The Devil’s Cage

Bloody Mary had quite the attainments in hunting down its enemies.

In fact, not just hunting, ambush, stealing, poisoning, assassination, all were part of its forte and it wasn’t just because of its natural talents and skills, it was also part of its broken memories.

‘I am an assassin.

I have no feelings.

I am cold and blood-thirsty.’

Based on the fragmented memories in its mind, Bloody Mary concluded its ‘past life’, which somehow existed.

Then… there was no ‘then’ after that. Other than taking experience from its fragmented memories, the rest never affected Bloody Mary.

It was still a Superior Demon, shackled by countless contracts, longing for a true holiday and yearning to sunbathe at the beach.

As for the feelings in the memory, they were non-existent.

Those fragmented memories were like a book to Bloody Mary, it was reading someone else’s life and it would never be its own.

Though the experience that it absorbed from there proved very useful. When coupled with its talent and skills, it was like a tiger with wings.

Bloody Mary got closer to its target as it hid in the air.

Its target was hiding underneath an area of frozen land.

Based on the color of the ground, Bloody Mary was certain that this area was the hiding spot that its target had prepared earlier.

It wasn’t just secretive, it was loaded with many layers of traps.

“Hiding nearby? Not a bad choice indeed.”

Bloody Mary commented on the target’s hideout and then dived into the ground and went through half a meter of disguises before it reached the secret hideout.

It was very easy for the Superior Demon though, like eating and drinking.

Bloody Mary saw its target curled up on the ground, like it was hibernating.

It wasn’t in any hurry though. Bloody Mary removed the pouch at the target’s waist, and then the dagger by its hand and another one hidden in the boots.

After disarming the target, Bloody Mary dragged him down into the ground.

The sudden changes caught the target, in his special condition, off guard.

Suffocation forged the target to open his eyes, trying to break free from Bloody Mary but it was useless. Bloody Mary wasn’t afraid of this kind of lousy attack, so it dragged the target deeper into the ground.

It finally stopped when the target passed out due to suffocation.

Bloody Mary pulled the target back to the surface, but not entirely.

Only the target’s head was pulled back, the rest of his body was still buried underground.

A common man would have died from suffocation after being buried like that, yet the target slowly woke up.

When the target opened his eyes, he saw Bloody Mary in its common man disguise. He started to recall what had happened and after the realization, the assassin, who was an amateur in Bloody Mary’s view, looked ugly.

The assassin puckered his lips tightly, knowing why Bloody Mary kept him alive and because of that, he would not speak, at least not now.

“Can we talk?” Bloody Mary spoke slowly.

The assassin buried in the ground kept quiet, even closing his eyes.

Bloody Mary grinned at the uncooperative attitude.

“Do you know? You are lucky that you ran into me, not my boss. If it was my boss, you would already be a dead man. But me? I am not that rough,” said Bloody Mary. It then mimicked Kieran by snapping its fingers.

Its special skill [Illusion] shrouded the assassin right away.

Closing his eyes did him no good, it suited Bloody Mary even more.

Tik, Tok, Tik, Tok.

Water drops sounded in the assassin’s ears, a very familiar smell entering his nose and as a qualified assassin, he was certain that it was the smell of blood, very fresh blood.

Dak, Dak, Dak.

The noise of boots stepping on blood entered his ears, the footsteps heavy, probably belonging to a rather fat person, the person within his proximity.

As the footsteps closed in and the smell of blood got heavier, the assassin couldn’t help but open his eyes.

He saw a two meters tall bloated figure with a bloody apron in front, holding a sharp meat cleaver and a meat hook in both of its hand. Behind the bloody figure was an unlucky bastard with its throat ripped open, hanging upside down—blood spurted out from the throat and it was almost drained, the remaining blood on the body dripping on the floor. It was the noise and smell from earlier.

The assassin looked around with a blank gaze.

His new surroundings seemed to be a windowless room, there was a sealed iron door further away, and all four walls were heavily stained by blood, meat chunks all over the floor as though it was a slaughterhouse.

‘Was I buried in the ground?

Why am I here?’

The assassin wanted to move his arms and legs but he suddenly realized he was tightly strapped to a metal chair, he couldn’t even budge a muscle.

The struggling noise attracted the bloated figure.

“Oh, you’re awake now. Don’t worry, it will be your turn soon,” said the bloated figure as it grinded the sharp meat cleaver against its hook.

The hook was black and emanated a cold, eerie presence, and as it was grinded against the sharp meat cleaver, sparks flew out.

His pupils shrunk, suddenly realizing the hook with the body hanging over it and the black hook in the bloated figure’s hand were exactly the same.

Then, before he could even react, the bloated figure grabbed him by the back of his neck, pressed him down and exposed his back. The assassin tried to resist but the strength on him was ridiculously powerful, none of his struggles were useful.

He heard the butcher figure laugh ferociously, but the most irritating noise was from the swinging hook.

Fuuung!

Pam!

The noise was seamless together, showing off how skilled the butcher was and how merciless it could be. When immense pain spread throughout his body, the assassin couldn’t hold it anymore and shrieked panfully, “Aaaaaarh! Stop it!”

He shouted at the butcher but it was useless. The butcher continued what it was doing: perforating his body with the meat hook.

The assassin felt that icy cold meat hook shuttled through his body, piercing his ribs and latching onto his spine.

He finally understood the usage of those tiny little spikes on the meat hook.

For every inch the hook moved through his body, the tiny spikes would cause excruciating pain.

When the hook finally stopped moving, his body was drenched in cold sweat. Even when the butcher released him from his chains, he could not move a muscle. He allowed the butcher to hang him on the iron chains from the ceiling.

Fualaaa!

The chains clattered, the momentum extending towards that lifeless unlucky bastard and causing its body to turn around, its soulless and morbid eyes landing straight into the assassin’s.

Unknowingly, panic rose in the assassin’s heart.

He saw a lot of dead people before, he even took many lives with his own hands but he never knew a dead person would look so scary.

Looking at the dead man, he thought of himself.

He might end up like the dead man a few seconds later.

‘No! NO WAY!’

He shouted in his heart.

“Wait! You can’t do this to me! We can reach an accord, a deal if you may! I give you what you want and you release me, how about that?” said the assassin.

The butcher who was moving the chair jolted, looking up to the assassin, its ugly face showing a weird mocking smile.

“Are you an idiot? Did you forget how you ended up in this place? Think carefully, it must be in your memories,” replied the butcher.

Being hung up in the air, the assassin was stupefied by the question, mutters coming out from his mouth.

“My hideout was exposed, I was captured, interrogated, and I lost my value. Then I was sent here… NO! I have lost my value! I still have something that I haven’t revealed! You people still don’t know who hired me!”

The assassin shouted loudly as he recalled the scenes that had happened.

He didn’t care about the so-called assassin’s code anymore, surviving was the only concern in his mind now.

He hoped that his butcher would deliver the intel on the mastermind, who he was about to reveal, to the higher ups and then, he would get the leverage to negotiate.

From there, he could live another day.

However, against his expectations, the butcher shook its head.

“No, this is not workable,” said the butcher in a decisive tone.

“You don’t know how important this intel can be, you have no idea…”

“I know, very clearly in fact. Isn’t the mastermind Duke Nola?”

The bloated butcher waved its hand and stopped the assassin.

The assassin jolted, looking at the butcher in disbelief.

“How did you find out?” he asked.

“How did I find out? A good question—you told me yourself!”

The bloated butcher then snapped its fingers and the slaughterhouse went away.

The assassin was still buried in the ground and standing in front of him was still the ‘man’ who captured him.

“I-Illusion!?” The assassin stuttered and then swiftly shook his head, “No! Impossible! Impossible! That is not an illusion, THIS IS!”

“Yes, this is just an illusion!”

Bloody Mary showed disdain at its captive, who tried to hypnotize himself.

‘Looks strong, but just on the outside. He can’t even stand a blow. A lousy fella who tries to escape reality, how the hell can he become a great assassin? Useless trash.’

[Demon Instinct] provided an insight of the assassin’s mind to Bloody Mary. It didn’t care anymore after getting the name. It then ‘looked’ at the misty wicked presence in the area.

While the assassin was muttering on his own, the misty wicked presence started to rumble restlessly.

A second later, it gushed into the assassin’s body.

The mist shrouded the assassin’s head only and the little mutters became a loud shout.

“YES!

THIS IS NOT MY FAULT!

THE WORLD IS AT FAULT, NOT ME!”

With that in the air, the assassin’s body expanded rapidly, scales growing on his skin and his common looking face starting to distort, all facial features going out of place during the transformation.

The ground that was holding him back was easily broken free with the increase in size.

“I will correct this fault!”

He jumped up on the ground, shouting furiously at the sky.

His body grew to two meters tall and the shout sounded like a clap of thunder.

He then started to search for Bloody Mary, the first wrong that he had to correct!

Right when he lowered his head, a palm came from behind him and grazed his beck.

The monsterfied assassin maintained its posture of shouting into the sky, its body frozen straight, but the head was silently twisted off from its body by Bloody Mary.

Spurt!

Blood spurted out from the neck and gushed into the sky.

Bloody Mary dodged the bloody rain like it was taking a stroll in its backyard, simply tossing the head away.

“Enemies without basic common sense are the easiest to deal with.”

While it was commenting on the monsterfied assassin, the misty wicked presence flowed out from the body and Bloody Mary was sure that the wicked presence was stronger and thicker than before.

“Devoured? No, doesn’t seem right. Boss’ clone is not that cheap and ineffective, this should be… assimilation!”

A term flashed over Bloody Mary’s mind.

It then picked up the loot and prepared to return to its boss.

At that very moment, an unknown gaze that came down from the sky was scanning the area, coming closer to the scene and making Bloody Mary squint its eyes.

‘The gaze came from the direction of the boss, meaning the boss must have noticed this gaze yet he didn’t inform me, which also means I am once again treated as a pathfinding pebble.’

Bloody Mary missed the West Coast and its sun again.

‘Why me again?

Pride, Sloth, and Gluttony are around!

They can do it too!

I don’t want to die a horrible death every time!’

Bloody Mary was crying in its heart but its movement wasn’t slow at all. Right before the gaze came close enough, it pretended to notice the gaze and run for it.

The gaze paused for a moment and then started to chase Bloody Mary, like a hunting hound discovering a fox.

…

“Nicely done.”

Kieran in the carriage saw the scene through the power of the contract. He couldn’t help but slow clap for Bloody Mary, as if he was cheering for Bloody Mary’s reaction.

‘Hope there’s something good.’

Kieran thought in his heart before he looked out the carriage window.

The interrogation of that assassin was over. Borl did not get what he wanted, not even the least bit of useful information.

The assassin took the mission from the Bounty Guild.

“I never thought my head was worth 500 Gold Purton.”

Borl frowned and said after he returned to the carriage, the captive dealt with and Aschenkano told to continue moving.

“Is that a lot?” Kieran asked.

He thought it was necessary to understand the monetary value of this dungeon world.

It was what a good solo player must do, it had nothing to do with his instinct.

“It’s quite a lot to a commoner! A brand new musket cost around three Gold Purton, a healthy, strong woodcutter that works at the outskirts of Mozaar receives around eight to 10 Copper Krak a day as salary. In Mozaar, a whole load of black bread costs 6 Copper Krak. It’s a little more expensive in Edatine, probably around 7 Copper Krak. People in Edatine also work with a higher wage. 20 Copper Krak for one Silver Sol, 16 Silver Sol for one Gold Purton. You can roughly calculate how much my head is worth in Copper Krak. The dukeship that I am buying is only 3000 Gold Purton,” Borl bitterly smiled.

8,000 Silver Sol.

16,000 Copper Krak.

Around 26,666 loaves of black bread.

Kieran got an answer as he was very sensitive towards numbers.

He paused for a while and pointed at the spoils above the wagon.

“How much are my spoils worth?” Kieran asked seriously.

“Probably around 70 to 80 Gold Purton.”

Borl also became serious as he sharply noticed the change of Kieran’s tone.

“What about my captive?” Kieran continued.

“We have to see whether he has a bounty or not, but with the likes of him, there usually is. Plus he is still alive, so the number won’t be too little,” Borl said after some careful thought.

Borl might be overthinking but he felt after he gave a precise answer, the Flaming Devil seemed a little… happier?

Could he be concerned about how much money he could get for his spoils?

No way!

Impossible!

How could the infamous Flaming Devil care about common currency?

There must be some secrets that Borl hadn’t noticed.

Borl started to search around and ponder deeply in hopes of finding the differences that he missed.