The Devil’s Cage

The gold color stood out starkly among the green.

Kieran dashed over right away and picked up the Legendary Weapon.

It was a blood-red two-handed sword, quite heavy compared to the other equipment that Kieran owned.

Kieran’s expression turned sour. He was still heavily wounded. Thanks to [Lionheart]’s effect, he could ignore all negative debuffs temporarily, but when the effect’s duration was over, he would have to suffer the penalty of the decreased stats caused by the heavily wounded debuff.

The weight he was able to bear would decrease greatly as well.

There were at least a dozen Magical Rank pieces of equipment lying down before Kieran’s eyes.

”Legendary equipment is a must. As for the Magical Rank equipment, I need to get the smaller and lighter ones,” Kieran made up his mind instantly.

The Legendary weapon was his first priority. When it came to the rest of the Magical Rank equipment, he needed to lean on quantity rather than quality.

If he had enough time, he wouldn’t have needed to do that. He would have gone over everything carefully and chosen the best equipment.

However, Kieran had less than 15 seconds left, so he could not afford to go over the loot in detail.

Ten, nine, eight, seven...

The countdown appeared in his vision. At the same time, the [Lionheart] buff effect wore off. Kieran instantly fell back into a Heavily Wounded Status.

What was more terrifying was that the wound on his chest had started to crystalize. There was no blood gushing, nor could he see his own flesh. There was only the crystal-clear texture around it.

Starting from his chest, it spread rapidly throughout his whole body.

When the countdown was down to three, Kieran’s chest was crystallized completely.

[Eye of the Chimeras, Synchro: Constitution has failed authentication, crystallizing body parts…]

[Eye of the Chimeras, Synchro: Constitution has failed authentication, crystallizing body parts…]

...

The same notification kept popping up. Every time it did, it meant that another part of Kieran had been crystallized.

Kieran felt his heart lose its rhythmic beat. The cold, hard sensation made him feel like his heart was turning into a rock.

It wasn’t just his body hardening though. He could hardly breath either. A suffocating feeling spread all over his body.

Kieran had to halt his step with all the loot on him. He was extremely unwilling to let a couple more Magical Rank pieces of equipment slip away when they were just in front him.

He stood there with his weakened, crystallized body, shaking his head with a sigh.

Three, two, one!

As the countdown ended, a blinding light covered Kieran again.

Kieran saw Contly out of the corner of his eyes. Her mouth was moving. She seemed like she was trying to say something to him, but the words could not reach his ears.

Kieran could not even wave goodbye. His arm had been crystallized as well.

...

When Kieran went back to his game lobby, the dungeon rating screen popped up.

[Fourth Dungeon: Ancient City Foreign Matter]

[Dungeon Type: Open World]

[Dungeon Difficulty: Average]

[Main Mission: Explore at least 20% of Isogu City within 4 weeks]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating: F)]

[Sub Mission 1: The Troublesome Chief Officer!]

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

[Sub Mission 2: Sifting Through Bodyguards]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating E → D)]

[Sub Mission 3: Find the Lost Monument!]

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

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

[Exploration Performance: Good]

[Special Rating 1: Herbert, Pierre, Harold, Cohen and Joanna survived (Rating B → A, Rep+1)]

[Special Rating 2: Eliminated the Night Race leader, Bartos (Rating A → S, Rep +1]

[Special Rating 3: Acquired the special Legendary item Eye of the Chimeras inside the dungeon, Rating increased greatly (Rating S → Z, Rep+3)]

[Acquired Title: The most essential natives of the dungeon world survived, You have acquired the title ”Guardian”]

[Guardian: When equipped and protecting others, Defense +20%; You will be extra popular with anyone who is in need of protection!]

[Final Player Rating: Z!]

[Calculating Fourth Dungeon Rewards…]

[Final Fourth Dungeon Player Rewards are as follows...]

[Points: 30,000; Skill Points 20; Golden Skill Points: 2; Golden Attribute Points: 2]

[Acquired Special Dungeon: Primordial Invasion]

[Acquired Specific Dungeon Reward: Herbert’s Note]

[Player is Heavily Wounded, do you want to get healed up? Yes/No?]

”Yes!”

The crystallization had spread up to Kieran’s neck. He had not even had the time to look at the rating calculations and choose a healing option.

[Heavy trauma detected around player’s heart area, Healing will cost 100,000 Points and 10 Golden Attribute Points…]

[Player has insufficient Points!]

[Player has insufficient Golden Attribute Points!]

[Player has special organ ”Devil’s Heart’, Transplant available, Transplant will cost 50,000 Points and 5 Golden Attribute Points…]

[Player has insufficient Points!]

[Player has insufficient Golden Attribute Points!]

[Extra healing plan detected, Healing plan will cost 30,000 Points and 3 Golden Attribute Points…]

[Do you want to heal up? Yes/ No?]

”Yes!”

Kieran had no options left. He was almost a crystal man by now. All his leftover energy was slipping away fast.

When he answered affirmatively, a green light suddenly shone down on his body.

The crystal box holding the [Devil’s Heart] opened silently.

The dark red organ the size of two grown men’s fists suddenly floated up and flew towards Kieran’s chest, where the wound was.

The crystal around Kieran’s chest was splintered right away, leaving a space wide enough for the heart.

The [Devil’s Heart] rushed violently into the empty space.

The half-crystallized heart was squeezed aside instantly.

The original heart was not willing to accept being replaced though. It wanted to resist!

After a slight shiver, the Creature of Desire started to form again above the crystallized heart.

Hundreds of thousands of intertwining arms and legs and rainbow-like, dazzling eyes were preparing a counterattack.

The resistance the [Devil’s Heart] felt was treated as a challenge to its authority.

Suddenly, a bright red flame burst out with a boom, engulfing Kieran’s whole body. A heavy stench, similar yet even worse than sulphur, spread across the room.

The flame started to take form. There were fiery wings on its back and two horns on its head as it stared at the Creature of Desire angrily.

The horns of the fiery figure were as sharp as blades as they spun around spirally. The wings formed by the flames were extremely dazzling. They emitted mysterious flaming ripples.

The fiery figure was using the foul substance of the world as a fuel, burning through the sky and the ground.

The Creature of Desire was coincidentally the best fuel around it.

However, as the Eye of the Chimeras supported the Creature of Desire, it did not back down.

Tens, hundreds, thousands of huge eyeballs took form in mid-air around the room. They were as dense as stars in the Milky Way, each of them shining with a rainbow-like glow.

The eyes were brewing a mysterious energy within it. When that energy was ready, it would become an attack that would shake both Heaven and Earth.

The winged, horned figure did not seem concerned about the eyes surrounding it.

It let out a raging roar, and suddenly a huge burning two-handed sword was formed by the flames around its hand.

A final showdown was due between the two of them.

Kieran’s body was half-crystallized and engulfed in flames. He could not even budge. He could only watch helplessly as the two monsters prepared for a terrifying fight inside his room.