The Devil’s Cage

The shadows overlapped, creating an eerie wind.

However, Kieran was still rushing, trying to kill them all while fearlessly managing to carve a path among the sea of formless souls.

After the battle in Alcatraz, Kieran was very familiar with the formless souls’ attack pattern and dealing with them was extremely easy for him.

The formless souls had two distinguishable features.

One, they were formless and shadowless, thus invisible to ordinary men.

Two, they could go through walls and floors, and they were hard to defend against during a sudden ambush.

This was nothing for Kieran though, as his Grand Master [Tracking] allowed him to see every single one of the formless souls before him.

Their ability to go through walls and floors was just as useless.

Although the area was not as wide as a stadium, it was not narrow either. It was actually wide enough for Kieran to unleash his full potential while dealing with the souls. Plus, an explosion had just taken place there, so all the walls around the area had been blown to pieces, leaving the formless souls only one option.

Before the formless souls could go underground though, the Burn Damage from the [Flaming Iron Boots] turned them into ashes. Kieran could clearly see bits of black shadows being burned.

The combination of fire and lightning was very effective against enemies in spirit form, as the double damage from the element advantage allowed Kieran to kill every single one of the formless souls with one hit.

Besides, Kieran had also earned the title [Ghost Buster] before he had even rushed into the sea of souls.

The addition of +5% Attack and Defense plus a small chance of inducing [Fear] were not really overwhelming, but during a battle, even the slightest change could affect the outcome.

As Kieran kept dashing towards the fountain of formless souls, a pale aura took form around him.

[Fear: Target is within your Fear Range, Authentication failed, Stun Debuff induced…]

[Fear: Target is within your Fear Range, Authentication failed, Panic Debuff induced…]

...

The formless souls in front of Kieran were stunned for a bit before they started moving around.

Some of them were roaming blindly like flies, while others had been stunned hard and could not move an inch.

Kieran was delighted by the [Fear] description in his title.

He quickly dashed towards the stunned souls blocking him from his reward without a second thought.

The flames from his kicks tore down and pierced through the black shadows.

[Fire Kick: Inflicts 100 Damage to Target HP, (50 Hand-to-Hand Combat (Grand Master) X2), Target is a wandering formless soul, Double Damage dealt, 200 True Damage Inflicted to Target, Target dies…]

…..

Notifications were spamming Kieran’s vision like a waterfall.

The overlaying attack of the formless souls might have seemed intimidating, but at the same time they were defenseless. Once they were hit, it was a lethal attack.

A fingernail-sized pale blue crystal fell to the ground during the attacks. It was a [Soul Shard]!

Kieran recognized the item at a glance.

Only when he saw the [Soul Shard] did he remember that formless souls were also worth a lot in rewards. The rewards from Trumbo’s death suddenly went over his head.

Even a cracked [Soul Shard] was priced at 5,000 Points and 1 Skill Point.

The number of the formless souls there was a lot bigger compared to the one in Alcatraz.

Kieran’s eyes lit up instantly. He had been fighting with 120% of his strength when he’d seen Trumbo’s reward. As he suddenly recalled the value of the [Soul Shard]s though, he forced an extra 10% out of himself.

Kieran was sweeping the fear-induced formless souls with a barrage of attacks, but he still did not forget to warn the Shadow Stinger from afar in a loud voice, ”Don’t attack, they’re all mine!”

The Shadow Stinger was puzzled by Kieran’s warning.

”What is he? Some battle fanatic? Is this the Berserker’s Blood effect?”

The Shadow Stinger came up with some theories when he noticed Kieran’s bright eyes as he fought against the formless souls. He shook them off quickly though.

As far as he knew, those who possessed the Berserker’s Blood did not fight in such a smart way. Even when they knew they were outmatched, they would still go head-on into battle with their weapons.

It was how the heir of the Berserker bloodline had fought.

That bloodline had no need for logic or sense to suppress it. Therefore, it was more fitting to call Kieran a battle fanatic.

The Shadow Stinger’s face turned gloomy when he recalled his deceased friend’s will and beliefs. His team was long gone, and nothing was left behind except for bitter memories. He was the only one still alive.

The Shadow Stinger looked down and stared at Trumbo’s deformed body in silence.

He only came back to his senses when Kieran walked over full of spirit. Before he could say anything though, Kieran stopped him by raising his hand.

”Hold on! I have lots of things I want to ask, but please wait for a while!”

Kieran knew that the Main Mission would come to an end as soon as the Shadow Stinger spilled everything he knew about the incidents.

When the mission ended, he would only have 5 minutes to pack what he wanted to bring out of the dungeon. He was still having a hard time coping with the rules, so if he had the chance to stall, he would not mind taking it.

First, he grabbed the rewards by Trumbo’s body, a total of four items, three green Magical ones and one gold Legendary one. Every single one of them was a scroll.

Kieran was puzzled by this new type of item, as he had never encountered it before.

The Shadow Stinger was staring at him though, so he did not have much time to check the scrolls out.

Even though the natives could not see the loot from the battles, they could still experience curiosity and doubt the player’s actions and decisions. A powerful native like the Shadow Stinger would notice that Kieran was up to no good, and unnecessary trouble would follow.

After Kieran hid away all four scrolls, he left Trumbo’s body and went back to his backpack to grab the four remaining rocket launchers.

Of course, he would still need to make a call to Larry to inform him. After all, his collections from Mr. Big did not consist only of those four pieces. There were still a couple of light and heavy machine guns.

In fact, if Mr. Big had not needed more firepower to take down the Sphendix Headquarters, Kieran would have had more rocket launchers. Still, he was quite satisfied with what he had.

After a while, Larry droved a modified SUV around.

”Mr. Big is missing!” he told Kieran as he jumped out.

”Let him be,” Kieran shrugged.

He did not care much about that. He started to move his collections instead.

Kieran was clear on why Mr. Big had left voluntarily. After losing almost every single one of his men, the gang leader could not appear before Kieran like nothing had happened.

Kieran was not concerned about Mr. Big’s departure without saying goodbye.

He had acquired four rocket launchers, light and heavy machine guns, a Magical Rank Equipment and Skill Book from Paul and his pet, three Magical Rank Scrolls, one Legendary Scroll, and a Magical Rank potion from Trumbo.

Other than that, he still had his present from Mr. Big, the [Python-W2], the [Jagdtiger-X1] from his battle with Sphendix’s men, a silenced [MI-02] and an [Alloy Blade].

On top of that, he had an extra six pieces of [Soul Shard]s from the formless souls.

After a rough estimation of the value of his rewards, he placed most of the items inside his backpack happily. As he picked up his backpack, he strapped the rocket launchers and light and heavy machine guns on his back, because they could not fit inside.

”What are you doing?”

Larry’s jaw dropped as he saw Kieran’s odd-looking posture.

”I might try weight-lifting, I guess…” Kieran replied before turning his eyes to the Shadow Stinger.

”Can I know the truth behind everything?”

”Very well… As someone involved, you have the right to know everything. Trumbo was one of my teammates. We spent precious time together adventuring and exploring. It was the best time of my life… Until we discovered a magic tome, and the knowledge inside it drove both of us crazy. After Trumbo discovered the secret to immortality inside the tome, everything changed…”

The Shadow Stinger told his side of the story. It was quite lengthy and heavy, but as he talked about his past, system notifications started popping up.

[Player has finished the Main Mission: Find out the truth within 2 weeks]

[Player will leave the dungeon in 5 minutes…]

[Player will leave the dungeon in 5 minutes…]

[Please carry out of the dungeon any items that you wish to keep!]

[Overweight items will be considered prohibited items and will be discarded!]

...

Kieran could not help but smirk at the notifications as he felt how much weight his body could take.