"What is this solution?"
The Captain asked. The young man seemed to have piqued his interest.
"What is yours first?"
Yoshino Aruven asked in return. He had already admitted to himself that the Captain was indeed a young genius of the Trogans. There was no way that he would not come up with his own solution.
"Figure out who the target is."
"Agreed."
Yoshino smiled upon hearing the answer. His thoughts were also around the same page. He then said,
"But first we need to deal with those monsters."
"They are not a problem."
"Really? For how long?"
The Captain narrowed his eyes. He realized that the MP he possess was not enough to sustain the wall indefinitely. He quickly made an estimation,
"Thirty minutes. Give or take."
"That is more than enough. I'm heading out. You all should stay in this place."
"No! We will all move out."
"Are you kidding me? You'll only slow me down."
"But if you are alone, who can say that you will not escape on your own?"
Yoshino paused upon hearing such accusation. He wanted to yell at the Captain. If he wanted to escape, he could have left the platoon when they were running before. Heck, he could have taken a different corridor when their paths had diverged a couple of times.
But he chose not to voice it out. The 30-minute time limit had already started. So he simply answered,
"No one."
"Then no deal."
"You have no choice. I'm going regardless."
"Then I shall end you here. Right now. For all I know that will let everything here come to an end."
"Then do it! But have you figured out why all of this happening?"
"Yes. Because you are here."
Yoshino winced upon hearing the answer. Perhaps he should have just yelled his complaints a while ago. But time was running out. He opted to explain instead,
"No. The reason is you."
"I?!"
"Yes. This was all an elaborate setup to take you down. Your mission is a sham. They wanted you to fail. You are not the hunter but the hunted."
He kept on adding a few similar metaphors. He hoped that at least one of those could help the Captain realize the 'true' mission.
A young talent that was about to reach the Tier 4. There was no way that such speed in cultivation would not gather any animosity. Since the amount of resources needed to nurture a Tier 4 was not trivial even for a leading Guild.
This mission was probably planned by those who were jealous of him. This was a ploy to make this young genius on fail.
The Captain narrowed his eyes. It seemed like he was beginning to consider that possibility. There was no way he did not thought of this before. Not unless he was a naive and spoiled brat. Which seemed to be not the case here. He then asked,
"What made you so sure?"
"Because two years ago, a Tier 3 had failed his breakthrough here. Afterwards the place was deemed cursed. Anyone who tries to have a breakthrough here failed."
This particular dungeon was unfit for resource farming. That was the reason why the leading powers had shown no interest here. But for small, local, and independent Guilds this might not be the case. They would definitely make a profit from those self-reproducing monsters found here.
The reason why they never bothered to venture in this place was because they believed it was cursed. No one wanted to fail on their breakthroughs. Aside from a waste of precious resources, a failure could cripple their cultivation permanently.
Yoshino saw the Captain ponder on what he said. He then added,
"Surely, the Trogans have heard of these rumors. And they sent you here to fail as well."
"That is a superficial proof."
"It is. So you have to decide whether to believe it or not."
The Captain fell silent. Perhaps he was weighing his options for now. After a few seconds he ordered,
"Every one, pair up! Mink and Budi. Nawnu and Toba. Driff and Adled. Klein and I. You have to guard against each other. Consider your assigned partner as a suspect. Any sudden movements shall be dealt with."
"Captain, are you saying that you believe in this prisoner?"
"Enough with the jokes Captain. The prisoner only want to sow discord in our platoon."
"*Gulp* The Captain paired with me. I will be killed here."
"Sir this is absurd!"
Adled, Budi, Klein, and Toba had voiced out their complaints. They seemed to had only kept quiet before because they still respected their leader.
"Just follow the orders."
The Captain replied. He could not spend any more time convincing each member to agree. Thus all he could now was exert his rank and force they to obey.
"Orders. Are orders."
"Affirmative."
"Then please let me get close to you Captain. I can at least help you sustain your MP usage."
Nawnu and Driff supported their leader's decision. There was no doubt here anymore. Officer Driff was the real man of few words…
Anyway, Mink offered to aid her Captain in maintaining the wall of flames. Thus the platoon was divided now: those who were against and those who were in support.
Was it a coincidence that each pair had both and in favor and in against in it? Or perhaps their minds could be manipulated to such degree?
Then the odd one out spoke,
"Captain, what about me?"
"Shura, follow Mr. Kang. Make sure no trouble occurs."
Yoshino agreed with such arrangements. He did notice that the order had double intentions. One was to protect him. And the other was to eliminate him if he tries to escape or do something against the platoon.
Either way a Tier 3 would definitely help on what he was planning to do. She was also the second least possible mind manipulator. Because her promotion relied on their Captain's success.
What would she gain from making her Captain fail? Well, there was a possibility that her impending promotion was just a cover. Yoshino only hoped that this was not the case.
By the way, just because Lieutenant Shura was using fire magic does not exclude her as a suspect. With proper planning and arrangement, the six skill slots could enable an individual to wield both fire and mind magic.
Nonetheless the female lieutenant protested,
"Captain, why? I don't want to be with such a no life!"
"Follow the orders Shura. Please."
"Captain…"
"Shura…"
Yoshino simply ran forward. He went past each member who started to distance themselves from one another. He could not wait any longer. Besides he has no time to spend for such cheesy conversations.
True enough the female lieutenant followed behind him. The two rushed forward. After a few minutes of running, Yoshino asked,
"Lieutenant Shura---"
"Don't call me Shura! No one else is allowed to call me that. My family name is Alshura!"
The female lieutenant snapped. Perhaps she was still upset with the arrangements. Well at least she was still not trying to incinerate the young man. Yoshino then said,
"Alright. No need to bite my head off. So, lieutenant, who exactly is the target?"
"…"
"There is no use in hiding the information. You realize that the real target here is your Captain, right?"
"…Yes, now that I think about it, we have been making some errors with our actions from the get-go."
"Your mind is probably clearing up now. That is because we had gained a distance away from the mind manipulator."
A common rule of skill effects was that the farther you are from the caster, the less effective the skill will be.
Of course this common rule could be broken with a fickle skill development. But let us talk about that some other time.
"Or you were just weakening your ability so I would fall to your trap."
"Well, there is that too."
Yoshino did not reason any further. He was not here to prove that he was not the suspect anyway. It was also a good thing that the female lieutenant was still vigilant. He insisted on knowing the answer instead,
"So, please. Tell me."
"…"
"Please?"
"All I know is that the target had a codename: Day Stealer. The person was an operative that had defected from the Militia. See, the mission is justifiable."
The female lieutenant finally answered. But Yoshino was troubled upon hearing this. He said,
"No it's not! Defectors should be dealt with by a punitive force. By a secret ops or forces. It should not be something that would be given to a soon to be promoted officer."
"That can't be…"
Yoshino wanted to add a few more reasons. For example, there was no way that their Guild would let their genius talent to face a defector. What if the defector convinces the genius to defect as well?
But such reasoning could be countered. And the argument would continue on and on.
And besides, twelve Spirit Wolves were now rushing in front of them!