Chapter 355: The Illithid and the Son-in-Law

Rod's departure wasn't because he couldn't fight or didn't want to fight.

It was because he saw that the moment the battle began, the middle-aged woman who had been tailing him took off running.

It wasn't that she had detected the fact that Rod was counter-tracking her.

Most likely she was just a coward, and upon seeing people fight she hurried to slip away.

The whole purpose of this trip was aimed squarely at her; dragging things out fighting others would be pointless.

So Rod cleanly disengaged from the fight.

As for that female hero in silver armor and silver spear — she was, after all, a peak sixth-tier; no matter how strong, she wasn't worth mentioning.

Rod didn't rush up and grab her in one go.

He watched from a distance as the woman scrambled away in panic.

This person was clearly a pauper — the spiritual-technique boost on her escape was garbage, and she didn't even have a magic ring on her hand.

Her escape speed was honestly too slow; Rod was afraid the commotion would draw that female hero to interfere again.

He let her run for about ten minutes or so.

Rod figured that was about enough, and with a single flash-step he appeared right in front of her.

He grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up high.

The woman didn't even have time to speak; she stared in terror as a huge blob of black slime before her grew from small to large, enveloping her entire head.

Crack, crack—

Sizzle, sizzle—

The sounds of bones being crushed and acid corroding flesh kept coming.

The slime Xiao Hei's 【Memory Devour】 activated successfully.

After all, it was a slime — not very intelligent.

The memories Xiao Hei devoured weren't comprehensive enough; this skill was mainly used by slimes to accumulate experience and strengthen their spirituality.

Sure enough, her spiritual accumulation ticked up just a little.

Mainly because this person was just too trash.

Believe it or not, this was actually a sixth-tier.

This also let Rod know that among sixth-tiers there were experts like that silver-armor, silver-spear woman, and there were also watered-down goods like the one before him.

The headless corpse dropped to the ground.

The wound on the corroded, blackened neck was still spreading downward.

Rod reviewed the memories transmitted through 【Mind Link】.

"Name's Amira Campbell-Campbell?"

That surname looks vaguely familiar.

Can't recall it, forget it.

He didn't care, and kept reading.

But the more he read, the more something felt off; the more he read, the tighter his brow furrowed.

This person's memories were a chaotic mess — contradictory, often with the front half not matching the back half — and there was also a faint, crazed worship and reverence for a kind of monster called an Illithid.

This was clearly the trace of having been manipulated by psychic magic.

The appearance of these Illithids was also shown in the memories.

They were slender humanoid monsters with octopus-like heads.

"Mind control? Illithids? Isn't this the new species that escaped from the super-volcano labyrinth that Ona mentioned?"

Rod had seen these things in fantasy works from his previous life too, but didn't know much about them.

No.

Why would these things be interested in my Gao Fang Mo Fa ring?

Rod was a little surprised.

In his guess, this would most likely be someone from the Heavenly Court Flower Country; even if not, it should be a group of lawless scoundrels looking to make money — not a bunch of brain-eating mongrels who use psychic magic.

"Hmm, from what I recall, these things only specialize in psychic magic — maybe they want to learn the manufacturing method to master more techniques?"

Maybe.

Rod couldn't be bothered to think about it further.

From Amira Campbell's memories, he learned that this group of Illithids had been heavily wounded by people from the Demon-Control Alliance when they escaped the labyrinth, with only about twenty remaining, currently hiding in the nearby Black Cloak Mountain.

Psychic magic and spiritual magic are basically the same thing.

The thing Rod feared least was spiritual-type skills.

A cold smirk tugged at his lips.

He planned to go pay them a house-call and wipe them out.

As for why this Amira Campbell had been rescuing those refugees hit by the volcanic ash.

Her memories gave the answer too.

"Bleeeegh—"

The slime Xiao Hei in his hand made a nauseated sound and with a splat spat something out.

The thing landed in the thick volcanic ash on the ground, pressing out a small dent, and under the corrosion of the slime's mucus it gave off a hissing acidic white mist.

It was a palm-length black-and-white soft-bodied worm.

Xiao Hei sent over feelings of disgust and revulsion toward the thing.

Rod gently patted the soft, squishy slime to comfort it, and along the way flicked out a wisp of Wrathfire, burning the soft-bodied worm to ash.

An Illithid larva.

Perhaps the spiritual environment had altered their bodies, such that the larvae were unable to grow normally on their own.

But the mind-stealers were clearly not unintelligent.

They quickly found a solution.

—Parasitize the larvae inside human bodies.

Once fully grown, the larva would devour the brain entirely, then seize the nest, transforming into an adult mind-stealer with an octopus head on a human body.

And in the food that Amira Campbell used to rescue the refugees—

Mind-stealer eggs were mixed into all of it.

"What a disgusting creature."

Rod said with a cold laugh.

But immediately a difficult problem presented itself before him:

"Oh right, where is Black Cloak Mountain again? I don't have a detailed route in my memory either, I only know it's to the south."

The sky-obscuring volcanic ash stained the clouds, making even the position of the sun impossible to discern.

Rod sighed.

Having the girl missing by his side really makes even working feel off.

He drew the 【Tremor Soul Blade】 and tossed it into the sky, triggering its 【Compass】 function.

After all, with a target as big as a mountain, it's still easier to find if you have a direction.

He flew for roughly an hour.

Rod finally spotted a small village with signs of human activity.

This place was relatively far from the volcanic range of the Twilight Mountains, so the damage here wasn't as severe as in the north.

Dead-gray volcanic ash piled as thick as a layer of snow on the rooftops; the houses here weren't sturdy, and were in constant danger of being crushed.

He helped sweep it away, and the villagers were so grateful they teared up, squawking things about heroes, saviors, and offering up their daughters.

Thinking about it, it made sense—in a place of such suffering, the half-deer's hero prophecy would only sell even better.

Rod took the chance to confirm the location of Black Cloak Mountain with them, and upon receiving a positive answer, he was about to set off again immediately.

"My lord, please be careful. Black Cloak Mountain not only has monsters appearing, but also fire spirits that have long resided there. This period happens to be the season when fire spirits look for 'firewood husbands.' Please pay close attention to safety."

The old village chief here reminded him.

Firewood husband? What is that?

But Rod didn't ask out loud.

After all, facing the worshipful gazes of the crowd, and adhering to the principle of seeing through a show of bravado to the end, he kept up his cold expert persona, gave a cold nod, and flew off.

Then he immediately secretly asked Lady Kali through the 【Far Speech Chain】.

【Lady Kali: When fire spirits contract their heat in winter to reduce the impact of external burning temperatures on themselves, they also, in order to maintain the vitality of their flames, choose to add 'firewood' to themselves. In ancient times, since magical tools had not yet developed, they would choose to capture humans from surrounding villages alive and merge them into their bodies to burn them to death. The humans back then didn't understand, and because those captured were mostly strong, large-bodied men, they called it 'looking for firewood husbands.'】

【However, nowadays there are countless magical tools that can serve as 'firewood,' and there's absolutely no need to capture humans, such low-quality 'firewood,' unless it's a habit preserved by some old-fashioned fire spirit tribe in some remote area.】

【Rod: What a coincidence, isn't it (lol).】

【Lady Kali: Where have you been messing around again?】

(End of chapter)