The Devil’s Cage

Kieran returned to the underground of Ring City through the tunnel dug out by Du, and when he arrived, Du had already moved out everything from the treasure vault.

Du’s digging and moving speed undoubtedly surpassed Kieran’s expectation.

Du even dug up an underground space to place the treasures. Going as deep as a thousand meters and being as big as a football field, It was bigger and deeper than expected.

More importantly, the place was filled with all kinds of treasure boxes.

Kieran wasn’t stingy with compliments when he saw the treasure boxes. “Nicely done, Du.”

“I live to serve you, my lord.”

Du knelt down on one knee and received the compliments excitedly.

[Seodi Stone] and [Mesly Ring] might not work the same, but the [Dominate] effect was the same, at least for Du. Kieran was its sole belief and it realized it had to serve him with its life.

Therefore, after devoting its life to Kieran, Du served without hesitation.

“My lord, when I emptied out this treasure vault, I found a smaller one further away, but it had a lot of mystical markings on the door, so I dared not simply touch it,” Du reported.

“A smaller vault? It must be the three kings’ secret stash!”

Kieran wasn’t surprised at Du’s discovery.

Most of the time, the city’s treasure vault belonged to the king, but the king’s treasure vault might not necessarily belong to the city, and it seemed like Ring City followed the same saying since it was built.

The treasures in the secret vault ought to tower these treasure boxes in terms or rarity and ranks.

However, opening the secret treasure vault would not be an easy task.

The mystical markings on the gate were the biggest obstacle, especially in this kind of sensitive timing. Any kind of commotion would surely attract the three kings’ attention and all Kieran’s effort would fall short.

A bird in the hand was worth ten in the woods.

Kieran understood the saying deeply, so he stood at the entrance and gazed over at the place.

Du had categorized the treasure boxes when he moved them.

The boxes on the left were equipment and items, and the boxes on the right were Crossing Coins.

A path that could fit three people at once was left in the middle of the space.

The boxes with equipment and items were over 200 and the boxes with Crossing Coins were more than 500.

Half of all the equipment and items were Magic rank, and the rest were mostly Rare ranks. Only a few Legendary rank items were mixed up inside, and every single item was marked with ‘unable to bring out of dungeon world’.

Kieran frowned.

Nothing saddened him more than a huge pile of loot that he could not bring back to the city.

Fortunately, Kieran figured a way around this little problem.

Trade!

He would trade this loot for items that he could bring out or needed!

Kieran already had a perfect candidate for the job.

He then turned to the Crossing Coins.

Similar to its counterpart, more than half of the 500 boxes were copper coins, while the rest were silver coins. Only a single box contained gold coins, and it was smaller than the rest. It only held up about 100 gold coins inside, which was much lower than Kieran exoected, but he wasn’t disappointed because he knew the wealth of Ring City belonged to him now. No one could take it from his hands.

Whatever wasn’t with the stash must be in the secret treasure vault of the three kings, and Kieran would come back for it later.

But for now?

He turned to Du and pointed at the equipment and items. “Can your transportation formation hold on until all the treasures here are moved out?”

“It’s hard to do it all at once but it’s workable if it’s two rounds. The boxes are big and consume a lot of spaces, but if we bring the items out, it wouldn’t use up as much space. Besides, other than the casting ingredients here with me, I have a sufficient amount hidden in my temporary hideout, which will be enough for at least five transportations.” Du provided a good news.

“Very good. Take all the items out and move them away.”

Du carried out its order right after Kieran told it to do so.

After that, Kieran went over to the boxes with the Crossing Coins.

The boxes with copper and silver coins had 500 per box, and whenever he thought about the exchange rate for gold coins, Kieran felt a heartache.

If he could convert them all to gold coins, it would be the ideal outcome.

He couldn’t help but feel that it was a pity, but he knew what he needed the most was to regain his strength. With the pitiful thought lingering in his mind, Kieran released Gluttony.

Only after he regained his strength would he and Starback be safe, and from there, secure more chances for more valuable loot.

Even though he had to trade in some value for the necessity now, it was a necessary risk.

Worst comes to worst, he would compensate his loss with the three kings. It was their fault that Kieran was losing value here anyway.

Gluttony had been waiting for a long time. After Kieran released him, his energy jumped out like a wild horse to Kieran’s hand and started absorbing the coin’s power.

Through Kieran’s hand, the devour energy filled the entire box, and less than a breath’s time later, a whole box of copper coins turned rusty.

Then the second box, the third box…

After Kieran absorbed the 290th box, which was equivalent to 145K copper coins, Kieran’s attributes skyrocketed.

His Spirit, Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Intuition all broke through many layers of seals after the energy conversion. Kieran did not stop there.

He went over to the remaining 209 boxes of silver coins.

The boxes had 500 silver coins, much like the ones with copper coins, and 209 boxes equaled 104,500 silver coins, which was equivalent to 3,135,000 copper coins.

If it was exchanged for gold coins, Kieran would have gotten more than 3400 gold coins.

Even though the gold coins had something magical about them, with the numbers as compensation, the loss was covered up.

Quantity changes quality!

Starting from SS-, Kieran’s attribute climbed up rank by rank.

SSS

Advance Rank!

Rank II!

Rank III!

…

After Du moved all the items and equipment to their temporary hideout and came back underground, to its shock, it realized the Crossing Coins had rusted, the shininess all gone.

More than two hundred boxes of copper and silver coins each rusted and mottled in their boxes like dirt; even the treasure boxes turned old and broken.

However, the most concerning point was Kieran!

There was no surge in aura, no outrageous transformation. He stood there just as Du remembered before it left, but it felt like something terrifying was awakening inside Kieran.

‘What is this?’

Du didn’t know and had no intention to find out.

All it knew was that the lord it served had grown stronger and that was good news.

Du stood there respectfully with his scales and hands down. It watched Kieran walk to the last box of gold coins with anticipation.

Kieran felt it but didn’t care because his attention was captivated by what he was seeing.

Strength: II (Strong)

Agility: II (Strong)

Constitution: III (Strong)

Spirit: IV (Weak)

Intuition: II (Weak)

…

Other than his Spirit, all his attributes returned to their original level.

With every breath he took, he heard the flow of his blood like raging currents.

If he didn’t have the habit of controlling his body with [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art], he could have fallen into a miserable state, overwhelmed by the power in his body, which Kieran didn’t even want to think about.

He might cross a hundred meters with a mere step, but would he crash into the wall later?

It was as though his energy was a driller, digging deeper into the ground endlessly until the energy finally wore off.

If that was really the case, it would be the worst case scenario!

Although Kieran was underground, almost a thousand meters deep, his surging powers would very well expose his location and probably attract unwanted attention.

In fact, if his good habits did not control his surging energy, after the enhancement, his aura would go out of control and it would be enough to attract the kings.

Kieran knew how risky it was, so he used [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] again to adjust himself to the enhancement.

Inhale, exhale.

Inhale, exhale.

The raging blood calmed down, and the excitement returned to normal.

His body had almost returned to normal when Kieran stood in front of the box of gold coins, but not 100%! There was still an uneasy feeling lingering in his heart!

Even though he had branded the practise of [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] into his bones and it had now become his instinct, it was hard for him to use it to adapt to his new body after the energy surge.

He would at least need an hour or two for buffer, so that he could return to his prime form.

However, Kieran did not stop. He opened the box of gold coins because he was on the clock.

The golden radiance shone brightly when the lid was lifted.

He was showering in radiance by standing in front of it, and he saw the black chains again.

Unlike the first time, those bulks of small and thin chains that bound his torso and limbs were all gone! The transparent needle-like chains that poked into his head had six left!

Five of the six chains were as thick as he remembered, but one of them was very, very thin.

The more drastic changes were in the faint, flicking chains around him. The flickers slowed down like a dying fish that would stop breathing at any moment.

Kieran tried to catch one of the chains and easily grabbed one with his hand.

Similar to the last time, the chain was very cold. Disgust rose in his heart; the chain wasn’t as sturdy as before!

He was certain of that when he touched the chain, gripping it harder.

Kak!

Without the black chains around his limbs, Kieran regained his power and easily forced the flickering chain to its limit, but right before it broke, a strong sense of danger rose in his heart again.

Kieran trusted his instinct a lot, so he let go of the flickering chain right away without a second thought.

He allowed the power of the gold coins to attack the transparent chain in his head.

Kak!

The thinnest one finally broke.

Kieran then saw himself back in the underground space.

He glanced over his Spirit, which changed from IV (Weak) to IV (Secondary). He furrowed his brows hard.

He wasn’t concerned about the changes of his Spirit but the sense of danger.

“What is that?” It wasn’t the first time Kieran came in contact with the sense of danger, as he felt the same when he tried to break it the first time.

However, after the majority of his attributes returned to their original level, the sense of danger remained.

It didn’t even feel weaker than the first time. Instead, it felt clearer and denser, like condensed blood flowing out of his body!

“Is it the seal? Or is it the… Unique Dungeon?” Kieran pondered on the question on the spot.

Regardless of the former or latter, his thoughts told him he lacked understanding of the world he currently stood in; not just Ai City or Ring City, but a deeper, hidden ‘world’.

Kieran temporarily addressed it as another ‘world’ because he had no idea how to describe what he just saw.

Those things should originate from his body, yet he felt like he had been to a spacious world. If everything he saw was real, then… what would the farther land hold?

Did the sense of danger come from the farther land?

Question after question popped up in Kieran’s mind, but it didn’t stop his action. He looked at Du.

“Where is the smaller treasure vault you found earlier?”

“Please follow me, my lord.”

Du then walked to one side of the spacious place and pushed open a sealed secret door to reveal a flight of stairs leading upwards.

Kieran followed quickly.

He was determined to get his hands on the contents in the smaller treasure vault!

Strength speaks the loudest in any context!

Whenever you have to choose, it isn’t fate playing games with you or the harshness or reality, but just that you are not strong enough!

With enough strength, you don’t need to choose.

With enough strength, you can level everything or reverse anything!

Kieran understood this point very well, and so did Victor.

Victor was eager to gain strength, which was why he chose to set up this Battle of Winter Night.

Unfortunately, the continuous unexpected events made his efforts fall short.

He knew he had to get away from Ring City, but he was unwilling to leave empty-handed.

He had lost everything he worked for so long in the outside world—his name, his position, his honor.

If he returned in such an ugly state, it would take him an endless amount of years to rise again.

Therefore, after a big U-turn, he returned to Ring City and went through the last sector.

He carefully made his way to the core of Ring City—the city’s treasure vault!

He had to get something to compensate for his loss!

And what else was a better choice than Ring City’s treasure vault?

When the convoy left King City earlier, Victor paid special attention to the location of the treasure vault and now his little effort paid off.

When he saw the layers of mystical markings on the door, Victor thought for a while.

If he had enough time, he could get rid of the markings, but now?

“I can only break in with force and choose something valuable before the three kings come back!”

Victor struck the door right after the decision was made.

Bang! Bang Bang!

A long, thin sword appeared in his hand and he threw it straight to the door.

The blade and the mystical markings clashed.

Poison, acid, fire, electric, and all kinds of elements flew out of the door, but none of it damaged the sword at all.

Bang!

In the end, the sword’s tip embedded itself in the door.

Victor smiled and retrieved his sword, then pushing the door open.

What he saw, however, froze his smile.