Opening the lid of the ceramic bowl, Hope picked up the chopsticks and began to eat with big mouthfuls.

Finally, she even drank the broth. She picked up the earthenware bowl and drank it all.

Hope quietly opened the door and checked on Carl. After finding that Carl was sleeping soundly as usual, he turned and walked out of the cabin.

The scenery outside the cabin didn't change much. Hope got into position and started exercising in the open space.

At about six o'clock, Carl woke up from his dream.

Hearing the noise outside, he hurried out of the house and talked to Hope about the information he had gathered while she was unconscious.

"What?! There's a Mind Flayer in this woodland!"

Hope felt mixed emotions when she heard that there was a Mind Flayer base deep in the woods.

The current campsite was chosen by her, but she didn't expect that it would become a neighbor of a hidden Mind Flayer base.

"There is also the goblin tribe in the canyon. Their bugbears and hobgoblins seem to have returned. I saw the mind flayers confronting them head-on at the edge of the woods. I don't know what the situation is now."

As he spoke, Carl rubbed his neck.

Seeing that Karl had been twisting his neck, Hope asked with concern: “Do you have a stiff neck?”

"It's okay, it should be fine in a while. What should we do next? Should we fish in troubled waters or take the initiative?"

With his arms folded across his chest, Hope lowered his head and thought for a moment.

"I think it's better to fish in troubled waters. Neither the Mind Flayer nor the Goblin Tribe are opponents we can fight head-on right now. Let's see how the situation develops first."

While Carl and Hope were discussing here, in the woods on the other side, the goblin barbarians of the Furious Tribe were almost out in full force, preparing to hunt the Mind Flayer in the woods.

Walking in the woods, the goblin army was wandering around like headless flies.

When entering the woods, they took a detour for fear of an ambush.

As a result, there is no clue to the Mind Flayer base now.

In order to search for the target, the current chief in charge of the Furious Tribe divided his troops and tried to find the target by casting a wide net.

Acting in this way, it seemed as if he had completely forgotten why he took a detour when entering the woods in the first place.

…

"Hey! Brother, look ahead, what is that thing?"

Near a pool in the woods, a team of three bear goblin barbarians are trying to find clues to the mind flayer base.

But just as they passed by here, a bear goblin in the team suddenly pointed at the pool of water nearby and screamed.

The remaining two bear goblins immediately became alert, and the three of them walked towards the pool carefully, shoulder to shoulder.

The fluorescent mushrooms around were brighter than those in other places, but the pool seemed like a huge, deep mouth, so dark that you couldn't see the bottom.

It would be unwise to approach such a place rashly, but the three bear goblins actually stuck their heads out and tried to look for the "strange thing" that their companions had just seen in the pool.

At this moment, the surrounding fluorescent mushrooms suddenly shook.

Several brain-eating monsters suddenly fell from the top of the mushroom, and as they fell, spiritual energy fluctuations were rippling around their bodies.

The three bear goblins who stuck their heads out immediately stared with their eyes wide open.

But just when two of the brain-eating monsters were about to fall on the bear goblins, one of the bear goblins suddenly went berserk.

“Swish!”

Seeing that it was out of control, the remaining brain-eating monsters quickly released their psychic energy again, trying to stop the opponent's actions.

However, the berserker barbarian is immune to control after level 6, so two more brain-eating monsters died on the spot under the horizontal slash of the bear goblin.

"Ha! Damn it! Die!"

The bear goblin barbarian, wielding his weapon and with red eyes, slashed and killed madly in a state of selfless violence.

But in a corner that he didn't notice, a brain-eating monster suddenly disappeared in the psychic fluctuations.

At the same time, one of the bear goblins that was hypnotized by psychic power blinked and regained the ability to move.

Seeing his companion awaken, the bear goblin, which was in a violent state, immediately retreated to defend.

Soon, the frenzy time ended and he himself entered a state of exhaustion.

"There are still a few of these disgusting creatures. You should kill them when the time is right! I'm going to go see how that guy is doing..."

As he was speaking, the axe of a battle axe suddenly struck the bear goblin on the chest.

The one holding the handle of the battle axe was the bear goblin who had just regained his ability to move.

Faint psychic fluctuations rippled in his eyes and around him. Looking at the disbelieving look of his "companion" before he died, "he" tilted his neck, and the corners of his mouth gradually curled up, revealing a smile that made people's backs chill.

…

After wandering around in the woods for a long time, the entire goblin team did not find anything.

Just when the hobgoblin chief was becoming increasingly anxious, a team that had been sent out earlier suddenly returned and said that they had found a killed beast on the road, and it was suspected that the mind flayer had done it.

The goblin chief immediately sent someone to recall the rest of the team and ordered them to follow this small group.

But a team of barbarians and goblins naturally could not have strict discipline. Soon, noisy sounds were heard in the woods, scaring the wild beasts and causing them to flee in all directions.

Such a commotion naturally alarmed Carl and Hope.

In fact, when the goblin team was searching around, one of their teams was less than 500 meters away from Carl and Hope's camp.

The two did not expect that they had just discussed the response strategy, but when they turned around, one of the real owners passed by their door.

If Carl's equipment hadn't been completed yet, the two of them would have gone down to join in the fun.

…

"Chief! Ahead! Ahead is where I found the trail!"

At the front of the goblin team, a hairy bear goblin led the team towards a pool of water in the woods.

From time to time, traces of psychic energy fluctuations flashed around him, but because the goblins present did not have psychic powers, no one noticed it.

"Very good! Once we find the Mind Flayer's base and seize the treasures inside, you will be credited as the first one to do the work!"

The fan-like palm slapped the opponent's back twice, and the goblin chief, carrying a battle axe, strode forward.

In the mushroom bushes within the woods, brain-eating monsters that looked like living brains were moving quickly among them.

They are all defective products made by the Mind Flayer and other Brain Devourers using the surrounding animals after returning to the base. Although their abilities are not as good as those of ordinary Brain Devourers, they can serve as spies to help the Mind Flayers grasp the situation in the forest.

The bear goblin leading the way in front was naturally the one whose brain had been replaced by the brain-eating monster.

(End of this chapter)