Side Quests Sometimes Bring Unexpected Gains

Rumble—

In the murky depths of sleep, Carl was abruptly jolted awake by a violent tremor.

The moment she opened her eyes, the chitinous ceiling above her cracked apart and came crashing down.

A heavy slab of rock smashed the pool in the center of the room flat, scattering Mind Flayer Tadpoles across the floor. They soon fell silent.

Carl's transformation pod was also struck, but fortunately, the rock was not very large. Instead, it shattered the pod and allowed her to crawl out.

"Hey! Kid! Help me open this thing!"

Seeing Carl regain her freedom, the Half-Orc female Warrior from before shouted at her.

Thinking that an extra person meant extra fighting strength, Carl hurried over to the other woman's transformation pod.

Most Mind Flayer creations were made through a kind of biotechnology. These transformation pods resembled the Zerg's specialized mutations in StarCraft, leaving ordinary people with no idea how to operate them.

But as an Artificer, Carl's ability to understand such things was not limited to pure machinery.

After quickly examining the transformation pod, Carl soon spotted an unusual indentation.

She extended a finger and cautiously pressed it.

"Squish~"

Carl's finger sank in without any resistance. Thick, slippery, yet strangely warm fluid wrapped around it, giving her some rather unpleasant associations.

But the transformation pod did not open, as though that indentation had not been made to open the hatch at all.

The Half-Orc inside grew visibly anxious at the sight, her pale green face turning several shades greener.

Perhaps because her emotions were too intense, a wave of psionic energy suddenly spread outward from the Half-Orc's mind.

Carl was the first to be affected by the psionic wave, catching a jumble of urgency and anger.

Then, as though responding to it, psionic energy rippled around Carl's own mind as well.

At that moment, a strand of psionic power flowed through Carl's finger and into the indentation.

"Hiss~"

The transformation pod's lid opened, leaving both the Half-Orc and Carl momentarily stunned.

Seeing that her method had worked, Carl immediately headed toward the survivors nearby.

After freeing two more people in the same way, she said to the Half-Orc, who was preparing to leave:

"There are still a few survivors here. Wake them up too. No matter what happened here, the more people we have, the more fighting strength we'll have!"

The Half-Orc stood there, conflicted for a moment. Then she gritted her teeth and joined the rescue effort.

Before long, all five people who had not been crushed to death by the ceiling were freed. The Half-Orc slapped them hard with both hands, waking them up.

Relying on her muscles, the Half-Orc female Warrior took charge and said to the newly awakened group:

"The Mind Flayers captured us to use as transformation vessels. Something's gone wrong in their territory now. If you want to live, come with us!"

With that, she ignored the others, grabbed Carl, and headed outside.

The transformation room's door was also opened with psionic power. However, when Carl opened it, what appeared before her was a corridor engulfed in roaring flames.

"Keep low! The smoke will choke you to death!"

Forcing Carl to bend over, the Half-Orc crouched and ran with practiced ease, looking highly experienced.

Following her example, Carl stayed close behind, preparing to escape.

The group of seven quickly passed through the burning corridor and arrived in a larger hall.

This hall looked like an enlarged version of the transformation room. A petal-shaped platform stood in the center, while hatchways leading elsewhere lined the surrounding walls.

It was obvious that this Mind Flayer seemed to like this kind of design.

On the petal-shaped platform in the center of the hall, several people of different races and professions were imprisoned in devices resembling transformation pods.

But they were in far worse condition than Carl and the others, who had been intended for transformation into Mind Flayers.

"Don't look! Move! We don't have much time!"

Seeing that Carl seemed to want to save them, the Half-Orc grew anxious.

Those people clearly had little fighting strength left. Rather than waste time saving them, they should find an exit and escape.

The tremors outside were becoming less frequent, and the Half-Orc believed that meant the battle was nearing its end.

If the Mind Flayer's enemies won, they might still have a chance to live. But if the Mind Flayer won, they would all be in danger.

"You go first! I'll catch up!"

Seeing Carl insist, the Half-Orc gritted her teeth. In the end, however, she led the others away.

Carl had indeed saved her, but she could not risk her own life for Carl's kindness.

Watching the Half-Orc and the other five run into one of the passages, Carl hurried over to the machines and freed the people inside as she had before.

Thud!

There were eight pods in total. When the doors opened, seven people toppled stiffly to the floor. Only a Tiefling girl about Carl's age remained, kneeling on one knee and gasping for breath.

She was drenched in sweat, with droplets the size of beans sliding down her fiery red skin and giving it a slick sheen.

A Tiefling's distinctive devil tail hung limply from her lower back to the floor, looking utterly listless.

The bandeau and shorts that barely covered her private areas clung tightly to her body from the sweat.

The light-colored fabric looked almost transparent against her dark skin.

As a faint ache pulsed through her mind, Carl recalled a Tiefling woman who had once threatened the top spot in the 3D scene.

But she quickly came to her senses. This was not the time for wild thoughts.

Silently cursing herself for letting lust cloud her head, Carl forcibly turned away and looked at the victims beside her, who resembled vegetables.

But the Tiefling seemed to take this as Carl being puzzled by their condition, so she explained:

"This is a Mind Flayer facility for making slaves. Psionic torture has turned them into empty shells without minds. This way! The exit is over here!"

After explaining, she grabbed Carl and led her down a different route from the Half-Orc's.

"You know where the exit is?"

If this Tiefling girl had mentioned that when Carl was about to rescue the others, the Half-Orc might have gladly saved her.

"Not everyone is willing to save a Tiefling like you are. The real exit is still some distance away. First, we need to find enough equipment to keep ourselves alive."

"I was conscious when I was captured, so I remembered what some of the rooms here are for."

As they spoke, the two arrived at the entrance to a room.

"This is the washroom. After the Mind Flayers capture people, they wash and disinfect them here. Equipment that isn't valuable also gets thrown in here to await disposal. Hopefully, we can find something useful."

As she spoke, the Tiefling girl kicked the door.

"Hiss~"

But the quality of Mind Flayer construction clearly exceeded her expectations. She could only suck in a breath and stand frozen in place while enduring the pain.

"Most of the structures here need psionic assistance to operate. Let me do it."

Raising a hand, Carl recalled the feeling from before and once again activated her feeble psionic power.

"Hiss~"

The washroom door opened, revealing various low-grade armor and equipment piled into two mountains of junk.

And the instant the door opened, a strange creature resembling a brain but with four beastly claws turned around between the two piles of junk.