A Transaction

"My Lord, please forgive my caution, but have you truly decided to go through with this?"

"Of course, Old Niu. We've come this far, do you think we have any chance to back down? Or do you think I'm just trying to raise a pet Mind Flayer?"

"Of course not, it's just..."

"There's no 'just,' Old Niu. Go on. I'm just asking you to knock on the door, not to storm the place. Don't be a coward!"

"Y-yes, my Lord."

The Mind Flayer's home was certainly not an ordinary house. It was actually a bunker built into a cave. Of course, compared to creatures of lower intelligence, the Mind Flayers' lair was much more luxurious. Utilizing the mountain's terrain, they had built a massive outer wall with hard stones, making the entire lair resemble a military fortress.

The Minotaur Butler hesitated for a long time before finally walking up to the gate of this massive wall and raising his voice to call out, "Excuse me, two Mind Flayer sirs... no, ladies... uh, are you home?"

Sometimes, being too well-mannered was not a good thing. The poor Minotaur Butler, after politely opening his mouth, got stuck halfway through his sentence. When he tried to address them, it suddenly dawned on him: Mind Flayers were a peculiar, hermaphroditic species. It seemed no matter how he addressed them, it would be wrong.

Of course, these were minor issues. His rough voice carried inside, and after a moment, a voice descended from atop the wall, "What do you want?"

The voice was sharp and piercing, and at the same time, it seemed to possess a power that could pierce the soul.

While the Minotaur Butler was still struggling with the address issue, Landen's voice rang out, "I'm looking for your master, not you. You'd best go announce me quickly."

"State your purpose first," the voice from above remained sinister and sharp, devoid of any emotion, as if it were not a person, but a puppet.

That's right, it was a puppet. Mind Flayers were skilled in Mind Control. Besides consuming brains, one of their uses for controlling other creatures was to turn them into Flesh Puppets to serve the Mind Flayers. Like this family of Mind Flayers, though there were only two of them, they had nearly a dozen Flesh Puppets under their command, including high-level races like Dark Elves and Darkfolk.

The Flesh Puppets controlled by the Mind Flayers were not truly turned into something like golems or flesh golems. Instead, after controlling these creatures with Mind Control, the Mind Flayers would plant a mental seed deep within their minds, then release control, allowing them to regain their consciousness.

These creatures, with the mental seed planted, would obey the Mind Flayers for life, becoming their slaves. Furthermore, because they retained their consciousness, they were much more useful than true puppets. However, this method had its side effects. Because of the mental seed of absolute obedience, they essentially lost their sense of self and all other emotions. Thus, they became like the one on the wall, speaking without emotion, like puppets. This was also why they were called Flesh Puppets.

"It seems there's nothing more to say," Landen said with a shrug, turning to leave. However, as he passed the Dark Elf subordinate behind him, he gave a slight signal. The Dark Elf, Mikhail, immediately understood and turned with Landen. But as he turned, he deliberately let the cloth bag on his back slip, revealing the small Mind Flayer inside.

From atop the wall, a series of stumbling sounds immediately reached Landen's ears. Landen smiled slightly and didn't stop, truly walking away.

In less than ten seconds, the sound of a gate opening came from behind them, followed by a sinister voice, "I advise you to stop!"

"I came to visit with sincere intentions, but you refused to see me. Have you changed your minds?" Landen turned with a smile, looking at the group of people who had suddenly appeared behind him. They were all wearing the same hooded robes, covering their entire bodies, but from some details, it was evident that there were creatures of more than a dozen races among them.

Landen's gaze fell on the two figures of equal height in the center, and he smiled, "May I ask which one of you is Mosen, and which one is Moa?"

This question still received no answer. The one on the left of the two asked coldly, "You kidnapped my child?"

"Heh, it seems you are Moa," Landen smiled, then his expression turned serious, and he said coldly, "To be honest, your question is an insult to me. However, seeing as you are concerned for your beloved son, I will not dwell on it. But please, adopt a more respectful attitude, both because I am the Lord of this region, and because of this."

As he spoke, Landen raised his hand and gently patted the cloth bag on Mikhail's back.

This was actually not the first time Landen had dealt with this Mind Flayer. The previous time, the former Landen had been ambitious and wanted to subdue all the creatures in his territory. But unfortunately, this Mind Flayer had completely disregarded him. Even their meeting had been like this one, with one party outside the wall and the other on top of it.

Thinking back to that meeting, the current Landen still felt a chill. He didn't know if this family of Mind Flayers was truly different from ordinary Mind Flayers, lacking their intense evil desires, or if they were also wary of Matriarch Isis behind Landen, which was why they had let Landen go. If it had been an ordinary Mind Flayer, Landen and his subordinates would likely have become members of those Flesh Puppets by now.

Mind Flayers were absolutely evil.

"Lord? Heh." Moa's voice clearly carried disdain. "Speak, what is your purpose in doing this!"

Landen waved his hand, signaling Mikhail to open the cloth bag and release the small Mind Flayer. Landen spread his hands and said, "First, I need to correct something. It's not that I captured it; on the contrary, I saved it. This poor little fellow must have gone out to hunt and ate something that caused it to faint. I happened to pass by, so I rescued it and brought it straight to you."

"Then, I should thank you, my Lord?" Such a story was clearly not easy to convince the other party, but Landen didn't mind. All he wanted was this kind of conversational environment.

"No need for thanks. I'm a practical person; I prefer practical things," Landen said.

"Practical things? Humph, just say what you want," Moa said coldly.

"I like straightforward people." A smile reappeared on Landen's face. "Actually, my goal is very simple: to make a small transaction with you two."