The Devil’s Cage

Kakrooom!

A sudden tremble struck the place, causing the underground lair to shake terribly.

”EARTHQUAKE?!” Kieran was overwhelmed.

He never thought such a disaster would happen the moment before he returned to the game lobby.

At the same time, the vigilance in his heart surged.

Even with his current strengths and abilities, it was still beyond his reach for him to face a natural disaster, especially facing an earthquake in an underground lair.

Though, he didn’t retreat.

Judging from the location that he was in, if he would return to the surface, the sole lengthy corridor that he came through was enough to diminish his thoughts of returning, let alone the distance between the well.

He was fast but unable to blink or teleport.

His running speed would never outrun the crumbling speed of the collapsing lair.

So, he hastened his steps towards the door, hurling himself through.

Since he couldn’t return to the surface, might as well take another gamble, try to get more loots before leaving the dungeon, after all the time was almost up.

30 seconds were left on the clock. His Constitution would be able to keep him alive easily for another 30 seconds even if he was buried alive.

Kieran reached the door with his hand, he exerted a fair amount of strength, pushing open the heavy stone door.

The stone door revealed a small, narrow bedroom inside, other than a bed, there was a rack that seemed to hold books as well as many other things scattered around.

It was just as Kieran’s expected but there was also the unexpected.

Wuuung!

A vibrating whistle came from the air around.

Kieran quickly front rolled without a second thought because of his rich battle experience.

A powerful wind grazed Kieran’s hair. It was from a tail!

A stone tail! From the dragon-snake like creature sculptures!

Amid the crumbling lair, 12 stone dragon-snake creatures came alive, wiggling their body and flexing their stone scales.

Hisss! Hisss!

Odd hisses sounded, causing Kieran to frown.

”What the hell is this?” He couldn’t find an appropriate name for the creature before his eyes but he was sure the creatures were still made of stone, just their aura was different.

It wasn’t the cold, gloomy negative energy anymore nor was it a fiend but something totally unknown.

One thing was for sure though, the 12 dragon-snake creatures were hostile towards Kieran.

The moment the uproar of hisses subsided, the 12 of them threw themselves at Keiran.

The underground lair was filled with strong vibrations whilst throughout the air amidst the crumbling condition.

The terrifying force of the earthquake seemingly frozen for a moment as the creatures jumped out. The scene became more terrifying as the destructive earthquake seemingly turned into a rapidly flowing river and the creatures were the water dragons, swimming in the waters with extreme speed.

They brewed storms in river and seas, striking disaster throughout heaven and earth.

They were controlling the destructive power that could tear the land apart, directing it towards Kieran.

Baaaash!

Kieran felt extremely heavy under the incoming pressure as if he had a mountain on his back.

Waaam!

His body became extremely heavy, causing his body to slow down as if he sunk into a swamp.

Pressure over pressure, power over power, all the terrorizing force was overlapping on Kieran’s body.

Kieran’s body started to wobble but it wasn’t enough for him to stagger.

The 12 dragon-snake creatures enveloped Kieran in an instant, deleting his figure from the scene.

At that instant, the underground lair was only filled with the abnormal hissing and crumbling rocks.

However, a fraction of a second later, the hissing turned into agonizing cries.

KABOOOW!

A magma arm burst out from the group of stone creatures like an erupting volcano. The palm burning with devil’s flame quickly grabbed one of the creature’s bodies like a bolt of lightning.

The powerful hand tightened its grip on the dragon-snake creature, coping the upper jaw of the creature and the other hand burst out, reaching into the lower jaw of the creature.

BASSSAAHA!

The dragon-snake creature was torn apart with raw strength by the magma hands, splattering pebbles in all directions.

The other stone creatures were frightened by the sudden attack, they were trying to scatter away, escaping the range of the fiery devil.

However, a powerful blast wave was fired out from the fiery wings, crushing the remaining creatures into pebbles like tofu.

Devilfied Kieran glanced over the floor filled with crushed pebbles, he was confused.

”Able to control the power of earthquakes and had such presence but they were destroyed so easily by… Huh!?”

Kieran turned aside out of a sudden as his instinct rung. The spot was empty except for a wall.

However, at the wall, or more precisely the direction, a slight sense of presence made itself clear, even if it was just a flash.

But Kieran could feel how terrifying the presence was as if a hungry wild beast struck a pedestrian in a cold silent night. A beast that could control the power of earthquakes!

The dragon-snake creature’s power was sucked away by the beast! It could very well be considered as plundering the creature’s power, that was why Kieran could easily destroy the creatures.

Fuuuu!

A second later, Devil Kieran let out a fiery breath, sparks came out from his mouth and nostrils. He was staring at the direction with concern and lingering fear. Though his actions weren’t hesitant.

[Triggered Special Event!]

[The unusual movement of the ground wasn’t a natural phenomenon. A terrifying truth lies behind the earthquake. Do you wish to investigate the truth of the incident? Yes/No]

”Yes!” Kieran answered affirmatively.

[Player is included in Special Event, return is temporarily canceled!]

[Investigate the truth behind this incident within 6 months!]

[Note 1: Triggered Special Event, dungeon clear rating increased]

[Note 2: Once special main mission is completed, dungeon rating will be significantly increased]

[Note 3: Should the special main mission fail, the original main mission would be considered failure as well]

...

”Unusual movements of the ground?”

Kieran squinted his eyes, at the fallen pillars. After some deep thought, he removed his devil form and turned back to the room.

He was desperately in need of information to allow him to understand what the hell just happened and there might be valuable clues in the room behind him.

However, the disappointing fact was, there was indeed a lot of things inside but none of them had any real value, other than some pills, there were more books.

Kieran quickly flipped over the books and all it recorded was some bizarre fantasy of someone, such as using the organs of a fiend to modify the writer’s body, hence enhancing his strength and how to use a Merman’s meat to create immortality pills.

Although Kieran labeled the books as ”bizarre fantasy”, he knew it in his heart the records might very well be genuine.

Other than that, Kieran found a file under the rack. The file that was used to store papers.

The file was quite old from the look of it, the color even turned yellowish and its edges were already rounded.

Kieran wanted to open the file out of curiosity but the noise that echoed in his ears made him stop right away.

After gathering all the items that he found, placing them into [Crimson Ghost Stomach], he turned around and headed out with the nest that had an egg inside.

A long rope was thrown down from the well.

Lee, the Funeral Society member was climbing down and he was overwhelmed when he saw Kieran was unharmed.

However, he quickly hid his odd manners and informed Kieran using an official tone.

”Master Bird of Death, Fiend Hunter Ditko from the Funeral Society is waiting for you upstairs. He wishes to inquire you of some matters.”

His voice was clear and sonorous but his hands were giving out small signs to Kieran.