The Devil’s Cage

Borl didn’t say anything out loud but his heart was screaming.

As a solo player who had just woken up from slumber, he managed to keep some common sense with him.

Regardless of how shaken he was because of Kieran’s appearance, he had to try to stay calm.

Though the calmness only lasted a moment.

Krank!

Kieran, under the moonlight, was shattered all of a sudden! As if he was a mirror hit by a hammerstrike, broken into many pieces with a clank.

“Ah!” Borl shrieked out of surprise.

Then, he saw the shattered Kieran reconstruct himself and stand under the moonlight again.

This…

“Aah!”

Before a complete thought came afloat in Borl’s mind, Kieran shattered again and then reconstructed himself.

At the third round, Borl was no longer surprised, the fear that loomed in his heart also gone. He sat up, leaned on the wagon, and wiped the dirt off of his face, quietly watching Kieran shatter and reconstruct, again and again.

After around 10 times, Kieran finally stopped. He then walked into the darkness, followed by a scream of pain from the shadows.

Borl knew what Kieran did: he went after the hidden watcher!

Unwanted eyes must be eliminated.

“What is your relationship with Broker?”

Kieran’s voice suddenly came from behind.

Borl went dull for a while before he turned around. He saw Kieran behind him and greeted him with a bitter smile, “I really want to have something to do with him, at least I won’t end up in such a passive state.”

Kieran looked at Borl without uttering a word.

2 seconds later, he nodded without actually commenting on the topic.

‘They are not related, right?’

Bloody Mary sized up Borl’s expression and gaze during the question.

Of course, its boss still has to determine whether or not the claim was true.

“Colin, thank you for your help. I should go to Aschenkano and give a helping hand!” Borl suddenly uttered a name.

Bloody Mary nodded slightly. It had many adventures with Kieran through multiple dungeon worlds, so an alias was nothing surprising.

Colin, a fake name which should be fitting to this dungeon world.

Back in the palace, Kieran saw everything through Bloody Mary’s eyes. He looked up and turned to the side of the palace.

The palace started to fall apart without his knowledge and behind the glamourous walls was a pitch black void.

It seemed like Broker had set more than one layer of insurance in this place.

The first layer was the blue oval door, anyone who walked through it would be attacked.

Second, the collapsing palace.

Everything was linked together, which suited Broker’s style.

Was it safe to enter the oval door now?

A simple test would provide more answers.

Snap!

Kieran snapped his fingers again.

Bloody Mary appeared beside Kieran once more, walked through the blue oval door again, and the shattering happened, just like before.

At the same time, the palace collapsed even quicker.

When Bloody Mary went through the blue oval door for a third time and the shattering happened as usual, half of the palace had fallen apart.

“Forceful at every step?”

Kieran waved to stop Bloody Mary from going through the blue oval door after the third time, pointing at the black void and said, “Try that place.”

That ominous black void reeked of danger, yet Bloody Mary walked over without any expression on its face, its heart on the verge of breaking down.

It had died more than 30 times just now! It was painful being sliced into many pieces!

Now it had to face more unknown danger?

The moment Bloody Mary touched the black void, it started to reminisce about the sun of the West Coast again but at the next moment, Bloody Mary surprisingly found itself in the woods full of pine trees beside the hill again, this time unscathed.

The black void was the correct way?

Cunning bastard!

Bloody Mary commented on the boss’ enemy.

Bloody Mary even speculated this black void was the escape path Broker saved for himself.

Think about it, if intruders raided this palace and the blue oval door appeared in the middle in a timely manner, where would the intruders go next?

The blue oval door!

The palace would then fall apart, the black void would follow, and under the pressure, more intruders would swarm into the oval door.

The tricky thing was, people from opposite the oval door couldn’t see the palace!

In short, a little trick easily put the intruders in a troublesome situation.

Even if the smarter ones or assumed smarter ones forced Broker in the oval door to test water, they would still lose more than they would gain. Bloody Mary was very sure Broker had some immunity against the damage of the oval door or had control over the activation.

Once Broker went through the oval door, the tides would change instantly.

The safe black void would become the real danger and the situation would plummet into despair.

‘Scary bastard! Thankfully, the boss isn’t that naive!’

Bloody Mary saw Kieran come through the black void and arrive beside itself. With Kieran’s order, Bloody Mary went into the darkness.

Kieran, however, frowned on the spot.

He felt sluggish! Like he had walked into a swamp and was constrained by something.

On top of that, he even felt a heavy sense of wickedness.

The heavy sense of wickedness was like mist, shrouding the spots where Kieran could see.

‘Is it only this place? Or the whole dungeon world?’

The latter made Kieran frown harder.

According to common sense, the reason for such a heavy sense of wickedness must be heavy negative energy. Normal beings couldn’t have survived under such an environment yet everything in this world seemed normal.

It had a heavy sense of wickedness but no negative energy!

A strange and unique world!

“Broker didn’t just want to hold back Borl, he wanted to use him to enter this world? Or both together?”

Kieran sized up this misty world and his gaze unconsciously located Borl’s figure, who was walking further away. Borl had a sword hanging over his waist and was holding a musket in his hands.

The musket was a very early invention of firearms yet it was meticulously crafted. The body was black and had a trigger, buttstock, and a scope like every other modern firearm that Kieran knew of, but it had an extra round magazine slot on the left side between the buttstock and the trigger.

Under the moonlight, the magazine was emanating a faint magical glow.

Bang!

Borl pulled the trigger, the muzzle flashed, and a robber who tried to jump on Aschenkano was shot.

The magical glow on the magazine glimmered and the fire powder which should have been cleared was automatically reloaded again. The fire powder was refilled and the pellet was loaded inside, allowing Borl to fire the musket again.

Bang!

Another shot fired, another robber fell.

This one had it worse than the previous one as his head was shot open like a flower.

It seemed like other than the amazing reloading speed, the musket had firepower that surpassed its peers of the same generation.

Kieran collected his gaze and looked down at the empty ground at the foot of the hill.

Numerous robbers clamored and gathered around Borl’s bodyguard, surrounding him, but those who truly damaged Aschenkano were only a handful—many more of them were shouting and swinging their weapons at the air.

When Borl returned to the battlefield, the robbers further plunged into panic.

“Behind! Behind! Look out! Behind you!” the robbers shouted messily.

There was no organized formation whatsoever in them, so they scattered away in an instant. A part of the robber looked behind them and a part of them hid behind objects, avoiding the potential firing.

Kieran even saw two panic robbers bump into each other because of the panic, falling on the ground and getting trampled over by the other robbers.

A motley crowd!

They had never received any tactical training and they were very weak on their own.

Kieran saw the bodyguard, Aschenkano, swung his halbert left and right, slicing and dicing his enemies, charging forth and back, as if he had entered a trance.

Each swing took down several robbers, and a few minutes later, almost half of the robbers fell under Aschenkano’s halbert.

The rest of the robbers scattered away in fear.

Aschenkano grew excited when he saw his enemies running away. Roaring furiously, tore his soft mail away and went chasing after the fleeing robbers bare top.

Borl, on the other hand, heaved a long breath, putting away his musket shortly after that.

He knew how good his bodyguard was. A group of robbers, despite having hundreds in numbers, who relied on individual strength and not sheer numbers to oppress their enemy, could never do any harm to his bodyguard. Yet Borl was still worried because Aschenkano was one of his important assets for his upcoming plan.

If he lost Aschenkano, it would truly affect his overall plan.

That aside…

Borl quietly looked at Kieran, remembering the voice he heard earlier.

The voice sounded unlike Kieran. Although cold, it felt arrogant. It wasn’t the sense of neglect that Borl felt.

Was that someone else? Borl wondered but dared not ask Kieran.

He knew the person in front of him very well.

It wasn’t just because of the fairness that he upheld, it was also because of the title of Flaming Devil, especially the latter. Borl feared the title and, at the same time, had fresh memories about it.

“Aschenkano, this is Colin.”

Borl introduced his bodyguard to Kieran.

He was much more at ease in front of his bodyguard, and rather than asking, he continued to introduce Kieran in a neat order, “He is our reinforcement, and thankfully for him, I am still breathing.”

“Thank you Colin! If anything happens to Borl, I really wouldn’t know what to do! I’m Aschenkano. You seem like a fighter yourself, why don’t we..”

“Aschenkano, your job is to clean the battlefield. I don’t want to face a group of walking dead later!”

At first, Aschenkano made Borl smile with his words but as he talked, Borl’s expression turned sour, quickly stopping his bodyguard and ordering him away.

“Sir Colin, I can assure you Aschenkano didn’t do it on purpose…”

“Is there something about this place? Or something about this world?” Kieran asked straightaway.

“This world! This world is one-of-a-kind!” Borl replied.

He thought for a while to rearrange his words before he continued, “A few decades ago, active Gods roamed this world, the very powerful kind, but after the Black Cataclysm, all the Gods disappeared and some wicked existences started to pop up, especially the whole Northern Land! It has been twenty years since the last believer, blessed by the God of War, appeared in the War God Temple. On the other hand, the wicked, especially that Lady Calamity, flaunt their abilities too often.”

Borl purposely paused for a moment, waiting for Kieran to ask about Lady Calamity, but Kieran was quiet as stone.

A while later, Borl continued after no response from Kieran.

“Some say Lady Calamity is a God worshipped in a little city in the south, so in the eyes of the North, she is a Demon God. A few decades ago, 10 thousand Northern armies sieged the city and were vanquished overnight, but that only marks the start of the disaster! The returning troops fell ill, one after another, fever and unknown bleeding spreading throughout the camp. The troops were almost annihilated before they even set foot in Edatine Castle. But scarier things had yet to happen: disaster spread throughout the Northern Land. Numerous people died: civilians, knights, nobles, even royalty,” he said.

“The War God Temple has no clue how to stop it and it even became the epicenter of the disaster! Those fierce warriors who rivaled one hundred during their prime were no different than a civilian during the disaster. Some said it was the curse of Lady Calamity! A lot of people believed it too, because when people started to worship her, the disaster started to fade. The disaster was eradicated when a temple was erected to worship Lady Calamity in the very castle! Therefore, many other places throughout the Northern Lands started to build temples for Lady Calamity. The numbers surged over the time and it rivaled the War God Temple. Though ‘rivaled’ is a euphemistic way to put it. In my opinion, it is fair to say the War God Temple is living their last breath.”

Borl explained the Northern Land in detail.

Gods?

Kieran muttered to himself.

He encountered the so-called Gods more than once.

Some powerful, some weak.

Some real, some fake.

Regardless of which, Kieran understood one thing: no matter how weak the God was, one should not treat them like mortals.

Therefore, before getting into details about the God of War and Lady Calamity, Kieran refused to comment on the topic.

He marked down what Borl told him and then asked Borl about things that concerned him.

“What about you?”

“Me? I’m just a normal merchant, I get supplies from Mozaar and sell them in the inner Northern Lands. I have some savings after a lot of hard work and am currently going to Edatine Castle. Edatine VI just released a royal decree: anyone can buy a dukeship with Gold Purton. I know it’s just the lowest dukeship but I viewed it as a chance. I’ve hit a bottleneck in my business, but if I have a dukeship, I can overcome the difficulties. Of course, a lot of people don’t share the same ideals as mine. That’s why I am attacked. Even though I played coy by setting up many dummy convoys and traveling light, I was still caught up with Aschenkano,” Borl explained his background in detail.

Kieran, as a fellow player, quickly understood Borl’s main mission must have something to do with the dukeship.

As for the dungeon difficulty? It would be anything but easy.

Although Kieran spotted the person through Bloody Mary’s eyes, he clearly felt that the watcher that Bloody Mary took out earlier was very skilled and decently powerful. He even had specific understanding about Borl and his whereabouts.

Kieran was sure if it wasn’t for his unannounced entry, Borl would have bitten the dust here and now.

Regardless of the watcher or Broker, neither of them bore good intentions towards Borl, especially the latter.

Broker wasn’t someone who would give up easily after a small loss.

Broker must have returned to the big city to plan and scheme for a comeback to make up for his loss.

Kieran then asked after some thought, “Borl, can you afford to fail your main mission?”