The Devil’s Cage - Chapter 237

Chapter 237

[Entering Single Player Dungeon…]

[Difficulty: Fourth Dungeon]

[Background: Professor Herbert is preparing for an archeological excavation in the ancient city of Isogu . He has heard about your skills and reputation, so he invited you to join his team as a bodyguard . ]

[Main Mission: Explore at least 20% of the ancient city of Isogu in 4 weeks . ]

[Temporary language pack, disappears upon exiting the dungeon . ]

[Clothing, backpack, weapons, items, and attributes remain unchanged, Temporarily changed appearance, disappears upon exiting the dungeon . ]

[Inspecting firearms and grenades… Weapons do not match the current year, Damage reduced by 50%, Handgun Reloading Speed +1 seconds, Sniper Reloading Speed +30 seconds]

[Hint 1: This is your fourth official dungeon . You can fail the Main Mission, but you will have to pay 400 Points as a penalty, and your highest attributes will drop by 1 . If your points are insufficient, the system will deduct from your equipment . If your equipment is insufficient, you will fail . ]

. . .

The blinding light faded off soon .

Kieran carefully scanned the room he was in . There was a square window on his left made of wood and nails .

It was wide open at the moment, the sunset light pouring in and warming up the room, which was only about 10 square feet .

The room was only meant to accommodate one person . There was a single bed, a bedside table, and a closet . That was all .

Kieran’s backpack was leaning against the closet . He went over to check, but nothing was missing .

On the bedside table, there was a newspaper and a half-burnt candle .

"No electricity? Maybe it hasn’t been discovered yet?"

Kieran glanced at the candle and picked up the newspaper .

Burgle City Morning News, July 22nd, T1891 .

The front page told him where he was and what year it was .

He went through the rest of the newspaper in hopes of finding more clues .

Other than tons of useless information, he also found some valuable leads .

"Gold found in the ancient city of Isogu again"

"Gold rush sweeps again"

"Professor Herbert insists on exploring Isogu City"

"Herbert is looking for a bodyguard to escort him"

. . .

Kieran got two different pieces of information from the titles .

One, gold had been found in Isogu City, attracting lots of attention .

Two, Professor Herbert was recruiting many people for his excavation .

Kieran was concerned about the details though .

"A bodyguard? What about my reputation?"

Kieran sat on the single bed and opened up his character stats window .

[Reputation: 10]

No doubt this dungeon had been affected by his accumulated reputation .

"Is this a better way to blend in inside the dungeon?"

Kieran took another glance at the hiring information . Obviously, without his reputation, he would have needed to compete with many other natives in order to get the job .

If he didn’t get it, he wouldn’t necessarily fail the Main Mission though .

Kieran’s Main Mission this time was to explore at least 20% of Isogu City in 4 weeks . It did not specify who Kieran had to be with during the exploration . He could even go alone if he wanted .

Therefore, if he didn’t get the job, it would not affect the Main Mission . It would just slow down his progress a lot .

Considering that Kieran had only been given a brief memory of his identity and no further information about the dungeon’s history, characters or geographical terrain, exploring 20% of Isogu City would be extremely hard .

Maybe the temporary language pack of the system included the ancient language of the city, but based on what Kieran had been through before, that was not likely .

Of course, this would not stop Kieran, who had already joined Herbert’s team, from exploring more of Isogu City and the dungeon itself .

However, he also had another question .

"Will Isogu City be related to [Mystical Knowledge]?"

It was a wild guess with no foundation . It was not even his intuition speaking .

It might only be a hunch, but if there was any chance for Kieran to upgrade his [Mystical Knowledge], he would not pass it up .

He picked up his backpack and went out of the room, heading downstairs .

Based on the limited information he had, he did not know whether there was a public library in the area . If Herbert was a Professor though, he had to have some books with him .

That would be enough for Kieran for the time being .

However, the number of the books exceeded his expectations .

Compared to the guest room on the second floor, the first floor was mostly occupied by Herbert’s books and a small foyer .

The foyer was only a little bigger compared to the guest room Kieran was staying in .

It could only fit about six to seven people . If there were any more than that, the guests would have to stand in the narrow corridor next to the foyer .

The corridor was not even wide enough for two people to walk through together . One would need to stand aside for the second person to cross it .

That’s what Kieran concluded after a brief look at the place .

Despite the terribly tight space, Herbert had still occupied most of the room with his books .

If there was any upside, it was that no one would ever get lost in that house .

That house was a blessing for people with a bad sense of direction .

Herbert’s study was on the other end of the corridor .

The door was not shut tight, so the conversation going on inside could be heard from afar .

As Kieran came down the stairs, he picked up the sounds with his exceptional hearing .

They only became clearer as he approached the study .

"Get out! Gangsters and robbers are not welcome here!" a slightly old voice filled with power said .

"Gangsters? Robbers? We are here for the bodyguard position! Did you not put an ad in the paper, great Professor Herbert?" a younger voice full of mockery asked back .

"Yes, I did, but I am recruiting bodyguards! Real bodyguards! Not some blackmailing, robbing, crime-committing scumbags! Now get out before I call the police!"

The older voice turned out to belong to Professor Herbert . He was warning the other person, but his warning did not seem to have any effect . In fact, a delighted laugh was heard from the other man .

"The police? Your place is quite far from the police station! How many of your bones do you think I could break by the time the police gets here?" the man said in a threatening tone .

"Even if you broke all my bones, I still wouldn’t hire you people!"

Herbert did not back off . He faced the men heads-on .

"So you don’t even care about the archeological exploration of Isogu City anymore? We’re talking about gold here!"

After threatening him, the man tried to tempt him .

"The exploration is not about gold! And that's not a reason for me to cooperate with scum like you! No matter how many bones you break, I won’t give you a cent!"

No threat or temptation could break Professor Herbert .

He instantly made a good impression on Kieran .

Kieran was worried that those scumbags would get agitated and cause unwanted harm to Professor Herbert and affect his Main Mission progress, so he quickly stepped in .

He raised his hand and knocked on the slightly open door twice .

Then he pushed the door open .