The Paladin in the Abyss

"What do we do now?" Elothysia spoke up, "Don't forget that the enemy still has reinforcements. The conversation Little Isabella overheard suggested that the voice resembling the Mother of Demons mentioned sending someone to take Lilu away..."

"The Mother of Demons? Coming to take me?" The red-haired little girl in her arms was startled, "What does that super, super, super big baddie want to do with me?"
Stay connected with My Virtual Library Empire

"Isn't it said that Valasti loves to eat us kids the most? If he can resist eating us, it must be for something very important," Dong Quan explained to his little companion, "But there's no need to worry now. Sister Elothysia will definitely protect us!"

"Yeah!" Lilu looked up at the sister holding her and nodded firmly, then her face suddenly turned red, as if she was thinking about something.

"What's the matter?" The Succubus Paladin asked puzzled, "Do you feel unwell?"

"No…it's nothing…" The little girl lowered her eyelids, but she couldn't help stealing a glance at a certain seductive part of the Succubus's upper body, "Sister, you have such a nice figure. I…I just can't seem to grow at all..."

"What are you talking about, Lilu?" Aira, the boy behind Elothysia, was completely baffled, "Isn't your figure also quite good? I haven't noticed you getting any chubbier lately..."

"Dong Quan is such a big dummy!" The little girl's face turned as red as her hair, and she buried her head tightly into Elothysia's body, no longer paying attention to her little friend with a face full of question marks.

"We really can't delay for too long," Koula said from the side, "Lancelot, can we use the teleportation emblem that Tijana gave us now? If not, let's head back to Twin Bridges Town first. We're quite familiar with this route; taking it again we should be able to speed up a lot..."

Upon hearing this, Lancelot pulled out an emblem from his chest, which emanated the familiar magic fluctuations, indicating it had returned to normal. Simply by activating the spell on it, he could immediately see the beautiful face of the Succubus Lord. This thought was very tempting, but Lancelot resolutely resisted the idea.

"No, we can't leave Little Isabella and Cromwell here," Lancelot shook his head, "One is a vampire and the other is a talking skeleton; the good forces here are unlikely to show much friendliness towards them."

"I think you just don't want to see Tijana before completing the mission," Bruto spoke leisurely from the side, "I understand; I wouldn't want to go back like this either."

"Your condition is really bad," the Elf looked at the weakened Dwarf, "How about I cast the Feign Death Technique on you, then have Lancelot put you in the Dimensional Bag? Just like we did when we rescued Koula before..."

"Ha, you really don't know me, Elf," Bruto forced himself up, "Do you think a little injury like this could make me give up fighting? Impossible!"

"But your strength..."

"Has it been drained away, you say? Damn spider! Damn magic!" the Dwarf cursed angrily, "But we have ways to enhance our strength, don't we, Kalalin? You know that Bull's Strength Technique, right? Use it on me, quick!"

"No problem, but you seemed to have a lot of complaints about magic just a moment ago," the Scholar pulled out a scroll from his backpack and started preparing the spell, while explaining to everyone, "This spell requires a bull's hair or dung as a material component, and I have used up all the bull hair I had prepared before. This time, I'm using..."

"Wait!" Bruto yelled in panic, "Stop it! Don't! Ahhhhh!"

"...the hair that fell from that Giant Bull Demon when we were rescuing Elothysia," the Scholar had already finished casting and wore a mischievous expression on his face, rare to see, "Judging by your howl, the effect must be pretty good."

"Can't you say that in a less terrifying way!" the Dwarf complained, standing up from the ground. He picked up his hammer, swung it around, and shook his head, "No, no, this won't do, I feel like a 20-year-old kid..."

"A 20-year-old... kid?" Lancelot asked with a peculiar expression, "What's the human equivalent of a Dwarf's twenty years?"

"About six or seven, I guess," Bruto shrugged his shoulders, "But that's still not enough... Koula, do you have any potions that can temporarily enhance my strength?"

"I actually do have some." Koula took out two yellow, bubbly potions from his pocket, "These are Giant Strength Potions, the effect is similar to Kalalin's Bull's Strength, and they last for an hour as well..."

"There's nothing bizarre required for this one, right?" Bruto eyed the bottles in Koula's hand with suspicion, "What's with that strange color..."

"Don't worry, my potion is purely herbal, other than the name and effect, it has nothing to do with Giants." Koula reassured, "That color is because I added a bit of malt beer, as you know, to enhance..."

The moment the Dwarf heard 'malt beer,' he didn't say another word and immediately twisted off the cap, gulping down the potion.

"Ah~~! Not bad, not bad, but this is nothing like ordinary malt beer..." Bruto moved his body again, "I feel a bit stronger, but it's still far from my original state... That's right!"

He rummaged through a regular mining gear backpack he was carrying and took out a pair of metal bracers that looked somewhat familiar.

"What's that?" Lancelot asked curiously, "I feel like I've seen them somewhere before..."

"Remember that big gorilla named Kuka? That was the first mission Tijana gave us, and we incidentally saved this guy." Bruto nodded towards the Scholar, "These bracers originally fit on that gorilla's fingers. I had Kalalin appraise them before, and he said they could increase the wearer's strength. But since my strength was already quite formidable, they were of no use to me then..."

The Dwarf put on the bracers, picked up his shield and hammer, and performed a few attacking and defending movements.

"Hmm, that's about right, barely enough for the strength I had when I first met you," the Dwarf told Lancelot with a grin, "Let's go, let's have another three hundred rounds with that stupid spider! I'm determined to knock out its fangs!"

"Your condition hasn't fully recovered, don't push yourself," Lancelot shook his head, "Just stay and protect our fragile spellcasters. Elothysia needs to look after the two children, she can't manage it all on her own. And to deal with that creature, we need more speed and agility. Koula, I need your help."