A few moments later, they were all back in the same place in the clouds, and all of them had grimaces present on their faces.
The reason behind this… Was that after that interview which had been quite enlightening, they had gone around to the place where the head government of the island decided.
It had been a very strange building that was actually in the shape of a single man who was supposed to be the one who had done some major historical feat which all of them knew was obviously faked by the Church, and the moment they reached it… They had found out that there were so many layers of Champion level formations present that it would be a pipedream to want to march in and do what they wished, especially with the limited numbers they had.
On paper, the strongest among them was only an Exalted Champion, and from the auras of those that were detected from inside, there were multiple people at this level who would definitely be able to defeat them with numbers even if their Champion Paths weren't as high tier as theirs.
This meant that any plan to directly storm the headquarters would definitely be futile, so they had to find something else.
The good thing was that because of their general level, concealing themselves and traveling around the island was easy. They would only have to be careful at certain locations where there were checkpoints, but even these could be crossed if they were cautious.
After a few seconds, the Underlord shook his head and shrugged before saying, "I guess this explains why so many of the past five-star infiltration missions have followed the same plan. Well, let's do it, too!"
This made everyone who was present look in his direction, and he basked in the attention that he had been drained of ever since he had found himself under the shadow of this infernal guy.
He knew that he would be pummelled again if he didn't continue, though, so he spoke again.
"I know of 25 different infiltration five-star missions, and of them, 18 followed this method and succeeded. Three failed, and two tried something wacky, and they failed, too. Anyway, this method is… Classic assassination."
Daneel blinked as he heard this, and waited for the man to continue.
Yet, he had already gotten an inkling of what he might mean, as it was something that had crossed his mind, too.
"Simple. We use these three months that we have to slowly infiltrate that main government building, before we finally get a chance to kill those who are really in command. For this, we'll have to be creative, but it won't be too difficult. The only problem will be in whether we will be able to do it, and how much of a degree of completion we will be able to get. Of course, if we succeed, we will all be getting one reward each. Let me explain: in 18 of these missions, 12 ended with some people having to sacrifice themselves, or leave, in other terms, in order for the rest to succeed. This resulted in those people not being rewarded and the entire team getting the bottom-most tier of completion, so we should aim to not have to resort to this. The other teams all got the bottom-most completion, too, but that might be because of different reasons. If you all agree, I suggest that we get started, because it will require quite a lot of hard work. Hey, its called an infiltration mission, after all! We will be carefully surveilling all those whom we select as persons of interest, and we will find ways to enter that headquarters before making our way to that family of scum from the Church. There must be many layers inside, too, so we'll have to slowly work our way, with extreme caution. This is safe, and I guarantee that if we do well, it will work. Le-I mean, what do you all say?"
It was obvious that he had been about to say that they should all do it, but had stopped when he remembered that he wasn't the one in charge, any more.
Daneel squinted and furrowed his brow as he heard all this. Indeed, it was a reasonable plan, and although it might not be that it was perfect, it had quite a high chance of being successful.
Yet… What that guy had implied but not said clearly was that all those who exceeded mostly only obtained a minimum reward, which indicated something very strongly.
This was not the best way to finish this mission.
Daneel could guess that even those people must have known that, but had still chosen that path as it would at least ensure that they would get something.
Only… Daneel had a very strong feeling that there was a different way, and he wanted to choose it.
He didn't even know what it was perfectly, but what he was definitely sure of was that if he wanted to get the top reward, then he should take this risk.
So, taking a deep breath, he made his decision.
"We will do this. I and the rest of those who came with me will go on a different track, as I want to try something. The rest of you can proceed with the infiltration plan, and I wish you all the best."
"What?! You pushed yourself onto this mission, so you should at least have some responsibility!"
"Try something else? You probably only don't want to do the hard work!"
"Boss, even if you lost to him, you shouldn't let him do this! We need everyone that we can get, and even then, we might not succeed!"
"Yes, Boss! Even if he managed to defeat you once, we bet that you will be able to beat him in the future! But he should cooperate now!"
Voices of dissent all rose up together, and it was clear that the team of the Underlord was under the impression that Daneel only wanted to relax and enjoy himself while having them do all the work.
He chuckled as he understood this, realizing that it was probably because of the fact that they couldn't even think of a different plan that could be implemented here.
This was almost like the classic conflict between those who did their own thing versus those who did not veer off the beaten path, and Daneel wasn't in a mood to handle it.
So, he simply matched his gaze with the Underlord, who sighed and raised both his hands to stop everyone from speaking.
"Let them be. I fought him, and I trust him. If he's going to do something else, we should let him, and we'll see just how good his plan in."
Daneel nodded as he heard this and turned around with the intention of giving a few instructions to his sovereigns and then leaving, as this was what he had expected from this guy.
Yet… It did not seem like he was done, as he continued in a tone that was really attempting to be innocent, but was actually quite mischievous.
"I might even fancy a wager, but who would gamble with five-star tier rewards, right? Well, gentlemen, let's get back to our plan…"
There it was. The cockiness that Daneel had expected from this guy ever since he had met him finally showed itself again, and it looked like it had been quite suppressed all this while.
The area that they were in was in such a style that after he had turned around, he was only visible to his sovereigns, and as he cracked a smile, all of them started to smirk, understanding that their king had found another scapegoat.
Turning around, Daneel declared, "Why not? If you win, we will only get the minimum rewards, anyway. I'll wager all of our rewards. Do you dare to do the same?"
A stunned silence followed Daneel's words, and the entire team of the Underlord starred at him as if he was crazy.
Six five-star tier rewards!
Their eyes shone with greed, and they all turned to their boss, only to see that the same thing was reflected in his eyes, too.
That was the whole reason why they had been following him in the first place, but after a moment, the caution that the Underlord had displayed back during the fight came back to him, telling him that he might be doing something wrong.
Yet… The dice had been thrown, and he was already close to losing all of the respect he had built up over all this time with his subordinates. He slightly wished that he could take back those words which he had said almost jokingly, but it was too late. He simply hadn't been able to help himself, and he had also convinced himself at that point that there was no way that anyone would be confident enough to succeed where so many had failed in the past few centuries. He had been proven wrong… And he now had to pay the price.
Like a drunkard who would have to go through with the promise that he had made even though he had been completely inebriated when he made it, he could only tell himself that he would make sure that he would succeed. It would all come down to that- he still believed that this guy couldn't possibly do what so many more powerful people had been unable to, and the only way that he could lose was if he messed up and caused the entire thing to fail.
So, he set his jaw with determination, and got an idea before saying, "Very well! It's all in good sport, of course, but it 24 rewards of ours for six of yours - it's not fair, right? So I'm ready to wager 6 from our side. Any questions? N-"
"No."
Daneel had been prepared, so he interrupted him and held his hand forward.
Of course, this threw off the Underlord, but he still walked forward and shook his hand.
Following that, all six of them disappeared, and all that was left in the Underlord's mind was a fleeting thought that this might come back to haunt him.
Stifling it, he got back to the preparations, while Daneel got back to his body and woke up before chuckling to himself and saying, "They never change."
They were still all assembled together because they had yet to decide on what to do, so the other sovereigns also heard these words as they woke up.
"Yeah, it's like they're a music trinket that keeps playing the same thing over and over again. You might change the make and model, but if the formation is the same… The same things will happen. Anyway, what's our plan?"
The sovereigns had all been assured that their king must have already built a smashing one that he would explain as soon as they asked him.
So… When they saw him sink into thought instead, they realized that for once, he did not have an answer.
They let him be for a few minutes, and after going through everything that he had seen so far in had in his mind… Daneel finally got an idea, which was based on the same gut instinct that had told him that there was a better way.
"Infiltration. This mission is called infiltration, and its purpose seems to be to show how one can take back control of an area controlled by the Church. Now, the typical plan would result in people having to sacrifice themselves because their power level would simply not be enough for a direct infiltration and attack, so the fact that this is not marked with a good score means that… It is not the right way. However, no matter how one goes about it, there will always be quite a strong risk of that happening. So… What if the correct method is not to be so direct, but to attack from a different direction?"
"Which direction, Daneel?", Asked Eloise, as they all followed the King's thinking pattern.
"Grand debate, Grand Debate! Tickets are running out! The entire island is going to see, but you can be the lucky few who can do so from the front seats! Don't miss it! They'll run out soon!"
They had camped in an open field in one of the farmlands, and they were suddenly interrupted by this announcement from a seller who went from town to town.
As soon as he heard it… It was as if a bulb had been switched on in Daneel mind.
"That direction!", He said, before pointing at that seller, and running after him as if his life depended on it.