The Devil’s Cage - Chapter 199

Chapter 199

As the blinding light dissipated, a foul stench assaulted Kieran’s nose mercilessly .

Pain rose from his chest suddenly as he furrowed his brow harder .

Kieran tilted his head downwards and saw that his chest was filled with intertwining lash-like wounds . Blood was oozing out . He didn’t even have to look at his back to know that it was in the same state .

Blood was smeared all over his body, and his flesh was hurting more and more by the second .

[You have been whipped and tortured, Your HP has decreased to 220!]

[Moderately Wounded Status . . . ]

"So this is the punishment the system was talking about?" Kieran said under his breath .

When he’d read the background description of the dungeon, he had already had a terrible feeling .

However, the situation before him had exceeded even his wildest imagination .

If he, as an accomplice, was being tortured and whipped, then what was happening to Lawless and Hanses?

As the most experienced player, Lawless would definitely have it the worst . According to Special Dungeon rules, dungeon entry difficulty would determine the Main Mission .

Hanses had been the mastermind behind the theft, so he would also get a thorough treatment .

Kieran instinctively popped in at the team chat and tried to send a message out .

[Special environment, Communication is restricted!]

"Damn it!" Kieran sighed helplessly .

The three of them had already anticipated that their communication would be cut off .

Fortunately, they had been prepared for it .

Even though the situation before them was not ideal, it was still within their expectations .

Kieran started to check his surroundings .

His cell was no bigger than three square feet, and the wet dark box was filled with a foul stench .

It had been built with hard rock, and any corners and nooks were all covered with a thick layer of moss .

The cell door was a huge wooden door, and on top of it there were raw iron bars and a bolt . Even though all the metal parts were rusty, the whole structure still looked as formidable as ever .

At the bottom edge of the door there was a little window that was shut tight . It made Kieran think of the prison cells in Alcatraz .

No matter the time, place or universe, there were things that would always share similar traits . Kieran pondered this silently before he raised his hand and knocked on the cell door .

The heavy noise proved that it was even more formidable that it looked . He was not concerned about it though .

His main concern were the chained cuffs on his hands and feet and the giant steel ball at the end of the chains .

The steel was completely solid . Kieran tried to lift the ball, but it had to weigh at least 50 kilos .

"Ordinary men would not even be able to shake this steel ball, let alone break out of this prison," Kieran thought .

Despite his extraordinary strength, the steel ball would still weigh him down and cause him unwanted trouble if he tried to break out .

That ball was the first obstacle that he needed to overcome .

He looked carefully at the steel cuffs on his limbs .

Then he opened his mouth and put his fingers in, reaching for the strand of hair inside the slit at the back of his teeth . It was the [Deceiver’s Key] .

The dungeon description might have stated that all his items were running a risk of being confiscated and he had to choose his equipment carefully, but that was just a warning .

The truth was that no items would get confiscated if they were hidden well from his enemies .

The [Deceiver’s Key], for example, was extremely easy to hide . It was like a hair-like wire on his body .

To make his plan foolproof though, Kieran had tried his best to hide it . He had tied it on the end of a strand on his tooth and swallowed the rest .

With his tongue blocking it, no one would ever discover the strand unless Kieran’s mouth was forced wide open and someone shone a flashlight in it .

If Kieran still had access to his key though, Morko Principality Prison must have never performed a thorough search .

Kieran tagged at one end of the strand and pulled the rest out slowly from the inside of his stomach .

It was horrible . When the strand touched his uvula, his gag reflex made his stomach twitch sourly .

As Kieran dragged the [Deceiver’s Key] completely out, his saliva ran all over the floor and he vomited helplessly .

He unconsciously bent down as his stomach turned upside down, the motion affecting the wounds on his chest and back .

The burning sensation caused Kieran to clench his teeth hard as he choked on his vomit .

He quickly forced himself to calm down when he heard footsteps coming towards his cell .

"Prison guards!" Kieran guessed who the footsteps belonged to .

He paid attention to the sound as the footsteps walked from left to right at a moderate pace .

After around two minutes, they finally got weaker and the sound eventually faded away .

Five minutes later though, the footsteps returned from the right side . When they reached Kieran’s cell door, they stopped .

The small window on the door was opened halfway, and half the face of a prison guard was visible through the tiny space .

Thanks to the torch in the prison guard’s hand, Kieran could see the man’s filthy, ruthless face and the disdain in his eyes .

"You dare steal the treasure in the Grand Duke’s vault? Do you have a death wish? Relax, I will take really good care of you during your stay . Oh yes, and both your friends as well! It’s the warden’s orders!" The prison guard dragged his finger across his neck as he talked .

Before Kieran could utter a word, the small window was closed again .

He was not even bothered by the guard’s threats . His mind was filled with thoughts about the prison guard’s footsteps and what they meant .

"Judging by the window’s height, the guard has to be at least 175 cm tall, and every step he took must have been around 70 mm wide . It took him around two minutes to walk from left to right, and after around 100 steps, he headed down . It took him about five minutes before he came back . If I add the time he used to climb down the stairs… Then the prison has to be a two-storey building, and every floor has to be around 7 meters tall . Judging by the cell’s width and the security concerns, plus the thickness of the walls, if this is a one-side cell area, there have to be around 15 to 18 cells on this side!"

"Although this is a principality, the population must be around 100,000, so the prison cannot be this small . This place has to be the Grand Duke’s private confinement facility . It can’t be outside the castle, so it must be underground! That explains the cold and the humidity!"

Kieran’s lightning speed calculations were all thanks to the information he got from his [Tracking] .

While the gears in his mind kept spinning, his hands did not stop working with the [Deceiver’s Key] .

One end of the key was already inside the lock, and Kieran was fingerpicking inside it .

The metal cuffs on his limbs were all easily opened, but suddenly footsteps were heard from outside again .

They sounded messy and they belonged to more than one person . It was definitely not the prison guard from earlier .