Brooding while in a lightless room. Not that light exists out here, and no one needs it anyway, everyone can see fine without it. The Knight was regretting some of its choices in the last couple of days.
Firstly, it went into the darkness of night, with reasons lost to it now. Secondly, it chose to protect someone, who also seemingly found their way there, even if it did not remember much about the stranger. Thirdly, it chose knowledge as its will, its way of growing stronger, even though it thought its logic and reasoning were flawless. It wasn't too bad, it did manage to give it an unforeseen boost in power, that made it less of a target to others like the Yiril.
Fourthly, it gave up a knowledge point which explains why that soft sounding voice was so hesitant to ask, one level might not look like much, but it surely does make use of its weight in gold. Which brings us to its most recent regret, it's not the dreaded soul part, that the Knight did not see coming, however, the logic that it used, to convince itself that telling them that its level 104, was nothing short of detrimental. The thing is that it's not wrong, the problem is that, for a spawn it's nothing short of unbelievable, the guild master's level is 117, which was close enough to its guess of level 120, but that's the problem the guild master has been there for a millennium.
Sighing with defeat, 'I guess one knowledge point can really do a number on reasoning capabilities'
That is why now the Knight is in the waiting room, the lord's manor. The guild decided it best for it to join the army than be a grunt in the guild, even if some guild members were stronger. The ones who were absent had powers close to 300, were not there, not to mention the retired veterans who just show up occasionally.
'Now that I think about it, the guild master is a bit on the weaker side, maybe it was just put in charge. The Yiril was weaker but with unnaturally high knowledge stats, its power of level 36, with knowledge being level 465. If it had my will, it would be a lord in charge of a town, that's why I told it not to leave, it's still expressionless – probably scheming. What's taking that lord so long anyway?'
"Greetings wretch, the Lord will see you now"
After a tense awkward walk with a creature resembling the cross between a mud pile and insect appendages, and tons of patched hair, that kept giving the Yiril curious looks, they arrived at the Lords room, and it swiftly left.
The lord was unassuming, almost human, except for the mouth filled with a rotation of teeth, such as those found in sharks, and a mouth with flabs of the side, the mouth could probably swallow a creature five times its size. The skin was a deep shade of red, the veins were moving like snakes inside, and even thinner, the nerves seem to move with such confusion, almost looked like it was grass moving in the wind.
It shifted and an expression resembling curiosity appeared as it stretched its arm and spoke; "What a delight, with that armour you could pass for a human. Nice to meet you, I'm the lord responsible for this town, the title bestowed upon me is Blood Fiend, and I used to be a… anyway, I think it's about time we discuss what it is you will be doing."
Pulls out a book, and five obsidian slates with words on them.
"Inscribed in this tome is a set of things to know, since you're a being possessing enough intelligence to read."
Then it tried to explain of those with low knowledge stats, "The rest are just subjugated by someone stronger."
Then it looked in the direction of the stone slates, "Afterwards, you will pick a contract to bind yourself to. The first is dungeon spawn, second being in a lord's army, third – dealing with new spawns, forth train to be a lord, lastly is to challenge a lord for their void territory."
After a long-winded explanation, the Yiril still keeping to itself, the knight kept silent as well, the lord they were with has a power of 430. Oddly enough is still on the weaker side despite only being 70 impossible levels away from maxing out his power.
It did shed light on a couple of things, beforehand though, it explained that the reason why it is doing the work of a secretary, is because they were all terrified to speak with the new spawn, and its sergeants were all out, the ones present can't hold a conversation. It did not say what its knowledge stat is sitting at but it's probably between 150-200.
'There are still too many things of which I do not know, some being, what exactly is the void? Why was I a former human sent here? How was I sent here? How does this all work?'
Well unbeknownst to anyone, I gained a knowledge point from the entire conversation. The first option is in relation to the human world. In context, the void uses darkness to spread, so first what happens is that a cave system evolves into a dungeon, where the void slowly festers, infecting the world. A human must enter the cave system, destroy all the monsters within, and fill in the cave before new spawn start showing.
So, in a doubtfully sense, the first option allows one to spawn as a void being in a dungeon, slaughtering all the monsters present and slowly strengthen the presence of the void in the area until it spreads, then a void lord comes to claim it. It seems that's what the adventures in the guild do, they go and spawn in dungeons and get rewarded by the lord who claims their territory.
The second option of being in the lord's army, has to do with the night in the world of the living. Once an area has been infected by the void, whenever it gets dark, void beings spawn with their lord, and once light returns they vanish. Being in the lord's army allows one to appear in that area once a lord summons.
The third option is what spawn with high knowledge stats educate new spawn of corresponding intelligence; they are also responsible for sending hunting teams from the guild to round up unintelligent spawn and get them to someone strong enough to subjugate them.
The fourth option is just as stated, spend trillions of years training to become a candidate for a void lord, which then will pass down their void territory, making you the new lord. The last is like a direct version of the fourth, where you just go and fight a lord and immediately get their territory upon their death.
Something unnecessary, but potentially hazardous if not added is that the act of claiming a territory is complex. You must at least possess a smudge bit, which can be gained through immense training, or by transfer. So, in the last option, if the void lord accepts, then they transfer a small amount to the challenger, and since most always lose, the piece is immediately transferred back upon their death. However, killing a lord without possessing a territory, will not get you anything, as such it dissipates, waiting to be claimed by the next person with a territory who passes by it.
It seems all you need to do to get an assignment is crush the slab with the contract you want, you can always crush another later to switch. There are other slabs like merchant who sells human souls, those who craft weapons, those responsible with information and relations amongst the lords, guilds, etc. With my power they decided only those five options seem reasonable.
Standing up after saying nothing the whole conversation, the knight picked up the dungeon stone, crushed it and ethereal lights glowed as its armour glistened with dark radiance, followed by the soothing voice:
Assignment registered dungeon spawn – error. Assignment evolved. Dreaded soul cannot be contained by obsidian dungeon. New assignment Conquer void territory. Spawn location abysmal dungeon. Dungeon status – unconquered. Slaughter all present monsters and claim territory. Time 4 cycles. Reward void territory. Failure – 50 knowledge points. Bonus for completing within 2 cycles: BOOK OF SOULS.
"Interesting…"
"What?"
"I'll be taking my leave, if you don't mind my Lord."
"Do you know where the obsidian dungeon is? Let me first explain, an assignment depends on the slab you crush, from stone to diamond, actually it serves two purposes, one is to give you an assignment, the other is to evaluate whether you can handle it, and an obsidian dungeon is for level 100-150. To be quite frank, I was sceptical about your level, as such I gave you these slabs as a test, I do possess other weaker dungeons. Seeing as that my presumptions were misguided, would you like to take a different dungeon? Cause by what I hear, you're sitting at level 104, which is barely enough to qualify, mind my jest, those who take obsidian tasks are usually level 150 and above to be safe…"
"I need not your pity, I will be going now, anything else?"
"… yes. Focus on your soul, oh dreaded one, and you will be taken there, before you do, I do advice you prepare, consume a couple of souls, get yourself a strong weapon, considering your form. That will be all."
***
While they were traversing the streets, the Yiril finally decided to talk; "what do you want with me."
'Done scheming I guess'
"well, I need a couple of answers, seeing that intelligence is not always present within all encounters, it would be such a shame to miss the opportunity to converse with someone as high as yourself, and for your benefit, I have information I know you will want, and seeing how despised you are, having a level 105 knight protecting you wouldn't be so bad now, would it?"
The knight stops and stares down, "I won't kill you afterwards"
At the sound of trading information, the face of the Yiril brightened like that of a child, an eerie, revolting, hard to look at child.
"Yessir! What questions do you want answers to? Cause nothing's more enticing to a Yiril more than secret's, you know? The protection is just extra, and keep in mind I will not be following you into the dungeon, with me being level 36 and all"
'That was fast, well, it does make sense, they do possess a high knowledge stat, which is a testament to their lust for knowledge.'
"There is a couple of things the lord did not bother to explain. What does a lord need an army for? Why does the more intelligent subjugate the latter? Who decides which strong person get the cretins? What are monsters? What is a cycle? What is used as currency? How do you collect human souls? And just as an appetiser…"
The Knight was silent for a second or two then added, "… one secret is that I am not going to an obsidian dungeon"
Confusion? Curiosity? Amusement? It seems since the whole situation blew over, the Yiril has been wearing its emotions on its sleeve, maybe just another of its schemes.
"Your fist question is obvious, the lords need an army to face each other and maybe stronger monsters, well, for being so generous, I have a bonus answer for you, spawn are usually not privy to the sensitive issues, but the stronger you get the more you need to know, unless you're a Yiril of course, putting your life on the line for a couple of bedtime stories, and seeing as that you want to protect me, you should know. Humans can get strong, actually, strong enough to kill a void being, about 800 million years ago, they suddenly had a saviour who managed to protect a civilian through an entire night filled with void creatures, the stories brought back by girl inspired many, and once again humans learned that they could do it. For the first time humans raised their power level by one, coincidentally the other creatures started showing up, these are the monsters, they love human blood, we want their souls, so it is more like a three-way war."
The Yiril had something like drool forming on its maw, as it said the last part, "But in the end, these are just the stories told by the humans in captivity; they might not be true. One thing is though, that ever since that time long ago, humans have started to cultivate power, making themselves harder to hunt. That doesn't matter though, that just make their souls that much more filling."
'… That would mean it's been about a billion years since I stepped foot in the land of man, because I did not know anything about man capable of facing the void and there were no monsters. Because none of what its saying is tugging at my memory, meaning it was something I did not know, or was not public knowledge. All of this is still very much confusing at best, I hope the book of souls explains, one thing good though is that this Yiril is chatty, or maybe all of them are.'