C65: Chalices speedrun Challenge (2)
5/1/26
Story time for when I was writing this chapter: my ps4 got the green screen of Death, forcing me to factory reset my tv to fix it. Fun times. nearly gave me a heart attack. It's why this chapter took so long since wikis provide near zero data on dungeons so unless I can find some video of a full clear of specific dungeons, I would not be able to get the necessary data I need. Ech.
Thank you SweetJohnnyCage (from YT) for a detailed guide on the Lower hintertomb chalice, at least the beginning area of Layer one before I got my ps4 set up again.
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(3rd person POV/Dolls POV)
The Doll can be found beside a gravestone. Her eyes gazed upon the man who has taken upon himself the arduous task of hunting beasts far and wind.
He had already shred the veil of spirituality that blocked the world, even now as he lay in her lap; does she feel something calling to her. As if a memory of a far off place. Yet she knows she has no personal recollection of these places.
Her duty and place has always been at Master Gehrman's side. Hunters came and went but few had an influence on her like the hunter before her. Her segmented doll fingers stroke the hunter's head in a counter clockwise motion to help him relax.
He alone had changed how she feels, if this can even be called feeling, afterall, she is naught but a Doll. Could she truly be worthy of remaining at the side of this hunter…her dear hunter.
She looks up at the moon and feels an ill feeling pass over her as she reverses her massaging direction, helping blood flow. "Dear Hunter, some time has passed, I do believe you have rested quite enough."
I rouse him awake as he pouts and shuffles about only to end up face down upon my thighs. My stroke has messy black hair and while he seems to relax for a bit.
"Dear Hunter, Dear Hunter. It's time to rise and return to the hunt, Good Hunter." I can see how his muscles tense up when I change how I address him. He rises and looks at me with a bit of a peeved expression before stating,
"Don't call me that, it feels wrong after so long together" he comments and I place a kiss upon his lips. The meeting of our lips is brief yet it soothes the darkness his eyes hold, which had been darkening ever since our first meeting.
I surmise that the burden my dear hunter carries grows worse as he grows stronger even though it should be conversely as his greater strength should reassure him yet it does not.
I understand I am overstepping my boundaries as a Doll, but I can't help but worry about the dear hunter. For now, I shall simply smile in response to his words as he rechecks his gear and I see him change out a blood gemstone upon the new hunter pistol he uses now. A weaker gem substituted for one of higher purity before he fixes a few knicks and knacks before stepping before a newly formed chalice dungeon he had summoned through ritual. Lower Hintertomb.
He told me that he made up his mind to clear out as much of them as he could in the briefest time. Placing his hand upon the ritual table, he vanishes like ash and I resume my duties here. Tending to the garden, along with some practice cooking that my dear hunter had advised me on to learn even though from the few examples he has taught me, have portrayed that it would take quite a long time to reach his skill level. The sheer number of techniques that can be utilized have left me in awe.
For now, I shall continue my duties. For now, I shall be the Doll that supports my Dear Hunter.
(Hunter PoV)
"Hah, another chalice, another floor. What shall I get from this one?"
The system continues it's repeat actions by giving me the speedrun challenge and the time is fairly low for this floor which told me that the lever to open the way forward was close by and that the boss was likely a bit squishy with only 10 seconds to get gold.
I kick into max gear and sprint forward, dashing past the side path, I go for the doors, 2 seconds for the doors. Then it was a room of 3 floors, I go to the top floor with ease and then find a mad butcher, aka Labyrinth Sage guarding the switch. It had actually dodged one of my attacks but I got it on the second while my shadow tendrils pull the lever.
I then waste a second or two arriving back at the door. 1 second wasted on the door. Then another on the boss arena door. I finally enter and it's a brainsucker. I know these guys are extra durable but so is my new weapon. Pulling out the Null prototype. I get to work on instantly hacking the boss down. Down to the actual last second with this.
A dry sweat slides down my forehead as I collect my redeemed rewards. Multiple temp damp gems, bullets, one odd damp bloodtinge gemstone, throwing knives, multiple ritual blood 3 as well as tomb mold 3. Though the one I'm most interested in is the cursed tempering damp gem 4. The boss itself dropped a dirty damp gemstone 4,
Moving onto the next floor. It has a slightly longer timer of 20 seconds. I travel to the next floor so that the challenge can start before I begin my rush again. This time I fall down a circular crypts path only to dash forward through multiple rooms before finding another sage guarding the lever. I simply pull it from a distance and run back the way I came without it noticing me. It's not as if I get anything more from killing it myself since I get all the rewards anyways from just the bronze rank timer.
Returning back to the start, I jump up rather than walk up the circular staircase as I open the door and realize that this is the first floor that didn't have a side path before even entering the main path but it does have a post path. I don't have the time to explore anyways as I rush open the doors, splitting them to reveal a smoke cloud.
The smoke cloud then reveals Forgotten Madman. A human enemy. Normally this would have inspired dread in me but the human boss enemies in the dungeons are some of the easiest as they are much more predictable like with the keeper of the old lords. If you just slap her around a few times then shoot your gun. 3 out of 4 times you will get a riposte for massive damage.
Though that isn't here and now as I easily shred him apart only for a second enemy to appear, madman's escort. Im starting to get low on time. Only 2 seconds left.
Swish swash, "mother…FUCK" I had originally dashed forward and swiped my weapon casually as I aimed for his neck with my saw cleaver. I find that the little bitch dodged backwards, just an inch away from my blade.
I swing again yet it is for naught as I already failed the gold challenge. With 20 more seconds, I make sure to have this escort on their knees and my fist plunged into their chest only for me to tear apart their worthless soul that denied me another greater skill shard.
My rewards at least are relatively nice: plenty of coldblood should I ever need it. Antidotes, inflicted organs, my first ritual blood (4), bloodshot eyes. Along with the usual goodies of vials and bullets. The boss was even more worthless, only dropping the root chalice for this level, not even a gemstone or blood shard.
I light the lantern and begin to make my way to the 3rd and final level. The timer is a generous 40 seconds for gold and I soon find out why as I pass by the pre side path doorway only to cross two doors and see that there is a left path and a forward path. The left is already open due to it's lack of doors while the front is closed like normal.
I feel the left is very attractive but as I use a gust of wind to scout ahead, I find that it splits up into two more paths that lead on for much longer. So I try the front path instead, opening the door, I scout ahead the same way with the wind flow and I do find a dead end. While I can not yet make out shapes, I can feel how the wind flows around certain things, specifically those still living like beasts.
With the sway of its body, I surmise that at the end of the path is a sage, and if the previous floors have been any indicator, I either found the lever or a high value chest.
Speeding forward, I jump past multiple enemies with ease, jumping and falling from different heights as I arrive in a large room with said sage and lever. Truth be told, I could partially sense the existence of the gears that the lever is connected to. While they don't move all the time, they shift from time to time, akin to a clock and thus give me a dual signal.
Regardless, I give my thanks to the Sage that provided the instrumental signal to me by chopping off its arms and legs and leaving it to bleed out. I never liked how they squirmed unnaturally in the game. They took me off guard so many times back then. Especially since they always hit hard unless it was the single early Pthumerian chalice floors where I one-shot one with a basic attack. Yet that is the exception, not the rule, especially since enemies get stronger the deeper you go.
I pull the lever and rush back. I still had plenty of time left so I guess the system assumed I might be thrown off by the side path but im gradually getting the hang of things. While implementing it in battle is still a challenge, the sensory aspect is great.
If I could develop this ability further, I could totally scout out an entire zone and sneak attack enemies from a distance. "Oooh, maybe I should forge myself some sort of magic sniper rifle. Haaaa, ill have to figure out the runes first though. If I can't learn proper enchanting, then any ideas I come up with is a waste of time"
"Oh shit" I realize I only have 20 seconds left as I pull the door open and slide down the steps to the final boss arena…or at least I assume it's the last one. Pushing open the door, I find a figure in red crouched on the floor in the middle of the arena.
A cane in the right hand and a staff in the left. The figure slowly rises up and looks towards me. Honestly they look just like a normal pale villager. But the next moment they look like the thing from The Scream [1]. Eyes and Mouth wide and circular combined with the shadows there, it looks like multiple pitch black holes.
'Honestly now that I realized this, im scared. '
"Nah just kidding, Fugly as fuck though" I Jest and charge at the Pthumerian Elder as he turned the staff in his left hand into a flaming crossbow…"thats so cool" I hold off on outright killing him as I could learn quite a bit about fire right now.
I try manipulating his flaming bolts, unravel and remake his fire crossbow as I do eventually get the skill for [Fire manipulation] but it comes at the cost of another silver reward.
The elder was so generous. So kind, it's almost love.
Nah im kidding, he still a fugly old fuck but at least I granted him a merciful death….after raising my fire manipulation to level 3 and air manipulation to level 3 as well from 2. Mostly due to sensing where the Elder disappears to whenever I slap him on his knees. I did nearly fall into the bronze level which would have completely sucked but it all worked out in the end.
The rewards for this floor just outright sucked except for the ritual blood 4. Though the elder did give me the Short Ritual root chalice which means I have the co-op chalice. Not sure how that works since Multiplayer was long dead when I got the game and it was a play station so I never paid for the ps+ and thus couldn't use multiplayer even if I wanted to.
There is no denying that the bloodshot eyes and sages wrists werent bad but just not useful unless im going into root chalices to increase difficulty.
The Elder did give another item which Im curious about, the Cold Damp blood gem (5), my first tier five gemstone. Im so touched. Truly.
Now it's time to head back to the dream to set up the next ritual and sort out all my new loot. Or at least I was planning to when I got a new alert.
[Sinister Lower Hintertomb root Chalice can now be bought from the store for insight. Furthermore, special messenger shop in unexplored main path of this floor]
"Huh, a special root chalice. I guess hintertomb is proper done since I only got the short root chalice from this boss and no path forward. Oh well, better for me." I say as I return to the main path and take the previously unexplored left path which was already open. It leads me to a two floor section that then has two more pathways. One is a dark dreary hallway while the other is a door with white smoke flowing through it.
My gamer instincts tell me to go through the smokey door but i also know that my gamer instincts function on a full exploration vibe and so the actual right path for me is the dreary hallway.
For prosperities sake though, I use my newly leveled up wind manipulation to get a sense for the layout even if the details are still meagre.
I do find that the hallway leads to a few sub rooms but all those are dead ends while through the smokey door is multiple rooms that leads into a vast expanse where I struggle to scan further. So for now ill explore the hallway path since I know that it's a dead end at least.
Taking this path, I find a few alternate paths but already know that it's a giant winding puzzle that loops in a convoluted circle. Though in a side room about halfway through is the messenger bath that is supposedly special.
"Kurwa" I cant help but say as I see that the prices of everything at least 4 times higher than even the systems store.
"3.5k for a single vial of blood. Who you trying to sell to? Aint nobody got money for that except me. And i can buy them cheaper" I cant help but talk to the messengers in confusion as one actually takes out a piece of paper.
"I…cant read. What the heck. How can I even read that?" I originally just see a bunch of squiggles akin to cat scratch but then as if I was a half blood from the percy jackson universe, the letters begin to reform but only figuratively. It's as my mind is correcting the puzzle even though it stays the same.
[Pthumerian script has been comprehended]
"...."
"...ok"
I simply state as I read the actual message that states that the healing blood of the Pthumerian is derived from the Queen, a blessing for her people in their union with the Great One.
The system offers no response so i at least try to buy one of everything from the messenger. From there head back to the dream to properly inspect them.
Not seeing any immediate results so I put them aside for a bit so I could collapse all my previous shrines to chalices to make room for new ones. I did this before but only for one, now I'm doing them all except the Lower Pthumeru chalice one as it's a reminder of the last Pthumeru I cleared even though I clearly remember that my target was the defiled chalice. Perhaps it's a remnant of old habits. Hard to say.
' Now the materials for the next chalice I have in my sights is the Ailing Loran Chalice. Over 5k blood echoes, 9 of my 14 ritual blood (4), coldblood flowerbuds x4…I only have 3, is it available in the system shop? No, that's weird. Is it with the messengers? Not the default one, is it in the insight messenger?' I can't help but ruminate as I don't know where to get more as they are rare resources even in the nightmare frontier.
I go up the steps and to the slightly hidden bath which primarily uses insight to sell and I buy up all the outfits there before double checking the regular items and not finding it there since the list for that page is quite short but I do nearly miss it hidden amongst the ritual items and blood stone shards page. The short ritual chalice is also missing now that I now have it from the boss.
I pay the two insight costs to get the single piece of flower that grows by feeding on cold blood. I then set up the ritual before studying the blood further and other dungeon items further.
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Word Count = 3121
[1] The scream is a famous art piece by Edward Munch. It depicts a 'man' holding his hands to his cheeks and screaming, his eyes and mouth just a circle bubble. Fun fact, it was even incorporated into the Looney Tunes movie back in the early 2000s. I know because I enjoyed it. To me it was the sonic live action of today.
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