The Devil's Cage

A black MPV stopped by the roadside. Inside the vehicle, Kieran and the thin man were sitting opposite each other. Beside the thin man were two armed men with their guns pointing at Kieran.

"I hope that you’re telling the truth, or else you’ll experience the consequences of lying to Mr. Big!" the thin man said.

Kieran did not say anything. He only nodded. He was confident that the fifth victim would be found around that area.

Sidney, Courtney and Paul had been found one after the other, but Redecker’s body had just been discovered the previous day. Sphendix Corporation had not turned a new page all of a sudden, it was because Leonard had just taken something related to the preparation of the magic circle, thus hindering the progress of the circle as a whole.

Since the item had been recovered by Sphendix, their priority would be to finish the magic circle, so Kieran was sure that they would not wait any longer. Their plan was close to succeeding after all.

After the recovery of the magical item and the fermentation caused by the beast attacks, all that was left was the completion of the magic circle, or to be more precise, the completion of the basic structure of the magic circle, the Reverse Pentagram.

The Reverse Pentagram was one of the basic structures of magic circles. It was the most well-known one among users, and also the most common one able to perform all sorts of rituals.

It was easy to learn and quick to master. With a precise drawing, in combination with enough pain, fear and despair as an energy source for conversion, the runes within the magic circle could be activated to fulfill the user’s goal.

That was why Sphendix had started the beast attacks in the first place; to cause fear, panic and despair to the people and gather enough energy for the magic circle.

As for what was the goal of gathering fear, panic and despair?

Anything but happiness, goodness and hope. It was what [Mystical Knowledge] had taught Kieran.

"If they’re using a whole city to build the base for the Reverse Pentagram, the conversion circle must be quite big too! In order to increase their success rate as they finish the basic structure of the magic circle, they will need to finish the conversion circle at the same time as well! So, where is the conversion circle?" Kieran thought.

The conversion circle was the second basic structure for the construction of a magic circle.

A simple example was the Grand Demonic Heptagram, which was formed by two giant outer circles and an inner circle as basic structures. Between the circles were the forward and reverse pentagrams, plus all sorts of runes. The forward and reverse pentagrams in it had the same function as the one before Kieran, which was to siphon energy.

The outer and inner circle were the conversion circle, and both of them were used to transfer energy to the runes between the forward and reverse pentagrams.

In the end, the caster could channel their mystical power through the runes.

As for the scorpion-like symbol in the middle? Kieran guessed that it was a supportive method meant to accelerate the process or either amplify the effect of the magic. However, that was just a wild guess. He was not sure about it at all.

The vast knowledge of [Mystical Knowledge] was not all accessible through Kieran’s Master Level. He even had a hard time locating the conversion circle of the Reverse Pentagram before him, but he was at least able to confirm its existence.

Although Kieran had limited access to that vast knowledge and could not determine the location of the final piece, he had a decent understanding of how the magic circle and the casting process worked. His Master Level [Mystical Knowledge] was enough for him to know that.

One, the basic structure of the magic circle. Two, a suitable conversion magic circle. Three, adding the appropriate runes within the circle.

Although the process might require other supportive elements and incantations to activate the magic circle, understanding the process did not help Kieran with the situation at hand.

Quite the opposite, Kieran felt a sense of worry in his heart. He was worried about what would happen if such a huge negative-energy magic circle was actually activated.

Kieran dared not even imagine the outcome.

Other than that sense of worry, he also had some doubts.

According to Lawless, dungeon difficulty would increase according to the number of dungeon entries. However, this was only Kieran’s third dungeon, and the difficulty was already even harder than the previous team dungeon, which had had an average dungeon entry number of four.

How could the third time be harder than the fourth?

"Did I miss any important information?" Kieran thought.

Suddenly, he was pulled out of his thoughts by a knock on the vehicle window. The thin man pulled the window down, and a tall, muscular man said, "Found something in the alley back there!"

The thin man instantly looked at Kieran with a curious expression, his face full of doubt.

"You did not set this up beforehand, did you?" he asked Kieran.

"Go see for yourself! Since you’ve recorded the past four attacks, you should know whether it’s real or not!"

Kieran opened the vehicle door straightaway and went out.

The thin man did not stop him. As Kieran had said, he had recorded all four past incidents himself, so he would be able to tell if they were fake or not just by one look.

The buff man who had reported the incident guided the thin man, followed by the two other men.

Mr. Big’s other men in the area, who had been looking for the dead body, had also gathered around when they’d heard the news.

It was a very-eye catching sight to see almost a hundred men gather around the area. Even more eye-catching, though, was Kieran, whom Sphendix had placed a bounty on. All the policemen and bounty hunters around had noticed his presence, but they did not make any sudden movements. They just stayed back and stared at Kieran with eager eyes.

As soon as the thin man walked out of the crowd and stepped beside Kieran though, their eager gazes turned panicked. Their expressions changed within a second, and they all left the area one after the other with their heads down, ignoring Kieran completely.

The thin man was Kent, Mr. Big’s right-hand man. Anyone who knew that name and the man’s background knew that something had to be wrong. Was this another one of Mr. Big and Sphendix’s fights?

The gathered bounty hunters quickly dispersed as that thought bloomed in their minds.

Even the policemen left. No superiors’ orders or luxurious rewards were more valuable than their own lives.

None of them wanted to interfere in the fight between the two behemoths. All it would take was one wrong step, and they would be crushed to bits. A couple of righteous young policemen were dragged into their cars by their seniors.

Within a couple of breaths, the streets had been emptied of everyone other than Mr. Big’s men.

Kent was already used to scenes like that, so he just shrugged.

Kieran was not surprised, as Larry had already told him a lot about Mr. Big’s influence in the city.

He reached the alleyway without any further hindrance. The alley was not the dirty, narrow kind filled with rats and awful stenches. It was actually quite clean, and there were also street lights in it. It could have been a merry place filled with people if it was not secluded.

The dead body lay under a streetlight in the middle of the alley. It had been badly mutilated by the beast’s teeth, and most of its muscles and fat had been eaten. Even the skull was half-eaten this time.

As soon as he saw it, Kent went up to the body to investigate it. After a while, he turned around and looked at Kieran with a curious expression.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"Can I take a look myself?" Kieran answered with another question.

Kent did not stop him. He just moved to the side to make way for him.

Kieran’s accurate prediction had already proved his value. Although Kent was curious about how Kieran had known about the attack beforehand, that it did not stop him from carrying out Mr. Big’s orders.

"If Kieran’s telling the truth, try to play nice. If he’s bluffing, just kill him!"

Kieran squatted down in front of what looked like a puddle of minced meat. By the remaining skull, Kieran could tell that it had been a woman. When her head had still been intact, she must have been quite decent looking.

The scene was too gruesome for normal people, but Kieran had a steady heart. He investigated the body in detail without any hindrance. He had gotten used to such gory scenes right from the beginning.

After a delicate investigation, he discovered something.