Became the Queen of the Legion

“Huh, this situation is getting more and more serious.”

“What’s the matter?”

News began to reach the Hobgoblin territory where my avatar, the Hobgoblin Rox, was located. Naturally, it was news coming from Orc Baron Zieg’s territory to the northwest.

I, who had been living as a single Hobgoblin, calmly asked the agitated Hobgoblins what the news was.

“It seems the crazy monsters that attacked our city of Luen and took control of that area have now crushed Orc Baron Zieg’s army and are invading most of his territory.”

The news that the demon race allied forces, which included numerous mercenaries and was led by the lord himself, had been crushed was starting to spread properly.

Along with this, the envoys sent by Zieg were desperately sending requests for aid to the surrounding territories.

The impact was different from when they destroyed a single small northern city. It seemed that the fact that they had crushed the elite troops mobilized directly by the lord in a head-on battle had a big impact.

After all, that’s not something a mere ‘demonic beast’ could do.

“According to the claims of the delegation sent by Orc Baron, those beasts should be considered as entities on par with demon races, and we should properly investigate and gather information about them.”

I could easily sense that the evaluation of us was gradually changing.

Even Administrator Lumon, who had been pondering about a non-existent mastermind while thinking of us as mere demonic beasts, was flustered.

“Dark Devils.”

One piece of evidence was that we had been given a proper name.

This name, said to have been given by the terror-stricken mercenaries after properly fighting us, gave an intuitive sense of what kind of fear they felt when they saw us.

It wasn’t just an overall name that was given.

The common troops, which made up the largest number of combat troops, were named Doom Devils, the assault troops were named Blade Devils, the throwing troops were named Bomb Devils, and the alpha types were separately named as Higher Species.

“They’ve given us quite fitting names on their own. By the way, Seira, you’ve been classified as a special higher species and named Spear Devil.”

“It’s just laughable.”

Seira smirked and sneered coldly when I relayed this news to her.

Many among the demon race warriors had been greatly shocked by Seira’s spear skills.

“Orc Baron has sent out calls for help to the surrounding areas as a last-ditch effort in his final moments, but it’s uncertain how many will respond to those calls.”

“That’s right. I’m currently looking into that.”

It’s a sad story for the envoys who are desperately trying to bring reinforcements.

Because we have already captured the Orc Baron’s stronghold.

It was a proper defensive facility with castle walls and defensive turrets, but the damage they had suffered before was too great.

When our forces, who had sucked up the nutrients from occupied areas to recover losses and fully replenish their strength, surrounded and besieged from all directions, it fell in less than a day.

Now, of course… it was becoming our nest, and we were sweeping up everything without a single living creature left.

“Will our lord help the Orcs?”

“At this point, it would be difficult to ignore. It’s actually a crisis, and above all, the Orc Baron seems to have been in such a hurry that he’s been going around everywhere asking for help. If other territories covet their land, we can’t let it be taken away.”

When I, as the Hobgoblin avatar Rox, asked Administrator Lumon, he said that the Count would probably help them.

This wasn’t bad news for me.

Above all, if territories that don’t get along well with each other intervene to divide up Zieg’s crumbling territory, they won’t join hands and attack us together.

‘Yes, keep fighting among yourselves like that.’

The complex power dynamics of the area continued to benefit me.

Leaving Hobgoblin Count Ludas’s territory alone and only attacking and capturing Zieg’s territory was also to take advantage of this.

‘I think I’ve seen all there is to see here.’

It seemed like it was time to retrieve my avatar, which had been diligently carrying out its mission.

In fact, since I have the status of a free citizen, I can go anywhere I want, so it’s not really a problem.

But as I was thinking it would be a shame to just disappear like this, something caught my eye.

It was a notice recruiting new members for a mercenary group heading to the invaded Orc territory.

“Hmm.”

Seeing that, a thought crossed my mind.

It seemed I could envision a plan to efficiently achieve victory by becoming part of the mercenaries, participating in the war, and if necessary, activating sabotage from within.

“I saw the notice about recruiting new comrades. I want to join you.”

“Are you serious?”

I immediately headed to where they were. It was a tavern in the city.

As written in the notice, the mercenary group, composed of various races including Orcs, was a fairly large group with dozens of members.

“A Hobgoblin?”

“We don’t really care about race. As long as you have enough skill.”

When I appeared asking to be accepted as a new member, one of the squad leaders, a Werewolf, smirked and started to act up, saying they needed to test my skills.

Amidst the giggling and excited mercenaries, a space naturally cleared, and a duel between us two began immediately.

Although I’m a Hobgoblin, a goblin is still a goblin. My size is smaller compared to a Werewolf. On the other hand, the Werewolf warrior, over 2 meters tall, was not only large in size but also a skilled warrior who could freely wield the greatsword in his hand.

‘I need to fight in a different way.’

With dozens of eyes watching, it’s impossible to fight in my usual way, freely transforming my body.

So, what I mobilized to fight in a new way was the auxiliary brain, which has been repeatedly improved and modified, pushing its performance to the extreme.

I use computational power that transcends ordinary living beings to replicate the opponent’s movements and techniques exactly.

It’s not that difficult. No matter how complex a technique may seem, it’s not as complex as the genetic information of a living being. There are limits to the techniques they can learn and the habits they develop, and I could analyze and break them all down.

“Y-you…?!”

The Werewolf was clearly flustered when I, who should have been inferior to him, analyzed and broke down his movements in real-time.

At the same time, I leapt up from my position and struck down on his head with the back of my blade in an instant.

“Stop! That’s impressive, Rox. That level of skill is enough. I don’t know why you didn’t join the territory’s knighthood and came to us instead, but if you want, you can join us.”

Kron, the leader of the mercenary group and an Orc warrior, stopped the match there and nodded with satisfaction.

It was the moment my avatar successfully infiltrated the demon race mercenary group.

* * *

“Right now, learning things like swordsmanship or magic might be useless… but you never know. There might be a use for it someday.”

The power of magic was clearly a force that held infinite possibilities beyond simply possessing it.

For now, the limit is simple utilization like using cells imbued with magic power to make the body harder or expelling that power externally to create barriers, but if I were to formally learn something like magic, I could create special alpha type individuals and have them fire off spells.

[The number of individuals has reached its limit]

“Sigh, already?”

But now wasn’t the time to ponder about various ways to utilize magic power.

Rather, it was time to worry about the size of the colony that had reached its limit and the supply of nutrients, with all our might.

‘Eating something, digesting it to obtain nutrients is too one-dimensional.’

The reason I feel limited even after winning all the wars so far and gaining territories overflowing with massive spoils and nutrients is not something else.

There’s a structural problem that comes with being a biological entity.

No matter how much we increase artificial digestive organs, both increasing and maintaining them consumes nutrients.

No matter how efficient a body we create, energy is endlessly consumed.

Even just workers moving around to harvest fallen plants for nutrients consumes nutrients.

Until now, these things weren’t particularly problematic, but as we try to increase beyond a certain number, such problems arise. Even the efficiency of spoils obtained from war is decreasing.

‘We need a new way to obtain nutrients.’

Plants create their own nutrients from the overflowing light and vast underground without necessarily eating food.

This could be a critical matter that might determine the fate of the entire race, whether we evolve into a higher form of life or become obsolete as we are.

「Physical Enhancement 5」

“How many more do I need to invest?”

Even though I raised Physical Enhancement to level 5 using trait points, I still couldn’t reach the desired level.

Chuckling bitterly, I decided to look for another method.

If it’s still impossible to replicate the abilities of plants, how about demonic beasts that are similar to plants but can be digested and analyzed by us?