The Devil’s Cage

The [Fantos Manuscript] was shining brightly.

Notifications popped up in Kieran’s vision.

[High demon has voluntarily offered to sign a contract, Cost of signing greatly reduced…]

[1,000 Points to sign a Demon Contract, Yes/No?]

”1,000 Points?”

Compared to Louver, whose cost was sky high, the demon before Kieran was much cheaper.

Kieran hesitated though.

The high demon before him was definitely a monster that exceeded third dungeon difficulty. If he could kill it, he would acquire a Rare Rank piece of equipment, or even a Legendary one.

However, Kieran decided to sign a contract with the high demon instead.

The decision was simple. Kieran was quite fond of the high demon’s illusional abilities. If he could use the demon’s power with a mere 250-Point cost, he would gladly take it.

Although the item that might fall off the high demon might also possess such an ability, that was just an assumption.

Between gambling with his luck and sacrificing something for a positive outcome, Kieran decided to go with the latter.

”Yes!”

[Initiating Demon Contract, Target is a high-tier demon, Faction unknown, High compliance, Extremely Weak Condition, Calculating 1,000 Points...]

[1,000 Points paid, Contract established!]

[Acquired Demon: Bloody Mary]

[Bloody Mary: An accident in the past caused the Blood Queen Tiara to give birth to the high demon. Bloody Mary has Lifesteal, Illusional and Hand-to-Hand Combat abilities. There are two forms available when summoning it: 1. Blood Tiara form, a fixed, unchangeable form (one of its skills will be temporarily available in the summoner’s skill slot); 2. Human Disguise form, able to summon at any time (Bloody Mary will have access to all its skills).]

[Note 1: Each summoning will cost 250 Points, no matter if the summoner needs to complete one mission or use the demon for 10 minutes.]

[Note 2: Bloody Mary is Heavily Wounded, Unable to summon for 60 days, 0/60]

...

”An accident in the past caused the Blood Queen Tiara to give birth to the high demon?”

After going through the description of Bloody Mary, a horrible feeling bloomed in Kieran’s heart.

Every creature had a reason for being born.

When a human was pregnant with a child, the mother’s appetite would increase as well.

Demons that were tethered to items suffered even harsher birth conditions. Not only did they require a sufficient amount of negative emotions, but the item itself had to be unique and a huge amount of energy was needed as well.

Which part of the Sunshine Mary would have the highest energy surge?

The auction room of those rare, priceless treasures.

Kieran rushed down the stairs and headed straight for the auction table.

The rooms on either side, the corridor he was sprinting through, and the table before his eyes were all so familiar.

”The illusions from before were all real?”

Kieran was shocked. He would never have thought that the illusions Bloody Mary had made him see had some truth to them.

Kieran unconsciously looked behind the curtain by the auction table.

If part of the illusion was real, then all the auction items and the beautiful lady in the cage would be behind the curtain.

When Kieran thought of the lady with the beauty of a crescent moon, his breathing became slow.

After a slight pause, he jumped up on the auction table and dragged open the curtains.

The curtains revealed a huge magic circle.

A magic circle formed by hundreds of piled-up bones. Its shape was like a flat whirlpool with the skulls at its center. The vertebral columns, ribs, humerus and femur bones were laid down like waves of ripples spreading out. On top of the skulls were the palms and the feet.

The feet bones were facing down and the palms up, forming a big strange bowl. On top of the bowl were a few rotten items.

After a quick glance over the items, Kieran knew that those were the items auctioned in the Sunshine Mary.

He unconsciously touched his chest, feeling a small heartache.

It was like a dozen of Legendary Rank items and pieces of equipment were waving goodbye at him. Kieran’s body shivered uncontrollably.

He calmed himself down after 10 seconds.

Then he rushed up to the no longer functional magic circle and searched the rotten items, hoping to find some salvageable valuables.

The outcome was disappointing. None of the items had any value anymore.

Kieran sighed and walked away.

He wanted to know whether the beautiful lady really existed or not.

He saw the cage where she had been locked in the past. However, inside the cell was only a skeleton.

It was not that different from the skeletons used in the magic circle. The only difference was that the lady’s skeleton was intact, while the others had been torn apart.

As he looked at the skeleton before his eyes, Kieran could not connect it to the beautiful lady in his memory. Judging by the outfit the skeleton was wearing though, it had to belong to her.

”Beauty will eventually fade off in the face of death...” Kieran muttered as he turned around.

He searched around the auction room, but made no further discoveries and went back up to the deck.

He had a general idea of what had really happened to the Sunshine Mary.

The Sunshine Mary had disguised itself as a luxurious ferry that transferred wealthy passengers from the West to the East and back, but it was in fact an auction venue that travelled by sea.

Not only did it auction off rare priceless treasures, but it also provided prostitution services. That particular service attracted more and more wealthy people, and more treasures were brought to the auction table as a result.

As more and more treasures gathered at one spot, this eventually attracted the attention of a mystical individual that was after both treasures and wealthy passengers.

Kieran even speculated that the mystical individual had been hired as a prostitute.

This was not a hard feat considering the Sunshine Mary’s wealth. However, the mystical individual had wanted more than money from the job.

Given the circumstances, no matter what she had wanted to achieve, it would have been all too easy for her. And yet, she had still failed in the end.

The accident had given birth to the high demon and sped up the hatching of an inferior Hell Fiend Spider.

The most important point was that this accident had caused the Sunshine Mary to disappear.

Otherwise, considering the connections of all the wealthy passengers and the mystical individual on board, the crew would not have given up just like that.

The mystics also had their own organization. The man who had raised the demons was the best example of that. His death had produced the [Fantos Manuscript].

The mystical individual on board, who had wanted to achieve her goal, must have sent the [Fantos Manuscript] and some other items away before the accident had occurred.

She had tried to ask for help.

”She still was not able to prevent her demise though!”

Kieran took a deep breath as he reached the deck again.

A notification was blinking in his vision.

[Sub Mission: Ghost Ferry (Completed)]

[You solved the mystery of the Sunshine Mary, Dungeon rating increased significantly!]

The notifications were expected, but what came right after made Kieran frown hard.