C39: Entering Forbidden Woods
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Within the streets of a prosaic conurbation is a man, he walks with a confident gait befitting one of his tall stature. A black coat lain upon his visage, hanging loosely upon briefly strangled ropes latching it just about chest height. Underneath the coat lies a fashionable white point collar shirt that reflects the gray buckled vest, its pockets filled with innumerable vials and potions, some which slosh around with his every step.
Black and gray Cavalry boots where the man's breeches lay tucked within. Silver designs lay upon these shoes, only minorly diminished by the few buckles that wrap over them. A V-shaped hat rests upon his head, one inlaid with stick figure markings upon the inside. Yet what demonstrates the greatest contrast to this distinguished gentleman, are his weapons.
A black heavy spiraling weapon with a thick silver ball at its end rests within the man's left hand, hidden beneath the overcoat. The same can be said of his right hand which bares a handle of wood and metal inlaid together which bends after a certain point to reveal a sharp blade akin to a brick of metal but thinner, yet still a hunk of metal as the edge reveals a gathering of serrated edges lined along it.
"REEEEEEEE" A creature in the distance roars out upon detecting the encroaching man. A creature of towering stature that can only reach up to the midwaist of the man before it. Though its hulking bulk allows it to match the man in height. It's Wrathful girth stomps it's massive trotters as it charges up before rushing forward to the man.
"I wonder if you believe you can fly, he he" The man chuckles to himself but takes no immediate action to dodge or retaliate against the approaching threat.
Bzoom
Only when the gargantuan pig reaches within a few feet of the man does his left arm tremble a bit as potent electricity radiates out but the mammoth before him seems to pay it no mind as it continues its charge.
"You will find the answer is no" BOOM
With a flick of the wrist, the heavy maul within the man's left hand raises up, the bolt spreading out like a judgment of doom as it crashes into the pigs head as it had also prepared to crash into him by tilting its head from the side. The collision between the two causes both to stop in place.
In any other situation, the pig would have simply charged through the attack and the man as well until its charge stopped by itself a few feet after. Yet that is not to be as the pig collapses to the ground with its head crushed into paste from the impact of the bolt enhanced Tontritus. The man simply shakes off the blood and gore of the pigs miniscule brain that attached itself to his weapon.
The pigs body begins to dissipate into smoke before three blood vials float towards the man of it's own accord.
"Such useful skills. Very respectable. I am annoyed that I could only unlock them after my so-called ascension though." I speak up as I bring up the skills to check their progress. I also get a few pips from the system.
[Overwhelming has leveled up. Level 5]
[Loot magnet has leveled up. Level 3]
[Offhand weapon usage has leveled up: level 10. Would the host like to evolve this skill?"]
"Sure" I respond as I check out the current stats of the other skills while I await the evolved skill.
[Overwhelming: level 5: boosts attack power by 225% for 1.3 seconds after activating. Use-130 stamina]
"Still just a scam as before I see. But hey, an extra 25% for the damage is very nice"
[loot magnet: level 3- Drag adjustable items towards oneself. Range: 10 feet from the user. Cost: 5 stamina every second active]
DING
[Offhand Weapon Mastery has fused with multiple other skills: Hunter Blunt Weapon Proficiency level 8 (originally 3), Hunter Gun Proficiency level 8 (originally 5), Hunter Blade Weapon Proficiency level 9 (og 8)]
[New skill Dual Handed Weapon Mastery level 3 obtained]
"Huh, that's nice. Now I can shoot with my right and attack with my left if needed. Or just use both weapons at the same time." Though I can only spam Overwhelming twice in a row before I get tired and have to retreat from a strong enemy or boss.
I stretch with a light groan as I finally make my way back to the hunter's dream. I've replayed the Hypogean Gaol over a hundred and fifty times and I'm sooo very tired of pigs and dogs. Of course the gaol had not been the only place to be grinded but it's the most effective place in terms of blood echoes.
Blood Echoes: 1,672, 799.
Shades essence: 380,411.
"That should be enough to finally get the whole set." I ring the lamp and get dragged back to the dream where the Doll approaches and with a curtsy welcomes me back.
I nod in return as I take a seat to finally rest after what felt like a whole week long marathon of hunting, pretty long nights around here as not a single actual day has actually gone by even through the extensive hunt.
I bring up the system in my mind as I look at the ascended skill list in the system store. Firstly, I must explain what happened after having escaped from Hemwick, and making up my mind, I had taken stock of my gear and clothing.
I had firstly realized that I wasn't limited to just wearing a single set in any specific one way. So I have modified a few pieces including my original 'cursed' hunter set along with pieces of a foreigner set which I had found on a few half burnt carriages that the huntsmen must have burned down in an attempt to root out the false source of infection and beastification which they believed was foreigners.
Now the sets I had picked up were damaged but I had dismantled a few random pieces that I wasn't using such as the sweat covered shirt and pants, fixing up the foreigner set and yoinking the collar shirt from it as well as merging its vest design with my own hunters' vest. It's more of my vest than the foreigner but it's much more comfortable now as the bits of leather from my hunter set vest doesnt chaff against my nipples anymore for no reason. It weighs a bit more but the extra padding feels nice and looks stylish.
As such, I had picked up the sewing skill due to my actions of fixing it up and merging them. Thankfully that got a few levels before it got merged into my 'crafting' skill, pumping that up a few levels. Thankfully the oldtechniques I was able to learn and utilize from my middle school sewing class didn't suddenly disappear again after the skill merged. That helped me remain consistent and even enhance the original knowledge I had from my past life.
These few levels to my crafting skill had provided me with a variety of new blueprints that I had put to use. Amongst which was manually fixing the rune workshop tool in the hunters dream. The procedure had been long and annoying but thankfully Doll had been my loyal assistant the whole time. Making me feel quite relaxed in her presence now.
Which is how I find myself meditating besides her sometimes to unwind. Though speaking of the ascended skills store. It only unlocked after the boss fight though it might have been during when I had that insane headache or whatever it was with the insight limit.
Honestly, Nothing much has changed with me now having a higher insight. I think I can foretell what an enemy will do but it's still a bit rare and inconsistent. As for the store, it provided a bunch of new items and skills including the higher tier body skills above adept which I had already bought during this time training. Through hard work, blood and sweat. I had risen the blood hunter physique skill into level 10 which had previously reached level 9 after merging the adept skills into it (previously level 6).
That had merged into a newly named Physique as I was no longer just a blood hunting hunter.
I was now a 'Noxelian' Hunter and thus had a Nox-Hunter Physique. Combining fast movement with powerful blows. The previous buff build that the blood hunter physique possessed got turned into a proper balanced style as my 'skill' stat got a pretty big boost though it came at a cost of one or two points from strength.
This elevation in status had provided me with an average of 6-10 points to all my stats. I had also gotten another 80 points in stamina which helped even out the high cost of 'Overwhelming'. As such, my 'level' grew by around 40. Combined with my extensive hunts into the other side as well granting me dozens of collagen pastes to minorly increase my stats. The current result is this.
Level 62 (arrows [->] hint growth [before/after])
Vit- 26 (+4 drained) + 24 (physique) + 10 (runic mage) + 4.1(collagen) = 36->64.1
End- 15 +20+ (physique) (+2 drained) +4.7(collagen) = 27->39.7 (159 base stamina ->440 stam)
Str- 22 (+4 drained) + 22(physique) + 10(runic mage) + 4.2 (collagen)= 41.1->58.2
Skill-14 (+2 drained) + 24 (physique) + 1.9(collagen) = 26.5->39.9
Bloodtinge - 5 + 20(physique) + 3.6(collagen)= 15.2->28.6
Arcane-9 + 22(physique) +1.5(collagen) = 23.5->32.5
"Phewww, damn that's looking good, sucks that my collagen isn't very consistent but that's random for ya." I say with a shrug as I prepare for the next boost I'll get from buying the 'advanced' body related skills.
"It's kind of absurd how big of a jump from the Adept skill list it is to the Advanced" I say as I eye the cumulative cost of 1.5m blood echoes for buying all the body skills labeled under advanced.
I had originally aimed for this value with my farms but the doubling effect from the blood-letting coin and blood drained bead gave me plenty of extra echoes, especially when combined with my now level 5 harvest skill which gives a 5% increase to all kills now. This completely negates any deficit from the curse and is only complemented better from the good aspects of the curse.
My other skills have also experienced growth but it's all to varying degrees. Probably the ones that received the greatest growth was the 'bad singing' skill which jumped from level 3 to level 9. Others like visceral attack, hunter tactics and silver halo also got one or two levels into it but the current hunt had focused on stat boosts, weapon upgrades and ascended skills.
Other than the massive damage that Overwhelming gives, my other favorite is Riposte strike which is a stunning skill if I strike with my normal weapon before the enemy. Of course this is not guaranteed but the higher the level the higher the chance of it. Did I mention it's a passive so there is no stamina cost.
It's how I got the pig to stop in its tracks as it was forcefully stunned and then the damage properly kicked in and killed it. 'It's great'.
Regardless, it's time to buy. I see my million drop to just 172k, making me nearly cry in sadness that a week's worth of hunting had just disappeared. "This better be worth it. Oh..wow" I mutter to myself in abject disappointment before a flow of energy begins to course through my body.
I can clearly feel that each of my stats had risen by five and my stamina rose once more to absurd levels. At least before all said skills are absorbed by my Nox Hunter Physique. While the transformed benefits are minorly less than before, the result is a single level in the new physique which is by my standards, pretty big as this is a tier 3 evolved skill now.
It went from lesser hunter, to blood hunter after using with the vileblood perk obtained from Gerald and now it had naturally ascended to tier 3 as the nox hunter physique.
Probably the greatest benefit from this whole physique evolution was that it was painless. It was akin to taking a nap and feeling well rested again.
I have shrunk a bit shorter but my muscles and bones all feel stronger and seemingly more compact. Even now, it feels as if mercury is flowing through my veins, enhancing my reactions and every step to actually produce greater results.
"I've delayed long enough, let the hunt end." I say in finality as I finally resume my hunter duties to end this night and complete the main questline. Seek the pale blood.
I finally get up from my brief nap as my body had likely twitched all over as my physique leveled up under the pressure of the advanced skills. I now use the gravestones to return to the head chapel of the cathedral ward where I had fought Amelia as well as reverse Amelia, who was the holy priestess. I traverse down the stairs, the church servants and church giants attempt to strike me but it's only a matter of dodging the attacks by taking a single step each time.
I arrive at the central area of the cathedral ward and then take the side path which leads me around to where I see Albert standing by himself. He takes note of me but his eyes scan me as if suspicious of something. Perhaps he noticed something from back when I had created Gerald from the body of the Blood starved beast.
"Byrgenwerth awaits, perhaps the end of the night shall pass soon. " I simply tell him as I take the steps down to the small hallways into a building which is already open with just a big broken room holding only a skeleton.
I couldn't be completely sure but I think the skeleton is alive. It's like an itch in the back of my ascended mind that there is something at work here. Regardless, I do have my greater sense and it detects the skeletons soul.
I pinpoint the location and then as if my left arm turns into a soggy noodle, i whip out my gun and shoot the skeley boy before dashing over it's knocked over body and tearing off the soul crystal stuck to the back of it's sternum [1].
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Word Count = 2609
Big grind for money and skills, updated stats and then making out way to Rom.
[1] fyi, the sternum is the bone center of where your ribs connect on the chest.
Enjoy
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