The Devil’s Cage

Paladia anxiously ran back to the entrance of Ring City.

The moment he saw Kieran, he excitedly said, “Precious treasures, boxes of Crossing Coins!”

He cheered and danced as he delivered the delightful news.

He only calmed down after a while.

Paladia from Gemstone Sector had a dream of getting wealthy and the scene that he saw back there was very impactful.

He wouldn’t even need a lot to achieve his dream. If he could pocket the treasures and the Crossing Coins he saw back there, he could already be on his way to his ideal life but he was still sane and rational.

Aside from the Oath of Allegiance from [Seodi Stone], the guards around the treasures and the potential danger present stopped him from realizing his dream. This was not something Paladia could solve alone, he must rely on Kieran.

Although he couldn’t get everything if he relied on Kieran, it would be better than getting nothing at all.

As for how much Kieran would reward him?

Paladia has no idea, probably not even a dime.

He did pay a great amount of effort though.

Paladia silently pondered upon the question and looked at the also silent Kieran.

“My lord, what should we do now?” he asked.

“Wait. Wait for the treasures and coins to leave Ring City and go up to the surface!”

Kieran explained and then he walked into the passageway alone. He had to confirm something with his own eyes, such as the location of the treasure vault!

Since the very beginning, the treasures and Crossing Coins moving out from the vault as ‘bait’ were never Kieran’s main target.

He was after the treasure vault of Ring City and he believed the good things wouldn’t be used as bait by the three kings.

Though that didn’t mean he would simply give up on the bait.

The bait and the treasure vault of Ring City, which one would he choose?

Sorry, only kids choose, Kieran takes all.

The passageway was high and low but every single path was labelled clearly.

Every single exit and observation point was very inconspicuous. It was clear that General White was very careful.

At the end of the passageway, the intersection between the inner city and the King City had an observation point and Kieran spotted the group of monsters escorting the treasures and Crossing Coins that Paladia mentioned on first glance.

There were a total of three carts.

It wasn’t horses in front of the carts but a camel of sorts: bigger, hairier and stronger. It was very obedient when tied to the cart, its head lowered, and other than tapping its hooves occasionally, it never moved.

The first two carts of the three had six big boxes on it. When the camels moved their hooves, the boxes on the carts swayed and Kieran could tell five of the six boxes were copper coins and only one box was silver coins.

“Approximately 2,700 copper coins and 200 silver coins, no gold coins in sight,” Kieran calculated in his heart.

The actual number of Crossing Coins wasn’t that much different from Kieran’s estimation, because if the kings wanted a decent bait, the Crossing Coins were only the supporting point, the main point was the treasure.

Kieran looked at the third cart.

Unlike the big boxes of the Crossing Coins, the boxes on the third cart varied in sizes. At first glance, Kieran made out at least 10 boxes and each box emanated the presence of at least a Rare rank item.

“Not bad,” Kieran commented and then looked inside King City.

The moving process was coming to an end and but not yet finished.

Two monsters were finishing up the moving at the end.

One of them was moving the boxes and the other one was counting the loaded boxes.

Kieran sharply noticed the monster counting the box was different from the others who moved the boxes and guarded the cart. The former was much more powerful, it even looked cleaner and dressed in a more luxurious way.

Although the other workers and guards weren’t as savage as most of the monsters, when compared to the one who counted the box, they looked poorly dressed.

Aside from that, the convoy escorting the treasures and Crossing Coins weren’t inside the King City, they were outside the inner city and not too far away from the passage observation point.

The monsters could have saved manpower and time by moving the convoy inside the King City to carry the cargoes yet they spent so much unnecessary effort…

“Ranks?” Kieran muttered softly.

Though it wasn’t a bad news for Kieran, at least he had gotten a general location of where the treasure vault was inside the King City.

If White would dig deeper, Kieran would have gotten in the treasure vault already.

It was just a wishful thought though, the three kings inside the King City weren’t idiots.

Should White dig deeper into the treasure vault, such a commotion would have attracted the kings’ attention.

Kieran glanced over the grand hall, which was the most eye-catching building in the King City.

Through Kieran’s perception, the grand hall was very special. It didn’t just shield the building from Kieran’s senses, it prevented him from knowing the presence inside and it even subtly unified everything in the King City.

This must be some kind of secret magical formation without a question.

Anyone who stepped into the magical formation or King City itself would never escape the three king’s sight.

Kieran frowned, this wasn’t good news to him.

The treasure vault was inside the King City.

His brows furrowed as he pondered upon the question, Kieran realtered his plan and then went back the way he came, but right before he left, his eyes caught a glimpse of red.

Kieran stopped and held his breath.

He stood beside the observation point and carefully looked towards the direction where he caught the glimpse of red.

“Next time, please tell me before you do anything,” Scarlet the red skull said in dissatisfaction.

“The result turns out quite decent,” Victor brushed Scarlet off with vague words.

“But if it ended any differently, both of us would be dead!” Scarlet emphasized.

“That won’t happen,” Victor said in a firm tone.

The man and monster conversed as they walked to the front of the convoy.

Under Kieran’s watch, Victor obviously heaved a breath of relief after he left King City, Scarlet’s soul fire in its eye sockets even flickering multiple times.

At the same time, the man and monster were signaling each other with hand gestures subtly.

It seemed like they knew or were able to sense that magical formation either.

“The red skull is really working with Victor?”

Kieran had a heavy impression on the red skull.

The red skull’s aura ranked around rank III and rank IV but what it did and the abilities it had shown was very weird. The ability to change day to night was not something a rank V could do, it was even impossible for the ranks above V.

Kieran knew it very well as a rank V himself, so the red skull must have used some special item to perform the feat, or…

This place had an unusual relation or effect on the red skull, the geographical advantages acknowledged the red skull’s presence!

Regardless of which it really was, the red skull was not someone who should be underestimated. Plus its special identity in Ring City, it was fair to consider that it held an irreplaceable position in Victor’s plan.

Yet someone as powerful as the red skull agreed to work with Victor, so it formed a question in Kieran’s mind.

What is the red skull seeking?

Why did it work with Victor?

Compared to how Victor persuaded the three kings of Ring City, Kieran was more curious how Victor persuaded the red skull.

Persuading the three kings with the current situation wasn’t too hard.

The three kings might make a move even if Victor did not persuade them and all of this was built on top of the existence of Victor’s qualified ally, the red skull.

As for the red skull helping out voluntarily?

Stop joking!

Unless Victor was the red skull’s son, it was impossible!

While Kieran was pondering these questions, the convoy was moving out.

The red skull put its hands together and prayed.

Victor pointed at the boxes and said, “Remember to throw the boxes when you reach the surface.”

The reminder was for the monsters but none of them spare a glance at Victor.

“Do take note of what Mr. Victor said,” the red skull said.

“Yes, my lord,” The monsters bowed quickly.

“Let’s move out, the night is here!”

The red skull waved its hand and saw the convoy out.

Victor also saw the convoy leaving his sight, his face unusually calm, not mad about the discrimination he got from the monsters.

“Can’t you show another kind of expression?” the red skull asked.

“What expression do you wish to see?” Victor asked.

“Joy, happiness, sorrow, anger? After persuading the three kings, your face didn’t show any joy. When insulted by some low level monster, you didn’t show any anger. Do you know? If I don’t sense your vitality, I might think I am talking to a dead person,” the red skull said.

“I don’t have the basic emotions, what joy, what happiness, what anger? After my wife died, all I have left is sorrow and it will not go away with time,” Victor answered.

The red skull seemed to be satisfied with the answer though, its soul fire flickering again, but it didn’t ask anymore.

“I hope our partnership is smooth sailing—I start to regret that you and I are working together,” the red skull said.

“You don’t have a choice and neither do I.”

Victor then walked back into King City.

The red skull rubbed the broken prayer beads in its hand before following it up with a light laugh.

Kieran saw monster and man walk away from his sight before he returned the way he came from.

Recalling the conversation between the man and monster, Kieran found out something.

Both of them were forced to work together because of some untold reasons but their working relationship wasn’t that strong. That red skull might still test Victor’s fealty until now.

Of course, a part of them might be putting up an act.

When both of them were conversing, the hand gestures did not stop and it seemed like the hand gestures held the true conversation rather than the verbal one.

Judging from the unique and never before seen hand gestures, both of them must have known each other for a long time, otherwise they wouldn’t have come up with such a way to communicate, which only the two of them knew.

“The red skull has been to the outside world before? Or did Victor come to this place before?”

Questions lingered in Kieran’s head, hastening his steps.

He went off later than the convoy, but he managed to beat the convoy and returned to the entrance of Mou City Sector.

Kieran gave a meaningful glance at White and took Lucan, Paladia, and the two monsters to the other side of the hang bridge.

In order to secure access to the passageway, Kieran couldn’t afford to expose White right now, therefore the nearby area would not be a good location to jump on the convoy.

…

Gak Tzzt! Gak Tzzt!

The heavy wheels of the carts rolled over the wooden planks of the hang bridge, squeaky noises sounding as they moved forward.

The monsters handling the convoy tended to be more careful.

They wouldn’t want to fall into the moat during an easy mission.

Once fallen, it would be the end of them.

The monsters that lurked in the moat would never care what fell in, everything that fell into the waters was food to them, and other than being eaten, there was no second outcome.

Thankfully, the entire convoy crossed the hang bridge safely.

The leader of the convoy, a monster with feathers all over its body, heaved a breath of relief.

“Hey gatekeeper, fix the bridge when you are free!” It yelled at White.

The other monsters who were recovering from their nervousness laughed out loud immediately, wiping away the tense situation.

Before White could say anything, the convoy moved out quickly.

They had no interest in hearing White’s answer, he was just a gatekeeper.

Likewise White to them as they were rude. They were going to be dead monsters anyway, so it wasn’t wise to argue with them.

White believed the lord that it now served would not spare any of them, and as a matter of fact, Kieran did things much more thoroughly.

When the convoy reached the surface, the ambush happened with a wave of a hand from Kieran.

Lucan in his bearman form was the first to jump on the monsters.

There was no technique involved, it was a straightforward, rampant charge at the carts.

Two monsters were crushed to bits before they could even reach. The rest of the monsters were stunned and then started to dodge the rampant charge but that feathered monster smiled coldly.

It was easy to dodge this kind of simple attack, all it needed to do was move out of the way and it was as easy as flipping its palm for the feather monster, as it could fly.

It flapped its wings and flew up into the air.

“Ignorant fo-… Huh?!”

Before the feather monster finished, it was forced to a stop abruptly.

An iron pitchfork flew out from the shadow silently and pierced the feather monster’s chest. Another chop from a greatsword followed behind it and decapitated its feather head before it could reach.

The minotaur and horseman chuckled in a strange way as they walked out from the shadow.

They raised their weapons and chopped the nearest monsters in half.

The minotaur and horseman were professional in this kind of ambush and robbing. They did it for a living before this, so they knew what would come next.

The minotaur jumped up and landed beside the cart. Its body grew bigger and then pulled the camels into the passage beside them, it didn’t want its spoils to be damaged.

Some monsters would struggle fiercely on their last breath and the minotaur had many similar experiences before.

The horseman jumped to the third cart and swung its greatsword, chopping the monsters who threw themselves at the horseman into half. The horseman protected the back of all the carts and stopped the monsters from damaging the goods.

“You bastards!”

“Do you know who you bastards are robbing?”

“This is the king’s cargo!”

“Who gave you the balls to do this?!”

The monsters from the convoy shouted, one after another, chasing the minotaur and horseman into the passage.

Then, it ended.

Du, the scaly monster, had been waiting for a while inside the passage and when the carts came in, Du blasted out a ball of fire at the monsters in pursuit, setting the entire passage on fire.

The monsters fell into the sea of fire.

Du turned a deaf ear at the monster’s wails and walked across the fire to Kieran, who was outside the passageway. Du then knelt down on one knee.

“My lord,” Du greeted respectfully.

Kieran nodded and spoke softly, “I need you to do something for me…”