The Devil’s Cage

The malicious gazes hidden among the crowd were very unsettling for Kieran.

Still, he pretended he did not sense them and walked in front of the crowd.

He was approximately three meters away from everyone. A safe, yet dangerous distance.

”I think we should add another test to the process. I’ve just heard…”

Before Kieran could finish his words, a loud yell interrupted him.

”NOW!”

Three of the marked down candidates that had been hiding in the crowd made their move together.

Bang! Bang!

Two gunshots were fired in no time, the two bullets aimed at Kieran’s heart and head.

A jumping figure with the force of a mountain swang down a spiked club hard against Kieran, wanting to smash him into a pile of minced meat.

Shocked by the sudden attack, the crowd quickly spread out, moving away from danger.

Everyone was looking around vigilantly.

Only Bill and Cass expressed their shock with words.

”Watch out!” they yelled at Kieran, who was still standing on the spot. The two of them instantly thought that Kieran had lost his mind.

Most of the mercenaries and bounty hunters thought the same as well. Some of them even smiled mockingly, laughing at themselves for being scared by Kieran’s intimidating presence earlier.

To some of them, death was nothing special. All they cared about was that it was not their own death they were witnessing.

Among the crowd, only the redheaded candidate remained calm.

Her eyes were filled with anticipation, wondering what would Kieran do.

The next moment, her eyes filled with astonishment.

So did the other mercenaries and bounty hunters’ eyes. They widened their eyes, their faces filling with an inconceivable expression.

The two bullets that had been aimed directly at Kieran had had no effect against him.

Kieran was still standing where he was, without a single scratch.

The candidates with better eyesight saw the bullets deform in mid-air as if they’d hit something.

Kieran was impenetrable by both swords and bullets?

Everyone present drew in a cold breath in shock. Before they could exhale though, they stopped breathing once more.

The crowd saw a half-moon qi energy wave get fired out from Kieran’s left upper kick.

The energy wave flew up high, aimed at the person who had jumped up, and struck down with the force of a mountain.

The man was instantly slashed in half without any resistance.

Green-colored blood splashed down like an exploding water balloon, but it didn’t land on Kieran.

He had already left his spot and reached the other accomplices, launching a barrage of kicks with his right leg.

The overlaying shadows of Kieran’s leg drowned both his targets instantly.

The repeated hits landed hard, sending both of them flying backwards.

Their bodies were twisted and deformed, their bones breaking as they fell before the entrance of Herbert’s place.

After a slight twitching movement, the two of them lost any signs of life.

”Ahhh!”

The surrounding mercenaries and bounty hunters let out an astounded sound, not just because of Kieran’s formidable strength, but also because of the rotten faces of the other candidates.

Their burned faces shocked anyone who laid eyes on them, sending chills down their spines as the bodies dissolved into a pile of green goo.

”I see!”

Kieran calmly looked at the battlelog notifications.

[Shooting: Lethal Attack, Target inflicts 100 Damage to your HP, Defense Level Authentication, Primus Scale has Powerful Defense, 100 Damage resisted, Target inflicts 0 True Damage to your HP…]

[Shooting: Lethal Attack, Target inflicts 100 Damage to your HP, Defense Level Authentication, Primus Scale has Powerful Defense, 100 Damage resisted, Target inflicts 0 True Damage to your HP…]

[Blade Kick: Lethal Attack, Inflicts 400 Damage to Target HP, (Hand-to-Hand Combat, Combat Kicks (Transcendence) X2) (Transcendence Kicks +1 level granted), Target has Tensile Skin, 350 True Damage to Target HP, Slashed Effect triggered, Target dies…]

[Hundred Violent Kicks: Quick Attack, 300 Total Damage to Target HP, (Transcendence Kicks +1 level granted), 250 True Damage to Target HP, Fracture Effect triggered, Target dies…]

...

”The empowerment was not that bad!”

Kieran scanned over the Transcendence Kicks additional level effect and nodded in delight.

Although it was just a +1 buff, based on the damage level calculation, it was able to increase from Strong to Powerful Level.

The true damage might vary depending on the user and their methods, but it was still worthy of a Transcendence skill.

Kieran turned his attention to the pile of green goo and the green glowing spiked club.

After listening to Herbert’s explanation about the Night Race, he had unconsciously anticipated the appearance of such a monster among the candidates.

After all, after Calkin and his wagoner had been replaced by monsters, they had still showed up at Herbert’s place. Although they had seemed to be there to invite Kieran to the scene, Kieran knew how much he was worth. Calkin’s true target had to be Herbert, not him.

How did the Night Race know what had happened at Herbert’s place though?

Calkin was definitely not some tough guy that would spill everything during a simple interrogation.

Plus, it had been too easy for the Night Race monster to replace Calkin and appear before Kieran, whom he had only met once.

Kieran had some answers. He knew why the Night Race had targeted Herbert.

”The Night Race had once roamed the coast of the Neegor Dynasty Lands, but was eliminated later by the Neegor armies!” Herbert had told Kieran.

The Neegor Dynasty had already disappeared in the river of time. It was actually treated as a myth by everyone, yet the existence of the Night Race was proving otherwise.

The Neegor Dynasty had eliminated the Night Race in a big-scale battle.

According to Herbert, the Neegor Dynasty had existed 1,500 years ago. At the time, firearms had not been invented yet, so all they could rely on were sharp weapons.

The monsters had had the upper hand against sharp weapons.

During that battle, they had displayed exceptional strength and speed, and the Tensile Skin on their bodies had been like a natural layer of armor.

Their intuition and intellect level had exceeded Kieran’s expectations.

During his conversation with Herbert, Kieran had been inside the garden of his house.

There had been a garden wall in between, and they had been at least 50 meters away. Even Kieran with his C+ Intuition could barely hear someone talking from that distance, let alone the contents of their conversation.

Under the circumstances, not even a huge army would be useful against such a monster. Before the troops could get near them, the monsters would have already escaped with their extraordinary senses.

The monsters’ strength could also easily overpower a small number of soldiers trying to ambush them.

Therefore, when the Neegor Dynasty had eliminated the Night Race, they had either created a method that had made the Night Race unable to escape, and then suppressed and eliminated them by outnumbering them, or they had created a weapon that could naturally restrain the monsters.

Judging by the movements of the current Night Race, it had to be the latter. Otherwise, the Night Race would have had no reason to target Herbert, the Neegor Dynasty scholar.

According to Kieran’s speculations, that weapon might very well be in Isogu City!

There was also the possibility that the Neegor Dynasty had had one or two out-of-this-world powerful men, who had eliminated the whole Night Race single-handedly.

If that had been the case though, why would the Neegor Dynasty crumble overnight?

Kieran thought about it while he picked up the green spiked club.

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

This had to be the biggest twist of all time in this dungeon... The weapon...