The Devil's Cage

Hearing the sobs, the interrogator Agernessa became puzzled.

The voice was indeed from that scary existence but… why was it sobbing?

A few nights earlier, the new scary existence tore the original overlord of the third floor into shreds; fanatical laughs sounded during the process, and it caused chills in Agernessa whenever she thought about it.

But now?

When the sobbing entered her eyes, Agernessa pictured a soft, little girl, the kind that she used to bully in the past.

Carefully, Agernessa stuck her head up to third floor.

She saw a little girl dressed in a pink lolita dress with a twintail hair-style squatting down before Kieran and sobbing violently.

The little girl's image was exactly what Agernessa pictured: cute, soft, and bulliable.

When Agernessa saw the little girl, the little girl saw her too.

"Sob sob sob, here she is. I caught her! Sob sob sob, she is tasty!"

As the blurry voice sounded, the little girl appeared before Agernessa with absurd speed and reached out to grab her.

Agernessa wanted to dodge, but the little girl's hand suddenly grew as big as a milestone. The huge hand didn't just block Agernessa's retreat, but also easily grabbed her.

The little girl had transformed into a mini giant. Her muscles grew bigger and broke her lolita dress; sharp fangs grew out of her enlarged mouth, and the twintails stuck up into the air like two sharp horns.

"Hohoho, got good!"

A series of groans later, the mini devil-like giant walked towards Kieran.

Each step it took, its body grew smaller, and when it arrived in front of Kieran, the monster returned to its little girl look with the pink lolita dress and twintail hair-style. She looked at Kieran with her teary eyes.

"Food! Food! Don't eat me, sob sob sob."

Agernessa was thrown in front of Kieran's feet, and the little girl squatted down in sobs again.

Lying down beside Kieran's feet, Agernessa looked at a blinding light on the ceiling while hearing the sobs beside her. She fell into a complete daze.

'What happened?

'The new overlord of the third floor seems to be very afraid of the lord I've already pledged allegiance to?

'Can it be… that I bet on the right side?'

A shudder later, Agernessa came back from her dazed state. She didn't know why the third floor overlord would be so scared of Kieran, but it didn't stop her from showing her obedience.

She turned over and threw herself down at Kieran's feet in reverence.

"My lord, do you still want to search for that book about Arnold Sect?" she said with utmost flattery.

Agernessa crawled closer to Kieran and almost stuck her face to his shoes.

"Em." Kieran nodded blankly.

"I will search for the related books as soon as possible!" Agernessa said as if she was pronouncing some deadly vows before throwing herself over the book racks of the third floor.

When she moved past the little girl, Agernessa glanced over at the shaking little girl.

'New overlord? So what? You are a newbie!

'I am the earliest follower here, and I will become the biggest follower of his lordship here!'

Agernessa suddenly went into character as she retrieved information from the books.

Huu!

A gale blew over the racks, and all the books floated up as if an invisible pair of hands were lifting them up.

Kieran looked at the unusual scene Agernessa was creating but wasn't baffled by it because the Old Book Canberlanor had similar abilities, so it wasn't anything new.

However, the little girl in the lolita dress was different.

Unlike the interrogator, who was bound to the library, the little girl could move around the campus freely and could even see the hidden aura and strength of Kieran.

"What did you sense?" Kieran looked down at the doll-like little girl who was still sobbing from a commanding position.

"Nothing! Sob sob sob, don't eat me!"

The twintailed little girl tried to answer as clear as possible, but as she spoke, her sobs overtook her words. She didn't even dare to look Kieran in the eye; it was as if she was a little girl who got lost from her parents.

Except for the fact that Kieran had seen her transform into a mini giant.

"Stop, sob anymore and I'll eat you," said Kieran.

His words sounded like some voodoo charm hastening her death. Her sobs got stuck in her throat; it was suffering for her, but she swallowed it down regardless. She then looked up at Kieran cowardly.

What did she see?

She saw Kieran standing in front of her and also the shadows behind him.

There was a devil covered in magma that roared at the sky.

There was an armored knight that shined brightly.

There was also multiple Kierans who looked like clones or mirages of himself; they looked the same but had different expressions. There was an arrogant one, a lazy one and that… terrifying monster who kept swallowing its saliva!

It was too scary!

The moment she saw the monster, she felt like she had met the bane of her existence!

No, not bane, but cataclysm. A catastrophe that would consume everything! The horror was beyond logic in the little girl's mind.

Sobs almost burst out again, but before the tears rolled down her cheeks, the little girl remembered what Kieran said earlier. She suppressed her tears and looked at Kieran with her puppy eyes, waiting for him to react.

"You were the one in the gymnasium earlier?" Kieran asked.

"Yes." The little girl nodded with her twintails waving.

"The crying gymnasium and the secret treasure is also because of you?"

"The crying gymnasium is, but not the secret treasure. Long before I arrived at the gymnasium, the legend about the secret treasure had already been there. I didn't find it though," the little girl said seriously.

"Is that so?" A sense of regret appeared in Kieran's eyes.

He already knew the gymnasium had no secret treasure, but when the twintailed little girl appeared, his heart hoped for the best and wanted to feel lucky again.

Reality once again told Kieran that having fantasies was a useless thought.

However, even without a secret treasure, he could still be compensated.

As the thought came into his mind, the aura on him slight changed.

The changes were subtle, but they were very obvious in the eyes of the little girl. She saw the drooling monster stand up slowly, wanting to jump at her.

Between vanishing and continuing to exist, the little girl, who had witnessed how Kieran did things, relied on her many years of being a ghost to quickly make the right decision.

"I know all the hidden spots of Theorate E Block. I also know all the legends and other similar existences… like me! They are all tastier than me, and they have a habit of keeping treasures!"

The twintailed little girl spoke absurdly fast, probably the fastest she had ever spoken in her life, dead or before.

She then sensed the drooling monster slowly go back into the shadows.

"Treasures, you say?" Kieran asked.

"Yes, my dear lord! A lot of treasures! I can gather an army for you, and they will become an irreplaceable aid for you in the future!" The little girl tried her best to display her value.

Army?!

Kieran squinted his eyes.

Considering the things he lacked in this dungeon world, manpower was definitely one of them.

Although he had [Mesly Ring], because of his plan, he couldn't use [Mesly Ring] in a wide area.

Once the dominated pawns attracted the attention of the principal or Smith in hiding, his plans would surely fall short from success. It was something Kieran would never allow to happen.

However, an army formed by the little girl was different.

Kieran believed that the principal and Smith must know about an existence like the little girl, but it must be because of certain matters that they didn't care.

Given the circumstances, Kieran had the ground to turn things around.

If he could use it to his benefit, he could achieve a surprising effect.

"What's your name?" Kieran asked.

"Averdore Lily!"

The little girl heaved a breath of relief after she heard the question.

"Hmm, Averdore Lily, sign this."

Kieran nodded and gave her a goatskin scroll.

Averdore Lily's eye twitched when she saw the scroll, for the contents mentioned the 'bindings' she hated so much. She hesitated.

"You don't want to?" Kieran asked.

The drooling monster in the shadows started to move again, and Averdore Lily saw it clearly.

Giving up her freedom or being wiped out of existence?

The question wasn't a hard one for most people, but for Averdore Lily, who had already died once, dying was a really painful experience, and she didn't want to go through it again.

"I will sign!" Averdore Lily grabbed the contract scroll right away.

Agernessa also saw the scene from further away.

Some thoughts later, Kieran took out another scroll for Agernessa.

Although some of Agernessa's abilities overlapped with the Old Book, Canberlanor's, compared to the Old Book's supportive features, Kieran looked forward to Agernessa's combat abilities.

Using a not-so-expensive companion contract on a decent companion was quite the deal in Kieran's point of view.

Agernessa and Averdore Lily.

Kieran nodded in satisfaction when he looked at the two new companion contracts.

He might be fighting alone in this war, but it didn't mean he couldn't buy himself some help.

Compared to newbie players who were unpredictable, Kieran tended to trust natives bound to contracts more.

Of course, if he was teaming up with Starbeck or Lawless, it would be an entirely different story.

However, both of them had their own matters to deal with too.

Starbeck would never enter a dungeon until the last minute, and Kieran would never trouble Lawless unless absolutely necessary.

"Continue," Kieran said.

Agernessa continued looking for the books on Arnold Sect while Averdore Lily looked at Kieran in confusion.

"Go gather the army like you promised. I want them," said Kieran.

"Oh, oh, I got it!"

Averdore Lily nodded in realization before vanishing on the spot.

After a little glance at the spot where Averdore Lily vanished, Agernessa's cautiousness instantly halved.

"Powerful but too stupid! You will never threaten me!"

Agernessa then continued her search with a peace of mind.

Meanwhile, Averdore Lily appeared outside the library with a cold chuckle.

"Interrogator? What a fool, you are so easily deceived!"

The disdainful-looking little girl took a deep breath before she started to think about her plan.

"Who should I start with? The study room in the 2nd year building? The garden? Or the toilet of the 3rd years?"

The little girl hopped away as she muttered.

She looked extremely cute under the sun, and with her pink lolita dress, she looked like a moving doll.

Some watchers who were paying attention to Kieran were captivated by Averdore Lily. A few of them's eyes glimmered, and they showed evil smiles.

They followed Averdore Lily while in hiding and…

They were never seen or heard from again.

…

Seconds turned into minutes.

When the sun set, the moon rose.

Book after book was placed on the table, all being about the Arnold Sect.

After finishing reading the last book on the table, Kieran took a sip of tea and grabbed a biscuit from the silver pastry tray of the third floor.

Kacha!

He put the biscuit in his mouth, and after a bite, the taste of sesame and butter rapidly spread across his tongue. It refreshed him for awhile after reading for so long.

"My lord, do you need any more pastries?" Agernessa asked with two pastry baskets in her hands.

The two baskets were from the second and third floors respectively.

The second floor was her turf to begin with, so she knew where to get them.

She was new to the third floor, but finding tea and pastries was an easy task.

The pastries and drinks were prepared for readers to fill up their stomachs after a long reading session.

They were freshly baked everyday, and the higher the floor, the better the pastries, despite there barely being anyone on the third floor.

As for those on the second floor?

In order to provide a better reading environment for Kieran, Agernessa 'kindly asked' the readers, and every one of them made the best decision to give up.

"Put them all here," Kieran said after a glance at the two baskets.

"Noted."

With a sweet smile, Agernessa arranged all the pastries on the tray, and after doing so, she brought hot water to fill up Kieran's empty cup.

The aroma of tea spread again, but this time with the richness of the pastries and the smell of books.

It was a delightful moment for Kieran before footsteps sounded from the second floor.

Dak Dak Dak Dak.

The steps were heavy, and they didn't sound like normal walking, but rather, done on purpose, as if someone was declaring his or her arrival.

Disturbed, Kieran furrowed his brows.