Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

Chapter 37: Strategy: deterrent force (2)

As the discussion kept going, one could tell the fear gaining on those prisoners who were listening, not only were they shocked by the brutality being planned, but also by how the students had known how to deal with enemies in a fashion that would bring shame to most strategist. All of the actions mentioned by the students would nip in the bud any hostility towards Debauchery and their students, and they were planning to do it to all who were caught red-handed. They could not understand how kids can be so well informed in the art of punishment. They forgot that Reina as a princess would catch a thing or two about punishment from her studies.

Leol was part of the aristocracy and those things can be overheard during meal time and no one would bat an eye at such atrocities. Although Leol was part of a stable and rather good family who were by no means harmful to their community and were neutral when it came to dealing with other aristocrats. Their unity would provide them with a fair warning when someone tries anything, and since their family was rather peaceful and without ambition but the survival of their bloodline, they were well respected in the city and were invited as guests and consultants. That is when Leol came to the brutal side of aristocracy and learned how to deal with it from his grandpa.

As for Yunan, it is as one would expect, orphanages are often bullied and trampled upon by the locals, and the orphans living inside are susceptible to the same treatment, but if every time someone bullies an orphan they are beaten to an inch of their lives, no matter how brazen you are, you would rather keep your child safe than risk offending the orphanage and have your child beaten almost to death when they step out of your vision, that means no schools, no playing outside, no friends who will risk being beaten to play with your kid and more importantly stones that will pelt you whenever you let your guard down, constant disruption to your work and worst of all, being targeted by the criminal organisations that recruit orphans. That is the way orphans chose to protect themselves, if you decided to antagonize an orphanage be ready for hell to let loose on you, because even if you make the children fear you like death, the sisters have enough backing from the pious populace and the knights of the church in worst case scenario, thus it is expected for Yunan to be taught this.

As Debauchery continued their conversation Fae raised the last point in this strategy "How do we keep the information from leaking and deal a sweeping blow at once that those who are our targets do not get the news and flee before we reach them?". After a few minutes of deliberation Yunan presented the plan the students came up with.

"Memory manipulation for these poor sods, remove the questioning part as well as this conversation from their minds, better to wipe it clean and make it like they fell unconscious during grappling and only just regained consciousness when delivered to the guild, as for dealing a big blow at once, we go out for a field trip, find a city that has a portal leading to all the location of our targets"

"There are 8 targets, we can destroy all of them in one night if we split Debauchery into two parts each with a memory magic user, a healer and a rogue, so Fae, Dustan and Lucian in one group and Balin, Bai and Leader in the other, kill fast and silently, read the memories of the big shots in each target to see who is backing them, leave a bloody message that says 'Debauchery was here'. You are only allowed half an hour in each target and it has to be quiet. Once all the main objectives are dead, we move on to those who spurred them on us and do the same thing, total annihilation in half an hour and leave the same message and leave"

"By morning we deliver the evidence we gathered to the guild and they will find more in the ruins we left behind, there should be memory magic that can extract the memories of the dead, thus the guild would have nothing to say a warning was issued before, and the excuse of protecting the mission is more valid since harming debauchery or its students means the mission is a failure, taking the maximum effort is not against the laws of Tartarus, the only rules adventurers are bound to follow."

"Lastly there is a possibility that the guild would punish you for using excessive force, they might give you missions that will make it harder for you to keep teaching us as a best case scenario, while the worst would be suspending your status as guild members. Since revoking it is just giving you a free rein, since they cannot stop you from getting inside Tartarus without disrupting their most lucrative operations, and cannot hunt you down for the same reason. Thus suspending you is worst case scenario, where you must stop teaching this class and do something else to repent, we have decided to follow you in that case"

"I am an orphan with no strings attached to me, Leol has a grandpa who will punish him for not following you and wasting a good opportunity, as for Reina her father knew the risks when chose Debauchery to teach her, and i have a feeling he would not oppose Reina following you guys until it is time to enter Tartarus."

"That was beyond our expectations" said leader while clapping her hands as praise for her students, "we can implement the strategy you put on this weekend, and as for being punished by the guild, they have the right to dream. We are happy that you are able to use the lessons we taught you this fast, both planning and strategy will be integrated as part of other lessons as you have grasped the essence of both, planning is about predicting every possible eventuality and strategy is about dealing with them with minimal effort. Since you kids have reached this point faster than we thought we will focus on physical training, while the academic part will be left to you to explore and ask about during our lessons. You made us proud"

"Not on the weekend!" shouted Reina, "there will be parties during weekends and holidays, therefore we can not effectively complete the objectives without a hitch, also the weekend is our personal time, so wait for the week days. Going to field trips during the week is much more believable than during weekends, anyone would know we are up to something if we use our free time for a studying session. Wait to the week days then no one would think twice about us disappearing on the field trip since we do not like being spied on."

"Well said" retorted Bai " since you are going with us during the mission, you will clean a level one nest as a form of ability test, you will have only next week to study and improve your fighting skills, now stand up and use any means necessary to touch or hit Dustan, while i deal with the prisoners." And so started the afternoon lesson, combat training