The Devil’s Cage

Nobian looked confused by Kieran’s incoming kick.

He did not understand how Kieran had reacted so quickly. Kieran’s previous kick had caused Nobian to enter a Heavily Wounded Status, and the pure power of his kick had exceeded a two or three dungeon player’s ability.

It seemed impossible to Nobian, no matter how many rewards Kieran had gotten from the last dungeon.

Skills and attributes were linked, so a skill could raise all related attributes. At the same time, attributes acted as a cap for each of the skills.

It was impossible to level up skills without reaching a certain rank of attributes, even if a player had the Points and Skill Points to spare.

Plus, the same rank skill could not upgrade an attribute repeatedly. If a player wanted to raise their attribute again, they needed to find a higher rank skill.

A combination of a high and low skill, or a couple of others, could form an upgrading system.

Forming such a system was not something a two or three timer could achieve. It would take at least five or six dungeons to develop a clear upgrading system.

And that was only if one was lucky.

If they weren’t, they would not develop a solid leveling system for themselves even after seven or eight dungeons. As dungeon difficulty went up, so did the chances of a player failing the Main Mission. This eventually led to elimination.

Could that information be wrong? Nobian thought of this unconsciously, but quickly rejected his own theory.

His secret source of information was very reliable. It was not possible for him to have been misinformed.

His sources would never give him false information, if only for the sake of his reputation.

Then all that was left was...

Nobian looked at Kieran’s boots, where a fire was burning bright before his eyes. They were [Iron Flaming Boots]!

”It must be the magical attribute of the boots!”

He could tell by his experience as a veteran.

Nobian thought he had everything under control. When he saw Kieran’s incoming kick, he quickly used his last card without any further hesitation.

The armor on Nobian’s body started shaking slightly, and a warm feeling spread throughout his body.

The HP he had lost from the previous kick was recovered in an instant. He even recovered from the Heavily Wounded Debuff Status.

While Nobian was healing himself, a layer of a rock-textured pattern spread out from his armor and covered his whole body.

By the time Kieran’s second kick landed on Nobian’s face, the rock armor had covered all his body. A loud, hard noise was produced when Kieran’s foot came into contact with the layer of rock.

[Flaming Kick: Target inflicts 200 Damage to your HP, Rock Skin Skill activated, Resisted 180 Damage, 20 True Damage inflicted…]

Nobian looked at the puny damage Kieran had inflicted on him and start to laugh.

”It’s useless! Your reaction might have been fast, and you surprised me with that Magical or Rare Rank Equipment of yours, but…”

Before Nobian could even finish, he was interrupted by Kieran’s foot once again.

The kick had landed on Nobian’s face, just like the previous two.

Kieran was locked on his target and followed up with series of kicks, every single one of them aimed at Nobian’s face.

Nobian was enraged. After his face was kicked and stepped on a couple more times though, his rage was soon replaced by fear.

He noticed that Kieran’s kicking speed was too fast for him to comprehend, to the point that his Rock Skin Skill could not even keep up with the attacks.

How was it possible?

Nobian was in complete shock. He had thought that Kieran’s previous kicking power had come from his boots, but Kieran had displayed the same level of strength and speed, contradicting his thoughts.

To his knowledge, there was no equipment that granted the user Strength, Speed and Burn Damage all at once. Even if there was something like that, it would have been even higher than Rare Rank. It would have been at least Legendary Rank.

How could Kieran possess such powerful equipment?

How could it be possible?

How many Legendary items were there in the game itself? Most of them were in the hands of the most famous players. Each and every one of them was Nobian’s idol. He wanted to be one of them.

After muttering ”impossible” a couple of times, Nobian came up with the only possible explanation.

He had been betrayed.

From the moment he had been hired, it had all been a conspiracy against him.

Kieran was not the two or three timer that people thought he was, but a veteran player who had developed his own Strength leveling system.

As for Kieran’s goal… It was definitely something beyond that.

After Nobian had gotten his hands on that item, he had tried very hard to cover his tracks, but he had still not been 100% clean.

Once someone started to investigate, he would eventually be exposed. He had not expected to be exposed this fast though.

But what if he was exposed? So what?

The item still belonged to him and he had no intention of giving it to anyone else.

It was his best asset in solidifying his position within the game in the future. He would not tolerate anybody meddling with his plan.

Nobian’s face became twisted once he thought about his plan. Kieran had to die.

Suddenly, a wild aura started to spread from Nobian’s body.

The layer of defense from Nobian’s Rock Skin started to crack. Without the empowerment of the Rock Skin, his defense went down the hill, but his Agility, which had been compromised by the heavy skill, had returned.

Nobian’s recovered Agility allowed him to use his advanced skill.

Between Kieran’s kicks, the long sword in Nobian’s hand stabbed out at an incredible speed. Its speed was so great that it tore the air apart and produced a breaking sound, as if ten crossbows were being fired all at once.

The dark, gloomy blade with the rotten stench created a mirage of blades as it was aimed at Kieran’s weak spots.

It flooded Kieran with the mirage before he could react. Nobian was grinning wide.

However, his grin suddenly froze in place.

The stabs of his sword were all stopped before they could reach Kieran’s skin, as if they were being blocked by an invisible barrier.

A Force Field Barrier!

Nobian instinctively wanted to retreat after witnessing the impossible. His veteran experience told him that everything was going south.

Kieran did not present Nobian with such an option though.

With his [Primus Scale] activated, he extended his hands and grabbed onto Nobian’s blade as if it was blunt. With a strong twist, he threw the sword off Nobian’s hands.

Nobian fell back with a stagger.

Although Kieran’s punches were not as strong as his kicks without [Hand-to-Hand Combat, Grand Master of Kicks], the Grand Master rank of the skill raised his strength by one rank, making it easy for him to disarm Nobian with his C- Rank Strength.

Before Kieran had come to Nobian’s place, he had gone back home, not to take a rest, but to level up his skills.

The facts before him proved that it had been crucial for him to do so.

If he had come unprepared, it would have been hard for him to take out Nobian.

Kieran quickly followed up with a barrage of kicks while Nobian staggered back.

He eventually fell against the ground, robbed of any sign of life. Kieran did not let him live.

He dared not. Nobian had already cleared at least five dungeons, but he was still acting as a killer outside them. That’s why Kieran did what he did.

His heart would not be at peace unless he killed him.

Nobian might come after him eventually if Kieran showed him any mercy.

Kieran did not want that.

[Player Killed: Nobian]

[Treated as self-defense through authentication]

[Categorized as an Honor Kill]

[You will receive all the Points and Skill Points of the player…]

[Total: 12,000 Points and 4 Skill Points]

[Received the player’s house key]

[Granted the right to use the player’s house]

[All the player’s belongings are in their house]

[Honor Kill: 1]

...

As the notifications popped up, Nobian’s body turned into speckles of light and disappeared.

His body had disintegrated completely within two seconds.

A key had also popped up in Kieran’s hand. It was obviously Nobian’s house key.

Kieran rubbed the cold, hard key with his thumb and looked over at the spot where Nobian’s body had disintegrated. Then he set off for Nobian’s house without any hesitation.

He did not feel much empathy about the incident. From his point of view, he had just been defending himself.

He could not show generosity and forgive someone who had tried to kill him.

He might have hesitated if this had been in real life under Union laws, but it was an underground game, so any second thoughts could cost him his life.

”Ever since I let go of my fear, I’ve become quite bold and daring, haven’t I?” Kieran laughed at himself.

Then he turned his attention to the corner not far away, picked up the key, and inserted it into the keyhole.

The door was unlocked easily with a twist of the key before Kieran pushed it open.