C52: Blood Moon. Going to school
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[Legendary Prey Slaughtered]
"Huh, is it called a legendary prey because it had that trait or some other reason?" I try to ask the system, unsure if it would even respond when it did.
[Correct analysis.]
"Okay then. What're my rewards? I beat the super enhanced boss. Did more than half the damage so you cant pull what you did with the cleric beast and Gascoigne here. Then there is also the quest that you didn't bring up at all about me finding the hidden spider." I wag my finger in the air like I'm disciplining my dog after he did something bad and he knows it.
[Main Quest 2: Reach Byrgenwerth and Slay the Hidden Spider within.
Step 1: Pass the Forbidden Forest and Reach Byrgenwerth (cleared)
Step 2: Find the Hidden Spider (cleared-reward: 30k Blood Echoes)
Step 3: Slay the Hidden Spider, now cleared. The host may receive the full final rewards as the host beat the boss when it was at ng+30 and above.
Rewards:
1- 5x greater skill shards
2- Continuation to Quest 3
3- +2 x2 random skills
4- 10x greater skill shards (Challenge mode- ng+10 or higher only)
5- Divine Runic Shard x 1 (Challenge mode- ng+30 or higher only)
]
"Whoo boy, that's big money. But now let's talk about the money." I rub my hands together. A blood red glint in my eyes as I obviously mean my echoes.
[Rom, the Vacuous spider, Base value: 24,860 echoes. Increasing rewards to match ng+30: 5,688,620 echoes. Introducing Legendary Mutation value, Soul Shattering, Heir rune kill, Moon rune kill. +5 Harvest, Negative penalty for having the boss gravely injured by outside force. As damage value does not exceed 50%, host shall only be penalized a fine in hopes of incentivising to hunt better]
"Oh come on, that's bullshit but fine. Also damn, I forgot to switch titles to get the +8 harvest but it's whatever" I mutter my disappointment to myself as the system processes the entire payout.
[Total Blood Echoes gained by soul slaying Rom the Vacuous Spider: 854 Million,146 thousand 293 Blood Echoes gained]
"aH" I threw my head back in ecstasy. My entire body seems to vibrate in unison joy as the echoes begin to flood into me. This sensation takes quite some time before my body finally stabilizes itself.
"Whew, alright. A lot of that is going into my basic levels. " I chuckle to myself before I'm baffled by what i see next.
[Echo penalty for third party intrusion into boss fight comes out to be 500k Blood Echoes]
"PHhhhh hahaha" I burst out laughing at the amount which is sorely less than the actual total to the point of absurdity.
'Seriously, 854,146,293 echoes. I'm pretty sure that is more than enough to take me to the cap, no? I ponder to myself as I read the next set of messages:
[Total insight gained (witnessing a legendary figure, slaying a legendary creature): 30 insight]
'I don't see any other messages so i guess the bonuses from greater sense, the caryll runes and nugget man. I'll just assume it already did all the math without telling me. I have a bigger problem to worry about. This headache' I grip my head as the knowledge flows into me. This time I finally see something that wasn't just a reenactment of my past.
It's actually about my foster father…and Mar. It's the events that took place after I 'perished'.
The two had slayed the beast which mortally injured me before running around with the church members to find my body. They searched high and low in the fishing hamlet before finding me nestled amongst a group of snail women/shell maidens who are essentially women that turned half slugs and are stuck in a state of kneeling prayer.
The duo had slayed them as well but never found my clothes or weapon from back then. They had brought me back to the tower where emergency treatment was administered until I was stable enough to be moved back to Yharnam. Though I did realize one thing while I was there recovering in the clocktower.
My sister, who I assume had already spent years with amnesia, brainwashed into serving as a saint for the church, had actually been the one who was in charge of my treatment there. In fact, it was her blood that was regularly transfused into me back then. Nearly bringing a tear to my eyes at the thought that she was so close yet so far.
With my current third person perspective, I can also see various colors that people emit. The majority of it is various emotions that people experience yet as I see my sister donate her blood to me. I realize that her blood mixes with a noxious blue that is branded onto my chest where the claw marks had nearly torn me in half back then.
Her 'donation' to help me had corrupted her too. All else seemed fine and dandy until the day of departure where Mar suddenly disappeared out of nowhere, leaving only a small pool of blood near a chair, everything about her had disappeared. Her Rakuyo, clothes, body, as if she had just disappeared.
Gehrman alone returned with me. Depositing me a few different clinics as they tend to me until the great majority became frightened of my very presence in their clinics. As if my body was a catalyst for a curse to ensure that they could never work properly, until their clinics collapsed.
In the meantime, Gehrman had essentially grown completely withdrawn during this time as he had taken up carving and some semblance of puppetry as he recreated Mar in Doll form.
'I knew I saw the resemblance, perverted bastard' I curse the old man before my viewpoint seemed to shift into something bigger, older…greater.
The 'me' in this state is giant and grabs Gehrman, bringing him close like a hug as a bright light is emitted with the old man disappearing, with the doll left behind in the workshop.
The scene shifts once more back near Iosefka's clinic. A hooded figure approaches the door as they hand over a vial of blood to the doctor, saying it's for me.
When questioned on what it was. The hooded figure only said it was special healing blood from the church, a special concoction meant just for 'me'.
Iosefka didn't fully trust this figure so while they accepted the blood, they didn't immediately administer it to me as they tested it. She had indeed confirmed of it's enhanced healing nature but with few other patients at the time, she could only turn to herself in testing the actual effectiveness of the blood. Cutting herself and taking a tiny sip, she was stunned to witness the wound healing and a warm sensation flow over her.
With this certainty, she had finally given me said blood. As for the hooded figure, they had run away from the building and paused at a certain point near the harbor area past the kenneled dogs.
Hunters of the healing church, specifically one I knew. A bastard. They talked to the hooded figure before it quickly devolved into a fight as they accused the figure of spreading the vile blood blight. Though they assumed she had used the clinic to administer it to herself safely and hadn't fully digested it.
Of course the hooded figure was not entirely helpless as they took out a signature weapon, a saw spear. With expert finesse, the hooded figure had beaten back two of the church hunters but the bastard himself had gotten his mitts on the cloak the figure wore, tearing it off to reveal my sister, Amelia.
I knew that he had killed her but I only saw snippets back then and didn't realize this was the moment as Amelia knew that she had to kill the three of them to prevent them from getting news of her identity out. Unfortunately, the church had long known and realized recently that she had gotten her own memories back as her reaction to meeting various people she interacted with before changed.
That informed them that something might have changed and that she would likely do something drastic after snooping around in the church's records. Nothing good would have come for her even if she did make it back to the church.
She had taken out two of the hunters before the bastard had cut her leg off and ... .took his time with her before he delivered her broken corpse to the church as he was already in a half beast state. It's in this exact moment that the blue curse energy flowed into him. Further antagonizing his mutations, bringing him ever so closer to turning into a cleric beast not long after.
"AHHHH" I soon find myself falling as if a replica of when I first descended to my body as I repeat this process and land on my body in Iosefka's clinic.
Yet I instead wake back up in the 'underwater' area, kneeling down inside Rom's arena. My insight at 199, a continuous pulsing sensation in my head, as if a warning to not go any further. I'll chalk it up to my heightened intuition warning me but won't fully trust it since it could very well be something that is gate keeping me. Like a biological barrier stopping me from getting stronger.
I take in my surroundings as i try to wipe away the tears that uncontrollably flow down my face. The knowledge that my sister had regained her memories and her first thought was to cure me, touches my heart beyond measure.
In the slight distance, I see a pale woman wearing a bountiful dress staring off into the distance. I join her and soon realize that the blood moon has arrived. Secrets have shattered and the beasts are giving their final hurrah for the night. I hear the warped cries of a child in the distance. ethereal and echoing throughout the lands.
My vision fades and I find myself in a completely new location. It appears to be a cathedral. Im fairly disoriented as the persistent headache combined with my emotional state has me get up and wander before im suddenly grabbed by something.
The constant annoyances finally ticks me off as my tears dry up. "FUCK OFF" I curse before im crushed by amygdala. My frenzy bar goes maxxed and I lose all but 1 hit point. The agony is far greater as the caryll runes enhance my sensation of the pain even if it was forcefully limited.
A conniving chuckle soon emits through the room.
"Oh amygdala, Oh amygdala. Have mercy on the poor bastard." The laughter then becomes more of a cackle until I fade away...again. Though I feel like I remember the source of the laugh from somewhere, a sense of nostalgia amongst the pain.
Finding myself in a completely new room. I'm greeted by another prompt.
[ Side quest Step 1 completed: Use the Tonsil stone to arrive at the mysterious lands beyond Yharnam proper. +20k Blood echoes.
Step 2: Explore the Mysterious lands to reach the final destination.]
"Ow, that sucked. Again." i take a look around and only see a few desks and book shelves around before finding a lamp near a door. I activate the lamp and then open the door. I only take a tentative look inside as ill explore later but first I wanna spend my echoes before something nightmarish happens and I lose them all for whatever reason. Most likely candidate? Fall damage. So let's avoid that. I get dragged away by the messengers back to the dream.
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Word Count = 2050
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