The Devil's Cage Chapter 181

Kieran was dragged down straight to the bottom by the black mist.

Although he was inside the mist, he was not affected by the lack of oxygen and the pressure underwater. He still grew more vigilant though.

Gilfren Hatch’s final retaliation would not be that simple. Kieran looked at the ring in his hand.

It had a black rough surface, but that did not diminish its value one bit.

[Name: Spectre Grip]

[Type: Accessory]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Attack/Defense: None]

[Attributes: Shadow Chain]

[Effects: None]

[Prerequisites: None]

[Able to bring out of the dungeon: Yes]

[Remarks: This is the power of a reincarnated spectre!]

...

[Shadow Chain: Form a dark chain using negative energy to bind you target, Target has to undergo a Strength authentication in conjunction with your Strength; If they pa.s.s, they will be released, If they fail, they will be bound for one second, 15 Negative Corrosion Damage per second for three seconds, two times per day]

...

Kieran understood the value of the [Spectre Grip] after he had experienced it himself.

It could be used to both escape and fight, so it was a valuable addition to his a.r.s.enal.

He put the ring on his left index finger and turned his attention to Fenkes’ body.

After Gilfren Hatch’s spirit had left it, Fenkes’ body started to rot rapidly.

From the look of it, Fenkes must had been dead for months. Kieran was unsure about what the man had been through, but he was sure it had been an unpleasant experience.

"Did Fenkes die after we left the dungeon? Was he possessed by Gilfren Hatch?" he guessed.

Without sufficient information, Kieran could not decide whether he was right or wrong.

When the black mist around him started to move, he collected his thoughts and turned his full attention to it.

Boom!

The black mist started to expand like a soap bubble.

Kieran was alarmed by the sudden expansion and quickly rolled away.

It turned out to be the right move, as a huge, ripped figure emerged from the bubble after it burst.

The figure had wings on its back, and there was a blood pattern on its face similar to the half-dead Kieran had previously encountered.

The figure dissipated the dark mist and landed on the rock bottom. The moment its feet came into contact with the ground, they crushed it.

"The half-dead!"

Kieran was uncertain of the ident.i.ty of the monster that had suddenly appeared.

He was familiar with the blood patterns on the monster's face though. It was what Zywane had had on his face when Gilfren Hatch had possessed him. However, Zywane had not been as huge and ripped as the monster before Kieran, and he most certainly hadn’t had wings.

The blood pattern did not seem to share the same traits as the one on Zywane’s face either, as that one had been able to induce [Fear] and [Illusions].

Just as Kieran was inspecting the monster, it let out a loud growl and disappeared.

"F*ck!"

Kieran’s heart skipped a beat as he realized what was happening.

He activated [Primus Arm, Primus Scale] and [Tessirot Blessing, Scale of Blessing] right away.

BANG!

A crus.h.i.+ng blow landed on Kieran’s back and sent him flying forward like a bullet.

The Powerful Rank Force Field Barrier and the 500 Medium Rock Skin Defense were crushed to bits one after the other.

Despite Kieran’s strongest defense, all it had taken was one hit from the monster.

After that crus.h.i.+ng blow, the monster disappeared again and reappeared above Kieran’s head.

It launched a hard punch toward Kieran’s face while Kieran was in mid-air. His eyes opened wide as he watched the incoming punch. He was completely defenseless against it.

The sheer wind force of the punch was enough to send Kieran straight to the ground, but before he could crash down, his body flew sideways and away from the monster.

A silver wire as thick as a hair was fired out from Kieran’s hand and latched onto a rock. Kieran relied on his Strength to drag his body away from the lethal blow.

It was the [Deceiver’s Key]!

The monster did not stop though. Its punch landed on the ground with tremendous force.

Almost half its arm plunged into the ground.

Kieran felt a slight delight at being able to avoid such a powerful blow.

As the monster pulled its hand out, Kieran instinctively widened the distance between them to avoid the monster’s incoming attack.

The monster did not pursue Kieran though. Instead, it stood on the spot and looked around.

"Poor vision and hearing?"

Kieran raised a brow in silent relief.

Considering the monster’s formidable strength and speed, if its vision and hearing hadn’t been poor, he would have already been dead.

Now he saw a thin ray of hope.

Kieran readjusted his stance and moved around carefully.

His Musou Level [Undercover] allowed him to fully blend in with the dark mist.

A rough breathing noise came from the monster’s mouth as its chest expanded and collapsed to the rhythm of its breathing.

There was only a limited amount of light from the surface, but it was enough for Kieran to notice that the monster had a big hole on the right side of its chest.

The heart was supposed to be there, yet the s.p.a.ce was empty. There were only veins inside it.

"Where is its heart? Could this be…?"

The missing heart reminded Kieran of the bronze coffin’s rhythmic beating.

"Arghhhh!"

Before Kieran could come up with any more theories, the monster flapped its wings and flew. It had not given up on searching for Kieran. It expanded its wings to perform a thorough search around the area.

Kieran focused his attention on it again and stared at the monster as he moved around carefully.

Although the monster had poor vision and hearing, that did not meant that it was blind or deaf.

It could still detect Kieran once it got close enough to him. Its detection range had to be around 10 meters.

Kieran came up with that estimate based on his previous dodging moves.

A 10-meter radius was barely enough to avoid soft noise detection though. Any louder noises would allow the monster to discover him.

Kieran tried his best to maintain the distance between them.

As the seconds flew by, the monster was still flying around searching for Kieran.

Kieran used that time window to determine where he was.

It seemed like he and the monster were inside a triangular cave with a narrow s.p.a.ce at the top and a wide s.p.a.ce at the bottom.

The inside of the cave was average-sized, and there were two doors facing each other.

The doors were made from a translucent gelatinous material.

One of them was the entrance that Kieran had been dragged in through. He tried to access it, but it was shut tight. The gelatinous material was as hard as iron. He could not escape from that entrance, and the monster had started guarding the other door after failing to capture Kieran.

"Despite its low intelligence, its natural predator instincts tell it what to do," Kieran thought to himself.

The monster had poor vision and hearing, and it lacked the intelligence of a human being. It was like a primitive beast that could only hunt. It could not think at a human-like intellect level.

Kieran had no idea what had caused the monster to become like that, but he knew what he had to do.

He pulled the pin of a grenade from a safe distance and threw it towards the monster.

The landing noise of the grenade instantly captured the monster’s attention, who threw itself towards the grenade.

BOOM!

The explosion forced it away. It fell to the ground, but quickly stood up without a scratch. It was growling fiercely.

[Explosion: Inflicts 200 Damage to Target HP, Target has Immune Lethal Damage Skill, High Dead-Man’s Skin, High Iron Armor Skill, Resisted 200 Damage, 0 True Damage inflicted…]

The battlelog notifications informed Kieran that the monster was impenetrable as he took advantage of this distraction to open the door the monster had been guarding.

After a quick glance at the battlelog notification, Kieran did not stop. Even though he had his theories about it, he kept pressing forward.

After getting away through the gelatinous door, Kieran heard heavy knocking against the door.

The monster was. .h.i.tting it with all its might, but the door would not even budge.

Thanks to the protection of the door, Kieran had a lot more time to re-evaluate the monster he was facing.

He wanted to test out another thing though, so he took out the [Python-W2] and reloaded it with [Bullets of Blessing].