The Devil’s Cage

The eagle!

The ball of paper!

The eerie smiley face!

Hilton!

The guardians of the Witch’s Legacy!

The dome clocktower!

The moment when Hilton revealed the shining red smiley face in the sea of flame, every single clue pieced itself together and formed a complete picture.

“I see! Selection, test, and acceptance…” Kieran muttered.

Now he was quite sure that if he had entered the door back in the dome clocktower, he might have become a guardian of the Witch’s Legacy.

But…

Was the selected timing really done at random?

Kieran thought of the eagle and swiftly discarded the thought from his mind.

The eagle was obviously well-trained, how could a well-trained eagle pick candidates at random?

It might very well be the eagle trainer’s choice, so who was the trainer?

A fairly impossible thought appeared in Kieran’s heart.

“Now you get it? It’s too late! You will pay for Tyler’s life!”

Hilton laughed coldly when he saw Kieran in deep thought.

The ten javelins that surrounded Kieran instantly lunged towards his body.

Hilton locked his gaze on Kieran, he wanted to see his target fall into his own puddle of blood, dying in agony.

However, the scene that followed rendered Hilton speechless.

Ten javelins successfully struck their target but none bore any results.

The javelins that could easily pierce Extreme level defense couldn’t even touch Kieran’s skin as they were stopped in front of that inconspicuous black leather mail.

“H-How…How is this possible?!”

Hilton stuttered and looked at Kieran with a gaze of disbelief.

Fear then filled his heart because he felt a strange energy brewing in his body.

“Wa-”

Bang!

Just as Hilton wanted to say something more, [Devourer Shadow Mail, Devouring Strike]’s rebounding force detonated his body.

A big hole emptying his entire chest appeared out of nowhere and followed by [Devourer’s Wrath] that could ignore defense, an irresistible impact smashed into Hilton’s body.

Crack! Crack!

Bones were crushed, muscles were torn, and organs were destroyed in Hilton’s body which had no considerable defense; the crushing noise sounded excruciatingly painful.

When everything was finished, Hilton had no more signs of life.

[Player Killed: Hilton]

[Treated as self-defense through authentication]

[Categorized as an Honor Kill]

[You will receive all the Points and Skill Points of the player…]

[Total: 200,000 Points and 30 Skill Points]

[Received the player’s house key]

[Granted the right to use the player’s house]

[All the player’s belongings are returned to their house]

[Honor Kill: 94]

…

As always, Hilton’s body disintegrated into white light and faded away but the difference this time was, the round smiley face from Hilton’s hand didn’t disappear. Instead, it moved itself to Kieran’s right hand as fast as a lightning strike.

Then, pure energy started to fuse into Kieran’s body.

Dawn Force, Plague Force, Devil Force, Cardinal Sins Force, Saint Thorn Force.

All five distinguished Origin Forces accelerated their operation at that moment.

Kieran clearly saw and felt five different lustrous energy auras running freely in his body with their respective ways.

The runes of the Transcendence level Basic skills that were branded into his body were lit up with incredible never before seen speed. The tiny bits of darkness and chaos in his body swiftly faded away.

Deeper in his body, that darkness and chaos which he couldn’t expel in the past slowly dispersed but after being slightly dispersed, the pure energy ran out and the five different forces returned to normal.

Although there weren’t any further changes, he was stunned when he saw the changes happening to his body because this was an increase that he hadn’t come across since he entered the higher order.

“This?! What did I just absorb just now? The energy from the smiley face?”

“No, it shouldn’t be! The previous contender, Tyler the music bastard had a smiley face as well but he didn’t provide similar energy absorption… is the smiley face different then?”

“It must be! The smiley faces are different! Tyler is just a contender, he didn’t really get accepted by the guardians but Hilton was different! He wasn’t just an official member, he was a leader of sorts!”

Kieran who found the difference quickly didn’t get excited because of his findings, instead, he fell into deeper thought.

He didn’t believe he was the only one who “accidentally” discovered the smiley face marking’s use. Someone else must have noticed it as well.

The most obvious one would be the person who founded the guardians of the Witch’s Legacy.

If he found out the use of the smiley face, yet he founded the organization, which meant the founder’s plot was not simple.

Other than that…

“How did this smiley face marking do what it just did?”

Kieran brows almost locked together as he stared at the red markings on the back of his right hand that looked like a real tattoo.

Pro [Mystical Knowledge] and the messy knowledge he got from various dungeon worlds had lost all their functions before this smiley face.

In Kieran’s eyes, it was just an eerie smiley face surrounded by a red line, nothing else.

“Not a high enough skill level? Or is it specifically targeted at some special skills?” Kieran muttered to himself.

If up to this moment Kieran still persistently believed it was nothing but a common tattoo, he would be running away from reality.

Whether was it Hilton’s appearance or the scene of absorption, everything was pointing at the unusual smiley face being something else but without any information and clues, Kieran would end up at a dead end if he continued wondering.

Kieran wouldn’t spend his efforts on such obvious fruitless outcome.

He opened his PM tab and messaged Rachel.

…

2567: Accidents happen.

Rachel: Hilton got away?

2567: No, I killed him before he spoke.

Rachel: …

Rachel: You boasting right now?

Rachel: You 2 really share the same rotten taste, even boasting in such a similar fashion!

Rachel: If this bastard Lawless wasn’t suffering a hangover beside me, I would think that his account was stolen!

Rachel: Well too bad, a lead ended up being a dead end.

Rachel: Nevermind, I believe Karles can share more about the guardians.

…

Before Kieran explained, Rachel replied relentlessly.

Judging from Rachel’s reply, Kieran was sure Karles would have gotten all his value squeezed out of him before Rachel would let him go.

Of course, Kieran would be very happy to see that.

Just as Kieran was about to reply to Rachel with more guardian’s information, Wu suddenly send him a message.

When Kieran opened it up and saw the content, he was completely captivated by the message.