It had been a few years, the Knight was moving through the city, checking the antique stores. They rarely had any good swords, good thing the Knight was not looking for one. This was probably because everyone who ever had a reputable enough sword died in battle. Most of these were refurbished, but some kept their layers of rust, for historical purposes, said one of the clerks.
Most of the swords in these shops were from retired veterans, and rank file soldiers, or even scavenged by adventurers from ancient sword burials. Not even the most experienced of antique shop owners, had never heard or seen a sword modelled after the Knight armour profile.
It had started to think that maybe it had really changed more than the Knight expected, or it was never modelled after the Knight. However, this was not helping with anything, even if any of that were true, it would not make finding the sword any easier.
The best part is that whisper said it would be able to identify the sword should it be anywhere nearby. The Knight's search has hit a dead end for now, the shops on the void covered half of the city were no help either. The Knight had moved on to checking documentation, Zuri helped with most of it though. Even then the Knight just kept coming up dry.
The Knight still did not have full access to the archives at its current rank. So, this meant there would be hope in the future. This made the Knight start thinking about applying to become a junior knight Bachelor, it had yet to reach the level requirement of a level 250. But learning about this world was helping, even if the information is thread level useful, enough of it could earn a rise in level.
For the most part, which is how one comes to possess information about unleashing the second seal – rising in rank. That information would be more helpful to humans, to the Knight, who had read the book of souls, it had already figured it out, but that would all have to come later.
Every year, there is this tournament in the city, where those who applied to challenge their rank superiors and rank up, according to the assessment of their superior. The Knight would have to challenge a knight Banneret to rank up. The biggest tournament is known to be from the city of Arulli, where headquarters is and where the other Bannerets gather occasionally.
"Sir Knight, it's me Jack."
The Knight kept walking facing ahead, Jack caught up to say what he wanted to, like always. Him and Dart had become squires this year, and after their training, they chose to follow the knights in the Knights squadron. They would also one day take the challenge during a tournament and become full Knights, but that usually takes ages, so they will be squires for quite a while.
"I wanted to ask, that swing you throw immediately after a teleport, how do you make it more effective? I have been trying to increase my speed, but the balance keeps throwing my hit off."
The Knight did not care for why they had never bothered to report how they met the Knight, but it knew why, they were not supposed to have been there themselves. The Knight learned this when it had briefly taught them in the guest training sessions at the academy. It did not do that much though, wasting a commander's time is not something done frequently.
That is why most of the trainers are retired Knights, or just those with some experience, and decided to prepare the next generation. The question Jack just asked was related to the 'sparring matches' – the brutal beat downs – the Knight has with its squadron every time they were off duty, as part of their deal. They had gotten better but so did the Knight. Since Jack and Dart were squires, they watched these to learn something from the battles.
"The problem has nothing to do with balance; the problem is that you are trying to perform on a higher level than you are. Like a child with barely enough muscle mass trying to lift his fathers' weights.
What I'm referring to is your soul density, you're trying to make a feather sink. You can get faster, or learn how to compress your soul, Yrik can teach you speed Compressing your soul could kill you, so don't try it. Pushing your limits is fine, just don't try to speed the growth."
The Knight figured that the better the advice it gave this plebian, the longer it will spend away from the Knight, trying to figure that very concept out, before coming back with a new question. Normally the Knight would just let him talk to himself as it kept walking, if there were no questions asked, him and Zuri tended to blunder on a whole conversation on their own.
The Knight could hold a conversation while its mind was focused on a thousand other matters. At this level there was hardly any human concept able to challenge the Knights mental capabilities. This is why the Yiril kept getting as frightening as the void guild clerk had assumed in thought.
Just then a delicate young girl, in scholarly uniform stopped next to the walking Knight and the squire, who was still thinking of how to throw a deadlier punch, even when entering speeds enough to rip the scales off of normal dragons.
"Morning Sir." Then she shifted her attention, she was here for Jack. "Before my classes ended, we were given a project on negotiations, and Redan is already asking the shop owners.
We were wondering if my brother could spare some time, from his oh so busy schedule, to check whether our mock interview for a knight is realistic. The Knights are obviously too busy, and I don't know anyone else who knows as much about them."
"Like I said last time, the duties of a…"
Their conversation had become redundant in a manner, but the Knight continued walking, leaving them there, once it noticed Dart coming, with another girl beside him. She was dark, and her hair was a near perfect mixture of dirt brown and olive green, complimenting her blue eyes.
The Knight had talked to her too, but the Knight was not about to make this whole thing with interviews part of its day. Did I mention, even Dart liked asking combat questions, and by the looks of his training clothes, he was probably just back from practice. He was coming here to probably also ask a question, but the Knight did not want to be caught in a crowd of people. So, he would have to keep his question for latter. Unlike his friend, Dart wanted to master fighting at his level before trying to push further, making him the one with more potential to exponentially grow.
The Knight could understand any form of communication, be it words or writing, in any language. Zuri had told the Knight about this local library, smaller than the others, but is known for housing lost texts, written in languages long dead. Some were translated using skills, but most were still being researched, or just tracking dust. From in here the Knight scoured the books for years going through every text, even those slightly removed from swords, but having an inkling of a chance of mentioning it.
The only useful piece of information it came across, was a report about a lost package, guarded by a fiendish monster. The Knight would have been tempted to look for this monster and package, but the texts clearly noted that it had been destroyed. The city with this type of writing had been lost later due to an unrelated incident.
There was also a mention about swords that possessed souls. Since the Knight was versed in all forms of souls, it knew more. These are souls that instead of choosing to be reincarnated or rebirthed as either a human or animal – becoming beasts, they chose to be reborn as objects. Or there was a problem with their rebirth due to internal or external forces.
Some of those who become objects, as long as these objects are not decimated, they essentially live immortal lives, clear of any form of thought. It was even strange to think that one could be holding a stone possessing a soul, one just incapable of possessing consciousness.
There are varieties as usual. Some people possess skills allowing them to train these souls, and teach them skills for example, like a chunk of metal ore, and mould them into legendary level swords. Others are just souls banished into objects by powerful forces, while still possessing their memories and intellect.
The examples in this book were of the great demonic sword, the sever sword, even the paladin's sword, which is one of the knight Bannerette. None of these were the Knights though. There are alchemists out there, who hunt for these soul filled objects, they tend to produce better results, if the soul inside does not collapse and dissipate back to the realms.
These objects are rare, fetch a high price, and are amongst the rewarding quests in the guilds, which are not favoured due to the rarity of finding one. The Knight knew one thing though, it did not want a talking sword, it had Mugaw, the talking feather, and Whisper of darkness, which is the void territory itself, and the greedy followers. The Knight was so grateful that its armour never spoke.
The Knight had been handling monsters using the vile army, but for the most part, any and all direct fights with monsters were requests from the guild. There are sometimes urgent quests, ones demanding action, but there would be no available adventurers who were up to the task. These quests fell onto the knights due to the deficiency of the police and soldiers. Another reason is that sometimes the monster travel along the periphery of the darkness, which is a rare problem to have.
Usually the void is filled with, you guessed it, void creatures, as such, monsters tend to stay far away. But they had noticed the in-active void as well, thus the situation came. One where monsters moved to close to the void, and adventurers would be hesitant to go anywhere nearby. Knights would be sent to dispatch of monster, an adventurer's job, on the off chance a destroyer emerges from out of nowhere, which could only be handled by the knights.
A less pressing manner in which a knight might be taking quests, is when a monster is more dangerous than the present adventurers and is disturbing the flow of the city. The Knight had had a couple of experiences with handling these. It would send Yrik to get proper documentation from the guild once the request has been approved by the Knighthood.
There would sometimes be a stray monster, one immensely powerful, but since the Knights capabilities had been understated, not by choice, but due to their nature, these were handled by the knight Bachelor. None had come close enough to needing the attention of a knight Banneret. The reason monster activity had changed was also because of the Knight. It had conquered the nearby dungeon, the same one that had been attracting and trapping monsters inside.
The Knight shuddered thinking about how powerless it was to escape. But now that the trap was gone, monsters moved around more. But because of the void, which they too feared, they moved out of the whole area around the dungeon, in fear of the probable attack that could one day come from the bowels of nighttime. The Knight had improved one thing for them though, the monsters all came from the east, west and north, as such the defence on the south could be focused on destroyers.
The overall number of monsters had decreased, but the density of their attacks on the other sides of the wall had increased. This is why there had to be an almost constant patrol of the main gate, to help with those entering and leaving.
The fact the main gate was on the clear side was no stroke of luck, it is facing north, and there is no dungeon anywhere near there, that could instantly cover it. The other side had been using smaller gates not because they thought the dungeon would instantly cover it, but because it could move close enough to make using that gate dangerous. The designers of cities had really put immense thought into these.
Now the smaller gates on the south wall all had one purpose, the passage of the Knights only. Looking at the main gate, one wonders, it being saved from the darkness, was it worth the increased monster activity? The simple answer would be yes, it had made the evacuation way faster, which is its main reason for existing. It was actually two gates, one smaller for travel, imbedded in a larger one, that would help move the evacuation of caravans along even faster.