyana stared at the scene before her, utterly dumbfounded. She had never expected her casual shot to fish out such a monstrosity.

What filled Liyana with lingering dread was the realization that they had almost lined up to march right into the creature's mouth... All it would have had to do was snap its jaws shut for a delicious meal.

"My god, what kind of monster is that?"

"That thing must be the culprit!"

"You are truly incredible, Lady Liyana! To think you could spot this monster when it was hidden so perfectly!"

"That's Lady Liyana for you!"

Liyana: ...