The Paladin in the Abyss

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"What's wrong?" Bruto asked doubtfully, "Isn't this fine?"

There was a 'splash' sound, and his shiny hammer twirled into the yellow-green sewage. The sewage was much stickier than it seemed, and it took two or three seconds for the hammer to sink.

"Ah, no worries, no worries, my hammer will fly back to me."

"That's exactly the problem," Eckmond reminded him with a somber tone.

A low buzzing sound arose as Bruto's hammer broke through the water's surface, carrying spattering yellow-green liquid, and shot straight towards its owner.

"No!!!!!" the Dwarf let out a miserable shriek, "Stop! You damn hammer! Don't come here!"

The hammer naturally could not understand its master's call. The magic affixed upon it made it automatically return to the owner's hand after hitting the target, or falling to the ground, or at least fly back to the original position from where it had been thrown.

Bruto watched in despair as the hammer drew closer. He raised his shield high, ready to catch the hammer with it instead of his hands. The others had already stayed far away, as no one wanted to get splashed with the fluid.

Except for Lancelot. He gauged the distance, thrust his longsword out, and precisely tapped the head of the hammer while simultaneously, an air current burst forth around him, blowing back all the forward-spraying liquid.

With a 'clank,' the hammer fell to the ground, leaving a small pit. This powerful weapon still had disgusting slime on its surface, adorned with some suspiciously used cloth strips, which caused the Dwarf's features to twist in pain.

"Uh... Alamir!" Bruto sought some help, "Can't you conjure up clean water out of thin air? I need that now!"

"The Divine Arts bestowed upon me by the Goddess aren't to be used for such things!" the Elf Priest firmly refused.

"It does seem a bit sacrilegious, and it might make him lose his divine ability," Kalalin shook his head, "I'll do it. I have just the spell for this."

The Scholar extended his hand into the magic container on his back, which ensured he could always immediately find what he needed.

"This spell comes from a historically extremely advanced Magic Empire, but it was destroyed in a disaster when their greatest Arcanist tried to ascend to divinity," Kalalin said as he unfurled the scroll, and the Arcane Runes drawn on it began to light up, "It's said that back then almost everyone could use magic, so many highly practical spells were created to serve the everyday life of the common people."

A pale blue beam shot out from his fingertips, covering Bruto's hammer. The stains on the surface disappeared at a visible rate, and after just a few seconds, the hammer was cleaner than ever before.

"Kalalin, I love you!" Bruto confessed excitedly to the Scholar, snatching up his hammer before giving him a suspicious look, "Running water is like strong acid to Vampires, so little Isabella can't take baths, right? Does she maintain cleanliness with this spell too?"

"Ahem..." The Scholar suddenly blushed, "Miss Isabella is a pitiful lady, and I am glad to be of assistance to her..."

Lancelot shook his head, flicked his sword, and then poked a few times at the wall with its tip, as though cleaning it off. He advanced a couple of steps and crouched down to inspect the trap that had released the Stone Sphere.

On the ground, there were faint threads stretching out from the wall of the passageway, a trap easy to spring for any creature taller than his waist.

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"It seems that the builders of this tunnel still dwell here," Kalalin remarked as he walked over, commenting on the simple trap. "Goblins are unlikely to associate with the undead, so maybe they can provide us with some useful information, if we can find the little fellows."

"I bet they already know we're here," Bruto muttered resentfully as he eyed the trap, "Damn it, if I had moved a bit closer, I could have spotted it earlier!"

"At least you triggered the trap ahead of time, even if the method wasn't exactly right," Lancelot patted the dwarf on the shoulder, "Next time, before you throw your hammer, make sure it doesn't hit anything you don't want to mess with."

The group continued on, this time spotting several traps in advance, including rocks falling from the ceiling, spear tips suddenly shooting up from the floor, and crossbow arrows firing from small holes in the wall. After Koula failed to disarm a trap for the second time, it was left to Bruto to deal with them, using the method of holding up his shield and stepping directly onto them.

After a few more turns, they came to a fork in the road. A drainage channel bent in one direction, while an uncharted tunnel pointed in another.

"Look there!" Bruto pointed to the interior of this passage, his dwarven dark vision allowing him to clearly see what the Elf Priest's hammer did not illuminate.

The passage was filled with activated traps, the walls and floor studded with crossbow arrows and daggers. However, lying deeper inside was a humanoid corpse. They ventured cautiously forward, and upon inspection found that the body was riddled with weapons and indented from stone impacts, clearly having endured several rounds of traps before falling.

"I fear these traps were not the cause of death," Kalalin said as he held a bracelet covered with Arcane Runes. A ghostly silver hand appeared out of nowhere, turning over the face-down corpse, revealing a dagger embedded in the chest of the body.

Koula's potion was still effective, but everyone still caught a whiff of a strong stench. The corpse was extremely swollen, having seemingly been soaked in water for a long time. Its entire front had been cleanly consumed by maggots, and the organs in its chest and abdomen were long gone, leaving only the dark, water-logged bones.

Just as the Scholar had suggested, this body had died long before. Some force had made it rise again, and then it had blindly walked into these traps until severe damage prevented the evil power from maintaining its activity.

"I guess Agamemnon isn't the only one with zombie problems," Bruto suddenly yelled into the depths of the cave, "Goblins! I know you're listening, tell us what's going on with these zombies!"

The sound echoed through the caves, seemingly travelling far, but met with no response.

"If you don't come out, I'm going in!" Bruto continued to shout.

Still nothing stirred, so the dwarf started heading inside recklessly. Lancelot watched his hasty actions with some helplessness, but did not stop him.

He first stepped on a pressure trap, and a stone sphere as large as the dwarf's head fell from above, shattering against Bruto's helmet. The dwarf merely looked up in confusion, then continued walking forward.

Next was a tripwire trap, with three crossbow arrows shooting suddenly towards the back of the dwarf's head, which Bruto blocked by turning around with his shield.

"Nice try," the dwarf commented, "Now are you willing to talk?"

Again, there was no response. Bruto shrugged his shoulders and then did something that left everyone dumbfounded: he raised his shield and began to sprint forward as fast as he could.

"The Abyss has obviously affected his brain," Lancelot shrugged helplessly, and quickly followed after him.