The Devil's Cage

[Entering Single Player Dungeon...]

[Difficulty: Fourth Dungeon]

[Background: Professor Herbert is preparing for an archeological excavation in the ancient city of Isogu. He has heard about your skills and reputation, so he invited you to join his team as a bodyguard. ]

[Main Mission: Explore at least 20% of the ancient city of Isogu in 4 weeks.]

[Temporary language pack, disappears upon exiting the dungeon.]

[Clothing, backpack, weapons, items, and attributes remain unchanged, Temporarily changed appearance, disappears upon exiting the dungeon.]

[Inspecting firearms and grenades... Weapons do not match the current year, Damage reduced by 50%, Handgun Reloading Speed +1 seconds, Sniper Reloading Speed +30 seconds]

[Hint 1: This is your fourth official dungeon. You can fail the Main Mission, but you will have to pay 400 Points as a penalty, and your highest attributes will drop by 1. If your points are insufficient, the system will deduct from your equipment. If your equipment is insufficient, you will fail.]

...

The blinding light faded off soon.

Kieran carefully scanned the room he was in. There was a square window on his left made of wood and nails.

It was wide open at the moment, the sunset light pouring in and warming up the room, which was only about 10 square feet.

The room was only meant to accommodate one person. There was a single bed, a bedside table, and a closet. That was all.

Kieran’s backpack was leaning against the closet. He went over to check, but nothing was missing.

On the bedside table, there was a newspaper and a half-burnt candle.

"No electricity? Maybe it hasn’t been discovered yet?"

Kieran glanced at the candle and picked up the newspaper.

Burgle City Morning News, July 22nd, T1891.

The front page told him where he was and what year it was.

He went through the rest of the newspaper in hopes of finding more clues.

Other than tons of useless information, he also found some valuable leads.

"Gold found in the ancient city of Isogu again"

"Gold rush sweeps again"

"Professor Herbert insists on exploring Isogu City"

"Herbert is looking for a bodyguard to escort him"

...

Kieran got two different pieces of information from the titles.

One, gold had been found in Isogu City, attracting lots of attention.

Two, Professor Herbert was recruiting many people for his excavation.

Kieran was concerned about the details though.

"A bodyguard? What about my reputation?"

Kieran sat on the single bed and opened up his character stats window.

[Reputation: 10]

No doubt this dungeon had been affected by his accumulated reputation.

"Is this a better way to blend in inside the dungeon?"

Kieran took another glance at the hiring information. Obviously, without his reputation, he would have needed to compete with many other natives in order to get the job.

If he didn’t get it, he wouldn’t necessarily fail the Main Mission though.

Kieran’s Main Mission this time was to explore at least 20% of Isogu City in 4 weeks. It did not specify who Kieran had to be with during the exploration. He could even go alone if he wanted.

Therefore, if he didn’t get the job, it would not affect the Main Mission. It would just slow down his progress a lot.

Considering that Kieran had only been given a brief memory of his identity and no further information about the dungeon’s history, characters or geographical terrain, exploring 20% of Isogu City would be extremely hard.

Maybe the temporary language pack of the system included the ancient language of the city, but based on what Kieran had been through before, that was not likely.

Of course, this would not stop Kieran, who had already joined Herbert’s team, from exploring more of Isogu City and the dungeon itself.

However, he also had another question.

"Will Isogu City be related to [Mystical Knowledge]?"

It was a wild guess with no foundation. It was not even his intuition speaking.

It might only be a hunch, but if there was any chance for Kieran to upgrade his [Mystical Knowledge], he would not pass it up.

He picked up his backpack and went out of the room, heading downstairs.

Based on the limited information he had, he did not know whether there was a public library in the area. If Herbert was a Professor though, he had to have some books with him.

That would be enough for Kieran for the time being.

However, the number of the books exceeded his expectations.

Compared to the guest room on the second floor, the first floor was mostly occupied by Herbert’s books and a small foyer.

The foyer was only a little bigger compared to the guest room Kieran was staying in.

It could only fit about six to seven people. If there were any more than that, the guests would have to stand in the narrow corridor next to the foyer.

The corridor was not even wide enough for two people to walk through together. One would need to stand aside for the second person to cross it.

That’s what Kieran concluded after a brief look at the place.

Despite the terribly tight space, Herbert had still occupied most of the room with his books.

If there was any upside, it was that no one would ever get lost in that house.

That house was a blessing for people with a bad sense of direction.

Herbert’s study was on the other end of the corridor.

The door was not shut tight, so the conversation going on inside could be heard from afar.

As Kieran came down the stairs, he picked up the sounds with his exceptional hearing.

They only became clearer as he approached the study.

"Get out! Gangsters and robbers are not welcome here!" a slightly old voice filled with power said.

"Gangsters? Robbers? We are here for the bodyguard position! Did you not put an ad in the paper, great Professor Herbert?" a younger voice full of mockery asked back.

"Yes, I did, but I am recruiting bodyguards! Real bodyguards! Not some blackmailing, robbing, crime-committing scumbags! Now get out before I call the police!"

The older voice turned out to belong to Professor Herbert. He was warning the other person, but his warning did not seem to have any effect. In fact, a delighted laugh was heard from the other man.

"The police? Your place is quite far from the police station! How many of your bones do you think I could break by the time the police gets here?" the man said in a threatening tone.

"Even if you broke all my bones, I still wouldn’t hire you people!"

Herbert did not back off. He faced the men heads-on.

"So you don’t even care about the archeological exploration of Isogu City anymore? We’re talking about gold here!"

After threatening him, the man tried to tempt him.

"The exploration is not about gold! And that’s not a reason for me to cooperate with scum like you! No matter how many bones you break, I won’t give you a cent!"

No threat or temptation could break Professor Herbert.

He instantly made a good impression on Kieran.

Kieran was worried that those scumbags would get agitated and cause unwanted harm to Professor Herbert and affect his Main Mission progress, so he quickly stepped in.

He raised his hand and knocked on the slightly open door twice.

Then he pushed the door open.