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

CHAPTER 200: Rescue Mission for the Elves

The moon hung in the sky like a silent specter, casting its pale light across the land. A sharp creak from a shifting Treant could be heard reverberating off the distant mountains followed by the occasional howl of a lone Kobold.

From their perch atop the estate wall, Daisuke and Tiphanna surveyed the perimeter in hushed vigilance.

"Those jerks are still here?" Daisuke muttered, his eyes narrowing at a familiar midget who had audaciously claimed his rightful spot on the humanoid throne while barking orders to the other lackeys. "At this rate, they'll be here all week. Lucky bastards. Maybe I should just mug them and take the spellbooks they're gonna get."

"...Did the job posting really promise a spellbook as a reward?" Tiphanna asked, managing to pick out a few coherent words from his incessant rambling.

"Yeah, apparently everyone gets one as a bonus after working the guard duty for a week."

"Forget it," she said, sounding skeptical. "Spellbooks are rare and expensive. There's no way they're handing them out like that for free."

Daisuke raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Then are they flat-out lying about the rewards in the job listing? Isn't that something the guild could punish them for?"

Tiphanna shook her head. "If they really are giving out spellbooks, it's more likely the low-tier, practically useless ones."

"...Fair point," Daisuke murmured, still a little disappointed. "Anyway, time to get down to business."

Tiphanna watched in surprise as his demeanor shifted abruptly—the playful curve of his lips disappeared, replaced now by the stern set of his jaw. The warm light in his butterscotch eyes darkened, becoming sharper and more intense while his aura shifted into something cold and unforgiving.

A familiar chill crawled down her spine as he donned his mask, and the color of his eyes morphed into a molten gold, gleaming with an unsettling fire.

"Considering what happened yesterday," Daisuke stood, the Phantom Cloak fluttering dramatically in the breeze, "it's no surprise they've fortified security like this."

The small-statured elf let out a startled gasp as the dark specter scooped her up into his arms like a princess, a heady and unfamiliar sense of danger and thrill fueling her pulse. Her heart dropped as he dipped low, time twisting to a crawl, tendrils of her pistachio green hair fluttering against her cheeks as he shot forward like a harpoon shot from a ballista.

Tiphanna gasped again, clinging to him in a frantic reflex as he vaulted from the wall onto a statue in the garden. The leap spanned a distance that left her breathless and wondering how he could accomplish it without the use of wind magic.

From the statue's head, he sprang onto several other walls before landing softly atop the fountain in the middle of the courtyard.

As they came to rest, the nervous elf buried her face in his chest, her fingers curling tightly into the fabric of his cloak. Their landing was so silent that it seemed as though gravity itself had given them a momentary reprieve.

She dared a glance at the nearby guards, only to see them no more than a meter away, oblivious. But before her gaze could settle, they were airborne once again, the cobblestone ground quickly fading beneath them.

The moment Daisuke's feet touched down on the roof of a building, he eased into a swift dash, leaping from one rooftop to the next, his movements fluid and calculated as he avoided the nearly invisible tripwires stretched across the buildings.

Even the hidden pressure plates and magic-based traps failed to slow him down. Effortlessly, he landed atop the roof of their destination, his boots barely making a sound against the stone.