The Traitorous Twins and the Hero's Brain
"I see..."
Ella and Bella knew quite a lot. No, they practically had the entire layout of the base memorized. It was as if they had planned to betray their side and leak information from the very beginning. It almost felt like they had been scouting the place out specifically for that purpose.
These two...
Regardless, they spilled everything—the skills of the key figures, their personalities, their tendencies. They were holding nothing back. There was no filter whatsoever. They were even about to start detailing their daily routines, so I had to ask them to stick to the truly important stuff.
And that was how I got the vital intel.
‘The brains of the Hero’s party...’
His name was Michael. His class was Grand Sage. His personality was cranky and fastidious, the type who liked to overthink everything. Physically, he was a massive, sturdy white man. Back in his high school days, he had been a popular and talented quarterback on the rugby team.
‘That doesn’t seem like very important information, though...’
He was also a deranged white supremacist blessed by the God of Wisdom, possessing the Insight skill.
‘So, it’s impossible to hide one’s identity from a deranged white supremacist... I didn’t realize the Insight skill was that powerful.’
As befitting a Grand Sage, Michael possessed the Insight skill, which allowed him to peek at a portion of an opponent’s status. They said he had even used it to grasp Nick’s condition and prepare countermeasures, meaning the moment I or my subordinates entered his line of sight, our information would be compromised in an instant. He was truly a man with the "Eyes of Truth."
‘If I run into him in the Abyss, I have to kill him or turn him into a slave. If I let him slip away, I might get counter-attacked after he’s stripped me of all my intel.’
The ability to grasp information just by observing an opponent for a moment was an enviable power. Being able to immediately identify a portion of the enemy’s strength was incredible. It meant he could analyze an opponent’s abilities and formulate a strategy before even engaging in combat. If I were to encounter a man with such a skill, I’d rather kill him than fail to make him an ally. If I can’t have it, I’ll destroy it.
Honestly, it infuriated me that a piece of trash like Nick had such a high-tier talent on his side. That bastard really seemed to live his life relying solely on dumb luck. He hadn’t done anything, yet he’d had such an amazing guy as a starting member. And here I was, having made it this far with only the Ha brothers, who were mere Fighter-class nobodies...
"And Michael, that bastard, he also has a strange contract skill."
"A contract skill?"
"Yes. He can pull out some kind of leather from thin air and form a contract with the opponent."
"Ho-oh..."
"If you break the terms of the contract, you receive a pre-set penalty. But looking at it, it doesn’t seem like he can use it that often."
Bella chatted away while munching on an apple. I’d given them a few apples and fruits to eat while they talked, since they were spilling information without any hesitation. The trees planted in the training ground were overflowing with them, after all.
‘Hmm... a contract skill... Is it similar to my Slave Brand?’
It sounded like a pretty interesting skill. They also mentioned seeing him use a skill to summon chains to bind opponents, a skill that fired beams of light, and one that summoned a glowing bird. He seemed to have a good balance of offensive and support skills. The Grand Sage class appeared to be quite well-balanced. The more I heard about him, the more I wanted him. If I could just catch him, I’d love to make him a slave and put him to use. I was so jealous of Nick.
"Next is the Saintess..."
Ella and Bella, who had been busy trashing Michael for treating them harshly, now eagerly leaked information about the Saintess. Judging by their tone, the Saintess had treated them quite well...
Bella revealed that the Saintess was still a virgin.
"The Saintess is a nerd and a virgin?"
"Yes. She wears glasses and is always walking around in a plaid shirt."
"Her hair is messy, she doesn't wear makeup, and she has freckles. I think her chest is big, but she doesn't dress up at all. Maybe she doesn't even like men in the first place."
"Ho-oh... No. Never mind that, just tell me what skills she has."
For a second, I’d been blankly listening, curious about what a woman with the title of "Saintess" actually looked like, but if she wasn’t pretty, I wasn’t interested. It was better to just hear about her skills.
"The Saintess's skills are... Seal?"
"She also had Barrier, Ella."
"Ah, right. Seal and Barrier are what drive people crazy in combat."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. If you get hit by Seal while you're moving, it's basically game over."
"She just sits there casting Barrier and praying, and if you enter the Saintess's barrier, almost all attacks are nullified. If you're on her side, it seems to heal you, too."
"It feels like she’s doing the work of two people just by casting barriers until she runs out of mana? No, wait, at least five people’s worth."
The Saintess had some pretty troublesome tools. Seal and Barrier? She could protect and heal her teammates while simultaneously sealing the enemy’s movements and applying debuffs. The moment I ran into them, I might have to take out the Saintess first...
"And Michael, that beggar bastard, he avoids using his skills as much as possible unless they’ve already been revealed to avoid leaking info, but the Saintess doesn’t think about that—if it’s an emergency, she uses everything."
"Ho-oh... She’s got a hotter temper than she looks, then?"
"Yes. And her self-sacrificial spirit is immense. It feels like she works 24 hours a day?"
"She really feels like a 'Saintess.' Like she’d rather save one more person than dress herself up?"
"So that’s the vibe."
"And her healing skill is insane, too."
"Is it that good?"
"No, even if we killed them, as long as they were still breathing, she’d just revive them."
"That’s right. Even if I stabbed them in the heart, if they had a breath left, she’d save them. She’s seriously crazy."
"Exactly. She’s playing by her own rules. She purifies poison and curses in a second, and if we try a surprise attack, she blocks it all with her barriers..."
Her healing skills sounded like no joke. From the sound of it, the healing magic the Saintess used was like flesh growing back without any pain. They said she could reattach a severed leg without any aftereffects... and she could even purify diseases, curses, and poisons. She was truly at the pinnacle of healing arts.
‘But... listening to them...’
The way these two talked, it sounded like they had fought them directly.
"Hey, you two... did you find out this information by fighting them yourselves?"
"Yes? Ah. Yes."
"Hehe... actually, we were captured after we tried to raid them."
"We were originally at a survivor camp in a different zone... but we were short on food, so we raided them."
As expected, the skill descriptions were so detailed because they had fought them. Hearing more of the story, it turned out they had been executives at another survivor camp, and because they were short on food, they had raided Nick’s camp thinking they could take it over. They had been soundly defeated, and then, out of Nick’s "mercy," they had been absorbed into his group. As they continued to grow their numbers, the camp had ballooned into a survivor camp of thousands...
Anyway, I was able to get a lot of information from Ella and Bella. And that meant the guys on the other side had likely heard my information from Roy by now.
‘Since Roy made it out alive, they must know that Ella and Bella betrayed them...’
My physique, my voice, and information about my Tentacle Eruption and Abyssal Maw had probably been leaked as well. One might think, "What can they do with that?" but this was crucial. Because by letting them know the effects of Tentacle Eruption and the existence of the Abyssal Maw, I had given them a chance to prepare countermeasures in advance.
However, since I had heard much more information from the twins, I just had to prepare more. But the bigger issue here wasn’t the leak of my two skills; it was the fact that they now knew I could roam the Black Market freely. The info that the Black Market was my territory would have reached their ears, and they would have heard that there were incredible items there. Therefore, from now on, I had to assume that they would be entering the Black Market. It would also be wise to keep in mind the possibility that they might ambush me there.
‘This is getting annoying...’
The Black Market was like a slightly run-down neighborhood next door. The thought that those bastards from the Good God’s side could use it too made me want to scream with rage. Why did it feel like those guys were always doing well even when they did nothing? Was this just my imagination?
‘Above all, that demon bastard who taught them how to enter the Black Market and sent the Cracked Ankh to the Good God’s side...’
Paimon. That dog-like bastard would never die easily. I vowed that the moment I gained the ability to kill him, I would tear Paimon to pieces.
‘That dog-like bastard... his subordinates attacked us, too... he was a completely insane dog...’
I guess that’s why the Evil Gods called demons parasites. The pettiness of clinging to the Manma-jeon to survive, only to rush and latch onto the Pantheon the moment they thought they could switch sides...
"Phew... Okay. I get it for now."
"Yes! T-then, we... we can live here, right...?"
"There’s plenty of food here... and honestly, it seems much better than Nick’s idiot base..."
Ella and Bella clung to me, stroking my thighs and acting like vixens.
"First, if you want to live here peacefully..."
"Yes!"
"Yes, yes!"
"Learn Korean first."
"Yes?"
"When the potion’s effect wears off, we won’t be able to communicate. I have zero intention of learning English. If you want to sleep with me, speak Korean."
"Ah... yes. I’ll try..."
Still, there were probably quite a few people who knew English, so I should be able to teach the two of them well. We even had Merhere, who was a master of languages.
"Now then..."
The last thing left was whether or not to take Ella and Bella.
‘Pretty faces, decent bodies, and they’re white women. It’s tempting.’
The important thing was whether I could handle adding more women. After touching every pretty, devoted woman with a decent class, I already had 13 women as my own. Some might say 13 is too many...
But.
‘This is the joy of my life... what am I supposed to do?’
To me, women were a kind of reward obtained after overcoming a crisis. They were, quite literally, trophies. If I didn’t have this kind of fun, why would I work myself to death? The reason I fought and worked with all my heart and soul was, in the end, to spend enjoyable time with my women. So, telling me there are too many women is like telling me to live without any joy at all.
Moreover, now that I had obtained absolute power, being satisfied with 13... that didn’t feel right. A dictator is never satisfied. The moment you’re satisfied, you stagnate and fall behind. A well-fed dictator eventually becomes lazy and gets assassinated before long. I wanted to live for a long time without ever being satisfied. And honestly, it would be insane not to take two white women I’d caught as slaves.
Of course, I couldn’t treat all the women I’d acquire in the future with the same level of care as the original members like Hwayoung or Eunji. The current harem members didn’t want that, and I couldn’t possibly look after everyone like a wife when the numbers had grown this much. So, starting with Ella and Bella, if the women who joined in the future didn’t have the presence of someone like Cheshire or Aila, I thought it might be better to treat them not as "wives" to whom I gave love and attention, but more like "sex friends" or lovers I’d just take when I felt like it.
"Good... then..."
With that resolve, I decided to take a short break. The Cracked Ankh hadn’t been corrupted yet, after all. It was fine to rest for a while.