Book 10: Chapter 68: Illithid Brain

Qin Lun and the others had gathered four million Shattered Crystals a few days earlier. However, when they handed this large amount of funds to Qin Lun, they also had some demands. First, for their adventure needs, Magic Scrolls and consumable items couldn’t be missing. Second, Hill alone had contributed 1.2 million Shattered Crystals and specifically asked to acquire a Bloodline Item for himself.

Among the five main Serial Killers, Qin Lun had the Moon Elf and Demon Bloodline, Hansen had the Magic Ape and Undead Bloodline, Grant had the Virus and White Giant Bloodline, and even Firecracker Rand had now gained a Fire Spirit Bloodline, which could use two types of high-level flames: hellfire and purple inferno fire from the underworld.

Only Hill still had just one mediocre water-based Bloodline. This weak Water Elemental Bloodline didn’t really count as a full Bloodline; it only boosted Hill’s water affinity, allowing him to use some water healing spells. Because of this Bloodline, Hill was the only one among them who hadn’t completed a Second Order class change.

Bloodline Items themselves were quite rare, and High Rank Bloodlines were even scarcer than Legendary Equipment. Hill’s combat profession was called Prayer Pastor, and his advancement profession had now been set as Chaos Priest. Changing classes to Chaos Priest didn’t have any strict Bloodline requirements—any Bloodline would work, even the purified human Bloodline.

However, the Priest profession differed from other combat professions because it belonged to the divine invocation class. In other words, its strength was tied to the god it worshiped.

Of course, Apostles could adventure across any worlds and were unlikely to worship a specific god. After Apostles became Priests, their divine skills were similar to other job skills, and they still consumed Mana Value as support.

But because most gods had some level of Perception for believers in their own domains, Apostle Priests and Priests basically needed Shattered Starry Sky to provide them cover. This meant disguising Apostle Skills as godly skills in the world’s similar domains.

To achieve this effect, an Apostle Priest’s Perception attribute had to be high enough. Otherwise, even if they learned a divine skill, they might not be able to use it. It was like when Qin Lun first learned Tree World Descent. Also, depending on the world they were in, the Perception required for the same skill could vary.

For example, if Hill learned an A-grade skill, in a certain Low Magic World, his Perception might be enough to disguise it as a divine skill of a weak god, so he could use it. But in a Mid-Magic World, that A-grade skill could belong to the divine domain of a powerful god. If his Perception wasn’t enough to hide it from that god, he couldn’t use it.

Among Bloodline Items, types that could boost Perception were quite rare, but not nonexistent. Hill’s demands were high, though—he looked down on low to mid-tier Bloodlines and was picky about High Rank ones.

This couldn’t be blamed on Shepherd. The Serial Killers didn’t fit in with normal people and only had each other for comparison. Qin Lun and the others often had two mixed High Rank Bloodlines. If Old Charlatan had to settle for any High Rank Bloodline alone, how could he stand it?

Originally, before this round of fundraising, Qin Lun wanted to sell him the Angel Bloodline he had obtained from Gospel World. Hill hesitated for a long time but still refused.

The High Rank Angel Bloodline Qin Lun had carried a chance for Apostles to develop a Divine Domain. Due to the nature of divine invocation professions, if it had a Divine Domain, it would be easier to disguise as a god’s follower. Unfortunately, the Angel Bloodline mainly boosted strength and Constitution, not offering much increase to Perception.

With the Angel Bloodline as an alternative, Hill became even more determined to aim for perfection and find a High Rank Bloodline that could both produce a Divine Domain and boost Perception.

However, Qin Lun wasn’t optimistic about this. Hill’s Bloodline requirements were too unique—harder to find than the mixed Bloodlines of the other Serial Killers. He could only help him test his luck.

Since he didn’t have much hope, Qin Lun skimmed through the Bloodline Items quickly. Soon, though, he wore a strange look as he genuinely found a High Rank Bloodline that matched Shepherd’s requirements.

Illithid Brain: (High Rank Bloodline Item) This was a pure body of an Illithid Brain, with its consciousness fully removed. It greatly enhanced the Perception and Mental Will attributes for anyone undergoing the Bloodline transformation. It had a high chance of granting various psychic talent skills.

It guaranteed the ability of Telepathy, guaranteed magic resistance exceeding the user’s spell level by +2, a 70% chance of gaining Charm Correction, and a 30% chance of gaining the High Rank Mind Blast skill. Since this Illithid was originally the brain of a large tribe, it had a 10% chance to grant the user a trace of any chaotic evil-aligned Divinity.

This thing was far more powerful than his High Rank Angel Bloodline. A 10% chance for divine transformation was fairly high, and all those innate abilities were very practical and extreme.

“But… it’s really ugly!” Staring at the image of the Illithid shown in the Bloodline Items, even Qin Lun—who occasionally made human art pieces—felt a bit disgusted.

The Illithid, commonly known as mind flayers, stood about six feet tall. Their head resembled an octopus, with four tentacles around the mouth. Their eyes were pupil-less and milky white, with pale purple skin often covered in a layer of reflective slime. This underground creature ranked in the top five for both power and ugliness in the Underdark.

It greatly enhanced Perception and mental abilities, with strong talent skills—perfect for that Old Charlatan, Hill. Especially the magic resistance above self-level +2 meant Hill would directly gain the magic resistance of a High Rank Mage in the latter stage of Second Order.

The 10% chance for divine transformation needed luck, but having Charm Correction alone compensated enough. Normally, beings with Charm Correction were favored by gods, but as an Illithid, it could only gain special attention from chaotic evil-aligned gods.

Since Hill’s class change profession was Chaos Priest—certainly not lawful good—this likely didn’t matter.

“Should I choose it?” Qin Lun was indecisive. The club was an independent plane, so he couldn’t contact anyone outside. Even though this suited Hill’s requirements, if it were Qin Lun, he absolutely would never pick it—after all, Serial Killers had aesthetic standards too!

Plus, it was very expensive, with a starting price of 700,000 Shattered Crystals. The competition wasn’t overwhelming, but Qin Lun guessed it would easily break a million Shattered Crystals.

“I’ll pick it for now. It would be best to offset some Shattered Crystals with the Angel Bloodline!” Qin Lun gritted his teeth and selected this Bloodline Item. In the seller’s column, he noted the Angel Bloodline’s stats, hoping for an even trade.

Still, this hope was barely better than none. Since the seller was willing to offer something like the Illithid Brain, it was hard to imagine they needed other Bloodline Items.

After browsing the major Bloodline Item section, Qin Lun looked at his remaining little over a million Shattered Crystals and couldn’t help but give a bitter smile. This really wasn’t lasting long.

Having satisfied his companions’ strict demands, Qin Lun finally found some free time to check out equipment and Skill Scrolls for things that suited him.

At his current level, Qin Lun was starting to understand the troubles of High Rank Apostles. Fully fitting his gear had low quality, while high-grade gear wasn’t always suitable and often overlapped with his existing items in function.

Qin Lun’s most important long-range attack weapons, like Legendary firearms and bows, weren’t absent from the auction list. For example, a long spear called Silver Flash caught his eye quite a bit.

In the Apostle realm, nothing was impossible. This firearm was a piece of bio-enhanced equipment; its body was like a bug shaped as a sniper rifle, using gut movements to fire bullets. Its power was comparable to the World Tree Longbow using Mithril arrows.

In terms of firing speed, Silver Flash didn’t match Burial of Light and Darkness. In flexibility, it wasn’t as good as World Tree Longbow. But it excelled in raw power and long range. The bullets were made by solidifying the insect’s bodily fluids, so consumption was minimal. As a Legendary Equipment, it was truly good and cheap.

This Legendary firearm had many competitors—at a glance, rows of bid prices were visible.

Qin Lun held back his desire for these Legendary Equipment bits and focused on searching for gear and skill scrolls suited for close-quarters offense and defense. In his past two Quest Worlds since advancing to Second Order—Divine Comedy World and Gospel World—he had faced dangerous melee combat many times.

For instance, against Alucard, White Giant Leo, and Captain America in the Divine Comedy World, and against High-Rank Apostles Wolf and Gan Luo in the Gospel World, Qin Lun gradually realized his initial Combat Gunmanship was becoming useless.

Combat Gunmanship was a modern martial art based on short-handled firearms. Offense primarily used close-range shooting, while defense relied on dodging and force-dissipating blocks. Against Novice Apostles, Combat Gunmanship was quite effective, but against Second Order or above fighters, it often felt powerless.

This was mainly because many close-quarters combat professions at or above Second Order cultivated combat aura skills. Combat Gunmanship couldn’t dissipate force effectively, so it fell apart easily. Against melee opponents, Qin Lun mostly depended on the Clock Eye’s simulation function and occasional Magic Scrolls from Glove of Sacrifice as back-up.

While he wasn’t reduced to a mess, and sometimes even scored wins, Qin Lun knew that in most cases, it was his planning and strategy replacing direct fights.

His weakness remained clear. Never mind High Rank professions—even Second Order melee fighters could defeat him easily if they withstood his bursts like Demon Transformation or Arid Glacier.

But Qin Lun didn’t intend to improve his combat abilities. That wasn’t his profession’s forte, nor was it necessary to pour a lot of resources into fighting techniques. His idea was simple: since he’d come to rely on magic skills to make up for melee flaws, he’d keep pushing in that direction.

He didn’t aim to win against Warriors or Martial Artists in close combat, only to delay them long enough to gain distance for medium to long-range attacks. Just disrupting their rhythm a couple of times would provide ample chance to wound his foe—no need to entangle at point-blank range.

Sticking to this goal, Qin Lun actually found an item in the equipment and skill auction category that matched his needs. But it wasn’t gear—it was an A-grade Eye Technique scroll: Nine Hells!