manynovel Page 34
Page 34
The glory of the Dragon Age has long been buried by history. Dragons have withdrawn from the stage of history, and the Dragon Origin professions that depend on dragons for their existence have gradually disappeared from the lives of the people of Faerûn. It is only natural that humanoids have abandoned the Dragon Origin and are seeking power in new ways.
However, this doesn't mean that Dragon Origin professions have truly disappeared, after all, dragons still live in this world. If a dragon so desires, it's not too difficult for its servants to embark on those ancient professional paths. Even more interestingly, most of the professions existing among humanoids have abandoned the dragon as their source of power; only a very small number of professions still retain subtle traces of dragons. This ensures that there is no conflict between the basic professions of humanoids and Dragon Origin professions. Furthermore, a certain inherent connection between the two profession systems allows beings with basic professions to receive advanced enhancements when they revert to Dragon Origin professions.
In other words, most of the Dragon Origin professions are now considered advanced professions. This means that, compared to other basic professions that mainly enhance adaptability, obtaining a Dragon Origin profession can greatly increase one's substantial power.
Casalos raised his wings and made a downward-pressing gesture. The kobolds, who knew better, quickly quieted down, followed by the gray dwarves and goblins. Only the ogres continued to laugh for a long time before realizing that something was wrong and lowered their heads and shut their mouths.
"I impart to you the knowledge of dragons and bestow upon you the power of dragons, but this is certainly not without cost: you are my loyal people, and you should fight for me!"
But this is not just a fight for me, it's a fight for yourselves.
Because you are all members of Dragon Territory, Dragon Territory is your nest, your home, your safe haven! The other members of Dragon Territory are your friends, your companions, and your family!
Are you willing to stand by and watch invaders trample your homes, slaughter your friends and companions, bully your children, and steal every valuable item from you?
"Absolutely not!" Something must have triggered the ogre's fury, for the seemingly dull-witted giant roared in fury. The response was like a thunderous roar.
“Right now, a group of gray dwarves are carving a passage through the rift. Before long, they will swarm in, attack us, and conquer us. Do you agree to this?”
"No!"
"So what are you going to do?"
"Defeat them! Repel them!"
"No, we must kill them... no, we must utterly defeat them, launch a counterattack, breach their capital, brand them with the lowest of slaves, and enslave them..."
Led by several pre-arranged straight men, the shouts of the Dragon Leader gradually became unified...
Casalos's opening of this advancement path to the entire Dragon Territory at this moment was, of course, for a specific purpose. Previously, the Dragon Territory was full of rebels, and its own strength was mediocre, so it hadn't opened it up much to the residents, only allowing a few trustworthy underlings to advance—
Chapter 86
—The reason why there are so few Dragonborn professionals in Faerûn is probably because the suspicious Colored Dragons have the same concerns but are unable to resolve the issue of loyalty among the inhabitants of their violently ruled territories.
Metal dragons and gem dragons don't need to consider these kinds of issues, but they don't really like playing territory management games, so it's understandable that there are few Dragon Origin classes.
Commemorating and rewarding combat heroes, and fully opening up advanced professions in Dragon Origin, in addition to inspiring the residents of Dragon Territory to worship dragons and ensuring the loyalty of Dragon Territory, the main reason, of course, is to prepare for war!
After five years of hard work, Casalos has entered its infancy, and the excavation of Gravesend City is naturally nearing its end. In just two or three years, Dragonlords will face a true territorial war. Whether Dragonlords can gain a foothold in this Darklands depends on this tough battle against the Grey Dwarf capital.
Casalos isn't Deathwing capable of unleashing a cataclysmic event. While it's currently powerful enough to easily handle Dubois and perhaps deal with a few psionicists, mind warriors, or other high-level professionals, dealing with a Grey Dwarf capital city of nearly three thousand, plus over twenty thousand slaves, will require an army!
Putting aside other considerations, even if Casalos were to decisively defeat the army of Gravesend in a head-on confrontation despite its terrifying aura, the control of prisoners of war, the occupation of the city, and the subsequent maintenance of order would all require a sufficient number of capable fighters. Moreover, given that its dragon might, activated prematurely during its juvenile stage using its dragon feat, and the terrifying aura of its Bloodscale Frenzy transformation, Casalos didn't hold out much hope that it would have the expected effect on the hot-tempered gray dwarves who possessed innate psychic powers.
95. Strategy
Casaroz's Dragon's Might was awakened prematurely by the Dragon Treasury as a feat during the paid upgrade to Bloodscale Frenzy; it's not old enough to awaken Dragon's Might yet.
Therefore, the effect of Dragon's Might itself will definitely be reduced. Even if Blood Scale Frenzy enhances it into a terrifying aura, the effect is still somewhat inferior to Dragon's Will.
Even so, Casalos has no intention of enhancing its Dragon Might to its full potential and unleash its terrifying power. It harbors a strange disdain for its own Dragon Might: having witnessed the reality-distorting mutated Dragon Might of the Primal Bejuri Gem Dragon, its expectation for its own Dragon Might is to mutate into a truly effective aura; the mere intimidation it once possessed no longer holds much interest for it.
The simplest way to use the mutated dragon's might is to combine it with your own breath weapon, which will produce an area-of-effect passive elemental effect. With the Iron Dragon's fire and lightning mixed attributes of dragon breath, you can easily create a fire aura or lightning aura, which will increase the efficiency of clearing mobs in the game by at least ten percent. Which one is much better than the terrifying aura?
It will take another two or three years for Gravesend to open the Rift Pass, but it is by no means too early to start war preparations two or three years in advance.
Casalos doesn't just want to defend the Rift; its phased strategic goal is to take over Gravesend and become a major power in the nearby Underdark that can rival the Serpent Empire—what can a remote and barren Rift accomplish if it wants to restore the glory of the Athedraids?
Besides the mining resources in the surrounding area controlled by Gravesend City, population is also a target for Casalos. Once the Dragon Territory's contract spell is successfully developed, the tens of thousands of slaves in Gravesend City can be transformed into the Dragon Territory's best source of labor.
As for the Grey Dwarves... their unique "egoistic" mentality makes it really difficult for them to become industrial workers. Perhaps the only way to make them contribute as much as possible to the development of Dragon Territory is through some coercive means.
Casalos still has a lot to do to achieve its strategic goals.
The gap between Dragonlord and Gravesend City cannot be bridged in two or three years by simply opening up a few Dragon Source advanced classes. Besides striving to improve himself and maintain the asymmetry in top-tier combat power, Casalos also needs to find ways to further strengthen Dragonlord's combat power, while simultaneously finding ways to further weaken and divide Gravesend City's strength.
Either way, it would be difficult to accomplish within the closed rift valley.
The inhabitants of Dragon's Landing are now divided into two groups: kobolds and slaves of the Grey Dwarf Expeditionary Force.
The total number of kobolds is fixed, and their reproductive and developmental cycles are predetermined. In recent years, they've been laying eggs indiscriminately, and their population has nearly doubled. The additional labor force is only about a dozen hatched before Casalos's arrival. The kobolds have a little-known secret: as dragon-blooded creatures, they actually undergo a twelve-stage metamorphosis, just like true dragons. They are so weak that the dormant period of metamorphosis only requires a few hours. Unless one has lived among the kobold tribes for an extended period, how could one discover this dragon-like transformation?
Because they are so weak, they won't reach Casalos's labor force standard until they reach adolescence at least at age 7. Before adolescence, they should stay in nurseries and schools and study hard.
The Grey Dwarf Expeditionary Slaves... lacking females, had virtually no chance of reproduction and expansion, and the growth and development of goblins, Grey Dwarves, and ogres was much slower than that of kobolds. The five newborn goblins and two Grey Dwarf cubs were now the mascots of Dragon Territory.
Introducing a large, able-bodied working population from outside the region is essential for the development of Longling.
Casalos's first thought was actually the sizable dragon servant army of the green dragon couple: a strong young man and an adult green dragon, they must control at least several hundred dragon servants.
In addition, the two litters of evil offspring of the Green Dragon couple can also serve as an important supplement to the Dragon Territory's aerial combat units.
Given their earlier pursuit of him, Casalos had no intention of negotiating, discussing, trading, or borrowing with the two green dragons. He simply killed the two stinking old men, and their evil children and dragon servants would naturally make the right choice.
Weakening Gravesend is simply not feasible within the Rift. Whatever Casalos intends to do, creating a hidden transportation route between the Rift and the outside world is inevitable.
Lava flow is definitely not feasible; even it doesn't know how long it spent drilling through the lava to reach this dark region. Based on estimates of its age-related dormancy, Casalos must have spent at least two months drilling through the lava. If any other life form were to follow this path, it would likely be reduced to ashes.
Casalos originally planned to wait until he entered his infancy, then spend one or two more years in the Dragon's Treasury to improve his underwater abilities. After dealing with the slimy Kotō fishmen in the lake, he would then check out the underwater passage.
Now that a mind flayer has offered it a shell-like ship, it has a better option.
Operating the snail-shell ship wasn't a big problem, since Mei Ao's clamorous words not only gave away the ship but also himself—controlling mind flayers, these mental masters, was much more difficult than controlling other races, but it wasn't entirely impossible, especially knowing their weaknesses.
With the awakening of Casalos, Dragon Territory entered a new phase of rapid development. Two weeks passed quietly, and Casalos finally personally confronted the mind flayer who had been left unattended in the spell cage.
The mind flayer was in very bad condition. Its human body lay limply on the stone slab, as if it had lost its bones. The mucus covering its body had dried up, and its once smooth purple skin had become dry, wrinkled, and cracked due to a lack of protection and lubrication for a long time.
Its four tentacles on its face had retracted into short, thick shapes, and were wriggling very slowly and weakly. It no longer looked like the strong creature that could unleash the full power of a mind flayer to strangle its prey.
"Mei's 'Noisy Words'. It's a really strange name when translated."
Casalos removed the spell barrier, peered at the mind flayer, and spoke.
The tentacle before the clamorous voice slightly lifted, offering no reply—yet it also answered.
Chapter 87
Mind flayers don't have proper vocal organs; mental power is their most common form of communication, followed by complex body language formed by the various movements of their four facial tentacles.
It's been at least a month since this guy was captured. He hasn't eaten any fresh brains in that time, and he's become so weak that he's on the verge of death. He can't even raise his tentacles a few times, let alone establish a mental connection with Casalos.
“How pathetic… Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about you, but your entire race.” Casalos clicked his iron beak and said with a grin.
96. Sorrow
The mind flayer managed to lift its tentacle in front of its face, as if trying to refute something. But it was too weak to make a complete movement.
“I know what you want to say. Pride is the highest level of emotion you can feel, and your pride is even higher than the arrogance of dragons.”
Because you still remember that your race once ruled a vast empire spanning countless worlds. Your empire was built on the enslavement and domination of all other races, and you believed yourself forever worthy of contempt!
You might also want to tell me that you remember you come from an unimaginably distant future, that you are waiting to rise from your underground lair when the stars dim and the red embers drift coldly over a dying world, to face the decaying twilight, and to rebuild your lost empire.
At that time, you will be stronger, more ruthless, and more thirsty than ever before; at that time, all hope will end.
Casalos shook his head as he paced around the stone bed where the mind flayer lay sprawled, speaking flippantly and mockingly about the mind flayer's proudest secret.
Suddenly, it stopped, its long, curved neck stretching out to the side of its body, resting its large head on the stone platform, looking down at the weakened mind flayer.
"Unfortunately, everything you know is a lie carefully woven by the mastermind!"
You are a pathetic race, a race eternally enslaved from mind to body, a race completely controlled from birth to death, a race whose souls are castrated and who cannot even feel any positive feedback from their hearts.
The past and future you remember, the glory you think you created, everything you know is false, an illusion created by the power of the mind!
Your true identity is nothing more than livestock raised by the Mastermind... No, that's not right. Just as you eat the brains of intelligent beings merely for their memories, the food you mind flayers provide to the Mastermind is all your experiences, knowledge, and memories from your entire life.
You are merely creatures raised by the Master, used as fodder to harvest spiritual power; you should be called spiritual livestock.
Even though its mental power had weakened to almost nothing, the clamor in the purple eyes revealed a clear contempt, as if it were the one looking down on others in terms of their mental state.
But Casalos knew that its heart had already wavered, otherwise it wouldn't have used energy-consuming mental suggestion to hypnotize itself when it was so weak.
Its tone rose: "Of course you don't believe what I'm saying, after all, deep within the Underdark lie relics that record your history and future. The Sargon Tablets foretell and record your future, bathed in eternal night."
You are not afraid of death. You believe that when you sense your death, your master brain will send an army to welcome you back to the brain pool, allowing your spirit to enter the master brain and attain eternal life!
Do you... really believe that?
Casalos's tone shifted again, becoming a question that sounded like a murmur:
"You spent ten years in the incubation pool, which is the brain pool, as one of the few in a thousand, the most cunning and adaptable individuals, gaining the right to parasitize, and only then did you grow into a mind flayer. How long did it take you to compete and climb to the high position of piloting the shell ship alone? In your entire life, decades have passed, when have you ever seen the mainframe go to great lengths for the dead mind flayers? When have you ever heard those mind flayers devoured by the mainframe respond in the mainframe's mental network—if they exist as spiritual entities, and you are clearly in the same mental network, why do you never respond?"
Oh, right, you probably never thought about these questions. Your minds were all edited by the mainframe, still in their tadpole stage. Weak as you were, you were forced to share a pool with the mainframe, gradually being eroded by its mental power, guided, changed, and even reshaped. Those who couldn't withstand this transformation, whose thinking was more stubborn and might develop doubts about the mainframe in the future, simply wouldn't survive these ten years.
Every tadpole that becomes a mind flayer is a slave carefully selected by the mastermind. The mastermind never doubts its existence, and will do its best to scavenge everything it needs, protect it well, and then become its most delicious food after it dies.
The mastermind, without any reason, compels you to infiltrate the surface kingdoms, manipulate those kingdoms, cause the weak to rise, the strong to fall, or wage war against each other, even if you gain no real benefit.
Once I point it out, you'll instantly realize the mastermind's purpose.
Yes, you're right. The mastermind's goal is simply to increase your experiences and knowledge so that your mental strength can grow even more delicious, just like how you treat those brain slaves.
You might still be thinking, doesn't this just prove that the Mastermind is related to you Mind Flayers? Couldn't Dementors also grow into Masterminds...?
Unfortunately, the fact that red dragons eat humans doesn't prevent humans from eating pigs, dogs, cattle, and sheep, nor does it mean that humans are dragons. You and the Mastermind just happen to need the same things; and the Dementors can never become Masterminds—at least, you've never actually seen one. Every Mastermind you know has existed since ancient times.
These masterminds even maintain a certain mental connection with each other, yet you, who are within the mastermind's mental network, cannot even communicate with each other—it's not a mental network at all, but a tool for the masterminds to monitor your consciousness.
The clamorous words trembled, whether from being persuaded by Casalos or from the uncontrollable anger emanating from the parasitic body.
"You're furious, your anger is boiling, and even the calmness and restraint you've cultivated over the years can't suppress it. That's normal; we dragons often get angry too. Isn't it an interesting fact that you mind flayers are quite similar to dragons in some ways... But let's get back to your pathetic race."
Have you ever considered that, throughout the multiverse, every race has its own deity? Anyone with wisdom can pray to their chosen god, and even if they cannot become a priest, they can still receive a response from their deity, allowing them to better spread their faith within their race and more effectively help their race develop?
But no matter how devout you spirit-devourers are, you never receive a response from your gods.
And your gods' priests are always just those few who hide inside the temple and never come out.”
97. Inquiry
For the intelligent beings of Faerûn, few monsters could evoke as much fear and dread as the Mind Flayer.
They are undoubtedly feared by all things. Their pure evil, cruelty, and cunning are almost unmatched. Their origins are shrouded in mystery, their plans are like puzzles, and their culture and way of thinking are completely different from ordinary beings.
Even dragons rarely want to have much contact with these disgusting creatures.
Everything about them is so unknown and so mysterious.
But Casalos's God-like perspective allows it to know many secrets that even dragons don't.
Especially this God's-eye view, passed down through the Atheron race.
Chapter 88
Abstracting it gives it the feel of a search engine and an information graph. When it hears the name "Minion Flayer," it associates it with a multitude of things. Unfortunately, due to the fragmented and scattered nature of the D&D setting, the classic retconning elements in the long-running series, and the differences between the real world and its God-like perspective, the reference value of this information is greatly reduced.
However, this did not stop Casalos from fooling the Mind Flayer.
The most effective way to deal with such a mind master is, of course, to win them over psychologically. Casalos doesn't think he can beat a mind flayer exemplar mind mage by switching to psychic magic now. Even if he uses the Dragon Treasury to create a psychic class and raises it to exemplar level, it only increases his combat power. Class level is one thing, but mind power is still very subjective in its operation; messing around with it can easily lead to disaster.
Interestingly, the more adept someone is at manipulating people's minds, the more prone they are to self-doubt and self-denial, and the more likely they are to develop mental illnesses.
Casalos had no intention of subduing a mind flayer as his servant. These tampered creatures were completely untrustworthy and likely harbored serious problems. Therefore, he only needed to continuously "attack" the mind flayer to break down its psionic mental defenses, so that he could use magic to extract the detailed operating manual for the Shell Ship from its mind.
The Shell Ship is essentially a psionic magic ship. It resembles a psionic version of a creation of a super-ninth-circle spell that was sealed away by the second-generation goddess of magic. It can freely travel between the astral plane and various planes, and can even pass through crystal walls to sail in the pheromone sea. Its energy source is unknown, its manufacturing technology is unclear, and its control method is known only to the mind flayers and the two groups of Githians.
In the minds of the mind flayers, the Shell Ship was a "relic" they brought back from the Eternal Night Future Empire. It belonged to the "future psionic technology" that had not yet been developed, so they did not know how to manufacture it, let alone how to manufacture it.
Casalos remained skeptical. The Mind Flayers' impending empire in the eternal night was undoubtedly a lie, and the mainframes most likely knew how to build shell-like ships, with some legendary mainframes even possessing the ability to do so. Otherwise, these useless creatures, aside from their bizarre navigation abilities, would have been wiped out long ago by the mischievous Mind Flayers and Gith Yankees; how could so many have survived?
However, the masterminds never revealed the method of building the shell ship to any mind flayer, nor did they ever admit that they were capable of building shell ships.
Casalos had no intention of causing trouble for the mainframes. Those things might be connected to the secrets of some powerful god. Killing one or two mainframes wouldn't be a big problem, but anyone who tried to dig into the information stored in their "brains" would absolutely die without any chance of survival.
The Karrick tribe was incredibly lucky to capture such a shell ship. Even dragons should be content; they only need to know how to operate the shell ship. They shouldn't think too much about anything else for now.
After unleashing a barrage of attacks on the mind flayer, Casalos left the prison without looking back, instructing the kobold warlock guarding it to deliver a small piece of fresh brain, cut from a prisoner of war, to the Whispering Words to at least keep it alive.
Its god-like perspective also holds a wealth of unspoken secrets between mind flayers and the mastermind, and it's not afraid of being swayed by noise...
The Mind Flayer's mental defenses were breached much sooner than expected, and the specific trigger for its collapse was the strange connection between the Mind Flayer and the dragon:
As is well known, mind flayers are natural-born psionic masters, possessing innate control over the power of the mind, and various psionic professions are their inherent "professions." In addition, their calm personality and high intelligence, coupled with certain connections between psionic energy and magic, make them well-suited to become mages.
The strange thing is that a small percentage of mind flayers possess the talents of warlocks. This isn't an isolated case caused by accidental contact with certain objects, but rather stems from the awakening of a warlock's bloodline. This means that mind flayers have characteristics similar to dragon-vein creatures—if no one had ever heard of dragon-vein warlocks among mind flayers, some extreme scholars would have already classified them as a type of dragon-vein creature.
Casalos showed the Whisper of Roar the Dragonblood Detection. The guidance from the depths of its bloodline proved that the Whisper of Roar did indeed have dragon blood, and it broke through its defenses—literally.