Fewer and fewer bandits remained. Watching their companions die in all manner of ways had long since broken them mentally. Now, only numbness remained on their faces.
"Group seven, apply [Will Guard]."
A golden glow flashed between the bandit's brows, then vanished.
An assistant fed him a portion of the elder brain's tissue.
One second, two seconds... a minute passed.
The bandit did not scream, lose his mind, or have his head explode.
He simply sat there, trembling slightly, his eyes tightly shut and the veins on his forehead bulging, as though enduring tremendous pain.
[Mental corruption: 5%... 10%... 15%...]
The corruption level rose slowly and steadily, finally stopping at the threshold of 19%, held firmly in check by that golden glow.
Another five minutes passed, and the bandit stopped trembling.
He slowly opened his eyes.
What sort of eyes were they?
When he opened them, his left eye was human brown, filled with the exhaustion and terror of someone who had narrowly escaped death.
His right eye, however, had turned entirely deep purple, with tiny points of light swirling within.
But no matter how Veylin stimulated him, there was no further response.
This counted as a success, he supposed.
Veylin recorded his conclusion in his notes, then turned and left.
Behind him, Valerius and the assistants would handle the rest. He already had the information he needed.
Two days later, inside an isolation laboratory at the Origin Society's Second Research Institute.
Veylin checked every vessel on the laboratory bench one last time, confirming the location of each supernatural material.
The Mind Flayer's elder brain was submerged in Temperature-Controlled Nutrient Solution. That damaged piece of pale purple tissue still radiated unsettling mental fluctuations.
He had no intention of letting Sarah swallow this extremely dangerous specimen directly.
"Go ahead,"