The Devil’s Cage

The dark green board and the silver colored words became strange after being splashed by the bloody brains.

The words which were supposed to be a lifeless object started to swirl around like fish.

A low, heavy voice then came from inside the bookstore.

“Are you provoking me?”

The person bore an intimidating manner and had a pressuring presence.

But soon enough, the man’s face changed for the worst when Kieran grabbed his crown with lightning speed, the man also saw the headless body beside him.

“Wait! Hold on! I am not…”

Crack!

Kieran activated [Heavy Hand] once more without the slightest intentions of listening what the man has to say.

Similar to the previous pale middle-aged man, this man had his brains crushed as well. The only difference was no equipment fell off from this man’s body.

After a second glance at the green glow at the headless body outside the bookstore, Kieran ripped off the death knot in front of his chest and lowered down Anne Aldrich Augen whose face was somehow flushed.

However, it seemed like because the aftereffect of the toxin, Anne Aldrich Augen lost her stance and fell towards Kieran.

Kieran moved his body aside swiftly. He had made sure Anne Aldrich Augen recovered a moment ago, otherwise, he wouldn’t place her down.

She staggered two steps forward before regaining her stance.

“Mr. 2567, where is your gentleman’s manner from a while ago?”

She held her shoulders, pretending to be pitiful.

“Transfer the ownership and the deed of the shop to my name, consider it as a gratitude for saving your life.”

Kieran didn’t further the chit-chat along with her flow, instead, he told her directly.

“You just killed the owner here and now you want to occupy his place as if it is yours? Not much different way of doing things. You are really likable!”

Anne Aldrich Augen expressed her thoughts before pulling out her phone to make a call.

While she was speaking with some high ranking authority, Kieran went over to that headless spellcaster.

The spellcaster was the owner of Mecathy and Borjane Books and the only descendant of Mecathy and Borjane.

After Gannett told Kieran about the three mystical gathering points, Kieran went over to Hoskin and borrowed his secular knowledge to investigate the places on a surface level.

So, the moment the owner showed himself, Kieran knew who he was and at the same time, he felt the malicious intent from Gannett once more.

If Gannett had something to hide about the elimination of the Twenty Hounds from the Elder Council, then the ambush from the suggested place would be a show of true hostility.

Kieran wasn’t a guy who sat back without retaliation after being punched in the face, also, he wasn’t a rash person.

He wouldn’t charge towards Gannett’s face and question him because he was deceived.

Kieran would take care of Gannett in his own way.

Of course, there were also lingering questions in his heart. He didn’t remember doing anything over the line.

Why would Gannet show such hostility towards him?

Elder Council. Twenty Hounds. Marulyn.

Term after term appeared in Kieran’s head and with the lack of crucial information, those terms were nothing but scattered letters. It caused his temples to swell.

He quickly shook his head and inspected the body before him. After he collected all the casting materials on the ground and on the dead body, he picked up the Magic rank equipment.

It was a wooden black wand with the width of a thumb and around 25 cm long.

[Name: Poison Mist Wand]

[Type: Spell Wand]

[Rarity: Magic]

[Attack: Weak]

[Attribute: Toxic Mist 1/3]

[Effect: None]

[Prerequisite: Mystical Knowledge (Master)]

[Remark: You will need to find a place that follows the wind when casting.]

…

[Toxic Mist: Use the wand to create a toxic mist of 30 meters in diameter area. Able to appoint any spot within the mist range as Toxic Corrupt Domain (No larger than 2 meters in diameter, a Constitution authentication of A+ will occur and targets who fail will receive lethal damage). After appointing a particular spot, the remaining toxin in the other part of the mist will decrease, Constitution authentication of E will occur, targets who fail will be numbed for 3 minutes]

…

“Not bad!” Kieran commented honestly.

He then quickly headed towards the other attackers’ bodies and brought every possible weapon and equipment back to the bookstore.

Despite all of the spoils of war, there were only Great and Excellent ranked weapons and equipment plus some simple potions of healing, Kieran didn’t mind at all.

Before he could get his hands on a suitable equipment, he wouldn’t mind finding some substitutes.

“Being persistent of your own spoils of war I see? Seems like I’ve noticed another similarity between us.” Anne Aldrich Augen couldn’t help but say with a smile when she saw Kieran carrying a big pile of weapons into the bookstore but Kieran had no intentions of replying.

Kieran’s attitude made Anne Aldrich Augen frown. She noticed Kieran was getting more and more similar to that particular person.

“If I didn’t know Mayer was a single child and you two having completely different faces, I would have thought you both are somehow related by blood! The matters you asked of me have already been settled, some personnel will come and collect the bodies outside as well.”

“When Symende Augen was alive, he would come here every week and I thought he was simply trying to gain knowledge through reading but now from the looks of it….”

Anne Aldrich Augen laughed when she spoke about her dead husband, her smile had hidden meanings to it.

When power and wealth had been accumulated to a certain level, one would come in contact with the people, things, and matters that regular commoners couldn’t come across.

Kieran had his guesses when Anne Aldrich Augen didn’t ask about the changes that occurred to the bookstore signboard, still, it wasn’t the right moment to continue tea time with her.

“If you want to return to Augen Manor, I suggest you call in that Mayer that you spoke of. I know they are coming after me but no one can guarantee they wouldn’t make a move on you.”

Part warning, part driving her away.

“Thank you for your warning and as a return, I’ll tell you another thing. The five bodies found in Winchester House, other than Symende Augen and his driver, Tonita, another one should be an archeology professor from Yuda State University.”

Anne Aldrich Augen then headed out the bookstore when she finished.

She knew Mayer’s attitude so she knew how to get along with the person with similar attitude despite the sense of freshness. She knew when she should leave.

After Anne Aldrich Augen left, Kieran quickly closed the bookstore’s door and activated [Tracking]. With the special vision, he quickly located what he was looking for.

The entrance to the mystical gathering point.

“Hope this won’t let me down!”

Kieran thought when he stood before the hidden door in the bedroom.