Elven cultivators

Chapter 110 The Cage

It was a spacious cave, with an area of ​​at least a thousand square meters.

The cave ceiling is high up, with stalactites hanging down like swords, while the bottom shows signs of artificial carving.

Hundreds of mine tunnels extend in all directions, with neat entrances and regular edges, quite unlike naturally formed rock fissures.

At this very moment, hundreds of figures are working diligently in the center of the cave.

Anton focused his senses and quickly identified the races of those figures.

Dog-headed man.

A small, humanoid creature, short in stature and slender in build, with its body covered in a layer of rough, brown scales.

Their appearance is somewhere between humans and reptiles, with a protruding snout covered with fine, sharp teeth, and cloudy yellow eyes that gleam faintly in the dark.

Kobolds are very common in the Underdark and are the preferred slaves of many subterranean races.

Because they reproduce quickly, eat little, are hardworking, and have a strong ability to adapt to harsh environments.

Moreover, they are not very intelligent, are easy to tame, and are perfect for labor.

However, these kobolds are clearly not in a good state right now.

Their movements were mechanical, their eyes were dull, and their pupils were unfocused like those of dead fish, like walking corpses whose souls had been taken away.

This is a sign that the mind has been controlled by a mind-stealer.

Anton understood.

Mind Flayer's mind control is not a temporary form of mental manipulation, but rather a more thorough destruction of the target's self-awareness, turning them into a living puppet that obeys their every command.

A creature that is completely controlled can no longer be called a "creature".

Their souls have been completely eroded, leaving only empty shells mechanically carrying out commands.

Even if the mind flayer is killed, the person being manipulated cannot be saved.

Clearly, this is a mining area occupied by mind flayers.

Anton's divine sense continued to extend deeper into the cave, and he soon located the entity controlling these kobolds.

Deep within the cave, on a platform built of obsidian, four figures are looking down at the mine below.

They are pale purple all over, with smooth, cold skin covered in a layer of reflective mucus, which gleams wetly in the light of the fluorescent moss.

What is most striking about them are their octopus-like heads, with four wriggling tentacles on them, and their eyes without pupils, appearing as empty, milky white holes.

Four adult mind-stealers.

They look almost identical, and at first glance, it's impossible to tell the difference.

Mind Flayers are hermaphroditic, meaning they have no distinct gender, which is directly related to their unique reproductive methods.

Mind Flayers are not "born," but "created."

Their reproductive process is cruel, precise, and irreversible.

Each mind flayer can produce two egg sacs in its lifetime, each containing thousands of eggs. After hatching, these eggs will become tadpole-like larvae that live in the brain pool at the center of the community for at least 10 years.

These tadpoles have an extremely low survival rate; only about one in a thousand lucky ones survive to adulthood, while the vast majority are devoured by the main brain, which is immersed in the same brain pool.

The surviving tadpoles are implanted into a humanoid host. The tadpoles burrow into the host's brain, completely devouring and replacing the host's brain and personality within an hour, and completing the body reshaping within seven days, thus giving birth to a new Mind Flayer.

No spell could reverse the entire process.

Once parasitized, the host's soul will vanish irretrievably, and the newly born Mind Flayer will not inherit any of the host's memories or personality.

One of the main reasons why Mind Flayers are hated, feared, and dreaded by many races on the Dawn Continent is their cruel method of reproduction.

Anton did not make any rash moves, hiding his figure in the shadows and silently observing the Mind Flayer on the stone platform.

The strength of a Mind Flayer population largely depends on its age and experience.

The young Mind Flayer, having just completed its metamorphosis, is not even at the Iron rank in strength. Its psionic energy is not yet fully mature, and the power of its mental attacks is limited.

Adult Mind Flayers can generally reach the Iron rank.

Those high-level mind flayers who have lived for hundreds or even thousands of years have extremely powerful spiritual energy, and their strength can generally reach the gold rank, or even the peak of the gold rank.

As for the Heart-Stealing Demon Elder, he is a legendary figure, extremely rare.

Only a few city-states possess this level of existence.

Anton's gaze swept over the several mind flayers.

Judging from the spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from them, their strength is at most no higher than the Silver rank.

For him now, there is nothing to fear.

However, these Mind Flayers are merely low-level personnel sent by the city-state to oversee the mines. Killing them would only alert the Mind Flayer city-state.

Anton's gaze pierced through the layers of figures and landed at the end of the mine tunnel.

There, a large hole was carved into the rock wall, revealing the mineral vein underneath.

The veins resemble clusters of dark purple copper mushrooms growing in the crevices of rocks, with many natural patterns on their surface that vaguely outline a ghost face.

Connecting this with the sweet, fishy smell that could be detected from a distance, Anton quickly guessed what kind of mineral vein it was.

Ghost mushroom copper.

A rare mineral,

It is worth mentioning that Ghost Mushroom Copper can be used as the main material for forging the Azure Dragon Soldier, one of the Five Divine Weapons.

Anton suppressed the burning desire that welled up inside him, withdrew his gaze, turned and left to continue exploring other places.

He then discovered several more rare metal veins.

Including materials such as Skull Gold, Abyss Silver, and Dull Iron.

Like Ghost Mushroom Copper, these rare items can also be used to refine Dao weapons.

To Anton's even greater surprise, he discovered a mithril vein in a cave near the Mind Flayer city-state.

This is good stuff.

Mithril has excellent magical conductivity, making it a top-grade material for crafting high-level magical items and advanced enchantments.

One pound of mithril is worth as much as hundreds of pounds of gold.

On the surface, mithril veins are extremely rare, and the vast majority are monopolized by Dragon City, keeping the price of mithril on the market consistently high.

Even if it's just a small mithril mine, if it can be developed, the Silvermoon Clan won't have to worry about its finances for the next few hundred years.

Unfortunately, Anton can only watch helplessly for now.

Because the mithril mine is located less than two kilometers from the Mind Flayer city-state.

Even in the most complex and dark regions, this is a very short distance.

Once the mithril mines are targeted, the Mind Flayer army will arrive in an instant.

The defenses of this mithril mine far exceed those of other mines, with not only a large number of Stoneblind Barbarians and Ogres stationed there, but also dozens of Mind Flayers.

Anton took one last deep look at the mithril vein before turning and leaving.

In just one day, he found several metal mines, including mithril mines, proving that the mineral resources in the Darklands were indeed exceptionally abundant.

The Mind Flayer has occupied this area for countless years, and the resources it has accumulated are probably astronomical.

If the Mind Flayer city-state can be completely eradicated, all of these things will belong to the Silvermoon Clan.

However, Anton can only think about it for now.

It's hard to say whether a Mind Flayer city-state that can occupy so many resources has a Mind Flayer elder, but it certainly has more than one high-level Mind Flayer at the peak of the Gold rank, making it difficult to deal with.

Before fully assessing the strength of this city-state, it is unwise to rashly ignite a war between the two powers.

After a moment of thought, Anton suddenly slapped his forehead.

"The Underdark is vast and boundless, why should I confine myself here?"

"I can bypass the Mind Flayer City-State and go to other regions without the influence of subterranean races to collect resources and replenish my material inventory."

"As for the Mind Flayer City-State, we can deal with it later."

Anton acted on his idea immediately, searching for a way while continuing to complete the map.

But after he had spent a lot of effort and finally finished drawing the map of this area, he was speechless.

There are only two exits in this area.

One is the fissure from which he came, leading to the rocky hills on the surface.

The other is the only passage to the deeper parts, which is blocked by the Mind Flayer city-state.

This means that other creatures that want to leave this area can only do so by passing through the Mind Flayer city-state.

This is no different from throwing meat buns at a dog.

Fortunately, this was no problem for Anton, who had mastered the Stone-Moving Technique.

Since there's no road, we'll forge our own.

Before the Stone-Moving Technique, even the thickest rock wall could not stop his steps.

Anton quickly chose a suitable location and was about to use the Stone Moving Technique to move the rocks and soil when he sensed something was wrong as soon as his divine sense penetrated into the rock wall.

A warning array was actually set up inside the rock wall!

Anton's heart skipped a beat. Without hesitation, he spread his divine sense and quickly probed the interior of the surrounding rock walls. As expected, the interior was completely covered with warning arrays.

He immediately explored the map again and found that, except for the side where the fissure was located, all the rock walls and underground streams in the other three directions were equipped with warning arrays.

"Using thousands of warning arrays to turn the entire area into a cage, preventing any living creature from leaving, is truly a domineering move."

Anton clicked his tongue.

The only entity capable of such a thing is clearly the Mind Flayer City-State.

The reason why no warning array was set up on the side where the fissure was located was probably because the Mind Flayer discovered that there were layers of rock behind it after probing, so it was lazy and didn't set up an array. As a result, a burrowing worm burrowed a tunnel directly to the surface.

In short, this area has now become a prison for mind flayers.

Any creature attempting to leave this place will immediately trigger the warning array, attracting the pursuit of the Mind Flayers.

"This is getting a bit tricky."

Anton frowned slightly.

If he really wanted to break through, it wouldn't be difficult. He could open a passage and leave this area before the Mind Flayer received the alarm and arrived.

The problem is that it's easy to go out, but dangerous to come back.

There is a high possibility of being ambushed by the Mind Flayer.

These psionic monsters are known for their cunning, so there's a high probability they'd do something like this.

As Anton pondered his next move, a thought suddenly stirred within him.

Four invisible mental shocks pierced in from four directions like awls, silent yet carrying a chilling, icy aura that sent shivers down one's spine.

Mind Blast!