The Devil’s Cage

BOOM!

Following the woman’s words, Lust of the cardinal sins exploded from Kieran’s heart and swept over everything.

However, the fierce Lust was useless against Kieran who was already used to being in contact with Devil Force and the other Cardinal Sins Force.

As if a pail of hot water was poured into an ice hole. The hot water was instantly robbed of its temperature and formed a new layer of ice.

Therefore, despite Lust rumbling around Kieran’s heart restlessly, it was not doing much.

Soon, Lust faded away but it triggered the chain reaction of Wrath, Greed, and Envy.

While feeling his emotions tainting his mind and the hidden dissatisfaction, Kieran wasn’t moved.

It was like adding a few more pails of hot water into that bottomless ice hole, other than creating more layers of ice, there was no other outcome.

Moreover, Kieran took the opportunity to carefully feel the different traits of the cardinal sins.

As they faced off against a “host” like Kieran, Wrath, Envy, and Green growled in unwillingness continuously before they were defeated like Lust.

Sloth and Gluttony didn’t cause any ruckus since it wasn’t the thing they favored.

Pride didn’t show any interest at all, as if it was an observer sitting high up top, looking down at everything with an imposing gaze.

Then…

It raised its head to Kieran.

Two identical faced looked at each other.

One calm and dull; one arrogant and proud.

Kieran had a stare off with Pride for quite a while before everything returned to normal.

Though it wasn’t even a second on the outside.

Kieran looked at the woman before him and shook his head.

“I don’t need it.” Kieran rejected her again in a clear manner.

The last bit of patience in Kieran’s heart started to fade away. Quite the opposite, he was more alarmed than before at the woman.

The woman looked extraordinary but she didn’t hold any kind of sub-mission or special event, which made Kieran suspect that everything from there onwards was a new plot specifically targeted at him by his enemies.

“Leave. This is your last warning.” Kieran’s tone turned cold.

His warnings didn’t conceal his killing intent.

“I… Fine.”

She wanted to say something but when she caught Kieran’s gaze, she couldn’t utter a word.

She had seen similar gazes more than once and every person that shared that similar gaze were the same kind of person, men of their word.

The woman slowly stepped back, trying her best to not touch her wound while at the same time looking at Kieran with caution.

From the 10 meters distance to 15 meters, 20 meters.

Just when the woman finally felt relieved, turning around and wanting to leave in a hurry, an arrow came out of nowhere without any signs and struck her from the back.

Puk!

Blood was splashed as the woman fell to the ground.

She didn’t die from the arrow though, she was still hanging on by her last breath.

That sturdy armor of hers saved her once again by decreasing the impact of the arrow, preventing the arrow from perforating her completely.

The silver enchanted arrow and her blood were extra dazzling under the afternoon sun but Kieran was more concern about the person who fired the arrow.

Firing an arrow without a sound or sign wasn’t a feat anyone could achieve, not even the best hunter out there.

Everyone knew in order to maximize the destructive power of an arrow, the archer would need to taut the bow to its fullest and the arrow that was fired with full force was impossible to be absent of any air-breaking noise.

Except with the application of some magical items.

However, the person that appeared in Kieran’s sight didn’t use any.

The bow in the person’s hand wasn’t anything special. It was just a common hunter bow with a slight tenacity to it and the enchantment on the arrow wasn’t to silence its air-breaking noise but to make the arrow more focused to its target, just like its original trait.

“Special archery techniques?”

Kieran sized up the person in surprise.

A body of black with a felt hat; face covered by a cloth that only revealed a pair of blue eyes.

Despite the outfit blocking the person’s physique, it was hard to conceal the person’s petite figure.

The person should be a she.

Why not a short man though?

A common man wouldn’t have that irregular busty chest with slim palms and fingers.

Of course, if it was some other species, it wouldn’t a surprise either.

After all, most Kieran’s knowledge of the current dungeon world came from the simple memories and info from Holler, Gregori, and Bankers.

Just when Kieran was sizing up the person, the archer did to Kieran as well.

When she saw the Frost Wolf pup beside Kieran’s feet, she couldn’t help but grip her bow harder yet released it soon enough.

“She’s my prey.”

The female voice proved Kieran correct.

As for what she said, Kieran didn’t mean to argue, instead, he did an “off you go”, signaling the archer to bring her prey away.

“The hunting hound beside you, it has the blood of a wolf, be wary of it! Wolves are the most cunning animals, it might bite you in the back!”

The archer approached the wild looking woman on the floor and grabbed her by the collar. She then placed an iron cuff over her prey’s neck.

While she was at it, the archer was looking at Kieran with caution.

Until the end, when the archer didn’t notice any extreme movements from Kieran, she seemed relieved and gave a friendly reminder to Kieran about his Frost Wolf pup.

“I know who my partner is and who my enemies are. Of course, strangers as well,” Kieran replied calmly.

There were too many self-righteous people in the world and Kieran had seen countless of them struggling to survive. After multiple attempts of so-called “calm” negotiation that bore no results, Kieran gave up on the useless attempt to talk.

Kieran chose a more straightforward way to reject the self-righteous people’s “goodwill”.

He did so because he didn’t want to pick up coins or food beside people’s feet anymore.

Kieran reply had a sting to it and it made the archer uncomfortable. However, she didn’t say anything further as she prepared to bring her prey away.

A sudden air-breaking noise fell rapidly in front of the archer and forced her to halt her steps.

Four buff and hairy figures blocked her path.

“Damn hunter, release Sharly!”

The buff figures who dressed in human outfits but had zero human presence growled.

The hunter who grabbed her prey, however, replied with an arrow from her bow.

This time, it was different from the silent arrow from before. It was fast and precise like a comet and one of the buff figures didn’t even react to it before falling to the ground.

But it didn’t alter the situation of her being surrounded by three muscular figures and soon, the hunter suffered multiple wounds on her body and each of them was bloody.

The weapon that caused the wounds were the muscular figures’ hands… no, no it shouldn’t be called hands anymore but claws!

Sharp claws were grown on a human figure’s arm!

Kieran was intrigued while looking at the scene.

Despite him having some guesses before, when he saw it with his own eyes, he felt his curiosity being piqued.

Other than books, it was the first time he encountered such living beings.

As for the battle?

Kieran had no intention to get involved, he just wanted to observe.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the wolf pack in the valley behind him which he was concerned about, he would have left earlier.

However, most of the time, a lot of things usually unfolded against one’s will.

The buff figure who was shot by the comet-like arrow stood up wobbly again and when he saw Kieran was watching, he threw himself over to Kieran and shouted, “You guys get the hunter, I’ll deal with this little pesky bastard!”

Kieran frowned.