The Paladin in the Abyss

Chapter 151 - 151 - 145 Trap

Chapter 151 – 145 Trap

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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.

“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.