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 hamr twirled into the yellow-green sewage. The sewage was much stickier than it seed, and it took two or three seconds for the hamr to sink.
“Ah, no worries, no worries, my hamr will fly back to .”
“That’s exactly the problem,” Eckmond reminded him with a somber tone.
A low buzzing sound arose as Bruto’s hamr 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 hamr! Don’t co here!”
The hamr 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 hamr drew closer. He raised his shield high, ready to catch the hamr 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 hamr while simultaneously, an air current burst forth around him, blowing back all the forward-spraying liquid.
With a ’clank,’ the hamr fell to the ground, leaving a small pit. This powerful weapon still had disgusting sli on its surface, adorned with so suspiciously used cloth strips, which caused the Dwarf’s features to twist in pain.
“Uh… Alamir!” Bruto sought so help, “Can’t you conjure up clean water out of thin air? I need that now!”
“The Divine Arts bestowed upon 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 imdiately find what he needed.
“This spell cos from a historically extrely 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 hamr. The stains on the surface disappeared at a visible rate, and after just a few seconds, the hamr was cleaner than ever before.
“Kalalin, I love you!” Bruto confessed excitedly to the Scholar, snatching up his hamr 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 tis 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, comnting on the simple trap. “Goblins are unlikely to associate with the undead, so maybe they can provide us with so 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 ti, even if the thod wasn’t exactly right,” Lancelot patted the dwarf on the shoulder, “Next ti, before you throw your hamr, make sure it doesn’t hit anything you don’t want to ss with.”
The group continued on, this ti 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 ti, it was left to Bruto to deal with them, using the thod of holding up his shield and stepping directly onto them.
After a few more turns, they ca 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 hamr 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 extrely swollen, having seemingly been soaked in water for a long ti. Its entire front had been cleanly consud by maggots, and the organs in its chest and abdon were long gone, leaving only the dark, water-logged bones.
Just as the Scholar had suggested, this body had died long before. So 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 Agamnon 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 t with no response.
“If you don’t co 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 so 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 helt. The dwarf rely 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 comnted, “Now are you willing to talk?”
Again, there was no response. Bruto shrugged his shoulders and then did sothing 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.
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