Ordinary fantasy adventure in Faerûn

Chapter 434: Heart Flayer

'This feeling... is not wrong. It is definitely coming from the regional effect of the main brain. The telepathic fluctuations can fully cover a radius of five kilometers. The main brain is very close to me. I must be more careful on the next section of the road.'

Noshil thought so, but in fact, Noshil had already prepared any preventive measures he could imagine.

The legendary helmet greatly increased Noshir's perception, allowing him to detect the area effects of the main brain at the first moment.

The legendary ring blocked his mental fluctuations, and the main brain could not discover his location through telepathy.

Coupled with the Underdark's own ability to distort the earth's ley lines of radiation used in prophecy spells, and the anti-detection amulet he carried with him, Noshiel really couldn't think of anything that could detect him before he was exposed.

However, considering that the next opponent might become the final boss of God, Noshier added a final insurance for his infiltration operation at this time.

……

The deepest part of the mind-thirsty colony is a place filled with a foul odor. The rocky surface is covered with half-rotten meat paste, and the surrounding walls are covered with tendons made of flesh and blood. There are corrupt pools emitting green light and stinking water everywhere, as well as all kinds of ugly corpses.

And in such a disgusting residence where just the sight of it would cause all sorts of discomfort to a living person, and staying there for a little longer would even cause confusion, there actually exist a large number of various life forms.

There are claw monsters, swamp bear men, brain eaters, tentacle monsters, rope monsters, fear devourers, scattered mind flayers, and a group of humans who are incompatible with this place, but are full of corruption and wear tall triangular pointed helmets.

If Noshir were here now, he would definitely be able to recognize who these people are. The unique triangular helmets and the three-headed flails around their waists that were made to look like skulls were enough to reveal their identities. There was no doubt that they were believers of Melkor, the god of the dead.

Among these believers, an old half-elf wearing gorgeous armor with a purple gem inlaid on the chest of the armor and a double-headed war hammer on his back was particularly eye-catching.

This person is none other than Catheric Thom, the legendary Chosen One, the patriarch of the Thom family, the Undead General and the Immortal. After being resurrected by the God of the Dead, Catheric Thom became the new leader of the Cult of Death.

Melkor handed over all his believers in the mortal world to Catheric, and Catheric took on the responsibility of leading them. To be honest, managing these believers of the God of the Dead was not a particularly difficult task, because those who would worship Melkor in the mortal world were all strange weirdos.

His followers have always been those who seek knowledge, power and even loyalty from the deceased. If Catheric can meet their demands in this regard, then managing them will not be difficult.

At this moment, the reason why these people appeared here was initially because they were curious about the main brain.

They wanted to study the characteristics of the Mastermind. Mortals knew too little about this creature and knew almost nothing about what it could do. This search for the unknown drove them crazy for a time.

However, after a period of research, these followers of the God of the Dead have already figured out most of the abilities of the Mastermind, and the reason why they are still here is completely because of another purpose. "Lord Som, today the Mastermind's output of Illithid Tadpoles has dropped a lot, and more and more tadpoles are dying unnaturally shortly after they are born. This is very abnormal. We have clearly placed these fragile tadpoles in the prepared breeding pools according to the highest standards, but this still cannot reduce the mortality rate of the tadpoles."

A female soul master came to Catheric while flipping through the notebook made of human skin in her hand.

Catheric, who had been staring at the corrupt lake in a daze, came back to his senses at this moment. He frowned and said to the female soul master.

"Have you found out what the reason is?"

Catheric's tone was very bad, and his mood matched it. Ever since he unexpectedly met his old rival yesterday, Catheric's mood has fallen into this state.

As an old rival who had waged war against him a hundred years ago, Catheric knew Jaheira and the Harpers too well. He knew that his days of peaceful development were about to end, and it would not be long before Jaheira would raise a large army just like he had done to stop him a hundred years ago.

In order to cope with the challenge of this army, Kesrick is trying to use all means to increase his own combat effectiveness. After controlling the main brain, the mind flayers that the main brain can produce will be excellent combat assistants, but for some unknown reason, the production of mind flayer tadpoles has been becoming lower and lower in recent times.

This directly affected his plan to build an army of mind flayers, so when Catheric received the information from his own cult yesterday, he immediately rushed here, and after a period of investigation, the soul master finally gave a possible guess.

"We suspect the problem may lie with the crown, Lord Thom. Based on the number of mind flayers sent out by the enemy when we fought the illithid colony before, the production of mind flayer tadpoles of this elder brain has been in a fairly stable state before it was crowned. But within a week of us putting the crown on it, its tadpole production is almost getting worse day by day."

Having said this, the Soul Master seemed to have finally confirmed her guess, and she spoke to Catheric in a more determined tone.

"This is all verifiable evidence, Lord Som. The problem has been confirmed. It is definitely because of the crown that the production of the Mind Flayer tadpoles in the main brain went wrong. But the problem now is..."

"Without the crown, we can't control the Mastermind, but with the crown, the Mastermind can't provide us with an army. It sounds like an unsolvable problem."

"I'm sorry, Lord Thorm, but we really have no way to solve this problem. But don't be discouraged, sir. You are the apostle of our God. The great and omniscient Melkor will definitely be able to help us solve this problem, as long as you..."

"No need to say more, Kressa."

Catheric's gaze once again turned to the brine pool in front of him. In the dark green forest, a huge monster was lurking.

"...I hope Melkor can forgive my incompetence....Help me prepare the ritual, Kressa. I want to seek the guidance of my god."

(End of this chapter)