47 Caught In The Act

As Heavenly Dagger ran fast around in a circle, Lin Fang realized something weird, no matter how many arrows were released, none of them hit the stone in the middle. As Lin Fang continued to study the situation in front of him, he saw that there was at least an area of about 50 cms of the stone that no arrow aimed for.

This could be it, he thought in his heart the breakthrough point.

Heavenly Dagger who had been running around in a circle suddenly stopped and jumped left, he used his inertia to press his feet against the wall and jump up. One foot after another, he pressed on the wall as he ran up the wall. His red energy seemed to emit a mysterious force which kept him from falling on the ground. The pressure plates were only placed on the ground, no arrows were released and Heavenly Dagger easily reached the top of the dome.

The moment he reached the center exactly above the stone, he stopped moving and let his body free fall towards the stone. He opened his arms wide and twirled his body in a perfect spin just like a perfect gymnast. Lin Fang was mesmerized by his move for a second before coming back to his senses.

As Heavenly Dagger twirled, he reached the table on which the stone was kept but didn't touch the stone. He reached for the table and used his hands to stand upside down upon it, his position allowed him to look at the Stone of The Ice King in close up as it was placed between his arms, a few centimeters from his face.

He moved his legs to stand on the ground as he examined the surroundings for any traps, making sure not to touch the stone. Looking at his actions, Lin Fang nodded in approval, no matter how dumb this guy was when he talked, he was a competent thief.

After looking around for a while for any traps, Heavenly Dagger started frowning. He had found an alarm trap. There was a wire connected to the table and Heavenly Dagger knew that the moment he picked up the stone, the guards or whatever was left of them would be notified about the thieves in the Castle. He and Lin Fang weren't really afraid of them but the problem was that some powerful being who was sleeping somewhere in the castle might come for them, or the reinforcement might surround the castle boxing them in.

He could try defusing the trap but there was a high chance that he would fail since he didn't really have the tools from the modern world which he usually used.

"Hey!", After thinking about it for a while and not being able to reach a conclusion, Heavenly Dagger decided to ask Lin Fang. It was his quest item anyway, he was just helping Lin Fang out.

"What is it?", Lin Fang asked. He had already noticed the frown on Heavenly Dagger's face and knew that the situation wasn't good.

"The stones' boobytrapped, it would announce to the whole City that there are thieves in the castle the moment I take it."

"Can you defuse it?", Lin Fang asked once again.

"I can try but don't get your hopes up."

"What about any other method?"

"None I can think of."

Lin Fangs' eyebrows also drew into a frown after hearing his words. After thinking about it for a while, he still couldn't come up with a method and they were running out of time so he took a risky decision.

"Try to defuse it if you can, if it works great if it doesn't then take the stone and we run for our lives.", he said. There was nothing else he could think in such a small amount of time, thus, he could only ask Heavenly Dagger to try his best as he got ready for the worst.

Heavenly Dagger nodded after hearing what he said and got to work. His hands moved delicately as he opened the compartment under the table with one hand and pulled out a small dagger with the other. The inside of the table was completely full of various wires and gears spreading around giving it a very complicated feel. Heavenly Dagger, would take a deep breath every time before cutting a wire and would sometimes fiddle with a gear. Only a few minutes had passed and Heavenly Dagger was already sweating buckets.

Lin Fang stood at the door restless as he watched Heavenly Dagger hard at work. The process of cutting wires and switching or pulling out gears continued for over ten minutes before a slight smile appeared on Heavenly Daggers' face. He couldn't help but admire the way the game designers had designed such a sophisticated trap mechanism for a single mission. Even someone like him was finding it hard to break. What made him admire the design of this trap, even more, was that it was directly connected to the arrow trap that surrounded him.

After realizing that, he went in order and first disabled the arrow trap before moving on to the second trap. His speed as he progressed in cracking the trap continued to increase. With every small achievement he made in cracking the trap, his confidence increased as he started taking small-small risks here and there to save time. This easy build up of confidence due to small successes showed the immaturity still existing inside Heavenly Dagger's heart. An expert would progress in his task fast but only with absolute confidence due to practicing the same thing many times while an amateur would be impatient for fast success. This was a great divide between that Heavenly Dagger had yet to cross.

Just when he had cut a wire in a slight bit of hurry, he felt the ground below him shake as his and Lin Fang's face paled and their hearts sank. Only a few seconds of stillness had passed before they heard the sounds of the alarm bells ringing.

Oh no! They thought as they looked at each other's ugly expressions. The situation had turned for the worst.

Meanwhile, A little while ago near Greenwood City...

A group of three had just exited the City in a very mysterious way. The gates of the city which were usually closed to at night were specially opened to allow these three to pass. Something like this didn't usually happen so the people in the surroundings grew curious to the identities of the three who just left.

Of course, the guards didn't provide them with any information making their curiosity grow even more. This was a small City and nothing major happened in many days so even a small thing like this would have become the talk of the town if an unbelievable event hadn't taken place the same night.

The three were, of course, the City Lord, his bodyguard and his secretary who were disguised in long capes to hide their identities as they moved towards the meeting point. Their movements would seem queer to anybody as the looked like they were walking slowly but covered many feet in every move.

"I wonder if the one trading is strong", the City Lord said in an excited voice.

"Sir, we are not going to fight them, we are only going to trade with them, no need for brute force", hopefully, the secretary thought in her heart but didn't add it in her explanation. Most of the people only knew her as the secretary of the City Lord. However, not many people knew that she was actually a strong expert who only made a move when it threatened the life of the City Lord and it couldn't be blocked by the other guards. But every time she made a move, she would go for the kill.

The City Lord didn't reply to her explanation and she couldn't see his expression to know what he was thinking. Of course, the chances of him taking her advice were so low that it was negligible so she didn't get her hopes up.

They reached the meeting place but found no one there. They hadn't dared to send anyone to check if someone was laying traps here before coming as she was afraid that the trader might notice and cancel the trade. Thus, she had decided to depend upon her abilities to protect the City Lord from any unforeseen circumstances. She had confidence that even it was an enemy, they wouldn't know about her strength and misjudge them which would allow her to capture a threat to the City Lord. She and the bodyguard also weren't included in the eight hidden existences that were protecting the City Lord from the shadows.

Since the trader wasn't here, they could only sit down and wait for him. The secretary couldn't help but have an uneasy feeling in her heart as if she was missed something very important.

15 minutes....

30 minutes...

45 minutes...

Just when the wait reached the 45-minute mark, The Cit Lord couldn't control his impatience anymore as he stood up and shouted, " Just where is this guy?"

Even the uneasy feeling in the Secretary's heart was multiplying as she felt that it might not have been the best plan to come here. Just what has she missed.

At that moment, they heard the bell ringing coming from the castle and all of there expressions stiffened. All three of them stayed still for a while before dashing towards the direction of the City in full speed.

They connected all the dots and realized how foolish they had been. The target of the enemy had never been the City Lord from the start, nor were they interested in trading the token even if they had it, it had been the castle and they like fools had handed it to them in a silver platter.

The Secretary couldn't help but feel angered that the enemy had tricked her by using such a simple bait and she like a fool had taken it. She had given in to her greed too easily, she thought bitterly in her heart. She was still too inexperienced. All the strong experts of the castle were here protecting the City Lord. How could she have known that someone would be daring enough to sneak into the castle?