The Devil’s Cage

“Hilton? He is a high-ranker that’s skilled in Strength. He has his own faction as well but not a big one. Around five to six common veterans, nothing to worry about. You noticed him because of the battle with Ghost Claw before? Don’t worry, he and I are the same type of people, we love to watch things happen,” J. Pearlman said.

Kieran nodded without commenting further.

It was the truth that the high-ranker named Hilton only managed a small faction but it was also highly possible that he showed killing intent to KIeran.

Kieran hac absolute confidence in his own Intuition, he would never be wrong about his hunches.

“What’s Hilton’s faction called?” Kieran asked.

“The Burning Bottle,” J.Pearlman answered.

Then, the topic switched and he started to rope in Kieran in a obvious manner.

“Hilton has quite the name among the veterans but for a high-ranker like you, they are not enough, let alone for us Freedom Alliance.”

“Each of the members of Freedom Alliance is a high-ranker and our casual system doesn’t set too many rules on members. All of us like to help out each other, not just trading equipment and items, we even party up to clear dungeons…”

While J.Pearlman was promoting his organization relentlessly, Rachel took up her wine glass and was looking at Fisherman with a spurious smile behind her blurred face.

The female inn owner knew what exactly Fisherman was going after. In fact, when Kieran asked her about Fisherman, she knew what the elder wanted to achieve.

Flame Emperor, Fiery Tyrant, Flaming Devil!

Even though J.Pearlman’s words were a little extravagant, those three titles had started to spread among the high-rankers.

A couple of small groups of high-rankers showed interest at Kieran right away.

After all, a Chosen One high-ranker was not always easy to come by.

More so, Kieran has displayed substantial fighting capabilities, he was not like the other Chosen Ones who were still growing and needed a bigger investment.

Once Kieran joined a certain group, the group would have a sudden jump in battle power, as long as the leaders of the group weren’t idiots, they would know what to do.

However, Rachel knew it wasn’t that easy to persuade Kieran.

The female inn owner had a rather deep experience with Kieran’s vigilant and somewhat doubtful character. Under such circumstances, unless Kieran were to come across another idiot like Lawless, all the other high-rankers were wasting their efforts trying to rope him in.

Rachel didn’t care about the conversation after that.

Until J.Pearlman went off, she brought Kieran a low alcohol honeymead.

“On the house. So how was the talk?”

She placed the honeymead in front of Kieran and picked up another empty wine glass, wiping it before she asked.

“So so.” Kieran replied as he took the honeymead.

“Fisherman is quite a nice person,” Rachel said.

Kieran didn’t disagree on that point.

Perhaps it was his age or maybe it was his character that drove his motives, J.Pearlman maintained his manners and kind appearnce despite Kieran rejecting his offer.

While he left, J.Pearlman even invited Kieran to fish sometimes but it didn’t mean Kieran would join Freedom Alliance.

True, like J.Pearlman said, after Kieran joined an organization, he would have access to all kinds of conveniences but at the same time he would be bound by a certain level of duties.

Kieran who chose the path of a lone-wolf in the first place would never tie himself down, even though J.Pearlman was being explicite that Freedom Alliance was a casual organization without too many of rules, nothing would change.

Not too many didn’t mean no and as for the convenience he mentioned?

Kieran never had to worry about equipment and items.

The female inn owner in front him was a high-ranker as well and Kieran believed each gathering they held in the inn wasn’t just for food and drinks.

Compared to a stranger, Kieran was more willing to trust someone he was familiar with, especially this particular someone that had an unusual relationship with Lawless.

The help in a party dungeon?

Kieran would beg to be excused for that particular point. It was enough for Kieran since he had partied with strangers once before.

“Can you talk to me about the Burning Bottle and this Hilton?” Kieran asked while lifting his glass.

Even though he had gotten quite a lot of information from J.Pearlman, he didn’t mind knowing more.

A high-ranker that he came across for the first time yet held killing intent toward him wasn’t something normal.

One needed to know even Ghost Claw Casswell who came after Kieran for the bounty only had slightly denser malicious intent.

“There’s nothing to talk about with Burning Bottle, everyone would hug and help each other but Hilton, Hilton is not that simple. You can consider him to be apart of the earlier batch that entered the game. That being said, while he was acting quite normal in front of everyone, whether it was benefits, buying equipment and items, he was just like any other common player.”

“Then soon enough, those players who performed better than him or had more talents than him went missing but this Hilton grew from a newbie to an experienced player, to a veteran and eventually entered the Advanced Ranks”

“And after he joined the Advanced Ranks, he had gotten more mysterious. We didn’t see him anymore within our small groups but he established his own and roped in some decent newbies. If the number of players in his group weren’t too little, I’d really think that guy was up to something bad.”

Rachel said slowly as she cleaned the wine glasses.

While listening to Rachel’s story, Kieran sipped a mouth of honeymead, savouring the sweetness of his drink—he smirked slightly.

Sweetness always made a man feel happy, even Kieran.

After another bigger gulp, Kieran squinted his eyes in a pleasant way.

“It’s a first for me to see someone enjoying honey water to this extent! Are you sure you don’t want to try the cocktail that I mixed myself? Or you should really try the real honeymead. When alcohol and honey are combined together, you can’t help but want more,” Rachel said with a smile when she saw Kieran’s expression.

“This will be enough. At least drinking this lesser version allowed me to clearly analyzed Hilton’s secrets and motives. If I was drinking what you recommend, I might have passed out right away.”

Kieran didn’t conceal his weakness to alcohol.

“You little bastard really, you look a lot like someone I knew!” Rachel exclaimed.

Then, she looked behind Kieran, waving and said “Blacksmith, here.”

“Give me a glass of Ice Lake!”

Blacksmith who was wearing a red mantle greeted Rachel before sitting beside Kieran.

“Hi, didn’t think I’d bump into you here. This round’s on me,” Kieran turned around and looked at Blacksmith in surprise.

“Thanks but no thanks, I prefer to pay my own wine,” Blacksmith said without even shaking her head.

Then, before Kieran said anything, she placed [Brutal Lightning Hand] that was embedded with the [Thunder Fall Stone] on the bar.

Kieran’s attention was instantly captured by the newly embedded [Brutal Lightning Hand].