A Brain is a Good Thing

Mind Flayers, also known as Illithids, are native creatures of the Underworld, and among the few high-intelligence beings there besides Dark Elves and Dark Dwarves.

Mind Flayers are innately powerful beings. From birth, they possess a significant advantage with their inherent level, and their growth rate is incredibly fast. As long as they grow normally, they can easily reach Black Iron or even Silver strength.

Because of this, even though the Mind Flayer family in Landen's territory only has a few members, and several of them are just children, the difficulty in dealing with them ranks second among all creature groups in Landen's territory. Besides the Flame Salamanders, whose numbers exceed a hundred, this family of Mind Flayers is the most difficult to handle.

Difficult to handle, conversely, means that if they could be recruited, they would be of immense help to Landen. Of course, these are things the previous Landen never considered. He couldn't even deal with a nest of Goblins, so how could he possibly set his sights on Mind Flayers? Now, however, the situation seems to be a little different.

Early the next morning, a small squad of [number missing] people quietly left the bunker, leaving only the pitiful Aila still locked in the small dark room. However, perhaps due to his excellent performance the previous night, he managed to keep his life and received slightly better treatment than before—Landen generously removed the chains from his hands and left him plenty of food.

Whether it's Mind Flayers or Illithids, just from the name, one can tell that this species of creature has an inseparable connection with mental matters, and this is indeed the case.

Over [percentage missing]% of a Mind Flayer's combat methods are related to the mind. Among these, their most commonly used and powerful skills are Mind Control and Mind Blast. The former can easily control others' thoughts, making them serve the Mind Flayer; the latter can cause immense damage to an enemy's mind, even directly shattering their thoughts and turning them into complete idiots.

In addition, a Mind Flayer's diet is also directly related to the mind. They have only one type of food—brains. They will not consume anything else. A normal adult Mind Flayer consumes exactly one normal adult human brain per month. Uh, this calculation formula doesn't seem quite right, but that's the fact. If it were the brains of other creatures, the quantity would have to change.

And today is a feeding day for one of the young members of that Mind Flayer family.

This young one is not very old, standing just over [height missing] meters tall. Its small body, like its parents, is completely covered by a hooded robe. This is mainly to conceal their faces, their large mouths that occupy more than half of their faces, and the tentacles extending from their mouths like octopus tentacles, which are enough to make any creature that sees their faces flee immediately, causing them to lose many hunting opportunities.

As usual, the young Mind Flayer sneaks towards the Lizardfolk camp. Although the nutritional content of Lizardfolk brains is not as good as that of Dark Elves and Dark Dwarves, it is considered top-tier in this region. For a young Mind Flayer, one brain is enough for it to not need to eat for the next month.

Despite its young age, its predatory nature is deeply ingrained in its body. It moves at a moderate pace, always hidden in various shadows, easily avoiding dangers.

Suddenly, its heart tightens slightly. It's a danger signal from its predatory instincts and extremely strong mental attributes. The next moment, its body quickly shrinks behind the shadow of a large rock.

The Underworld is inherently a world of darkness. However, perhaps because of this, various ores, plants, and creatures here have developed the ability to glow. This has given this originally pitch-black world its own light. Yet, under the illumination of these scattered lights, the terrain of this world has become increasingly chaotic.

Especially the shadows, deep and shallow, like stains on a canvas, appearing here and there, creating chaos and bringing more danger.

The young Mind Flayer skillfully utilizes these shadows, weaving through them, searching for the source of the sense of crisis.

Its body suddenly stiffens, forcing its body, which was about to move to the next shadow, to stop abruptly. Its eyes glow with a dark red light, the effect of infrared vision. In the Underworld, infrared vision is not exclusive to Dark Elves; many creatures living here possess this ability.

The young Mind Flayer's eyes are now locked onto its target. It's a creature like itself, entirely hidden in a hooded robe, even similar in size. However, instinct tells it that this is not one of its kind, but a Dark Elf, a creature with the most delicious and nutritious brains in the Underworld.

Of course, its danger level is directly proportional to its deliciousness. This causes the young Mind Flayer to become completely calm. Its eyes remain locked on the target, and its body moves stealthily.

Clearly, the other party has not yet discovered the young Mind Flayer. Judging by its posture, it should be resting, which provides the young Mind Flayer with an excellent opportunity.

Just like any usual hunt, it moves through the shadows with practiced ease, slowly approaching its prey. Only this time, it is more cautious and careful than ever, even prepared to flee immediately if the attack fails. Nothing is more important than survival; this is a rule that holds true anywhere.

Actually, the young Mind Flayer could have attacked long ago. However, for the sake of caution, it crept to a very close distance and then, concentrating its mind...

Mind Blast!

This is the young Mind Flayer's strongest attack. With its current strength, it can only unleash one such attack. Therefore, as it unleashed this Mind Blast, it also pounced towards its prey like a leopard!

Throughout this entire process, its prey didn't move at all, seemingly hit by the Mind Blast in its sleep and immediately losing consciousness.

However, when it pounced on the body, tore off its own and the other's hood, and its large mouth tentacles plunged directly into the prey's head, it discovered that its previous judgment was completely wrong.

It wasn't that it had dealt with the prey; rather, the prey had already died long before it launched its attack!

Based on experience, it judged that the other party had died more than a day ago, and the cause of death was also from above—the moment its tentacles pierced in, it had already discovered a very thin wound that went straight through the head to the brain!

Of course, none of this mattered. What was important was that this provided it with an almost perfect meal. The wound had not caused excessive damage to the brain, and having died more than a day ago, the corpse was still fresh enough. It was like a pie falling from the sky.

Several tentacles quickly dissected and consumed the brain. In just a few minutes, the beautiful head turned into an empty shell. The young Mind Flayer, having finished its meal, quickly got up and prepared to leave. A delicious meal had not made it forget that this was the dangerous Underworld.

However, just as it was about to move into another shadow, an unbearable, intense pain erupted in its brain. The poor young Mind Flayer's vision went black, and it knew nothing more.