The Devil’s Cage

Darkness suddenly appeared before Kieran’s eyes.

There wasn’t any sign before, as though the darkness itself existed here all this time.

The darkness froze for a second before it slowly faded away.

As though he was slowly opening his eyes, the world turned into black and white before Kieran’s eyes. He gazed at the black wilderness and the white river stream beside his feet. Under the gloomy, turbid sky, the land was firm and the river flowed as usual.

Kieran then looked down and sized himself up.

Black and white.

Other than that, he couldn’t see any color on himself. He slightly frowned.

He had been in Riverdale, Warren’s capital, before this, and he was absolutely sure about his whereabouts.

But now?

Where was this place?

As the thought came, Kieran bent down and touched the black land.

Cold and heavy.

“Not just the color, even the properties changed?” Kieran thought quietly.

He was sure that he’d never seen such cold and heavy dirt before. Even the dirt from winter wasn’t this cold and the dirt with iron as heavy.

Throwing the dirt back to the ground, Kieran intended to search for more information.

But the moment he took a step, a heavy power pressed down from the outer world, like a mountain was falling from the sky and landing on his body.

What surprised Kieran was a never before felt weakened feeling spreading throughout his body.

Kieran cramped his brows tight and carefully moved his body with the smallest motion possible.

He tried his best to feel the discomfort on his body.

At the very next moment, the system told him clearly what was happening.

[Entered unknown domain, all attributes – rank I. Dawn, Plague, Devil, Cardinal Sins, Saint Thorn greatly decreased…]

“All attributes minus rank I?! A major rank in attribute?”

Kieran squinted his eyes.

Since Kieran’s Spirit was at New IV, after suffering a – I rank, he was still at New III level but not his other attributes though.

Aside from his strongest, Spirit, his second-highest was Constitution, which was also at a newly Advance Ranks level, while Intuition, Strength and Agility were lower and hadn’t even reached Advance Ranks. After suffering the – I rank debuff, Kieran felt like he was a newbie that had freshly entered the game.

Of course, that was the illusion after his attribute levels plummeted. At least, he could still carry [Crimson Ghost Stomach] and it wouldn’t crush him.

“Unknown domain? A domain that is hidden in Riverdale? And… the black and white world is unrelated to the malicious gaze just now?”

Question after question flooded Kieran’s heart.

At the same time, the time for him to return to the big city in the game was almost up.

Huu!

Kieran took a deep breath.

With the clock’s time running out, it forbade him from knowing more but allowed him to have more chances to be prepared.

Kieran sized up his surroundings. He wanted to memorize everything he saw in his mind so that he could be better prepared the next time.

Just when Kieran’s eyes landed on the white river stream, his squinted eyes suddenly glimmered.

A black spot appeared inside the white river and under his gaze, the black spot rapidly grew bigger.

More precisely, it was approaching Kieran rapidly.

From the size of a grain of rice to the size of a small boat. It was the common wooden boat that was often used for taking an excursion down the stream.

But the boatman was not someone friendly.

He, or it, donned a black robe with an oil lamp in his hand that glowed softly.

The lamp shed light over the little boat and also revealed the scrawny, skeleton-like face under the hood.

“Look at me, sincere one.

Avoid me, despicable one.

Offend me, rash one.

Flatter me, cunning one.

All tried to go through me to get away from pain.

All tried to go through me to break free from destiny.

But death follows like a shadow!

Death is the biggest relief!

What you sought, the dead dispose.

What the dead sought, you will never attain.

Board the board? Or leave the land?”

The scrawny boatman spoke slowly.

His voice was like his face, not just dry but rough and hard to the ears, too.

But what concerned Kieran wasn’t the boatman, but the situation.

It seemed like the boatman was telling him…

He was dead?!

For Kieran, survival was his instinct, hating death was also his instinct.

He frowned at the boatman and kept quiet.

The scrawny boatman, too, kept quiet. All he did was extend his thin as bone palm in front of Kieran.

Then, that familiar loss of gravity appeared again.

…

[Special Dungeon: The Queen’s Shield III]

[Dungeon Type: Free mission]

[Dungeon Difficulty: Below Average]

[Main Mission: Ensure Mary ascends to the throne as queen in 30 days]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Basic Rating: F)]

[Sub-mission: Remaining Viper Sect]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating F → D)]

[Special Event: Hidden Viper (Perfect Clear)]

[Rating: D → A]

[Special Event: The hidden secret 20 years ago (Perfect Clear)]

[Rating: A → SSS]

[Battle Performance: Very Active (Rating: SSS → Z)]

[Exploration Performance: Excellent (Rating Z → ZZ)]

[Special Rating 1: Eliminated Crown Raven Soul Fragment (Rating ZZ → ZZZ, Rep +1)]

[Special Rating 2: Eliminated Prime Viper (Rating ZZZ → V, Rep +1)]

[Special Rating 3: Entered Unknown Domain (Rating V → VVV, Rep +3)]

[Player’s final rating: VVV]

[Calculating player’s final reward…]

[Final player reward as stated…]

[Points: 300,000; Skill Points: 60; Golden Skill Points: 7; Golden Attribute Points: 7]

[Acquired special dungeon: The Queen’s Shield IV]

[Acquired special reward 1: Practise dagger]

[Acquired special reward 2: Charts of the southern barons]

[Acquired special reward 3: Remains of James III’s diary]

[Acquired special reward 4: Charts of House Zilin]

……

Standing in Wallway Street 13th, Kieran was looking at his dungeon clear calculation. His cramped brows weren’t relaxed though, as he was still figuring out the scene before this.

However, despite how hard he thought, it was fruitless.

There was a lack of information to the point that he didn’t even know what happened.

However, one thing was for sure. He had to face that Unknown Domain in his fittest form possible.

Otherwise…

A fake death would turn real.

After quickly adjusting his status, Kieran looked at one of his biggest lots in this dungeon run.

The two dark glowing items from Zoyedark.