Lorin felt as if he had instantly entered another world.
The bright, sunny forest, the rustling of leaves in the wind—all the light and sound seemed to be locked outside the small cave entrance behind them. Now, only the alternating sound of their footsteps remained.
The light from their two torches intersected and overlapped in the mineshaft. The flickering flames cast their Shadows against the wall, stretching and twisting them into long, distorted shapes.
The low visibility put an immense amount of pressure on both of them. A cold sweat broke out on Lorin’s back. He gripped his Longsword tightly, on guard against any monster that might suddenly appear.
The mineshaft was wider than they had expected, with enough room to walk side by side. However, out of fear of Kobold traps, they maintained a single-file formation.
Pip led the way. Every two steps, he would tap the ground with his Warhammer, looking exactly like the minesweepers Lorin used to see in movies from his past life. When the hammerhead struck the earth, a faint vibration traveled up the handle to his hand, allowing him to discern whether the ground beneath them was solid and safe, or a dangerous hollow cavity.
Although Pip wasn’t a Scout, he was surprisingly adept at this clumsy method. However, the Warhammer was evidently not light, and this constant probing was bound to drain his stamina.
Lorin, meanwhile, carefully inspected the walls to ensure there were no hidden mechanisms. If they triggered a Crossbow trap, he would be in far more danger than Pip.
"Watch your step," Pip warned softly.
He poked the ground beneath him with his Warhammer. The feedback felt wrong. He brought his torch closer to the dirt and saw that the ground had caved in where he struck it. Bending down to grope around, he pulled up a thin cloth. It had been sprinkled with dirt and gravel for camouflage, covering a deep pit lined with sharp wooden stakes.
They inched past it, pressing themselves tightly against the wall of the mineshaft. Lorin jammed his dagger into the stone for balance, swallowing hard as he looked down at the spikes at the bottom of the pit.
From then on, the traps became increasingly dense.
Before they had even gone a hundred paces, Pip uncovered three more pitfalls, two tripwires, and a stone-filled basket suspended directly above them. Lorin gently severed the hemp rope with Rusted Throat. As the basket dropped, Pip caught it firmly in his hands.
Setting the stone-filled basket gently on the ground, Pip kept his voice low. "These Kobolds are quite meticulous."
The mineshaft was simply too quiet. He felt that if he didn’t make some noise, he would be completely swallowed by the surrounding environment.
The deeper they went, the narrower the mineshaft became, and the ceiling grew progressively lower. Lorin had to start stooping slightly, but Pip was completely unaffected, his steps light and brisk. This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
"Wait—" Lorin grabbed him, shining his torch forward.
A thread as fine as a spiderweb drifted in the air, positioned just above Pip’s head. He had almost walked right into it.
Pip shuddered in retrospect. Following the thin thread to both sides, he saw that the left end was tied to a rock embedded in the wall, while the right end connected to a dark hole. Lorin cautiously stepped forward and saw a Short Bow resting inside the hole. Three arrows were nocked on the bowstring, aimed directly at the path they had just taken.
He signaled for Pip to step aside. Then, he gently removed the arrows, drew the dagger from his waist, and cut the thin thread.
"That’s the seventh one. Don’t they get tired going back and forth every day?" Lorin said, utterly speechless.
He casually tossed the dismantled trap at the base of the wall and stood up. Just as he was about to continue forward, his foot suddenly slipped. He instinctively reached out to steady himself against the wall. As his palm pressed against the rock, a faint prickling pain transmitted from his hand.
His recently upgraded agility allowed him to react in time. He quickly let go of the wall, but he still ended up taking a hard tumble.
"Sss..." Lorin raised his hand. There was a shallow cut on his palm; because he had pulled away in time, it hadn’t gone deeper. The edges of the wound were tinged with a black liquid, making it itch.
"There’s a piece of animal bone on the wall. Are you alright?" Pip asked, inspecting the spot.
"Just a prick." Lorin brought his wound closer to his eyes. He could already see the surrounding skin turning red, and a crawling itch was spreading up his blood vessels toward his wrist. "Damn it, it’s poisoned," he muttered with a curse.
"Here!" Pip quickly fished out the bottle of Antidote from his pack, uncorked the wooden stopper, and shoved it into Lorin’s hands.
A pungent herbal smell hit his nose, but Lorin didn’t have time to dwell on it. He tilted his head back and took a large gulp.
"UGH..." The taste was even worse than he had imagined. It was bitter and astringent, like chewed-up tree roots mixed with mud. His throat bobbed, and he could only force himself to swallow the potion. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
The itch in his palm quickly subsided. Although the wound still stung slightly, it wouldn’t affect his grip on his sword.
Sitting on the ground, Lorin rested for a moment before handing the remaining half-bottle of Antidote back to Pip. "Looks like half a bottle is enough. We don’t know how many more traps are ahead, so we better save the rest."
He stood up and carefully scanned the ground. Where he had just slipped, there was a puddle of sticky liquid. Because it had been dusted with a layer of ash and dirt, it was incredibly difficult to spot under normal circumstances.
Frowning, Lorin stopped Pip from jumping over it. He pulled a torch from his bag and threw it forward. The torch landed on the ground, kicking up some dust, but nothing happened. Still not convinced, he took off the pack on his back and hurled the entire thing over.
THWACK.
The moment the pack touched the ground, a snapping sound echoed from the rock wall above. Several Crossbow Arrows shot out from the stone, burying themselves deep into the bag.
"Incredible!" The short man stared at Lorin’s maneuver dumbfounded. He vigorously patted Lorin’s calf, repeatedly flashing him a thumbs-up.
"Thank Miyazaki Hidetaka," Lorin said, the corner of his mouth twitching.
Having confirmed that the path ahead was safe, the two took turns leaping over the puddle of liquid. Heart aching, Lorin picked up his backpack, pulled out the Crossbow Arrows, and inspected its contents. A bag of bread and his water flask had been punctured. Afraid that the arrows might be poisoned, he had no choice but to toss them onto the ground.
Lorin then gathered the extracted Crossbow Arrows and leaned them against the wall, planning to take them with him on their way back. There were six Crossbow Arrows in total, all made of iron. They could fetch a decent price.
The two continued groping their way forward along the mineshaft. Not long after, the tunnel turned a corner and gradually began to widen. The light cast by their torches was diluted by the darkness, gradually making it impossible to see their surroundings. Not daring to advance rashly, they simply stood in place and observed.
Before them lay a massive space. High above were numerous wooden walkways, and broken wooden crates were haphazardly piled all around, along with several broken iron pickaxes. This was most likely the rich ore zone of the mine.
A faint, foul, and musky stench wafted from ahead. Lorin pinched his nose and swept his torch around, but the light only reached a dozen paces away, revealing nothing.
"Should we keep going in?" Pip asked in a low voice.
Lorin considered this seriously for a few seconds before shaking his head. "We can’t keep stumbling around in the dark. Kobolds have Dark Vision, and we don’t. This place is different from the mineshaft; who knows where they’re hiding."