The Devil’s Cage

Rebellion!

Kieran and Lawless thought of the term instantly.

”Everything is happening at the same time, huh?” Lawless said in a joking tone. His expression was intense though.

Considering their lack of equipment and their wounds, he knew what would happen if they came across a big wave of enemies.

Kieran had already experienced the human sea tactic during his newbie dungeon as well, and the memory was still fresh.

After looking at each other quickly, they turned towards the rebels.

Their sudden appearance had caught everyone off guard, not just Lawless and Kieran, but the defending troops in the castle as well.

Kieran and Lawless could already hear the two forces fighting each other.

It was a chance for the two of them to locate Hanses and escape from the castle.

Kieran shot out his leg like an iron whip, striking hard at one of rebels’ head.

A clear cracking sound was heard as the man’s head spun around, his feet lifting off the ground as he fell backwards. There were no signs of life on him anymore.

The second rebel only started to react after his partner was dead. He tried to scream, but a powerful hand silenced his mouth as a long sharp sword slashed through his throat.

Gushing blood spilled out as the soldier went down on his knees.

After killing both rebels quickly, Kieran and Lawless checked their bodies in hope of finding some useful items, such as the leather armor they were wearing.

Although the armor would only cause them trouble, it was still better than fighting without any protection.

[Name: Rebel Leather Armor]

[Type: Defensive Gear]

[Rarity: Great]

[Defense: Average defense against sharp blades, weak defense against blunt weapons and long-range arrow attacks]

[Attributes: None]

[Effects: None]

[Prerequisites: None]

[Able to bring out of the dungeon: Yes]

[Remarks: This is a rebel leather armor. When you wear it, it might serve as a camouflage against other rebels, but it will also attract the defending troops’ hostility.]

...

Kieran was not surprised when he read the remark. He was not concerned about any hostility from the defending troops.

After all, their status as thieves and prisoners was already bad enough.

What surprised him was the next notification.

[Sub Mission Unlocked: Sudden Arrival]

[Sudden Arrival: An uprising is taking place as you are trying to escape. The rebels will kill anyone they come across, including you. If you want to leave the castle in one piece, you need to pick up your weapons and fight the rebels! Once you leave the castle’s range, the more rebels you have killed, the higher your rating will be at the end!]

”A Sub Mission?” Kieran felt as if he’d been struck by lightning.

He had not expected a Sub Mission to appear in such a form.

According to his original theory, considering his status and condition in the Special Dungeon, his chances of coming across a Special Mission had to be really low.

The Sub Mission’s title and its sudden appearance meant that it was not that hard though.

While Kieran was mumbling to himself, Lawless had already put on the [Rebel Leather Armor].

”It’s better than I thought!” he commented after a couple stretches.

The standard-issue leather armor was not as good as custom-made leather armor, but it sure had one advantage.

The fit!

Most standard-issue leather armor was made with an extra knot, which allowed the wearer to adjust the fit themselves.

Of course, that was limited only to leather-based armor.

Full-metal armor also had an extra knot, but it was not for fitting purposes. It just secured the armor on the wearer and made it safer.

It was similar, but still not the same as standard-issue armor.

”I got something more as well!” Kieran said, showing Lawless the Sub Mission.

”Of course you do, 2567! Your dungeon entries determine the dungeon difficulty for you. Not just the Main Mission, but every single aspect. I would need to kill at least a rebellion squad leader to trigger a Sub Mission! Plus, my Sub Mission would not be as easy as killing some common rebels. The game might ask me to kill the rebellion commander, or even the mastermind behind everything!” Lawless sighed as he looked at Kieran’s Sub Mission.

Kieran felt even more determined than he originally had though.

Fully exploring the Sub Missions and Title Missions in each dungeon was the right choice for him.

Not only would he gain an advantage inside the dungeon, but as the dungeon difficulty went up, the advantages would also be more.

Advantages equaled benefits, but Kieran never forgot his original mission in favor of those benefits.

They had to locate Hanses and escape from the castle!

The contract kept reminding Kieran of his mission.

”We have to find Hanses now!” he said.

”Do you have a clue where he is?” Lawless looked at him in suspicion.

”We are the thieves that stole the Grand Duke’s treasure from his vault! The people who are qualified to interrogate us are very few! Ever since the war broke out, the Grand Duke and his eldest son have been fighting in the frontline, and most of the generals have followed them. Those left behind who are qualified to interrogate us have to be only a handful!

”The Grand Duke’s second son, his youngest son, and Gradon! The youngest son died in the prison, and Gradon appeared at just the right time. According to Hanses, Gradon was an avid supporter of the eldest son! What if Gradon was not at the prison to clean up the mess, but to ask us about the location of the ‘Legacy’? Where would Hanses be then?” Kieran said as he looked at Lawless.

He had just come up with that theory. Using men of sacrifice must have saved the mastermind the trouble of leaked information.

Allowing the men of sacrifice to do their duty and protect their employer’s secret had been the best choice. What was safer than a dead man after all?

It would also make more sense than Gradon going there to clean up the mess.

”The second son!” The words escaped Lawless’ mouth immediately. ”But what about the death of the youngest son and the missing ‘Legacy’?” Lawless asked automatically.

”We don’t have enough information right now, so I can’t really think of anything. Maybe they’re connected, maybe not. Who knows?”

As they spoke, Kieran quickly made his way towards the second son’s courtyard. Lawless followed him.

Kieran was thankful for the map Hanses had drawn. If it weren’t for it, he would have had to look for the place blindly. He quickly followed the route mapped out for him and headed towards the courtyard.

On their way there, Kieran and Lawless kept bumping into rebels and defending troops.

The first time, it was only a small squad of two to three men, so the two of them were able to take them out easily.

When they came across a bigger number of troops, they chose to avoid direct conflict.

As the rebels’ number kept growing by the second though, so did the bad feeling in Kieran’s heart.

”There are too many rebels! It’s definitely not a number that could have been accumulated by infiltrating the place. Seems more like the defending troops opened the gate and let them in!” Kieran thought as he headed to the courtyard.

When he’d found out about the rebellion, Kieran had originally thought that a small number of rebels had infiltrated the castle, made an ambush, and opened the gate amid the chaos, allowing the rest of their troops to take over the castle.

However, considering the increasing number of rebels, this did not seem to be the truth.

”Where did the rebels come from? And what about the massacre in the Church Hall?”

Kieran’s mind was filled with doubts and questions.

The Church Hall massacre made him the most curious.

Considering that the masked man had killed all the rebels inside the hall, he must have been defending the castle. However, he had also killed Ferlin right after, which probably meant that he had had some kind of plan.

That murder had instantly made the man an enemy of the defending troops.

The incident baffled Kieran.

”What did he do that for?”

He kept thinking about it as his steps got faster.

About 10 minutes and a couple of stops later, Kieran and Lawless finally reached the courtyard that belonged to the Grand Duke’s second son.

What they saw there made them frown.

The courtyard had turned into a mini battlefield.

The defending troops were taking advantage of the terrain, fending off the rebels by shooting arrows at them.

The rebels were wielding giant shields and pressing forward fearlessly.

One of the rebels was hit by an arrow, but it seemed like he did not feel any pain. He just kept pressing on towards the defending troops, stabbing his enemies with his sword.

The stabbed soldiers fell to the ground, but one of them grabbed the rebel’s leg, hoping to delay him.

Meanwhile, a couple of long spears pierced through the rebel, and he unwillingly fell to the ground.

The soldiers who had lunged the spears were stabbed by another rebel, who had hurled himself towards them.

Before the rebel could advance though, his head was struck by an arrow.

The cold steel of the rattling swords glinted and flashed, arrows poured like rain, and blood was spilled, flowing like a river.

It was like a meat grinder working endlessly, crushing them to bits.

The gruesome scene made the maidens of the castle scream out their lungs in fear. One after another, they fell down, wanting to crawl out of the deadly scene.

They only attracted more attention from the rebels though, who showed no mercy in killing defenseless maidens.

The maidens fell into a puddle of blood one after the other.

This infuriated the defending troops, who struck harder with their weapons and fired more arrows at their enemies.

The rebels laughed, mocking them with disdainful voices, before rushing towards the barricade of the defending troops.

Some of them had fallen, but most of them succeeded in making a breach through the barricade.

As more and more rebels broke through the barricade, no matter how hard the defending troops fired arrows, they could not contain the breach.

The courtyard would soon be taken.

A sharp whistling sound tore through the air as an arrow flashed through the battlefield.

At least seven rebels were pierced through.

Soon, ten more similar arrows followed.

Although they did not possess destructive power, each arrow could take the lives of at least four to five rebels.

A total of eleven arrows with the same attacking pattern turned the tide around in a second.

”THE BESTOWED!”

The defending troops cheered as the rebels were struck by fear.

They did not intend to back down though. They launched another attack instead.

”Something is wrong!” Kieran instinctively thought when he saw the rebels rush in.

Suddenly, he felt the ground trembling.

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

This arc is by far the most completed one without any strings