The Depths of the Pool

Lost in thought, Hopp in the right side room also heard the commotion and woke up.

She first drank her fill from the bucket, then ran over to Carl and asked about the goblins' movements.

"Those goblins are back? How's the battle going?"

Recalling the condition the goblins had been in moments ago, Carl gave her his assessment.

"To be honest, not well. Most of the goblins looked pretty battered. It seems there must have been a fairly intense battle."

Hearing this, Hopp's eyebrows nearly knit together.

The incomplete information made it impossible for the two of them to piece together the full picture, and the unknown often meant danger.

"Should we go investigate?"

Carl and Hopp looked at each other and spoke the same words in unison.

Their perfect synchronicity stunned them for a moment, and then they both laughed.

"If that Mind Flayer really is that powerful, we need to make plans early and leave this troublesome place as soon as possible."

Hopp looked back at the wooden hut beside them, reluctance showing in her eyes.

But there was nothing they could do about it. They couldn't afford to provoke it right now, so naturally, they had to keep their distance.

"Then shall we go after breakfast?"

"Okay!"

They returned to the hut, quickly finished their first meal of the day, and then lowered the Rope of Climbing before leaving the giant mushroom.

Hopp was just about to follow the path the goblins had cleared toward the Mind Flayer's base, but Carl, already suited up in Guardian-type Power Armor, said:

"Don't go this way. I know a shortcut!"

With somewhat heavy steps, Carl led Hopp onto a barely visible path through the woods.

He had worn it into existence the last time he went to investigate the Mind Flayer's base. After several days, the Bioluminescent Mushrooms and moss he had crushed seemed to have recovered.

What astonishing vitality.

After marveling inwardly, Carl relied on his memory and led Hopp through the forest.

Because he had changed the Power Armor to Assault type, even though he had designed it to avoid making as much noise as possible, creatures with keen senses could still detect a trace of movement.

Thus, Carl and Hopp kept watch on their surroundings at all times. Whenever some unusual creature noticed them, they would kill it instantly.

Especially goblin scouts or Brain Eaters.

If those two groups discovered that there were still two outsiders in the woods, Carl and Hopp did not dare imagine what they might do.

After crossing obstacle after obstacle, Carl and Hopp finally reached the vicinity of the Mind Flayer's base.

Through the cover of the wooden mushrooms, the two of them finally saw the state of the Mind Flayer's base.

On the uneven ground, the hemispherical chitinous base still stood.

Numerous headless goblin corpses lay scattered around the base.

Four enormous squid tentacles had grown out of the ground and were swaying from side to side in the breeze.

"That must be why the goblins failed. If that thing came crashing down, even a sixth-level Warrior would have trouble standing back up."

"I certainly don't have the confidence to block that thing. Let's go back, make some preparations, and leave this forest to find another way out."

Just seeing those four tentacles was enough to drain Carl and Hopp of the courage to cause trouble for the Mind Flayer.

Thinking back to how he had planned to "kill the Mind Flayer and find clues to leave the dungeon," Carl felt his face grow hot.

Calling his earlier arrogance the fearlessness of a newborn calf was not enough to describe it.

Carl sighed, and he and Hopp were just about to head back when a faint psionic fluctuation suddenly probed toward them.

Without stopping to think about who the psionic power came from, Carl immediately crouched down and grabbed a handful of soil. Then he hoisted Hopp onto his shoulder and began running in another direction with long strides.

After briefly chanting the spell and making the corresponding gestures, he cast the first-circle Longstrider Spell on himself.

Despite wearing heavy armor, he reached a speed that left ordinary people far behind.

However, as he fled, the Mind Flayer's base behind them immediately reacted.

A dozen or so Brain Eaters charged out and pursued them relentlessly.

Carl knew that they had not actually "discovered" him in the conventional sense.

Brain Eaters had no eyes. They relied on psionic power to obtain information about their surroundings.

That faint psionic fluctuation had probably been released by a Brain Eater on routine patrol to prevent outsiders from infiltrating. It was essentially no different from an ordinary person casting an absentminded glance.

The Brain Eater that released the psionic power had certainly sensed Carl and Hopp's presence, but it had not truly captured their thoughts, nor had it used psionic power to determine their appearances.

That was why Carl had started running without a second thought.

As long as he escaped far enough, once the Brain Eaters stopped pursuing them, they could safely return to the hut and plan how to leave the forest.

Moving through the forest, Carl relied on the Power Armor's sturdiness and almost never dodged the wooden mushrooms coming toward him.

The mushrooms he smashed apart perfectly marked his path. Although the Brain Eaters behind him had been left far behind, they could continue forward by following those traces.

But that was exactly what Carl wanted to see.

"Bang!"

After smashing through another wooden mushroom, Carl suddenly discovered that the path ahead was the one the goblins had cleared.

He silently thanked those self-sacrificing fellows, then casually chose a direction and left.

A pool soon appeared ahead.

On instinct, Carl used psionic power to probe the pool's depth. Yet even after expanding the detection range to its limit, he still could not reach the bottom.

Just as Carl was about to continue forward, his eyes lit up.

"Hopp, hold your breath!"

Carl reminded Hopp in a low voice, then leaped into the pool.

A splash rose as Carl and Hopp quickly sank toward the bottom under the weight of the Power Armor.

Carl's helmet automatically activated the Underwater Breathing Cap's effect. A bubble enveloped Carl, allowing him to continue breathing underwater.

He quickly canceled the spell slot occupied by the Alchemy Jug. Blue light blossomed in Carl's hand, and he copied an ordinary Underwater Breathing Cap, placing it on Hopp's head.

Hopp, who had been holding her breath, immediately let out a long sigh of relief.

As the two of them continued sinking, the water pressure had nearly forced the air from her mouth.

With the Underwater Breathing Cap, Hopp could finally breathe properly.

Several Brain Eaters arrived late above the pool.

Carl's final trail had been on the path cleared by the goblins, so after a brief discussion, the Brain Eaters split into two groups and pursued the two sides of the path.

When they saw the pool, several Brain Eaters gathered around it.

Their intelligence was mostly comparable to that of ordinary people, so they easily reached the conclusion that "the fleeing enemy may have jumped into the pool to hide."

However, not a single bubble rose from the pool, and their psionic power detected no living creatures within it.

That was only natural. Carl's psionic strength was about the same as these Brain Eaters'. Since he could not detect the bottom of the pool, these Brain Eaters naturally could not either.

At that moment, Carl and Hopp had already sunk far beyond the limit of the Brain Eaters' psionic detection range.

After waiting a little longer, the Brain Eaters exchanged their opinions through psionic power and eventually left along the path.

Meanwhile, deep within the pool, Carl and Hopp finally reached the bottom.