It came closer soon passing the Knight and gouging in the blood, as ugly as it was, the Knight felt humbled, because it finally saw its reflection in the flowing blood, it almost puked, but to no avail, it seems it possess nothing in it to puke out except organs, that's why it felt a lump shift uncomfortably in its body, the lifeless kidney was of no use anyway, but still it swallowed it back down. It was darkly green, beyond recognition and it realised that it once was human from the subtleties, like how human knowledge seems to be more natural to it, otherwise no such features on its face, the helmet appeared out of thin air and covered the Knights face, at least this way one can only imagine the horrors within.
"Hey you, who are you?"
Slightly startled, the ugly beast looked up and said, "sorry my lord, a creature of such a lowly rank as me has no place being around you, but you see I have not been accepted by a lord to take me to their void territories and kill the living, so I am starved, I did not think you mind me drinking the blood, as you did not seem to care about it, you are a lord right?"
'I don't know what it's talking about; one thing is clear though, I am clearly clueless. Maybe this appalling thing can help address my last concern – information about this world and my next set of actions to take.'
After activating visage of terror, just enough to suffocate it but not lethal; "Tell me more about these lords"
'I know it might try to kill me for the lack of such simple information, but I don't have a choice the grain of darkness does not want to answer, hopefully the fear will make it panic and answer.'
"The lords are… are the creatures that possess a section of the void, … they… they take the weaker ones along with them"
Seed of knowledge has been planted. Use five slaughter points to reap full understanding? No slaughter points present. Use Knowledge Point?
'Hmmm? Probably means I'll get weaker for a while, I don't even know how to get knowledge points, but what can I do? Asking anymore questions might make me sound like a fool, so – YES'
Knowledge point consumed. Information regarding the lords and their void territories Unlocked. View information?
'YES'
The grain of darkness spoke. The Lords own a space in the world of the living, known as a void territory. These spaces they can go to when the area is covered by night. The void space is not restricted, in as much as it represents volume of effect, it also allows one to bring lesser creatures along, for only the strong possess Space. Bonus: There are three worlds, the void and the world of man, and under the cover of nightfall the dwellers of the void traverse this space and enter the world, one can only move between world when it is dark out and when they have a piece of the void. In your case your void space allows you to take yourself and ten creatures.
'I remember a lot now and some I filled in the pieces. I think I was a human who was out when darkness came and had something to protect and fought a crazy number of abominations, and I'm sure that that was not even all of them. Why they are my followers is confusing, and why so many if my void can only accompany ten others, they might have each came on their own, which is not possible by the mere fact that the void territories are rare and precious, which gives me an even more disturbing truth – there was a Lord somewhere with a very huge territory and I barely, technically I didn't, survive their minions, thank goodness they ignored me. By the sounds of the hero skill, it seems I was protecting someone, but who? And why? How did I even end up in the darkness? Don't tell me – was I insane!?'
Remembering the presence of its guest, it toned down the fear and said, "I am not one, You seem intelligent, yet you have not been recruited by a void Lord."
The thing thought, 'It's scary but this thing lacks the smell of overwhelming power, If I had to guess I'd put its power at around 10, no maybe 20, probably 15, I might be playing weak and have little to no territory, I do however possess rare skill, and unlucky for this new spawn, it happen to run into a Yiril of level 36- I better play along for a while cause, even though it is so weak, this fear is real, it's not even mental because yirils are immune'
With its trembling voice it answered, "I do have a high intelligence stat, but we are not good on the battlefield"
'Truth be told we are strong, the only reason lords do not associate with us is because of our scheming and conniving nature'
"Might I suggest we head into town sir?"
The gallant figure looked down and nodded, "Lead the way"
'There are towns in the void, why not? There are trees, pastures and a blood river, I wouldn't be surprised if there were buildings."
With a wicked smile which it barely manages to cover it thought, 'good, killing you away from the river is safer wouldn't wanna attract the attention of the Bloody maidens, and this works for me too, I'll sell that armour for just enough for the blood of a fresh human, at the guild'
***
Arriving in town unscathed, they passed through the gates without much of a check because the guards knew the Yiril and it explained the newcomer, it seems its normal for new creatures to spawn. They ignored most of the other horrors and approached the guild.
'I didn't think monsters were so organised, especially considering that most lack proper intelligence, maybe they remain outside, but what the walls and guards for? Probably means the lords don't get along and most keep the purposeless creatines outside, and even now it still feels kind of strange to not be lunged at, considering I was human, my instincts are saying something is odd about this whole situation.'
They entered the guild, followed by strange looks, none looked or felt humane. Surprisingly some were aimed at the Yiril behind it, and because of the lack of understanding for their current predicament it chose not to exert fear. They reached the desk and with a rather rough reception the man looking monster spoke, "State your business"
"I would like to register with the guild. This atrocious beast next to me said walking around without identification is bad since I might be mistaken for a spy or a conqueror."
The slightly easier to look at receptionist looked at the two and spoke.
"I believe you are referring to the Yiril next to you, I am surprised that one led you all the way here safely, they are a treacherous bunch, which might mean you are a strong spawn, by the scent on the Yiril I'd say you came here from the territory of the Blood maidens, lucky I see. The summary of the procedure is that we will assess your strength and if you are weak you will become a scavenger, but strong and you might just catch the eye of the lord responsible for the town we're in and most likely get to go kill in person once in a while, luxuries of the strong though. Now first thing is first what is the composition of your soul"
"It's a Dreaded soul"
…
The most curious thing happened, who would have thought that these atrocities could laugh, cause right then, everything burst into laughter, all but the Yiril, which seems to have an expression not human in nature but resembling the look of one having a revelation.
The clerk barely stopped, and said with a more serious tone; "I know that earlier I suggested that you were strong for surviving the journey with the Yiril, but do not let its web of lies confuse you, we get it you're new and want to seem strong but…"
The laughing stopped some got up, others remained down for a while and then stood up.
The clerk got up noticed the guild master and bowed as if ashamed of not being able to contain the fear. Then the master spoke; "What is this all about? A new spawn? One so terrible? Usually when a creature is created it is weak powers that are always between 1-5, even the truly outstanding ones are born with power close to 30, this one seems like 40 or possibly 50, this would be one of the dozen rare cases, meaning it might develop into a lord, this is good news. However, posing to have a dreaded soul upon creation is madness"
It thought and remembered that the master was right it was supposed to be at level 1, but due to the will which is inconvenient for growth but at least it had immediate results by forcing my power to match my knowledge. I regret the decision a little less now, even my knowledge was already so high because I was once human. Let me not exhaust my luck by challenging it, I might be scary, but I am still not sure of how I'll fare in a fight'
"Do you not have a way to check if I have a dreaded soul, and to avoid further complications…"
'I want to make sure it doesn't try to fight me so, I'm sure its level is around 120-130, because it looks like it could take me, I wonder if I should tell them my current level, the dreaded soul part was out of my hands, but this… but just like what the clerk thing said, only the strong can enjoy the luxury of choice.'
"… my power is 104."
The old creature slowly went up it was silent, even Yiril, was expressionless. After a couple of minutes, the master came back down from the upper part of the building. In its hands was an eye, one three times the size of a human head, and worse it looked alive. It took a look at the figure in armour and strange looking letters without proper form, but simple meaning conveyed, and the master asked, "tell us again what type of soul you have?"
"A dreaded one"
"What about the level you were created at?"
"Level 104"
The eye glowed red, a sigh of relief washed over everyone present, it seems they had come to terms with the dreaded soul but believing the same creature was created with such a level was preposterous. Remembering the knowledge point it traded, it realised that meant its power dropped too, that would mean that the power it was created with was 105.
The Knight hastily corrected, "I was created with level 105, but I had to lose a level to activate a skill (which was the knowledge seed, technically it is related to the grain of darkness which on its own is like a sentient skill), so it dropped to 104"
Their relief was crumpled. Just then the red glowing eye glowed green, confirming the status that the Knight has just described was true. There was no laughter, just a room filled with strange glances.