The Knight Who Shouldn't Exist

Lu Yao glanced at the number above the Blood Knight's head, the smile on his face vanishing instantly as his fists clenched tight.

What the hell!?

LV60!?

A level 60 boss appearing in a newbie village—does that even make sense? Where the hell are the Simulator's dog operators and dog planners? Save us, save us now!

How the hell are we supposed to fight this!?

Lu Yao immediately typed, urging Isabelle to disengage.

But the battle scene wasn't the one-sided slaughter he'd imagined. Isabelle was indeed struggling against the Blood Knight, her health constantly dropping, but she was still stubbornly holding her ground.

Her health kept ticking down.

-28

-29

-27

For Isabelle's health pool, this damage was dangerously high.

But Lu Yao felt something was off.

He quickly clicked on the Blood Knight repeatedly, pulling up the boss's detailed stats.

After taking a screenshot, he immediately signaled Isabelle to retreat.

Fortunately, the Blood Knight wasn't fast, and it seemed the castle had some kind of restriction preventing him from leaving. Though injured, Isabelle managed to escape safely.

Only then did Lu Yao look at the screenshot.

[LV60 Hero] Blood Knight · Nevid [Weakened] [Confused] [Sealed]

Health Points: 3850/3850

Mana Points: 14/937

Damage: 62(-62)

Defense: 34(-34)

Speed: 8(-8)

[Thick Hide]

Inherently possesses high health.

[Indestructible]

Has special resistance to ranged damage.

[Mobile Casting]

Casts spells while moving in combat, at the cost of slow speed.

[Corruption Creation]

Creates Corruptors from corpses and salt; Corruptor strength depends on the corpse.

[Enchantment LV25]

Attacks carry additional mana damage.

[Flesh is Weak LV2]

[Nevid's Exclusive Ability] The Whistleblower grants Nevid the ability to form legions. Nevid can train and inspire Corruptors to advance in rank, evolving into more elite Rotten Guard units.

From the stats on the screenshot, Lu Yao roughly understood this Blood Knight's role.

He was essentially a knight-type character focused on training troops, here to train and build a Corruptor legion for the Whistleblower. Nevid's greatest value lay in that.

The Blood Knight was a commander-type Hero, able to supply the Whistleblower with an endless stream of soldiers. [Corruption Creation] and [Flesh is Weak] were practically god-tier skills for recruitment and training.

As long as he was supplied with corpses and salt, the Blood Knight could mass-produce fearless Corruptor armies.

The true secret of the Salt Pool Tribe was this boss.

The Blood Knight needed salt and corpses; all trade revolved around these two points.

With the salt pool providing an endless supply of salt, the focus was on gathering as many corpses as possible, especially from powerful species.

That was why the Salt Pool Tribe had been eyeing the East River Tribe's Sea Monster. They weren't just targeting the Barbarian Tribe and the Cave Dwellers—they'd also once tried to occupy the Ghost City Sanilo at the southern end of the continent.

All of it was to find and collect corpses of powerful lifeforms.

Lu Yao made further theoretical analysis.

The Blood Knight was a master of positional warfare: he wasn't afraid of ranged damage, his attacks carried mana damage, he could create Corruptors while fighting, he had no fear of attrition battles, and he could continuously train and upgrade his soldiers.

But every strength was also a weakness.

In other words, the Blood Knight wasn't the type to break through enemy lines alone as a vanguard or a one-man army, nor did he have the ability to single-handedly reverse a battle's outcome. He needed time to build his legion and set up formations, advancing step by step to secure victory.

She and Isabelle were polar opposites.

Isabelle possessed the [Sword of the Forest], but most of the time she didn't carry those created creatures around, preferring to solve problems on her own.

These were some conclusions Lu Yao had drawn from data analysis. But theory always had to be combined with practice, so he asked Isabelle, who had been in the fight, for her input.

"Milord, Nivd's power comes from Forrest."

Isabelle said in the dialogue box: "He was created by the Flutist from Forrest's corpse. I can sense that aura, which is why he displays a chaotic state, and his combat ability can't be fully unleashed because of it."

"The rules of this world have sealed him, greatly reducing his power, because he shouldn't exist here in the first place."

"Creating Corruptors also continuously drains his mana."

"Earlier, following your orders, Milord, I wiped out a large number of Corruptors. He kept replenishing them, consuming a great deal of mana. So the Blood Knight has become especially weak now, and his combat ability has further declined."

Lu Yao's eyes lit up.

A countermeasure came to mind.

If he followed this process—first cutting down Corruptors repeatedly to drain his mana, preventing him from using those abilities—the Blood Knight would remain in a weakened and chaotic state, only able to unleash 50% of his combat power.

In terms of numbers, Isabelle's damage could break through the Blood Knight's defense.

"Milord, I'm afraid that won't work."

Isabelle maintained a calm caution toward the fight.

She said: "Even under these conditions, I can barely withstand multiple attacks from the Blood Knight."

Lu Yao thought to himself that this was indeed a problem.

She only had 140 Health Points left now.

In front of the Blood Knight, Isabelle's stats were still too fragile; the chasm in rank was backed by a massive gap in all-around numerical values.

Lu Yao scratched his head a little.

Here was a Blood Knight with a fatal weakness right in front of him, yet he had no way to exploit it.

It was like a giant with a vital point at the back of its skull, and a child with no weapons—no matter how hard they jumped, they couldn't reach the giant's neck, couldn't land a hit.

Suddenly, Lu Yao remembered something.

[Statue of the Flayer LV3]

A treasure crafted by the Flayer. It can activate the Beast Transformation Ritual, stripping a living Sacrificial Offering of its reason, cognition, and memory through a gaze, turning it into a powerful flayed beast in exchange for the Power of Faith granted by the Flayer.

Could this thing be used?

"..."

Isabelle thought for a moment: "Milord, I can activate the statue and give it a try."

After a brief rest, Isabelle charged into the castle again.

This time, she lasted about ten seconds before retreating once more.

Isabelle's Health Points had dropped further to just 63, leaving no room for error.

But this attempt was significant.

Above the Blood Knight's head, a negative status appeared: [Flayer's Curse].

A line of text emerged.

[The Statue of the Flayer has stripped the Sacrificial Offering. The Flayer grants you 100 Faith.]

Only then did Lu Yao understand that the true mechanism of the [Statue of the Flayer] was the curse of another god behind it—the Flayer.

Every god was indeed no pushover.

Still, using the Flayer's treasure against the Whistleblower's subordinate was just right.

Although the [Flayer's Curse] didn't seem to have any immediate effect on the Blood Knight, Lu Yao decided to step up the effort and further mentally contaminate the Blood Knight.

After all, he wasn't in a hurry.

Over the next week, Lu Yao locked horns with the Blood Knight.

Aside from occasionally glancing at the Garlic Tribe and the Ghost City of Sanilo, most of his attention was on the castle of the Salt Pool Tribe.

Through repeated patient attempts, Isabelle finally completed the task.

With the continuous effect of the [Flayer's Curse] buff, constant exposure to the statue's gaze meant that even a Level 60 Blood Knight couldn't resist the influence of the Beast Transformation Ritual.

He grew stranger and stranger.

When fighting Isabelle, the Blood Knight would shout incomprehensible words.

"Meat, the meat on you!"

"Woman, terrifying woman, beautiful woman, suspicious woman!"

"Hunger, like a shadow."

"I want to sleep, I need to sleep!"

"Desire is burning, it's scorching me!"

"Forest God, Whistleblower, corpse, bones, Outlander..."

The deranged Blood Knight began attacking friend and foe alike, seeing every living thing around him as an enemy.

Whether it was Isabelle or other Corruptors, anyone who came even slightly close to the Blood Knight would be met with his attacks. Having gone mad, he no longer used any of his abilities, resorting only to the most primitive brawling.

Seeing this, Lu Yao breathed a slight sigh of relief.

It wasn't for nothing that I wasted so much time—this boss has finally gone mad enough... He can no longer issue any commands to the Corruptors.

With that, the Salt Pool Tribe, centered around the Blood Knight, was no longer a threat.

Thanks to reader 20201209015346771 for supporting 1500 Qidian coins.