Mind Flayer in the Sewers

"What an unexpected windfall. Such a huge Black Dragon—the Empire's resource-grabbing lot will be green with envy."

Ludian chuckled darkly and waved his staff, using magical blades to carve apart the enormous Dragon Corpse. Valuable materials such as scales, dragon bones, flesh, venom sacs, and tendons were carefully removed and sorted.

Alpha nodded in agreement. "With this much material, we can make at least four sets of Dragon Scale Armor and five Dragon Bone Swords."

Fitz also slowly emerged from the thick, ink-black shadows. He studied the sunken dragon head and rubbed his chin. "This dragon is far too thin. You can practically see its bones. Something's not right."

Ludian gave a sly laugh. "You don't know this, but Black Dragons are the leanest among the Five-Colored Dragons. Because of their sunken eye sockets, they're also called Skeleton Dragons. They like to live in dark, damp—"

"Slash—"

The sound of a blade tearing through flesh interrupted Ludian's endless lecture, leaving him somewhat annoyed.

Without a word, Fitz sliced open the Black Dragon's skull with a dagger. His slender fingers moved nimbly through the pale brain matter, and he actually pulled out a white worm—a Mind Flayer larva.

This larva was far larger than the Mind Flayer larvae taken from human brains. It was as thick as a human hand, with rows of ring-shaped fangs dripping mucus, enough to make anyone shudder.

Seeing the worm, larger than an ordinary snake, the priest Lena shrank back, her face wrinkling in disgust. "Ew, that's disgusting."

"Those octopus heads can infect even dragons?" Alpha looked astonished.

Ludian, however, looked more excited than ever. He carefully used magic to seal the larva inside a clay jar, practically wanting to press his cheek against it as he muttered, "This is a mutant! It must be related