The Devil’s Cage

“Of course! Guess who it is?” Lawless looked at Kieran in a delightful manner.

“Guess? So it means I know this person but out of my expectations? Then, let’s discard the usual familiar one plus the ones who knew I was cursed and forced to stay in my room and it seems we are down to just a few. While this handful of people that can achieve such a feat… It’s Starbeck isn’t it?” Kieran answered.

“You little bastard, can’t you at least make this process of guessing a little more surprising? What’s the fun in finding out the answer right away?” Lawless spat out a mouthful of smoke and said helplessly.

“At least it saves time,” Kieran shrugged with a smile.

Half an hour later, Starbeck brought his new bodyguards with him and arrived at Wallway 13th.

The real-life son of a billionaire sized up the broken garage before him, especially the curse that was obviously lingering around and only stepped in until Lawless and his bodyguards went through the door.

“It’s been a while,” Starbeck greeted Kieran.

Despite his face being blurred out, his actions and gestures were very pleasing to the eyes.

His elegance and gentlemanly manners were carved in his bones, as long as he didn’t show his mimosa plant traits, it would be pleasant and praiseworthy.

“Mm. I need your help and of course, I’ll pay accordingly.’

Kieran nodded to express his welcome and went straight to the point.

Since both sides knew what was going on, there was no need for beating around the bush.

Starbeck didn’t answer directly but waved his hand, sending both his bodyguards outside before continuing with a relieved manner, “I’m sorry, I should have come alone for such a private meeting but my character and the pressure from my family made my compromise to the decision.”

“As for the price? Well, there is no need for that, Lawless had made a contract with me. You know that what I need are reliable and strong players to help me clear the dungeons.”

Obviously, before Kieran and Lawless who knew his weakness, the mimosa plant didn’t plan to further conceal himself.

“I think the contract should be changed, like changing Lawless to me.” Kieran suggested but before Starbeck replied, Lawless refuted loudly, “2567, are you planning to compete with me on such a good deal? You know my luck has been sh*tty all the while and only when I team up with people will my luck slightly increase, especially with Starbeck the lucky guy!”

Lawless seemed to be in a joking mood but he showed his persistence from his words.

While facing such persistence, Kieran didn’t have anything else to say because he knew no matter what he said, he couldn’t change Lawless’s mind, on the contrary, it would only make the guy more stubborn.

As the time the spent together became longer, Kieran had slowly realized Lawless’s character and the more he understood Lawless, the more he was glad to be able to call him a friend.

Kieran’s mind unconsciously reminded him of the words from Rachel that described Lawless’ flawed character.

He sent a PM to Rachel secretly and nodded, “Fine.”

“That’s right!”

Lawless grabbed Kieran’s shoulder with a happy laugh after seeing Kieran’s nod.

Starbeck beside was looking at the two with an envious gaze, the mimosa plant could clearly feel the friendship between Kieran and Lawless.

Both of them could sign a contract with Starbeck without any hesitation just for each other’s sake. Starbeck even believed if he would set the conditions of the contract harsher, both of them wouldn’t hesitate as well.

“I wonder when can I have such friend?” Starbeck asked himself quietly.

Although he was a coward by nature, he wasn’t at all an idiot or dull.

In fact, as the heir to his big family, he had received all sorts of elite education since young. Starbeck had a wider base of knowledge than anyone could’ve imagined and with his constant viewing of people around him, no matter how stupid he was, he would have gotten something.

Besides, Starbeck was exceptionally smart as well.

When he was advancing to his teenage years, he had known the purpose of why people around sucked up to him. Regardless of the reason, they would eventually end up taking benefits from him.

Following Starbeck’s growth in age, the phenomenon had gotten worse because he was the only heir to his family; Starbeck represented greater benefits.

He sighed in his heart and took out the item that he had prepared beforehand.

[Name: Virgin’s Tear]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Attack/Defense: None]

[Attribute: Pardon 1/1]

[Effect: None]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: The merciful virgin’s tear is sympathetic and forgiving.]

…

[Pardon: Effectively remove Extreme rank or lower curse or negative attributes.]

…

After taking over the tear-shaped diamond in the size of a pinky nail, the description appeared in Kieran’s vision.

He then chose to use it without hesitation.

Instantly, the tear-shaped diamond shined brightly like the sun’s rays, a young girl’s mirage then appeared before Kieran.

The mirage of the girl only presented a general contour of her face without showing the features clearly but the warm presence felt like it could instantly cause one to lower the guards on their heart.

Then, the mirage of the young girl went straight towards the curse energy that was blocked outside the door by the system.

There wasn’t the common fear or disgust as the young girl simply touched the curse energy. Then, the energy was drawn back step by step by the girl into [Virgin’s Tear] like guiding back a lost child.

The brightness then slowly dimmed out. The originally crystal clear [Virgin’s Tear] turned dark instantly and became the likes of a roadside pebble.

Despite all sorts of mystical and bizarre scenes occurring in the underground game and none would feel strange about it but Kieran, Lawless, and Starbeck were still surprised by the scene before their eyes.

Though the three of them were surprised at different points.

Lawless and Starbeck were surprised at the tender removal method of [Virgin’s Tear] while Kieran was surprised by the power’s aura.

It was the kind of aura that only came from the likes of the Prairie King, it was even a notch higher than Elder Juen and the overseer from before.

“A Rare item can hold such level of power? Or… Was it because of this level of power, that it boosted the item’s rarity to Rare?” Kieran wondered in his heart.

His eyes then unconsciously moved towards his attribute window.

After completing his limit break dungeon, the extra point in Spirit attribute that he had gotten by reaching the limits on [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] and [Sword Skill, Myriad Viper] was all added on to his tab and it presented a surprising change.

[Strength: SS-; Agility: SS-; Constitution: SS-; Spirit: Z+ (Pre I); Intuition: SS+]