The Devil’s Cage

Kieran had his own guesses about whether the skills would go above Transcendence.

Following the Character Model Template Limit, his guesses would only solidify themselves.

Transcendence was not the max limit of a skill, there should be higher skill levels above that, it was just that he wasn’t there yet.

Kieran even had guesses about if he would limit break his Character Model Template Limit, would there be more levels for his skills to upgrade?

Also, there might be other unknown prerequisites that he hadn’t met but it wasn’t much of a concern for Kieran at the moment because he had the chance to test out the skill level above Transcendence!

Kieran eagerly put on the new [Armor of Excellence] once the thought came to mind but he didn’t go into Undercover mode because he remembered he was still in someone else’s room.

”How much do I need to pay you?” Kieran asked directly.

He wasn’t stingy about paying points this time around since he was very satisfied with [Armor of Excellence]’s attributes. It wasn’t that he had suddenly become generous but he knew Blacksmith wouldn’t lie to him in terms of pricing and with the newly embedded [Armor of Excellence] he could earn more points with it.

”That won’t be necessary. The [Reverse Scar] that you lent me has earned me enough Points for your repairs and embedding.” Blacksmith said lightly.

[Reverse Scar] was a cursed item, after all, it wouldn’t leave behind any drops after killing the targets but would provide the user with Points and Skill Points.

Kieran knew it all along but he didn’t think it would be enough for even the embedding, let alone the repair fees.

The previous Rare rank embedding had cost 300K Points and this time around, Kieran didn’t think it would be the same price.

Based on his limited understanding of embedding rules, each different rank would raise the cost a few times higher than the previous or even ten times in certain cases.

He didn’t think that the Black Robes players would be able to provide Blacksmith with a million points or so despite their overwhelming numbers.

If there were items or equipment left behind, it would be more reasonable though.

Therefore, Kieran didn’t go off right away but he stood and stared at Blacksmith.

He didn’t want to owe people debt of gratitude without any valid reason, Blacksmith as well.

”Consider a part of it as a thank you for saving my life.” Blacksmith said.

It might be him over thinking but Kieran was certain that he noticed Blacksmith’s tone went even colder when she uttered those words but it was also a reason that he could accept.

Therefore, Kieran nodded with a smile and said goodbye in a courteous way.

Lawless already told Kieran the curse was approaching via PMs.

Kieran quickly left as the door was closed.

Blacksmith was left alone in her own room. She switched off the system blur of her face and stood there quietly, staring at the long-closed door.

A subtle expression floated across her delicate face soon after, it looked like she was angry and relieved at the same time.

”This is not real! All of this is virtual!”

Blacksmith reminded herself once more before disappearing within her own room.

...

Outside Blacksmith’s room, Lawless was calling out to Kieran.

”Huge discovery! Huge discovery!”

Lawless ran over to Kieran’s side with his loud yelling and the loud voice suddenly stopped.

The familiar scene relieved Kieran without any real reason after his feelings turned heavy because of what Rachel told him.

Kieran too walked over to Lawless with an exceptionally skilled poker face.

Coll and the others further away already started to laugh.

”You people! Little punks! Can’t you guys be more cooperative? When I say huge discovery, at least you people can show some curiosity!” Lawless said out loud in a righteous tone and pointed at Coll and the others.

However, the laughs became even louder, even Kieran grinned a little.

Kieran saw that Lawless was biting his cigar and kept on mumbling by himself. He then reached out his hand into Lawless’s backpack and took out a cigar, lighted it up with his left hand and took a deep puff.

The smoke came out slowly after.

Kieran tried to savor the faint fragrant from the smoke and it did make him more delighted.

All the things that Rachel told him were thrown behind him.

Who said that goodwill couldn’t be repaid with sincerity?

Kieran, Coll, Hanses, Raven, Ramont and even Blacksmith were all dead people?

Would they stand beside when Lawless was in trouble?

”The more I worry, the messier I get… Almost fell into your pace!”

Kieran took another puff and his eyes lit up.

He has no idea why Rachel did what she did but he knew she was hiding much more than he could imagine.

Glancing over at Lawless, Kieran didn’t tell Lawless because it wasn’t necessary.

He believed that even if he would go and question Rachel now, she would come up with a different excuse in a reasonable way.

So, he stopped the questions but it didn’t mean he didn’t care. Kieran would approach the problem in a different way instead.

As the thoughts flashed through his heart, his steps became firmer.

He knew what he wanted to do and what he should do.

”You little punks and pricks!”

”2567, I’ve found the Secondary Medicine Crafting Platform Blueprint!”

Lawless gave a middle-finger to the others and told Kieran in a mysterious tone.

”[Secondary Medicine Crafting Platform Blueprint]?!”

Kieran was stunned and he repeated the whole term just to assure himself.

”Yup!” Lawless nodded and sent a screenshot to Kieran right away.

[Name: Secondary Medicine Crafting Platform Blueprint]

[Type: Crafting blueprint]

[Rarity: Great]

[Prerequisite: Medicine and Medicinal Knowledge (Master), Basic Medicine Crafting Platform]

[Remark: This is an upgraded version of the basic crafting platform. Able to craft bandages and also a small chance of producing healing syringes!]

...

Below the screenshot had a 250,000 Points price tag.

”Buy it!”

Kieran said without even hesitating.

[Basic Medicine Crafting Platform] had its own limits, the bandages that it crafted other than the high bandages were pretty much useless to Kieran now. He would rather wait for his body to heal instead but the [Secondary Medicine Crafting Platform] was a different story.

Kieran too knew about the [Healing Syringe], a medical syringe that could heal 50 HP in one injection. Although it has a 1-hour usage cooldown, it would still be a lifesaving tool for most of the players.

Everyone would be stingy once in a while but against something that could save lives, even Kieran the stingy Scrooge would show an exception, let alone others.

Kieran wasn’t a cunning merchant like Broker but he realized the huge profits that he could make from the healing items.

Even though it might seem like a huge investment in the early stages, this amount of investment wasn’t much to Kieran since he had suddenly gotten rich.

Kieran turned to his points tab.

[Points: 800,000; Skill Points: 165; Golden Skill Points: 7; Golden Attribute Points 13]

He immediately gave 250K points to Lawless.

While Lawless was contacting and negotiating with the seller, Keiran went over his remaining Points and Skill Points, planning his next stage of upgrades.

The group didn’t pause a step while that was happening because the gray glimmering curse was showing itself around the street corner.