The Devil's Cage

Folly’s eyes were filled with disbelief when he saw Kieran was almost unscathed.

"How...How did..."

Folly stuttered hard, trying to spill his thoughts, but he was instantly drowned by Kieran’s relentless fists and kicks.

"YOU F*CKER! DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY THINGS YOU DESTROYED!?"

Kieran was shouting in rage while he continued pummeling Folly with everything he had.

A never-before-seen rage appeared on Kieran; even an volcano eruption couldn’t appropriately describe his rage; it was more like an apocalyptic rage.

Why was Kieran so infuriated?

The blast and flames from Folly a moment ago were not much of a problem to Kieran who had [Body of Evil] and [Secondary Elemental Damage Resist].

Especially, [Body of Evil] had extra defense against fire and explosion damages.

However, the backpack behind Kieran did not!

It was just a slightly sturdy and durable backpack. Once it came into contact with fire, it was turned to ash right away.

The equipment that Kieran kept in his backpack that were toasted in the blast included the Common weapons [Infantry Spear] and [Hunter Bow], the firearms, [Python-W2], [Jagdtiger-X1] ,all sorts of bullets and grenades, plus the couple of low tier Magic rank items that he had gotten on the way there. Everything was in Destroyed state.

Other than [Hidden Wrist Bow], [Buckle Stinger] and [Bug Pipe] which were the higher tier Magic rank item; still, they were all in the Damaged state.

Only [Fantos Manuscript], [Death Crystal Staff] and that unknown Magic rank skill book survived the blast.

At the same time, the equipments that Kieran wore had no extra defense as well! Although most of them were Rare rank items, their defense was not that high. [Crow’s Black Feather] once again returned to its Damaged state. On the contrary, [Armor of Excellence] was just a Magic rank item, but its Powerful defense saved it from being damaged.

The only fortunate thing was the various types of potions in [Safety Potion Pack] and some other smaller Magic rank ETC items were with him all the time. Otherwise, he couldn’t even cry properly after the blast.

Still, the loss of the mentioned items made Kieran feel an unparalleled ache in his heart.

How would a scrooge react if the hard-earned money over a year was lost in a night?

He would be heart stricken to the core.

If there was someone who caused Kieran to suffer such a loss?

He would definitely slice the person responsible to a million pieces; his heart thought the same way, so he did it in an even fiercer way.

The devilish aura was mixed into his rage, causing him to discard every other emotion for a while.

"Damn it! I am affected again!"

Kieran immediately discovered the devilish and unusual feeling from [Creature of Desire], though when the aura was noticed, it disappeared right away.

However, when Kieran saw what he did under the influence of rage, he took in a cold breath.

Although it was just a moment when he was blinded by rage, Folly had been beaten to nothing but a pile of meat paste. Even the marble flooring on the ground had sunk a couple centimeters deep.

Kieran’s fists were bloody, but he couldn’t feel any pain. He knew it was unusual, but he couldn’t help it. Unless he could remove the heart in his chest, he could only remind himself from time to time to be careful and not to be tempted into a flesh puppet.

"Spirit attribute!"

Kieran suddenly recalled the only way to solve the problem before his eyes, but he sighed helplessly once more.

Whether using Golden Attributes Points or relying on skills to enhance his stats, it was not something accomplishable within a short period of time.

"I need to be careful of my emotional changes within this time!"

Kieran warned himself once more, then he turned his attention to the meat paste.

The gruesome body on the ground had a slight golden glow above it.

A skill book, to be precise; the golden glow around it was extremely eye catching.

Kieran quickly picked up the Legendary skill book.

[Discovered skill book: Sword Skill, Myriad Viper]

[Prerequisite met, learn skill?]

"Learn!"

Although Kieran knew how much this skill book would cost, he knew even more the importance of enhancing his strength, hence the affirmative answer.

[Skill Learned: Sword Skill, Myriad Viper]

[Name: Sword Skill, Myriad Viper (Basic)]

[Related Attributes: Spirit]

[Skill Type Offense]

[Effect: Utilize your aura to pressurize your opponents in a 3 meters diameter, target will be forced to undergo a Spirit authentication. When target’s Spirit is lower than yours, target will fall into the illusion of ten thousand snakes, allowing you to exert your will freely. Consumes 200 Stamina, 5 minutes cooldown]

[Consume: Stamina]

[Prerequisite: Spirit B]

[Remark: Although it is categorized as a Sword Skill, but in fact, it actually is an illusory attack, no weapon limitations]

...

The warm stream flowed into his brain, transferring myriad knowledge, removing his thoughts from the heart-stricken condition for a while.

After a whole ten plus seconds, Kieran woke up from his daze.

"Spirit related attribute!?"

Kieran opened his eyes, and before he could be astonished by the unusually strange way of attacking of [Sword Skill, Myriad Viper], his attention was caught by the related attribute.

It was the first contact with a Spirit-related skill.

"Maybe only the Legendary rank skills could have Spirit related attributes?" Kieran wondered.

Although he didn’t have solid proof, but he was 60% sure about it.

Since Strength, Agility, Constitution and Intuition had related skills, there was no way Spirit didn’t have the related skills as well.

The only explanation was that the previous skills were too low in tiers.

"If this is the case, the value of the Chosen One..."

Kieran had to reevaluate his understanding towards the term that he thought was just a playful address of someone.

The battle with the killer players allowed him to understand the value of the Chosen One, and now the guess about only Legendary skills being Spirit related boosted the value of the Chosen One more than just one level.

"No wonder the Chosen One became the one everyone was fighting over to recruit... One is valued when it’s rare!" Kieran exclaimed in his heart once more; then he suddenly clenched his fist hard.

"[Sword Skill, Myriad Viper] is a Legendary skill. It might very well require Golden Skill Points from Basic to Entry onwards, but it won’t be a lot; maybe even normal Skill Points could be used to enhance Spirit attribute..."

Kieran was quite excited when the thought came into his mind.

According to the plan that he had in mind, he might be able to ditch the backlash of [Fusion Heart] sooner rather than later.

Though, it was not time for him to worry about that. He knew deeply that he was still within the dungeon world. He made use of his time and looked at the skill book in his burnt backpack that survived the blast.

"Protection of the system rule?"

Kieran opened the skill book when such a wonder in his head.

[Discovered skill book: Spear Skill, Dash Lunge]

[Prerequisite met, learn skill?]

"Spear Skill? A polearm weapon advance skill?"

Kieran had more guesses in his heart, but none could stop him from learning.

After whispering it in his heart, the words started to pile up in his vision.

[Skill learned: Spear Skill, Dash Lunge]

[Name: Spear Skill, Dash Lunge (Basic)]

[Related Attributes: Strength, Agility, Constitution]

[Skill Type: Offense]

[Effect: When using a spear/lance, perform a forward lunge with the same Strength and Speed, Strength +10%, Speed +10%, consume 100 Stamina, 5 minutes cooldown]

[Consume: Stamina]

[Prerequisite: Sharp Weapon, Polearm Weapon (Master), Strength F+, Agility F+, Constitution F+]

[Remark: Share the same Strength and Speed, but not having both offense and defense!]

...

The synchronization process happened once more, and after the process was done, Kieran unconsciously wanted to test it out by wielding his spear, but when he moved his hand, he recalled that [Infantry Lance] was destroyed among all the other items during that blast.

Kieran’s mood fell to rock bottom again.

Even though he had a Spirit related Legendary skill, one could not hope it would cancel out the sufferings of a scrooge.

Kieran clenched his teeth in heartache, collecting back the items that were tagged with Damaged, Trash by the system and tied them up with the [Deceiver’s Key] on his back, then headed towards the inner palace.

It was not that Kieran understood the palace structure and knew where he should go, but a hard continuous ramming noise could be heard from afar; it was too easy for him to recognize.

"Hope it’s enough to compensate for my loss!"

Kieran had the thought in his mind; and he unconsciously fueled it into his legs, moving even faster.

Meanwhile, outside the royal bedroom, Jeanne ordered her men to hasten the process.

Her allies did not have too much patience about this; if she couldn’t get control of the whole kingdom within the short period of time given, the results would be devastating to bear.

Though, Jeanne James had the utmost confidence to do so.

At least, she thought she could perfectly deal with the incident.

After all, who could reject her?

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

The bread and butter skill for Kieran in the future.