The Paladin in the Abyss-Chapter 770 - 791 Notes

"Uh, about that..." Lancelot curled his lips, "If there really is a shortcut, I wouldn’t mind using it..."

He formed a special hand sign, and a pale blue lotus emerged in his palm, floating towards the enemy whose face now bore a hole. The refinement of this Fire Lotus had improved considerably over the previous ones, transforming into a layer of blue flames that completely enveloped the flesh golem the moment it touched the enemy. Almost simultaneously, Lancelot’s longsword reached its target, igniting several dazzling streaks of sword light within a breath’s time. The creature, which had been quite troublesome moments earlier, seemed to suddenly lose its formidable magic power. Once the light from the sword faded, nothing but a pile of shattered limbs remained, utterly motionless.

Lancelot turned his head and saw Tanya and Alamir had already joined hands in dealing with their opponents, while Bruto handled the one that couldn’t stand up to begin with. Meanwhile, everyone heard a deep rumbling noise as the cracked stone wall parted to the left and right, revealing the scene within the secret chamber behind it—a little girl struck a pose that seemed rather cool: arms wielding a shortsword stretched out on either side of her body, a chest that hadn’t had the chance to fully develop proudly thrust forward, and a slightly tilted head bearing a cool expression, which, combined with the three corpses beside her, indeed looked very impressive.

In the cramped space, a vampire—not one of those counterfeit vampire derivatives—and a group of spellcasters who thought themselves safe stood no chance, of course.

"What are you doing?" Lancelot stepped forward and lightly tapped the little girl’s head, instantly ruining the masterful aura she had strived to create, "Why kill them all? We should have kept one alive."

"Uh, you didn’t say beforehand. How could I think of that in the heat of the battle..." Isa pouted and fussed with her hair, "And the one that’s missing was killed by your slap, I only took care of two."

"Alright, be more careful next time." Lancelot turned and surveyed the interior of the secret chamber, which looked to be no more than ten feet in any direction and hardly different from a prison cell, "Did you find anything useful?"

"This." Isa pulled out a leather notebook from behind her, "Found it on one of those guys, looks like a diary, check if there’s any useful information in it."

Out of curiosity, the others crowded around as Lancelot opened the notebook and found that most of the entries had been erased by its original owner. However, the deletion had been done in haste, and several legible fragments remained.

’...Madam proposed some improvement schemes for their fear of fire weakness, which are truly ingenious creations—only she could do such a thing! However, since the "parts" must be removed before full transformation, experiments using corpses can no longer be conducted like before...’

’...The new workbench is finished, and the carpenter who made it became the first subject of his own creation. The scene was messier than we had anticipated. Although we are quite accustomed to sawing arms off bodies, corpses do not protest. Madam says next time she will start the transformation at the throat, so we won’t have to hear those annoying screams again...’

’...Bad news, the big shots upstairs are becoming alert to the disappearance of gang members. Today they added a bolt to the entrance of the shaft, claiming it was just a precaution, but from their shifty eyes, I know the truth. Not that it’ll do any good, we have other exits, and it serves them right for not providing enough materials as they used to. Those who fail at their tasks deserve to be punished...’

’...We are very close to success, today’s test subject had a distinct special reaction to his daughter’s name, proving we are on the right track. Madam is truly evil, wise, and beautiful! I wish I could freely hold her face and gaze into her eyes...’

’...The shortage of materials is getting more and more severe. The efficiency of hunting outside the city is nothing like we had anticipated, and there’s quite a lot to improve upon. Some colleagues volunteered to become test subjects, which sounds a bit insane, but we all understand that the body is merely a temporary inn for the soul, and death is nothing but changing rooms...’

"What is this nonsense?" Bruto frowned, "Without a doubt, these people are all mad, and extremely wicked..."

"But you can still glean some useful information from a madman’s ravings," Lancelot tapped the notebook with his finger, "At least we now know there’s a ’Madam’ involved, there’s another exit, and the reason why Uncle Barrend was brought here. The notes also mention improvements made for their weakness to fire, and judging from the recent fight, either the improvements weren’t actually successful or these flesh golems weren’t the improved versions... Speaking of which, Kalalin, what exactly are flesh golems?"

"Theoretically, all golems are perfect soldiers devoid of consciousness, the need for food or emotions, existing solely to execute their creator’s will," the Scholar stroked his chin, "They are made of common materials—flesh, rock, metal, even gemstones, crafted through exquisite sculpting, stone masonry, metalworking, or surgery to shape the body, before a special technique infuses Soul Essence from the elemental plane of earth into them. Normally, golems lack self-will, blindly obeying their creator’s commands, but based on that diary’s contents, it seems the people here might have other ideas..."

"Are you referring to the part about having a reaction to their own daughter’s name?"

"Yes. If I’m not mistaken, their goal must be to ’swap’ their own bodies with golems. As to why they would do this, I have no idea. I’m a normal person; I can’t comprehend the thoughts of a madman."

"If we knew what the madmen have gone through, perhaps their thoughts wouldn’t be so hard to understand." Lancelot rapped his fist on the notebook and then put it away, "Let’s go, we’ve been delayed long enough."

On the wall opposite the secret chamber was an exit sealed by iron bars, with a control lever next to it. Once they passed through the door, they entered another narrow corridor that had many open large doors on both sides, resembling the dormitories of workers, furnished with bedding, wardrobes and storage chests. However, there wasn’t a single soul in sight. Lancelot was sure that if they searched thoroughly, they would probably find some valuable spoils, but a more pressing mission took precedence now.