C24: Tests, Growth Spurt and relaxation.
im posting this early as compensation for my previous screwup with posting c23 before c22 if anyone was confused about that (or wants to go back and properly read them with the now correctly arranged information) or however wn handled me trying to adjust the chapters yesterday.
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With slightly over 500k echoes, I did some serious shopping from the system first. Obtaining a much needed skill against a giant threat that all gamers face across a multitude of Fromsoft games.
Fall Damage.
[Silver Cat Reflexes: 100k BE- With newfound senses, the user is able to adjust to heights far better. Increases distance that must be dropped from before being hurt (taking damage).]
It was something I had not believed I would get until the very end but this just makes me all the more happier, especially as I learn that it too has a level but im not sure what would even be the action to improve it. Falling?
I know just the place to test it out but first, i spend more. Returning to the chapel of good chalice where I fought Gerald's beast form. I try my newfound strength on the beasts here… what Djura doesnt know won't hurt him.
I do find that my cleaver can now shatter their bones in just two strikes but that also almost kills them so there is little point in that, only makes them suffer more but I did get a chance to try out my new repose.
As I ready to jam my fist into it, I see that a dark aura clouds my hand now as it is jammed into the beast's chest, gouging out a chunk of its heart and chest, I feel a strange sensation interacting with my hand, or maybe it was the darkness coating it. My arm then shot out quickly as if blasted away.
"Damn" I wave my hand up and down, shaking it of torn organs and sticky slick fur from these grotesque beasts. I then looked for the next one and beat it down with Gascoigne's axe, hoping that maybe my darkness mastery might give some 'insight' into my new [(Hollow) Visceral attack level 1] skill . Though it was fairly hard to try this again as I directly decapitated the charging beast as it didn't get the memo that I was trying out my new skills.
Third time was the charm as this time, I get to properly bludgeon my hand into the next werewolf like a beast's chest. This time I try to ignore the actual nature of the visceral attack as I search for whatever it was that I had brushed against before.
'EURA.. AGH' "FUCK "
I curse aloud as I found whatever it was that I felt before, and even tried to grab it but as I did, two things happened.
The first is that it burned my hand. Not physically, at least I don't see anything that would look like a burn. I even took off my gloves to double check and still nothing.
The second thing is that the beast began to spasm out of control when I had 'grabbed' the thing.
[Insight increased by one due to Hosts actions. Nugget man title passively doubles this into two points.] A welcome surprise to be sure but what the hell did I even touch that burned me like that.
[Host has experienced spiritual damage, be mindful as only by returning to the dream can heal it but only portions at a time. Be mindful of taking too much of this type of damage to prevent falling into another coma.]
'So I did get burned, but it was spiritually, not physically. That certainly explains why my hand won't stop shaking. This is also enough testing for now as I need some sort of solution to not getting this pain. Afterall, this is not physical pain so my resistance does nothing against it.' I mumbled to myself a bit as I looked through the store again to see if it has any sort of spiritual defense skill and to my surprise, there are a few variations.
[Solar Halo (mental protection): 150k BE.]
[Falsified sky painting (mental protection): 120k BE.]
[Brick Brain (mental protection): 50k BE]
[Lesser mind flail (mental protection): 20k BE]
I look through the descriptions and it seems that they all offer some sort of mental protection but how extensive it is or whether it's has a specific purpose is how the price is determined.
It seems the mind flail, which is the cheapest, does not have a level but instead allows me to create a mental weapon that directly weakens mental attacks and only mental attacks. Useful but im not even sure of how to categorize any of this since it's my first time having such a sensation.
The brickbrain is like a barrier version of mind flail, more broad in terms of protection and effectiveness but thats really it.
The Falsified Sky painting is like creating a mental clone of myself to take the hit for me and creating the imagery that 'I' was hit instead of a clone. It can even fake damage for any being that could unleash such an attack and continue to sense my soul or spirit self.
The Solar Halo is instead a multi usage skill. It's light weakens all beasts in my vicinity, as well as weakens mental attacks so that it could outright be stopped before it even enters my body to strike at my spirit. As the light works in two parts, a weakening glow and then an outside barrier against spirit attacks.
Oh how i wish it could also block physical ones but this is already good enough, especially since it can heal my spirit of any damage i take too. It's slow but it would work. This also seems to be the only one that appears to have a level. The others based on their text appear like one and done type things. Maybe the false sky one could also improve it's 'acting' skills or better defenses.
It's not like I can tell if they have levels UNTIL I buy them. This is why i guess on this aspect but it's not like It matters. I don't see any indicator saying I couldn't get all of them but im not in a rush, so ill just get the best one since it also saves me the time to return to the dream in whatever attempt there is to heal my soul.
I buy the Solar Halo. With a massive drop in my echoes, sending me down to 250k. I return to the dream…or at least I try to but as I begin walking back, I find myself collapsed on the floor. An actual reddish halo, like the color of the sun at sunset condensed in a small disk that emits gentle light. I feel my previous pain from my hand dissipating but i also feel soooo tiiiirrrreeeeeddd.
'Status' I am left barely thinking as even my thoughts feel slow. The reason becomes obvious as my stamina is locked at zero.
I quickly deactivate the skill, Solar Halo and my stamina begins to recover. I huff as I get up and properly make my way back to the lamp. I brush my clothes off of dust from the floor where I fell before returning to the dream.
Upon returning, I address the stamina problem of that skill as I don't know if long term usage and having no stamina at all could actually kill me but Id rather not risk it. As such, I directly buy the Intermediate Stamina as well as the Adept Stamina skill. Anything higher is currently locked but that drops me another 60k in total but my stamina blows up as a result.
With an endurance of 19, I have a base of 108 stamina. My previous hunter physique skill had only gotten to level 3 before being merged into the new one. Since I didn't have as many stats as I do now, that means my stamina was around 138 before the merge. Yet now it is 190 with the new physiques change in formulas, that is already higher than the games max level endurance.
This becomes even more ridiculous if I factor in the two new skills. The Intermediate skill, the previous 190 jumps to 220 energy, the equivalent of roughly 30 levels of endgame endurance stats. Then finally with the adept, that jumps up to 280. I don't even wanna know what I could do with that much stamina.
For now though, I test out the halo once more and find that it drops my stamina down to around 80 before stopping it's heavy consumption and my natural regeneration can keep up. I swing once and find that my regen will keep recovering back up to 80 and that Im not just stuck at a permanent decrease while it's active. Thats good. Though also bad as it means my Lesser energy flow skill is useless until I get so much stamina that I would have a surplus to splurge on my physique levels.
As im sitting there, the doll actually approaches me out of her own initiative and greets me once more while sharing with me some good news, "Welcome back good hunter. I had finally finished cleaning your clothing. Plenty of pestilences and other undesirable elements stuck to it." She begins to explain but as she lays a single gentle hand upon my vest. Holding the outfit between her two hands, she hands them to me. Though I do notice a strange expression come over her face as she soon says she is sorry.
"I would like to apologize as I had accidentally undone one of the sutures on it during the cleaning process. This has delayed me the most as I do not have much experience with such gentle tools like a needle. Gehreman rarely needs his clothes fixed and most other hunters that used to visit would never let me fix their clothes."
She apologizes with a bow and hands over my clothes to me. I look through them and do find the single suture that she had torn but instead of simply being resown, it had been filled in with new cloth to make it essentially seamless.`
From the memories of his old world, I knew that to do this was pretty hard if you were actually inexperienced, far different than simply slapping a piece of paper on a damaged wall and plastering some 'mud' on it to make the whole wall blend in again as if it was never broken.
This requires extensive time and patient to sew something to appear as though it was never damaged in the first place.
I am well and truly baffled by her actions. I certainly haven't done anything to earn her admiration or even feel close to her. I've treated her like she has been referring to herself, a doll.
Perhaps it's time I changed my mindset a bit. I know how this world works, I know that she is a sort of spiritual anchor to Mar, but im just not sure how or where the original is. I should try investigating a bit if I have time.
For now though, I stare at my clothes a bit more before storing them away. I then take out something from my pockets, something I had been meaning to hand over but forgot due to being kidnapped and beginning my grind.
She had originally been in her standard uniform stance before her expressions begin to shift upon seeing the item in my hand, a hair ornament, one with one or two whisks of grayish blond hair, same as Mar's and the Doll's naturally.
With trembling hands, she takes the ornament into her hands, gently. Oh so gently, as if afraid to harm it at all. Her puppet styled hands roam over the ornament, feeling the small needles of it as she holds it close to her chest. She soon speaks, though I can see a tear forming in the corner of her eye. "what is this, I have no memory of this. I feel a strange yearning. Tell me hunter, what is this feeling, is it happiness?" She speaks gently, a tone that would imply a sense of emotion, a sense of self, a sense of soul.
In my confusion, I simply lift my hand to wipe the tear away but find that as the droplet moves into the palm of my hand, it crystallizes into a tear stone. "I honestly don't know whose it is either as my old partner had never worn this before but the lumenflower on it would suggest some connection to them"
I say and Instead of simply walking away, being a cold unfeeling hunter. I accompany the doll a bit further as she regales me with stories of her time with Gehrman, old hunters that had long passed on or have simply disappeared as well as those that have lost faith in dreams.
Hearing about such a large gathering of various types of people was interesting, especially their tools and how they applied it. It's all innovative information that I could apply to hunt better. Yet eventually all good things come to an end.
Of course I don't simply let her ramble on and on, that would be bad manners. I help expand our conversation by cooking with the piece of food and spices i've gathered from the abandoned houses of Old Yharnam and that one idi..cough, reckless Yharmanite whose home I barged… was invited into. While I do not see her eat anything i make, I do see her store it all away, as if to savor it later or share it with Gehrman, wherever he is at.
Getting up, I turn to the doll, looking up at her, I ask the question that had been stuck in the back of my mind. "Doll, how did you become taller than me even though i've had my growth spurt?" [1] (this line can be considered noncanon)
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Word Count = 2483 (shorter chapter but still good)
Enjoy
Testing out said skills, new abilities and chilling with the doll in the dream.
[1] fun fact: in the game, regardless of how tall you make your hunter ,the doll would always be two inches taller than you (i think it was two inches).
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.
discord channel still has the next chapter preview like usual: https://discord.gg/rE6gtg28XH
Patreon.com/Xanok to find me.