The Devil’s Cage

When Kieran came back to his game lobby, the rating notifications popped.

[Sixth Official Dungeon: City of Fiends]

[Dungeon Type: Free Mission]

[Dungeon Difficulty: Average]

[Main Mission: Solve at least 1 special case in 1 week]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating F)]

[Case Solved 1: Devour Woman]

[Case Solved 2: Puppet Fiend]

[Case Solved 3: Flurry Blade Ghost]

[Rating increased: F → C]

[Sub mission 1: The Intercepted Supporter]

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

[Sub mission 2: Backstreet Kitchen]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating B → A)]

[Sub mission 3: Butcher’s Massacre

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating A → S)]

[Special event: Unusual Quake]

[Perfect rating: S → ZZ]

[Battle Performance: Very Active (Rating ZZ → ZZZ)]

[Exploration Performance: Average]

[Special Rating 1: Complete main mission in advance (Rating ZZZ → V)]

[Special Rating 2: Defeated Ren, one of the 21 Fiend Exorcists (Rating V → VV, Rep +1)]

[Player final rating: VV!]

[Calculating dungeon reward…]

[Final player rewards as follows…]

[Points: 200,000; Skill Points: 50; Golden Skill Points: 6; Golden Attribute Points: 6]

[Acquired Special Dungeon: City of Fiends II]

[Acquired Special Reward 1: Saint Brilliant High School teacher employment letter]

[Acquired Special Reward 2: Gang distribution map of Flame City]

[Acquired Special Reward 3: Sewer distribution map of Flame City]

...

[Detected player brought out identifiable life form from dungeon, deduct 10,000 Points…]

[Detected player hasn’t formed a contract with an identifiable life form, identifiable life form will cost extra 1000 Points per non-contracted day…]

[Note 1: Non-contracted life form will cost player extra points during entering and exiting dungeon]

[Note 2: Non-contracted life form will not cost points in dungeon world]

...

Kieran went over his dungeon clear rating and directly ignored the [Special Reward] section.

After glancing over the points and skill points, his attention was placed at the very end.

”Contract?”

It didn’t come to him as a surprise though. Kieran did see how the loner Raven fought previously. Just that he needed to estimate the price for a contract.

Judging from how expensive the equipment cost for Chosen Ones, his current Points and Skill Points were not sufficient to meet ends because there was another [Dark Nether Stone] waiting to be embedded.

The embedding cost of the [Dark Nether Stone] would surely be more expensive than the previous [Ghastly Sapphire] which had already cost him 300,000 Points. After all, the [Ghastly Sapphire] was just a Rare gemstone and the [Dark Nether Stone] was a Legendary.

At the same time, Kieran still remembered [Wilco’s Grudge] that he gave Lawless to dispel the curse at the curse dispeller.

Even though Lawless said he owed Kieran a debt of gratitude, based on Kieran’s understanding of Lawless, if the process would require any extra fees, Lawless would definitely pay with his own funds.

Kieran then took out the spoils of war from the last dungeon world from the [Crimson Ghost Stomach].

Two machine guns, two low tier Magic rank items and [Blood Cleaver of Flurry], [Floating Ring] together with some [Repel Potion], and [Conceal Potion].

Lastly, the box that was unsealed by Artitelgar.

Kieran took the box and opened it up.

His game lobby room was definitely the place that set his mind at ease the most, so he opened it up without any hesitation.

Inside the box was a black item the size of a palm. When Kieran took it out of the box, he was surprised that it was a piece of scale.

[Name: Great Swamp Scale]

[Type: Scale]

[Rarity: Legendary]

[Attack: ?]

[Defense: ?]

[Attributes: ?]

[Effect: ?]

[Prerequisite: A Gift from Great Swamp]

[Remark: It isn’t a dragon scale but it has its own magical properties!]

...

”Great Swamp Scale?” Kieran muttered softly.

Any extra layer of speculation was added on what Perforation Sting wanted to achieve.

Undoubtedly, the scale didn’t belong to Artitelgar, so there was only one explanation left, Artitelgar’s father... if what Artitelgar said was the truth...

”A plot revolving around the scale of Artitelgar’s father? What could it be?”

Kieran mumbled as he looked towards the description of [City of Fiends II]

[City of Fiends II: Perforation Sting is much more vicious than the rumors had it after you’ve accidentally disrupted their plans, you are treated as a thorn in their side…]

[Main mission: Begins when enters the dungeon!]

”A pursuit for my life?” Kieran wondered.

Though he shook his head quickly.

Even if Perforation Sting did want his life, it would be after [The Queen’s Shield II], [Primordial Invasion II], [The Shaman’s Partner IV] and another normal dungeon run.

Three special dungeons plus one normal dungeon would present Kieran with sufficient strength to keep himself alive. He was confident of that.

At the same time, Kieran realized the pros of a special dungeon once more. Not only would it not add to the normal dungeon count, it would also grant him extra strength to maximize his rewards in a normal dungeon with ease.

Last but not least, the window of breathing!

Without the three special dungeons buffering time, Kieran couldn’t even dare imagine how he would face the Gods in [City of Fiends].

”Lucky!”

After being fortunate of the breathing window, Kieran was concerned about the problem at hand, which was the lack of required points.

”I must find the contract first, otherwise the Fire Raven will definitely be an infinite abyss.”

Entering and exiting a dungeon would cost Kieran 10,000 Points plus an extra 1000 Points for each day spent without a contract. Even though the Fire Raven would not cost any points inside a dungeon, but as the days accumulated, it would be a great sum as well.

Once the thought struck him, Kieran felt like his flesh was being sliced open.

He opened up his PM tab and contacted Raven.

...

2567: How much points to form a contract with the system identifiable life form?

2567: Have any?

After sending two messages, Kieran was ready for a long wait knowing how Raven’s character behaved. Kieran then opened up his message tab to PM Blacksmith in order to save time.

However, out of Kieran’s expectations, before he could leave a message for Blacksmith, Raven gave him a reply.

Raven: You need a companion contract, cost around 100K Points.

Raven: I don’t have it now, but someone is dealing in Harvest Inn.

...

After getting the reply he was looking for, Kieran prepped his items and dashed towards the station after saying thank you.