Tobian allowed his vision to unfocus. Two different views as if he crossed his eyes until one of the images had an outline of light blue around anything magical. Slowly, his vision refocused as his eyes saw beyond the edge of reality. Auras of magic cluttered his view; the residue from where Darius's axe had been and everywhere the staff Tristan held had touched the ground—bits of the walls where a ball of fire had exploded against it, still smoked with some magic.
A thump interrupted his concentration. He looked over at Darius, who was just staring at a wall with murderous intent. With no further word or action from the fighter, Tobian returned to his task.
Going from corpse to corpse, Tobian carefully pulled out anything that popped up on the magical spectrum. The item or type was not his concern; he would pick it up and put it into one of these magic bags if it was a toothpick. He would put it in his massive backpack if it didn't fit in the bag.
"How long do you think it took them to realize they would have to enchant all the walls?" Darius said. He was scratching at a wall with a dagger again.
"I'd guess a dozen; I doubt they would have constructed them one at a time. Started with ten or twelve; bet the Professor knows." Tobian said as he paused in his scavenging. Occasionally, he would have to use a stick to shove or turn a corpse over so he could see anything under it. He ignored the gore and ichor attached to some of the items, knowing they would clean it off when they examined everything in detail later. If something were gold or silver or some jewelry, he would grab it as well. One of the group's best loot hauls was when Tobian snagged a dozen rings that, while not magical, were each inset with a stone they found a shop willing to pay lots of coin for.
"Did the professor want this?" Tobian pointed at the hairless dog corpse that he recognized as a fel-hound. It would have been shoulder height to Tobian if it had been alive. The creature looked almost unscathed except for the bruising around its neck.
"I don't know. Snag just in case if you can." Darius said. The fighter quickly scanned the room before stepping toward the door. "If that's it here, let's move; I think there was some acid elemental. I know they want to collect as much as possible."
Tobian pulled out a large red sack from his backpack. Carefully, he placed it on the floor with the mouth as wide open as possible, then produced a small shovel to lift part of the dead creature and slide the bag around it. The container filled up as he pulled the edges of the bag around the rest of the beast. Once inside the bag, the large dog took up about as much space as a house cat. Tying the opening shut, Tobian tied the red sack to his backpack but kept the shovel out.
Underneath the Fel-hound, Tobain saw a large silver ring. It was wider than his handspan and wasn't jewelry, but it also showed up on the magical spectrum, and Tobian knew what it was. He carefully placed it inside a non-magical pocket to store it.
A quick scan of the room showed nothing else of magic or interest remained. "Clear," Tobian said. He followed Darius through the narrow doorway. The hallway widened, and the walls looked to have holes, even a large opening in the ceiling. An acrid odor dominated the air. Tobian paused to look at it, and about the same time, Darius looked to ensure Tobain was still following.
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"Trap, the acid elemental flowed through there; there are some gutters along the side if you can try to collect some of it," Darius said, pointing to the left and right. The light from the previous room didn't illuminate the sides, keeping them in shadow. "Carefully, I think, was the word Tristan used also. If I can help, let me know."
"Can you lift the grates?" Tobian said, pointing at the slitted floor.
Darius knelt down and grabbed a section with his hands. As he tried to stand, he grunted, and the muscles in his arms and neck bulged, but the flooring did not move. He pulled out a thick crowbar and wedged it the best he could, but still, the flooring didn't move.
"I cannot; we could ask the Professor on the way out if you can't get anything."
"Let's see what I can get," Tobian said. He knelt down and couldn't see anywhere he could fit his arm through. Standing back up, he looked at Darius, who shrugged in silent reply.
"I guess we ask the Professor?" Darius said.
"We…" Tobian interrupted himself as he had an idea. Slipping back into the magical spectrum, he spotted that the metal grates were all magical on top, but there were smaller grates on the bottom of the walls that were not magical. He worked his way over to the left side first. He pulled out a lantern from an inner pocket to illuminate the area. Multiple metal grates lined the wall, using the shovel, Tobian lifted one of the grates and saw some greenish bubbling liquid underneath. Pushing the grate high enough to stay in place, he set the shovel down and reached into his backpack.
After several seconds of searching, he pulled out a long pair of tongs and a couple of glass vials. He placed one of the vials in the tongs and scooped some bubbling liquid. After acquiring some, he set the vial down to the side and carefully put a new one in the tongs. It took a couple of tries to get a significant amount into the second vial and even longer for the third. After a few minutes of scooping, he managed to get five vials from each side. The acidic vapor had slowly started eating at the stoppers when he put them in, so he hurriedly placed them into a magical container.
"Will they be ok?" Darius said but didn't offer any help. Tobian looked at the fighter and was going to say something, but he noticed a few holes burnt into the fighter's armor.
"I think so; the magical bags kind of suspend things when placed in them," Tobian said as he stored the lantern back into a bag but left the still acid-covered tongs on the ground. "The last thing I want is to pull those out of the bag by the wrong end." He added when Darius glanced at the tongs on the floor.
"We can grab on the way out," Darius said. He pulled out a waterskin and poured some on the tongs.
With a nod, Darius tilted his head toward a hallway leading to a dark room. Tobian grabbed his torch and followed as best as he could. A couple of rocks and corpses dotted the pathway, but he hopped over them since they didn't appear as magical.
The next room was pitch black. Tobian held up his torch and tried to see if it allowed him to see anything. He couldn't see the torch, his hand, or Darius. Switching to the magical spectrum only showed him the glowing stones at his feet. The circle of black closed in until he couldn't see even his magical boots. Tobias opened his mouth to say something, but as soon as his lips parted, something sucked out his breath.
Clamping his mouth shut, he waved the torch around, trying to burn whatever enveloped him. He couldn't move the arm with the torch very well, as if something was holding on and preventing him from using the torch. After previous seconds of no reaction, he reached his free hand to his face and felt for something covering him, but felt something soft like velvet covering his face, but not his hand.
With a sense of trepidation, he carefully reached a hand into one of his magical pouches and thought about one of the vials of acid he'd just stored there. When the glass vial was around his hands, he pulled it out of the bag and removed the stopper. Waiving the top of the vial near his face, he could feel the acidic vapor singe the hairs in his nose and burn some skin. The darkness disappeared as his torch lit up the room. He involuntarily gasped a few times as his lungs demanded fresh air.
Tobian found himself in a well-lit room. Darius was close to a far wall, a black shadow wrapped around his hand as he repeatedly punched the stone. Another dark shadow rested against a nearby wall, Tobian waived his torch to verify it wasn't a shadow from him, and before the creature could move, he threw the vial of acid at it.
Loud screeches echoed from both sides as one creature burned and the other corresponded to thumps against a stone wall. The screech from Tobian's shadow pulled Darius's attention. The fighter saw the burning shadow creature and smiled as he strangled and stretched his assailant as if it were taffy.
"Good job, see you'll be an adventurer yet!" Darius said between laughs and grunts. The shadow creature he had soon ripped apart into two separate shadows, then torn into other fractions of the whole.