The Devil's Cage

Thee crystals the size of a palm, [Lord of Mist] slept quietly on Kieran's hand, the morbid texture on the surface slightly decreased, looking a little bit clearer than before, but only slightly.

The changes on the outside were subtle, Kieran had to pay extra attention to notice it.

Yet the changes to its attribute were obvious.

[Name: Lord of Mist]

[Type: ETC]

[Rarity: I]

[Attack: None]

[Defense: I]

[Attribute: 1. Mist Control; 2 Poison Mist Assault; 3. Icy Air Assault]

[Effect: 1.Land of Sicar; 2. Reply; 3. Bless]

[Prerequisite: Spirit I, bears the title of Mist]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remarl: A product of an accident during the Black Cataclysm. Unlike how your predecessor crudely used it, its true potential is being brought out in your hands. After a perfect kill, you start to gain total control over it but when you use it, you need to have a powerful spirit power and willpower, plus a corresponding title.]

...

[Mist Control: Summon a 200 meter radius mist and shroud everything in sight, 2/day]

[Poison Mist Assault: Induce Poison to the targets caught by the mist, targets would have to go through 3 times B+ rank Constitution authentication. Targets who fail all three times will be inflicted with lethal poison damage; targets who fail twice will be inflicted with Powerful poison damage; targets that fail once will be inflicted with Strong poison attack; targets who pass all three will be immune but still trapped in the mist.]

[Icy Air Assault: Able to create a Weak to Average freeze attack inside the mist, the icy air cannot go outside the mist's range]

...

[Land of Sicar: Within the Land of Sicar, the title of Mist has been recognized and you, who possess the Lord of Mist, can move natural mist at will and induced them with poison and ice (unable to exceed the range of the poison mist and icy air), but it will consume your stamina accordingly.]

[Reply: You are treated as the God of Mist, you can use the Lord of Mist to reply simply to the prayers of your believers. It will consume your stamina accordingly.]

[Bless: Inside the Land of Sicar, when your believers prayed to you, you can consume stamina to bless them with the Blessing of Mist (Blessing of Mist: provide resistance against poison and ice wherever mist is visible)

…...

The original attributes grew to a different extent respectively.

The new attribute [Icy Air Assault] was undoubtedly from the kill on that Crippling Cold.

"Kill, eh?" Kieran squinted his eyes at the remark in the description.

He started to wonder if this would be the reason why Broker wanted to enter this world?

This dungeon world was obviously unlike others.

Whenever a special item was in hand, one could directly kill another target and acquire the powers, together with the support behind the target.

Kieran looked at the new effect [Bless].

He could already picture what would happen if he put [Reply] and [Bless] together: becoming a God wasn't all that impossible now.

All it required was some precise control and it could be achieved to perfection.

As his forces grew and expanded, the effect of [Land of Sicar] would surely follow.

"Being a God in this world, that's your goal? Or… part of your goal?" Kieran muttered.

Kieran could never be too careful against an opponent like Broker.

He didn't want to fall short on his efforts because of a little mistake.

Therefore, after he sent some messages to Bloody Mary, he put the crystal away and walked out of his room to the main lobby of Anan Hotel.

He had to reconfirm some details with Borl.

As for Borl lingering in front of his door before this?

Kieran didn't care at all, Borl didn't interrupt him anyway.

Back in the hotel lobby, everyone was discussing what had just happened.

The Mist was mentioned repeatedly.

Some were heavy in doubts, some were excited and full of anticipation, others were just here for the show.

Those who were full of heavy doubt were obviously believers of God of War.

The excited ones were just some random believers.

Those who came for the show with popcorn were just bored, people like this would never be the lesser anywhere.

Kieran, who walked in, didn't stop the discussion either. They would also never know the God they were discussing had just walked past them.

"Morning, Colin. Fancy anything? My treat."

When Kieran sat down opposite Borl, Borl asked out of instinct but right after the question, the not-so-wealthy merchant instantly realized what kind of hole did he had just dug up and jumped into.

What if the Flaming Devil got an increase in his appetite and demanded to eat everything in the hotel again?

'I-Impossible!

He has just finished breakfast, he shouldn't be too hungry!

Yes! He shouldn't be too hungry!'

Borl was comforting himself.

Thankfully, things were exactly like what Borl though, Kieran wasn't too hungry after breakfast.

But…

Since someone else was buying, rejecting wasn't Kieran's style either.

So, he turned to Holuff and waved at him.

The hotel owner walked over with a face full of smiles.

Although he suffered a headache earlier and it caused quite the discomfort, he still heard the 'generous' words from Borl and knew how good Kieran's appetite was. He had no reason to reject it. It was business involving Gold Purton after all.

Only in times like this did Holuff feel Kieran was a good customer.

A person who had the appetite of a hundred.

Regardless of the venue, as long as one could afford to pay, one could be a good customer and would receive a warm welcome.

"I want roasted meat for 10 first. Plus pickled vegetables, skip the bread and if you have extra steam egg cakes, bring them too."

Kieran made an order before Holuff even said anything.

He wasn't far away from the kitchen anyway, his nose easily picked up every single dish being cooked inside. The menu for lunch was roasted meat, bread and pickled vegetables plus steam egg cakes.

"Okay, coming right up." Holuff smiled and called the waiter over.

Borl, on the other hand, was calculating how much he had to spend on this meal.

Meal for 10 was nothing, but what Kieran ordered was a prefix of 'first'.

If the roasted meat suited his appetite…

Borl covered his wallet tightly. If Kieran ate like this along the way, he felt that before they could even reach Edatine Castle, he would have to go and find another way to make more money.

'Don't worry, I won't eat you broke in a single meal.'

Kieran was habitually thrifty, he spoke after he commented in his heart, "Before this, when we first met, who were you praying to?"

"I don't know. The voice contacted me first. When I was in danger, the voice spoke in my mind—the voice was kind and seemed harmless, telling me the help was free. But I know the most expensive kind is the free kind."

Borl shook his head without hiding the details.

It wasn't the first time he answered a question from Kieran, so he wasn't bothered or felt impatient about the question. He tried his best in giving the details but what he knew was limited.

"Mm," Kieran nodded and killed the other questions in his heart.

The point of intervention was Borl.

Broker wanted to enter this world through Borl to seize the authority from the Mist or other pagans. From there, he would grow stronger.

Although he hadn't truly understood this dungeon world to its core, based on how hostile Withering Branch and Resting Deer were, Kieran knew that the pagans in this world weren't exactly allies, killing each other much more suitable for them.

Sitting there, Kieran once again deduced what Broker could have done should he come into this world.

He hoped to figure out Broker's goal from the deduction.

It was natural that Kieran would connect to the War God Temple and Lady Calamity. Among all the possible paths that Broker could have taken, these two were the inevitable.

Among the two, the Lady Calamity, who caused the Black Cataclysm, was much more concerning.

"What do you know about Lady Calamity?" asked Kieran.

"Believe me, I don't know any more than you. I am just a lucky merchant on the side of Mozaar that relied on quick-wits to make a bucket of money. Before that, I wasn't in any good shape. Otherwise, I would never strive for a better identity and position," Borl laid his hands open with a bitter smile.

He believed Kieran would understand what he just said.

Or rather, any player would easily understand what he meant.

Before attaining absolute power, the player's priority wasn't to explore the dungeon world, but to do things according to their 'identity'. Kieran experienced something similar, so he nodded in agreement.

He acknowledged Borl's point of view, but that didn't mean he would give up.

"Who do you think would know all of this?" asked Kieran.

Borl didn't answer, looking at Holuff instead.

The answer was obvious and self-explanatory.

Given his hearing and the distance, Holuff heard everything they said.

Holuff instinctively wanted to reject answering but before he said anything, he hesitated.

His 'illness' was getting severe and he wasn't sure when he would suddenly die. Rather than dying a blind death, might as well find someone and tell them everything.

A decision had been made in his mind.

"Let's eat first. We will talk after the meal."

The roast meat was served.

The full rib was cured with coarse salt, roasted golden before it was cut into many chunks. The ribs filled out a big plate neatly, a little bit of green pepper served as a side in the plate beside the main, served together. There wasn't usage for pepper or cumin powder though. To the Land of Sicar, spices were scarce. Even though Edatine Castle had its own spice garden, since Edatine Castle was close to the south, spices were still scarce in the north.

Rare commodities meaning higher price. It was something a common hotel like Anan couldn't afford to serve.

One would have to prepare it himself if he wanted to eat or go to the restaurants in Edatine Castle.

The steam egg cakes were put in a big bowl with some scallions as garnish, the gold and green a scene that would increase appetite.

The sides were a kind of vegetable found in the wild. It was all over the wilderness, no one would particularly grow it because it sold cheap. It was loaded in a bowl and placed beside Kieran.

Kiera grabbed the roasted meat with some green pepper and delivered them into his mouth.

Crunch, crunch.

The juice of the meat and the crunchiness of the green pepper matched very well.

The substantial flavour of the meat even suppressed the slight bitterness of the green pepper.

The green pepper was imported from the south, but unlike other vegetables that were less potent, the green pepper was the embodiment of vigorous life energy of a vegetable, able to be grown anywhere. When the Northerners realized the slight bitterness in the green pepper could cure oiliness, it was instantly loved by many.

After all, not all were high class nobles, who used tea to cure oiliness after a meal.

After he swallowed the meat, Kieran picked up the spoon and scooped a big piece of steam egg cake into his mouth.

It was perfectly steamed, not too shaggy, not too shallow, with a decent bite to it.

Although it was served only with some coarse salt, the freshness of the eggs was a thing to praise. Similar to the little sides, all the ingredients used were fresh and brought a lively texture to Kieran's mouth.

A mouthful of roasted meat followed by a spoonful of steam egg cake.

Kieran cleaned up the meal for 10 like a tornado.

As Gluttony quietly told him that he still wanted to eat, Kieran suppressed the urge to eat more.

One shouldn't keep shaving a sheep for its wool, especially when there's only one.

The sheep should be carefully taken care of and loved.

Kieran lectured Gluttony while he looked at Borl's anxious look.

He didn't even care about whether Gluttony listened or not and turned to Holuff.

"You done?" asked the hotel owner.

"It's not lunch time yet, I have to hold myself for lunch," said Kieran.

'You've already eaten lunch for 10!'

Holuff's mouth twitched for a second before he headed to the courtyard where his room was.

Kieran followed behind, Borl too after a little hesitation.

Back in the courtyard, Holuff invited the two of them into his room.

It wasn't the first time the two of them entered the plain room.

Other than the necessary, there was no extra decoration. It was rather unusual because not even a commoner would decorate his room like this, making it seem like Holuff lived like an apostle.

"Sit."

Holuff dragged two stools from outside for the two and then he sat on his bed.

"Do you know anything about the Demon Hunters?" said Holuff frankly.

"Hm," Kieran nodded.

It wasn't a lie, he knew a lot of Demon Hunters, just not from this world.

Borl knew better.

"Rumour has it the Demon Hunters were annihilated during the investigation on the Black Cataclysm, right?" Borl looked at the hotel owner as he spoke.

"Don't try to test me. I am one of those Demon Hunters that should have been 'annihilated' and I am not the only one!" Holuff said in a rather annoyed tone.

Borl rubbed his nose out of embarrassment and sized up Holuff's fat physique.

'Hmmm, how should I put this… he doesn't fit the image of a Demon Hunter that I have in mind…'

"What? Can't I get fat after retirement?" Holuff glared at Borl.

He then turned to Kieran.

Holuff performed a very unfamiliar hand gesture to Kieran. Both hands were put together, the right hand then turned counter clockwise and when four of the fingers interlocked with the left index finger, the left pinky tilted down a little, both thumbs lifted straight.

The morning sun shone in through the window and cast a shadow on the wall through Holuff's hand. The shadow on the wall showed a wolf.

"Seen this before?" asked Holuff.

"I have in fact," Kieran nodded.

Right when Holuff showed surprise on his face, Kieran added, "I haven't just seen it before, I'm good at it also. See, I can do more than just a wolf. I can make a pigeon, a fox, and even a snake.

Holuff was rendered speechless as Kieran played with the shadow with his hands.