Chapter 16: Staking Everything!

 

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Apparently my translations were too rigid and strict so you’ll see some changes

‘chemical treatment’ changed to element remedy after i thought of a name for a long time

-Chapter 16, DGM-

When a screaming a hailstorm emerged from the entrance of the headquarters, the countenance of the dark elf assassins changed.

“What sorcery is that?”

“It’s the work of the magician!”

“What about the captain? Where’s the captain!?”

The dark elf assassins had discovered that their assassin captain was missing. At present, the captain was supposed to be positioned on the ground level of the headquarters. Although they were unable to glimpse into the interior of the hailstorm, one thing was definite – that was not the captain.

The captain might have been had.

The verdict was unanimous. The assassins had landed into a hard predicament. Panic and disorder ensued as attacks were launched and questions were yelled.

Link swiftly brought the assassins out of the iron gate, entering the plaza where the true battle lay.

‘Sou~’ An arrow was fired.

However, once these arrows entered the sphere of the hailstorm, they were instantly knocked aside by the gales and the ice shards, losing any precision they once had.

“Archers, archers, they are hiding inside. Shoot them dead!” A dark elf howled.

Even more arrows were shot. However, they were rendered ineffective. The cyclone obstructed their field of vision and dispersed the arrow shafts. The human assassins within the hailstorm were safe and sound. They only needed to maintain their vigilance and brush aside the lucky arrow shafts that had managed to get through the cyclone.

Seeing the storm cyclone continuing its revolution without a care, the dark elves immediately knew that archery was ineffective.

“Charge! Kill them all!”

“Wait, hailstorm is dangerous, there are bits of ice inside, how can we charge?”

“Are you scared? You coward! Wimp!”

Discord was sown. Without a leader to command them, the dark elf assassins achieved only as much as a housefly despite their great numbers.1

However, it was still boldness and hot-bloodedness that brought death down to people.

A dozen dark elf assassins charged. They covered their faces, lowered their bodies and charged straight into the cyclone without a shred of hesitation.

However, after stepping into the storm cyclone, they were promptly rueful.

The biting wind was as acute as knives, the gales bountiful with dagger-like ice shards. The attacks of the hailstorm were too concentrated and numerous. This was something mere skill was unable to defend against.

The range of the secondary hailstorm was only 5 meters, and the radius did not exceed 3 meters. The genuine effective range of the secondary hailstorm was slightly above a meter but this distance was a distance of hell to enemies.

In a moment, the dark elves who had entered the hailstorm had received a plethora of injuries.

Some dark elves were hacked by the ice shards and taken down within a matter of seconds. Those that had managed to enter the effective range of the hailstorm by luck were chilled to the bone, a mass of bruises. What had waited them was not a warm welcome but the cold steel of a blade.

The coordinated attack of these assassins had not survived even 5 seconds.

When the hailstorm shifted away, a dozen badly mangled corpses could be seen in its wake.

The remaining dark elf assassins were silenced, their courage dispelled thoroughly. Nobody else dared to challenge them.

Following this, a group of dark elves followed the hailstorm from behind, but keept their distance. A few dark elves would occasionally release a few arrows at the hailstorm while others would blankly stand around, at a loss of what to do.

“We found the captain, he’s dead!” A yell from the hall of the third military department headquarters sounded out.

The morale of the dark elf assassins dropped even lower.

After three minutes, Link finally brought Annie and the assassins past the plaza and entered an alley.

The field of vision here was narrow. With no expected arrows, the danger level was greatly reduced.

“Continue forward and enter the tavern. There’s a secret exit there!” Annie abruptly said. That was the secret location where vital information was received or communicated, something which only core members knew. Because it was located in a tavern2, it was hard to discover.

Link turned towards the tavern and begin walking.

Dark elf assassins also lay in ambush in the tavern but they were blown away the second they met the hailstorm. The experienced ones immediately turned heel and fled.3

Annie waved her hand. “Keep up.”

She took the initiative, leading them to the back of the tavern. In the kitchen lay several dead bodies belonging to the chiefs and their assistants. At the corner of the kitchen was an entrance to the wine cellar.

Annie sucked in a mouthful of air. She opened the entrance of the wine cellar before heaving a chef’s corpse and tossing it in. A heavy thud reverberated, but there were no assassins to be seen.

“Safe!” Annie made a hand signal, entering the wine cellar first with Link behind her. The rest of the assassins fell in, following her in a single file.

In the wine cellar, Annie briefed Link as they walked. “At the innermost region of the wine cellar is the entrance of the channel. The channel is complicated, with only one path being the correct one. It leads to a house 200 meters away from here. That should be sufficient enough for us to lose the pursuit of the dark elf assassins.”4

Link nodded his head. At this point, they were already safe.

In all honesty, the game system had already informed him of the completion of the mission.

“Rescuing the legendary assassin completed.

Player has been awarded 15 free points.

The next step of the mission is yet to activate.”

With this 15 free points as reward, Link’s free points had once again increased to 20. This had given him more room for leeway.

Annie had already arrived at the heart of the wine cellar. She felt the wall behind a wine bucket for a while, before prying open a hidden door. She crawled into the opening, saying to Link, “Mr. Link, you have already provided a great help to us. From here on is our job, we will ensure your safety.”

Aldwin also piped up. “Mr. Link, my life was saved by you, I will be your shield!”

All the other assassins were also of the same mind.

In this episode, they had deeply recognised the importance of a magician. By borrowing the power of a magician, they had broke through an encirclement of dozens of dark elf assassins and managed to escape.

This was nothing short of a miracle. If said, nobody would believe it.

If they had a magician like Link, they could easily solve problems that many assassins could not achieve. An important figure like him, how could they let anything happen to him?

Link slightly relaxed, knowing that he could temporarily rest.

In this fight, his mind was always taut. Fighting with magic while consumed a great deal of mental energy as a single mishap could not be tolerated.5

They were very lucky. No incidents occurred in the channel. Within 5 minutes, the party of people exited the channel, walking out from an ordinary house.

This home had members of the third military department, a young couple. They were unsurprised at the sudden appearance of Annie and her team. Upon seeing all the wounds and injuries of everyone, the young husband immediately fetched clean bandages and medicine while the wife proficiently treated their wounds. She was likely trained as a specialist.

It was a pity that this place had no magic medicine, or Link could use them to increase his recovery of magic.

However, when uncovering Aldwin’s bandage, the woman was bewildered and exclaimed, “How could the wound heal so fast?”

Upon hearing this, Aldwin gratefully nodded to Link, knowing everything was Link’s credit.

Annie was also slightly astounded. She never thought that Link’s ‘element remedy’ was actually this effective, and she could not help but turn to stare at Link.

Link was slouched against the wall, his arms folded. Both his eyes were closed and his magic wand was loosely stuck in his belt. His young face was filled with exhaustion.

Annie knew that magic consumed a great deal of energy and all magicians emphasised rest. However, it was already the wee hours of the morning now. At night, this youngster collapsed the transmission tower with his magic, before escaping from the pursuit of the assassins, and then rushed to provide assistance to the third military department members. It could be said that he had never even relaxed for a moment.

He was definitely exhausted to the point of collapse.

Although she didn’t know why, upon seeing this, Annie’s heart grew soft. She had an impulse to embrace him and let him sleep peacefully.6

This was something she had never experienced before. When the feeling left, Annie was startled. “What’s happened to me? Why would I think like that?”

She silently felt her face, feeling her two cheeks burning.7

Aldwin curiously asked from the side, “Captain, are you hurt? Why is your face so red?”

“I’m fine.” Annie was slightly frantic, like her feelings had been discovered. She hastened to return to her poker face. “Time is limited, you better rest properly!”

“Yes.” Aldwin did not dare disobey the captain’s orders.

The small group of assassins rested and reorganised in the house. All the injuries and wounds of the assassins were treated with medicine. Each one of them became as lively as a dragon and animated tiger.8

“Captain, is it time to set off?” Aldwin softly asked. According to the plan, they were to go to the army barracks now.

Annie hesitated, looking at Link. She wanted to let Link rest more.

However, Link had already opened both his eyes. “Let’s set off.”9

“But your body-” Annie could not help but say, both her eyes filled with concern.

“I’m totally fine. After resting for a while, my mana has somewhat recovered. It is sufficient enough to prevent a few accidents. Let’s go.”

Presently he only had 15 mana – but he still had 20 free points. Even if Holm caught up to him, he could still put up a fight!

However, as he stood up from the chair, a notification flashed in his mind.3yes, i know he was standing

Triggered mission: Escort!

Mission description: Escort assassin captain Annie Abel to Glaston city barracks.

Mission reward: 30 free points.

30 points, an extremely high mission reward.

The purpose of the game system had progressively become more obvious along with the continuous missions. It did not want Link to escape from Glaston city like he had done in the previous game world, but wanted him to prevent this bloodbath from occurring and save Glaston city!

Accept? Link had some misgivings. Accepting implied a huge risk and it was highly possible he could lose his life.

Various scenes flashed through Link’s mind.

The beautiful young magician teacher Vera struggling to death in front of his eyes.

The bloodsoaked figure of Aldwin doing battle.

The heavily wounded Jasmine desperately hiding at the mouth of the alleyway.

What were her first words when they met her?

“Was the information successfully transmitted?”

These third military department assassins were staking everything they had to rescue Glaston city, without stopping to regard their safety even once. Towards these assassins, Link admitted that giving everything one had for a common goal did not seem that bad.

“This time, allow me to stake everything I have too!” Link softly murmured to himself.

Even if he had tremendous power, what was the point of that if he could not even save one small city?10

Link stood erect, his body straight. Link gripped the cresent magic wand in his hand tightly. After experiencing a series of battles, Link had firmly reached his final conviction.

-Chapter 16, end-

Let this moment in me start; like an anthem in my heart!~

Damn this moment reminded me of ‘From now on’ when Hugh Jackman was singing it in the Greatest showman…go check it out, it’s a terrific movie despite being a musical one. Also, Link is one step closer to capturing Annie

If the magic wand isn’t called cresent magic wand do inform me cause i may have forgotten.

on a side note i have an editor now, he’s a nice lad by the name of akshaythedon. he pointed out quite a bit of typos and im grateful


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