The Paladin in the Abyss

Chapter 40 Miner's Rest Room

"Scram!"

The volume of Lancelot's shout even startled himself, and the two bear goblins in front of him were shocked to the point of falling on their butts, eyes rolling back as they entered a dizzy state.

The scene momentarily entered a rather eerie silence, and Lancelot had to use a normal volume to say,

"Hurry up and disappear from my sight!"

The two bear goblins finally reacted, scarcely believing they could survive, and quickly scrambled up to flee the place.

Two more bear goblins jumped out from behind a large rock, loudly calling out and hastily following their companions to escape.

Lancelot turned back to find Bruto had already dealt with his enemy. The corpse on the ground had both its knees shattered, and a large dent in its head.

The dwarf looked to be in not too bad a shape, his shield now sporting a few more white marks, and it seemed he had taken a hit from a nail-headed hammer, leaving his armor somewhat deformed.

"Are you alright?" Lancelot asked as he walked over, concern in his voice.

"Just a little bruising, I'll be fine after some rest," Bruto said with a carefree smile. "I took a hit, but in return, I landed a fatal blow. It was a good trade."

"What did I tell you before?" Lancelot shook his head helplessly. "Never mind, it seems anger really does give you strength."

"The victory over the Berserk Demon might be attributed to anger and luck, but in this fight, you truly showed the talent of a warrior," Barrend and Kalalin also approached, the elder dwarf looking at his son with emotion. "I must admit, among dwarves your age, you're the strongest I've seen."

"Isn't that true for all the dwarves you've seen?" Bruto said, unable to conceal his joy at his father's praise.

"No, your dad at his peak was still a bit stronger than you."

"Dad, you must be bragging!"

"Hahahaha..."

Amid laughter and cheerful conversation, the group walked into the entrance of the mine.

It quickly became dark around them. As dwarves, Bruto and Barrend naturally possessed dark vision, allowing them to see objects even in complete darkness as though there were faint light sources around, although this ability only provided monochromatic vision with grey-scale differences.

Kalalin pulled out a potion and gulped it down.

"Dark Vision Potion, lasts for 8 hours," Kalalin explained. "Prepared in advance, so there's no need to waste a Second Circle spell. How about you, Lancelot? Want a dose?"

Lancelot shook his head. The blessings of the Elves had already granted him dark vision not inferior to that of dwarves, and with a bit of True Qi concentrated in his eyes, he could see everything around him clearly, much like in a brightly lit environment.

Kalalin asked no further and silently put away the potion. It was not hard for him to see the many extraordinary traits of Lancelot, and night vision was not that special a feature.

Inside the mine, the environment was not entirely dark. Luminescent fungi scattered on the ground and stones emitting a ghostly glow on the walls of the tunnels now and then were lighting installations deliberately left by the miners.

After walking roughly three hundred feet forward, they entered a spacious hall.

The high dome above was lit by a bright magical light source, the strong light discouraging those subterranean creatures that hated brightness from lingering; along the stone walls, there were several tunnels leading downward, and on the floor lay heaps of ore, which the miners would gather here before transporting them all at once.

"Ah, this is it, the hall known as the Demons' Stomach." Barrend stepped forward and examined the ores on the ground. "These have been freshly mined, they must be the fruits of our Gray Dwarf friends' labor."

"Did you say there was a miners' rest room, right here?" Kalalin asked curiously.

"Yes, it should be here." Barrend started pacing around, knocking here, touching there, trying to find the mechanism that would open the secret chamber, but to no avail.

"I happen to have a suitable spell," Kalalin offered, seeing that Barrend wasn't getting any results. "Let me give it a try."

Barrend looked at him skeptically but nodded nonetheless. Dwarves could find anything hidden in stone and earth, but that required enough time.

Kalalin pulled out a scroll and unfurled it. He cast his eyes quickly over the scroll and then uttered a string of mysterious spells.

Lancelot may not have understood the content of the scroll, but he could feel a force being channeled into the scroll. It flowed through the text and patterns on the scroll, taking on a special form, then converged in Kalalin's eyes.

The process reminded him of 'Gathering Qi Slash' and other Spiritual Cultivation Techniques. These techniques caused True Qi to circulate through specific pathways within the body, eventually transforming pure energy into various miraculous effects.

Kalalin's eyes shone with a bright magical light, and his vision suddenly gained a powerful penetrating ability, allowing him to see through rock and earth. After getting used to this peculiar vision, he quickly spotted an unusual patch of ground.

"There, there's a room underground." Kalalin continued to examine the area and finally found further clues, "Under that pile of ore, there's a handle, that must be the mechanism."

Bruto, too impatient to wait, rushed over and started shoveling away the loose ore, and indeed found a handle.

He pulled the handle up and suddenly a low rumbling sound was heard, and the ground beside them slowly parted, revealing steps leading down to a small room.

"Ha, so it was underground." Barrend scratched his head, "I had been focusing on the surrounding walls just now, no wonder I couldn't find it."

"Empiricism can be deadly." Bruto teased as he entered the basement room with the others.

The room had clearly been designed with only Dwarves or Gnomes in mind, the ceiling not exceeding seven feet. Lancelot had to lean slightly, or his great sword would get stuck.

Inside the room, there were dozens of bedrolls, boxes and barrels for storing goods, as well as spare shovels and cross pickaxes.

Barrend was not pleased with the condition of the tools, but it was well-known that years of enslavement had robbed the Gray Dwarves of any passion for their work.

His gaze shifted from the shabby tools and he walked to the end of the room, where there was a small table.

On the table hung a giant mining map with markings of new tunnels added by miners from different eras, or spots where collapses had occurred.

Looking at the map, the group realized that the nickname 'Demon's Intestines' was quite apt. The directions of the tunnels were so chaotic that if demons had intestines, they probably looked like this.

Barrend, however, was engrossed in reading a journal. The journal was written in Dwarven, the lingua franca of the mining world. It recorded information about each team that went down into the mine, their purpose, and what they harvested.

The most recent entry was from a week ago, written in simple terms:

"Twelve Gray Dwarf Miners, team leader Dunif. Plan to head to workings fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen."

The harvest column was left blank, it seems they had not made it back here.