The Devil's Cage

Panda Novel

After making sure the message was sent out, Ude crushed the communicator in his hand and looked at the store owner.

“I will leave Theorate immediately to join the war. If the sir from Inner Sect comes here again, please tell him Sil Sect will follow the Inner Sect and if the Inner Sect decides to go to war with Ryde Family, Sil Sect will follow them to the battlefield!”

Ude then headed out of the store.

“Godspeed and may victory favour you, leader.”

The store owner bowed and saluted Ude, who walked away.

He knew what kind of mentality Ude had as he joined the war: it was either win or die!

Perhaps there were some personal reasons in the mix but Ude’s decisive manner was respectful enough.

Not all would use their life as a chip in a bet.

Similarly, after those eager attackers found out what happened in the garrison, they ceased all operation. Without Ryde Family as their leader, these scattered forces or Dark Eaters would never really make a move. The wanted to fish in muddy waters, not go to war with the garrison.

Therefore, 24 hours later, Professor Tyrese sent Kieran out of the security garrison.

“I may be wrong but is your bag heavier than before?”

Kieran chose to sit at the back and when he threw his bag inside the car, he forced Professor Tyrese to ask.

“No, I think you are working too hard,” Kieran said in an affirmative tone.

“Maybe you are right,” the professor said, recalling what had happened throughout the day and the day before, smiling bitterly.

Principal Romuse and Professor Smith’s battle had exceeded his imagination.

Despite the principal giving his best effort to control the battle, Tyrese was still exhausted from all the clean up.

He had to help the students and school workers who were caught in the conflict and also plan reconstruction schedules for the destroyed building. Most importantly, he had to search for Smith’s location.

The first two assignments progressed smoothly but the last, and most important, got stuck completely.

Smith and Bolt had vanished into thin air, not a single trace left behind.

Hence, Tyrese didn’t even have time to nap and he had to maintain this tiring state for quite some time in the upcoming days.

Once he thought about what was coming, the smile on Tyrese’s face got heavier.

“I really hope for some peaceful days!” he sighed.

Kieran didn’t answer from behind. He too wished for peaceful days, but it was nearly impossible.

If he stopped to rest, his enemies, who were equally prepared, would crush him like rolling thunder and he would die without a grave.

As a matter of fact, forget stopping for a rest, even if he kept moving forward, his enemies would still search for his weakness.

At first, he had entered the game to seek a way out of death but now he had to exhaust his life to continue living.

Life is really ruthless and harsh, just like the philosophers said.

Perhaps those philosophers had met similar situations as well, and with no options to begin with, they were forced to move forward.

Any resistance against life would cause them to bleed.

“This really sucks,” Kieran muttered softly as he leaned back against the seat and looked at the car ceiling.

“Don’t worry, everything will turn out fine and Professor Smith isn’t really a bad person, 2567, you don’t really have to worry about him,” Tyrese heard the mutters and misunderstood the meaning, quickly comforting Kieran.

“Em,” Kieran nodded, not taking the words seriously.

Humans are conflicted animals to begin with.

The bad are not always bad; the good are not always good.

In many situations, the line between good and bad is blurred out; it isn’t just hard to define, it is hard to tell apart too.

Like Kieran still had no idea what Smith was after, but that didn’t stop him from preparing for the worst.

The car cruised on smoothly and after Kieran was sent back to the freshman dorm, Tyrese waved and said goodbye. He left in a rush though.

If he had not promised Kieran he would guarantee his safety, Tyrese would never have spared time to send Kieran back himself.

Kieran saw the professor off until the car went out of sight completely before he went back to his room.

There wasn’t anyone in the dorm because it was the weekend.

Due to the sudden attack during the tutorial lesson, all the freshmen were headed to a farm visit instead.

Kieran wasn’t interested in visiting some farms, especially where he would be surrounded by people. He would rather continue reading to expand his knowledge of this world.

“Welcome back,” Lester bowed when Kieran entered the room.

“Anything?”

Kieran took off his coat, hung it behind the door, and turned his back towards his bedroom.

“There were some watchers before this but after they didn’t find an opening, they left. They should be the Dark Eaters, I am very familiar with their methods,” Lester answered.

“Okay, keep it up. If it’s possible, I want you to hasten the second phase’s progress,” Kieran nodded.

“Understood,” Lester bowed again.

When Lester stood back up, Kieran was already in his bedroom. With [Mesly Ring] in effect, Lester wasn’t unhappy, he would only carry out Kieran’s orders wholeheartedly.

Lester took out his toolbox and started to build more surveillance cameras.

The second phase: before the anniversary celebration, Lester had to install more cameras throughout E Block and try to cover as much ground as possible.

It wasn’t the entire E Block though, Lester was only responsible for the part that Kieran wanted to know.

As for the others?

Kieran was still working on it.

Rome wasn’t built in one night, so a perfect plan wouldn’t come without a thought. It was altered through trial and error.

The reason for alteration was of course the level of gains.

Kieran curled up his lips when he went through the 11 Magic rank items and 3 Rare rank items.

The Magic rank items were from the ambushers and the Rare rank items were from the two from Ryde Family and the guard in disguise; the guard contributed a Rare rank food.

[Name: Mint Candy]

[Type: Wonder Item]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Attack: None]

[Defense: None]

[Attribute: Excite]

[Effect: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: It is a type of combat ration, its origin is untraceable anymore]

…

[Excite: Put the candy in your mouth, it can expel negative effects like Chaos, Fear, Shock etc. Last 5 minutes.]

…

The mint candy was wrapped in a silver foil paper tightly. Kieran couldn’t see the contents and since he knew food quality would go down once unwrapped, he didn’t simply open it.

He put [Mint Candy] away and looked at the rest of the Rare items.

[Name: Preservative Pendant]

[Type: Wonder Item]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Attack: None]

[Defense: None]

[Attribute: Preserve]

[Effect: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: This is an item from the chef of the east.]

…

[Preserve: Create a Preserve Field in a 1 meter radius range, able to preserve food for a longer time.]

…

A red string attached to a gentle green round jade formed the pendant. It wasn’t eye-catching and felt cool.

“An area preserve?”

Without further thought, Kieran placed the pendant around [Drops of Finest Cream], [Secret Oil Mixture], [Butter Ball], [Crispy Thin Roll] and [Mint Candy].

Kieran then turned to the most valuable gain of the bunch: a Rare rank skill book.

More precisely, a skill book which was still ranked as Rare despite it being broken. It came from the second Ryde, who he had thrown out of the window.

[Detected Spirit at B+ rank, learning prerequisite met!]

[Learn Arnold Sect Godly Speaking Technique? Yes/No]

“Yes.”

It was a hard to come by Spirit type skill, so Kieran said yes without a thought.

[Name: Arnold Sect Godly Speaking Technique (Basic) (Broken)]

[Related Attribute: None]

[Skill Type: Ancillary]

[Effect: Powerful Spirit can even affect reality. Your words and actions will silently affect the people around you; anyone who speaks to you will have to go through a C rank Spirit authentication. Those who pass will not be affected; those who fail will either be fond of you or scared of you (depends on how you speak)]

[Consume: Stamina]

[Prerequisite: Spirit B+]

[Remark: It is the Final Ultimate of Arnold Sect, as long as you have sufficient stamina, you can turn in on at will.]

[Note: It is broken, you can only learn the Basic, you cannot level it by Points or training]

…

“Hypnosis…No, it should be bewitching! A skill with potential!” Kieran commented on [Arnold Sect Godly Speaking Technique].

Maybe C rank Spirit authentication wasn’t high by all means, but its prerequisites were relatively low for a Basic. It wasn’t even at Entry level.

Kieran believed as [Arnold Sect Godly Speaking Technique] got higher, the authentication level would surge. Since he was a Spirit high-ranker, the Master and Transcendence option of this skill was something he would look forward to.

However…

Searching for a sect’s Final Ultimate wasn’t an easy task. He hadn’t even heard of Arnold Sect before he started this dungeon, but he wasn’t completely blind either.

[Arnold Sect Godly Speaking Technique] came from Ryde Family, which mean Ryde Family would have the related clues.

After new orders were given to Bloody Mary, Kieran picked up his backpack and coat and headed to the library.

He wanted to find out more about [Arnold Sect Godly Speaking Technique].

Kieran arrived at the E Block library but didn’t stop at the first floor, instead going to the second floor right away.

“Come out,” Kieran whispered when he reached an inconspicuous spot.

A soft and quiet lady immediately appeared before Kieran.

“Good day, my lord.”

The legendary interrogator, Agernessa, who would only appear on Mondays, came out when Kieran called her. She was timid and obedient before Kieran, showing a sweet smile.

What about appearing on Monday, what about increasing her scare power if she fit the rumours?

All of those were not important for Agernessa.

The important thing was to continue to exist, spirit form or not.

Staying ‘alive’ was the priority, wasn’t it?

“I want information about Arnold Sect,” Kieran said.

“Please follow me my lord.”

Agernessa headed to the east section of the second floor and stopped before a row of books. She took out a book for Kieran.

The Dead Sects.

That was the name of the book.

“Information regarding Arnold Sect is on pages 133 and 134. Do you want anything to drink? There are some new drinks in the pantry,” Agernessa asked with a smile after giving Kieran the book.

“Tea,” Kieran said.

Kieran didn’t go to the reading area, starting to flip through the book while standing before the rack.

It was just two pages of words and no matter how small or concentrated the words were, before Agernessa came back with her tea, Kieran would have finished it meticulously.

Arnold Sect, the earliest sect that was born after the chef from the east came to the west.

It was said to originate from Aang Sect and claimed to be a branch but Aang Sect did not acknowledge or deny it.

Despite Arnold Sect losing its core in a Mystic State expedition and the weak and ill of the sect consumed by others, Aang Sect never stood up.

Most of the people assumed Arnold Sect and Aang Sect were somehow related, just not very deeply.

It was a summary of the content of those two pages.

Other than that, there wasn’t anything Kieran was looking for.

Except for Aang Sect, the alleged origin, all the other contents were the author’s own deduction. The book didn’t even state how did Arnold Sect died off, let alone anything about [Arnold Sect Godly Speaking Technique].

“The whole second floor only has this one book on Arnold Sect?” Kieran asked.

“Yes, my lord. I assure you there is only one book.”

Agernessa carefully looked at Kieran, nodding repeatedly when asked.

Hesitant, she continued, “There should be more on the said sect on the third floor, but I can’t get up there. There is something scary there but two days ago, something even scarier appeared, consuming the former and taking the entire third floor.”

“Something scarier?”

Kieran couldn’t understand how ghosts held rights to turf, but he sensed something familiar on third floor.

He then walked towards the third floor.

“I would suggest you not go up there. You are strong but that scary thing is much scarier than what I can perceive,” Agernessa mustered enough courage to say.

She wasn’t worried about Kieran though, she knew the new scary existence would not be satisfied with the third floor. Agernessa, who was bound to the second floor, would eventually be its target. So there was only one option for her: leave the place.

Leaving the place wasn’t easy, however, requiring someone very powerful to help her, like Kieran.

Therefore in a certain aspect, Agernessa wished nothing would happen to Kieran.

Kieran turned a deaf ear and walked to the stairs.

Agernessa fell into despair when she saw Kieran walk up the stairs.

‘This is the end!’

She cried for her impending tragic end, but a moment later, soft sobs came from the third floor.

“Sob sob sob, the scary man came! Don’t eat me, sob sob sob, I am not tasty! I’ll get the one from the second floor for you, she tastes good!”