The Devil's Cage

The egg was greyish white in color, shaking from time to time. In the center of the egg, a dim red glow was radiating.

Kieran who had pulled an all-nighter in reading had his brain swell up but his tired face was delighted when he saw that red glow.

He knew he had succeeded.

Kieran still couldn’t understand what the loot from yesterday was after a whole night. Though, other than the Jar of Sealing Fiends and the mysterious box with talisman charms wrapped around it, the rest was made clear to him.

One of them was a higher tier Magic rank equipment.

A bronze forged ring embedded with a special feather on top.

[Name: Float Ring]

[Type: Accessory]

[Rarity: Magic]

[Attack/ Defense: None]

[Attributes: Allows the wearer to float in the air for 5 minutes, able to walk on thin air as well, 1/day]

[Effect: None]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: You need to calculate your burden and sometimes include your own weight as well]

...

A Magic rank item that could be useful at specific times.

It was what Kieran commented but it also meant that it was useless most of the time.

Kieran put the ring into [Crimson Ghost Stomach] and all that remained was the Pawn Fire Raven Egg.

[Name: Pawn Fire Raven Egg]

[Type: Egg]

[Rarity: Magic]

[Attack/Defense: None]

[Attributes: None]

[Effect: None]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: You will need a special method to hatch it, transforming it into something that can aid you!]

...

There were many players in the game who chose some fierce vicious beast as their companion, especially for the lone wolf players. A reliable animal companion was a definite choice in the long run.

Kieran too thought before of finding a strong and reliable animal to move his items but once he thought of the cost to rear one and that it might even drag him down during battles, he smartly gave up the choice.

Though the Pawn Fire Raven was different, Kieran saw it with his own eyes what those birds were capable of.

The birds might have average battle capabilities but when used for scouting or delivering messages, it would work decently. More importantly was the simple rearing method!

The books that he had gotten from the room under the well were about how to rear a Pawn Fire Raven, from hatching its egg to growing it into a mature stage and even how to train it.

It was a complete routine written down. Last but not least, at the end of the books, it stated that Pawn Fire Raven had the abilities to be infused with flames to increase their burning intensity and also share a link with their master.

Kieran immediately chose to hatch the egg.

Surprisingly, the hatching process was not hard at all, all it needed was a few drops of fresh blood.

The raven would also feed on meat, best be the meat of fiends.

Kieran had no worry for that either, after killing Crimson Ghost and Rudd, the loot was all exchanged into fiend meat and should be sufficient for feeding the raven at the current stage.

Kieran was anticipating the Pawn Fire Raven to hatch and grow quickly into a mature stage because he needed a helper!

As his dungeon entry number increased, so did the difficulty. Kieran didn’t think it was a big deal at first but recently, he felt that his strength was starting to become lackluster.

Since he had an excellent advantage from the beginning, it provided him with decent and maybe exponential growth, yet as a lone wolf player, his disadvantages were getting clearer.

Each time he entered a new dungeon, he felt like he was blind.

All he could do was rely on the simple background description and the interaction from the natives to judge what was going on. It wasn’t totally useless though, just less effective.

His efforts were incomparable to those team players which had multiple jobs to compensate for each other’s shortcomings.

However, Kieran would never join a team because he knew perfectly the pros and cons of a team effort.

So, he was left with was a single option, boosting his strength in an all rounded way, as much as possible.

He would need to raise his strength to be able to compete with a whole team!

From other player’s perspective, it seemed impossible, but for Kieran who gained all the advantages throughout the dungeons, impossible had become possible, at least it was already a solid fact that he was strong.

He was all rounded, but unable to excel in all aspects, yet he still surpassed the other players in melee, range, hand-to-hand, secret spells and even special abilities.

The only thing he was missing now was the quick understanding of new dungeon worlds.

After all, Kieran didn’t know how to split himself up, two was always better than one.

As for his skill [Touch of Cardinal Sins]?

That skill might seem like it could allow him to create multiple avatars of himself but once he did, it was not probing for information of the dungeon worlds but causing a huge massacre.

Therefore, a sentry or scout helper became important to his arsenal.

If he had a scout that could grasp the information at hand in a quicker way, even if it was just a general understanding, it would be enough for Kieran to gain the upper hand and not stay on the passive side like he was now.

In fact, Kieran knew it clearly. If it wasn’t for his habits, trying to excavate more sub-missions as he went, he might be cheated or scammed by the system in this current dungeon world.

His original main mission was...

[Solve at least one special case in Saint Brilliant High School in 1 week]

Yet how did it turn out?

The mastermind behind struck him on the second day and dragged down the whole high school with him.

If he was fortunate enough, he might be able to solve one or two more fiend cases to finish his main mission but a high possibility was failing the main mission itself.

He was fortunate this time but what about the next?

Would he still be able to rely solely on luck?

Kieran was not surprised by the system’s cunning but he preferred to be prepared for the storms to come.

Therefore, he became more excited for the Pawn Fire Raven egg to hatch.

Though according to the books, Pawn Fire Raven was an avian fiend with exponential growth yet its hatching process was less simple. It would require three drops of blood every day and last for a full seven days.

A week wasn’t short nor long, Kieran could afford to wait.

He drew out [Arrogant Word] and placed his index finger on the sharp tip. A small cut appeared on his finger and he pressed it against his thumb, droplets of blood started to fall onto the egg.

The blood was absorbed into the egg quickly, radiating the red glow, even more, it was like a dim candle to a low powered light bulb.

Kieran checked on the egg and found nothing unusual after, he then buried himself into the pile of books again.

The books were all the collections of the Funeral Society, recording the underworld of the current dungeon world.

Even though it was just a branch office, the information there was extremely important to Kieran since he was almost blind about the lore and legends behind the world.

It was also one of the reasons that Kieran chose to work with Lee with his character.

Other than Lee, Kieran had no idea where else to find books about the dungeon world.

Kieran was extremely careful in choosing the books judging from Lee’s character.

Kieran claimed that he noticed something unusual back in the well and wanted to study more to investigate, using that as a reason he grabbed all of Lee’s book collections.

While he was going through the books, Kieran only skimmed through the main points and made connections in his mind, that was why there wasn’t any space for the inspector to place his feet when he came in.

Kieran wasn’t really fond of such reading methods, he would prefer finishing one book before jumping to another. It was his habit that he gained at Nikorei’s place, reading one book after another but he understood time wasn’t a luxury granted to him right now.

After he had a general understanding of the value of the million dollar bounty on his head, Kieran knew the time presented to him was limited.

Wealth could strike a chord in a man’s heart. If he wished not to lead himself into such encirclement by those bounty hunters, the best option would be to solve the problem at hand.

Before that, he had other things to settle first.

Kieran took in a deep breath and took out the [Jar of Sealing Fiends].

He still had no idea what was in the box but the [Jar of Sealing Fiends] was different.

He had a general idea of the jar’s origin and after reading through the books, he had an idea on how to open it.

After chanting the incantations softly, the talisman charms on the jar started to fall off

The next moment...

BANG!

The cork flew out!