Tracking Movements

Time rewound to the day before Hopp's bloodline awakened.

After more than a week of trekking, the Rage Tribe finally found a goblin tribe near the mushroom forest, bringing along their captured dire goblins.

Thus, the shattered goblin tribe welcomed its new masters.

Compared to the Rage Tribe's harsh environment, which was almost surrounded by a lava lake, this goblin tribe nestled deep in the canyon was undoubtedly quite comfortable.

The barbarian goblins who arrived here paid no mind to where the ordinary goblins had gone. After a quick cleanup of the mess left by Karl and Hopp's fight, they settled in.

The captured dire goblins of the original tribe did notice, but due to the humiliation they had suffered from the Rage Tribe during this time, this dire goblin not only didn't cry out a warning but instead looked forward to the Rage Tribe members falling into misfortune.

The giant lizards that had escaped their pens due to the negligence of a grotesque aberration were captured by the barbarians of the Rage Tribe from the canyon.

For an entire day, the dire goblins and hobgoblins stationed there feasted on roasted giant lizards, wielding the subpar weapons that Karl simply couldn't fit into his inventory. They held a frenzied banquet.

In the eyes of the Rage Tribe, they had now, in essence, "carved out their own territory."

It was within this atmosphere that danger quietly descended.

In the right wing of the wooden house, Karl, who had been with Hopp for half the day, finally managed to lull her to sleep.

Just as he was about to return to his own room for a good rest, a faint psionic fluctuation reached him from a certain direction.

Karl's weak psionic sense instinctively activated, and a voice, mixed with the sound of squelching flesh, echoed in his mind:

"Brain..."

This cryptic, incomplete message left Karl utterly bewildered, but his sense of urgency immediately shot to the highest level.

"There's someone else in this dungeon who possesses psionic abilities. And judging by the intensity of this psionic fluctuation, they're at least a level 6 psion, or perhaps even a Mind Flayer."

"Could our teleportation to this dungeon have been a mere coincidence?"

"Could that Mind Flayer have some secret base here?"

Countless questions flooded Karl's mind. He walked straight out of the wooden house and reached the edge of the mushroom cap, trying to pinpoint the source of the psionic fluctuation.

However, while the Dragon Mark had granted Karl excellent eyesight and perception, the layers of bioluminescent mushrooms obscured his vision, and he couldn't see anything.

"Should I go check it out? Even though my psionic abilities are weak, I should be able to focus my thoughts and prevent others from sensing me."

An unknown enemy was far more dangerous than one whose weaknesses were already exposed.

After a brief moment of thought, Karl's gaze gradually firmed. He stood up, returned to the living room, and donned his power armor.

The power armor had undergone Karl's initial upgrades, significantly improving its armor thickness.

Fragments of the Blackstone Greatsword had been fashioned by Karl into a matte finish, evenly brushed onto the power armor's exterior.

This caused the power armor, which Karl had modeled after Tiga, to now resemble a Dark Tiga version.

But none of that mattered. What was important was that Karl had fashioned a Khyber Dragonshard into the lightning emitter on the power armor's chest and had inscribed a Storm Rune onto it.

Although he couldn't seal a storm elemental creature within it to power the armor, the Storm Rune had significantly boosted the power of the lightning emitter.

"The hot weapon attachment with the Rapid Fire Weapon infusion isn't finished yet, so I'll have to make do with the Repeating Crossbow for now. But luckily, I'm only going for reconnaissance, so as long as things go smoothly, I won't need to fight."

Reattaching the Repeating Crossbow, which had been damaged by the black mist, to his left arm, Karl cast a somewhat regretful glance at the smelting furnace outside the house.

The Repeating Crossbow had been repaired by Karl shortly after they had returned.

However, he felt more sentimental towards the weapon that had fought alongside him for a considerable time.

As an Artificer, he actually preferred hot weapons.

And after obtaining enough metal materials, the first thing Karl thought of was manufacturing firearms.

Hot weapons imbued with the Rapid Fire Weapon infusion were the most crucial means of combat for an Artificer in the early stages.

"Unfortunately, the [Rapid Fire Weapon] infusion for hot weapons is far more complex than the [Rapid Fire Weapon] infusion for crossbow weapons. Even though I've been simulating it in the Dream World all this time, I can't guarantee the success rate."

The Artificer's [Rapid Fire Weapon] infusion was actually derived from the Mage's Conjuration School's level 2 characteristic.

The Conjuration School could summon creatures or create objects out of thin air, and their level 2 characteristic, [Minor Conjuration], allowed them to create non-magical items fashioned from mana.

The Artificer, referencing this characteristic, created a simplified version of this ability—the [Rapid Fire Weapon] infusion.

Normal bullets were, of course, non-magical items. Or rather, as long as an object didn't possess magical effects under normal circumstances, it was essentially non-magical.

Compared to ordinary crossbow bolts, bullets involved multiple materials and had precisely calibrated millimeter-level shapes, making their corresponding infusion much more complex.

If Karl were to directly create a finished product using the infusion ability, it would be relatively simple. But for his Bag of Holding and Alchemy Jug to continue functioning, Karl needed to draw the corresponding Rapid Fire Weapon infusion magic runes onto the weapon himself.

This was a bit difficult.

Shaking his head to clear his scattered thoughts, Karl walked to the opening that connected the ground and the mushroom cap and slid down using the rope.

The Infiltrator model power armor was as quiet as ever, even making less noise than Karl's movements when he was in his physical body.

Taking a detour around the undeveloped mushroom forest, Karl carefully investigated and quickly discovered something unusual.

"A giant lizard with its head exploded. It looks like the work of a Brain Eater. So, there really are Brain Eaters and Mind Flayers here?"

Both Brain Eaters and Mind Flayers primarily consumed the brains of living creatures for sustenance.

Unless it was a last resort, they wouldn't consume the creature's body.

"The trail of blood leads this way. It looks like they're trying to head out of the woods... In that case, I'll go against their direction and take a look!"

With a sliver of hope, Karl attempted to head towards the Mind Flayer and Brain Eater lair. He planned to raid them while their main force was out defending, leaving their stronghold vulnerable.

Even if he failed, he would at least know the location of the enemy's base.

He raised his head, following the direction opposite to the bloodstains, and delved deeper into the woods.

Along the way, the animals with burst heads formed a faint, connected roadmap leading to the Mind Flayer base.

This brazen act of not hiding their tracks made Karl wonder if the Mind Flayer responsible was the same one who captured him.

But he had to admit, the other party's methods provided him with considerable convenience.

Picking up a few animal carcasses in relatively good condition and placing them into his Bag of Holding, Karl continued on his way, picking things up as he went. Soon, a chitinous, hemispherical base appeared before him.

A dozen or so Brain Eaters were slowly patrolling around this structure, seemingly guarding it.

The hemispherical building occasionally emitted powerful Psionic energy, suggesting it was scanning its surroundings.

"As expected, there aren't that many easy opportunities in the world, but that's fine too. At least I know the location of the Mind Flayer base. Now then, I'll go see where those guys are planning to go!"