Chapter 00267: Nautiloid
# Nautiloid
Chapter 267
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 267 Nautiloid
At a glance, all that met the eye was an endless snowy plain, one that seemed impossible to cross.
But in truth, the temperature did not reach the standard of a snowy plain.
It was merely a bit damp and cold, and the few of them passing around Warming Potions was enough to solve the temperature issue.
Audel judged that a large-scale Illusion Technique had been cast here.
In reality, they were just advancing through an underground cavity, but what they saw was a snowy plain.
And the purpose of the illusion was clearly to conceal something, to make those who accidentally stumbled in turn back from the difficulty.
Audel held her Magic Staff in one hand and covered one of her eyes with the other.
Above her head floated a nearly transparent Magic Eye.
This was a spell called Arcane Eye.
It could see through illusions and perceive the flow of Magical Power.
Because it formed a visual connection with one's own brain, if you did not cover one eye, the brain would be unable to process too much information, leading to extreme dizziness.
But perhaps this illusion was too powerful.
The Arcane Eye could only see an area with a radius of about twenty meters around them.
Anything further was still obscured by the illusion.
The Tiefling Rogue, Nimia, scouted the path ahead.
The Dwarf, Delge, and the Halfling, Perrin, walked in front of and behind Audel, respectively.
This was the standard formation for adventurers on the move.
They had been walking for nearly ten minutes.
The distant aurora had not diminished in the slightest, and the distance did not seem to have shortened either.
But if one observed their surroundings carefully, they would discover that every time the group advanced a certain distance, the scenery in the distance would fluctuate as if it had teleported.
This was the illusion adjusting itself to ensure it perfectly covered a person's field of vision.
However, the aurora had nothing to do with the illusion.
Through the Arcane Eye, Audel could faintly see a hint of Divinity within the aurora.
That was the Ring of the Demon King guiding Audel, a Follower of the Demon God, to find it.
It wanted to return to the finger of the Demon God.
As long as they followed the aurora, no matter what scene the illusion conjured, they would never get lost.
Continuing forward, a massive, dark object suddenly broke into their vision.
It looked like a strangely shaped ship.
"Is that also an illusion?"
"Not sure, but it is blocking our path forward."
As they drew a little closer, the group saw that this massive black object looked like a giant cephalopod.
It had tentacles as thick as tree trunks, now shriveled like dried meat.
The cold Magical light illuminated its ominous and terrifying silhouette.
"What... is this?"
"It does not look like a ship."
The three adventurers stared in shock at the thing that had appeared before them.
Nimia even reached out and lightly touched one of the tentacles lying in front of her.
It felt as cold as stone.
"This is a ship."
Audel stepped forward.
Aided by her Arcane Eye, she could clearly see that this thing was real, not some illusion.
"It is a Nautiloid, a Magic Ship belonging to the Mind Flayers."
“...”
The three exchanged a look and all unconsciously covered their heads.
Mind Flayers were abominable creatures.
They had purple skin and octopus-like heads, and they sustained themselves by eating the brains of sentient beings.
The most terrifying part was that these monsters would implant their larvae into a living person.
As the larva devoured the host's grey matter, the original host would transform into a Mind Flayer.
This process was extremely painful and irreversible.
Even one of the most powerful spells in magic, the Wish Spell, was powerless against it.
"No one wants to run into a Mind Flayer, not even the Fiends of the Nine Hells!"
For a Tiefling with Fiend blood to say this was truly convincing.
"This Nautiloid has been here for a long time. It crashed."
Audel's Arcane Eye saw a long trench remaining at one end of the Nautiloid, left behind by the impact.
"Besides, we have no choice now but to go in and check the situation."
Audel pointed with her Magic Staff.
The three looked up and discovered that the aurora, which had been there just moments ago, had now vanished without a trace.
---
Approaching a Nautiloid required great courage, because you never knew when an octopus-head would suddenly pop out to eat your brains.
What was even more fucked up was that these octopus-heads called Mind Flayers were all ridiculously strong, and they would attack using Psionics.
However, Audel felt that there was no need to worry about the Mind Flayer problem.
The Nautiloid was actually a Biological Warship.
The main body of the Nautiloid was composed of organic matter, like giant blood vessels and tendons, and its outer shell would be reinforced with wood or metal.
The tentacles of a Nautiloid should be kept moist at all times, with a large amount of mucus.
But now, the tentacles of this Nautiloid were completely shriveled like dried meat, and the mucus was long gone.
In other words, this was the corpse of a Nautiloid, and it had been here for a very long time, to the point of becoming a dried-up husk.
No matter how terrifying Mind Flayers were, they were still living creatures.
They could not survive without eating or drinking, so the probability of encountering one on this Nautiloid was very low.
Audel was actually more curious about why they found a Nautiloid in a place that might hold the Ring of the Demon King.
The current guess was that the Nautiloid had accidentally crashed here while performing a Space Jump.
It might have been dodging some kind of attack.
But the aurora had already disappeared, and it was unknown when it would reappear.
Perhaps it was like a hint, signaling for Audel to go check out the Nautiloid first.
The four of them circled the Nautiloid once and finally found a hole on one side of its armor plating that they could enter.
The Armor Plate that had originally covered the hole was gone.
The edges of the opening had very obvious bite marks.
Even though the Nautiloid had now become 'dried meat', the bite marks were still clearly visible.
Audel touched the bite marks on the edge of the hole and said:
"These are the bite marks of a Red Dragon. It seems the Nautiloid likely made an emergency jump here to escape pursuit."
Nimia was a bit timid:
"There is not a Red Dragon nearby, is there?"
Delge comforted her:
"Impossible, this is from who knows how long ago. Do not be afraid, go scout ahead."
Scouting the path was a Rogue's job.
Even if Nimia was scared, she had to do her part.
She just gritted her teeth, drew the Short Sword from her waist, and was the first to crawl inside.
Inside the Nautiloid, it was surprisingly a bit warm.
The group felt as if they had crawled into the body of a massive monster.
A faint stench of rotting, spoiled flesh filled the air.
The place they entered was likely a corridor on the Nautiloid.
A single glance revealed nothing but dark, shriveled, and wrinkled muscle tissue.
The ceiling, floor, and walls were all more or less the same.
No one would like a corridor of this style.
It felt like walking down a monster's throat.
Aside from Audel, whose expression remained largely unchanged, everyone else showed looks of disgust.
Just then, a gust of decaying wind blew gently past, like the hand of a ghost caressing their skin, sending a chill down their spines.
Only Audel was an exception.
Not only was she not afraid, she even seemed excited:
"Let's keep moving. I want to see what interesting things we can find."
(End of this chapter)