Chapter 612: Stealing a Trap

Already close to the group of adventurers behind the countless traps they had been forced to move through, Verdell and Valerie were both understandably a bit exhausted by having to dodge all the traps along the way. Not to mention the few traps they accidentally triggered, causing the two of them no little pain considering how they had been designed to catch a crystal bunny, a notoriously difficult to catch monster.

Sure, most of the traps they ended up triggering were harmless and could be dodged or blocked by the two of them, but one or two were unique and difficult to dodge, with one directly forming a magical cage that had locked Valerie up while another launched a wooden ball straight into Verdell’s stomach. Almost knocking him out in the process.

These two unique traps just so happening to trigger just as they got close to reaching the adventurer group behind these traps. Delaying their approach ever so slightly as they were forced to take a few minutes to recover from the unexpected ambush by these two unique traps.

At the same time, the emergence of these two unique traps also made them realize that the quality of the traps they dodged and moved around seemed to have increased significantly compared to the traps they had encountered when first stepping into the core of the crystal tree forest. Forcing the two of them to slow down their approach as they kept an eye out for these far deadlier, and harder to avoid traps.

One positive to the sudden change in difficulty was the fact that the traps hadn’t been designed against other adventurers. Making it simple enough for them to avoid these unique traps once they slowed down a bit more and took some more time to inspect their surroundings.

Their overall movement might have slowed down significantly, but the two of them weren’t too worried about missing out on the crystal bunny. Knowing that a large fight was bound to break out when the adventurers rushing in from one side found the crystal bunny and began fighting over it, causing a commotion large enough that they should be able to sense it the second it began-

BOOOOOM-!

And speaking of the devil, the two of them finally spotted the group of adventurers laying down the traps they had been avoiding so far just as the commotion they had been expecting erupted from the depths of the crystal tree forest in the form of a large explosion that Verdell instantly realized was the result of the collision between two powerful magical abilities...

"It has started! We need to get ready if we want to catch the crystal bunny!"

"I know, let’s abandon this trap for now and get into position. Hopefully we will be able to catch without having to rely on those traps."

"Indeed, that would be for the best, but you never know..."

And not much different from Verdell and Valerie, the group of adventurers in the process of creating yet another intricate and complicated trap also noticed the commotion in the distance.

Wasting no time as they gave up the trap, they had been working on before setting off towards the center of the crystal tree forest where the commotion had come from. Leaving behind the incomplete trap that hadn’t been activated, their words made it clear that the traps were indeed just a backup plan.

""...""

Something both Verdell and Valerie heard clearly, as the two of them silently watched the group of adventurers numbering a little more than a dozen people vanished in the direction of the increasingly chaotic battle that should be happening around the nest of the crystal bunny as the different adventurers clashed with one another trying to catch the undoubtedly panicked crystal bunny.

But as Valerie was about to chase after the group of adventures that had left, she couldn’t help turning towards Verdell, who remained frozen in the same spot with a look of confusion on her face. "So... What should we do next? Follow them and try to take advantage of the situation to ambush them?" Voicing out her thoughts with a hint of confusion in her eyes over why Verdell hadn’t started moving yet.

"That... Good idea, but I thought of something different..."

"Different? Do you have another plan?"

"Yes... Why don’t we complete this trap for them and have them guide the crystal bunny in here for us? All we need to do is kill it and escape the same direction we came. Knowing the traps we encountered along the way, we should be able to outrun them and potentially even use those traps against them. After all, I doubt all of them memorized the exact location of all those traps."

"That... Is a good idea!" Hearing Verdell’s suggestion, Valerie paused for a second before happily nodding her head in approval of his suggestion. Feeling that this plan could indeed work well for them.

After all, even if they ambushed the group of adventurers, there was no chance they would be able to get their hands on the crystal bunny if those adventurers hadn’t yet managed to capture it by the time they had the opportunity to ambush them.

Not to mention, the goal wasn’t ever to attack those adventurers, but instead to obtain the crystal bunny- or rather, to have her kill the crystal bunny to aid the completion of her class advancement quest.

Taking advantage of the trap that had been left in a half-finished state to kill the crystal bunny before running was indeed the best option.

Not to mention, it might allow them to avoid becoming the center of attention of all the other adventurers targeting the crystal bunny.

On the contrary, they would turn that little group of adventurers they were planning to fool into the targets while they quietly slipped away with the precious crystal bunny without being noticed.

A win-win situation for the two of them, as dealing with the aftermath would undoubtedly be deadly given just how valuable a crystal bunny was.

After all, under normal circumstances. Even if they ended up successfully killing the crystal bunny and getting away with it, there was a good chance those adventurers who failed to obtain the crystal bunny would instead start hunting down them instead.

For this reason, it would be great if someone could take the hit for them and turn into public enemy number one while they quietly slipped away without being overwhelmed by an endless swarm of greedy adventurers.

The one difficulty with this plan was that they had to ensure only those few adventures behind the countless traps scattered throughout the core of the crystal tree forest got the opportunity to spot the two of them.

Luckily, while the countless traps might have a harder time stopping the group behind them when they came running, they would work wonders against the other adventurers. Potentially even giving those adventures the idea that those adventurers chasing them had been planning out everything from the start.

Whoosh~

And as the plan was fully agreed on by both Verdell and Valerie, Verdell wasted no time getting to work on the trap that had been left half completed. Not only completing it according to what he guessed the trap to have originally bene designed for, but also adding in his own little something to the trap to ensure it would work they wanted it to when the time came.

After which, the two of them set off to chase behind the group of adventurers behind the traps. Intending to disrupt whatever they were planning and ensure the crystal bunny either perished to them ahead of time or managed to escape in the direction of their trap.

Unfortunately, though the two of them were prepared for the chaos at the core of the crystal tree forest. The sight that met them when they finally got within view of the chaotic battlefield wasn’t anything like they had predicted...

"HOLD THEM OFF!"

"I’m doing my best here! I won’t be able to hold for more than a minute or two!"

"Kill the crystal bunny! FAST!"

As the first thing that entered their sight was the group of around a dozen or so adventurers working together to surround and kill the crystal bunny, with a large portion of them using a prearranged barrier to hold back other adventurers trying to rush forward to claim the crystal bunny for themselves.

The entire scene was chaotic to say the least, as it was clear from a glance that the other adventurers behind that barrier had already realized they had been fooled and were enraged as they attempted to crash through the barrier to no avail. Only able to watch helplessly as the crystal bunny was exhausted and close to dying under the relentless effort of those dozen adventurers who had planned out everything from start to finish. Leaving nothing up to chance, as the trap containing the crystal bunny was continuously reinforced.