This skill and many more including the army, had given the Knight some hope about fighting the stronger foes, but now that it took two months instead of one to fight the monsters still weaker than level 140, the Knight opened its eyes, metaphorically, and realised that these skills are all so limited and easily exploited in battle by just going for the army men since they were harder to make, and the copies disappear when the one who it was from was already defeated. The Knight had lost one of its followers in that battle, and it could not even use the level 140 monster, who disturbed it all, to replace the vessel, it was killed. Its skill was strong, but greed was not feeling it. And with all monsters weaker than 140 gone, replacing the lost vessels would be a deadly endeavour.
The Knight saw that if one healthy 140 can wreak so much damage, then challenging the others would be even worse. So, the Knight was going to try and escape again, this time with these knew skills its chances of making it out were higher. The army and its Knight commander, all teleported inch by inch to the surface, teleportation has a range, so it took multiple leaps. Once at the entrance the Knight unleashed a whole barrage of attacks with these knew skills. To no avail, there was an invisible wall keeping the Knight in, everything else could leave, the Knight had thrown stones to check, they passed just as easily. The followers in their vessels could not since they were still an integral part of the Knights soul.
The Knight was now sitting on its bone thrown, thinking that proceeding deeper was still futile, and leaving was too. This dungeon was going to kill the Knight through soul starvation or death in battle, the Knight had to at least keep trying to go deeper, but the effects of the lack of human souls was even starting to get to the vessels of the followers. The Vile army was good, but still barely surviving, and with this slowly dulling their edge things were going to be getting more dangerous.
There was another thing the Knight was seeing, maybe because the dreaded soul is so vast, but the Knight had not noticed that after every use of a skill the reserves were being used, and even the army was using the same reserves. After the two-month siege and the use of the skills multiple times on trying to escape, this almost bottomless well of energy was just starting to shift, meaning without any source of replenishment it might get low. This just meant that the Knight had to add a mental note not to stay in prolonged battles. The whole affair with energy, was that with a battle lasting a decade the reserves might end up being the Knights undoing, so it had to take it easy. Now that escape was not a matter of power, the Knight was going to just go deeper once more.
Good news? Finally, after years in this desolate place good news came. The Knight had missed it on its way up, but this time the Knight was taking smaller leaps with teleportation and walking for some of the way, in an attempt to conserve the energy stores even if they were hard to empty, the Knight was not willing to add a new risk to the already long list. That is why the Knight noticed tracks, it seems it was time to hunt weaker monsters for a change.
'One, two, three… five by the looks of things.'
At least it might be able to have a little reprieve. The tracks were strange thought, they were small, amongst the smallest monsters the Knight had seen yet. They were organised, not strange but rare for monsters not in the scope of level 150, the Knight was getting weary. It might be a group of level 150's that have wondered upwards. The Knight still followed, greed was one skill the Knight had mixed feelings about.
These tracks would twist and turn, as if searching, seems like they were looking for prey, too bad the Knight has thoroughly cleansed the upper floors before they came. There would be these ashy spots once in a while, maybe one has a skill for fire, because the ground was scorched. Maybe it was to make light since some monsters like the Nared hunter could not see in the darkness and used its glowing fur, the strange fire pits were strange. Near the cavern centre of where the battle with the hunter, Alluga, and giant Knight had taken place, due to teleportation the Knight had finally caught up to the group of monsters?
The Knight was so confused. It was sure this place was akin to a desolate hellscape where only the strong were meant to survive. After thinking about it for a while the Knight realised, all the true horrors are deeper, and up until now, anything that entered would be immediately attacked, thus not making it this far, but the Knight had cleared the upper parts, thus making them a free passage. The Knights accomplishments in the scale of the dungeon were small but for the upper floors it was simply an amazing feat. The upper floors were mostly empty now, and due to how deep those tracks lead, the Knight had assumed that nothing from the outside would make it this far. That was if the Knight had not made the upper floors basically a walk in the park, that five humans, probably a group of adventures or Knights had strolled in so far. They would have gone unnoticed too if the Knight had not moved up to try and escape.
If only they knew what awaited them deeper, the Knight would doubt they would walk in here willingly.
They were staring up at the Knight with expressions of awe. The Knight did almost look human, if one did not see the skin beneath, albeit a very huge human. There was a lamb in the centre of what was their camp, and a small fire, I guess the Knight now knew what those scorches on the ground were, normal fire, not skills. The Knight was suddenly not the weakest being in the dungeon. The dungeon did not let those who were stronger enter, but since the Knight had dragged the Yiril, it did not stop the weak from giving away their lives.
They all would have probably died immediately after entering. One of the humans, a tall man with a brown beard, silver armour, lean muscles and a curved sword. He approached the Knight shedding light on its armour. The nose twitched slightly, probably the smell of rot and death coming from the Knight. The followers were still in the darkness, seems like they had not been noticed, or they would have not approached. Once the man was close enough, the grain of darkness spoke.
You have encountered a level 28 human, Nick. Type-adventurer.
'I guess to the grain of darkness they are still encounters, maybe it only does this when I'm inside a dungeon, or maybe I was not listening to it when I was in the void.'
The human spoke; "Sir, we are adventurers sent here to…"
The other humans behind had just seen it but they were not believing it, Nick's head was just a red stain on the gauntlet of the massive Knight.
It was destroyed off the body in one swift motion, not even a drop splashed on the floor. After the initial hit, the neck rained a fountain of blood as the body collapsed to the floor. The thud knocked the confused humans out of their shock as they started to scream, another jumped back and the other forward, both readying for battle in a simple formation, the other two took a while to get back to their senses but they too jumped to complete the defensive formation. It was all useless though, but the Knight did not move to slaughter them, because what it had been waiting for came, the grain of darkness spoke.
You have slain a level 28 human Nick. Soul acquired. Consume, store, or craft lock, key, or scabbard.
With the aching hunger, greed calling, and how this was tormenting the Knight, and how it was its first human soul, the Knight wasted no time.
'Consume.'
Then the Knight felt it. It was not tired but there was a slow – actually instant – feeling of rejuvenation. The soul energy peaked, the soul seemed satisfied. The Knight could feel it, the full sense of power it had felt after creation. The Knight felt it move in its soul, this was alleviating. It revealed that even though one needs to just consume one human soul per cycle, this did not mean it was recommended, it seems about five to ten per cycle is for better, the one per cycle is just for survival. It seems the grain of darkness was not done.
Soul has been eradicated. Cycle has been reset.
Now that it had said eradicated instead of consumed the Knight had a suspicion it meant something, but without the book of souls, any guesses are futile.
The Knight then noticed a more grievous look on one of the humans, and this instant bit of curiosity is what saved them for now at least. The thing is that all four had looked depressed before, but one of them become worse after the consuming of the soul, as if it could tell the soul was consumed, meaning it was not a regular occurrence. The Knight then gave the army the mental note to surround them, then the Knight activated visage of terror, when they all dropped to their knees and started coughing blood, the Knight held back.
It wanted them alive. Then once of the followers put them in the cage that had been carved from level 131 and 137 materials, and had been stored in the Knights special storage, of which the followers could access. The humans were dragged in, they seem to have succumb to madness and given up, releasing their hold on their weapons. The Knight then placed their things in as well, quenching the fire and destroying the lamb. Light vanished but the Knight could still clearly see the look of utter dejection on one, and variations of it on the others, they all must have realised how futile resist was.
The Knight could not hear them well, even if it had retained some of the knowledge of human language from before it dies, it must have been ages ago, meaning that language must have changed, and not all humans speak the same language anyway. Because of the being the Knight had met after creation, it could converse with void beings, not language but intention and meaning. It was like sounds did not have to have a pattern, but when carrying what is meant to be said, it is as if communicating telepathically. The words were sequences of understanding in the mind of the receiver. This made sense considering not all void beings could make sound, or have ears, so it was like making a grumble and thinking 'I am sad.' The receiver will know what is meant.
This communication seems to be between void beings. And the semblance of human language that the Knight has in its mind, sounds nothing like the noises they have been making, so the Knight was going to find a new vessel that might have a skill of connection, or just take one of the human bodies. That might not work since speaking might just be natural and not a transferable skill. For now, the Knight was dragging them deeper, to the place it had made to resemble a lodge for breaks about a decade ago, even if the Knight did not need breaks, it enjoyed the routine of having one, maybe one of its remaining human instincts. The Knight also posted Vile hunter (second version) near the entrance of the dungeon, to see and capture any wondering humans.
'I guess this just might mean, since there are human souls present, the only way out would be to find an effective way to continue, I have managed for now, maybe dealing with these humans might give me a new idea.'