Not only will the greed skill refuse such an arrangement, but there is something else that the Knight knows well, before becoming what it is today, it was a strange human. Quitting is easy but doing so while there is so much that needs to be done, impossible too, far more so than this dungeon. Just what happened to it when it was human, maybe it's the will of wisdom speaking but there is something within the Knight driving it to want to find what happened to it and how it happened to end up here…
'Wait… the grain of darkness is a well spring of knowledge, once a certain amount of it is gained, it grants the rest of it using slaughter points, which should be used to evolve skills, but there is something else that could improve my situation, the followers.'
With that the Knight racked its brain, or whatever it is that allows it to think, to scrounge up information on the followers, eventually coming to a dead end, and still no prompt from the grain of darkness. That's when the Knight decided to shift its focus to the skills, and which one to evolve.
100 slaughter points consumed. Crimson smith cannot be evolved. Skill has been mastered. Use slaughter points to learn complimentary skill?
'What else is there to do anyway?'
"Yes."
Soul craft learned.
'Guess it's because of the constant use of the souls to create equipment that this skill was possible. This new skill is focused on the manipulation of souls. It seems if I collect multiple souls of the same creatures, I can fuse them into a new one. And this soul will be able to imbue… objects with one of its properties.'
To test it out the Knight had to fuse about 10 souls, which was a luxury since all the stragglers were dead. It imbued its skeletal chair with the property of those monsters that paralysed their victims when touched, since the Knight could always use its terror power to withstand the paralysation long enough to stand up. It plans on using it as a form of relaxation, being a being of the void, experienced no fatigue, neither did it need sleep, but the paralysis of that monster felt incredibly relieving.
Trying to fuse incompatible souls was impossible so after getting used to how the power worked, it fused together nine new souls from the 107-batch left after the use of the first 10 souls. Then with the nine, it gave new properties to the equipment created by crimson smithing, which made sense considering that soul craft is its complimentary skill. The medallion has two properties, one is to become invisible, the next is to be intangible to those that do not know of its existence, bringing back with it a couple of memories of how incredibly bothersome the battles were that earned it these souls.
The ones with intangibility can only be fought if they decide to attack, otherwise they can hide in plain sight by staying in dark spots, the Knight would suspect that there were more in hiding if not for the fact that they all attacked the Knight due to it being the weakest in the dungeon, and they were a greedy bunch too. They do not let prey go or else they'll starve. The invisible monsters were easier to handle due to the mighty skill enhancing the senses. The next equipment was the hammer crafted about three months back, this was given the acceleration attribute and increase the force of every hit.
The shield the Knight had crafted two months after it entered the dungeon, was given the immobility of a beetle like monster. It would make itself immobile for a fraction of a millisecond just when the hit struck, completely still, not even the turning of the planet would move it, from an annoying level 123, it had a high enough intelligence to tell right before a hit came.
Then the next was a knife, imbued with poison and sharpness. The next was a fire lamb, imbued with intangibility as well, the Knight did not need light but it did need to flash out the intangible monsters from the dark spots, since they were a hassle to deal with when it was a surprise attack, it did help that they were not invisible though, otherwise it would have been an even worse problem. It was strangely fitting that the creation that helped with their destruction should be privy to their power. When the lamb is off, it will not be destroyed during surprise attack's, already lost two because of this.
The last two powers were granted to something that might possibly help the Knight fight the level 130 in front of it, blocking the path forward, it kept itself there for a week. A dark feather with silver accents, its normal ability was to temporarily use an ability of the opponent. This one was tricky; it came from the totally dark phoenix.
About seven months ago, the Knight ran into the first one, a Phoenix that seemed to have emerged from the darkness of existence. It did not shine with its popular brilliance, instead it seemed to devour the light around it, it destroyed the first fire lamb the Knight possessed, because it consumed the fire, more like eradicated it with its presence. In daylight the fiend would probably, fly creating a dark spot in the day, probably a perfect steed for a void being, if not for the fact that the Phoenix is a monster, not at all worthy of such a privilege
It had a peculiar ability, to kill itself, and when it comes back it would possess one of the Knights skills, the Knight had to kill it before it killed itself, which was strangely hard, considering that it took a while to kill itself. The problem was that it would attack, fly high, then kill itself while out of range, the Knight had to use the dreaded power at just the right time before it slipped away and grab it. Its soul was also strange, it refused to be moulded into an equipment, however, grain of darkness was charitable and suggested forcing its soul into the feathers to reap the reward of killing it.
The feather allowed one to use an ability, but then the feather would shatter, after one use and not come back like the bird Phoenix did. Right now, the Knight possessed a couple of feathers in its inventory, plain ones and a couple of Phoenix souls, which were just used by soul craft to imbue the feather with one of its properties, to come back when destroyed. The Knight then threw out the rest of the feathers considering that they were useless, it would only need one, which would come back after being destroyed. The only problem was that the Phoenix needs to copy the ability again when it arrives, so the last soul property made through soul craft was for convenience.
It was the property of the soul of a sneaky assassin type monster, it delayed the reactions of its target, like once it struck from the back the Knight would notice but then its body would not follow its orders, then once hit and the assassin jumped back and then the Knight would hit the air where the monster was, as if the body had just gotten the delayed instruction. This monster is a terrible foe for all those who rely on instincts. The knife was actually made from its soul, it was a slender, tall humanoid mantis, grotesque face, of mismatched human parts which seemed familiar to the Knight somehow, but the Knight was not one to judge looks considering its own charming mug.
The skills crimson smith and soul craft work in unison. Crimson smith turns souls tangible and gives these convenient forms, the skills of the monsters, while soul craft used multiple souls to craft a soul with a specific property, then crimson smith would imbue this property to an object, otherwise the new soul collapses and dissipates, they are extremely unstable. Forming one of these unstable souls takes a dozen, that is why soul crafting requires one to already possess an abundance of similar souls before attempting, otherwise the souls will collapse and be lost.
The Knight did possess souls in its inventory that were far more potent, like a level 125 Blooding, a pool of blood that seeps into another being to take control of it, or the level 124 Sleeth, which messed with vision, only one of each did the Knight have, and what it could make with the smithing skill was not useful currently. Before risking a bunch of souls, the specific property must be envisioned beforehand, otherwise the craft would fail, already a couple of souls were lost to these endeavours, adding to the Knights already sour mood, due to the greed skill reminding it how many souls that it could have used for trading for information once back in the void.
This is why the Knight was quite pleased with the feather, which stylishly hang on the side of the helmet. Another disadvantage of the soul crafting is that the property, which is tied to the souls similar to the visage of terror of the Knight, cannot be bound to other souls, like the Knights own, since the armour is part of its soul, it could not be imbued with properties. These properties are limited to objects, and the equipment made by the smithing skill are crushed souls formed into inanimate objects that do not possess a soul of their own.
And the feather was now able to give it an ability multitude of times, only lasting as long as the delay property of the assassin, before it resets and waits to copy another ability. The downfall was that stronger abilities lasted for shorter amount of time than abilities of weaker monsters, and that an ability could only be copied once, not at all too bad considering that an ability can be stored until use is needed.
Now that the Knight had this slight nudge, it was confident that it could handle the power house monsters since only they are left, it could hunt, 125's then use the skills to make tools to handle the stronger ones and make plans about the true horrors when the time comes, the task might still be insurmountably hard, but at least now it is easier to keep trying until the next dead end. After all the Knight has about two millennia left if it still has any hope of getting the book. Right now, though it was time to go handle the pest blocking its way forward. Maybe if the Knight gets lucky there might be one or two weaker beings still hiding ahead, their souls would be appreciated, that is if the Knight can even make it past the Kindle, a level 130 monster.
"It's about time for it to wake up, I would like a level 130 soul in my arsenal."
The Knight then proceeded to exit the crevasse in the wall of the dungeon, it was a hiding spot for the intangible monsters once, and as soon as the Knight stepped outside, it felt it, the almost palpable presence of a level 130. It's true that the Knight now has a plan on how to handle it, but plans aren't meant to do the job, just supervise it, either way the Knight could see doom in the slowly rising and falling of the monster's chest. Once the Knight was close enough it happened, the grain of darkness spoke once more.
You have encountered a level 130 monster, the Sygiligon. Type-Knight.
The Knight then manifested a stone, one that had been made through smithing, a level 111 monster, the stone gets heavier the higher it goes, and considering the height of this sleeping monstrosity, which was heavy enough to make a bang on its solid surface. The thunderous noise echoed around the dungeon, as the stone got destroyed on the surface of the monster, a bad sign considering that it shattered, the skin would probably be tougher. The Knight sighed as it started running towards the slowly shifting mass. By the looks of the fossilised stones cracking away as it rises, this monster has probably been asleep for at least a hundred years, must have chosen to hibernate, since the monsters around these parts were all weaklings, and itself was too much of a weakling to go any deeper. It shouldn't worry too much though, the Knight is here to give it a challenge that it has been waiting for, too bad it was its last… probably?