Arcane Journey

Chapter 273 The Beholder's Trophy
After a "Sun Flame Explosion" ended, Brian ignored the dead body of the beholder tyrant and hurriedly looked back at Santilla.

He saw the drow girl leaning against the wall lifelessly, her face looking weaker than ever.

Next, Brian witnessed an unbelievable scene. On Santilla's slightly heaving chest, there was a thumb-thick blood hole, and the blood flowed like a fountain.

Obviously, in the battle just now, even he himself didn't notice that Santilla was hit by a beholder ray at some point. As an experienced adventurer in combat, he naturally knew that the location of the blood hole was undoubtedly the heart. .

Faced with this situation, Brian's mind first echoed the chuckle of the drow girl, and then suddenly felt that his vision suddenly became blurred, and the whole world seemed to be dyed red.

He rushed to Santilla in a hurry, squatted on the ground, and untied her elven chain armor in a hurry, trying to check if there was any room for recovery from her injury.

At this moment, Santilla suddenly opened her blue eyes, first a trace of blood spilled from the corner of her mouth, and then let out a soft cry that was more like a complaint than pain, and reprimanded: "Brian, you can't slow down, the pain what."

"..."

Brian, who had long lost his calmness and composure, was stunned. He thought it would be difficult to save him from the heart-piercing rays of the beholder, but she was still able to speak, and she was calm. usual.

He saw Santilla holding his arm tightly with one hand, and covering the wound on his chest that was still bleeding with the other hand, and stood up whimpering in pain.

A ray of emerald green divine magic radiance enveloped her, and the wound recovered in the blink of an eye, leaving only the delicate skin exposed from the hole in the elf chain armor and the blood oozing from the underwear, still telling about the previous situation.

"Corellon won't let me die so easily." Santilla gasped, brushed off her thick white hair from her pretty face, and smiled reluctantly at Brian.

Looking at the playful appearance of the drow girl, Brian immediately understood the reason.

He heaved a sigh of relief, and didn't ask about the specific relationship between Santilla and Corellon, the lord god Corellon. With dissatisfied eyes, he turned and walked towards the corpse of the beholder tyrant.

Although Santilla at this moment has not awakened any memory about the dark girl, and only understands the vague things that have happened through dreams, but he has a faint feeling that one day she must face it in person.

For some reason, if this kind of thing really happened, his inner instinct told himself that he didn't want it to happen at all.

As for the specific reason, he couldn't tell for a while.

Brian stopped thinking about it, retracted the chaotic thoughts that drifted into the distance, and slowly relaxed his whole body, and then his brows were tightly locked together.

Because with the double relaxation of body and spirit, he suddenly felt the double aftereffects of the ninth-level ability "reversing reality" after being backlashed by the beholder tyrant, which came like a tide, so that he almost couldn't stand still. fell to the ground.

Fortunately, he passed the spiritual protection ability in time, making his spiritual consciousness sea stable like a barrier, gradually offsetting this pain.

Beholder tyrant Reckney, as an alien creature whose strength has reached the legendary realm, Bryan doubts his ability to reverse reality. With the blessing of racial characteristics, I am afraid that he has studied it for at least hundreds of years.

A rookie like him who has just mastered the ninth-level ability through the method of passing on skills, if it weren't for his strong willpower and the blessing of the state of mind, with his current strength as a psion who is not in the legendary field, he would have suffered a strong backlash just now. , becoming an idiot is the most gratifying thing.

Of course, although his approach was too risky, in fact, these emergencies were completely within his consideration, which allowed him to avoid the unbearable price and sequelae directly on the spot.

After stabilizing his body, he checked the system bar and began to clean up the loot.

Among the experience points obtained this time, killing the beholder tyrant got 70000 experience points, the green-footed dragon snake whose strength reached the legendary field gained 50000 experience points, and the four fourth-order beholders got a total of about 100000 experience points. Around 220000 experience.

It is a very good harvest.

"Are you okay?" Santilla's pretty face gradually turned red, and she walked slowly to Brian, held his hand, and asked with concern.

A streak of emerald green divine energy flickered in the darkness, reflecting Brian's slightly pale face in Santilla's blue eyes filled with worry.

The azure blue eyes of the drow girl sparkled, overflowing with caring tenderness.

Looking at these familiar eyes, Brian unconsciously recalled another girl who was still waiting for him to go back in the small world.

She has the same blue eyes as Santilla, he thought.

The memory hidden deep in his heart was suddenly unearthed, which once again strengthened Brian's determination to try to get Mystra, the goddess of magic, to help him restore the passage to the small world.

He sighed, and made up his mind to wait for him to save the ranger Azara, and anyway, he would ask the chosen ones of the Goddess of Magic to help him inquire about the possibility of repairing the passage.

After all, after the wizard tower was successfully established, he had exhausted all kinds of means, but he still couldn't sense the slightest location of that distant small world.

In this case, he can only choose to ask for help from the Goddess of Magic, because she can lead to the magic net and sense the approximate location. Its location can be found.

"What can I do?" Brian shook Santilla's little hand, let go, brushed a disobedient strand of hair from her forehead behind her ear, and said with a gentle smile, "Look at me Does it look like something happened?"

Although the divine energy transmitted to him by Santilla did not have any effect on his current situation, and the tingling pain in his mind still surfaced frequently like needle pricks, but it has gradually improved and is completely within his tolerance within.

In fact, in this battle, he was not sure at first, and even when he was uncertain about the anti-magic force field of the beholder tyrant, he already had the intention of retreating.

But Santilla didn't think so. Not only was the stubborn drow girl unwilling to retreat, she even risked her life by piercing the eye-mask tyrant's one eye with a sharp sword, breaking his magic force field and successfully turning the situation around.

Originally, Brian thought that Santilla's move was too risky, and his life would be in danger if he was not careful.

Who would have thought that when he heard the nonchalant tone of the other party when he mentioned the lord of the elves, he would realize why Santilla dared to take the risk.

Undoubtedly, she deliberately concealed some special methods from him, such as why her sword could ignore the beholder's anti-magic field after being stained with blood, and burst out with such powerful energy.

He didn't pursue this deeply, after all, everyone has their own secrets.

"Then I'm relieved." Santilla watched him seriously, with a sweet smile on her pretty face.

"If it's okay, help me find where the beholder's secret room is." He smiled back, and then gave the drow girl who seemed to have nothing to do a task:
"I can feel that with the death of the beholder tyrants, this space of another dimension shaped by their spirit is likely to collapse soon, the sooner the better, otherwise, we are likely to be exiled to the turbulence of another dimension middle."

Santilla nodded when she heard the words, put away the loose expression on her small face, and began to use detection magic to carefully search for nearby secret rooms that might be hidden.

Brian went straight to the corpse of the beholder tyrant.

From the materials he had read, he deeply understood that beholders might be the deadliest of all powerful strange monster races, and they also had the most deformed appearance.

It is said that beholders were first born in the outer world, and their ancestors were primitive beings with abilities comparable to gods.

She had no name, and her descendants did not think it necessary to give her one.

'Big mistress' is her only title to the outside world.

This is not to say that there is conclusive evidence that she is female, but because the bloodline of the entire race of beholders is unquestionably descended from her descendants.

Since the Great Mistress, the Beholders and their various variants have successfully colonized the planes, and almost no force can stop this living torrent of destruction.

Moreover, due to the beholder's special way of reproduction in dreams, it is difficult for them to leave a corpse after death, and it is more like disappearing directly into nothingness.

It is also for this reason that it is difficult for some mages who are curious about the body structure of beholders to learn their real secrets.

Of course, although it is difficult, it does not mean that there is really no way. Some powerful mages have gained a general understanding of the beholders through detaining, imprisoning, sealing and many other bells and whistles.

The main reason why Brian still searched for his body was that the beholder whose strength had reached the legendary realm, after being killed, although the body would gradually disappear with the overflow of energy, it left behind a Very special material: beholder crystal.

To put it bluntly, it is actually an eye of a beholder.

Be aware that the many eyes of beholders are their most striking, and most feared, signature feature.

These eyes, in addition to giving them all-around vision, can be used to aim, guide, and project powerful supernatural effects.

The effects are so singular, and the organ so singular and complex, that it has puzzled sages and mages for ages.

This crystal is naturally the concentrated essence of all the eyes of the legendary beholder after death. It is an extremely special magic material, especially when making certain magic eyes. Magic items, the effect is the best.

Not surprisingly.

Brian found a crystal the size of a glass ball in the remains of the beholder.

This crystal looks hard and strong. If it is infused with arcane energy and psion powers, the surface of the crystal will be covered with a layer of colorful circular irises, which looks like it is gathered from hundreds of translucent crystals. Together, it's as if each can move alone.

This means that beholders can adjust the shape of their irises to control the amount of light entering their eyes.

They can adjust the iris to almost any shape imaginable, even beyond the eye socket, so that it looks as if there is no iris at all.

Brian held the beholder crystal over his head, and under the bright light, he could clearly see that the strange thing about this crystal was that it was not just one lens, but was composed of many lens groups of different sizes and curvatures, all of which could Independent rotation and movement as the iris changes.

The multiple lenses greatly enhance the beholder's vision, giving them darkvision to at least 60 feet, and in bright environments, they can see the hairs on a mosquito's legs at twice that distance.

Brian solemnly put away this piece of legendary material.

If he was asked to make it, and then let the super magician Myrcella help him enchant it, it would undoubtedly be equivalent to obtaining another piece of legendary equipment, but Brian didn't intend to do this.

Because the Psychic Hellist once mentioned to him inadvertently that there is an item called psionic eyes.

This kind of spiritual object looks like an inconspicuous small crystal, but it can contain many special abilities. When the user conveys the correct thought to it, the crystal will automatically emerge from the center of the wearer's forehead, similar to the first three eyes.

Obviously, the crystals left by the legendary beholder after death are the most suitable material for making psionic eyes.

Brian decided to wait for Helliste to use this crystal to help him make a similar psionic eye after he was out of the customs.

Then, he turned around and set his sights on the 15-meter-long corpse of the green-footed dragon snake.

The shape of the green-footed dragon snake is similar to a combination of a centipede and a crocodile. The outer skin composed of scales is blue to dark blue, and gradually transitions to light blue on the abdomen.

Looking at the scorched body of the dragon snake in front of him, Brian knew that if it hadn't been bombed by his "Meteor Burst", the complete outer skin could produce at least ten pieces of "excellent" quality leather armor.

Now I'm afraid he can't even make up five pieces, and he doesn't feel any regrets about it. After all, in a close battle, it is natural to go all out, not because of many reasons.

With a wave of his hand, he sent the corpse of the green-footed dragon snake to the other-dimensional space of the Preaching Mage, where there are dedicated staff who will fully utilize the corpse.

For example: the two horns on the forehead of the green-footed dragon snake can be used to make a lightning staff, the teeth and dragon tendons can be used to make daggers and bowstrings with lightning damage, and even its flesh is a good material for making lightning resistance potions.

As a mage lord, with so many people and spellcasters under his command, he naturally didn't need to do the dirty work of skinning and cramp.

After cleaning up the body of the green-footed dragon snake, the moment Brian turned around, he happened to find that the excited drow girl had successfully opened a secret door and ran to him happily.

As the door slowly opened, gems and gold of various colors piled up like mountains in the secret room radiated bright brilliance in the darkness.

Although this wealth was not as much as he had obtained from the blue dragon lich, it still made him raise his eyebrows.

"See if you need anything, just take it away." Brian said to the drow girl beside him.

Now he is no longer the adventurer who didn't even let go of the contents of the dirty ooze monster when he wandered into the Underdark with Hesaiah.

Although the wealth is dazzling, it is not important enough for him to monopolize it all.

"No need." Santilla shook her head empathetically, "These gold jewels are of no use to me, and I don't like the magic equipment inside, so I gave them all away."

Brian nodded slightly. As the reincarnation of the dark girl, these things were indeed difficult to enter her sight.

As for the equipment, he just glanced at it casually, and found that Santilla's bow and arrow, long sword, quiver, and even a vague ring on her fingertip were all legendary quality equipment, which she didn't need at all. Worry about equipment.

In this case, Brian naturally accepted all the orders unceremoniously.

Just as he expected, he really found the treasure that the beholder tyrant stole from Helast, the king of the Leyline Lost City, in an inconspicuous space box in this pile of wealth.

The artifact appears to be a large circular terrarium, about 10 feet high and 5 feet wide, that seems to fit perfectly into a beholder.

The mirror-smooth glass surface doesn't reflect any light, and under normal circumstances it looks like an empty metal frame.

The magic on the glass can perfectly reflect the reflection of any human being observing it at a distance of not more than 60 feet, so realistic that the reflection is likely to be mistaken for a living person.

As expected, with Brian's knowledge, he was unable to identify the specific attributes of this treasure.

According to his approximate calculations, this is definitely a magical equipment exclusively for beholders.

The beholder only needs to have a line of sight with the mirror instead of the target, or drill its body into this treasure like a glass shield, and it can refract and amplify any eyeball rays projected on the surface of the mirror, and can greatly enhance the power of the rays and its own defenses.

In the previous battle, if the beholder put his body in it, it would be impossible for Santi to pull him, so that his kryptonite dog eyes were blinded by the sharp sword.

As for why he didn't equip this treasure, Brian didn't know.

But through this treasure, he suddenly thought of one thing.

It is said that the rays of the beholder can be released endlessly.

The reason for this is mainly because of the unique visual nervous system obtained by beholders. Just like how humans use the optic nerve to transmit light to the brain to obtain vision, the eyeballs can also transform and enhance magic power and store it in the brain.

This allows beholders to absorb magic by observing magical effects during combat, gazing at magical creatures such as golems or spellcasters, gazing at ancient ruins or magic items, or even directly reading and learning magic books.

They can even absorb magic by gazing into their own eye rays, recycling the energy for reuse.

Brian suspected that this glass-like thing might have something to do with it.

He put away the treasure, and planned to return to the wizard's tower and ask Myrcella to assist in the research. If necessary, he would wait until he had the opportunity to go to Waterdeep City.

Hylast lives in the Leyline Lost City in Waterdeep City, and the other party is the only survivor on the surface of the destroyed machine empire Imaskar.

Perhaps it is also very possible that he opened the door to record the knowledge of the Machine Empire through the mad mage's strong interest in treasures.

After looting the beholder tyrant's loot, the satisfied Brian was about to take Santilla and activate the teleportation spell to leave, but he found that the drow girl looked at him a little strangely.

"Brian..." She hesitated for a moment, her eyes fell on the fingertips of his right hand, and she said softly, "I want to see the ring in your hand, can I?"

Brian was slightly taken aback, and immediately realized that Santilla wanted to see the shining evening star of his ancient ring.

"I seem to have seen this ring in a dream, so I want to take it into my hand and take a closer look." She hastily added.

Without being suspicious, Brian took it off and handed it to her.

He saw the drow girl take the ring with a trembling little hand, gently rubbing the platinum ring inlaid with a diamond.

Under Santilla's extremely gentle touch on the ring, the tiny blue and white gemstones around the diamond shone brightly.

The bright radiance is reflected on the pretty face of the drow girl, and one can clearly see a touch of nostalgia and fleeting sadness in her expression. This feeling seems to have accidentally found her long-lost items are the same.

"It's weird..." Brian was shocked, and couldn't help muttering in his heart.

This ancient ring was given to him by an elven mother-in-law who raised him in the small world, and it originated from the Asta world of "Havoc and Setting Sun".

What he didn't expect was that he had a slight connection with the dark girl.

That is to say, if one pursues it seriously, it can even be traced back to the era of cross-country immigration carried out by the 'refugee leader' Corellon with his own race of elves.

"Brian, can this ring stay with me for a few days?" Santilla's sweet voice interrupted his deep thinking.

"No problem." Brian thought for a while and nodded slightly.

It could be seen that this ring definitely had something to do with the dark girl Eilistraee before she became a drow, so he agreed to her request without thinking.

He didn't think Santilla would take this opportunity to monopolize the equipment.

"Thank you, Brian." Santilla thanked him in a gentle voice, "Don't worry, I will return it to you. Actually, this ancient ring called 'Bright Evening Star' is a genuine Artifact..."

Listening to Santila's soft voice, Brian was in a trance, as if he felt that the drow girl he was familiar with had changed her face, which made him mistakenly think that the one standing in front of him was not the real Santi La, it's not the drow girl who is lingering with her.

It wasn't until the corner of her mouth evoked a playful smile that impressed him deeply and was familiar, that she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Because he knew that the Santilla he was familiar with came back in an instant.

As for the astonishing news that it was a real artifact, it was symbolically ignored by him.

After all, he had already guessed the potential of this legendary ring after it was fully activated from the awakened attribute of the elementary pass-through ritual.

"You have to know that there is probably no one in this world who is more familiar with this item than me." When she looked at him with azure blue eyes, she showed a touch of satisfaction, then raised the ring in her hand, and said with a smile, "I You can activate the second ancient ritual "Mystery of the Stars" of this ring without any effort, and help you find the activation method of the third ancient ritual. "

"Then I'll trouble you." Hearing this, Brian was surprised.

Obviously, he never thought that Santilla was not only connected with this legendary ring, but also could find a way to activate it.

You must know that the activation method of the second ancient ritual "The Mystery of the Stars" is that the wearer must spend half a year to concentrate on learning, researching or appreciating the stars, which may be in the form of stargazing, learning astrological charts, and reading literature about stars. Or myths, or even poetry to extol the beauty of the stars.

For Brian, there is very little time for learning and researching magic in this form of acquiring intermediate-level ancient characteristics, let alone taking time to study the mysteries of the stars.

In the end, the activation method of this ring was delayed again and again by him.

Obviously, after activating the mid-level ancient characteristics, he can get a piece of equipment with a quality of at least "Legendary", but he has more than he wants but not enough.

Well now, Santilla was able to help him activate it quickly, which is naturally a happy thing for him.

"Bryan, do you know? Ever since I met you, I have suddenly discovered that in my short life, there are many words that cannot be expressed in words." Santilla played with the platinum ring in her hand, and said in a leisurely tone:
"Your every move, whether in the Underdark or the surface world, can touch my heartstrings and make me at a loss. Sometimes I really want to go back to the city of Ancient Orens, although it is full of chaos and conflicts, but But it is easier to understand. At least I can play the rules there with ease, but facing this strange world on the surface and facing you again, the conflicting emotions aroused sometimes make me feel that there is nothing I can do."

"So, you don't look like an introspective person at all." Brian took out the casting material of the teleportation circle and said to her with a smile:
“Is it your favorite to put aside your uncomfortable new feelings and turn to familiar means you can understand.”

"You guessed it right. You are right. For example, having sex with you is the most familiar and safe field for me, and it is also the only outlet I can find to vent my emotions." The drow girl blushed slightly, her tone still firm says:

"Because I don't know whether you understand the meaning of giving your body as a gift to a drow girl, and I don't even know how you feel about this way. But I understand, In a way that is difficult for my people to describe, let me know without understanding that my destiny has actually been deeply connected with you to some extent."

Hearing this, Brian's movements stopped, and even the hand holding the casting material couldn't help trembling.

He couldn't understand whether it was because of this ring that Santilla's attitude towards him suddenly changed so much.

He turned around slowly, stretched out his hand to stroke the drow's cheek, and said to her in a soft tone:
"Remember, don't think so much, and don't let this completely ridiculous thoughts and lifestyle affect your mood. You just need to follow your heart and do what you want to do."

Seeing a smile on Santilla's lips, he traced the curve of her lips with his soft fingertips, and smiled slightly: "Let's go, it's not suitable to stay here for a long time, we should go back."

After speaking, he opened a portal, and the two disappeared together.

The matter here has been settled, he only needs to find the ranger Azara, and insert the dagger given to him by the storm into his body, and the mission of this magic demiplane will be successfully completed.

(End of this chapter)