At that moment, Ben felt a real pain in his... well, everything.
Defeating a BOSS should be something incredibly joyful in Souls-like games.
But right now, he felt nothing of the sort.
Because this soldier was just too weak!
"This must be Boss Lucas playing a prank again," Ben thought, and after a moment of confusion, he felt relieved.
After all, situations like this weren't uncommon. For instance, in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, players encounter the very weak Corrupted Monk midway through the game, right?
And since that BOSS also served as a tutorial BOSS, it's understandable that it's a bit weak.
Besides, while Elden Ring is a Souls-like game, it also has open-world elements. So clearly, Boss Lucas didn't go all out with the difficulty settings.
"Looking at it this way, the early BOSSes in Elden Ring should all be relatively easy. Including the Noble earlier, when I think about it, there wasn't anything particularly special, it just made it hard to fight because there were no Flasks," Ben explored forward, returning to the starting point. After obtaining a gesture, a smile appeared on his face.
As an old Souls-like player, from Dark Souls to Sekiro, while he might not be a master, he certainly had some experience.
Arriving at the second Statis in the game, Ben then remembered he had chosen the Golden Seed as his starting gift. This would allow him to get an extra Flask of Crimson Tears, and he also converted another Flask of Cerulean Tears into a Flask of Crimson Tears.
After all, he had chosen the Knight class, which didn't require much MP. Even though there was a Weapon Skill system, Ben paid it no mind.
In Souls-like games, who normally uses these flashy Weapon Skills?
Back in Dark Souls, it was basically all basic attacks. Even in Sekiro, with its distinct skills, the most used one was Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice's special move. Most other skills were just for show and not practical for fighting BOSSes.
As he walked, Ben left behind messages he thought were useful: 'Beautiful scenery ahead,' 'Long live the Elden Ring,' 'Elevator ahead.'
These would later be upvoted by players, aiding his progress.
Taking an elevator up to a seemingly closed large door, after pushing it open, Ben finally saw the outside world: Limgrave.
Walking forward to the first Site of Grace in the wilderness, after a short conversation with a sarcastic-looking White Mask, Ben quickly understood his current situation.
In the game, he played as a Tarnished, which was similar to a Hunter in Bloodborne and an Undead in Dark Souls.
And every Tarnished should have a Finger Maiden to guide their strength, similar to a Maiden in Black.
But his Tarnished's Finger Maiden was gone, so he couldn't level up for the time being.
"So, from now on, I need to follow the light of this Statis, to Stormveil Castle to find my own Finger Maiden?"
"Also, that White Mask fellow doesn't seem like a good person."
Ben pondered this, recalling their recent conversation.
Although the other person said he didn't have a Finger Maiden, Ben absolutely didn't believe it. Because after being killed by the Noble Descendant at the beginning, there had been a mysterious woman with an unclear face near him in the cave.
And in a Souls-like game, how could there be no Maiden in Black?
After a brief exchange, as the White Mask started repeating the same sentence, Ben decided to head towards Stormveil Castle, following the direction of the Statis.
At the same time, compared to previous Souls games, Ben found that Elden Ring had made enormous changes.
Putting aside other points, the most direct change was the map.
It wasn't like Sekiro, with just a paper map showing general landmarks, but a detailed map.
However, one had to go to the obelisks on the map to obtain the corresponding map fragments to unlock it.
It was pretty similar to how Link climbs towers to unlock them in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
"Wait! What is that!?" Just as he finished talking and was about to explore the unknown ahead, Ben's eyes widened suddenly.
On a small path not far away, what did he see?
Piles and piles of bright red bloodstains, and below them, some white souls were constantly rolling around in place.
Then, in the next second, Ben saw those white souls fly straight up into the sky, fall down, and become motionless before disappearing.
The ground, which had been empty, now had another bloodstain.
Meanwhile, further down the path, a knight fully clad in armor, wielding a Golden Halberd and shield, was patrolling back and forth.
"So this is the first BOSS players actually encounter?"
Even as an old Souls-like player, having mentally prepared himself, seeing the scene filled with blood, Ben fell into a silence.
It was too oppressive!
"But they might not be that strong. After all, every installment has a lot of new players starting, and this time Elden Ring is open-world, which has attracted a wave of casual players."
As an open world, this was clearly not a story BOSS, but a kind of field BOSS that could be directly bypassed.
But he wasn't an ordinary player. He was an old Souls-like player who had come all the way from Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro.
He had his pride.
Setting aside the Noble Descendant, which was a plot-driven kill, and the tutorial BOSS, Godrick's soldier, the Golden Knight before him was clearly the first true BOSS players encountered in the game.
Moreover, BOSSes in Souls games never actually meant they were unbeatable, only that the player's skill was insufficient.
Additionally, as a BOSS with a strong presence at the entrance, its health bar wouldn't be excessively high, requiring players to upgrade their weapons to a certain extent to deal damage.
In this situation, what reason did he have to run away?
Facing the Golden Knight, he bravely charged forward.
"Tree Sentinel? Its health bar isn't that thick!"
Upon seeing the BOSS health bar appear at the bottom of the screen, Ben's initial caution slightly eased.
Because his attacks were dealing quite a bit of damage to the BOSS, two hits took down about one-twentieth of the Tree Sentinel's health.
But in the next second, his opinion changed.
After two hits, the horse beneath the Tree Sentinel reared up with a neigh and violently charged at him.
His already not-so-generous health bar was reduced by a third directly.
Even more importantly, after this charge, the Tree Sentinel, as if it were Lu Bu reborn, swept its Golden Halberd horizontally, sending him flying.
Fortunately, he had chosen the Knight class. The armor and exceptionally high health saved his life. With only a sliver of health remaining, he was so scared he chugged two bottles of juice.
And then, he began his true suffering.
Despite riding a horse and being of large stature, its movements were surprisingly agile.
Based on his experience with previous Souls games, he aimed for the groin and underbelly.
But this Tree Sentinel could perform an Iron Shoulder Charge. It would charge him while on horseback, followed by a horizontal sweep with its halberd, nearly always hitting him perfectly.
And when he tried to counter-attack defensively with his shield, although it had 100% physical damage reduction and he wouldn't take damage, his stamina bar simply couldn't take it.
More importantly, Ben discovered that this Tree Sentinel actually used delayed attacks.
"No! How can you be so damn good, you guard!?"
Watching the Tree Sentinel's halberd thrust down after he rolled, Ben erupted in impotent rage.
And this was just the beginning. When it entered its second phase, he found the Tree Sentinel was even more inhuman.
Horse-flying-swallow, shield charge, not only was the attack power high, but the range was also extremely wide. He was hit by splashing dirt from over thirty feet away.
"Holy crap! How are you supposed to fight this!?" After an hour of fierce battle, Ben was completely despairing.
He never expected that as an old Souls-like player, the first BOSS would give him that authentic suffering experience.
"No, I need to find some comfort from Zack." After being killed once again by the Tree Sentinel's delayed halberd thrust, Ben decided to seek emotional solace.
As for Zack having beaten it?
Impossible! Didn't he know Zack?
If Zack hadn't beaten it, then they were in the same boat.
If Zack had run away, then he would have an excuse.
"Zack, have you beaten the Tree Sentinel yet? This gatekeeper BOSS is too strong!" Ben, filled with emotion, sent a voice message to Zack.
"Tree Sentinel? I'm already at Stormveil Castle. I even killed the dragon in the Dragon-Kin Ruins," Zack's voice came through the voice channel, though he didn't sound particularly happy.
"What the hell!? You're cheating!?" Hearing Zack's words, Ben was utterly shocked.
He even forgot about the spoiler that there was a dragon in the Dragon-Kin Ruins.
This was illogical!
"I'm not cheating. It's mainly the message mechanic in the game. All the comments on my messages are showing 9999 likes externally, and they're still being liked like crazy. My health hasn't stopped regenerating, like I'm invincible. It's no fun if I can't die instantly. But I don't want to start a new game and lose these incredibly liked messages," Zack said with a hint of frustration.
"There's an operation like that!? Did you make a deal with Nebula Games?! Why haven't I gotten any likes!?" Ben was astonished by Zack's words.
He instinctively opened his message system, looking dejectedly at the highest liked message, which only had ten likes.
Especially listening to Zack's frustrated tone, Ben felt even more disheartened.
Although if the roles were reversed, Ben figured he would probably turn off the online mode like Zack.
Because while having his messages give him health made things a little easier, if it removed the challenge like Zack said, it wouldn't be fun.
But the key point was that his total number of likes wasn't even over 30!
"Your messages are the problem. I'll tell you how to get a lot of likes, and I'll send you some screenshots." Zack's voice came from the other end of the line.
A moment later, in the text chat, Ben saw Zack send a few pictures.
At the starting resurrection point, near the corpse pointing a finger, Zack's character was kneeling in front of the corpse. His message read: 'So it's an old woman… but if there were a cave...'
Behind the spirit in the wheelchair, in a bowing posture: 'Body movements, body movements… still have stamina…'
On the stone next to the White Mask, kneeling with his back to the White Mask and bowing his head, accompanied by the message: 'So… the hips are very useful.'
Looking at the string of messages, Ben couldn't help but fall silent.
Compared to his previous life, Lucas had made quite a few changes to the message system in the Souls games.
For example, negative reviews wouldn't restore player health and would be deleted if they reached a certain number of negative reviews.
So, on any wall, players could leave messages about hidden passages.
Or in places where death was certain, players could leave messages about light jumps.
Messages like these generally didn't last long, so not many players intentionally played these tricks to harm newcomers.
But now, looking at Zack's messages, Ben could only say: You're truly something else!
(End of Chapter)