The Devil’s Cage

Slurp, Slurp.

Gluttony got a hold of the monster with his bite, not caring how hard the monster struggled or how loud it wailed, sucking as hard as it could in the shadows.

The huge monster was shrinking at an exponential speed.

Half a minute later, when the monster had shrunk down to the size of a cow, Gluttony widened his mouth and devoured the monster with a big chomp, its skin and bones vanishing together.

The huge monster became a snack for Gluttony.

Although Gluttony had eaten more than one delicious meal throughout the day, extra food was always welcome.

Therefore, when he sensed there were similar suppers in the area, he expressed his desire to eat more to Kieran.

“It’s not time yet,” Kieran shook his head.

He knew his priority was to acquire information regarding this dungeon world.

Capturing monsters would have to come later.

Gluttony vanished in the darkness after grunting like a hungry pup, while Kieran savoured the changes to his Origin Force.

Compared to eating real ‘food’, this kind of monster hunting provided him with much less of an increase, almost too insignificant to count.

Kieran became more curious than ever.

He walked towards the library while pondering upon the topic.

After the monster was eaten, the real library was revealed, less than 30 meters away from the monster’s mouth.

At the entrance, there was a guard. Unlike others, his face was cold as he watched Kieran coming closer.

Kieran glanced at the guard.

‘Above rank I, but below rank II.’

Advance Rank Intuition allowed him to clearly grasp how strong the guard was.

Given the guard’s strength, he could have easily taken on the monster, and yet he didn’t, which meant…

‘Some rules that I don’t know of?’ Kieran wondered.

Kieran then showed the [Theorate School Badge (First Seat)] to the guard.

The guard nodded without any change in expression.

Kak!

The door of the library opened into a seam, allowing only one person to go through; Kieran stepped in.

The lighting inside was warm and tender, the environment quiet, study tables placed on both sides along the center path. Countless book racks were lined up further away; someone with weak sight would think the library was endless.

Kieran stood at the entrance, carefully checking the directory of the first floor in front of him.

The whole floor was divided into 4 sections, with north, east, south, and west as indicators.

East Section: History, Geography, Culture

South Section: Meat

West Section: Plantation

North Section: Cooking Utensils

…

A very ‘Theorate’ style of categorization, although there weren’t any recipe books, as Kieran had imagined, so they must be on the other floors.

Kieran wasn’t surprised.

Based on what he had experienced earlier, cooking recipes, which were common items in other dungeon worlds, were treated as rare resources in this one, common people unable;e to even get their hands on them. Kieran had very little interest in a recipe at the moment, so he went to the East Section.

Book after book was placed on the study table and Kieran began to read.

Kieran was so focused on his reading that he forgot about the passing of time. He finally came back to his senses when the day was bright and many more students filled the library.

Kieran frowned a little with the increasing students.

Everyone has their own habits, or even fetishes. Kieran was no exception, preferring to read without many people around him.

He wouldn’t mind an empty public venue but now?

Kieran stood up, returning the books to their original place in an orderly fashion. He kept three books that he hasn’t finished with him and headed towards the entrance, where the counter with the directory was.

At night, there wasn’t anyone on duty at the counter, but now, there were three library personnel there.

An administration staff and two students, all of them women..

The three of them smiled when they saw Kieran come over.

Anyone who borrowed books to read in the morning must be a hard working one and such a person would surely win fondness.

“Please show your school badge.”

One of the female students walked over and asked in a soft tone. When she saw the First Seat badge in Kieran’s hand, she was shocked, before her tone became respectful.

“Sir First Seat, you have the authority to borrow any book on the first floor for free but no more than 10 books at once. You have to return all the books by the end of the semester and if you fail to do so, your academic marks for next semester will be deduced based on the value of the book,” she explained, displaying the receipt.

“Mm,” Kieran slid the receipt into the first book that he borrowed before he walked out.

The female student who helped Kieran process his books looked at him from the back with a blank stare..

“What’s wrong?” the other female student noticed her colleague’s unusual look and asked.

“That is the First Seat,” the slightly blank student answered.

The round table counter wasn’t that big but by no means was it small. Other than the female student who had processed Kieran’s books, no one else had heard the little conversation between them because it was so soft, and as a result, no one saw the First Seat badge that Kieran displayed.

“What?!”

The second female student raised her voice uncontrollably but she quickly reacted to the situation and looked around in with an embarrassed and awkward look.

She then whispered softly “First Seat? That guy just now was the First Seat?! But we should’ve known all… is he the rumoured one?”

“Yes. He should be the rumoured one, the fastest one to achieve First Seat in history and recommended into the Student Council!” the first female student nodded, showing astonishment on her face.

Never underestimate how fast a rumour could spread.

What happened yesterday had spread throughout the entire campus, not just because of how fast Kieran had cleared the exams but also because of Leanna, Marick, and Joey.

Both Leanna and Marick were the best among the third year, each of their hunt amazing and their academic points far exceeding the other students’.

Joey was also quite well-known in the second year and although she had failed to compete for the First Seat, her strength was not to be underestimated.

Nevertheless, all three of the aforementioned students had failed at the hands of the rumoured First Seat, in a very ugly way too. The rumours explained Leanna’s broken nose and Joey’s fallen teeth, raising curiosity.

A beautiful lady would always get an advantage, regardless of the place.

Gasp!

“He is that scary guy? But he doesn’t seem as ferocious as rumoured? He is cold but quite energetic.”

The second female student gasped and looked at the entrance of the library.

“A lot of the rumours were fake, but… it is also true that Leanna and Joey were hurt. His days ahead might not be as smooth.”

The first female student thought of something and sighed softly. Her colleague knew what she was referring to, hence a second sigh.

Both of them had no time to care about others as the people entering the library increased, busy exchanging their academic points.

Kieran, who had returned to the student dorm, continued reading his books.

After he finished, he heaved a long breath of relief.

After all the tedious reading, he had a general idea about this dungeon world.

This dungeon world had also been through dark days like slavery, industrial and agricultural revolution, and war. The only thing that differed from Kieran’s usual knowledge was the industrial revolution age.

When the revolution happened, a special domain named Mystic State had started to appear in the west.

After the appearance of Mystic State, the countries in the west started to search for it but all of them suffered a heavy loss!

The most advanced weaponry and the most powerful military of the time couldn’t inflict any damage on the monsters inside Mystic State.

The other worrisome thing was that some monsters from Mystic State had started to invade the real world.

For commoners, a catastrophic war had begun.

At first, the monsters had an absolute advantage. Fierce fighting broke out between the monsters and the western countries and as the fight went on, the monsters started to expand their conquest over the sea; the monsters headed east.

It was then that the monsters’ other usage was discovered: they were treated as ‘food’.

Back in the days, the eastern countries were very mysterious to the westerns, showing off their mystical side. The easterners appeared on western battlefields with all sorts of weird weapons. Known as ‘chefs’ and armed with mystical powers, they hunted and cooked the monsters.

The monsters that wreaked havoc in the west started to die off,reaching extinction exponentially.

The ‘chefs’ then invaded the Mystic State and ate everything inside.

Fortunately for the easterners, after the first Mystic State was cleaned up, more and more appeared, but none appeared in the east.

The ‘chefs’ who fought the monsters had to prolong their stay it the west, causing their families to move too.

As they hunted in the Mystic State, they lived and prospered in the west.

The strong would always have followers, which remained true for the ‘chefs’.

Countless vagrants and soldiers whose families had suffered a devastating blow from the monsters quickly gathered around these ‘chefs’ and became their followers.

Whenever there are benefits, there is also conflict.

The same thing happened with the ‘chefs’.

As time flew, the Mystic State started to dry off and when they were at an all time low, a new war broke out.

During this war for the Mystic State, in order to handle many more situations and enemies, the followers soon acquired the teachings of the ‘chefs’.

The teachings were then passed down from generation to generation, going through countless corrections and compilations before they formed the various sects of today; Theorate was the biggest aggregate of sects among all.

Theorate didn’t just train multiple ‘chefs’, who were considered the best in recent times, they even categorized the ‘food’ classes.

From the lowest ‘Fast Food’ to the medium ‘Bento’ and ‘Proper Meal’ to’Grand Meal’, everything was categorized clearly.

“Fast Food, Bento, Proper Meal and Grand Meal?” Kieran muttered the classes of food softly, saliva automatically filling his mouth as he thought about it.

Kieran knew what he had read was open to the public, which meant some truly secretive information would not be inside, but it was enough for Kieran at the moment.

He didn’t need much in-depth understanding of the secretive information, all he needed was a general idea about the world so that he could map out his upcoming plan.

For example, the plan he currently had in mind was changing the Bento class food which was approaching a Proper Meal class to a real Proper Meal class.

Of course, it wasn’t easy by any means. Even if he traded in the extra Bento class food provided to him this semester, he was still quite far away.

A Proper Meal class food could easily trade for three high quality Bento class, if Kieran went by the books.

Most of the time, people wouldn’t trade a Proper Meal class for lower grades, unless something happened or they had to increase their bargaining chips.

Kieran couldn’t predict the future, he didn’t know what kind of things would happen to a person who possessed a Proper Meal class food, but he could indeed raise his bargaining chips.

He closed the book, placed it on the table and walked out of his room.

The book that he had been reading mentioned that in Theorate, other than the First Seat getting an extra Bento class meal every semester, the members of Student Council also shared similar benefits.

On top of that, the higher the position in the Student Council, the greater the benefits.

At first Kieran wasn’t really concerned about being recommended into the Student Council, but now?

He was determined to get it!

…

E Block Student Council Branch.

Wearing a white shirt and long, black blouse, with her short hair over her ears, Gutti was sitting in the branch leader office. Her beautiful brows were furrowed together.

Pak!

A second later, Gutti slammed the recommendation letter on her desk.

“What kind of joke is this?! How can they recommend a freshman to join the Student Council?! Do the teachers know what the Student Council is for?”

Angered, Gutti looked at her secretary, who had delivered the letter.

Sheil, who was wearing the same white shirt and black blouse, with short hair over her ears and glasses over her eyes, was being questioned by Gutti.

She was frightened by Gutti’s anger, moving backwards before saying in a weak tone “This was sent here by Teacher Senile and has Professor Tyrese’ signature.”

“I KNOW! I AM ASKING WHY DOES IT HAVE THE SIGNATURE!” Gutti exploded.

“I-I don’t know,” Shela’s voice got softer.

“You…”

Gutti was very angry as she looked at her secretary, wanting to scold her further, but when the first word escaped her mouth, a dense sulphuric smell filled her nose, followed by a chaotic and rampant aura that descended from the sky.

Shela the secretary fainted within a breath.

Gutti did not but she was immobilized, holding on with clenched teeth.

Tssss!

The door to her office opened.

A black figure walked in and headed straight for Gutti.

While Gutti was trying to see who the black figure was with her panicked eyes, she was grabbed by the figure was thrown towards the carpet.

The black figure then sat on her chair, looked at her, and said in a stern tone, “I am taking the Branch leader spot.”