The Devil’s Cage

Alisritter saw how flattering Bloody Mary was, shaking his head but did not say anything.

Humans were different from each other.

Players had many choices in the game, as did the natives from the dungeon world. Therefore, after becoming a companion or follower to a player, the myriad of choices wouldn’t change.

Alisritter didn’t like it but he didn’t hate it either. He wasn’t used to dealing with the likes of Bloody Mary.

After a wave at Kieran, Alisritter hastened his steps out of the ruins.

J.Pearlman and Decoman were waiting outside.

Alisritter had something to say to Decoman.

Kieran did not stop him from leaving though, as a matter of fact, Kieran’s attention was placed on Bloody Mary.

After it ate the [Voodoo Soul Crystal Remains], Bloody Mary underwent a qualitative change again.

[Name: Bloody Mary]

[Type: Superior Demon (Hetero-Form)]

[Rarity: II]

[Attack: II]

[Defense: II]

[Attribute: 1. Illusion; 2. Phantasm Body; 3. Hand Blade; 4. Blood Suck; 5. Quick Regeneration; 6. Demon Instinct]

[Effect: 1. Form Change; 2. Mystical Knowledge (Pro); 3. Noble Knowledge (Master)]

[Prerequisite: Willingness to submit]

[Remark: A High Demon that was born from the Blood Queen Tiara because of an accident. After consuming the Voodoo Pillar, it had reached the limits of a common demon but it wasn’t one to begin with, therefore it was smart enough to not simply fuse with those seemingly powerful things, all it did was choose those that benefited itself. After many times feeding it with rare items, it’s strength was elevated to new heights and surpassed its common peers.]

…

[Illusion: Create Illusion that requires authentication no lower than I- Spirit, rank II Intuition (Failed once, target will suffer I rank mental impact; Failed twice, target will suffer rank II mental impact). When there is multiple targets, Spirit and Intuition authentication will decrease based on the increased targets and when the targets had unstable emotions, authentications will increase.]

[Phantasm Body: Transform body to phantasmal form, immune to physical attack, 40% damage mitigation against energy attack. +3 in Undercover]

[Hand Blade: Hands are sharp as blade, attack rank +1 (Cannot exceed rank III)]

[Blood Suck: Consume the blood of living beings to rapidly regenerate injuries and stamina, cleanse debuffs. Regeneration +3 when munching]

[Quick Regeneration: Consume a little amount of Stamina to quickly regenerate HP; consume a certain to regenerate even limbs, including the head.]

[Demon Instinct: Only a minority of demons possess this skill. It allows the Superior Demon to slightly sense the thoughts of living beings in a close range. (Including but not limited to human. It is easier for Superior Demon to sense the thoughts if target’s mental state is unstable). Superior Demon has a certain change to see through illusion, illusory realm]

…

[Form Change: Able to change into anyone, things or living being (possessed own abilities and a certain level of the target’s aura), the size of the transformed is no bigger than a large being (An elephant is the limit of a large being); or change into a Blood Tiara (When contractor wears the Blood Tiara, able to choose 3 attribute from Bloody Mary as skills)]

[Mystical Knowledge (Pro): Skilled in many mystical knowledge and able to use it freely]

[Noble Knowledge (Master): Familiar with knowledge that nobles has to master]

[Note 1: Slave Contract doesn’t requires point to summon]

[Note 2: Strengthen Contract, even if it somehow broke free from Fantos Manuscript, it will still be your slave.]

…

A rank II Superior Demon was undoubtedly the strongest companion Kieran had.

Following its power up and attribute enhancement, Bloody Mary had already become an indispensable part of Kieran’s battle and scouting.

Especially the scouting part, with the new [Demon Instinct], Bloody Mary was a solid candidate to search for hidden intel.

So… a new contract was given to Bloody Mary.

As usual, Bloody Mary signed it swiftly. It enjoyed the bindings like bitter malt.

Resistance?

Non-existence.

The feeling of growing stronger was marvelous. Although it might die a few times here and there and had no holidays, it would be all worth it as long as it could continue to grow stronger.

As for the East Coast that it missed so much?

What? Where was that?

Was it Edible? Was it tasty?

Kieran walked out of the ruins after keeping the contract, while Bloody Mary vanished into the shadows.

Kieran left but Bloody Mary, with orders, didn’t actually left the premise.

It was tasked to find more clues about the mastermind behind Aligino and Valenheart.

Even without Kieran’s order, Bloody Mary would not spare the mastermind because it knew the mastermind was the source for it to grow stronger.

Find the mastermind, let the boss finish him, and Bloody Mary would come in and pick up the loot!

Everything was perfect! Life is good!

With these beautiful thoughts and admiration in its mind, Bloody Mary devoted itself to the search with passion.

Kieran finally saw J.Pearlman and Decoman again.

Unlike the ugly state they were in when he rescued them, the two of them had recovered quite a bit after drinking potions.

“Thank you,” J.Pearlman walked over and thanked Kieran sincerely.

He knew that if it wasn’t for Kieran, the Fisherman would be swimming with the fishes.

Although the mastermind was after Alisritter, should Alisritter fall, J.Pearlman didn’t think he could walk away alive, just like his other mates in Freedom Alliance.

Once he thought about the dead comrades, J.Pearlman who had once again grazed death, showed sorrow under his blurred out face and his eyes started to tear up.

The Fisherman wasn’t a cold-hearted, merciless person.

Quite the contrary, he was a very kind and good person, with a soft heart for almost everyone.

“Things will pass.”

A hand tapped J.Pearlman on the shoulder strongly, followed by a rough female voice.

Decoman walked over with her tall, buff body—which was stronger than a common man’s—and a long battle axe, plus her thick leather armor.

The female barbarian bowed to Kieran respectfully.

“Thank you for everything you’ve done. If you need help in the future, just say it, and I’ll do my best to help.”

Decoman wasn’t a shy person, neither would she take turns with her words. Her straightforward personality gave Kieran the chance to demand whatever he liked from her.

Kieran wasn’t surprised, though if it wasn’t for her personality, how would the Swordsmith owed her that much?

Kieran didn’t say anything though. He looked at the ‘companions’ behind the two of them.

The natives from various dungeon worlds were also looking at him in panic—some of them turned pale when they caught his gaze and faltered.

The blazing fire that had burned down the castle earlier undoubtedly frightened the natives.

Kieran didn’t explain himself.

The situation back there was desperate, as he had to locate Valenheart as fast as possible and burning down the whole place was the best way.

“Decoman and I have decided to rebuild Freedom Alliance, and they will be the first batch of members,” J.Pearlman said as he pointed at the natives.

“Are you sure about this?” Kieran asked.

Players choosing companions wasn’t some simple process.

Chosen companions should have certain skills or decent strength, but it would be best for them to possess both. This batch of natives was mostly normal people, brought back from the dungeon worlds by Valenheart to make the scene more realistic.

Those natives having certain skills would be good enough, let alone a decent strength.

Any players who cleared their trial dungeon would be able to defeat them with ease.

Therefore, if these natives became player’s companion, they’d probably drag the player down rather than providing actual help, forcing players to take care of them.

Kieran was skeptical against J.Pearlman and Decoman’s decision, but after J.Pearlman nodded again, he didn’t say anything else.

Everyone had their own choices to make, no one else had the right to interfere.

After a simple conversation, Kieran parted ways with the two; Alisritter did not stay and followed Kieran to the train.

Both of them kept quiet in the train though, until the train reached Harvest Inn.

“Tell Rachel I’m going away for a while,” Alisritter said.

“Going away?” Kieran was curious about the words he used.

“Yes, going away. I don’t have the confidence to return here and if I can, I’ll repay Rachel twice the amount; if I can’t… please tell her that I’m sorry,” Alisritter said seriously.

“It’s too heavy for me to deliver the message, you should do it yourself,” Kieran shook his head and rejected.

“I want too, but…if I do, Rachel would beat me to death in the inn. Believe me, she really would,” Alisritter smiled bitterly.

Kieran thought for a while and nodded.

“Y-You agree?” Alisritter asked happily.

“No, I’m just agreeing to your words.”

“Some things are best to do yourself, running away can’t solve anything!”

Kieran waved at Alisritter after that and headed to Harvest Inn, since he still had something to ask Rachel.

Alisritter watched Kieran vanish beyond the door of the inn blankly, shrugging helplessly.

“Running away is shameful but useful!”

A sigh and an unwilling glance at Harvest Inn later, Alisritter stepped back onto the train.

The train traveled away and vanished into the hustling city.

…

Kieran greeted the familiar acquaintances in the inn and got a lemon water with extra ice from Lawless.

Without even tasting, a sniff told Kieran the lemon water had more than one spoon of honey from the usual one Rachel served him.

“Rachel will beat you up,” Kieran sighed.

“It’s fine, she doesn’t know,” Lawless said boldly.

Kieran shook his head at Lawless’ idiotic face.

How could Rachel not know?

She was just waiting for the stupid Lawless to jump into her trap before she could ‘clean’ him up, like a spider waiting for prey.

Though Kieran couldn’t tell Lawless about it.

“Thanks.”

Kieran held the glass in his hand and subtly looked at Derder. The Doctor had mixed around with the other lone wolves pretty well, sitting among Hanses, Coll, Ramont and Rhino, laughing cheerfully.

The Doctor did not notice Kieran’s glance; Lawless beside him did not notice it either.

Lawless took out a cigar from his pack and gave it to Kieran.

“There’s no need for thanks between us. Here, quality goods! It took me some effort to get this cherry flavour,” Lawless smiled.

“I’ll try my best to savour it,” Kieran smiled when he received the cigar and headed to the living room.

Lawless was the reason why Kieran did not reject stepping into Harvest Inn.

Inside the living room, Rachel was lying down on the sofa. Even when she heard Kieran’s footsteps, she did not wake up or lift her eyelids.

“You’ve said before that things should progress according to steps,” Kieran sat opposite Rachel.

“That is before you came into play. Regardless of how calm a person is, when he sees another weaker person overtake him so quickly, he’d become anxious and want to achieve quick success,” Rachel said calmly.

“You should think about Lawless more,” Kieran tried to persuade her.

“It’s because he added three more spoons of honey in your glass?”

Rachel had a peak at the half glass of lemon water in Kieran’s hand.

Kieran was defeated instantly, realizing he wasn’t good at persuading.

So, he pulled the topic back to the things he wanted to ask.

“About Aligino and Valenheart, how much do you know?” Kieran asked.

“A little more than you but its related to the person that I mentioned before, so…I can’t tell you.”

Rachel twisted her body into a more comfortable position before replying.

“The wind?” Kieran asked.

Rachel didn’t answer out loud but the silence acknowledged it.

However, Kieran’s sharp senses picked up a special energy from Rachel when he mentioned the ‘wind’.

Although there wasn’t any obvious change in Rachel, the feeling of resistance was real.

It’s considered violating the contract by mentioning related terms?

Kieran frowned. It wasn’t good news for him.

It stated that this contract that Rachel had was near perfect, there were no holes for him to dig. Once such contract was violated, the repulsion would inflict unimaginable damage to Rachel.

“Need me to do anything?” Kieran asked.

“Do I look so old that I can’t walk?”

Rachel turned a white eye at Kieran before continuing, “Mind your own business! I know that Witch pretty well, she may not be anything evil but she’s definitely not a good person. Since you’ve almost wiped out the mark she left on you, it may trigger a series of chain reactions. It’s unpredictable. Don’t even think about getting close to the woman’s power sooner rather than later. You may think since it’s coming anyway, it’s best for you to get a general idea so that you can prepare for the worse, but don’t! Believe me, that woman is much more decisive than you think. Since she made her move, she will not spare ground for you to turn around. Who knows, she may have set up a trap for you.”

Kieran smiled at Rachel’s warning.

It was not that he didn’t care, how could he not care about her sincere warnings?

It was just that he had been waiting for a long time.

After all, there was only one place suitable to set up an escape-proof trap.