Chapter 2606 Metamorphosis

In the language of mind flayers, the word "metamorphosis" specifically refers to the entire process of a mind flayer transforming from a tadpole form to an adult form.

Mind flayer hatchlings develop in the brain pool for a full 10 years, about 3 inches long from head to tail, and look like a small octopus, at which point they are ready for metamorphosis.

To begin the metamorphosis process, an adult mind flayer removes a fully grown tadpole from its brain pool and implants it in the ear hole of a helpless humanoid.

The mind flayer tadpole drilled into the victim's brain through the ear holes, quickly devoured most of the brain tissue, and replaced it with itself, fused with the host's lower brainstem, obliterating all remaining personality and consciousness of the host, leaving only one With a ready-made fleshy body as his own body, it is like a hermit crab getting into a conch.

When the tadpole implantation process begins, the hosts used to host the mind flayer's body are doomed.

A mind flayer tadpole can burrow into a host's brain in as little as a minute, rapidly absorbing the creature's personality and replacing it with its own awakened mind.

Generally, when tadpoles implant for more than a day, the process is irreversible.

As the metamorphosis continues, the host's body will gradually transform into a mind flayer, and the entire metamorphosis process will last for about seven days.

A mind flayer that has completed a metamorphosis usually does not inherit the memories, skills, and gender characteristics of the host during its lifetime.

But there are occasional exceptions.

For example, Metatron, the owner of "Insect Spirit" Bobo, as one of the few "myth flayers" in Odis city and the youngest elder cardinal, for some reason, in the process of transformation Inheriting the gender characteristics of the host, so that the citizens of Odis dubbed the "spiritual princess", and Metatron himself seems to like this nickname quite a bit.

Not all humanoid creatures are suitable for creating new mind flayers. In addition to external restrictions such as race, height and weight, a more important factor is whether there are some special alchemical compounds in the host's brain. The key link for the heart demon to complete the metamorphosis cannot be artificially synthesized at present.

If the body size of the host is too small, the tadpoles implanted in the body will grow too fast and age prematurely; on the contrary, if a large man such as a frost giant is chosen as the host, the tadpoles implanted in the body will develop slowly, and it will also not be smooth Complete the metamorphosis.

A large number of experimental data show that medium-sized humanoids are the most suitable hosts for mind flayer hatchlings, such as humans, elves, githzerai, githyanki, stone blind barbarians, gnolls, hobgoblins and Orcs and more.

Hybrids and subspecies of the above humanoids are also suitable as hosts.

As for species such as halflings, dwarves, dwarves, centaurs, giants, and kuo-toa murlocs, they are not very suitable as hosts for mind flayer larvae. It's not that they are completely impossible, but the success rate of transformation is relatively low.

If you don't hesitate to consume a large number of tadpoles and hosts, you can actually create a different kind of mind flayer in the laboratory.

For example, a "transformation research group" of Odis once tried to implant tadpoles into the body of the "rope tree demon". In the end, an experimental body successfully completed the transformation and was named "the rope spirit sucking tree demon".

The person in charge of this project and his assistant also won the "Spirit Technology Medal" and 3000 honor points for this breakthrough, and were commended by the mastermind and praised by the citizens of the city.

As for how many tree rope demons were consumed, how many mind flayer tadpoles were sacrificed, and how much money was spent in this series of experiments, it was difficult to say.

Qiao An also learned from Isaac's memory that several scientific research teams in Odis have been planning a whole "big job" in recent years, using beholders as hosts, trying to fuse mind flayer hatchlings and conducting transformation experiments.

If this experiment is successful, it will definitely cause a sensation in the whole city!

From this, it is not difficult to understand why the mind flayers always harass the beholders of Udinos, deliberately trying to kidnap living beholders to serve as experimental subjects.

This is all for scientific research.

Joan admires the vigorous thirst for knowledge of the mind flayers, but cannot agree with their scientific research style that ignores ethics and uses unscrupulous methods.

But to be honest, he himself has bad deeds in this regard. The history of blood and tears of the goblins in Bailun Mountain is his criminal record, so he is really not qualified to criticize mind flayers on the moral high ground.

The average lifespan of a mind flayer that has entered adulthood is one hundred and twenty years old.

During this long life, in order to maintain the vitality of the body and brain, mind flayers need to eat and supplement nutrition regularly.

For mind flayers, spiritual energy is far more nutritious than biological flesh. A healthy mind flayer only needs to consume one brain per month to meet its nutritional needs.

Of course, as long as there is a chance, the mind flayers don't mind enjoying a few more delicious meals, and store the nutrients they absorb, just like the water and fat in a camel's hump, for emergencies.

A mind flayer who goes without food for more than a month becomes malnourished, becomes weak, and starves to death after fasting for up to four months.

When the Gnostics had just completed their transformation, they knew that inhaling brain marrow would cause severe allergic reactions, and they were in excruciating pain. However, in order to survive, they still had to bite the bullet and eat brains regularly.

It wasn't until later that he was promoted to a psion and realized the second-level ability "bigushu", and spent 3 points of psionic power a day to replace diet to maintain health. Gnostics finally got rid of the nightmare of allergies, and they no longer eat brains. Earned the nickname "The Faster".

Exceptions like the Gnostics are rare.

In the city of Odis, Joann hadn't heard of any other mind flayers who couldn't eat brains due to physical reasons.

Mind flayers like to eat brains, but they are not willing to eat all kinds of brains. They are very picky about the specifications of ingredients, and this is not just to show their noble and elegant style.

In Odes, there is a proverb:

"If you often eat the brains of a fool, you will become stupid yourself."

Only biological brains with an intelligence attribute of at least 3 points can meet the nutritional needs of mind flayers, and occasionally eat animal brains for a change of taste.

This is like the children of rich families who are tired of eating big fish and meat, and occasionally want to eat a simple meal to clear their stomachs - if they eat this every day, they will not be able to stand it!

...

Joan went down the spiral staircase to the bottom of the stone tower, looking at the peaceful Brain Pool through the fence.

The mastermind of Odis, "Noah", will surface at a fixed time every day to accept consultations from citizens in the city.

There was still half an hour before the main brain came out of the water. At this time, more than a dozen mind flayers had already gathered in front of the poolside fence, communicating with each other through telepathy.

When everyone saw Qiao An coming down, they greeted him one after another, hugged him one by one, and stroked each other's cheeks with their tentacles, which was equivalent to the "cheek-to-cheek gift" in human society.