"Hey, Billy… what are you even saying?" Icarus asked while frowning.
"I am just saying that there is a better way to solve this mess," Billy said. "You don't have to rely on total annihilation to quench your anger. Hit where it hurts and get rid of the pieces that are the core of the problem. If you play your hands right, you will only have a bunch of confused people without resources to go after you after this is over."
"... Tell me more," Lucyna said.
"Destroy the dungeons and while they are busy trying to stop you from doing so, aim to their pockets and get all of their money," Billy said. "After getting rid of those, you can exterminate the nobles of this state. Once the population sees what happened to them, they won't try to take their place, they won't even have the means to do the same as the others without the dungeons, so they will be forced to look for other ways to live their lives."
It seemed like a waste to get rid of dungeons that could produce ores like that, but it wasn't like Billy actually needed them. He could understand Lucyna's anger. He would be that unreasonable in her place. Still, he believed that his plan was way better than simple killing. Make your true enemies despair before delivering the final blow… it was also the perfect chance to let them make a mistake.
In any case, Lucyna stopped to consider that option. She probably didn't know much about the world yet since she got blinded by revenge for many years. Still, Billy only learned that dungeons could be destroyed recently. In most cases, that was a terrible move for the people of a state, but that would work well for the people of that state, who let greedy bastards control their lives to the point where they had to follow the orders to destroy another.
"That isn't a bad idea…" Lucyna said.
"Right, but you will need our help to do all of this as fast as possible without giving your enemies the time to react," Billy said. "Naturally, we won't help for free. We will split the money that we will get in three parts."
"Sounds good to me," Lucyna said while showing a satisfied smile.
She had thought that Billy would demand her to work with them, and after her goal was achieved, she wouldn't mind fighting against those that would want to kill her. She was fine with that as well. After all, her other power granted her the chance to level up in exchange for valuable things. She would become stupidly stronger after that. What she didn't imagine was the fact that her reaction would make Billy conclude that.
Regardless, it seemed that the group was finally seeing each other eye to eye, but Icarus couldn't help but sigh. Billy and Lucyna were quite the dangerous combination since they had no qualms in going to great lengths to crush their enemies. Regardless, the group retreated for the night after agreeing that they would talk about their next steps on the next day.
It seemed that the mission was going to last for a while longer. Still, Billy had considered that possibility, so he wasn't exactly worried. Besides, he was solving two problems at a time, getting rid of the leaders of a state that might target his friends one day and preventing Lucyna from falling into a spiral and dark path.
The next day, the group met outside the capital. Although they decided to work together, it would be better if they weren't seen walking or talking together while they stayed in the capital. Regardless, it seemed that Lucyna had turned into a nocturnal animal since she looked tired, she was pale as a ghost, and the light of the day was bothering her.
"You guys look like the type who don't know how to work in groups, so I will take the reins from here," Billy declared.
"Fine by me, as long as you do something about that bossy attitude," Lucyna said.
"As I was saying, you guys don't have experience in working with groups, that is why you can say things like that," Billy said. "Regardless, to reach our current goals here, we will need to take some fast and precise steps. Checking the dungeons, measuring the forces guarding those places, getting rid of them, and then destroying the cores… That will be half of our mission. With my experience, I can find the final part of the dungeon relatively fast, it will depend how deep the mines are. The real problem is that eventually, even if we take the guards down, someone will notice and others will come. The enemies are the richest folks of this state, so we might end up fighting almost the total military force of this state."
"I can prevent that from happening," Icarus said.
"Yes, you can and you will, but not in the way that you are thinking," Billy said. "You will work as diversion after we deal with the guards near the mines. You will cause problems near the towns and villages closest to the mines and before going to the next target, you will get rid of all the ravens, horses, carriages and anything that might help messengers from moving around."
"I see… I suppose that it is better than killing people left and right," Icarus said.
"What about me?" Lucyna asked.
"I really don't need help, so you can just watch everything and wait until we deal with all the dungeons and then target the nobles," Billy replied. "I am sure that you will want to do most of the job yourself when it comes to handling them."
"You are right, I can barely contain the urge to go and kill all of them," Lucyna said while showing a wicked smile. "But I am going with you to make sure that we will finish things as fast as possible."
