The Devil's Cage

Panda Novel

Kieran waited patiently after he had rewatched the chef’s whole life.

He didn’t think the ‘inheritance’ would be this simple.

Things unfolded as expected; after the ‘movie’ about the chef’s life had ended, an unusual knowledge transfer process started.

It was similar to the knowledge transfer and synchronization process in his room, when he learned or leveled a skill,

and yet it wasn’t exactly the same.

Back in his own room, with the system’s help, the whole process was delicate and mild, but in this dungeon world, without direct help from the system, the process was harsh and painful, as if someone was punching his head relentlessly. The heavy blows to the head were enough to torture a common man, but because Kieran’s Constitution had reached rank III and Spirit rank V-, it wasn’t anything significant. All he felt was a little bit of discomfort, which he adjusted to it within a breath.

The heavy, painful blows were increasing by the second but it was still the same. The pain that the process was causing was still within an acceptable range.

The knowledge transfer started from things seen and heard in that particular time and eventually proceeded to basic cooking skills, ways to enhance cooking skills, and the chef’s own realization and knowledge. Everything he watched was entering his mind, bit by bit, and his body was adapting to it instinctively.

Among the knowledge transferred, there were some records related to ancient texts, which didn’t surprise Kieran at all.

As a matter of fact, from the moment he understood that legendary age, Kieran had quite some thoughts about it and accepted this ‘inheritance’ just because he could use the ancient knowledge in there to decipher the ancient text in Index of Eat.

Everything was progressing as planned, but just as the ancient text related knowledge completed its transfer…

Kak!

A crack suddenly appeared on the red crystal.

A scorching aura burst out from the crack and drowned the room within a second. As if the aura had met its mortal enemy, it assaulted Kieran the moment it appeared.

Fortunately for Kieran, his powerful Constitution and [Secondary Elemental Damage Resist] granted him protection. As though a windy breeze caressed his face, the aura quickly dispersed after the attempt but that wasn’t the end of the unusual change.

A burning man with an arrogant smile appeared in the dark wilderness.

The wilderness was boundless and it was filled with loneliness and despair.

“I am finally free from my cage! This is really suitable for me, the Fire Devil! I will be reborn here and descend to the mortal realm again!”

The burning man shouted in excitement and the flame on his body grew fiercer. The flame grew to 2 to 3 meters tall but another unusual light shrouded the flame the very next moment.

It was another hotter, brighter flame above the burning man!

A 6 meter tall gigantic figure in magma appeared behind the burning man and shrouded his existence.

The shouts of excitement stopped abruptly. The burning man turned around slowly with his wide-opened mouth, his eyes looking at the devil that did not belong to the mortal realm blankly.

“WHO ARE YOU?! How could a devil reside inside a human’s heart?! Illusions! This must be an illusion!”

The inconceivable shouts of the burning man were answered with a fiery punch and without any resistance, the burning man was crushed into scattered flames.

The tall devil opened its mouth and sucked, half of the scattered flames absorbed and merging with the magma body, as if they were one.

The remaining scattered flames gathered into a clump and flew away like a falling meteor.

The devil didn’t chase, it had no need to chase. The guy was already running.

It opened its ferocious mouth and chuckled before it vanishing.

…

The waves were beating endlessly.

The burning man, who flew over there like a falling meteor, was standing on the cliff in silence.

‘Who am I?

Where am I?

What am I doing?’

Losing half of his power in an instant sent the burning man into an unknown daze, but he quickly cleared up his mind.

“I am the Fire Devil! I’ve just gotten out from the cage that sealed me! I’ve found a new host! Although troubled, I will once again descend to the mortal realm!”

The last word came out as a sonorous roar and it echoed throughout the cliff. As though the waves were responding to the shout, a huge wave crashed on the cliff, causing a great splash to spread everywhere.

The burning man saw the rumbling waves, looking down at the cliff he was standing, and the weird laughter sounded again.

“A cliff on the sea? What a proud heart you have. The devil must be protection from some kind of spell and this cliff on the sea is only your true heart! Well then, I’ll take it, thank you very much!”

The flames rose again, spreading throughout the cliff and engulfing it completely. The man wanted to burn the cliff and replace it.

The flames that engulfed the cliff did not burn this seemingly normal cliff at all, which released a special energy to counterattack the burning man.

The most terrifying thing was the counterattack wasn’t made of flames anymore; it was a sharp-like-blade energy.

The special energy didn’t cut the burning man’s body, it sliced his core.

‘I can’t do this anymore, I’ll die if I continue!’

The fear of perishing made the burning man fly up, wanting to leave the cliff and get away from the attacks from the special energy. However, despite flying up to the sky, the blade-like energy chased him like as if it was his shadow, no matter how high or far.

As though there wasn’t any distance between the energy and the burning man, the special energy landed on the burning man after jumping through space!

The burning man got even more horrified. He straightened his body and vanished out of sight very quickly.

Huuu!

Following the burning man’s absence, the flames on the cliff were extinguished. The knight in armor looked in the direction of where the burning man flew away and he sighted in pity.

“Good luck,” the knight said.

Though the burning man couldn’t hear the blessing, neither would he receive it.

When the burning man was exhausted by flying, he landed and saw three doors.

All three doors looked different.

The middle one was black and had gold branded all over the edge, the handle made out of black crystal and carved into the shape of a dragon. It looked extremely elegant and luxurious.

The left one was a lot more common, also in black but made out of common wood and snores came from behind the door.

The right one was even worse, black with dents all over it, as if something had chewed on the door.

“The cliff back there are some kind of protection from spells? This place too?!”

The badly injured burning man was sizing up the three doors and when his surroundings turned pitch black, he laughed coldly.

“Do you think I will retreat? The more protection you have, the more valuable this body is! I am getting it no matter what!”

The burning man said that as if he was making a vow, sizing up the three doors again.

It seemed like this layer of protection was unlike the previous one; he had to choose one out of three.

The correct one would allow him to proceed, but the wrong one…

Feeling his unbearable body, the burning man shook his head.

How could he fail? He had a trick that would deal with the situation before him!

Unlike the previous two times in which he was caught off guard, this time he had sufficient time to prepare.

“THIS WILL BE YOUR BIGGEST MISTAKE! I WILL TURN THE TIDES AROUND IN MY FAVOUR!”

The burning man took a deep breath, raised his hand and formed a flaming rod before he flew up into the air. He did a spin mid-air before landing on the ground firmly and pointing at the broken door with his flaming rod.

“The exit should be this kind of door!”

The burning man walked to the door with the utmost confidence and kicked it open.

The room inside the door was dark, even darker than the darkness outside.

Even though the man was burning, he couldn’t light up anything inside.

Bang!

When the burning man entered, the door shut itself behind him but the burning man didn’t care because a series gulping noises entered his ears.

It wasn’t a normal repeated gulping, sounding as if someone had been holding back for a long time and the large amount of saliva secreted in the mouth was being swallowed in one go.

When a beast was on the hunt and saw its prey, it lowered its sharp presence and waited patiently for the prey to come closer before it struck..

Similar to that, a bad feeling rose in the burning man’s heart.

He somehow wanted to return to the cage that sealed him.

…

Kieran watched everything happen with a cold and calm gaze, not surprised that the burning man, the so-called Fire Devil, appeared.

Whether it was the scenes that the phantom had shown him before or whatever he had just watched in his heart, all the scenes and images showed powerful monsters far beyond any imagination and monsters that burned indifferently.

Kieran, however, would not simply believe what the phantom showed him and what he had just seen.

He remained dubious against anything that he wasn’t familiar with, not just in terms of listening, but in terms of seeing too.

He did not believe things on first glance, those things hadn’t gone through the test of time.

Therefore, since the beginning, Kieran didn’t believe the monster was sealed in E Block cafeteria, just like how he did not believe the [Inheritance Crystal (Damaged)] in his hand was as simple as it looked.

Kieran held the crystal deep in his palm as he clenched it, Devil Force pouring into the crystal. He didn’t just want to seal the burning man’s retreat, he wanted to crush him into cinders.

‘Does he think he can simply walk into my heart?

It’s a little cheap for the entrance fee if he doesn’t pay with his life!’

Huu!

Devil Flame spread from his pam, an agonizing cry for mercy sounding in Kieran’s ears.

The crystal cracked further under the heat and the cries got louder.

Ultimately, everything stopped.

The only thing Kieran could hear was Gluttony wiping his mouth in joy, and lines of words appearing in his vision.

[Name: Devil Burning (Musou)]

[Related Attribute: None]

[Skill Type: Offense]

[Effect: Create a rank II attack Devil Flame from your left hand. Able to burn continuously and can not be extinguished by water, sand or other elements. Has the ability to burn souls and consume life energy.]

[Effect: Devil Flame (Your bloodline contains fire, it is your natural gift and also the proof of your identity. You can trigger Devil Flame at will with attack ranks that vary from None, Feeble, Weak, Average, Strong, Powerful, Extreme, rank I, and rank II. When charged up to 4 seconds, +1 fire elemental damage, has Great chance to trigger Flame Burst effect)]

[Transcendence Option (Devil Burning): Rapid Accumulation (Shorten charge time to 2 seconds)]

[Devil Mastery 1: You can create 2 fireball at once or alter the original shape of the fireball based on your will. (You can only create 1 fireball when charging and can not alter the original shape)]

[Devil Mastery 2: The flames comes from your blood and was born from your soul. When you need it, it will appear; you can create a ball of Devil Flame at will without using your hand. When this ball of Devil Flame appears, it will not affect the original attributes, effects and transcendence option]

[Consume: Stamina]

[Prerequisite: Constitution II]

[Remark: This was originally a special spell that doesn’t requires incantation and casting movement. It was forged by the alchemy master fusing ancient hidden techniques and his knowledge! However, it showed extra unison with your bloodline and it called out to the shattered soul in your bloodline. The shattered soul also triggered the spell’s original potential in the same way and causing both inseparable, complimenting each other.]

[Note: You relied on learning and mastery of your bloodline to acquire this skill. Unable to rely on Points, Skill Points to level up.]

…

Heat spread from Kieran’s right heart throughout his body. The devil’s consumption, the reflect damage of the knight, and what Gluttony ate in the end became the enhancement for this new level skill.

A small Devil Flame appeared out of thin air before Kieran as he thought. It grew from a small fire to as big as a basketball, before vanishing into nothing. All was done within Kieran’s mind.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t get bigger than a basketball. The place just was not suitable for him.

Kieran didn’t want to show off his powers under people’s gazes.

He glanced over the Musou level [Devil Burning], his lips curled into a smile.

It was a complete surprise for Kieran to level up [Devil Burning] in this dungeon world. The level up this time was much more complete and richer than any other dungeon clear reward. If he left now, he’d be okay with it.

No one knew how powerful [Devil Burning] was more than himself, otherwise it wouldn’t become his strongest attack for so long.

Of course, Kieran got more than just leveling [Devil Burning].

[Name: Mystic Knowledge. Ancient Text (Name of Eat) (Pro)]

[Related Attribute: None]

[Skill Type: Ancillary]

[Effect: You have mastered the words of this dungeon world in the past few hundred years, you can skillfully read through all the ancient text and understand them.]

[Consume: None]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Remark: Knowing an extra language was an amazing achievement and rewarding gains for anyone.]

[Note: You learned this skill through self-study and practise, can not level up.]

…

The knowledge of the ancient text appeared in Kieran’s skill tab as expected, while the [Inheritance Crystal (Damaged)] in his hand broke into dust.

Kieran never simply made promises because he was a person that held his promise dearly.

Crushing him to bits meant crushing him to bits!

Dang Dang Dang!

A clear chime from the clock entered Kieran’s ears. He shook the dust off his hand, standing up and walking out the room.