The Devil's Cage

[Special Dungeon: The Queen’s Shield II]

[Dungeon Type: Free mission]

[Dungeon Difficulty: Average]

[Main Mission: Protect the capital of Warren, Riverdale, from falling]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating F)]

[Sub Mission 1: Traitors In The City]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating F → E)]

[Sub Mission 2: Mary’s Secret]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating E → D)]

[Sub Mission 3: Rescue Rover]

[Mission Completion: 100% (Rating D → C)]

[Special Event: Battle Of The Sons (Perfect Clear)]

[Perfect Clear Rating: C → S]

[Battle Performance: Very Active (Rating S → SS)]

[Exploration Performance: Average]

[Special Rating 1: Eliminated Witch Doctor Hector (Rating SS → Z, Rep +1)]

[Special Rating 2: Eliminated Lapierre (Rating Z → ZZ, Rep +1)]

[Special Rating 3: Eliminated Son of Wolf (Rating ZZ → VVV, Rep +5)]

[Player Final Rating: VVV!]

[Calculating player final special dungeon reward...]

[Final player special dungeon reward below...]

[Points: 250,000; Skill Points: 55; Golden Skill Points: 7; Golden Attribute Points: 7]

[Acquired special dungeon: The Queen’s Shield III]

[Acquired special reward 1: Practice puppet]

[Acquired special reward 2: Lineage table of Warren Royalty]

[Acquired special reward 3: Riverdale underground sewer map]

[Acquired special reward 4: Broken war machine blueprint]

...

After saying his goodbyes with Mary, the familiar loss of gravity appeared once more.

When he saw the triple V clear rating, his already smiling face grinned wider.

Despite the special rewards being all trash, it didn’t stop his ever brightening smile.

Even more so when he poured out his spoils of war from [Crimson Ghost Stomach], he could laugh out loud.

A total of 50 low tier Magic rank items.

Kieran went over and categorized them carefully. Even though most of them were just single enchantment items with Nimble lvl 1 or Armor Penetration lvl 1, he still found a few suitable ones for himself.

[Name: Cunning Dagger]

[Type: Weapon]

[Rarity: Magic]

[Attribute: 1. Armor Penetration Lvl 1, 2. Hiding Lvl 1]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: It’s very versatile among robbers and assassins!]

...

[Armor Penetration Lvl 1: Able to pierce light armor, Weak of Average defense]

[Hiding Lvl 1: Extra 10% hiding effect during hiding or undercover]

...

[Name: Agile Knight Lance]

[Type: Weapon]

[Rarity: Magic]

[Attributes: 1. Armor Penetration lvl 1. 2. Nimble Lvl 1]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: A lance requires not only speed but technique!]

...

[Armor Penetration Lvl 1: Able to pierce light armor, Weak of Average defense]

[Nimble Lvl 1: It will not drag your movement down]

...

Two of the items could be considered as decent ones among the low tiers Magic ranks.

Together with [Rapid Snake Crossbow] that he got earlier, it would bring out the further potentials of [Sharp Weapon, Dagger], [Sharp Weapon, Polearm Weapon] and [Sharp Weapon, Bow], allowing him to handle accidents better.

After placing the other extra 4 low tier Magic ranks with the rest, Kieran contacted Lawless.

...

Lawless: ...

Lawless: U raided a dwarf’s royal vault?

...

Lawless finally replied after being quiet for a few seconds.

Although his luck was bad, he had been through enough to know that acquiring that number of Magic ranks was surely not from a human’s treasure vault.

Human’s treasure vault held mostly pieces of jewelry, books, armors, or a mix of all.

While it wouldn’t be a dragon’s vault either since dragons were only interested in shiny things.

So the only possible explanation was dwarfs, the kind of dwarfs that were big enough to form a city.

...

2567: What? No.

2567: Just being lucky.

Kieran briefly explained his dungeon run to Lawless.

Lawless: A guy that hasn’t even limit break the Character Model and killed a Divine type monster... U are one scary son of a bitch!

2567: Know anything about "I"?

Kieran tried to ask Lawless about the mysterious rank, but the answer was less than pleasant.

Lawless: "I"?

Lawless: What’s that?"

2567: So did u locate the other curse dispeller?

Kieran chose to avoid the topic because Lawless’s reply had given him an answer.

Lawless: Relax my man! I’ll find that guy soon enough!

Lawless: In fact, I’ve some clues about where to find him but that guy isn’t ur typical talkative guy. Plus the case of the previous curse dispeller, I think we should be more careful.

2567: Of course.

...

After some more chit-chat, Kieran turned off his PM tab.

He trusted Lawless but at the same time, he too knew how hard was it to dispel the curse on him.

At least judging from his Pro [Mythical Knowledge], a curse cast by an average strength person with his life or soul would at least need something with the same level of life force or soul as a cost or compensation to dispel it.

In simple words, the situation was not as bright as Lawless put it.

Even if Lawless really located the one who could dispel the curse, a cost would be inevitable and it would require a sufficient amount of Points and Skill Points or even other extra requirements.

Kieran couldn’t help but rub his swollen temple when the thought came into his mind.

"It’s really not as worthwhile as finding a solution in the dungeon world. But finding a solution in the dungeon world is not that easy either!"

Kieran had been through dozens of dungeon runs and those which had the potential to dispel a curse, other than the recently cleared [The Queen’s Shield], would be [The Shaman’s Partner].

Especially the latter, Kieran believed if Nikorei would lend her aid, everything would be easily solved but how would he explain that nothing happened to him despite being cursed?

Even if Kieran said he blocked it with something, it would still be useless.

Any lies would be easily exposed before the God of Earth’s eyes, at the same time he couldn’t tell her that she was just a native.

Or more precisely, he couldn’t bear the consequences if he let Nikorei know that she was just a native.

Aside from all of that, the next trip to [The Shaman’s Partner IV] would land him in the city of Naveya and not the West Coast City that he was familiar with.

"What are Nikorei and Tiki really up to there?" Kieran wondered.

He unconsciously turned his attention towards his attributes window and landed his eyes on "Character Model Template Limits"