The Devil’s Cage

The unusual wind blew from nowhere!

The wind formed a basketball-sized tornado and grew with exponential speed.

Fuaaah!

Kieran hurled out Devil Flame without further ado.

The blazing Devil Flame clashed with the whistling tornado. The flames got fiercer and the wind got stronger, the tornado absorbing the Devil Flame and transforming it into a 3 meters tall fiery tornado!

Fuaaaa!

The fiery tornado did not move forward, spinning endlessly on the spot.

The unusual thing was, the fiery tornado didn’t seem to possess any suction force, other than the dust on the ground. Kieran and Starbeck weren’t affected, their sleeves and mantle did not even flutter.

Yet the malice in the tornado was obvious. It wasn’t just Kieran who sensed it, Starbeck did too, and it was very clear.

Starbeck took out a scroll.

Right after that, 10 layers of barriers that could easily block Advanced Rank attacks formed around him and Kieran and it wasn’t the end.

Starbeck pulled out more scrolls. Three stacks of scrolls, as tall as half a person, were pulled out in an organized fashion and were placed within his reach.

It seemed like Starbeck had anticipated and simulated this kind of situation.

He wasn’t really fast with his actions, but he rhythmically tore each and every scroll, using them on himself.

From the basic defensive barrier, to the Elemental Damage Protection, Curse Protection and Curse Reflect Barrier, when he finally finished using the scrolls, hundreds of layers of ‘protection’ appeared around him. He literally formed a ‘sanctuary’ for himself, a sanctuary that even a God would be helpless against.

After that, fiery Fire Elementals and icy Ice Elementals, a total of 12 each that lined up in 2 rows, appeared in between Kieran, Starbeck, and the fiery tornado.

Starbeck was still holding two more scrolls, and these two were unlike the others.

These two scrolls were quite big, almost a meter in length and as thick as a small tree. A normal person couldn’t even move it, anyone who got near would be burned or frozen, but Starbeck was able to hug them tight in his arms like they were pillows. At the edge of the big scrolls was a glowing necklace. It protected Starbeck from the burn and the freeze from the scrolls, allowing him to pinch on to the edge of both the big scrolls with his respective hands, should anything happen, he would be able to quickly tear them and use them.

Elementals were sealed in these two big scrolls, but they weren’t any Elementals, they were Elemental Overlords!

Starbeck locked his eyes at the fiery tornado.

Then… the fiery tornado slightly moved back.

The tornado started to doubt its decision, its worldview was almost shattered by Starbeck’s defenses.

‘Who am I?

Where am I?

What am I doing?

I am the Wind of Malice!

I am in a faraway rural area!

I was hired to come here and kill a country boy who keeps ruining his majesty’s plan, but…

Who can tell me who the hell is this country, who?! He might seem harmless, weak, and even on the verge of crying a river, but I strongly believe if I take another step forward, that harmless, weak country boy will cry ‘Don’t come near me!’ and tear open the two scrolls in his hands! Those two Elemental Overlords will come out and thrash me to smithereens!

ELEMENTAL OVERLORDS! Since when are they so easily sealed in scrolls? And there’s two of them!?

How nervous are your parents? They were so afraid that you would get hurt? Why not send more people to protect you from the dark, why would you choose these kinds of troublesome methods?

Just to show off your wealth? So that you can frighten a pitiful soul like me?

Damn it!

Damn it!

Damn it!’

The Wind of Malice cursed loudly in its heart, moving away again. It was afraid.

It was truly afraid, so what?

A target protected by two Overlord level beings, even if the target was a straw bag, wasn’t something it could afford to provoke, more so…

Just look at the hundred layers of protection, as if he pulled the entire defense system from the Sanctuary!

Wind of Malice almost stopped spinning. It felt hard to breath, it was suffocating.

‘What the hell is this? The little fetish of the divine descendants?

Simply calling out the Sanctuary and watching his enemy be beaten to death by two Overlord level beings?

Disgusting!’

Wind of Malice criticized in its mind, suddenly thinking it should explain its stance.

“I don’t…”

Tsssss!

Wind of Malice tried to say something, but Starbeck, who nervously looked at the fiery tornado, reacted in panic, tearing the scrolls wide open, which he thought was the safest and most direct reaction.

A 30 meters tall fire giant and an ice giant in the same height with icy wind swirling around it appeared instantly. Wind of Malice instantly fell into despair.

‘I was just trying to say this is a misunderstanding! I’m not going to attack!’

This time, it was Wind of Malice’s turn to almost cry. It turned around and wanted to run, but before it even ran 10 meters, the sky above the big city was clouded in darkness.

Lightning and thunder rumbled fiercely.

Kakroom!

Thunder clap echoed throughout the entire street block, followed by a huge bolt of lightning.

Kabaam!

Wind of Malice was struck into ashes without even resisting.

Its power slowly disperse and vanished.

[Player assisted in eliminating Malicious Invader!]

[Player eliminated Malicious Invader!]

Two notifications popped up on Kieran and Starbeck’s vision after Wind of Malice was defeated and more lines of words piled up.

[Player 2567 and Starbeck have special merits!]

[Authenticating merits…]

[Authentication passed!]

[Players acquired a chance to enter the Unique Dungeon!]

[Unique Dungeon starting in 10, 9, 8…]

…

Kieran raised a brow, he looked at Starbeck.

Starbeck stood there blankly, he was at a loss for what to do.

“Bring whatever you can that can help us,” Kieran said quickly.

“O-Oh!” Starbeck nodded.

He turned around and waved at his house.

Right away, the whole house, including the secret room and compartments were all shrunk into a small bead, falling into Starbeck’s hand.

“I’ve brought everything, ” Starbeck turned around and said.

Kieran glanced over at the small bead, nodding subtly.

A pocket dimension item with at least rank V or above!

Kieran was very certain biased on the presence he felt on that little bead.

He also could tell Starbeck had more than one such item with him. When Starbeck shrunk his whole house, Kieran clearly felt there were 7 to 8 more items of similar presence with him.

A mobile storeroom?

Kieran wondered but he quickly shook his head.

Would a storeroom hold all these scrolls though?

Kieran looked at the defensive barriers, Elementals, and Elemental Overlords.

Starbeck knew Kieran was a thrifty person, so he smiled when he saw Kieran’s silence.

“Don’t worry, they all can be used more than once!”

When Starbeck waved again at the Elementals and Overlords, including the hundreds of barriers, everything was summoned back into Starbeck’s sleeve.

It wasn’t rank V but something special!

Kieran unconsciously looked at Starbeck’s sleeve.

“I bought it from a player…” Starbeck explained but before he could finish, the loss of gravity appeared. He was naturally scared, so he grabbed Kieran by the sleeve.

However, he realized it was the entry sequence to a dungeon world, he had no need to worry, so he let go but Kieran grabbed his hand instead.

“Hold on tight! This is a Unique Dungeon, so be careful!” said Kieran.

“Okay,” Starbeck nodded and held tight on to Kieran’s sleeve.

A white light appeared, shining brightly and enveloping them both.

The light brought them away quickly, leaving behind a ground of bodyguards, looking at each other in confusion.

What just happened?

All their eyes were troubled by the same question.

…

[Player’s Unique Dungeon is starting…]

[Authenticating dungeon…]

[A. Player has a special organ, Fusion Heart, it will be greatly weakened!]

[B. All player’s items, equipment are temporarily returned to the player’s room, player is unable to bring items, equipment into Unique Dungeon.]

[C. All contracted companions, followers are temporarily returned to player’s room, player is unable to bring companions and followers into Unique Dungeon.]

[D. All player’s attributes are lowered to E, all skills, title, Talent are temporarily sealed, will return to normal once return to the big city.]

[Special Compensation 1: Player’s Spirit reached rank V, Spirit is lowered to D instead.]

[Special Compensation 2: Player’s Unique Title ‘Blade of the Daybreaker’ and player’s talent ‘The Warden’ has surpassed the level of restriction, will be weakened instead of sealed.]

[E. Player has 180 days to stay in the Unique Dungeon, player will return to the big city when the duration is up.]

[F. Player has no main mission, no special event, no identity in Unique Dungeon, unable to receive items like any other dungeons.]

[Note: Player received Unique Dungeon’s language pack and outfit, disappears upon returning to the big city.]

…

The white light vanished. Kieran appeared on a road in the outskirts with a black hoodie, jeans and a pair of sandals. Starbeck was beside him, in a similar outfit, only the hoodie was white.

No doubt Starbeck had never experienced this kind of unforgiving dungeon, blanked out in front of the system notifications. Fortunately, Kieran was with him, otherwise Starbeck would have cried his lungs out.

“What should we do?? He asked.

“Get ourselves some identity, and find the differences in this so-called Unique Dungeon,” Kieran replied.

Kieran picked up the key point at first glance but he was much more concerned about something else at the moment.

He looked at the Witch’s Mark on his hand, nothing changed.

Or rather, since his Spirit was lowered to D rank, he couldn’t notice any change.

However, Kieran believed no matter how capable the Witch was, she shouldn’t have been able to do this, sealing items, skills, and greatly weakening all his attributes. If the Witch really did do this, the rumours around her would be 10 times, 100 times scarier.

He did not forget Starbeck didn’t have the Witch’s Mark, but once he recalled the scene back in the big city, he felt things were not as simple as it seems, and it felt familiar somewhat.

“Is it that guy?” Kieran asked himself, but no answers came.

Besides, the situation at hand wasn’t the time for him to think about who’s behind this, he had much more pressing matters to attend to: acquire two legal identities.

Although hard, it wasn’t impossible.

His [Mystical Knowledge] was self-learned, so the skill was sealed but the knowledge remained in his mind and using a D rank Spirit to hypnotize normal people wasn’t exactly easy, but definitely not as hard as flying to the moon. As for anything beyond that, he would need his words, items, and actions to help him.

The only thing he had to figure out was this Unique Dungeon and what kind of world it was.

“The road seems neat, asphalt without any holes, the smell of fire powder and tire tracks… This should be a rather civilized world, its technological level must have reached a certain height,” Kieran heaved a breath of relief.

A civilized world with developed technological state was the best outcome that he could ask for at the moment.

If it was a modern ancient or medieval ancient time, where monsters roamed, or a futuristic world where battleships sailed in the sky instead of the sea, he would have to think twice about where to hide Starbeck and survive for the next 180 days.

And now?

Kieran chose a route with the neatest road.

“Let’s go this way, we should be able to reach the nearby city,” said Kieran.

“Okay.”

It wasn’t the first time Starbeck entered the dungeon world with Kieran, so he quickly got into character.

Never argue with anything Kieran said.

Acknowledged anything Kieran said.

Listen orders carefully and carry it out with precision.

Lastly, return to the big city safely.

Kieran and Starbeck walked side by side on the road. Beside them were fields of crops, ready for harvest, tall trees that looked dark in the night, and the night breeze making the air cooler.

Thankfully, although Kieran’s attributes dropped, he was still at the peak of a normal human being. He did not feel cold at all but Starbeck was different!

Kieran was weakened to the peak of a normal human, while Starbeck, whose attributes were not even near Advance Rank, dropped further. He was as weak as a normal human being.

Starbeck felt cold in the night breeze, especially his feet, which were almost frozen after walking less than a hundred meters. Still, Starbeck didn’t say anything.

‘I have to endure these kind of difficulties!’

He told himself.

Tssssss!

Kieran ripped his sleeves on his hoodie.

“Wrap it around your feet,’ said Kieran.

“N-No need…”

“Wrap it.”

“Oh…Okay…”

Starbeck was stunned at first, repeatedly shaking his hands but when Kieran repeated himself, Starbeck honestly took the sleeves and started to wrap them around his feet. It became hard for him to wear the sandals, but if he could wrap the sandals together…

“Just wrap it together with the sandals,” Kieran said again.

Starbeck carefully wrapped his feet with the sandals together.

Both of them continued forward.

Starbeck was very careful with each step, afraid that he would break the sleeve or dirty it, but no matter how careful he was, it was useless when he was walking on asphalt road.

The part of the sleeves beneath his feet were dirty after some time.

Then, a car appeared behind the two of them, the light from the car shining on their back, Starbeck excitedly turning around.

The car caught up with them and stopped beside the road.

“Do you boys need a lift?”

The middle-aged driver rolled down the window and asked Starbeck with a smile, his eyes subtly sizing up Kieran.

When he saw Kieran’s youthful face, the driver heaved a breath of relief.

The smile on his face got brighter, and then… a sandal landed on7 his face.

BANG!