The Paladin in the Abyss

"I have no reason to lie to you," Agamemnon couldn't help but reveal his true thoughts, "You look well-equipped and experienced enough to help me with the trouble in the sewers. As long as you do me this favor, I will tell you everything I know... and you'll have the right to free drinks in my tavern forever. Anyway, you'll soon die at the hands of demons, or some other mercenaries."

"I appreciate your honesty," Lancelot was about to say something profoundly insincere when Bruto excitedly jumped up and shouted:

"What? Free drinks?"

Lancelot rolled his eyes and decided he needed to teach Bruto how to avoid spoiling the mood. He turned to the somewhat stunned tavern owner, and spoke in a nonchalant tone that contrasted sharply with the dwarf's excitement:

"Tell us about your trouble."

"It's like this, the underground sewer of the fortress was built by the Kobolds, and they did an excellent job, making the sewers both efficient and spacious. This sewer system has been functioning well for many years without any issues... until recently," Agamemnon sighed, "Zombies keep crawling into the cellar entrance, messing up my stock, who knows what's worse could come out from there."

"It seems you're not short of muscle willing to die for you," Lancelot glanced at the two guards.

"Although Hank and Gru are both stupid and greedy, I've got dirt on them, and finding two more guys like them around here isn't easy," the Tiflin proprietor whispered, glancing furtively at the door, "It's not like I haven't hired some mercenaries or a few adventurers to take a look, but they either find nothing, or they never come back.

Now I can only hire two mercenaries to guard the basement temporarily, and for that, I have to feed them well and pay them twenty Gold Coins a day."

"What about the Doomguard? Aren't they supposed to deal with it?" Bruto asked incredulously, "This is their turf after all."

"Why would they care?" the tavern owner looked at Bruto with disbelief, "If it weren't for the fact that it doesn't benefit them at all, I would have thought they were behind this."

"What about your neighbors?" Koula asked curiously, "If the zombies are coming from the sewers, then all the buildings on this street should have the same problem."

"That's the thing. It seems that only I am having this problem, so I have reason to believe it's sabotage by a competitor," Agamemnon's hands were planted on the table, his long tail swinging restlessly behind him, "How about it? You help me with my trouble, I give you the information you want. Sounds fair, doesn't it?"

"And the free drinks," Bruto added.

"Oh, yes, of course," the tavern owner assured him, "The best within a hundred miles, guaranteed not a drop watered down!"

"I don't buy it," the Dwarf crossed his arms, "unless you can provide some samples for us to verify first."

...

Half an hour later.

Lancelot and his party were walking through the tunnels of the instant fortress. Despite people's impression of Kobolds as weak and cowardly creatures that were somewhat evil but not to the extent of wanting to destroy the world, they also had tight-knit social groups and excellent digging skills.

They, like Dwarves and Gnomes, could intuitively sense the conditions of soil and rock and use that to judge whether an area could bear weight or be tunneled through.

The city's administrators could hire a tribe of Kobolds with just some food and tools to dig out an elaborate and well-functioning sewage system beneath the streets. If you were willing to live peaceably with them, these Kobolds would even dig smaller tunnels that only they could enter and settle in, regularly maintaining the sewage system to ensure that the entire city's drainage was unobstructed.

However, these malevolent little fellows found it hard to restrain their jealousy towards the inhabitants above them, occasionally sneaking out to wreak havoc on the garbage heaps, leaving a mess behind, which made most residents wish they could get rid of these pests as soon as possible.

If there was a problem with the sewage system one day, all they had to do was hire some more Kobolds—there were plenty of them in the wilderness.

The tunnel they were currently walking through was a creation of the Kobolds. The tunnel was about twenty feet wide, with a ten-foot-wide water channel in the middle, where slow-moving yellow-green sewage was carrying away the 'garbage' from various buildings, and pathways on each side wide enough for two people to walk abreast.

At the moment, the sewage was emanating a stinging stench, but Koula had just concocted a potion on the spot using some herbs and pepper powder, reducing the air's odor from 'suffocating' to 'indescribable'.

"I haven't tasted authentic honey mead in a long time," Bruto observed his surroundings. "Although coming to this foul-smelling place for it doesn't seem quite worth it."

"Don't mind that, Dwarf," Alamir lifted his Hardhead Hammer, the magic weapon casting bright light around them. "We're mainly here for his information, not the free drinks."

"Yeah, information!" Bruto replied in a flustered tone, clearly having forgotten. "Lancelot, how much farther? We haven't gotten lost, have we?"

"We are approaching the area where Agamemnon's men never returned," Lancelot consulted a parchment in his hands, which was a map provided by the tavern owner. "Everyone, stay alert."

"There's a strong sense of evil ahead," the Elf Priest stretched his neck. "Let's purge their vile nest!"

"Seems like most of our adventures involve us crawling around underground," Bruto, shielding himself with a shield, led the group. "I bet this is the work of some Demon who must be really pissed at this mortal fortress and is determined to destroy it."

"Unlikely," Kalalin shook his head, his neckline with an adaptation necklace making him, besides Eckmond, the one who was breathing the most comfortably. "This is clearly not the Demons' style—they wouldn't pass up the chance to vent their destructive urges to a few Zombies."

"Then what could it be?" The Dwarf was getting bored and started kicking pebbles along the path. "Could it be the legendary Lich?"

"Do you think a top-tier Spellcaster like a Lich would be so bored?" Eckmond bumped the Dwarf's helmet irritably. "But it's definitely the work of someone who's mastered Necromancy. Though filthy, the ventilation here is good, unlike the pit at Oasis Fort, which can gather enough negative energy to make corpses rise again."

Just then, a pebble kicked by Bruto seemed to collide with some invisible barrier in mid-air and suddenly came to a halt.

"Hm?" The Dwarf was slightly startled when suddenly a cracking sound was heard from nowhere, and a rock larger than his head appeared, whistling towards the group from the front.

"Watch this!" Bruto instantly reacted, raising the hammer that was always in his hand.

"No!" Lancelot hurriedly spoke up to stop him, but the Dwarf's hammer had already left his hand, smashing the rock into pieces with a whoosh.