The Devil's Cage

[Entering Single Player dungeon...]

[Difficulty: 5th dungeon]

[Background: The imperial envoy that carried the king’s secret order went missing on the way to Swusters Castle. The owner of Swusters Castle has sent you a help request...]

[Main Mission: Locate the missing imperial envoy within 7 days, 0/7]

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

[Clothing, backpack, weapons, and other items remain unchanged, Temporarily altered appearance, Returns to normal upon exiting the dungeon]

[Detected firearms and grenade, did not match the dungeon period, power decrease 90%. When you enter the dungeon, you will be compensated with corresponding skills. (Compensated skills cannot not be leveled up and will disappear upon exiting the dungeon]

[Hint: This is your fifth official dungeon. You can fail the Main Mission, but you will have to pay 500 Points as a penalty and your highest attributes will drop by 2 level. If your points are insufficient, the system will deduct from your equipment. If your equipment is insufficient, you will fail.]

...

As the words popped up line by line, Kieran frowned harder and harder.

He glanced over "equipments did not match the dungeon period and acquired compensated skills" and stopped at "highest attributes will drop by 2 level".

"Following the increase of dungeon entries, not only the difficulties, but the penalties increase as well?"

Kieran muttered and his brows were scrunched together.

Kieran was clear that with his attributes going higher and higher, the highest attributes decreasing by 1 and 2 would seems like a petty 1 point, but the cost to level the attributes had a heaven and earth difference because it was not only related to Points consumption but Golden Skill Points as well.

"I can’t afford to fail as I progress?"

Kieran sighed since he understood the stakes and interest in the term. He turned his attention to the compensations after, and just like Lawless had said, the compensations were fair.

[Firearm Weapon, Light Firearm (Transcendence)]

[Firearm Weapon, Explosive (Musou)]

Those were the skills that didn’t match the dungeon period and were available for a switch with skills that matched the time period for the same level, Transcendence and Musou.

Inside the provided skill lists, there were the common [Sharp Weapon, Sword], [Sharp Weapon, Knife] to [Sharp Weapon, Special Arms] and [Sharp Weapon, Unusual Arms], [Master Shield].

The skills were limited to basic skills and didn’t exceed the limited range.

If Kieran longed for a mystical skill?

He would have to throw the thought away; the system was always fair.

"I choose [Master Shield (Transcendence)] and [Cooking (Musou)]!"

Kieran made a quick decision after looking through all the skills and their descriptions.

For weapon skills, after having Transcendence level of [Sharp Weapon, Heavy Arms], Kieran had no further intentions of overlapping the same type of skills. The skills with [Sharp Weapon] prefix were discarded.

After narrowing his choice, the provided skills were still a little over half. Within the remaining skills, other than [Master Shield], there were some swimming and climbing skills.

Compared to swimming and climbing, Kieran would naturally lean towards [Cooking] more.

[Name: Master Shield (Transcendence)]

[Related Attributes: Strength, Constitution]

[Skill Type: Defense]

[Effect: You know how to use every shield there is, increase 80% defense]

[Special Effect: Shielder (When you are defending with a shield, Strength, Constitution +4)]

[Extra Guard (Not only can your shield defend against swords, but also against arrows even fire, poison and ice attacks. When you are guarding the corresponding attack, +1 in authentication)]

[Consume: Stamina]

[Prerequisite: Strength E+. Agility E+, Constitution E+]

[Remark: A good shield will make you stand firm and never fall]

...

[Name: Cooking (Musou)]

[Related Attributes: None]

[Skill Type: Ancillary]

[Effect: You are familiar with most of the dishes ever invented, and could cook them with a skilled hand]

[Special Effect: Taste (Your cooking will be more aromatic and tempt people’s appetite)]

[Consume: Stamina]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Remark: Your cooking allows you to make a stance in any restaurant!]

...

The similar knowledge transfer and synchronization occurred.

The process was no different from learning a real skill, except for the fact that the skill would disappear when Kieran left the dungeon.

After Kieran made his choice, the words before him started to fade off.

Blinding light and loss of gravity happened again.

When everything returned to normal, Kieran was standing outside the wooden fence of a town.

The two guards at the entrance were staring at him with vigilance.

The outpost tower not far away from the entrance had a guard with a bow pulled out and arrow in his hand. Although the outpost guard was not really prepared to fire the arrow and not even aiming at Kieran, it seemed like Kieran was not welcome there.

"Hey guys, I mean you no harm! I was invited by the owner of Swusters Castle to be here..."

Kieran, who was out of the newbie range, handled the situation before him in an organic way. Though, unexpectedly, after his words, the guards didn’t let their guard down but instead heightened their vigilance.

The outpost guard loaded his arrow on the bow string.

"Scram! You are the companion of the witch! We don’t welcome you here!"

The two guards drew their sword out and tried to expel Kieran.

A witch? Wasn’t the owner the lord of land?

The information that the guards revealed shocked Kieran slightly.

Though, before Keiran could probe out more information, the two guards were forcing Kieran to leave with their swords. The guards’ solemn attitude made Kieran believe that if he continued to linger around, the two guards would really stab him with their swords.

Although, even if the guards increased their numbers 10 times more, it was not much of a difference to Kieran. But he decided it was a wiser choice to back down because he noticed that he was tricked and blinded by the word trap.

Inside the background description of the dungeon, there were mentions of "king’s order" and "imperial envoy". Plus the previous dungeon experiences always place him directly facing the mission giver or the mission range. It unconsciously made him think that the place that he first laid eyes on was Swusters Castle.

Quite the opposite, the place that Kieran landed was not Swuster Castle at all, and the owner of Swusters Castle was not the lord of the land, but a witch.

"After officially leaving the newbie period, the system’s aid in the dungeon world was further decreased?" Kieran thought to himself.

He had expected this awhile ago.

According to the system, the increased dungeon entries will result in higher difficulties. The system would not be a nanny forever, arranging a logical identity for the player and allowing the player to progress in the easiest way.

After a certain dungeon entry number, the safety procedures would be removed. It was just that Kieran didn’t think it would be this early on.

"I have to be careful of what I say now!" Kieran warned himself.

The current dungeon was only the fifth dungeon, and before him was just a normal town, with loose defense and hatred towards the witch. If it was a sixth of seventh dungeon, should he have been this reckless anymore, it wouldn’t end with him backing off and leaving.

Kieran understood the term, execution by burning.

After backing away from the town’s guards’ sight, Kieran pondered over the background description of the dungeon.

"A king would send an envoy to carry a secret order to a witch?"

It was quite unbelievable from how Kieran viewed it but before he could think further, he was interrupted by the sound of rapid gallops from afar.

A team of five fully armed men galloped out of the town.

"Search for the witch’s companion fast!"

The leader of the riders shouted and clearly delivered the message into Kieran’s ears.