The Knight was about to give another secret itself then decided against it, "Second secret would be… this will be tedious, answer all my questions and I will give you information Yiril"
"Okay, the less intelligent void beings can be dangerous, especially when not subjugated and they grow stronger, they attack without direction and might die without being a resource to help the void spread. This has not happened, and is probably impossible, but imagine an aimless void being with the max power at level 500, imagine all the effort from the lords that will be needed."
"For the next question just know that if you defeat a less powerful being especially those lacking will, they become subjugated. You can also capture them and sell them for human souls by the merchants; we call those hunters. Monsters… I do not know. A cycle is how long a void being can go without consuming souls, which translates to a hundred years in the world of the living, but be warned this does not mean you should take this long in-between. To avoid being slowed down, consuming a couple per year would be the best way to perform."
The Knight realised it's like food for the soul, its able to sustain itself on a diet, but that will not be good for a soul that is exhausting itself, then the Yiril continued.
"As far as currency is concerned, you can capture humans, and sell them to the merchants, after all those who do not consume souls perish, and not all get to go into the world of the living. And to clarify capturing a human alive is just for special request, usually, those in the lord armies or those on dungeon duty, can use a core. Which can store souls, but since you need souls to get one, you must loan it from the guild, actually, I had one but it fell into the blood river before I bumped into you, and all know that its suicide to go into those waters without invitation, and drinking it is a risky way to stay alive, since pieces of souls killed by those of the void trickle down to nurture the land of sorts, … your secrets better be worth it"
The Knight remained silent, thinking and then said; "I think one will do"
The tense silence was interrupted by a set of words enough to cause an uprising, even the Yiril seemed confused why such a valuable secrete can be shared so easily.
'It's been one thing after another since I came back, I lost my soul collector core in the maiden's blood river. I thought I got lucky bumping into a new spawn, 'Easy pickings I thought', but the whole way to the guild, every time I simulated trying to kill it, I failed. It made sense once it revealed itself to be 104, I was even doubting if it is really a spawn. Trading information with a Yiril was more than enough proof, what fool trades info with a Yiril, it truly is a spawn, I still doubt it has a dreaded soul though, that is impossible. Then when we got to the lord, it chose dungeon duty, a hazardous task, but it had to go and chose an obsidian dungeon, but now it tells me this …'
"…I have a void territory."
'This is unheard of, if all of it is true. That this right next to me is a 104, dreaded soul, spawned with a void territory. One thing is clear; I might have just weaselled my way into the good graces of a future lord or sentenced myself to death in the company of a rogue lord who has lost its sanity – not bad sanity is overrated here in the void. I do know that it's a spawn, one of a Yiril skills is to always know the truth, in fact the eye they used in the guild probably belonged to a Yiril before, an eldritch horror who gave most Yirils the scorn of the lords.'
The Yiril stops and cackles, an eerie and chilling sound indeed.
"Yiril! I will be taking you with me to the dungeon, I am not sure how I will locate you after my mission, so you will be coming along."
The weird sounds mimicking laughter stopped as the Yiril looked up at the Knight, seeing that this is one mad spawn. 'This thing… I guess it told me about its territory because, it was always planning on dragging me along.'
"Sorry my dear sir, how do you expect to conquer an obsidian dungeon while protecting a level 36 Yiril, I'll be slaughtered immediately"
'It seems the manners are back'
"I am not; we are not going to an obsidian dungeon."
'I guess it did not think things through after all'
The Yiril sighs and answers the question from earlier; "My assignment is serving as an information letch, that is why the next set of questions won't be cheap, unless you have another secret to add"
The knight looks ahead, as if it did not hear anything; 'the manners are gone again, maybe I should keep my [Visage of Terror] skill slightly activated at all times.'
Then the knight grabs the Yirils skull which fits into its gauntlet, only now was the Yiril realising just how massive the knight is, its whole hand was bigger than its head, 'it's got to be 3 meters at least'.
Whisps of thick mist surrounded them, so dense – nothing could pierce through it, and just like that, they were gone, a strange feeling enveloped them but both the knight and the Yiril could not feel any discomfort really, neither were human, yet this mist felt eerily fitting, as if it was a mistake to be separated from it, that is why when they appeared, in the dark chamber, they felt an instinctual urge to bring it back, not the mist but the void of which it is a part of. That made it easy to remember what it is they came to accomplish, and more importantly where they are.
The Yiril seemed perplexed, "did you not say you aren't going into the dungeon?"
"I never said we're not going into a dungeon, just not the obsidian one, this… is an abysmal dungeon!"
'A what!'
"Excuse me! You're not serious, who am I kidding of course you aren't. You really are a spawn, let me educate you, obsidian dungeons are meant to be hard as is, but this! The problem is not even how difficult it is; the problem is that an abysmal dungeon is so incredibly deep, that only one has been known to have been conquered. Sure, these ones have a huge amount of territory, if conquered, but almost every monster in here is level150, they have had too much time to grow. Even if you were level 200, it would still take you hundreds of years to conquer, and we won't be able to go back to the void until we're done!"
"You speak too much."
'What is this thing talking about, not only do I not have a choice because of my greed skill, which explains why I was forced into an abysmal dungeon instead, that and my soul, but wasting anymore time might ruin my chances of getting the book of souls.'
"Just don't stray too far, I need you alive Yiril"
With that they slowly walked further into the darkness of the dungeon. The clangour of metal plates echoed as the travelled inwards, the Yiril was as tense as can be, to be fair a usual level 36 would not even think it's funny that they would end up in an abysmal dungeon, with a spawn, and worst of all barely any preparation.
Then the Knight stopped and looked ahead, activating its mighty skill, to increase perception, it finally saw it a humanoid gremlin with dark silver scales, a hound snout, crooked back with spikes protruding from its spine, and a huge mallet in its hand, but somehow this two meter tall monster was not leaning, probably those lean ropes underneath its skin, probably muscles reinforced with steel…
You have encountered your first monster, Retcher. Type – soldier. Level 119.
It lunged at the Knight, being the bigger target, and its fangs tore right through the armour, and its mallet struck the side of the helmet, the Knight did not move, it seems it was in a trans, its greed skill, only made it think of the book, true it was in danger but the skill was just as relentless.
Then it activated the battle monger skill, and grabbed the mallet, which is why it let itself get hit, and almost instantaneously it knew how to handle it like an experienced fighter, and then activated, the visage of terror, the fear was not as debilitating, but it did manage to make the monster temporarily loosen its grip on the arm, and with a thundering crash echoing in the walls, the mace hit the monsters temple. The monster wobbled, and lunged right back, and right when it was about to slice the arm with an open wound off, the other arm swung the mallet and hurdled it towards the growling jaws, it sunk its teeth into it unable to crush it, and a second latter the Knight lost its decorum, almost resembling a rabid beast, it struck the monsters gut with its gauntlet, and continued to release a barrage, all of it seeming too familiar, maybe it was remembering how it earned the battle monger skill, but then it lost the semblance of the memory and delved deeper in to the pummelling. The monster was dazed, but not damaged, except for teeth still stuck in the mallet.
When the Knight uses its mighty skill, it increases its strength come close to that of a level 106, even more so to a 107, however, even that was not enough, this foe is a whole 14 levels above, not only that but it seems to have enough sense to fight efficiently with all its weapons. The Knight had to admit it, it feels no fear, including that of death, but this situation might just as well kill it.
The Yiril was right, it was woefully unprepared, but what could it have done, it knows that because of the will of wisdom, its power would not rise, since knowledge is needed to do so, and by the manner in which the lord and the Yiril were putting it, it seems one needs to be stronger to access any. By the looks growth rate of the knowledge stat, scrounging for enough information to make it to any level sufficient enough to do well in this dungeon, it would take more than a couple of cycles, and after just two, it loses any chance at the reward, and after four cycles it will suffer a heavy penalty and grow weaker regardless.
The actual problem is the lord, that thing offered it an obsidian dungeon, which was already difficult as it is, but the grain of darkness, added the reward due to the nature of the Knights soul, being unable to be supressed well in a normal obsidian dungeon. The reward is why the Knight refused the offer to change, it was not sure whether it would get the chance to crush another obsidian slab, they sound like they were rare, and getting the reward might be even more impossible, so yes, it had no choice but to end up here, challenging a monsters stronger than it.
The only chance at growing strong was to get the reward. By the sound of things it seems, the will does more than just change how one gets stronger but adds things to assist. There was no point in staying longer in the void and risk losing it. If the Knight never wants to experience such a pitiful existence, it had to grow stronger, funnily enough this feeling of being the weakest being was so familiar, as if woven into its core.
The whole thing at the guild of being stronger than so many beings got the Knight to be arrogant, and somehow this feeling was washed away, sure it knew there were other stronger beings, like the guild master and the lord, but they seemed too far detached, as if their power was not real. This allowed the Knight to forget this feeling, the feeling that still followed it from its human origins. This feeling resonated with the mighty skill, filling the Knight with a sense of Dread. Its eyes were growing cold, as if hopeless, knowing that death was all that was coming, and resisting was a futile endeavour.
Reminiscing about how this feeling came about to be, reminiscing…? Yeah, seems like fragments of a far-gone life, slowly the air grew cold, the monster managed to get the mallet out of its fangs and tossed it, deeming it more dangerous than its prey. The demeanour around the Knight changed – feeling like a desperate rabid animal. The claws sank deeper into the armour, which also added to the pain, it seems the armour is part of the Knight now.
Lowering the helmet covering the Knights head, it sunk its teeth into the scales, which held, leaving just a small scratch. If only the Yiril was not here, it was forcing the Knight to hold back its visage of terror, it would die soon too, even with experience, there was no way it could survive this monster, even if it sneaks away, it would be a long while before any being comes to this dungeon, let alone conquer it. The Knight used to be human, only a slight deep intuition made it think so, including the pieces of memory that are vague and blurry, still fighting for dear life to not be forgotten. Putting back the helmet, the Knight closed its eyes in defeat and acceptance, one part thinking.
'Being a void being seems to be a dead end too'
And the other thinking.
'I have died powerless once, not again!'