Knight Rank
Upon entering through the door, the candle lights on the wall began to illuminate one by one, and the once dark environment was now bright.
"Holy Cow," Geralt uttered, glancing around the strange area. The place didn't look anything like a room; it resembled a king's palace.
There were statues and different beast sculptures that neither of them had seen before.
In the middle of the palace, there was a staircase leading to the top floor, and another staircase leading to yet another floor.
"Where the hell is this?" Kadori pondered, examining the location and statues. The beast statues weren't like anything he had seen before.
Kadori wasn't an expert when it came to beasts, but he was sure this one was a rare type.
[ALERT!]
[OPTIONAL QUEST]
[SECURE THE CREATURE'S SOUL ZEN TO GAIN REWARDS]
A set of notifications popped up in Kadori's line of sight, sending shivers down his spine. The system had never given any quest like this before, which left Kadori wondering what on earth was down here.
'What does it mean by Soul Zen?' Kadori pondered. The words seemed strange to him, and he couldn't actually understand what it meant.
But Kadori was sure of one thing: to acquire the so-called 'Soul Zen,' he needed to kill the powerful creature the system was talking about. Kadori's only problem was he wasn't sure what rank the beast was going to be and if Geralt would be able to battle it out.
"Hey, Kadori, let's check the top floor and see what we can find," Geralt stated, pointing towards the staircase that led up. "This place looks creepy; I can tell something important is down here."
Kadori had no objections to Geralt's words since he was also looking for the creature with the Soul Zen and to take it out.
The duo approached the staircase and began to climb it slowly, examining the surroundings as they walked up.
On the wall, there were strange drawings of people holding weapons, and beneath them, there were huge creatures.
The drawings explained that beneath this normal world, there was another world where creatures known as The Harbingers Of Souls dwelled.
Yukiko had explained to Kadori earlier what the Harbingers of Souls were. They were powerful creatures trapped in the underworld with no means of escaping.
But later on, they had found a temporary way to escape to the human world. All they needed to do was shift their soul to a dead human and resurrect with their great powers.
'Does it mean a Harbinger of Soul is down here?' Kadori pondered as the whole thing began to make sense.
The system told him to retrieve the Soul Zen from the creature, and there is no beast with a Zen called the Soul Zen.
That could only mean that the Soul Zen is obtained from the Harbinger of Soul, and it was down here with them.
"Yo, check out this place," Geralt said with his eyes widened as they finally arrived on the second floor.The place looked far different than where they had departed from.
There were no strange statues or drawings, just a plain room with several boxes on the floor.
Kadori and Geralt both approached the boxes to see what was inside.
"They are all locked," Geralt informed while trying to break them open, but they seemed to be locked by something extraordinary.
"Look at this," Kadori called out. "It says defeat the box keeper to gain the items inside the box." Kadori explained while reading it on one of the boxes.
"The box keeper? What the hell does it mean by that?" Geralt mused, rubbing his chin with a look of contemplation.
"It also says that the only way to summon the Keeper was by saying 'La'Uk'Uk'Khan'," Kadori remarked, his eyes glued to the box.
BAM! DUM! DUM!
Saying those words, a loud banging sound was heard, followed by loud thunderous footsteps that approached them slowly.
"Wait, did you just say the only way to summon the keeper was to say those words that you just said, and now you summoned it?" Geralt voiced out, assuming a fighting stance as he awaited the incoming creature.
Kadori stood on full alert as the footsteps grew louder and louder, and finally, the creature came into view.
A 9-foot-tall creature with sharp black fur covering its whole body, razor-sharp claws, and fangs. The thing that stood out in the creature's features was its four huge arms that had the same blade-like claws.
------_---------------------_---------
-NAME: KNIGHT OF THE HARBINGER
-RANK: KNIGHT RANK
-HP: ????
--------------------------_--------_--------
As usual, a holographic screen popped up right above the onyx creature, displaying the basic information.
Catching a glimpse of the creature's rank, Kadori panicked. The beast was a Knight Rank creature, a rank higher than the Grandmasters and Masters ranks.
Kadori wasn't sure if Geralt, a Diamond 1 rank, would be able to defeat a Knight rank beast without Kadori's help.
With all of Kadori's skills locked and his stats halved, he would be nothing but useless in this fight.
If he still had his skills, then he could always summon his beasts to weaken the Knight creature while he took it out with his Energy Claws.
But now, he had no other option than to count on Geralt.
Glancing at Geralt's face, Kadori noticed a confident look. It was as if Geralt was about to face a Basic rank beast and not a Knight rank.
Kadori wasn't sure if Geralt didn't know the beast's rank, which is why he was still very confident, or if he knew the rank but still felt like this battle would be a walk in the park for him.
Kadori didn't bother to think about it too much as he stepped back and hid behind one of the huge boxes to spectate the fight.
The beast began to charge forward at an incredible speed towards Geralt. Despite its size and height, it was still very fast.
When the beast got within striking distance, it swung out its four clawed arms towards Geralt.
"Force Shield!" Geralt called out, sweeping his two arms upward, and a shield made of black aura formed in front of him. But if Geralt thought that would protect him, he was wrong.
Upon making contact with the shield, it shattered to pieces and eventually vanished, and the claws kept traveling forward but at a slower rate.
Geralt quickly leapt a few centimeters backward and dodged the strike completely.
Watching from the sidelines, the only thing on Kadori's mind was how he was going to get the last hit and claim the reward for the quest.
'Just how would I get a clean strike?'