The Devil’s Cage

The expected notifications didn’t concern Kieran as much.

What did concern him was that Ye Jing’s body hadn’t disintegrated yet.

The body was slashed in half by [Arrogant Word] and had fallen on the broken stairs, blood splattered all over.

“He isn’t a God, but much stronger than any common God. During normal times, even an Ortho-God couldn’t match his powers. If we weren’t favoured by Lady Luck by having this place that my father left for me, we might have been long dead.”

Great Swamp saw the concerns in Kieran’s eyes, thus the explanation.

Then, his illusory face had an extra sense of exclamation.

“The Grand Fiend of the fiend era is not really something that we, Grand Fiends in the peaceful era, can compare to. The gap in strength is too far apart.” Great Swamp shook his head as he spoke.

“Ortho-God?” Kieran raised a puzzled brow.

“It’s like categorising us from the most common Normal Gods to High Gods and then lastly, Ortho-God. Before this, I was considered to be the closest to High God, and after inheriting my father’s gift, I’ll ascend to that title or maybe higher,” Great Swamp replied.

“Not Ortho-God?”

“Impossible. Although I really want to take that leap, an Ortho-God and a High God are as different as heaven and earth. In fact, as long as one has enough gifts and a powerful lineage, it isn’t very difficult to ascend to High God—accumulation through time is the best way. But an Ortho-God…doesn’t just require gifts and lineage. It requires all kinds of understanding out of chance, otherwise, it will be useless no matter how long you accumulate your cultivation. On top of that, when one ascends to Ortho-God, the city will no longer bind him down anymore, and he will be able to achieve all kinds of unimaginable feats,” Great Swamp said seriously after smiling bitterly.

“The Normal Gods are ranked around the start of Transcendence or Advance Ranks, with ranks I to III even being considered Normal. A High God is around rank IV and an Ortho-God is rank V, so does that mean the Ortho-God in City of Fiends reached the level of the first generation divine descendant?”

With Great Swamp’s elaborate explanation, Kieran quietly compared it to Rachel’s words.

After coming to that conclusion, he quickly asked another question, “What about above the Ortho-Gods?”

Kieran didn’t believe Ortho was where the limit of the current dungeon world was drawn.

If Ortho was the limit, Ye Jing, who he had just killed, would have ruled the world a long time ago and not been a straw bag by calculating against Great Swamp’s gift.

Kieran believed that if Ye Jing had that kind of power, he would have happily obliged to rule the world.

The reply from Great Swamp was just as he expected.

“Star rank! But as for what it is truly is, I don’t know. I was born in the fiend era but it’d reached its end by that time, so I never had the chance to truly meet a Star rank,” Great Swamp replied right after Kieran’s question subsided.

“What about your father?” Glancing over at the remaining time that was decreasing, Kieran asked more quickly.

“I don’t know. I do not know what rank my father reached, but I am certain that he was much stronger than an Ortho-God.”

Great Swamp’s tone sounded complicated whenever he mentioned his father.

It held the respect and reverence that sons had for their fathers, yet it was also laced with some unconcealable grudge.

Kieran didn’t want to know Great Swamp’s family affairs with his father and didn’t care to find out what happened back then that caused Great Swamp to display such a tone and expression.

What he cared about was using that information from Great Swamp to determine some facts.

“Higher than Ortho ranks means closer to True God? Or is it already there?” Kieran wondered.

Lastly, Kieran voiced out the final question that baffled him.

“Why did Ye Jing not make his move earlier but chose to do so now? Don’t tell me this was the perfect opportunity because, with his powers, he might have had a better chance earlier when you were still alone.” Kieran stared down at Great Swamp.

Great Swamp didn’t dodge the gaze, replying with his own honest stare.

“I’d always thought that Ye Jing was dead. I never thought the whole Perforation Sting fiasco would be his doing, so I don’t know why he didn’t strike earlier. Maybe he was tied down by something? I’ll follow up on this later, so don’t worry. I won’t be careless with matters of life and death. Besides, I’ll give you an extra payment for this incident alone, which I’m sure you will be satisfied with.” Great Swamp promised Kieran.

“I’ll wait for your good news then.”

Kieran then turned around and left.

…

[Special Dungeon: City of Fiends II]

[Dungeon Type: Free Mission]

[Dungeon Difficulty: Average]

[Main Mission: Survive For 28 Days Under Perforation Sting’s Pursual]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating F)]

[Special main mission: Bloodline limits]

[Mission Completion: 300% (Rating F → A)]

[Special event: A hurried auction (Perfect rating)]

[Rating: A → SS]

[Special event: Forest City change of owner (Perfect rating)]

[Rating: SS → SSS]

[Special event: Mastermind behind the scenes (Perfect rating)]

[Rating: SSS → ZZ]

[Battle Performance: Very active (Rating ZZ → ZZZ)]

[Exploration Performance: Average]

[Special Rating 1: Eliminated Perforation Sting leader, Jin, God of Forest City (Rating ZZZ → V, Rep +1)]

[Special Rating 2: Eliminated God of Many City, God of Leaf City (Rating V → VV, Rep +1)]

[Special Rating 3: Eliminated Ye Jing (Rating VV → GGG, Rep +5)]

[Player final rating: GGG!]

[Calculating player’s final dungeon reward…]

[Player’s final dungeon reward as follows…]

[Points: 600,000; Skill Points: 100; Golden Skill Points: 10; Golden Attribute Points: 10]

[Acquired special dungeon: City of Fiends III]

[Player’s final rating has reached GGG, acquired the special reward: randomly draw an item from the dungeon world]

[Note 1: Player must draw it on their own, others cannot act on behalf]

[Note 2: Drawing cannot be reserved, must be drawn before the start of a new dungeon, otherwise it is deemed as giving up]

…

When Kieran laid his eyes on [City of Fiends III], words followed.

[City of Fiends III: After owning Forest City, Many City and Leaf City within a night, many other gazes are one to you. Some astonished, some confused, some malicious…]

[Main Mission: Starts when entering the dungeon!]

…

“As I expected.”

Kieran softly smiled when he saw the description.

After running a special dungeon many times, his experience was enough for him to form a set of patterns.

Of course, that wasn’t Kieran’s biggest reward this trip.

The biggest reward was his dungeon clear rating and the extra…

Treasures from God of Forest City’s vault!