Chapter 34: Misfortunes Never Come Singly

On the map, the low-level monster forest—viewed by humanity as a proving ground for new recruits—is shaped like a green olive. It is wider from east to west and narrower from north to south, bordered to the north and west by an endless, vast ocean.

To the south of the monster forest lies the fragile dividing line between human civilization and the savage wilderness. Along this line, taut as a bowstring, stand three military towns forged from cold stone, resilient steel, and the youth of generations. From west to east, they are Blackrock Town, Sentinel Town, and the easternmost Golden Wheat Town. These three towns support one another, forming a sturdy barrier that completely isolates the monster forest from the Golden Wheat Plains behind them, shielding the essential grain-producing region from the incursions of low-level monsters.

To the east of the monster forest, the terrain rises sharply into a steep valley—this is the Druid Camp, home to the Emerald Valley. This land, permeated with rich natural energy, is said to be a sacred site where a legendary druid chose to become one with nature. Extending eastward from this hidden valley, where the mist thickens, lies the perilous mid-level monster forest.

Originally, this was a robust defensive chain. The three military towns to the south served as the first shield against the low-level monster forest; the Emerald Valley to the east acted as an outpost and buffer to monitor the balance between the low-level and mid-level forests; and further south, the fortress of Rock City—with its thick walls and powerful garrison—stood as the undeniable backbone of the entire line. Together, they could lock any threat emerging from the low-level monster forest within this region. Even the dreaded mind flayer would not have been enough to force humanity to abandon these long-held frontier positions.

However, fate is full of dramatic turns.

Rock City, the supposed impregnable pillar of the rear, suffered an unprecedented internal crisis half a month ago: a routine well-digging operation accidentally breached a massive, deep-seated cavern. When the City Hall organized an exploration, a bone-chilling truth surfaced: beneath the foundations of this city, which boasted two hundred years of glorious history, lay an entire subterranean city! This underground city clearly did not emerge recently due to some "territorial anomaly," as two centuries ago, before Rock City was even built, the Fisher Mage Tower further south had already anchored the space here. In other words, had it not been for a stubborn fool who insisted on digging three hundred meters deep in search of water, Rock City would have remained unaware of this underground city for the foreseeable future.

As exploration intensified, the level of danger beneath Rock City escalated rapidly. In a dark corridor of the dungeon, an elite unit of the city guard encountered evil subterranean creatures—drow elves. Overnight, Rock City shifted from a secure rear base to a front line fraught with peril. The City Hall mobilized every available resource—the main body of the city guard, the militant orders of the surrounding temples, powerful adventurer guilds, and even capable common citizens—all were thrown into the exploration and suppression of the dungeon, as well as the defense against any monsters that might emerge. The entire city became like a hive, operating in a state of high tension. It was foreseeable that for the next year or two, or perhaps even longer, Rock City would be too preoccupied to provide even a single soldier to support the frontier outposts like Golden Wheat Town.

Meanwhile, the Druid Camp in the Emerald Valley, northeast of Golden Wheat Town, was also mired in deep trouble. In the mid-level monster forest to the east, a severe natural imbalance had occurred. The ancient ecological cycle had been brutally disrupted by an unknown force, causing wild, chaotic magical currents to rage. Distorted plants and evidence of frenzied monsters appeared everywhere. This was clearly a disaster more urgent and wide-reaching than the presence of a single mind flayer. According to the druids, if they could not contain it, this ecological catastrophe might swallow the land within a five-hundred-kilometer radius to the south, potentially even spreading to the Mage Tower of the legendary mage Fisher and compromising the stability of the space anchor. Most of the mid-level and high-level druids in the camp were forced to rush to the eastern front to quell this crisis. The few who remained were mostly low-level or mid-level; not a single high-level druid stayed behind.

When the druids received intelligence from Golden Wheat Town confirming the high probability of a mind flayer’s presence in the low-level monster forest, they were filled with a sense of powerlessness. Facing a mind flayer—whose numbers were unknown, but which would certainly control an army of thralls through its psionic powers—the meager force of low-to-mid-level druids left in Emerald Valley was like a drop in the ocean. Intervention would not only be futile but would likely drag them all into the abyss. After painful deliberation, they made a difficult but realistic decision: to activate the "Thorn Ritual."

This powerful natural secret art would spawn countless enchanted, venomous-spiked vines and thorns that would grow like living creatures, eventually sealing the entire valley and cutting it off from the outside world. This was both an act of self-preservation and a forced severance of the final potential source of support for the three towns.

With this, the three military towns south of the low-level monster forest were left in total isolation. The strongest combatants in Blackrock, Sentinel, and Golden Wheat Towns were high-level professionals, but each town had only one. To make matters worse, all three of these high-level defenders were pure melee combatants.

"I am a spellblade, Mark of Blackrock is a rogue, and Memnon of Sentinel is a warrior," Guild Leader Nova said, sighing as she leaned against Li Rui. "If the three of us were barbarians, we wouldn't fear the mind flayer; after all, a barbarian entering a rage is immune to psionic control..."

Yet, spellblades, rogues, and warriors possess no innate immunity to psychic domination; they can only rely on their own willpower to resist. Should they fail in that mental struggle... the consequences were enough to send a chill down one's spine.

When even high-level professionals cannot guarantee their own autonomy, what can the relatively few low-to-mid-level professionals do? Mind flayers can control others with psionic powers. Their minions, the intellect devourers, can consume a person's brain and replace them entirely. The offspring of the mind flayer—the tadpoles—possess the ability to turn a victim into a new mind flayer in mere days. If they did not leave quickly, the residents of Golden Wheat, Sentinel, and Blackrock would all eventually become either mind flayers themselves or their mindless slaves.