Chapter 1079 The Moss Lord

"Mythical creature... Can you feel his presence? That's a rare thing."

The insect master stopped the pruning work in his hands, and looked down at the young mage, his eyes became extraordinarily dignified.

Seeing that he suddenly became serious, Qiao An couldn't help but feel a little nervous, regretting that he shouldn't be impulsive and asked a question that might involve the other party's privacy.

The insect master looked away from Qiao An, staring at the lawn under his feet for a long time, silent.

Qiao An vaguely sensed the regular tremors of the surrounding magic net distribution. Based on past experience, he guessed that the insect master was using a spell or supernatural ability similar to "mind connection" to communicate with someone nearby.

Qiao An quietly touched his right eye, turned on "See Through Invisibility", pretended to look around casually, but did not find any invisible creatures, so who is the insect master telepathic with?

Just when he was wondering, the insect master raised his head, his eyes returned to his face, and his expression eased.

"Little mage, since the person involved doesn't mind revealing the truth to you, there's no need for me to hide it from you."

"You asked me just now if there is a mythical creature nearby," the insect master smiled mysteriously, "You guessed it right."

"But where is he?" Joan couldn't help asking.

"It's right here, or to be more precise, we are standing on that mythical creature right now." The insect master revealed the answer softly.

Joan subconsciously looked at his feet, his eyes full of disbelief.

He really couldn't see anything unusual about the land under his feet, but when he squatted down and stroked the lush moss under his feet with his left hand, his palm felt slightly hot, and the reaction of "Tears of God" was obviously enhanced.

This sign verified the secret that the insect master had just revealed, although it sounded unbelievable.

"Master Jules, if I heard correctly, you mean that the 'hill' covered with moss and fungi under our feet is actually alive?" Joan asked tentatively.

The insect master nodded: "That's right, he is my friend Mancini, people here call him 'Lord Moss'."

"So that's how it is..." Joan looked surprised and looked at the ground under his feet curiously.

"Little mage, do you want to hear Mancini's story?" The bug master asked Joan with a smile.

"Of course!" Joan nodded hurriedly.

"Okay, I'll tell you his story, but before we start our story, I have to ask you a question, Joan, do you know that there is a monster called 'Mind Flayer'?"

"I haven't seen a living mind flayer yet, I've only seen such weird illustrations and introductions in books." Joan replied truthfully.

Mind flayers, also known as illithids, are among the most famous and feared aberrations in the Underdark.

It is said that the larvae of mind flayers are similar to tadpoles, and live in a special "brain pool". When the larvae reach a certain stage of development, they will crawl out of the brain pool, burrow into the body of a humanoid, parasitize in the skull, and eat up the brain , Occupying this body is considered mature.

For adult mind flayers, the part below the neck basically retains the human body shape of the host, and the wet skin secretes glistening mucus.

On the neck, there is a huge and weird head. The face looks like a big squid with only white eyes but no eyeballs. Four flexible tentacles extend from the palate, and the mouth is hidden under the tentacles.

In addition to its weird appearance, mind flayers have two of the most well-known characteristics. One is their love of extracting and sucking the brains of intelligent creatures, and the other is their natural proficiency in psychic powers.

Adult mind flayers can easily destroy the will of their prey, firmly control the other's mind, and turn them into loyal servants.

People are more afraid of this kind of monster that enslaves the soul than the man-eating monster.

If you want to ask those human explorers who often walk in the dark areas, what is the monster that they least want to encounter?

The ranking of mind flayers will never fall out of the top three.

"Joan, since you know something about mind flayers, you must have heard of a dungeon named 'Edes'." The insect master asked softly.

After a little recollection, Joan remembered what the bug master called "Edis", which was located in the "underground city" of the underground world.

Different from the dungeon of Orknir where the dark elves live, the mind flayer city "Edes" is located deeper in the Underdark region and is more conservative and exclusive.

The mind flayers refuse any uninvited outsiders to enter this mysterious city, except for a few traders, especially slave traders, who don't bother to deal with outsiders.

These mind flayers living in seclusion in the dungeons have created a highly developed psychic civilization, and in some fields the level of technology even surpasses that of the human society on the surface world.

As human society advances in technology, social forms are also changing.

For example, the "slavery" that prevailed in ancient times is still preserved in the New World, and most other places have abolished this barbaric and backward system, or at least abolished it in name.

But in the city of mind flayers, slavery is the eternal social foundation. No matter how advanced the civilization is, it's just for the mind flayer masters' self-entertainment, and has nothing to do with their slaves who have been deprived of their free will.

Take Odis as an example, it is rumored that mind flayers account for less than one-twentieth of the city's residents.

It is said that Odis has a population of nearly 10,000, so it is not difficult to calculate based on the above ratio, the total number of mind flayer nobles who hold power in the city will not exceed 500, and more of them are slaves whose minds are strictly controlled.

"The story I want to tell happened four centuries ago. At that time, Odys had not yet become a unified city-state. The mind flayers in the city were divided into two factions fighting for power, and each wanted to completely defeat the other."

"One of the factions, in order to gain an advantage in the civil war, decided to create a weapon specifically for use against mind flayers."

"These evil and extremely intelligent mind flayers conducted secret research for a long time, and finally got their wish and created a powerful and intelligent war weapon, named 'Mancini'."

The insect master sighed, and then told Joan about it.

"My friend Mancini was born in this way. He was endowed by the creator with the magical ability to reflect mind attacks, and this specialty happens to be able to restrain psychic creatures including mind flayers."

"Master Mancini, taking advantage of his advantage, sent him to conquer the mind flayers of the opposing faction until the opponent's forces are completely wiped out."

"Mancini completed his mission, but what his creators didn't expect was that... During the long-term battle, Mancini awakened his self-awareness and no longer wanted to serve his evil master. fled after the war."