Ch.5858. Insurance for the Unexpected

As I walked through the streets, deep in thought about the Orc Empire, my wolf avatar arrived at my temple, located between the underground city’s residential area and the central plaza.

This temple, with its distinctive marble columns reflecting the architectural style of the Rom Empire, also incorporated dwarven craftsmanship that gave it a Mesopotamian-like feel.

The walls were adorned with elaborate decorations, with skulls and crosses delicately carved alongside ornate embellishments. Even without any magical treatment, the structure itself functioned as a magic circle—a perfect “temple” in every sense.

Though I saw it almost daily due to my frequent visits to Sia… I couldn’t help feeling proud whenever I sensed the devotion and pure reverence directed toward me.

Anyway, dressed in the formal attire of a priest serving at this temple, I arrived at the entrance. With a bit of skill, I became invisible to all eyes and boldly passed through the open arched doorway.

And the moment I crossed the threshold—my field of vision was cut off—and like an edited video, immediately replaced by a different view—

In an instant, I had moved to the avatar body storage space overlapping with this temple.

‘Ugh… feels like my brain is turning inside out.’

Though I briefly recognized the overlapping spaces, my software (mind) had no issues as it was a divine mind. The strange dizziness was, predictably, due to the hardware (body) performance that, while first-class, still fell short compared to divine language.

The overlapping of spaces is similar to when two objects exist in the same space due to a bug in a game.

In other words, it’s a dangerous action that distorts the laws of the world by somehow finding or creating unstable parts (bugs) in its rules—something that could shatter even me, a mid-level god, if I made a mistake and triggered the world’s restorative force.

It was only because this place was a temple—a terrestrial implementation of my divine territory—that I could create even this room-sized overlapping space.

Anyway, back to the main point.

Having arrived at this avatar storage, I did what I always do: seated this body on the stone chair in the center and concentrated my mind. The empty soul that was the essence of the avatar could then return to the divine realm.

And immediately after returning to the divine realm, I left the avatar on autopilot and began to reconsider what I’d heard about the Orc Empire.

They are a race whose physical specs for close combat are 20-30% higher than the average person’s, and though warriors rarely survive long among them, those who do have excellent aptitude for aura awakening.

In addition, perhaps as a trade-off for their shorter lifespan compared to humans, they gain experience and skill proficiency faster than humans. And in this ancient era, their technology isn’t significantly behind that of humans.

Their aptitude for shamanic or druid-type magic professions is even higher than humans’, and their sorcerer-class magical aptitude is not particularly inferior to humans’.

Their social abilities and communication revolve around violence, making it difficult to form stable societies. Combined with their characteristic preference for force and intelligence penalties that make them disinclined toward non-combat professions like technical work… they’re an overpowered civilization, limited to this era.

To use real history as an analogy, they’re like non-horse-riding nomads or a land version of sea peoples—definitely thugs by ancient standards.

It’s no wonder that almost none of the twelve main gods of the Rom Empire’s pantheon or their apostles remain in the holy city. Considering that about 40-50% of the Rom Empire’s military power is tied up there, their fearsome nature becomes understandable.

Of course, orcs have clear limitations.

Their ability to produce mid-level warriors easily and mobilize tens of thousands of troops only works when there’s an orc strong enough to become their unified leader. Fundamentally, orcs base their value judgments on strength.

In other words, if there’s an overwhelmingly strong leader, they’ll obey, allowing tribes that have never met to unite as one force. But paradoxically, if there’s no overwhelming leader and only mediocre ones?

Ultimately, they need a hero to unite, and if that hero dies, they immediately revert to tribal units—this fragmentation is the essence of orcs.

But even considering all these conditions—the Orc forces are definitely strong.

More precisely, while their national potential may peak by the medieval era, orcs as hostile forces like bandit groups or warlords should never be taken lightly.

Even if the age of gunpowder arrives, or the era of firearms, or an age where accumulated civilization can mimic individual realms, or even an era of navigating the distant sea of stars.

The orc race will persist, changing form but not essence—as mercenary groups, warlords, criminal organizations, or some other “armed group”—

‘Wait, isn’t this worth pursuing?’

Considering these characteristics, I thought orcs would be perfect as “insurance,” and decided to make them my followers, literally as “insurance for contingencies.”

※ ※ ※

Let’s think about it.

What are the chances my plan to bring down the Rom Empire will succeed splendidly?

If the original storyline had continued, Bjorn would have become an apostle of the Seven Evil Gods and hundreds of evil deities, bringing down the Rom Empire. But now, hasn’t Bjorn become my exclusive apostle?

So while I’m gathering forces from various directions and even considering seeking help from the other Seven Evil Gods if necessary, I still think the chances of failure are quite high.

The most critical issue is that Bjorn, who in the original work reached the god-slaying realm and destroyed all the gods and the pantheon, is now in my hands.

Since I don’t want to sacrifice Bjorn for a purpose that isn’t entirely my own, I’m left with two conclusions.

One is to prepare as thoroughly as possible and develop Bjorn, but… the other is insurance—preparing for the possibility of failure.

It’s like the multi-approach in the Star Wars series. This insurance, which I expect to function more as “a second force for emergencies” than as a second base or forward base, will provide a foundation to restart even if all existing forces are completely wiped out.

Especially since orcs losing power after the medieval period is only true when controlled by a computer; if a god deliberately cares for them one by one, they could form a civilization that’s not too bad.

Moreover, their value system of absolute obedience to a strong leader of their own kind drastically reduces the probability of random events in the form of all kinds of impulsive actions during gameplay…

The idea I just came up with was to spread my faith among the orcs as that “insurance.”

Orcs have three main gods.

They don’t have specific names, just called the God of Warriors, the God of Shamans, and the God of Hunters, with roles exactly as their names suggest. But there’s one weakness here.

Recalling the settings I read in passing on the wiki, orc gods, like me, are thought complexes formed from orcs’ thoughts and concepts… but unlike me, they lack a clear personality focal point, making their will or sense of self vague.

The reason the pantheon gods don’t freely spread their faith to orcs isn’t just their lack of will to do so, but also because attempts fail due to the orcs’ simple-minded thinking that rejects everything except combat.

Since I possess two divine attributes well-suited for worship as orc gods—rage and wolf—I decided to create another aspect of myself.

Using Greek and Roman mythology as an example, this other aspect is like Ares, the Greek god of war, versus Mars, the Roman god of war.

Both occupy the same position in the same mythology, but their treatment and outward appearance are worlds apart.

If Ares represents the primal survival instinct on the battlefield, the violence and slaughter of combat, and the fear in this process, then Mars is closer to the Roman martial spirit, military discipline, and the model soldier.

Though the essence is the same, the presented image differs. Therefore, the image I present to the orcs will also be different.

As Ma-Duk, the evil god of vengeance and fresh blood with the form of skulls and crosses, and as the god of orcs in the form of a blood-red wolf embodying rage.