The Devil's Cage

As the blinding light dissipated, a foul stench assaulted Kieran’s nose mercilessly.

Pain rose from his chest suddenly as he furrowed his brow harder.

Kieran tilted his head downwards and saw that his chest was filled with intertwining lash-like wounds. Blood was oozing out. He didn’t even have to look at his back to know that it was in the same state.

Blood was smeared all over his body, and his flesh was hurting more and more by the second.

[You have been whipped and tortured, Your HP has decreased to 220!]

[Moderately Wounded Status...]

"So this is the punishment the system was talking about?" Kieran said under his breath.

When he’d read the background description of the dungeon, he had already had a terrible feeling.

However, the situation before him had exceeded even his wildest imagination.

If he, as an accomplice, was being tortured and whipped, then what was happening to Lawless and Hanses?

As the most experienced player, Lawless would definitely have it the worst. According to Special Dungeon rules, dungeon entry difficulty would determine the Main Mission.

Hanses had been the mastermind behind the theft, so he would also get a thorough treatment.

Kieran instinctively popped in at the team chat and tried to send a message out.

[Special environment, Communication is restricted!]

"Damn it!" Kieran sighed helplessly.

The three of them had already anticipated that their communication would be cut off.

Fortunately, they had been prepared for it.

Even though the situation before them was not ideal, it was still within their expectations.

Kieran started to check his surroundings.

His cell was no bigger than three square feet, and the wet dark box was filled with a foul stench.

It had been built with hard rock, and any corners and nooks were all covered with a thick layer of moss.

The cell door was a huge wooden door, and on top of it there were raw iron bars and a bolt. Even though all the metal parts were rusty, the whole structure still looked as formidable as ever.

At the bottom edge of the door there was a little window that was shut tight. It made Kieran think of the prison cells in Alcatraz.

No matter the time, place or universe, there were things that would always share similar traits. Kieran pondered this silently before he raised his hand and knocked on the cell door.

The heavy noise proved that it was even more formidable that it looked. He was not concerned about it though.

His main concern were the chained cuffs on his hands and feet and the giant steel ball at the end of the chains.

The steel was completely solid. Kieran tried to lift the ball, but it had to weigh at least 50 kilos.

"Ordinary men would not even be able to shake this steel ball, let alone break out of this prison," Kieran thought.

Despite his extraordinary strength, the steel ball would still weigh him down and cause him unwanted trouble if he tried to break out.

That ball was the first obstacle that he needed to overcome.

He looked carefully at the steel cuffs on his limbs.

Then he opened his mouth and put his fingers in, reaching for the strand of hair inside the slit at the back of his teeth. It was the [Deceiver’s Key].

The dungeon description might have stated that all his items were running a risk of being confiscated and he had to choose his equipment carefully, but that was just a warning.

The truth was that no items would get confiscated if they were hidden well from his enemies.

The [Deceiver’s Key], for example, was extremely easy to hide. It was like a hair-like wire on his body.

To make his plan foolproof though, Kieran had tried his best to hide it. He had tied it on the end of a strand on his tooth and swallowed the rest.

With his tongue blocking it, no one would ever discover the strand unless Kieran’s mouth was forced wide open and someone shone a flashlight in it.

If Kieran still had access to his key though, Morko Principality Prison must have never performed a thorough search.

Kieran tagged at one end of the strand and pulled the rest out slowly from the inside of his stomach.

It was horrible. When the strand touched his uvula, his gag reflex made his stomach twitch sourly.

As Kieran dragged the [Deceiver’s Key] completely out, his saliva ran all over the floor and he vomited helplessly.

He unconsciously bent down as his stomach turned upside down, the motion affecting the wounds on his chest and back.

The burning sensation caused Kieran to clench his teeth hard as he choked on his vomit.

He quickly forced himself to calm down when he heard footsteps coming towards his cell.

"Prison guards!" Kieran guessed who the footsteps belonged to.

He paid attention to the sound as the footsteps walked from left to right at a moderate pace.

After around two minutes, they finally got weaker and the sound eventually faded away.

Five minutes later though, the footsteps returned from the right side. When they reached Kieran’s cell door, they stopped.

The small window on the door was opened halfway, and half the face of a prison guard was visible through the tiny space.

Thanks to the torch in the prison guard’s hand, Kieran could see the man’s filthy, ruthless face and the disdain in his eyes.

"You dare steal the treasure in the Grand Duke’s vault? Do you have a death wish? Relax, I will take really good care of you during your stay. Oh yes, and both your friends as well! It’s the warden’s orders!" The prison guard dragged his finger across his neck as he talked.

Before Kieran could utter a word, the small window was closed again.

He was not even bothered by the guard’s threats. His mind was filled with thoughts about the prison guard’s footsteps and what they meant.

"Judging by the window’s height, the guard has to be at least 175 cm tall, and every step he took must have been around 70 mm wide. It took him around two minutes to walk from left to right, and after around 100 steps, he headed down. It took him about five minutes before he came back. If I add the time he used to climb down the stairs... Then the prison has to be a two-storey building, and every floor has to be around 7 meters tall. Judging by the cell’s width and the security concerns, plus the thickness of the walls, if this is a one-side cell area, there have to be around 15 to 18 cells on this side!"

"Although this is a principality, the population must be around 100,000, so the prison cannot be this small. This place has to be the Grand Duke’s private confinement facility. It can’t be outside the castle, so it must be underground! That explains the cold and the humidity!"

Kieran’s lightning speed calculations were all thanks to the information he got from his [Tracking].

While the gears in his mind kept spinning, his hands did not stop working with the [Deceiver’s Key].

One end of the key was already inside the lock, and Kieran was fingerpicking inside it.

The metal cuffs on his limbs were all easily opened, but suddenly footsteps were heard from outside again.

They sounded messy and they belonged to more than one person. It was definitely not the prison guard from earlier.

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

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