The Devil’s Cage

Kieran materialized back in his lobby room inside the game with two light machine guns.

He shook his head, trying to get rid of the weightlessness.

When everything returned to normal, he looked down at the compensation he had gotten during his last moments in the dungeon.

[Name: WK-22]

[Type: Firearm]

[Rarity: Great]

[Attack: Great]

[Ammunition: 100 rounds ]

[Attributes: None]

[Special Effects: None]

[Prerequisites: Firearm Weapons (Medium Firearm Weapons (Entry))]

[Able to bring out of dungeons: Yes]

[Remarks: You will need 5.56 mm bullets and a certain level of shooting skill to use it!]

...

From the moment Kieran and co. had set foot on Alcatraz, he had laid eyes on the two light machine guns on the outer wall of the prison.

After confirming that he had cleared the dungeon and was about to leave, he’d abandoned the coffin and its unknown risk, and somehow gotten his hands on the two light machine guns he’d remembered.

No one had stopped Kieran. Only the Warden, the doctor and a couple of guards had been left in the prison, and they all had been too scared to care about what Kieran did.

Yet Kieran still had some trouble getting his hands on his compensation.

He’d had to drag his heavily wounded body to the outer wall of the prison within the limited time frame that he had.

The distance between the reef area and the outer wall had been two kilometers, and the two light machine guns had been on the north and south side of the wall respectively.

If Kieran had been at his strongest, he would not have minded the distance. He would have been able to secure the loot in a couple of minutes.

However, Kieran had had to risk his life to get the two light machine guns, what with his Heavily Wounded Status debuff, and his Strength, Agility and Intuition decreased by three ranks.

His D- Rank Agility had dropped to E. Although that was above average, things had still been very hard for him.

Despite the debuff, his urge to survive had not diminished, especially before the rewards within his grasp. He always made the most of every situation, and he had eventually managed to grab the two [WK-22]s.

His rewards were not just what he’d taken out of his pocket, though.

The faint orange glow had already faded from the ring, which was black and made of metal.

A pea-sized ruby was embedded on it, and the dazzling sparkle of the ruby was like an enshrouding mist, giving it a beautiful, elegant appearance.

Its beautiful look aside though, Kieran was more concerned about the ring’s attributes.

[Name: Half-Dead’s Gaze]

[Type: Accessory]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Attack: None]

[Defense: None]

[Attributes: 1. Dead Man’s Gaze; 2. Fear Illusions]

[Special Effects: None]

[Prerequisites: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remarks: Gilfren Hatch had been siphoning the hidden power within Alcatraz, successfully being reincarnated as a half-dead. However, that was just the beginning of his plans. Hatch wanted more of that hidden power. It was too bad that the immense power of Alcatraz made him lose his calm and eventually led to his demise. This very ring is proof of your victory against the half-dead!]

…..

[Dead Man’s Gaze: Whenever this skill is active, every living being that comes in eye contact with you will have to go through a Spirit authentication. Their Spirit cannot be lower than yours. Those who do not pass the authentication will be induced with a Fear Debuff lasting one second, 3 times/day]

[Fear Illusions: When an opponent has been induced with a Fear Debuff, they have to go through a Spirit and Intuition authentication. Their spirit cannot be lower than yours by -2 Ranks and their Intuition cannot be lower than yours by -1 Rank. Any opponent that passes through both authentications will be immune to the effect; any opponent that passes through one of the authentications will receive damage the same rank as your Spirit rank; any opponent that does not pass either authentication will receive damage the same rank as your Spirit rank +1]

...

The ring’s attributes reminded Kieran of his first encounter with Gilfren Hatch as a half-dead.

From what he remembered though, those skills were a little different than the half-dead’s had been.

The gaze of the real half-dead had been induced with [Fear] and [Delusion] at the same time, but the [Half-Dead’s Gaze] required a trigger for its skills to be activated.

Gilfren Hatch’s skill set seemed better, but without any accurate information on his skills, Kieran could not compare the pros and cons of the two skill sets.

One thing was for sure, though. The [Half-Dead’s Gaze] was related to the Spirit, so without a high level of Spirit, it would serve no purpose to its wearer, despite the fact that it was a rare piece of equipment.

The second part of the description stated that there was an Intuition authentication, but it had to be triggered by the [Dead Man’s Gaze], and the former skill was solely relying on Spirit to be utilized to its fullest.

Kieran quickly scanned through his own Spirit stats.

[Spirit: E]

An above average rank, but definitely not something worth mentioning, especially compared to his D+ Intuition, which made it look weak in comparison.

Kieran frowned. He did not want a worthless piece of equipment.

”To fully utilize the [Half-dead’s Gaze] I’ll need to find some skill that can boost my Spirit! The price, though…”

His brows locked even tighter as the price came into the equation.

Although he had not asked Lawless about the price of skills that could raise his Spirit, judging by the results of his previous three dungeons, only [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] had a related attribute, and even that wasn’t enough to justify its value.

He was slightly relieved when he saw his dungeon rewards.

It was his second personal dungeon and first team dungeon, and his ratings were as follows.

[Second Dungeon: Prison on the Island]

[Dungeon Type: Free World]

[Dungeon Difficulty: Below Average]

[Main Mission: Solve the mysteries in the prison within one week]

[Mission Completed: 100% (Rating F)]

[Sub Mission 1: Poison]

[Mission Completed: 100% (Rating F→E)]

[Sub Mission 2: Unexpected Killer]

[Mission Completed: 100% (Rating E→D)

[Sub Mission 3: Hidden Accomplices]

[Mission Completed: 100% (Rating D→C)]

[Battle Performance: Very Active (Rating C→B)]

[Exploration Performance: Normal]

[Special Rating 1: Fast Dungeon Time (Rating B→A)]

[Special Rating 2: Eliminated Carpal (Rating A→S)]

[Special Rating 3: Eliminated Gilfren Hatch the Half-Dead (Rating S→SS)]

[Acquired Title: Ghost Buster, Eliminated a hundred wandering formless souls (Rep +1)]

[Ghost Buster: When active, +5% Damage and Defense against enemies in spirit form, Small chance of inducing Fear. Some areas will welcome you, while others will expel you!]

[Player dungeon entry number lower than dungeon average dungeon entry number: Rating +1 (SS→SSS)]

[Calculating player second dungeon rewards…]

[Final player rewards are as follows....]

[Points: 15,000; Skill Points: 10; Golden Skill Points: 1; Golden Attribute Points: 1]

[Acquired Special Dungeon Entry: The Shaman’s Partner]

[Player is Heavily Wounded, Heal up? Yes/No]

”Yes!”

After Kieran chose to heal, he stared at the newly acquired Special Dungeon [The Shaman’s Partner].

He was staring at it with his full attention. Not even the continuous pings of the messages could distract him.