Request

After a long while.

Hank, unable to find anything wrong with himself no matter how he checked, turned to look at Heto, whose face was deathly pale as though he had just suffered a serious illness.

Unable to understand how he had ended up like this, Hank asked in confusion, "What happened to you just now?"

A single knight could easily handle ten burly men, while a Great Knight could easily handle ten knights. Such people were the backbone of any nation, capable of facing a hundred foes on the battlefield. How had he suddenly ended up looking half-dead for no reason?

Seeing the confusion on Hank's face, Heto took a slight breath. After a flicker of hesitation crossed his face, he said, "Ever since I was young, I've had a special Talent Ability that lets me sense whether nearby creatures can threaten me. The greater the threat, the faster my heart beats.

"When I saw that person just now, my heart immediately started pounding as if it were about to leap out of my chest. My head spun, I couldn't even catch my breath, and I nearly passed out. It was the first time I had ever felt danger on that level..."

After thinking for a moment, he added, "I don't know how strong he is, but he definitely isn't someone we can resist. There is no comparison at all. Even when I encountered wolves as a child, I never felt such a degree of danger. It felt as though he could strangle me to death with a casual hand, and no matter how I fought back, it would make no difference."

By the end, his tone had become utterly dejected, and none of his initial resolute expression remained.

After hearing that, Hank gritted his teeth and asked, "Do you feel anything unusual now? Do you know what method he used on us?"

"I don't feel anything unusual, but whatever he used was nothing more than one of those mysterious people's methods. They have always been exceptionally skilled at all sorts of strange and messy tricks. That is precisely why the church hunts them day and night without rest."

Heto had dealt with quite a few of those people who called themselves Spellcasters. In his eyes, they were a group of strange-tempered madmen who hid in dark corners all day long, constantly spouting all kinds of incomprehensible nonsense and occasionally having fits.

They looked at everyone as though they were idiots, while everyone else basically treated them as idiots.

Hank rubbed his chin and fell into thought.

Although it seemed that not only the two of them, but the others who had suffered that strange attack had shown no reaction either, Hank felt that things could not be so simple. Especially since he clearly remembered Orsaga personally saying, "I hope you can hold on for a few more days," he became even more convinced that the gray-black mist was no harmless thing.

But when he thought of the church's hatred for those Spellcasters, as well as how this place looked more and more like an Evil Faction, he felt that perhaps he could find a way to bring in outside help...

Without caring what the people in the cages were doing, Orsaga paid them no further attention after releasing the disease upon them. He merely used the Source of Death Plague to record their physical conditions, constantly making minute adjustments to the plague's intensity and traits. The incubation period could not be too long, the symptoms could not be too obvious, and the initial illness could not be too severe. He still needed to find a balance.

The little white mice in the cages were the vessels for testing those balances. No matter what identities they had or what they thought, none of it mattered much. Their fates had been decided from the very beginning.

After all, for humans who fell into a Demon's hands, hoping to emerge unscathed was nothing but a fool's dream.

Although Orsaga was not as obsessed with human souls as other Demons, and merely regarded them equally as foundations for his growth, his demonic nature still ensured that he would not abandon benefits already within his grasp.

When it had already been delivered to his mouth, how could he possibly let it run away?

After observing this world for some time, combining the knowledge in his memories with his own investigations, Orsaga had come to understand why Demons remained so keen on planar invasions even when there were targets everywhere in the Bottomless Abyss.

If the creatures of the Bottomless Abyss were all oddballs, perhaps quite a few of them had been wronged. But the residents of the Bottomless Abyss were simply far too straightforward. They were either mental patients or homicidal maniacs, and there were no shortage of outstanding elites who wanted to destroy the world every day and did not even intend to spare themselves. Finding trouble with such people was truly difficult, leaving everyone unable to happily burn, kill, and plunder.

Outer Planes were different. Their inhabitants could not compare to the Bottomless Abyss in producing such an abundance of talent. Most had relatively simple minds, weak and sickly bodies, and were like bean sprouts. Many factors as common as air in the Abyss could easily pose fatal threats to them, making them excellent targets for harvesting.

Naturally, such places became targets for Abyss Creatures to squeeze soft persimmons.

And what if they failed to squeeze the soft persimmon and got squeezed instead?

Did that even count as a problem in the Bottomless Abyss?

For most residents there, living meant either beating others to death or being beaten to death by others!

Back in the Wailing Forest, Orsaga had not failed to try setting forest fires. But the plants of the Abyss all had a trick or two up their sleeves, making it impossible for a fire to spread. This world was different!

Taking action here posed no difficulty at all!

Ordinary plants alone were utterly incapable of stopping his Bloodflame from expanding its burning range.

Even stone and ordinary soil could be burned by Bloodflame.

If he had not feared that the World Consciousness would directly kick him out by force, Orsaga was even confident that he could burn the entire Duchy of Maldon to ashes.

So he chose a gentler method instead. At the very least, it would not make such a huge commotion. He could not draw the attention of the entire world and have enemies attacking from all directions right from the start.

After some consideration, plagues and viruses became his intended targets!

In any world, disease was an utterly normal occurrence. Yet it possessed no small amount of Destructive Power, lethality, and transmissibility. As long as the spread and lethality of a disease could be controlled, it would be one of the best Weapons of Mass Destruction.

After much thought, Orsaga used the Evolution System to evolve the special Talent Ability known as the Source of Death Plague. In his plans, it would be his main ability for harvesting leeks in the future. Bloodflame's target and traits were too conspicuous, making it suitable for direct confrontation, while spells would make his methods more varied, allowing him to stir up trouble in any situation.

Hank and the others were his first batch of test subjects. He needed to use their actual reactions to record the plague's true effects and make real-time changes to its traits and intensity, eventually reaching a balance.

It could not strike too quickly, leaving no chance for transmission. It could not strike too slowly either, or the daylilies would have gone cold before any reaction came. The initial intensity of the symptoms could not be too high either. Ideally, they should still be lively and bouncing around in the early stages...

Orsaga would have to slowly experiment to obtain the detailed data required for all these factors and achieve the desired results.

Moreover, every race had different physical conditions. The same plague needed corresponding adjustments before it could take effect, and all kinds of messy circumstances had to be clearly established.

It truly gave Orsaga the feeling that he was doing scientific research, making his balls ache slightly.

Fortunately, he had the Overclocked Brain. Otherwise, he absolutely would not have been able to handle all this...

To conduct research, one either needed a team or well-developed communication to exchange ideas with others. Trying to climb the virus Technology Tree alone was indeed far too difficult.

Fortunately, he had the Evolution System and possessed unique advantages in many matters. Otherwise, he would never have entertained the idea of doing research.

Walking beside the manor's pool, Orsaga used the training methods of both Martial Monks and fighters to minutely control the muscles throughout his body, honing his control over it. In his spare moments, he also thought, I can't waste the time while observing the virus. I need to study the spell models of low-level spells and the basic applications of energy. My use of energy is still far too crude.

Two more months passed.

At midnight, beneath dim moonlight, within the manor.

The faint candlelight illuminated the objects in the room.

Orsaga rubbed his chin and looked at Jem Woz, who was kneeling before him. He calmly asked, "You want me to help the Duchy of Maldon defeat the Duchy of Yar and win this war?"

"Yes, my lord."

Jem lowered his head deeply and answered with great respect.

Nodding, Orsaga asked again, "Then what is the price? What price are you prepared to pay?"

Although he did not currently wish to personally begin a large-scale slaughter, even so.

Helping a group of mortals win an ancient war posed no difficulty for him whatsoever. He had countless methods to achieve the desired result. A mere flick of his finger would make it easy.

Without hesitation, Jem immediately stated the conditions he had long prepared. "If we win this war, we will exile all prisoners to some distant deserted island by the sea. That place will become your sacrificial ground, and you may deal with them however you wish."

After several months of observation, he had roughly figured out some of the Demon before him's habits. Cruelty and cunning—those two points matched the records exactly, perhaps even exceeding them. Yet his temper was unexpectedly good. Even when someone made some rash move in front of him, he never became angry. Besides that, he also possessed a strange self-discipline, as though every day had been planned out in advance.

Orsaga liked killing, and he liked plundering souls.

Jem was absolutely certain of that. But why was the other party so well-behaved in the Royal Capital? That was something he could not figure out. He had originally prepared himself for a great upheaval in the Royal Capital, yet not even the servants he had deliberately arranged as sacrifices had suffered any mishap. It completely went against a Demon's nature.

His actions seem to be restricted by something... he thought.

In response to Jem's proposal, Orsaga neither objected nor agreed. He merely drank his tea calmly, as though contemplating something.

Listening to the sound of the other party drinking tea, Jem felt his heart begin to race uncontrollably. He lowered his head and began counting specks of dust.

Time passed bit by bit. Just as Jem felt his proposal was about to be rejected, Orsaga spoke.

"I agree to your request."