C7: Very Bad Dream
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'More than 15 years of my life and you got yourself crippled while I'm napping?!!' I wish I could yell at the old bastard as my rage rises just seeing him in relative solitude.
After Gehrman was able to barely talk me out of actually committing to the bit and pushing down a flight of stairs. I sit down to listen to the story.
Firstly, I found out that I was in a coma for 5 years. Many hunters came and gone with the healing church even hiring outsiders to become temporary hunters. As for the clock tower and the hamlet, all news had been blocked off shortly after I had gotten injured and sent into a coma.
The healing church had decided to commit to more private experiments in search of the 'sacred sight' and ascend their minds. I simply chalk it all up to Byrgenwerth talk and dismiss it as it's not important.
"So Mar is also missing?"
"Yes, she disappeared shortly after you got injured. I had hoped that your injury would nurture her resolve in continuing our duty but she had walked around a corner and then disappeared. I searched long for her but to no avail." Gehrman explains but I only raise a questioning eyebrow at him.
"Uhuh, sure, that's why there is a replica of her here while I found my clothes in the sewers with a mutated townsman next to them." I scoff at the old hunters explanation as I produce my clothing from the inventory. It comes out like a wisp of smoke but I do notice that my adoptive father visibly grows pensive and shocked.
"What?"
"We never found your clothes." Gehrman ominously states.
"What do you mean" I question further.
"When you took the hit, you fell into the water and got washed away somewhere else while me and her took the beast down. We never found you in that water. After some time, a member of the church that was with us had found you in the center of town, naked. Both of us believed you were done for if not from your injuries then from the dirty water seeping into your injuries. Yet here you still are. Clearly someone did something right"
"Then, how did I get back to Yharnam and to some unassuming clinic where I woke up?"
"Dear boy I wish I knew, there are mysteries aplenty around, You are far more agile than me at this point. So go out and kill a few beasts, see what you can find. It's for your own good." I old man sends me off but I first check out my new gear clearly.
20 blood vials, 20 quick silver bullets. Saw cleaver and axe in one hand (alternating) and pistol and a torch in the other.
I sell the vast majority of my current and stored bloodvials as I cant use them anyways. Only keeping five on me. With 40 blood echoes per vial. The 15 on me and the 23 in storage from my few repetitive treks. That nets me 1520. That combined with my current stock of 2088. Lands me at 3,608 blood Echoes. Just enough for two more level which I pump into Vitality.
Or at least it would leave me at 15 Vitality but a dark aura overtook me as that change was made, siphoning my new found vitality so that it returns to 14 points while my level is still listed as 16. The pain in my body also momentarily returns, causing me to hiss as I step away from the Doll.
'Oh come on, not even my levels are safe from this damned curse?' I mentally roar and look to the system for some form of support or a refund but get no answer or new notice. One thing I do notice is that the price still increases even though my stats do not match up with my base stats and actual increases.
At the very most, a new message shows up next to my vitality stat now, (+1 Drained).
Smacking my lips. I choose to head on over to the bath messenger merchants. I find the typical items there like vials, bullets, pebbles, but not much else. Scrolling through their items, I find the Chief Hunter Badge for 10k but my heart warms but also chills as I find something special.
"MY AXE" I shout in surprise which also scares the messengers until they see my face brighten into a smile before I nearly faint at the 300k cost for it. But I at least attempt to hold myself steady as I read through the description of the weapon.
+10 'Cursed' Hunters Axe. Imprints: Radial x2, Waning x2, Triangle x2.
Scaling: B/A for Strength, D/C for Skill, Nothing for bloodtinge, S/S+ for Arcane.
Description: One of the trick weapons of the workshop, commonly used on the hunt. This one has been modified to suit its original owners needs.
Retains the qualities of an axe, but offers a wider palette of attacks by transforming. Boasts a heavy blunt attack, leading to high rally potential.
Cursed blood has been shed on this weapon, permanently mutating it. The coursing blood exacts a price upon its wielder, Be wary lest you get lost in a drunken rage.
Only in the hands of its original owner would the curse be changed.
"That…that is not the stats of a hunters axe. Did I really modify it that much? I know I made some custom carvings along the shaft but I didn't think those were enough to socket more gems than what was originally possible." I state my belief but at least I know I'm not getting screwed over on prices as weapons that had already undergone blood rock transformations are quite powerful.
'Thats a fully upgraded weapon with 6 gemstone slots and higher weapon scaling than most others. I might have to dedicate a few years of grinding to get this.' I back away from the shop as i am too poor with my 500 echoes to afford any of this. I need tons more for the emblem alone.
I am about to head to the 'shrine' when i remember something, "wait, cursed hunter set. My clothes." I bring out the clothes again and read through their description.
[Cursed Hunter Set]
One of the standard articles of hunter attire fashioned at the workshop, this one lacks the cape to wipe away blood. A personal choice of it's original owner who hated getting these clothes dirty.
A fine piece of hunter attire that provides stable defense to anyone facing Yharnam's beastly threat.
Allows one to stalk beasts unannounced, by cover of night
Torn and Tattered, it had been repaired to original condition. Yet the stain of cursed blood can not be so easily washed off. A curse shall flow upon it's wearer with only it's original owner manifesting something new.
"Here it is again, mentioning cursed blood. Is that supposed to be me?" "oh well. The hunt is temporary but the drip is forever.
I put on the bandana, garb, hat and then gloves and boots.
I finally feel whole as I stretch in the clothes to get a remembrance for it. I still remember when I was 18 and Gehrman gave this set to me, officially welcoming me as a proper hunter. I had kicked him in the knee back then whilst yelling out.
"Im already a proper hunter."
I still took the clothing and made changes to it to suit my style. I hold the hat in my hands, rubbing my finger over the stickman design. A euphemism for my original life's name.
As the set is completed on me, A black wisp begins to flow through me, resonating with my injuries as I grunt. The next second I grit my teeth as I feel strength flow through me but it's accompanied by that seizure-like sensation back when I used a bloodvial.
Unlike before, the darkness around me doesnt dissipate and instead grows thicker until my whole body is swallowed up.
I feel a voice whispering to me as I get taken away. [Curse the fiends, and their children too. And their children, forever, true.]
Moments later I find myself in an abandoned church. From where I am, I spot 4 different doors. One behind me and another three spread out to the front and sides.
"Isn't this the hub location past Gascoigne? The location where I can bring people to save them?" I mutter and look around but find nobody except me is here. I try the door back but find it a pile of rubble blocks me past the door. Pushing over the large amount of vases, I get nothing and so I check the side paths.
The left path is similarly blocked by rocks like the door behind me but the right is just locked. I push open the front doors and find an actual path but I don't go there yet. I first move to light the lamp that is in the center of the room only for my hand to phase through it.
[Pay 1,000 blood echoes to summon this lamp? Yes or No]
"What the fuck. I have to pay to use a lamp?"
[Incorrect. The user is currently trapped in this location. The system requires an external energy source to create the lamp itself for the host to freely enter or leave this location. The user has afterall entered it through an unconventional method which is why it's like this.]
"What unconventional method?" I get more pissed as I don't get a straight answer. I can still feel the power flowing through me and if a person was here, I would likely attack them.
[Allow me to properly greet the Host]
[Welcome to the Hunters Nightmare]
[user has entered through the combination of their own title {Cursed} and by wearing their current clothes. A necessary trinket and action is typically required to get here but the effect of the curse is so pronounced on the Host that you were simply called here when the curse was strong enough.]
"So kind of like Cainhurst castle where you need the summons. I got here without the key item or proper mode of transportation, making me a prisoner."
[Correct]
"Fine. let's see what's here" I can only go forward but in my mind, my gamer self is rationalizing that since I didn't have the key item, i am vastly underleveled or geared for this section which could or could not be true, hard to tell.
Walking past the tunnel, I find myself in an opening. A view to my left and a stairway to my right. Yet one thing that quickly stands out is the rocks. Not just any normal stone but pillars and pathways that look like giant rocks had been molded and twisted. Taking a brief look around, I find an item just on the left side.
[Frenzied Coldblood(8) obtained]
"Ooh that's alot of money" I emphasize money with a mister Krabs type accent.
"I can technically afford the lamp now, granted I could with my two coldblood dews too but meh." I return to the chapel and use both my dews, gaining 350 from each. With my new 1163 echoes, I pay the 1k to get the lamp. It manifests in front of me, becoming physical. I light it and messengers appear.
"Hmm, nice. Welp, time to explore"
I head out again and first check if I can even walk on the curved stone surfaces and I can. Though without being forced to, I'd prefer to avoid it.
Walking up the long staircase, I find someone standing guard at the top. It looks like another hunter but with the closest thing to a cowboy hat but not quite as it's a combination of a cowboy hat combined with a top hat.
I continue walking up and when I get close enough, I can see that he is bloodied and panting. A shiver runs down my spine which shoots out of it as the unknown hunter lifts his blunderbuss and shoots me.
I get stunned and he waves his saw cleaver thick blade as it splits into chain blades that he uses to whip at me. I get hit once before I practically sprint down the entirety of the staircase as the hunter tries to shoot at me again but I hide behind a piece of rock.
"HOLY SHIT. He can three shot me" I feel the dull ache in my chest sprout from the gun blast and then transform into a stifling sensation in my chest. A quick look at my status finds I have 20 hp left from my original full 659.
My gamer self instinctively reaches for one of my few blood vials but my hunter mindset pushes that urge down as a single vial wouldn't do anything and would only make me feel greater agony.
Not that I would have had a chance regardless as the old hunter seems to sense me as coming around the corner of the rock formation. He backhand swings his extended beast cutter so that it wraps around my neck.
I have a look of panic and fear on my face as he pulls the chain, decapitating me as the chains tears through my entire neck like something from Final Destination.
[You Died.]
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Word count is low average this time around. Whether you like the chapter or not, drop a comment. I can't be letting myself get complacent in my writing. I still have plenty of growth in all forms.
Usual reminder (take out hyphen): patr-eon.com/Xanok
discord channel still has the next chapter preview like usual: https://discord.gg/rE6gtg28XH