The Devil’s Cage

Father, save me!

It’s dark here, I am scared of Mordin!

…

There wasn’t an opening but the name, in the end, made Kieran raise a puzzled brow.

Mordin?

Mordin!

There were a lot of people with the name Mordin in the dungeon world but there was only one Mordin that could be involved in such a high-level battle in Kieran’s mind.

The master sculptor from the papal age 600 hundred years ago, the Mordin!

Kieran never believed in coincidences.

The moment he stepped into this dungeon world, he was faintly connected to Mordin’s sculptures.

Kieran was suspecting, other than the visible opponents, was there another manipulator behind the scenes?

Even with the effects of [Lucky Card], the dungeon before him progressed a little too smoothly.

If a single [Lucky Card] was able to achieve this effect, Kieran believed the prayer technique would have changed it all. But the fact was, even prayers had limits, a lot of limits, any slight misstep would cause one to fall short and fail miserably.

“So this is all your set up? Just for a single rescue? Or… you are being used as well?”

Kieran scowled hard as he read through the two lines of words at the bottom of [Hell Breath]. He couldn’t verify the validity of it, especially when [Hell Breath] itself didn’t undergo any changes.

Though he knew one thing in his heart: never blindly believe what the eyes see.

The eyes will deceive the mind, especially under another’s meticulous arrangements.

“The setups and arrangements from 600 years ago?”

“Next time… I’ll be looking forward to it next time.”

Kieran muttered to himself softly.

His figure vanished amongst his mutters because the duration was up.

…

[Single Player Dungeon: Hero and Villain]

[Dungeon Type: Free Mission]

[Dungeon Difficulty: Average]

[Main Mission: Acquire the least amount of recognition in 6 weeks. (The higher the recognition, the higher the rating)]

[Mission completion: 500% (Rating: A)]

[Early completion of mission: Rating A → S]]

[Special event: Alkender City Revolt (Perfect Rating)]

[Perfect Rating: S → SS]

[Battle Performance: Very active (Rating SS → SSS)]

[Exploration performance: Average]

[Special Rating 1: Eliminated Ironjaw Croc, Slither Bone, Predator, and Thousand-faced Man (Rating SSS → Z, Rep + 1)]

[Special Rating 2: Eliminated Mr. Ghost and Death Knell (Rating Z → ZZ, Rep +2)]

[Special Rating 3: Eliminated Grudge Dragon (Rating ZZ → ZZZ, Rep +2)]

[Player final rating: ZZZ!]

[Calculating seventh single player dungeon reward…]

[Final player rewards as follows…]

[Points: 200,000; Skill Points: 40; Golden Skill Points: 4; Golden Attribute Points: 4]

[Acquired special dungeon: Hero and Villain II]

[Acquired special item: Old Pappy the Third]

…

The ratings appeared line after line when Kieran returned to 13th Wallway in the big city.

Kieran wasn’t surprised by the low rating of ZZZ.

According to his plan, he would have acquired the ideal rating that he was after but he did not expect that Grudge Dragon Krelin was a key character, thus expediting the dungeon main mission.

Kieran shrugged and couldn’t do anything about it.

He understood he was just a player with transcendent power in dungeon worlds, not an omniscient God.

However, the lower rating reward didn’t mean he didn’t have others to compensate.

[Winchester Hunting Rifle], [Strange Little Finger], [Thousand Face], plus the fourth, fifth, seventh Mordin’s sculpture and last but not least, [Hell Breath], was the most obvious reward of all.

As for the least obvious ones, it was more than he could count.

At least Kieran wasn’t a blind man in the background of [Hero and Villain] anymore.

“Hero and Villain? What a confusing name.”

Kieran was recalling the demonic energy that was hiding under the normal city, recalling the energy that Grudge Dragon possessed and the filler illusions that he saw. Finally, the insanely strong willpower within that bloody vortex, plus the few words about that “place” that Grudge Dragon and Death Knell spoke off, Kieran already has some guesses.

“A terrifying world hiding in the dark!”

Kieran took a deep breath and shook his head rapidly to adjust his emotions.

The world that hid under the normal world was no doubt scary but that was a matter for future him; he still had enough time to prepare.

However, something else before him couldn’t wait anymore.

[City of Fiends II: Perforation Sting is more vicious than rumored. You who accidentally messed up their plans have been viewed as a hostile and an obstacle…]

[Main mission: Starts when enters the dungeon]

“Perforation Sting!”

Kieran glanced over the organization name that somehow sounded weird; he squinted his eyes.

Following his increase of power, he had a deeper understanding of how powerful Gods were, thus he also understood the strengths of a Godslayer.

Even if the organization was formed by a bunch of humans, fiends, half-fiends, and other various beings, it was not to be underestimated, more so…

They had a God among them!

A God that was heavily injured!

Kieran remembered what the Fiend Hunter, Ren, said to him before.

Perforation Sting succeeded once and failed once.

When succeeded, they created a God.

When failed, they were almost wiped out.

“A heavily injured God…”

Kieran’s squinted eyes glimmered. A thought came into his mind.

After that, he had more thoughts about the Gods in that world. Other than the God of Perforation Sting that he had to face eventually, there was Great Swamp which seemed to be a friend at this point plus many more Gods with their ambiguous standings.

“Fiends, mortals, Gods, all staying in the same world.”

“Fiends move at night.”

“Mortals walk the day”

“While Gods reside in the mountains.”

Kieran muttered to himself.

After the thought appeared, more related ones started to appear as well.

Kieran understood if his thoughts and plans were somehow be realized, the kinds of luxurious rewards will be waiting for him would be beyond measure.”

However, before that even began, he had to tread carefully by getting more information.

Luckily, he had someone around him who could provide some help.

Rachel!

Rachel obviously hadn’t been into [City of Fiends] but it was hard to say that she never experienced similar dungeon worlds before or seen similar Gods.

Even if she had not, the high-rankers in the small living room would have some useful intel.

Opening the PM tab, Kieran sent out a message.

2567: Rachel, do you know what occurs when a God merges with a city?

2567: Or should I say how powerful it would be?

Kieran added after cooking up his words.

But before Rachel replied, he got an unexpected PM from someone.