Carl and Hopp were growing increasingly irritable because the water had been cut off. Meanwhile, deep in the forest, the Mind Flayer base, the Hobgoblin Mind Flayer was planning how to grow stronger as quickly as possible.
Standing inside the "archives" of the Mind Flayer base, he swept his psionics over the brains floating in pale yellow liquid, hoping to find knowledge that met his requirements.
Mind Flayers used the brains of intelligent life as "storage devices" for knowledge, and the only way to read the information within them was through psionics.
"This one won't do. This one won't do either. This..."
His gaze stopped on one of the brains. The Mind Flayer floated closer and allowed more of his psionics to seep into the brain before him.
This brain contained some spell knowledge related to wizards, as well as information about a variant class suitable for Mind Flayers.
But as he looked at those spells, the Mind Flayer began to hesitate.
The variant class recorded in the brain was called the Mind Flayer Arcanist. In truth, it was simply a unique title for a Mind Flayer who had taken up the wizard class.
The reason the Mind Flayer hesitated to acquire this class was that the Mind Flayer race rejected individuals who became Mind Flayer Arcanists.
This Mind Flayer, born in the dungeon, still hoped to return to the Mind Flayer collective in the future. Once he took up this class, however, the Mind Flayers would regard him as an outcast.
But when he thought of the goblins gradually closing in on the base, the Mind Flayer's gaze hardened again.
"I have to replenish my brains and nutrients as soon as possible! At worst, I'll develop a new race of my own in the future!"
After muttering under his breath, the Mind Flayer began using psionics to imprint the more detailed information in the brain into his own mind.
Soon, the Mind Flayer opened his eyes again.
With the aid of psionics, his spirituality began to transform, and the Spiritual Core of the variant wizard class condensed deep within his soul.
His already powerful innate spirituality, along with the killing spirituality he had accumulated during this period, was injected into the Spiritual Core. The Mind Flayer's level began to rise rapidly, and the number of spells he could cast gradually increased as well.
Cantrip, 1st level, 2nd level... It was only after he gained two 5th-level Spell Slots that the Mind Flayer's level temporarily stopped increasing.
By then, this Mind Flayer who had become a Mind Flayer Arcanist was already equivalent to a 10th-level wizard.
"Ha, no wonder some Mind Flayers choose this path. The principles behind these spells are actually so ingenious!"
Opening his eyes again, two rays of psychic light burst from the Mind Flayer's eyes.
He raised his right hand and made several simple gestures. After uttering a few lines of incantation, lightning lit up in his palm.
He slapped it against a nearby wall, and the chitinous shell instantly blackened.
This was the cantrip Claws of the Electric.
Among the eight schools of wizardry, the Evocation School focused on the study of destructive power. The famous Fireball was precisely one of the Evocation School's signature spells.
"Excellent! With these spells, I'll definitely be able to slaughter all those damned Barbarians!"
Clenching both hands, the Mind Flayer's eyes flickered with a cruel light.
But soon, he patted his forehead and abandoned the idea of killing all the goblins.
"No, no, no. I need to raise them in captivity, just like my ancestors did. That way, I can have a steady supply of brains."
As he voiced increasingly cruel thoughts, the Mind Flayer cackled and headed for the Psionic Amplifier at the center of the base.
He needed to use this device to strengthen his psionics and learn the remaining spells in his mind as quickly as possible.
"Gurgle~"
As the Hobgoblin Mind Flayer sat on the Psionic Amplifier, the first Brain Eater assigned to guard the base slowly walked out of the room beside them.
After checking the Hobgoblin Mind Flayer's condition, it walked behind the Psionic Amplifier and shoved its claws into an inconspicuous cavity.
The Hobgoblin Mind Flayer sitting on the Psionic Amplifier suddenly shuddered, but he seemed not to notice anything amiss and continued studying his spells.
The master has completely gone silent. He must have met with misfortune. It seems I need to hurry and have the master's offspring give birth to an Overmind, so that the master's consciousness can awaken again.
With that thought flashing through its mind, the Brain Eater, which was somewhat larger than normal Brain Eaters, crawled back into the room beside it.
"Chieftain! We found something!"
In the mushroom woodland, a goblin from the vanguard immediately ran to the center of the formation to report after discovering several carcasses of beasts whose heads had exploded.
By then, nearly twelve hours had passed since the goblin army entered the woodland.
These goblins truly had it hard, considering how poor their eyesight was.
Several goblin Barbarians beside the Goblin Chieftain blocked the goblin who wanted to proceed and exchanged a glance with the Barbarian who followed the Wild Magic path.
Only after seeing the other party examine him carefully and nod did the two bodyguards allow the goblin to pass.
After briefly reporting what they had found ahead, the goblin serving as a scout lowered his head and waited for the Goblin Chieftain's order.
"Looks like we've finally found that fellow's trail. In that case, continue cutting down the vegetation along the path you discovered! Once we find that fellow's lair, we'll kill him!"
A feverish hunger for battle flashed through his eyes. The Hobgoblin Chieftain tapped the Great Axe of Fury in his hand, his voice full of vigor.
The goblin who had come to report immediately rose and ran back toward the front, visibly excited.
Every member of the Rage Tribe had a special longing for battle.
Soon, the scouts ahead discovered more similar corpses.
Although they were nearsighted, the Mind Flayer had not deliberately concealed the beasts when he killed them. Once they found one of the corpses, they could always locate others by searching around and following the trail.
Thus, following the corpses, the goblins gradually began making their way toward the Mind Flayer base.
At four in the morning, Carl awoke from her dream.
After confirming that her basic spirituality had recovered, Carl sat upright on the bed and created an Alchemy Jug.
She walked out of the room, first filling one of the wooden barrels with fresh water. Then she took steaks from her Bag of Holding and prepared to make breakfast.
She had just taken out a clay basin when she heard the commotion again.
After leaving the wooden hut, she leaned over the edge of the mushroom cap and looked down. She saw the goblins who had passed by earlier carrying their companions and retreating along the path they had cleared through the woodland.
The goblin army looked utterly miserable. In terms of numbers alone, they had lost at least a dozen people.
Although that was still a small fraction of their total, which exceeded five hundred goblins, it was clearly abnormal for so many of them to lose a fight against a single Mind Flayer.
Watching the goblins gradually disappear down the woodland path, Carl frowned and raised the Mind Flayer's danger level considerably in her mind.
"What happened? It clearly looked like the goblins had the upper hand before. How did the Mind Flayer suddenly gain the advantage? Could there be something special in that Mind Flayer base?"
The most famous bases of the Mind Flayers were their Nautiloid Ships.
Not only could those things use Planar Teleportation to travel anywhere, but they were also extremely powerful in combat.
But after carefully recalling the appearance of that base, Carl could not see how it looked like a Nautiloid Ship that had been rebuilt.
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