The knight then pulled out her stats – after all she was now part of its system.
Dweller ID … 070124
Title – Kitrino
Power – 241
Knowledge – 241
Rank – General (Incomplete)
Inscriptions – None
Skills In Hive – [Crimson smith] [Mighty] [Hero] [Sole Survivor] [Battle Monger] [Greed] [Soul craft] [Teleport] [Sense Manipulation] [Soul Touch] [Horror Mirror] [Camouflage] [Impact] [Arbitrary Concealment] [Flame Dragon Absolute Rule] [Fire Tamer III] [Willruption I] [Dungeon Pass] {Render}
Skills Acquired – {Render} [Touch] [Paced Reading] [Night Vision] [Base] [Silence XVI] [Fair Trade] [Haste] [Guide]
Followers – 0
Tamed – None
Believers – 0
Spawns – 0
Void Domain – 0
Void Counter – 0/0
Armament – [Garm of Abio
Inventory – None
Slaughtered – 0
[0] Missions Incomplete (Complete missions for more missions)
[0] Events Currently
[3] Updates
[Analytics]
Formless Soul – [Hive] [Sheperd] [Form of Touch]
Will – Wisdom (Infused with Whisper of Darkness)
Value Coins – 342
She even kept her value points from her past life, meaning she didn't need to get a soul pattern to allow transfer – maybe the Knight should give her its, since it had no use for them.
The Knight noticed something – [3] Updates.
It had not paid this any heed after the system overhaul. But since these were connected it saw it and finally opened them.
Updates:
Ø [System has evolved to include souls related to Vile Knight – allowing for ranged status updates]
Ø [System now includes missions, assignments, and extra features to assist with them]
Ø [Events features have been added – available during events only]
'I should probably prepare for the events to come; I don't even know what they are.'
"That sounds fun!"
The Knight had forgot to block her out of its thoughts. "Then we have you!"
She then kept going through her status. The soul inventory was empty probably because she didn't already have it, and this was more from the Vermin's side. That is when the Knight noticed she had added only a single skill in the hive – the special skill. The Knight had suspected that vessels do in fact have more skills but only the special skill is shared in hive.
This then moved the Knights attention to a specific skill – it looked out of place to the others.
"You – use that skill of yours – After all, it is the reason you exist."
It seemed her previous self, manifested a little, because her tone flattened, and she sounded so uninterested. "Oh, that one…"
She then stood up and reached her hand out – changing the form of the air itself, into a single orb. She then reached in onto it, squeezing it. She could not affect souls as the forest folk do but authority over the form of the physical – intricate and precise – this was her domain.
Then she shaped it into a doll. Then many thoughts passed through her mind. As a mountain folk, these thoughts would be fear, anger, strength, and similar concepts – but as a part of the Knight, and thus possessing the mind suited for the void, her thoughts travelled further and deeper than any mind should be allowed to go.
Her eyes weren't flashing anymore, just a constant shade of deep darkness. Then the doll became something… it started changing gradients from clear to indigo – soon it was swirling with a darkness akin to that of the void, for these were her deepest darkest thoughts – even darker due to her current state.
"And that's {Render} – an inherited skill – that allows one to place thoughts into an object – but the object has to be made to contain the thoughts – making it useless to have the skill without the power to make something capable of containing thoughts."
"What does it do?"
"If you manage to place it in someone's soul – it affects their composition."
"Meaning that it would affect their sense of self."
"Yes – our memories seem to suggest that they used this to turn people into monsters."
This is the conflict she used to have with this skill and why she avoided the power route. Ironically, this is why it had consumed her – a skill that affects compositions of souls is nothing but a treat for void beings – even if it is a nightmare for a teenage princess.
The Knight had never thought that it was possible to affect people like that so easily. Potentially this could even do more, allowing the Knight to do things like send encrypted thoughts or even use it to destabilise souls and alter them – and make it easier to take them and even craft them. To it, these were basically soul bombs – the only drawback is that only she can make them – since the Knight only possesses {Render} – the transferer of thoughts, etc. not the maker of these tools.
"But wait, how then did you place them in souls."
"[Form of Touch] can temporarily make souls physical."
This was the first skill the Knight had acquired that descended down the bloodline – not needing to be learned. The Knight could share skills with the hive, so such a skill didn't surprise the Knight much. Thoughts about descendants brought it back to Cathina and the situation at hand.
The Knight teleported her and her brother elsewhere. Brought the forest folk to their ruler, and since the princess was there, it was easier to explain. Due to the volatile nature of the situation – it was kept quite since the public had gone through enough already.
The Knight then collected all of the ravaged subjects, including those it had taken earlier. The Knight looked at all of them, standing there lifeless.
"Too bad isn't it – The princess was unable to find any records of them even after raiding the Inn and checking through the guild's records. The search yielded no results."
Kitrino was besides the Knight. She was wearing a black shirt that expanded to be more like a dress, and loose stripped, black pants that just went over the knee – and a pair of very black sunglasses. She had made these clothes using crimson smith and soul craft, and help from her power, even if they weren't as sturdy as the Knights own designs.
She had a set of armour in inventory, but she didn't want to always wear it like the Knight. She wasn't disturbing to look after all, quite the looker.
The knight then reached its hand out. Their souls all left their bodies – they weren't too attached to them anyway. They all collected on the Knights hands, all with that same eerie ordered mess of wills. It fed the souls to the army. The corpses were fed to the dragon legion, even if it barely made a dent in their meal.
"Want one?"
She smelled the soul and poked her tongue out to show her disgust.
'She's right, these souls are too damaged to even provide the minimum force for a void being to even feel it – must be the Vermin in her speaking. I guess even [Greed] has standards. She's too picky even if these souls are barely worth anything.'
It then crushed their souls into oblivion.
***
Off in the far distance, nowhere near any civilisation, an unembodied soul moved with calculated poise. She entered the body of one who had fallen in the middle of this war-torn land. This body had just fallen from a merciful wound to the heart – so it was prime – meaning easier for her to move around in.
She had had many bodies before now, but this one was turning out to be quite the find. It wouldn't be hard to cover up the wound this time. She always has limited time searching – always getting caught as soon as someone recognises her body. When they find the fatal flaw or when the body starts rotting, she always has to scramble to leave, before someone capable of harming souls comes.
But with this kid – she had more time that usual. This simple leather armour was proficient, for a kid from a village – she herself knew how hard it was to acquire – especially when faced with the greed of the merchants.
She smirked his lips. A little blood came out; he had chapped it badly when he fell. Unfortunately, this boy had been born from un-unleashed parents – a power level not even 0. Rare but not unheard of.
How did the ancient people even live. when your power did not exist, not even being zero, a fall alone could injure them.
She then scratched his forehead with her fingers – dried mud and blood in the nails rained as it crumbled out.
And as the legends put it – unleashing in this day and age is hard. Being born from un-unleashed parents is a death sentence. No wonder he had this armour – his poor folks must have scrambled very hard to get him some – this stuff can cost an arm.
I better get back to it then. The faster I finish the faster I can make sure that at least one of us rests in peace. Damn – maybe I do get his parents.
She then entered the log house – no patterns carved into it meant that it had no protection, but it also meant no-one would be able to track her. Patterns can be so complex that only experienced pattern smiths could decipher them. She had been almost caught once because she overestimated her understanding of them.
Once inside she undressed him. Trying as much as she could to patch him up. This would not heal him, but it would in fact slow down the decay. Especially since the body was weak.
I better not push it too far – wouldn't wanna lose such a find so good, so prematurely now would we. That informant! Where is here?
She had to wait for a whole day for him to arrive – she had something bigger in the works so this had made her quite furious – no plans affected – but they would have been if she wasn't such a good planner.
"Are you in there?"
"Yes, you fool!"
"I know where she is…"
"Talk then."
"I was told you have a lot of value points for me."
It was convenient that value points were kept using tiny inscriptions on souls, so she didn't have to go back and forth for them. She touched his hand and transferred a few. She had warmed his hands by the fire – so the informant didn't pick up on the chill.
"The rest after you speak."
"This is just a fraction – give me half first."
"You think I'd depart with that many points? You're standing at the only entrance and exit to this place. Tell me, where would I go?"
"For all I know you can teleport."
"Okay then, let's do it like this, for each part of the information, I'll give you the equivalent, and since I already gave you a fraction – speak!"
"Sure."
The sketchy figure then took off his hood. He was quite full though – muscles everywhere – she had thought he was a skinny shady man.
"Why did they send you anyways – didn't they have someone with the [Fair Trade] skill."
The [Fair Trade] skill is one which every merchant learns – it transfers points, and if the one with the goods or services does not provide, it forcefully takes them back after a certain period. For Eons this is how they have made a stable and safe living.
"No-one trusts you. They said you were an old lady, but here it is I found a young kid. The worse part is that no-one is even sure if you're just a malform (shapeshifter)."
"Fair enough, they did say they were going to send an errand boy not a guard. Yet here we are – and I wasn't going to say anything but you're late."
"I had to avoid being tracked due to a certain someone's paranoia."
"Talk – I can't wait for you to get comfortable."
"The priestess of the Devine is hard to track down. After all everyone is looking for her. We know of a group that had dealt with one of her well-known decoys."
She then transferred more points after warming her hands by the fire once more – prompting him to continue.
"The decoy was a decoy, but we managed to gather that her next relay is in the next town, south of here."
More was transferred.
"She is going to meet one of the security detail of the transfer party."
Even more.
"She is the lady in white hair. She has a skill that allows her to change her features slightly, so I won't bother with those details."
Then the rest.
"They will be staying at the Half Pint Inn."
Then he left. She was sure they had set a trap for her – the Rull Guild has a lot of weird requests, even if they do cost more to issue. She had travelled all the way this side for to request an information quest.
After all the incidents I have been involved in the last couple of years, I had thought someone might have put up an off-the-quest-board (an OQ) request to catch me. I guess I'm not as popular as I thought, huh?
She then quickly left, making sure to remain alert, as she took a detour before heading to the Inn. She looked ahead into the heavily clouded skies – at the oncoming storm.
"I might have to make a progress report soon – I need to a make sure that Vile thing hasn't consumed her already."
[Volume 3: System Update – part one]