The Devil's Cage

The blizzard befell Final Island during sunset as promised.

Fuu!

Kieran let out a long breath and opened his eyes. His brows were slightly furrowed.

"How was it? Not very successful?" Schmidt who was beside the fire grilling the bread asked.

He had a general idea about what Kieran was doing, after all he had seen Nikorei doing the same as well.

"Hmmm. It’s even harder than I thought."

Kieran didn’t conceal anything by nodding and took the bread that Schmidt passed him.

It was the third day since they returned to Final Island.

Compared to the third day of their first arrival, he easily saved up around 90,000 Points but this time around, he had nothing.

Final Island was still affecting his desires to a certain extent but every time he confronted his own desire, it bore no fruit at all. [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] was not reacting to anything.

Even if he hadn’t once stopped the breathing methods that he had recording in his mind, all Kieran could feel was the warm energy stream flowing in his body slowly but not a single bit of surging like it did during the level up.

"I’ve hit a bottleneck?" Kieran muttered.

His brows were almost stuck together, he wasn’t sure whether his theory was correct but he knew that if he couldn’t overcome this obstacle before him, he would gain nothing in the coming days.

But how?

Kieran had asked himself more than once during the three days period but he couldn’t provide himself with a reasonable answer.

Even though he had almost all the knowledge about the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] but within the knowledge, there wasn’t any explanation about the situation he was facing.

In fact, even for Guntherson himself, his hands might be tied should such a situation occur.

After all, both were from different worlds, the property of strengths and the growth system were slightly different following the different environment.

The easiest example was Final Island itself. If there was a place similar to Final Island back in [The Failed Great Detective] dungeon, regardless of how corrupted, withered the Church of Dawn was, they wouldn’t have collapsed into ruins that fast.

Aside from other aspects, the sole fact that the place similar to Final Island could have created a batch of more powerful Knights of Dawn was enough. Though from then onwards, it was another story whether the firearm revolution would be successful.

"Final Island... Final Island..." Kieran muttered softly.

He suddenly realized something and halted his mumbling.

"Found anything?" Schmidt asked.

"Just some strange guesses... Schmidt I need to go out for awhile, I need to try it myself!" Kieran said.

"Outside? In the blizzard now? You’ll..."

Schmidt wanted to dissuade Kieran out of instinct but before all the words escaped his mouth, he halted.

A commoner might really die under such weather but Kieran would not.

"Be careful out there!" Schmidt’s dissuasion turned into a warm reminder at the end.

"Got it!" Kieran nodded and took his backpack before opening the door.

Phoooo!

Bone piercing wind assaulted the limited space inside, the fire at the fireplace was dimmed to the minimal, shaking back and forth as if it would soon be extinguished under the cold wind.

Kieran waved at Schmidt again and walked out of the cottage.

After the door was closed, Keiran quickly disappeared in the blizzard.

...

The wind was like slicing knives, the snow was like cutting blades.

The knives cut deep on the flesh and the blades pierced through bones.

Even though with [Secondary Element Damage Resist], Kieran would still feel cold under the blizzard of Final Island, but he was showing a delightful expression, because he could feel the surge of [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] within him.

"As expected, I’ve missed out on this! The uniqueness of Final Island was not only that it would affect one’s desire but also the weather! Desires that would puzzle one’s heart from time to time and the devastating weather gave it its name of Final Island, the place where one would last stand before dying! Though to me, it couldn’t be better!"

Kieran took in a cold deep breath while standing in the middle of the blizzard, he glanced over the area, trying to locate where the blizzard was at its strongest.

His A rank Intuition has dropped to an unbearable point under such weather but despite the blurry scene, Kieran still managed to locate a mountain peak where the cold wind and snow assaulted ceaselessly.

"That’s the place!"

Kieran set his eyes on his destination and walked out with big steps trying to reach that point.

With each step he took, the snow would flood his legs up to his knees.

With each step he took, his face could feel the stinging pain from the wind as if he was stung by needles.

With each step he took, the snow would pile up more and more on him, making it harder for him to advance.

However, each step he took was a steadfast step moving forward.

The wind was getting more violent, the snow was getting colder.

When Kieran was halfway to his destination, the coldness had spread throughout his body. The [Secondary Elemental Damage Resist] effect was weakening by the minute. The closer he got the the core of the blizzard, the colder he felt.

After advancing for another few hundred meters, his body started to freeze and frost started to form. First it was his legs that he kept moving forward, then his torso, his arms and face.

Crack, Crack Crack!

Kieran smashed the frost with his hands, freeing himself from the ice, his legs never stopped moving.

The frost kept giving out cracking sounds as he smashed the ice over him but as he moved forward, the freezing speed was getting faster.

Even though Kieran’s hand never stop breaking the ice, the speed of its accumulation started to overtake his smashing.

Wuuuuuuu!

Another freezing wind assaulted him, bringing a big pile of snow to his face.

After a breath’s time, it drowned Kieran and the freezing ice to spread and over Kieran’s body.

Kieran was just raising his hand to smash the ice but his hand was quickly frozen instead. The layer of frost on his hand was as thick as 3 to 4 cm, and following the formation, the layers of frost started to get thicker.

Kieran tried to free himself from the layers of frost with his strong arm but just as his arm moved, more snow assaulted his hand.

A second later, Kieran’s body was completely drowned by the snow.

Two seconds later, more snow piled up around him, concealing his traces completely, including the steps that he took before.

Three seconds, four seconds, five seconds...

Seconds turned into minutes.

The violent wind roared loudly, the blizzard was playing the symphony of death.

Under the harsh ice and snow covered land, there were no longer any signs of life.

Then on the verge of despair, a round metallic halo appeared from within the thick snow.

A total of four lines of halo, burst out from the power of the blizzard.

KABOOM!

The assaulting blizzard was pushed away. A healing force started to fill Kieran’s frozen body, giving life once again to his hardened limbs and torso.

The warm stream of energy expelled the coldness inside, which was not only from [Saint Thorns II] but also the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art]!

The surge of power finally exploded at the verge of despair, similar to the times where Kieran leveled up the skill, the warm stream would present itself in a unique way originating from his body.

The warm stream of energy blessed his soul and he soaked himself in it completely without a second thought.

After a while, [Saint Thorns II] appeared for the third time.

[Through harsh practicing, Grand Master level Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art acquired a substantial amount of experience, leveling cost decreased by 1 Golden Skill Point...]

The long-awaited notification finally appeared in Kieran’s vision.