"Do you possess large amounts of knowledge?"
A strange question indeed. The others were listening, also confused by how easily the plan had worked. Trying not to be suspicious they chose not to rush to the bag. Then Arduo moved to try and take something, when the gate opened, and instead of putting anything in, the huge hand of the Knight reached in and grabbed Folisha, and then it closed again. Folisha had decided it might not be wise to lie to a being as harrowing as this one, using the corpses of monsters as some sorts of vessels, which was something that did not make sense either.
"Yes, I do sir."
With that she was hulled out of the cage, the whole experience was just plain heart wrenching, she thought she was done for. The hand that had destroyed Nicks head into a stain, was now rapping around her waist, she almost lost consciousness. She had already endured enough, at least her friends would make it out. But then something strange happened, again. She was placed on the back of one of the vile stenches of rotting corpse flesh of one of the followers and made to walk next to the Knight, who then explained, unprompted, she even doubted it would answer her if she asked thought.
"Turning my head while walking is boresome and wastes time. I have little to waste on idle chatter, so you better be helpful. I want knowledge and power, and they are one in the same. So, speak or I'll slaughter all of you as easily as I did the first."
Her friends were confused because when the hand took Folisha they did not hear screaming, or anything resembling the sounds of death, like the crushing of bones in that filthy gauntlet. Instead, they heard a confusing conversation of which they could not understand.
Folisha herself was just giddy, in a terrified manner, that the Knight was a connoisseur of knowledge too.
***
Meeting its first set of humans was strange. The Knight had even thought that it might hesitate to kill them, and maybe it might have if it was not hungry for a soul, a hope that deep down it was human, a feeling that it did not seem to bring itself.
The strike down of the human known as Nick was just that, another kill. The Knight felt nothing, no regret, no fear, no disappointment, not even a subtle change, that is except the elation of consuming a soul. Now, that was a soul, the Knight felt restored. This confrontation did show it that, although it has retained some of its human habits, it was nowhere near being human, even while looking at the depressed remains, all it saw was sustenance. Now that the epiphany of not being human had passed, it was time to get back to the dungeon, this awful death trap.
The Knight could not escape; thus, it had to somehow try to come up with a way to conquer the dungeon, that 50 level deduction punishment seems too deadly. One of its problems was solved, but not quite. It would take the Knight a whole cycle again to have to consume another soul, and even if there's four left, the Knight doubted that they would live that long. Thus, it had to make for they live a while longer while it comes up with a contingent. The Knight caged them along with their measly rations, if the Knight wanted them to live even longer, it would need to somehow find a way to feed them, but it's not like it could ask them if they could feed on monsters.
There is a spring deeper, it's useless to the Knight, it only used it to clean bones, but the water seemed clean enough for the humans to survive, and that's where the Knight was taking its captives. This will at least mean they'll live long but not enough for a hundred years. If it comes to it, the Knight could just try to make sure that it breeds them somehow and raise the children until the time came to consume their souls. With that out of the way it was then the Knight realised the problem with the disillusion skill.
*The disillusion skill conjures a being the opponent has fought and defeated. For example, if used on the Knight it would summon an Alluga, being the strongest foe the Knight faced alone, turning the fight into a one vs two. When used by the Knight and its army, each would summon a figure for the foe. The Knight plus its army is 11, thus 11 vs 1, becomes 22 vs 1, since each summoned the defeated foe of the one. The summoned figures are weaker than the being they are imitating and vanish when the conjurer is gone. But if the follower the that has the vessel with the skill is destroyed, then all summoned figures vanish, since the skill will be removed from the hive. Sure, it could turn a 100 vs 11 fight into a 10 vs 1111, but that was just in terms of numbers. The summoned monsters are weaker than each opponent, and the group will not be as cohesive. The worst part is killing the one that introduced the skill to the hive, breaks the skill from everyone, thus it then becomes 100 vs 10. The followers do not die but finding another vessel to replace that skill will be draining and not worth it. *
"I can't rely of this skill."
So, it might be beneficial to sacrifice it for a worthy skill during the hunt. Trying to kill a healthy level 140 will be suicide, it did not help that this is currently the weakest monster in the dungeon. It's out of the cards to even aim for a level 141. It is true that the hunting of a level 140 is suicide, but it did not have to be the Knights life that is sacrificed.
'For example; I could sacrifice a few vessels, or maybe even all of them to try and kill a level 140 and make sure the one we do hunt has a skill which the greed of the followers will not be able to resist.'
After a couple of hours of strategizing while dragging the cage, the Knight could not teleport with the cage, but it could have been faster, it had the luxury of having nothing fruitful to do. It was still in a hurry to conquer the dungeon, which is why it felt a little irritated when its thoughts were interrupted by one of the prisoners. The girl was going to be helpful though, because if she happens to be one of the educated ones, then she could be very helpful.
The Knight had given up on getting stronger, since there was no way to gather information enough to allow growth. This might turn into a very powerful meal. The Knight knows that it had been pushing its luck, being level 105 was starting to be deadly, if it could at least gain a level or two there would be a huge improvement.
'That void being should have explained what a will is, this knowledge stuff is really going to get me killed before I even find a way to recover my memories.'
The Knight put her on one of the monster's vessels, to make talking easier. It was confusing site, Folisha could not see but she was talking freely, lost in her words, if she knew that this was making the Knight stronger it might have been different. Usually, all void creatures speak in random ways, the void itself facilitates understanding, and ever since being created, this was the first time the Knight was conversing for so long, it almost confused Folisha for a void being.
"Continue, what exactly does a real knight do."
She was going to be food anyway, so the Knight told her that it had lost its memories when it became like this and the mannerisms were merely a side effect, not a pattern.
"Well, a Knight is the pinnacle of humans actually. No-one really knows when or why it started but it has been how humans defended themselves. It is also not certain what came first, the monsters or the void creature, which are just known as destroyers by humans. It is known that monsters wreak havoc on humans, but they lack intent. While they can fight in an organised manner, at least the stronger ones, but they do not have a drive, just a desire to kill, which is why they are known as mad beings over time. The void beings however seem to be a malignant force solely focused on human destruction. They specifically go after the humans when an area has been infected by the void, when night comes, they emerge. They disappear as soon as the night vanishes. The adventurers' goals are to hunt monsters, while the Knights handle the void beings which are more harrowing. They cannot tame void beings or monsters but there are other creatures that remain docile and indifferent to humans. When left alone these creatures do not do anything, they do when provoked and they can be tamed and used for labour or battle by people possessing the tame skill. They have to form a pact to be able to, that is why some knights will be seen riding these phantasms into battle. While it is not impossible for adventurers or citizens to possess a tamed creature, it is rare though. This is why it is so strange to see a Knight capable of taming monsters."
The Knight looked at the followers marching around, and responded, "I did not tame them. They are dead vessels for the followers in my soul."