You Have Your Plan, He Has His Countermeasure

While Karl and Hopp were becoming increasingly frustrated by the water outage, deep within the forest, in a Mind Flayer base, a Hobgoblin Mind Flayer was plotting how to quickly become stronger.

Standing in the base's "data room," it scanned its psionic energy over brains floating in pale yellow liquid, hoping to find knowledge that met its requirements.

Mind Flayers used the brains of intelligent life as "storage devices" for knowledge, and psionic energy was the only way to read the information within.

"Not this one, not this one either, not this one..."

Its gaze settled on one of the brains. The Mind Flayer floated closer, allowing more of its psionic energy to seep into the brain before it.

This brain stored knowledge about spells belonging to Mages, as well as information on a variant class suitable for Mind Flayers.

However, looking at the spells, the Mind Flayer hesitated slightly.

The variant class recorded in the brain was called Mind Flayer Arcanist, which was essentially a special title given to Mind Flayers who took on the role of a Mage.

The reason the Mind Flayer hesitated to acquire this class was that the Mind Flayer race had an exclusionary nature towards individuals who took on the Mind Flayer Arcanist class.

This Mind Flayer, born in the dungeon, still held the hope of eventually returning to the Mind Flayer collective. If it took on this class, other Mind Flayers would view it as an anomaly.

But thinking about the Goblins who were gradually approaching the base, the Mind Flayer's gaze became firm once more.

"I must replenish my brains and nutrition as quickly as possible! Even if it means developing a new tribe for myself later!"

Muttering softly, the Mind Flayer began to imprint the more detailed information from the brain into its own mind through psionic energy.

Soon, the Mind Flayer opened its eyes again.

Its spirituality began to transform with the assistance of psionic energy, and the spiritual core of the variant Mage class condensed deep within its soul.

Its naturally powerful spirituality, along with the spiritual energy accumulated from killing during this time, was injected into the spiritual core. The Mind Flayer's level began to increase rapidly, and the spells it could cast gradually grew.

Level 0, Level 1, Level 2... The Mind Flayer's level temporarily stopped increasing only after it obtained two Level 5 spell slots.

At this point, this Mind Flayer, having taken on the Mind Flayer Arcanist class, was equivalent to a Level 10 Mage.

"Ha, no wonder some Mind Flayers chose this path. The principles behind these spells are so exquisite!"

Opening its eyes again, two rays of spiritual light shot out from the Mind Flayer's eyes.

Raising its right hand, the Mind Flayer made a few simple gestures and uttered a few incantations. Then, its palm lit up with electricity.

With a palm strike against a nearby wall, its chitinous exoskeleton instantly turned black and scorched.

This was the Level 0 Evocation School spell, Claws of the Electric.

Among the eight schools of magic for Mages, the Evocation School focused on the study of destructive power. The famous Fireball was a representative spell of the Evocation School.

"Excellent! With these spells, I will surely be able to kill all those damned barbarians!"

Clenching its fists, a cruel light flickered in the Mind Flayer's eyes.

However, it soon patted its forehead and abandoned the idea of killing all the Goblins.

"No, no, no, I need to herd them, just like my ancestors did. That way, I'll have a continuous supply of brains."

Uttering even more cruel thoughts, the Mind Flayer chuckled sinisterly and headed towards the Psionic Amplifier in the center of the base.

It needed to use this device to strengthen its psionic energy and quickly learn the remaining spells in its mind.

"Goo-goo~"

As the Hobgoblin Mind Flayer sat on the Psionic Amplifier, the first Brain Eater responsible for guarding the base slowly emerged from a nearby room.

After checking the Hobgoblin Mind Flayer's condition, it walked behind the Psionic Amplifier and inserted its claws into an inconspicuous cavity.

The Hobgoblin Mind Flayer sitting on the Psionic Amplifier suddenly trembled, but it seemed unaware of this anomaly and continued to study the spells.

'Master has completely lost contact. It's likely they've met an unfortunate end. It seems I need to speed up the process, allow this offspring of Master to gestate a hive mother as soon as possible, so that Master's thoughts can be revived.'

With this thought flashing through its mind, the Brain Eater, whose size was slightly larger than a normal Brain Eater, crawled back into the adjacent room.

"Chieftain! We've found something!"

In the mushroom forest, a scout Goblin, after discovering the corpses of several beasts with exploded heads, immediately ran to the main camp to report the news to the Goblin Chieftain.

By this time, nearly 12 hours had passed since the Goblin group entered the forest.

It was truly a hardship for these Goblins with poor eyesight.

Several Goblin barbarians standing next to the Goblin Chieftain stopped the Goblin from moving forward and exchanged glances with the barbarian on the wild magic path beside them.

After seeing the other party observe carefully for a moment and nod, the two personal guards allowed the Goblin to proceed.

After briefly reporting the discovery ahead, the Goblin acting as a scout lowered its head, awaiting the Goblin Chieftain's orders.

"It seems we've finally found traces of that fellow. Since that's the case, continue clearing the vegetation along your discovery! Once we find his lair, we'll kill him!"

A hint of battle fervor flashed in his eyes. The Hobgoblin Chieftain paused, holding his Great Berserker Axe, and spoke with enthusiasm.

The Goblin who came to report immediately stood up and excitedly ran back to the front.

Everyone in the Rage Tribe had a special craving for battle.

Soon, the scout troops ahead discovered more similar corpses.

Although they were nearsighted, the Mind Flayer had not deliberately concealed its actions when killing these beasts. Once they found one, by following the clues and searching around, they could always find another.

And so, the goblins, following these corpses, began to gradually make their way towards the Mind Flayer base.

At 4 AM, Karl awoke from his dream.

Confirming that his basic spirituality had recovered, Karl sat upright on his bed and created the Alchemy Jug.

Stepping out of his room, he first poured fresh water into one of the wooden barrels, then took out a steak from his Bag of Holding, preparing to make breakfast.

As soon as he took out the clay pot, he heard a clamor again.

Exiting the wooden hut, he peered down from the edge of the cap and saw the goblins he had passed earlier carrying their companions, retreating along the path they had cleared in the woods.

The goblin contingent looked extremely miserable, having lost at least a dozen individuals in terms of numbers.

Although this was far from the total goblin population of nearly 500, it seemed highly unusual that so many people would go to fight a Mind Flayer and still lose.

Watching the goblins gradually disappear from the woodland path, Karl frowned, considerably raising the danger level of the Mind Flayer in his mind.

"What happened? They clearly seemed to have the upper hand before, but in the blink of an eye, the Mind Flayer gained the advantage. Could there be something special in that Mind Flayer base?"

The most famous base for Mind Flayers was their Nautiloid Ship.

This thing was not only capable of interdimensional travel but was also a formidable opponent.

However, as Karl carefully recalled the appearance of that base, he couldn't believe it had been converted from a Nautiloid Ship.