The moment Tiefling saw the strange creature, he rushed towards the garbage mountain nearby.

She tried to get the weapon as quickly as possible and kill the creature she called the brain-eating monster.

But looking at this strange creature with a brain as its body, Carl not only did not feel any disgust, but felt particularly close to it.

"I think as long as this thing doesn't bother us, we can totally..."

Just as he was about to plead for mercy for the brain-eating monster, Carl suddenly discovered that after the tiefling pounced on the garbage mountain, it remained bent over to pick up things and did not move.

And the brain-eating monster's body was surrounded by fluctuations of spiritual energy.

The scene before him once again made Carl feel very familiar.

Suddenly, a strong tingling sensation came from the brain.

The memory of Carl's previous life manipulating the game character to kill the brain-eating monster emerged from the depths of his memory.

'The Brain Devourer is a monster created by the Mind Flayer using the brains of intelligent beings. It can use psychic power to confuse others, and even use psychic power to directly teleport into someone's brain, devour the other person's brain, and control the other person's body.'

Along with the picture, there is also some information about the brain-eating monster.

Rationality and logical thinking came into play at this moment, and Carl's inexplicable "favor" towards the brain-eating monster suddenly disappeared.

"Did this ghost just use its psychic power to interfere with my judgment?"

Seeing that the tiefling had been disturbed by the opponent, Carl picked up a spear beside him and threw it directly at the body of the brain-eating monster.

Although the Brain Eater has good psychic powers, it lacks the ability to interfere with actual matter, and its psychic transmission also has considerable limitations.

It was hit by Carl's spear and flew out immediately.

It was only then that Carl noticed that there was a layer of transparent shell outside the other party's brain-like body.

'Lightning traction'

Carl found a wrench in the nearby garbage dump, held it in one hand, chanted a spell, and threw a 0-ring spell at the brain-eating monster that was knocked to the ground.

Whip-like lightning energy burst out from his fingertips and hit the brain-eating monster less than 10 feet away from him.

The psychic fluctuations around the brain-eating monster suddenly dissipated, and the tiefling with lifeless eyes regained his ability to move.

Picking up a hand axe on the ground, she jumped and chopped directly at the brain-eating monster in the distance.

“Puff——”

The transparent shell failed to protect the brain-eating monster from the fatal attack. Its body immediately shattered into a pool of meat paste and could no longer stand up.

After confirming that the other party was dead, the tiefling turned around and asked Carl, "Was I controlled by its psychic power just now?"

"Well, you just kept picking up the things without moving, as if you were under a human immobilization spell."

"That's all thanks to your quick reaction. The next step for this thing is to replace my brain and control my body. Fortunately, you reacted quickly enough."

Not knowing that Carl was almost bewitched by the other party, Tiefling wiped the sweat from his forehead and his voice was hoarse.

"You can take some of the weapons and equipment here. They're not very good, but they're better than being unarmed. By the way, my name is Hope, and I'm a level 2 barbarian."

Throwing the hatchet on the ground, Hope picked up a piece of leather armor, put it on, and introduced himself to Carl.

"Carl Iris, Level 1 Artificer."

The leather armor she chose was a navel-exposing vest-style leather armor. From the appearance, it actually had a similar coverage to the tube top that Hope was wearing now.

But she chose this thing not because it looks good or saves materials, but to enable the barbarian class's "armorless defense" ability to be brought into play.

Armorless defense does not mean wearing nothing. As long as the area covered by the armor is not too large and does not affect the sensitivity, the barbarian can maintain the benefits of armorless defense while wearing certain protective gear.

Looking at the leather armor that the other party had barely put on, Carl lamented that the other party's development was a little too good, and picked up a set of armor and put it on himself.

Although the Artificer is also known as the Mechanic or Mechanical Mage, it is a mage who can wear armor like a Priest.

Even in the advancement path of the Artificer, there is a branch called the Armored Division.

The reason why Carl chose to become a machinist instead of a mage was not only because his intelligence was a bit limited, but also because he wanted to drive a mecha.

Thanks to the three-month military training at the magic academy, Carl had a very smooth experience in putting on the armor.

With a crossbow on his waist, Carl picked up some fluff, feathers, rotten food, broken mirror fragments and a deflated bell from the ground of unknown origin and wrapped them in a small cloth bag.

Holding the wrench that served as a spellcasting tool, he nodded to Hope, indicating that he could go out.

An artificer's spellcasting tools are the tools they are proficient with, and the types of tools vary depending on the individual's situation.

Carl himself, for example, can use repair tools and blacksmith tools to cast spells.

Seeing that Carl had a crossbow on his waist and only prepared four hand axes for himself, Hope couldn't help but frown and asked: "There are no crossbow arrows for the crossbow here, why do you carry this thing?"

"After you killed the brain-eating monster just now, I also gained some spiritual feedback. It should be promoted to level 2 soon. Then I can make the crossbow into magic equipment."

Just like in the game, people in this world will gain spirituality (experience) after fighting, and when they have accumulated enough spirituality, they can try to upgrade.

This way of gaining spirituality does not focus on the results, but rather provides feedback based on the course of the battle.

So it doesn’t matter at whose hands the enemy dies; what matters is how much effort is put in during the battle.

Shrugging his shoulders, Hope led the way while Carl stood guard behind.

This lair of the mind flayer seemed to have been carefully designed. Along the way, Carl and Hope encountered the brain-eating monster three times.

Fortunately, Hope's hand axe was thrown accurately and powerfully. As soon as the Brain-Eating Monster detected it through psychic power, she had already beaten it into a pulp.

Not long after, the two arrived at the exit location that Hope mentioned.

However, this place suffered a fierce attack, and the gate that Hope remembered was destroyed by the bombardment.

The rocks above collapsed, blocking the original gate.

Faintly, there were sounds of fighting outside.

"It looks like the two have not yet decided who is the winner. There is a gap over there. I'll go take a look."

Perhaps because he felt it was embarrassing to have led the way into a dead end, Hope took the initiative to undertake the task of investigation.

Through a palm-sized gap, Hope held his breath and looked outside.

But in just a moment, Hope left the gap like a frightened rabbit, and directly pulled Carl along and ran towards the passage on the other side.

(End of this chapter)