The Devil’s Cage

A [Potionology] Skill Book?

Kieran was stunned when he saw Nobian’s message.

Although he had been talking with Lemour, he had kept his guard up around Nobian. He had kept a part of his attention focused on him on and off until Nobian had left the Harvest Inn.

To Kieran, this seemed like another round of Nobian trying to get information out of him.

However, the message he had received proved that this was more than that. Nobian was anxious to collect the net he had laid around Kieran.

Why now?

Money could easily shake the hearts of men.

Kieran took a glance at his more than 100,000 Points and 37 Skill Points and laughed softly at the realization.

The underground game did not really forbid players to kill each other. Although anyone who did was punished severely, as long as the offender didn’t get caught, nothing happened to them. Quite the contrary, the offender got all the possessions of the player they had killed.

Kieran viewed that setting as an encouragement of PVP1 and bloodshed among players, but fortunately there were not many players who actually did it.

One of the reasons was the penalty if one got caught. ‘All attributes -1 and all Points, Skill Points and equipment will be confiscated.’ It was the very punishment all the players were afraid of.

The other reason was that everyone had been raised under the Union system, which did not encourage killing under any circumstances. As a result, it was hard for people to kill others in the game. Even though players had to commit murder a lot during the game, the targets were only NPCs2. They were not real people, so the players were fine with it.

However, nothing was certain, just like this situation with Nobian.

Nobian’s ill intent was very clear to Kieran. He had said that he was looking for a [Potionology] Skill Book, and all of a sudden Nobian happened to have one?

Kieran was very suspicious of that coincidence, yet he did not rule out the possibility of it being real.

He could not deny that such a coincidence could actually happen in the real world, but Nobian’s malicious gaze when they’d first met made it all seem a little fishy.

He was sure that Nobian would try his best to persuade him not to spend any of his Points or Skill Points and use some made-up lie to secure his reward.

Kieran replied after some consideration.

...

2567: For real?

2567: Why didn’t u trade with me before?

Nobian: Because one of my friends had some prescriptions and a [Potion Crafting Platform Blueprint]. I wanted to get them all first before reaching out to u.

Nobian: After all, a bundle price is always better.

(Everything had gone according to Kieran’s expectations, which only made Kieran laugh silently. He was still surprised when he got a reply though.)

2567: A [Potion Crafting Platform Blueprint] and prescriptions?

Nobian: Yes, a [Potion Crafting Platform Blueprint] and prescriptions.

Nobian: My friend and I teamed up and finished a team dungeon before this. We acquired the [Potionology] Skill Book, the [Potion Crafting Platform Blueprint] and the prescriptions in that dungeon. My initial plan had been to buy off his equipment and expand [Potionology] myself, and he’d had the same plan!

Nobian: However, we suffered a great loss after that dungeon. Not only did neither of us reach our goals, but we even faced a lot of trouble in our next dungeon. As a result, we decided to sell it as a bundle to get a higher price. What the Broker offered us was too low though!

Nobian: I hope u will not let us down as well.

2567: If it’s real, I won’t!

...

Nobian sent over a screenshot of the [Potionology] Skill Book.

He really did have one?

Kieran squinted in surprise and suspicion. The screenshots of the items in the game could not be replicated, so this meant that Nobian had taken a picture of the Skill Book himself.

However, his surprise did not alter Kieran’s earlier decision. On the contrary, it made him speculate even more.

If Nobian had coincidentally had a [Potionology] Skill Book right from the start, that would have been great, but if he’d acquired it within the small amount of time since he’d left the Harvest Inn, then...

The forces behind Nobian were not to be messed around with.

Kieran was struck by fear for a moment. His mind instantly flashed with the picture of someone.

The Broker!

Other than the man who had a Unique title and had founded the secret bazaar, Kieran could not come up with anyone else that could be capable of such a feat.

”The Broker is targeting me?” Kieran furrowed his brows.

This was not good news by any means, but he was more concerned about why the Broker would target him in the first place.

There was a reason for everything, but Kieran had only met the Broker once briefly during the secret bazaar. Both of them had been courteous with each other, so the Broker had no reason to target him.

”Did I spill out any information by accident?”

The doubts in his mind made him want to get more information out of Nobian.

...

2567: Ur friend?

Nobian: Yeah, a veteran like me nicknamed General.

Nobian: Lawless knows him as well, but the two of them have a bad relationship, so I try not to mention my deals with General to Lawless and vice versa.

Nobian: I am quite close to General though, so u can wait for my good news!

...

The conversation ended abruptly when Nobian stopped talking.

Kieran went through the messages carefully, from the point where Nobian had mentioned the [Potionology] Skill Book to where he had talked about the player nicknamed General. Everything was carefully linked to Nobian’s plan.

Not only had Nobian bundled the [Potionology] Skill Book with the [Potion Crafting Platform Blueprint], but he had even provided a reasonable explanation for it.

If Kieran had not been wary of Nobian right from the beginning, he would have fallen for it.

Nobian had sensed Kieran’s eagerness to learn [Potionology].

He had even set up a fail-safe plan to lead Kieran to his trap. Lawless!

Of course Nobian would not directly use Lawless to lure Kieran into his trap, but he knew that Kieran would definitely ask Lawless about General.

Kieran would get satisfying information from Lawless, but still keep it a secret from him out of goodwill.

As he saw Lawless squeeze out of the crowd surrounding Lemour, he quickly asked, ”Lawless, do you know someone by the name of General?”

Although Kieran knew what Nobian wanted, that did not stop him from following his own plan.

After all, he was not sure whether there were any of Nobian’s accomplices in the Harvest Inn.

”General? That son of a bitch that’s always taking away my business is still alive? He’s my rival in the mercenary business. He has a fair amount of power and quite a reputation. Why do you ask?” Lawless asked.

”Just curious,” Kieran brushed Lawless off with an excuse.

Lawless shrugged. He did not care to talk about it any further. He headed towards the bar, but before he did, he paused for a fraction of a second.

The moment passed by in a flash, and Lawless returned to normal.

Other than Kieran, no one else had noticed his minor pause.

TL Notes

1PVP: Player vs. Player

2NPC: Non-Playable Character.