"Well, for one, you gain multiple Chosen as part of your clan," he said. "That alone increases your overall strength and gives you a better position when it comes to meeting the requirements for the King’s Games. Numbers matter, especially when they’re not just bodies, but capable ones."

I narrowed my eyes slightly.

"How do you know I haven’t already cleared it?"

He didn’t hesitate.

"The fact that you’re asking me that tells me you haven’t."

I clicked my teeth.

Smartass.

I didn’t bother responding to that. Instead, I just watched him, waiting to see where he’d go next.

His gaze shifted briefly past me, toward the direction of the base.

"I also noticed your walls," he said, almost casually, though there was intent behind it. "They’re reinforced, but it’s still mostly patched wood."

I frowned slightly.

"What?"

"Drow," he continued, resting a hand on the shoulder of one of the goblins beside him, "has earth manipulation. He was the one who built the walls for our clan."

I followed the gesture, my eyes landing on the goblin in question, taking in his build, the way he carried himself, the subtle traces of mana around him.

"And Sheera," Caius went on, nodding toward the female whose identity I didn’t know nor bother to check, "is a chosen with the skill of a healer. She can do more than just basic recovery—she can regenerate lost limbs."

That made me pause for a fraction of a second. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"You’ve already seen what Drel can do," he added, letting that hang for a moment before continuing, "and Veyra..."

"That’s a pretty attractive lineup you’re presenting," I cut in, my voice carrying a faint edge of amusement as I looked back at him. "The skills they possess would fit very nicely into my arsenal."

"Tcch."

The sound of annoyance came from Drel, who had been quiet all this time.

"What?" I said, turning my gaze toward him, letting a faint edge slip into my voice. "Do my words piss you off? Then do something about it."

The tension in Drel’s stance tightened, his frustration pushing through whatever restraint he’d been holding onto.

"You don’t seem to understand the value of what my chief is offering," he shot back.

"Value?" I echoed, not dismissive, but not convinced either.

"Even if you kill us and take what we have," Drel continued, his voice rising slightly as he spoke, "you still can’t do everything alone. You can’t be everywhere at once. At some point, you’ll be forced to rely on others."

I held his gaze, unmoving.

"I have allies, you know."

"Not like us," he snapped, the frustration clear now. "Not as powerful as Chosens. You know that they cannot match us even if you want to."

A small smile pulled at the corner of my lips.

"You’d be surprised."

Drel’s reaction wasn’t unreasonable. In fact, from his perspective, it made perfect sense. Without context, without knowing what I had access to, everything he said lined up cleanly with how the system worked.

But that was the problem.

He was working with incomplete information.

Because if things were as simple as strength alone, then maybe he’d be right. Maybe numbers and raw power would be enough to force my hand.

But they weren’t.

Not when I had something like [Skill Share].

With it, I didn’t need to rely on individual strength the same way others did. I could take what made someone valuable—their abilities, their edge—and distribute it across my own forces, raising goblins who wouldn’t normally stand a chance to a level that could rival Chosen... or even surpass them, depending on how I used it.

And that changed everything.

Because in a situation like this, I wasn’t just looking at what they were.

I was looking at what they could become in my hands.

"Tell me, Caius. Do you share the same thoughts as him?"

"No." Caius’s response came out flat, cutting through the tension without force, but leaving no room for argument.

"I know what you’re capable of," he continued, his gaze steady on mine. "I understand why you would choose to see us as nothing more than skills to be added to your list."

There was no accusation in his tone, just acknowledgment—clear, direct, and uncomfortably accurate.

"Which is why," he added, his voice lowering slightly, "I’m asking you, sincerely, to accept us."

"Caius, there’s no way you actually believe..."

"I see no power more worthy of being served under than the one he possesses," Caius cut in before Drel could finish, his words firm, deliberate, leaving no gap for interruption. "I would ask all of you to trust in that."

I felt it—the weight behind what he said, the way it settled, not just as words, but as something he genuinely believed.

Those were strong words.

I almost felt something stir at that, something close to amusement.

One thing was clear, though.

He knew. Or at least, he had figured out enough to piece it together. The way I’d dismissed the idea of needing allies, the way I’d looked at them—not as individuals, but as assets—it must have clicked for him.

[Skill Share].

He might not know the full details, but he understood what it meant.

Caius...

The way he could pull truth out of fragments, read into things most would miss—it was sharp, almost unsettling. The kind of awareness that made him dangerous, not because of raw strength, but because of how he thought.

It wouldn’t be a problem if he were on my side.

But, even with an oath in place, the thought didn’t sit right with me, because the oath only mattered as long as it remained active.

And the real question wasn’t whether he could betray me now...

It was whether he would, if nothing was stopping him.

Caius seemed to pick up on the hesitation I didn’t bother hiding, and instead of pressing me on it, he chose that moment to drop something that immediately shifted the weight of the conversation.

"The new head of the clan, Raghul, plans on attacking to retrieve the garnets."

I frowned, the words not quite lining up with what he had told me earlier.

"What?" I said, my tone sharpening slightly. "You just said you were the only ones who know about this place."

"And that’s still true," Caius replied without missing a beat, his voice steady, like he had already expected the pushback. "He doesn’t know this location... but that doesn’t mean he isn’t searching."

That made...