The Devil’s Cage

How many players existed in the big city?

Perhaps no one was able to tell the exact number but one thing that the veterans could confirm was after the initial beta stage and the “Witch’s Uprising”, the number of players in the game has always been in a state of increase.

Especially recently, the number of newbie players that entered the game had skyrocketed.

Though all of the veterans were perfectly clear that among this new batch of newbie players, a lot of them would stay nameless and quiet throughout the game. Some might even come and go like the wind.

There was no way for the newbie players to leave their trace in the big city, only a handful of lucky ones would able to make a name for themselves and those who wanted to raise their reputation and become well known to the point where most of the existing players were familiar with their name, it was nearly impossible because they definitely couldn’t just rely on pure luck to achieve that, they would also need a special trait.

Some possessed a special trait from birth while some acquired that special trait through hardships.

Perhaps such players may be buried under temporarily but once the opportunity presented itself, the player would shine with their own glory and radiance, dazzling and blinding at the same time, like Kieran.

The circumstances of the previous battle quickly spread among players.

Shock! Doubt! Some even showed looks of disbelief but ultimately, everything was replaced by astonishment following the burned down street block.

The Fire Emperor! The King of Flames! The Blazing Devil!

All sorts of titles the players came up with spread out like wildfire.

Of course, Kieran who had just returned to Wallway 13th from Harvest Inn wasn’t really concern about all those.

During the gathering just now, Lawless already used his “excellent voice and charm” to deliver the titles to Kieran. It even attracted a bunch of other guys to play along with Lawless, showing their astonished expressions, but from the beginning till the end, Kieran maintained his cool because he was very clear about where his strength ranked.

Kieran had just entered the Advance Ranks, all he did was reach the threshold of the underground game.

Those titles were just the product of astonishment of the other ignorant players. For the ones truly within the core of the game, they might laugh out loud in heavy contempt.

It may not even attract the attention of those in the core, some other players who reached Advance Rank earlier or even surpassed it altogether could already look at him with disdain.

So, Kieran rejected Lawless’ invitation for an all-night party to return to his own room.

He needed to increase his strength even faster!

No just only because of the trouble such titles would attract but also Broker.

Without more evidence, Kieran couldn’t support his theory but his instinct told him Broker was brewing something big behind the scenes.

Likewise, Kieran was utterly sure if Broker succeeded, he would never again get a day of peace.

So, after sending a message to Allen, Kieran brought up [Emerder’s Deal].

[Repairing Emerder’s Deal requires 1,000,000 Points, Yes or No?]

“Yes!” said Kieran.

Immediately, the round [Emerder’s Deal] emitted its golden reserved luster once more and even more golden brilliance filled the entire room.

The disk was like a whale sucking in water, greedily consuming all the golden brilliance in the room.

The mottled rust stains on the disk vanished with a speed visible to the naked eye.

The irregular cuts on the edge were being filled in swiftly.

The whole disk was returned to its former clean and shiny form, thus revealing the mystical words that were branded on to the disk.

However, the complicated level of these mystical words was too profound, even with Kieran’s Pro level [Mystical Knowledge], he couldn’t make out all of it.

All he could tell was these mystical words had some special mark with them.

A simple example would be treating [Mystical Knowledge] as a common language while these specially marked mystical words were some hard to understand slang.

Though it didn’t stop him from using [Emerder’s Deal].

He took out tons of spoils of war and placed them into the round disk that was only the size of a palm. It grew bigger continuously as items were being placed into it and it seemed like no matter how many spoils of war Kieran placed inside it, it would hold on to it.

When he felt it was almost enough, Kieran stated his request.

“I wish to acquire [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art]’s advanced mystical skill!”

That’s right, [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art]’s advanced mystical skill!

To be honest, after acquiring [Emerder’s Deal], Kieran had been thinking about how he would use this special item to increase his own strength.

To a player, in order to increase their own strength, there were only two factors that mattered.

First, equipment.

Second, skills.

Both of those factors also shared a major common point; most of the equipment and skills could be acquired in the dungeon world or acquired through trading with other players.

If he wanted to truly utilize the potential of [Emerder’s Deal], Kieran would have to discard the common point and after that, he realized he was only left with one clear goal.

[Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art]!

What about [Fusion Heart] though?

Being different from [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art], Kieran had a certain idea about how to power up [Fusion Heart] but for the tempering art…

Although [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] had reached Musou level and only one level away from Transcendence, there was still a gap of an entire level!

For Kieran at the moment, the cost of leveling wasn’t that absurdly high given that Origin Force has a 30% decrease in cost.

If everything went smoothly, after two more dungeon runs, he would be able to level up [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] to Transcendence.

What about after Transcendence?

He would remain stagnant! It was something that Kieran didn’t wish to see.

As one of his core energies, once the tempering art entered a stagnant state, his strength would definitely be greatly affected.

Up to that point, it would be useless to have his other core energy, [Fusion Heart], grow stronger because he would still have to worry about the repulsion.

The repulsion from [Fusion Heart] was no joke!

A slight misstep and he would end up as a puppet of flesh and blood.

Kieran had balance it out. He must achieve the balance inside [Fusion Heart] or he could retain the balance with external energy.

No one had better rights to say that than Kieran, the owner of Dawn Force and what the Origin Force brought to the table.

So, if it was possible, Kieran would seek the advanced mystical skill of [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] the most.

During his training for [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art], he had speculated more than once about the next level once he reached Transcendence but it was just a speculation, nothing more than a thought.

He was clear that it would be impossible.

Kieran would never improperly belittle himself, neither would he be arrogant about his strength.

[Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] was the mandatory mystical art for the knights of Church of Dawn, it had been through countless generations and numerous unsurpassed wise-men people before its creation.

In addition, there might be a higher level lifeform infused into the process, like divine beings!

A mystical art that was created through many generations and people, how simple would the advanced version be?

Even though Kieran had acquired the basic part and wasn’t a blind man searching for clues anymore, the advanced part of the skill was certainly something that he could never create alone in a short period of time.

Originally, Kieran had already prepared other alternatives to meet his end but with the arrival of [Emerder’s Deal], it provided new hope!

Huuu!

After placing all the items, Kieran stared at [Emerder’s Deal] after a deep breath.

The big disk was emitting glimmers of light after Kieran stopped putting items on it.

The glimmers were like some kind of special words, radiating its special meaning in front of Kieran’s eyes.

“Not enough! The items you offer are not enough!”

Kieran was stunned when he saw the special words.

Then, he lifted his mouth with a smirk.

One needed to know, Kieran currently had an abundance of items for trading.