The Devil's Cage

"Rachel?"

Kieran was surprised that the female owner of Harvest Inn appeared at his door.

Based on how nervous Lawless was in his message, both of them in the real world must have gotten into some big trouble; Rachel shouldn’t be able to be here!

Though, the Rachel before Kieran was not a fake. The feeling that scared Kieran’s heart was definitely not from some random Jane Doe.

"You are really that bastard’s friend, the way you do things are just as disgusting as him!"

Rachel said, giving out a cold grunt.

"It’s a debt of gratitude that I owe him, if I don’t repay the favour, I can’t sleep well."

Kieran said with a light laugh.

"Don’t tell me you wanted to add, "as long as I did my best, I have no regrets" or something similar?" Rachel was a little upset when he said that.

Kieran touched the tip of his nose and gave a silly smirk, his answers were self-explanatory.

"That bastard Lawless didn’t want to tell you all this is because he didn’t want to drag you into this mess. Something is far worse than your imagination. But he never would have thought you would help him this way. Though, now with Starbeck family’s influence, this matter is over for now. But don’t forget to never let anyone know your true identity in the real world, otherwise, it will be the beginning of troubles! Those bastards hold quite the grudge."

Rachel was still grunting angrily at first but as she spoke, her tone gotten weaker and eventually turned into a reminder, a reminder mixed with intense feelings.

Although Kieran couldn’t see Rachel’s real face, he could slightly feel the complications behind the system blur.

"Um!" Kieran nodded. He got the kindness that was hidden under all the complicated emotions and Kieran was not someone who didn’t know to appreciate the good and the bad.

"Take care of yourself ok? You have Broker and Extremus on your tail, especially that Extremus bastard, if what we investigated is correct, that guy might be the scariest!"

Rachel then walked past Kieran after she talked.

The feathers on [Crow’s Black Feather] grazed her shoulder. Rachel stopped.

She looked at Kieran from the side, with emotions that she didn’t even know to describe.

The pause was less than a second before she walked away, after that her voice echoed in Kieran’s ears.

"Your mantle is hideous. Change it if you have a spare."

As Rachel’s voice subsided, her figure went off.

Kieran stared at the spot where Rachel disappeared, he raised his hand and lightly caressed the black feathers on his shoulders, remaining quiet.

He knew why Rachel would tell him that. Lawless once mentioned a couple of names before, and one of it left an impression in Kieran’s mind.

"Crow! Is he part of her old memories?"

Kieran sighed. He moved his hand and turned around, returning to his room.

He was sure such memories were everything but pleasant, even Lawless didn’t elaborate in detail but Rachel’s tone said it all.

Though, before finding a replacement for [Crow’s Black Feather], Kieran has no intentions of taking it down, even though its defense was less than ideal.

The old saying still stood strong for Kieran: it was better than nothing.

Kieran walked into his old broken garage. He let out a long breath.

It was only when he was in his garage that he could really relax completely. At that particular moment, his anxious nerves were eased up thoroughly.

Broker was a cunning bastard, in order to achieve his means, he will use any means necessary. Kieran’s vigilance was never enough against him.

As for that Extremus figure, even without Rachel’s warning, Kieran dared not underestimate him either.

Setting aside his identity in the real world, the sole fact that he could create a faction that deviated from the common players in such a short time was outstanding itself.

If that was not enough for Kieran, the fact that Extremus had agreed to collaborate with Broker proved how hard his future path will be. The combined efforts will be terrifying enough.

Although Kieran didn’t have much interaction with Broker, he knew in his gut how a person like Broker would do things and the habits he had. If Extremus didn’t have enough value for his attention, Broker would never put so much effort into luring him out in the first place.

Even more so when the Witch’s Legacy was in the equation.

The reason for his actions were simple, if it was possible, why wouldn’t Broker take all the legacy for himself? Because he couldn’t!

A single or multiple key factors forced Broker to borrow Extremus’s strength to achieve his goal.

"What is it for then?" Kieran wondered.

The lack of information however didn’t allow him to form any more speculations.

Though, one thing was certain, he wouldn’t let Broker live an easy life!

Otherwise, Broker’s previous hefty efforts on Kieran would really be a waste!

To make Broker’s life miserable, all Kieran need was more strength.

Kieran sat on the floor where he stood and opened up his character window.

[Points: 33,000; Skill Points: 21; Golden Skill Points: 0; Golden Attribute Points: 0]

The spoils of war was much less than what he had expected.

Kieran’s initial expectation was, if he could get rid of Black Hell Banning, his strength would skyrocket once again, at least similar to a special dungeon rewards.

However, given how weak and cheap Banning was, it had already fell far behind Kieran’s lowest expectation of him. As far as the points were concerned, if it wasn’t for Hughes who appeared after Banning, Kieran would really suffer a substantial loss.

As for the only equipment, [Reverse Scar]?

The attribute [Drain] has destined it to not be Kieran’s common hand, even without [Drain], the long casting time of [Whisper of Evil] wasn’t practical even if it had a wide attacking range.

The enemies will not spare such luxuries during battle. What Kieran saw in the cross was the [Blood Cerements] attribute.

A Powerful rank defense, similar to [Primus Scale] to begin with, though the 30-second duration and extra cost of 30,000 Points to acquire a +1 in defense level were concerning.

It would be an Extreme rank of defense if Kieran was willing to spend the points and despite the huge cost, it will be sufficient for Kieran to achieve a lot during that period.

After much thought about things, Kieran selected [Viper Kick] as his next leveling skill.

Although the charging attack from [Sword Skill, Dragon Force] was decent, it will be quite impractical during actual battle, even more so during a melee fight. A 4.5 seconds charging time would equal to gambling with his life.

It was a gamble as to whether Kieran’s enemies be idiots and not attack him for 4.5 seconds, but regardless of how he controlled the scene, he would lose his life.

Although through leveling the skills higher, the charging time would be shorten by a lot but only a single level up was far from decent. Comparing a skill that couldn’t be put to practical use with only one level up, why not choose the other skill that could display practical effects with just one increase in level.

[Viper Kick, Master to Pro, cost 12,000 Points, 24 Skill Points. Yes/No?]

"Yes!"

After asking Coll to trade Skill Points for Points, Kieran went on with [Viper Kick]’s leveling.

[Name: Viper Kick (Basic)]

[Related Attributes: Strength, Agility, Constitution]

[Skill Type: Offense]

[Effect: Your leg muscles and joints could be slightly altered, slightly increasing the attack range or your kicks.]

[Special Effect: Viper Hiss (Whenever you launch a kick, your muscles will produce snake hissing sounds, targets who gotten struck will force to go through a Spirit authentication not lower than E-, Fear will be induced when failed)]

[Consume: Stamina]

[Prerequisite: Hand-to-Hand Combat, Kick Combat (Master), Strength D, Agility D, Constitution D]

[Remark: A set of kicking techniques that is infamous for its bewitching movements, catching your target off guards!]

...

Sss Sss Sss!

The warm stream was circulating through Kieran’s legs. After experiencing it for a couple of minutes, Kieran fired out his left leg and his kick left afterimages in its wake, forming a series of kick mirages. The mirages shrouded the space before him in an instant.

Promptly, snake hisses filled the old garage.

If one would close their eyes and only listen to the hissing, they would think they were surrounded by dens of snakes.

The truth was, the afterimages were the combination of [Viper Kick] and [Hundred Violent Kick], yet the combination was not as successful, similar to [Charles’s Fire].

Kieran then spent the following week practicing his kicks but the progress was minimal.

"I still don’t have enough time!" Kieran looked at his single dungeon cooldown that had been reset.

After receiving the 25,000 Points from Coll which Kieran entrusted him to sell off the previous Magic rank equipment that he got from the last special dungeon, he contacted Blacksmith about the [Ghastly Sapphire].

Blacksmith reply told him that she would need more time to appraise it.

Kieran then went on to prepare his equipment, inspect his items and double check everything.

After everything was taken care off, he chose to enter the trials of the Holy Knight.