The Devil’s Cage

After patrolling around Saint Brilliant and not discover anything further, Kieran finally returned back to his old dorm room.

A simple tidy up later, Kieran sat on his bed and trying to rearrange the incidents that happened since he entered the dungeon world.

Obviously, the current dungeon world had surpassed what he knew about common dungeon worlds.

Fiends.

It was something that he never encountered before throughout his adventures. Though he didn’t deny there were still tons of unknowns out there that he had never even heard off. After all, there wasn’t a single player that could identify every single dungeon world they had been in, especially when the difficulty increase following the number of entries and those dungeon worlds that deviated from the realistic world.

Still, some things had their own rules to follow.

”There was an obvious increase in difficulty during the fifth dungeon and now the sixth totally deviated from the realistic picture of the real world. That is why the other players differentiate newbies and veterans after the fifth dungeon.”

Kieran was recalling the conversation he had with Lawless.

Although he leaned more towards the character template limit to be considered as a veteran, now to think of it, dungeon entry numbers would be a viable reason as well.

More so it was the most reasonable explanation in a common situation.

As for himself?

Even if he wasn’t the only one, he was an exception.

Trying to risk his life by entering the underground game and accidentally started out with extra advantages. After getting more information from Lawless, Kieran’s journey into the game became smoother, easier for him to make his plans.

After learning the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art], the special core skill converted his potential into substantial advantages and allowed him to maintain the initiative in certain aspects.

”I have to keep the initiative going!”

Kieran’s eyes shone when he thought of his initial advantages. He had no plans in giving them up, even more so when he had gotten the sweeter end of the advantages.

Yet, he wasn’t totally carefree as he still had an enemy on his tail.

Broker.

Once the thought came into mind, he couldn’t help but take a deep breath, trying to filter out the useless thoughts in mind and focus on the current dungeon world. He didn’t want to die at Broker’s hands.

So, his only option left was to keep growing stronger, and to do so, getting higher ratings during dungeon clears and convert them into something useful.

”Fiend, a malefic existence that lived inside a human body but before they reveal themselves, their presence was hidden completely. Maybe because my Intuition is not high enough and I clearly sensed something different on Kana. She should be a mix of a human and fiend.

Not to mention the mysterious Funeral Society!”

Kieran felt heavy when he mentioned the mysterious organization.

Although he hadn’t made contact anyone of them, from what Kana was showing, the Funeral Society should be an organization set up purposely to deal with fiends. In order to hide the truth from the public, they might have to deal with the fiends before they take form and prevent anyone from getting hurt.

Though, Kieran was more concerned about the meaning of the Funeral Society’s existence.

From the limited information that Kieran gathered, the current dungeon world already had its own mystical realm and system and it seemed to be quite complete in every aspect.

It might not be good news for him, an outsider.

Even with the system assigning the identity to him, he needed to be careful not to let the enemies get a hold of his weakness, otherwise…

Kieran had no idea how the current dungeon world dealt with a visitors from other worlds but back in [The Shaman’s Partner], visitors from other worlds shared the same fate as experimental materials and knowledge.

In order to get their hands on such materials, rough and cruel means couldn’t be avoided.

”Trouble, trouble!”

Kieran was recalling the memories of his teacher’s identity, he couldn’t help but mutter to himself.

Although from a certain perspective, Kieran verified that Saint Brilliant High School was indeed a place of importance, on the other hand, his identity was restricting him.

At least he couldn’t perform or act out of his identity under the public eye.

”How to lessen the restrictions of this identity…”

Kieran raised his head all of a sudden amid his thoughts.

Knocks suddenly sounded in his ears, not on his dorm door but the big entrance to the old dorm.

Dong, Dong Dong!

The knocks were rhythmic but in the middle of the night, the knocks sounded eerie. It caused goosebumps to appear on one’s skin and when the person knocking on the door was wearing a body in a mourning dress, chills would go down one’s back.

When Kieran saw the man with a mourning dress, he frowned. Not only because of the outfit but also the mask he was wearing.

It was a silver mask with glimmers but the old school dorm wasn’t even lit up. A crying face was drawn on the mask with a reddish paint similar to blood.

”Greetings, Master Bird of Death.”

A drifting voice sounded behind the glimmering mask.

Kieran was stunned! But he quickly reacted to what happened.

Reputations and title!

Two negligible aspects were making itself useful in such a situation, and it even provided an unexpected result.

Kieran was squinting his eyes as a decent idea came into his mind while he was still struggling about his identity restrictions.

However, the person before Kieran seemed to have misunderstood something.

”You didn’t really hide your identity since your arrival and you are not just some random John Doe. While we, the Funeral Society is not a small organization without rules and procedures. The moment you were hired as Saint Brilliant’s teacher, we got the news already, just that we never thought you would make you move so fast, eliminating the Devour Woman right away! As expected of you, the huntsman that everyone is paying attention to! Please take these rewards!”

The member of the Funeral Society then took out a white linen sack with a Chinese character sewn on it, meaning ”offering to the dead” and passed it over to Kieran.

Kieran glanced over the linen sack and looked it over after making sure it wasn’t dangerous.

The sack felt a little heavy and based on the noise that it gave out, Kieran could tell it was holding some paper currency, yet taking over the sack made him feel uncomfortable as if he had received money for the dead, even though he knew it was his rewards.

Though as the rewards were given to him, Kieran raised his evaluation of Funeral Society again.

”Using rewards as incentive for the huntsman to hunt fiends? They must have a powerful economic capabilities, common non-government organizations wouldn’t possess such power. Something similar to the government?” Kieran guessed in his heart.

”Although the Funeral Society wouldn’t interfere and limit the freedom of the huntsmans, please be careful of Saint Brilliant High School, Master Bird of Death! Things that happened here don’t seem right, I’ve already made the report to the superiors, a Fiend Hunter will be sent here as soon as possible to handle the situation, please be careful until then.”

”By the way, I am Lee, a member of the Funeral Society in-charge of the area around Saint Brilliant High School. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if anything comes up. Please to meet you, Master Bird of Death, I’ll take my leave now.”

After getting another piece of paper from Lee, he bowed and slowly moved into the darkness.

Kieran calmly saw how Lee fused himself with the darkness and left. He then turned around and returned to his room without saying anymore.

He was almost certain why Lee left in the way he did, to show off his abilities and try to scare him.

Though it was almost a mile apart from the Transcendence level [Undercover], there was nothing noteworthy.

Though he was concerned about the attitude of Lee or more precisely the organization that he represented, the Funeral Society.

”Trying to show off gratitude and authority at the same time… Some political tactics?”

Kieran said with a mocking tone.

Then he returned his attention to the plan that he was forming up before Lee’s appearance and quickly finished it up.

As the darkness faded, the sun rose up again but a loud scream broke the peace during dawn.