Hacking the Game Didn't Go as Intended [Part One]

CHAPTER 177: Vexed, Varnished, and Vicious

With an awkward smile, Daisuke raised his hands in surrender and took a cautious step back as the girl's fiery determination threatened to engulf them both.

"Oh! I know!" Lumielle inched closer, her eyes burning as the right appellation came to her. "We'll call you Sophia Lorraine Everwinter. We're childhood friends who met during your elder brother's coming-of-age ceremony. Since your family's sovereign is in a distant land, we have been exchanging letters since we were children!"

"Well then... Lumielle, Sophia," Sinister Granny glanced from one girl to the next, her expression settling back into her customary scowl. "Since you two obviously have everything figured out, I think it's about time you left. I've grown weary of you both. Oh, and, Lumielle... be sure to have two hundred thousand gold coins ready after getting rid of the Mhaledictus."

Before the duo could respond—

"Toodle-oo~"

With a final farewell and a wave of her hand, a familiar force emerged, tearing into the very fabric of space and time like the bite of an unseen beast. A dark, gaping hole materialized, pulling them in without mercy.

"Dammit, not this again!" Daisuke exclaimed.

Lumielle screamed, her voice trembling with panic, while Daisuke cursed under his breath as they were helplessly swallowed whole and unceremoniously spat outside, tumbling to the ground like discarded refuse.

Just like before, Lumielle regained her bearings to find Daisuke lying on top of her. His silver hair rained down, enclosing them both like shimmering snowflakes. His butterscotch eyes were deep and mesmerizing, his lips an interesting curve, his soft body melding into hers.

Instead of frantically pushing him away as she had done before, the princess blushed fiercely, completely lost in the moment. Before, the embarrassment was far too overwhelming and she just desperately wanted it to end, but now, for some inexplicable reason, she was more than willing to endure the embarrassment if it meant this moment could last even just a fraction of a second longer.

Lumielle found herself feeling a tad of disappointment as Daisuke pulled back, and it confused her immensely. But she didn't get a chance to contemplate the emotion. When he offered her a hand, she dismissed the thought and accepted his generous offer. But her two left feet had her toppling and falling into his bosom. Instead of a hard, unyielding chest, her cheeks met the warm, plush curves of his breasts and her entire face went up into flames.

"Hey, are you okay?" Daisuke asked in a velvety tone, gently clutching her shoulders. "Your face is all flushed."

Lumielle meekly averted her gaze. "I-I'm fine. Just a bit tired, I suppose."

"I know right," Daisuke smiled sweetly, which did little to aid the princess's dilapidated composure. "I feel like passing out for a week. Anyway, we should hurry back to the horses; we only have several hours left before dawn."

DING!

[The quest «Foraging in the Mammothgrove Forest» has been completed!]

[Affinity with Sinister Granny has increased by 15%.]

[2,500 Experience Points have been acquired.]

[-1200 Gold has been lost.]

A vein bulged in Daisuke's temple as he read the notification. So as much as Affinity and EXP underwent a positive change in the end, this ol' hag still went ahead and pocketed my hard-earned gold?! Isn't this highway robbery? I should burn her house down to get even! I'm allowed even that level of justice, right?

Knowing that he would be the one thrown into prison for his crime instead, Daisuke stormed off angrily, unable to bear the sight of the tree for even a second longer. Even if prison wasn't an obstacle he needed to fear, he also preferred not dealing with the Chrysobees again; his clothes were still sticky with nectar from the last few unpleasant encounters.

Less than a mile later, Daisuke halted in his tracks and pondered if spending the time to torch Sinister Granny's tree house would've prevented him from having his current encounter. The ground trembled beneath their feet, a deep, guttural groan reverberating through the dense forestry. Daisuke and Lumielle stilled, their eyes darting to the shifting canopy ahead.

With a deafening crack, an enormous tree uprooted itself, its bark twisting and creaking as the creature contorted into a hulking humanoid form. Towering at nearly thirty feet, the Treant's gnarled limbs extended into branch-like arms, each tipped with jagged splinters sharp enough to impale. Its hollow, glowing emerald eyes radiated an ancient malice, and vines hung like dreadlocks from its craggy head, swaying with its every step.

The monster roared, the sound akin to a thousand creaking timbers as its massive foot slammed into the forest floor, sending shockwaves rippling outward. Leaves scattered like confetti, and smaller creatures fled in terror.

DING!

[Gigas Treant | Lvl 92 | Giant | HP: 50612/50612]

Daisuke palmed his face with a sigh of exasperation. Of course the first giant I ever face decides to make its grand debut when I'm not bringing my A game. "I'm really not in a good mood right now," he murmured maliciously, golden eyes smoldering beneath his bangs. "So forgive me if I'm a bit rough right off the bat."

Lumielle watched quietly as Daisuke confidently marched toward the incoming fiend, his daggers gleaming in his hands, his face set in a scowl that only seemed to heighten his beauty. His strides were confident, almost haughty, his dark cape billowing behind him like the tongue of vengeance.

"He's like a dark knight..." the princess whispered, her eyes gleaming with a mystery that even she could not quite unravel. But if there was one thing that she was reassured of, it was that—

"KWOOOOAR!"

Daisuke would not lose, and that fact solidified in her mind as he ripped a pained roar from the monster's gaping maw. She looked on in awe as he flitted all over the Treant's body like a beetle challenging a Tasmanian Devil, tearing the creature apart limb-by-limb, bark-by-bark.

BOOOOOOOM!

Lumielle shielded her eyes with a gasp when Daisuke used the last of his Flarial Seeds to trigger a fiery explosion from within the creature, ravaging it from the inside. Even while it endured the turmoil from within, the fiend roared when it was bound and betrayed by its own element, the barbed vines from the Bramble Seed constricting its large frame and impaling its rough, wooden husk.

The princess's expression softened in a rare show of vulnerability as she marveled at his strength. Even after a life-or-death confrontation with the Dismal Lich, he still has enough energy to fight at this intensity? Unbelievable...

Haxks Starfrost. Just who was he, exactly? Her aim was to simply use him to infiltrate the ranks of the aristocrats and acquire information about their treachery. Initially, she had absolutely no intention of believing in his abilities beyond his capacity for espionage. But what was this? He was almost on the level of the Knight Commander.