The Paladin in the Abyss

Chapter 43 Mud Monster

"What are you talking about? What is a shark-crocodile beast?" Lancelot's ignorance only confirmed one thing again, his world must be tucked away in some extremely remote corner of the Multiverse. Although Barrend and Kalalin hailed from different worlds, they seemed to both be familiar with this terrifying monster.

"It is a calamitous creature, over 10 feet in length," Barrend said, his face displaying fear. "It is the absolute ruler wherever it roams, with all creatures above ground as its fodder."

"That powerful, huh? What does it look like?"

"It resembles a reptilian, with a thick, shark-like carapace on its back. Its lower half is like that of a crocodile, with claws capable of cleaving a multitude. Its head is the most terrifying part, resembling an oversized snapping turtle's head, except the end is pointed like a spike, allowing it to break through the soil and burrow wherever it wishes," Barrend said, his face turning pale.

"Luckily, it makes a lot of noise as it tunnels underground, and its high-and-mighty self won't ambush prey like a burrower. This at least allows us to know when it's coming."

"People have always been unclear about the origins of the shark-crocodile beast. Some scholars think it might be the result of a mad spell, like the Demon Prince Dimogorgen creating the Chimera," Kalalin added. "No one has ever found where shark-crocodile beasts breed. Several times throughout history they have been thought extinct, only to reappear decades later.

A reasonable guess is that their homeland is in some corner of the lower planes, and occasionally for unknown reasons they are sent to the Prime Material Plane to wreak havoc."

"That sounds terrible," Lancelot frowned. "Kalalin, I remember you said you prepared a magic called 'Enlarge Spell'. Tell me more about the effects of this spell."

"It's a second-level spell, it can double the recipient's height and increase their weight eightfold. Your strength will grow with the Enlarge Spell, but your agility will decrease due to the change in size. Your equipment will enlarge under the spell's influence, but will revert to its original size as soon as it leaves your grasp."

"How long can this spell last?" Lancelot pursued the important details.

"With my current strength, around 8 minutes," Kalalin hesitated. "Are you sure you can deal with the shark-crocodile beast just with this?"

"At least it can buy some time for you all to escape," Lancelot said seriously to everyone. "From now on, keep the Enlarge Spell scroll where you can reach it at any moment. As soon as I hold it off, you need to quickly distance yourselves, and if you see something's wrong, run. Save as many as you can."

"Dwarves will never abandon a comrade!" Bruto roared angrily.

"But that's the most rational choice," Lancelot tried to convince Bruto. "If we all die here, who will avenge me later?"

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"If you dare to die, I will never avenge you!" Bruto grew even angrier. "Listen, human, I know you mean well, but such a request is an absolute insult to dwarves, so please stop saying it!"

Lancelot turned to Barrend for help, but the elder dwarf only gave Bruto a complex look, filled with worry, yet tinged with more pride.

"He's right," Barrend said to Lancelot. "In the years of our enslavement, we lost our most precious honor. I promise you, we will not let that happen again, even death won't make us back down."

Lancelot finally realized how infamously stubborn the dwarves were, and he had no choice but to turn to his last team member. Kalalin just shrugged at him, saying simply, "Spellcasters usually stand far back. No need to rush when the fight starts."

"Alright," the Human Knight conceded. "If that beast dares come at us, we'll take it down together."

"That's more like it," Bruto nodded with satisfaction.

Lancelot could only shrug helplessly. They stopped their argument and continued to search the ground, hoping to find more clues.

"Look here," he soon made a discovery, "there are some footprints that were likely left by survivors."

After confirming there were no more clues, the group began to follow the tracks.

They quickly found themselves back in the main tunnel, where the footprints continued intermittently deeper inside. Barrend guessed that the group of Gray Dwarves had probably split into two teams, and the survivors they were tracking were likely trying to meet up with the other team.

Just when the footprints were about to become indiscernible, they came across new leads.

The first to notice the faint sound of a Cross Pickaxe striking rock were two Dwarves, and with their prompt, Lancelot also heard the sound.

"Could this be some kind of trap?" Lancelot asked cautiously.

"We can't rule that out. Many creatures have tricks for luring victims with sounds," Kalalin chimed in, "but those are usually enchanting songs or beguiling whispers, I've never heard of one using the sound of a Cross Pickaxe to attract prey."

"Better to be cautious, nonetheless."

No one objected to this, and they proceeded with caution, following the sound. Barrend noticed they were heading towards Worksite Sixteen.

But as they neared Worksite Sixteen, the sound became muffled. Baffled by this, they decided to go there directly to uncover the mystery.

Their question was quickly answered. The tunnel leading to Worksite Sixteen was blocked by some sort of nearly transparent gel-like substance. If it weren't for the skeleton of a decomposing Gray Dwarf floating in midair, they might have walked straight into it.

Lancelot looked with astonishment at this strange occurrence, finding these bizarre beings even more incomprehensible than Demons. In front of this mass of gel-like substance, the sound of the Cross Pickaxe striking stone was incredibly muffled, but it was clear enough to understand that the sound was coming from behind it.

"Is this... a mud monster?" Though his martial techniques surpassed everyone present, his knowledge of various monsters was truly limited.

"This is one of the stronger kinds of mud monsters, a Gelatinous Cube," Barrend said, frowning at the obstacle in their path. "If those Gray Dwarves hadn't brought several large buckets of strong lye, this creature would be enough to block their escape route. I guess the ones inside are desperately trying to dig another way out, and even if we leave them alone, they're about to succeed."