The Devil’s Cage

The first skill that Kieran decided on was [Great Sword Blocking].

Although [Great Sword Blocking] was just a basic rank skill, as one of the few defensive measures, Kieran was quite fond of it.

Even though Kieran believed in the ideal of ”offense is the best defense”, it didn’t stop him from calmly analyzing the possible encounters and attacks he might face in special situations.

After all, the dungeon world was never constant and was always packed with surprises; there was no pattern to speak of, and Kieran couldn’t even make sure what he might come across.

Without the support of a team, it was important for him to take care of every aspect.

After choosing [Great Sword Blocking] as the first of the five, the other choice was a little harder.

From the looks of things, [Sword Skill, Tiger Stance]’s counterattack was the perfect combination for [Great Sword Blocking]; Kieran should choose that skill without any doubt.

However, that was only if [Barsical Kick] was not in the mix!

Within Kieran’s hand-to-hand combat system, whether he was starting with [Hand-to-hand Combats, Kick Combats] or connecting [Hundred Violent Kicks], [Blade Kick] or [Barsical Kick] and its effect [Bide], the combo had become an inseparable part of his combat pattern.

Finally, after some hesitation, Kieran chose [Barsical Kick]!

The reason he chose it was also in consideration of the damage output and his overall build. Kieran believed that when [Barsical Kick] was leveled to Pro, it would provide him with more attacking options, and it turned out to be true.

After contacting Coll to exchange some Skill Points with Points, Kieran continued leveling the two skills he had chosen.

[Greatsword Blocking, Master to Musou, cost 30,000 Points, 16 Skill Points. Yes/No?]

”Yes!”

[Name: Greatsword Blocking (Musou)]

[Related Attributes: Strength, Agility, Constitution]

[Skill Type: Defense]

[Effect: You know how to block enemy attacks effectively with your greatsword, increase 60% defense]

[Special Effect: Extra Block (After familiarizing the structure of a greatsword, whenever a successful block happens, extra 40% defense]

[Consume: Stamina]

[Prerequisite: Strength D-, Agility D-, Constitution D-]

[Remark: The greatsword in your hand is enough to block off most attack!]

...

[Barsical Kick, Master to Pro, cost 15,000 Points, 6 Skill Points. Yes/No?]

”Yes!”

[Name: Barsical Kick (Pro)]

[Related Attributes: Strength, Agility, Constitution]

[Skill Type: Offensive]

[Effects: Your legs are more nimble than your hands. When you attack with a kick, the second, third, and fourth hit will trigger an additional Agility +1, +2, +3 effect respectively.]

[Special Effect: Bide (Your attacks will be accumulated, during the fourth and fifth hit, Strength and Agility will +2, +3 respectively with each kick]

[Consumes: Stamina]

[Prerequisites: Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Arts (Pro)]

[Remarks: Please note that the level of the Barsical Kick and other related skills cannot be higher than the Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Arts skill!]

Kieran raised the corner of his mouth in a grin when he saw the effects and special effects of [Barsical Kick].

”This will make up for [Hundred Violent Kicks]’s increased speed and decreased damage output! The more I kick, the stronger I get!”

Kieran could imagine his opponents drowning under the fourth and fifth kick’s sudden surge of Strength and Agility.

Kieran then turned his eyes to the points tab.

[Points: 18,300; Skill Points: 0; Golden Skill Points: 0; Golden Attribute Points: 1]

There weren’t too many points to boast about but enough to fulfill his needs and handle the situation.

Kieran had no intentions of repairing [Hidden Wrist Bow] and [Buckle Stinger]. Instead, he wanted to sell them and collect repair fees for his firearms, [MI-02], [Python-W2] and [Jagdtiger-X1].

Two decent Magic rank equipment could sell for a considerable amount of Points even if they were damaged, giving Kieran more liberties regarding his repairing plans.

There might even be some leftover points for Kieran to purchase [Bullets of Blessing], [Shadow Grenade] and other miscellaneous items.

After Coll introduced a machinist named Stacker, the machinist agreed to trade-in the two Magic equipments for a reduced price. He agreed to Kieran’s trade with an extra 10,000 Points repairing fee.

For the remaining 8300 Points, Kieran divided them into two parts.

First was to purchase 3 [Shadow Grenades] with 4500 Points.

Second was to purchase 7-rounds magazines of [Bullets of Blessing] for 2800 Points.

After Kieran resupplied his common bullets and grenades, his points were basically depleted.

An empty feeling arose in Kieran’s heart when he spent it all, but after the repairs and purchase of items, he felt an unconcerned safety with everything equipped on him.

Though, the feeling of safety didn’t increase his reading rate by a lot when he studied [Herbert’s Note].

The note was too difficult for him to understand, not only because of the words, but because it was incomplete. Every single paragraph was summarised; some were nothing more than scribbles and mentions.

Kieran took quite some time to arrange the information within the notes since he was never properly introduced to the history of Neegor Dynasty.

Kieran had to guess some parts to fill the gaps in his mind. Such actions were a little detestable, but he had no better options at the moment, and it was necessary to hasten his reading.

Even still, when the dungeon cooldown was reset, he only went through [Herbert’s Note] in detail twice. He was far from understanding everything inside.

Closing [Herbert’s Note] and stuffing it into his backpack, Kieran chose to enter the single player dungeon after double-checking that he didn’t miss out anything.

[Entering Single Player Special Dungeon!]

[Difficulty: Fourth Dungeon]

[Primordial Invasion: The demise of the Night leader was not the end, just the beginning! The remaining Night race monsters went rampant all over the place without the restrictions of their leader. They are hiding among the street shadows, assaulting loners that looked delicious! Other than that, some other monsters that were totally different from the Night race have started to appear…]

[Main mission: Protect Herbert for 3 months, 0/90 days]

[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]

[Note: This is a special dungeon. You can fail the Main Mission, but you will have to pay 400 Points as a penalty and your highest attributes will drop by one point. If your points are insufficient, the system will deduct from your equipment. If your equipment is insufficient, you will fail.]

...

”As expected, the difficulty changed to fourth time! The highest attributes decrease also returned to one point!”

Kieran slightly raised his brow when he saw the Note about the dungeon.

The changes were within his expectations, but some other changes exceeded it.

Herbert the respectful scholar was listed as a wanted man!

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

Here we go again!

This marks the 400th chapter!

and a new (?) dungeon.

congratulate yourself in the comments for reading up to this point!