The Devil’s Cage

“Like you?”

Kieran sized up Borl.

He didn’t sense any negative energy or any signs of a curse; Borl was quite normal, to be honest.

“You didn’t notice the unusual?”

“I suppose that’s right as well.”

“Why else will I be unusual other than my strength that has grown weaker,” Borl mocked himself.

Kieran didn’t reply, instead, he waited quietly for Borl to elaborate.

“My strength already speaks for itself!”

“When my strength got near to or even close to surpassing the Witch, the mark she left behind was activated, hence my powers were greatly crippled!”

“My dungeon runs after that failed consecutively and if it wasn’t for a life-saving item, I would have died in the dungeons.”

“But using that item has a price to pay and it pushed me down from a high-ranker to less than a common veteran player. More importantly, I still have to run Advance Rank dungeons now!”

Borl’s voice became dry after the confession.

Kieran however frowned, he couldn’t tell whether Borl was telling the truth or not.

In simpler words, Kieran who was vigilant, or even suspicious, wouldn’t simply trust what he heard because of some confessions from a stranger.

Every claim had to be proven with solid evidence.

“What evidences do you have?” asked Kieran.

“The dome clock tower! That place has the evidence that you are looking for,” said Borl.

“You are asking me to infiltrate the Guardians’ turf to search for the so-called evidence? Or should I say… removing the Witch’s Mark for you along the way?” Kieran laughed coldly.

He couldn’t determine the truth from Borl’s words but he could tell Borl wasn’t being completely honest.

“You don’t want to remove the Witch’s Mark?” Borl asked in return.

Kieran chuckled before turning back to the room without giving a reply.

Of course, if it was really the case as Borl claimed, Kieran would surely remove the Witch’s Mark.

“What’s wrong?”

Starbeck saw Kieran come back into the room after he finished washing the plates. Since he spent quite some time with Kieran, Starbeck noticed Kieran was a little grumpy from his small expressions and movements.

“It’s nothing major. Just a little surprising, but understandable.”

“It’s just that… Borl’s appearance a little too seems too coincidental.”

Kieran then opened up the PM tab and sent a message to Rachel.

2567: What do you think about Borl?

Rachel: What about you?

2567: Hiding something.

Rachel: Same.

2567: Watch him?

Rachel: Leave it to me.

2567: Thanks.

…

After a short conversation, Kieran saw Starbeck serving desserts and tea.

Both of them were exactly as they were when they were still in the dungeon world. They were quiet most of the time but both of them knew what each other wanted with just eye contact.

Their relationship was formed through time but most importantly, it was the experience of going through a life and death situation that granted them their tacit relationship.

So, when Kieran put down the teacup, Starbeck brought over a thermal box.

“Dinner.”

“Um.”

Kieran nodded before turning to the door.

Starbeck stood in the garden and saw Kieran off until he went out sight, only then did Starbeck return to his room.

He then went to the cupboard beside the living room and took out that thick book made out of cowhide.

When he opened the book, a recipe with lines of strange words entered his sight.

“Store energy by eating… eating is the path to heaven…”

Starbeck was having a hard time translating the words.

A bit by a bit, despite its difficulties, Starbeck never thought of giving up because he remembered what Lawless said to him back then.

“I will not be a burden.”

The sentence was branded in Starbeck’s mind, reminding him of his goal every single second.

Starbeck even set up his next goal since then: he will become 2567’s strongest support.

…

13th Wallway Street.

After Kieran came back to his room, he placed [Extreme Night], [Reliable Repair Scroll] and [Lucky Card II] in front of him.

But he didn’t repair [Extreme Night] right away, instead, he initiated the special reward granted to him from his previous GGG rating dungeon clear: randomly draw an item from the dungeon world.

After the first time drawing the prize, Kieran knew what to do.

In simple words, Kieran understood where his luck stood.

First, he used [Lucky Card II].

[Used Lucky Card II, your luck will increase slightly before the next dungeon…]

[Player chooses to continue item draw…]

[Detected Lucky Card II effect, draw authenticating…]

[Player acquired…]

A heavy, glossy irregular-shaped jade with a lingering sense of pressure appeared in his hand.

Everything froze for a while.

Kieran then threw the jade stone at the furthest corner of his room.

The jade stone fell beside another irregular-shaped gray stone that had explosive marks on it.

Huu, haaa, huu haa!

Kieran covered his chest and panted loudly, heavily.

Pain!

His heart felt immense pain and it almost drowned Kieran within an instant.

Despite him not expecting a lot…

Why another piece of rock!

Even with [Lucky Card II], the system gave me a piece of jade stone instead of a common rock? Is that it?

There were no attributes, not even a description on the jade!

There’s absolutely no difference between the two! Might as well give me another rock!

Is my luck that terrible?

Kieran was shouting in his heart.

After a full 5 minutes, Kieran finally adjusted his emotions and turned to [Extreme Night] and [Reliable Repair Scroll].

“After an unlucky attempt, the luck will come back next round!”

He muttered to himself while using [Reliable Repair Scroll] on [Extreme Night].

[Using Reliable Repair Scroll on Extreme Night…]

[Repair starts…]

[Repair abnormality…]

[Extreme Night rarity is higher than Reliable Repair Scroll’s safety repair limit!]

[Attempt highest rank of repair?Yes/No]

“Yes!”

Without any second thought, Kieran gave an affirmative answer.

Right away, a platinum blinding radiance exploded from the [Reliable Repair Scroll].

Kieran had to get used to the blinding radiance before he could see properly and he saw the radiance seeping into the sheathe, slow yet endless, like a warm stream that flowed through the mountains.

The radiance lasted for more than 10 seconds and after it finally faded, [Extreme Night] slowly returned to his sight.

Chang!

Kieran tried his best in carefully drawing the blade and yet [Extreme Night] was still chiming ceaselessly.

Under the natural light in the room, the pitch-black blade filled with cracking patterns became deeper like the night in the sky.

More than half of the actual cracks were gone and most importantly, [Extreme Night]’s attributes underwent a drastic change.