C82: Nightmare of Mensis exploration
6/26/26
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"RAAGHHHHH" Old Hunter Henryk charges at me with a bloodthirsty scream before I just grab his throat and slam him into the ground. It's a hard crunch as he passes out on the floor.
"Well, that's fun. I'm gonna leave you here for now, don't go anywhere" I boop the mad hunter's nose as I head back inside. Iosefka has set up a bunch of the stools and whatever else she could grab into a box fort of sorts. I think back to the old system message of me changing her fate. 'Did I actually save her life back then or did I just bestow a heavier and more painful end?'
With these thoughts in my head, I venture down to the second layer where I originally left the town folk I saved, their all gone. I follow the blood trail down and find the 'entertainer' sitting on a chain, an umbilical cord sticking out between her legs. She is crying at her fate of giving birth to such a monster.
I look down and I don't really see anything there, the cord simply floats half a foot in the air. Yet while unofficial, with my life creator knowledge, I can channel some blood echoes through my body to see the unseen better. By this I mean the literal flow of life, which I could then work on to become a better craftsman.
So yes, I see the invisible half eldritch baby. I also see that once the umbilical cord is severed, the woman would die. As I stand here, my memory of this event is jogged and how I ruthlessly severed the cord as only three or four(?) umbilical cords are available in the entire world and three need to be consumed to….do something. I'm still getting memory blocks in that area.
I've already done that…unless the system gave me fakes but Ill take the risk as I don't really want to kill people for umbilical cords of all things. There is also the fact that the fake Iosefka that I already killed was supposed to drop one of them too since she got schizophrenia and got an eldritch baby bump herself.
I remember I got one from the old workshop and im supposed to get the other two from them which I refuse to do or just cant anymore. As such, I can't do the thing I'm thinking of anymore so I might as well just do what is natural.
Save an innocent.
I look at the woman and ask a serious question. "Have you seen what happened to the other townsmen that were set up in the lower levels?" I ask her and my voice seems to calm her for a moment before she points behind me.
"I ran down here to get away from everyone, they followed shortly after, amidst a crazed transformation. Yet no matter how I yelled in pain, they did not hurt me. " She explains before she spots her own eldritch newborn and begins to wail in agony once more.
"Good" i simply comment as I find them around the corner, between the wet storage room where the prostitute is and the oedon graveyard area where Gascoigne is resting.
I move quickly and knock them all out, the normal way before dragging them all inside. From here, I get to work but cutting all their fingers, just a small knick to get their blood flowing before manually having them grip the cord itself until I get the entire group set up.
I then use a bit of my blood echoes to have their life force to flow through their blood which is dripping onto the cord itself. I then cut the rope near the mother.
"AH" She yelps in fear and panics quite a bit until she realizes that she wasn't actually dead. Instead it was all the villagers who rapidly aged until they died by turning into ash. The baby soon died after. I sever the remaining piece of the umbilical cord and store it away just in case.
"Hey hey, you're still alive." I grab her shoulders to try help her calm down but instead she grows more frantic, saying how 'it' would not let her live after she gave birth to that thing, how she would keep repeating this process until she died. How her soul has been tainted with it's mark long ago, before she was even born.
There was only a single moment where she was lucid and she said one thing, "You no longer smell like before."
Honestly, hearing that is scarier than some random beast or monster at this point. I remember long ago when I first met her as a blood-hunter, how I had a distinct attraction to this woman but I just never got around to meeting her properly and now im uselessly saving her life.
Sighing, I tear off pieces of her dress and make wraps out of them, I one around each of my arms and use my shadows to do the same with hers and bring her insane ass back to the chapel upstairs. I made sure my shadows keep her from injuring herself or me for no reason. I sit her back down and have her chug one of few sedatives which does nothing for her as she continues her rant but I at least use those wraps to tie her down.
Looking over, I find shitty old betty is dead. She has a smile on her face with tears in her eyes. A few sedatives lie around her. Most empty except for a few clustered together with a note.
"Thank you, old friend. Peace be following your way."
-Patches.
I nod in acceptance before thinking over a possible solution for Henryk. I can't trust the system store, so I can't buy another hunter invitation to the dream. I barely even know if Cherry is fine there, I'm already having Doll watch over her and feed her sedatives if her behavior changes at any moment.
I get back to Henryk and pick him up, giving him a good old hug before activating the Lunar Moon skill to shine on both of us. His trembling which was restarting quickly begins to fade just as fast but he has already transformed partially. Mostly fur and whatnot.
I tie Henryk to me as my fake moon shines on us while I bring him over to the other side. I talk to the priests there in hopes that they might be able to use mutagen vials to help him resist the curse of blood.
To help them do this, I go out and kill a few more gargoyle type monsters and even the boss of the reverse Oedon who was a well known general that was cursed. He was pretty tough but still far less than the priestess in Cathedral Ward. I long surpassed both but I still tried to see what makes them tick so I could potentially cure this side too.
I bring the cursed heart back to the church where I tell them to make it into a runestone for me to come back for as well as the rest could be used to heal Henryk. I also gave them a bunch of incense I had stored away back from when I was house seeking for a forge in Old Yharnam.
With all this done, I return to the dream. Cherry is still sane, Doll has reported no new changes and thus no sedatives drank. I give them both headpats which the system doesnt even bother reporting that the new skill leveled up as it reaches level 2. I just had to make sure to check myself since after a second of giving it, they leaned into it with a small improvisation of their mood.
With everything taken care of. I use the graves to return to the Nightmare of Mensis.
I use the stone covers to sneak around and take out the first loran silverbeast which I find spits out two worms upon death. Icky but I just stomp them to death which does attract the second near the entrance to the bridge so I repeat this process, killing the beast ,stomping the worms. I have 2B, Ludwig and Gerald go out ahead of me while I explore the right side which has the troll things from the Amygdalan nightmare realm.
There is three of them in total but two are guarding a small pillar which I learn has the Eye Caryll Rune which I pocket the design before taking out the third giant and lighting the lamp here. Lots of strange green pads which I quickly believe are shortcut paths along with the building which has a lift styled space.
Oh right, I also got bold damp blood gems (4) from the silverbeasts, not that useful but okay.
I then make my way across the bridge, the distant sunlight radiance does almost get me but I duck my head underneath some of the rock which blocks it for me.
I dash a few more times and reach the other side where I only see the shredded corpse of another silverbeast. The right side path is a quick dead end before going left and seeing the corpses of a few more of those giants. 2B, the diligent daughter hands me a coldblood (9), two blood chunks and a madmans essence.
I then enter the large building which Ludwig and Gerald opened. 2B runs past me to go collect all the spoils of victory which is another coldblood but kin version (10), another madman and 6 shaman bone blades which are honestly kind of useless as there is no point since their usage is too slow in game. Though it's more usable here, I don't even know what enemy could be used on.
Essentially, I'm just uncertain and that uncertainty makes them useless. I'm also likely to just hit the enemy due to not caring if I did charm it or not. Which could cancel the charm or just kill it anyways.
From here, I find a bridge with a lone Mensis hunter who honestly just looks like me when I first woke up in Iosefka's clinic. He has a whip but he dies too quickly to the combined powers of an enhanced Ludwig and Elemental Beast Gerald. He fades and 2B just gives me a bunch of bullets and thats it.
Past the bridge area with the hunter who can cast the augur of Ebrietas. I find myself in a large room with a chest on the left side that has 2 yellow backbone. Going down the stairs and taking out the two child monsters, I find another tier 9 coldblood before using the elevator to unlock it back to the lamp I found earlier. I take it back up and enter the next room
It's far larger, split into two floors where the second floor is where I begin on. I spot two more child creatures that look as though they are made of metal. I don't know what they are so I just take out the two mergo's attendants before collecting the random single beast pellet here before taking out two more walking around the staircase leading down. Yet before I travel down there,I go to the side and pick up another item that was near a broken ledge which I could drop down from. It was another madman's knowledge.
From here, if it was the game, I would take a bit of damage if I just dropped down but I have a higher level silver cat reflexes so what happens is I land as nimble as a cat on steroids. A thunk sound echoes and alerts the nearest Mergo Chief Attendant of my presence but I am unharmed.
'I'll have to figure out how to fall silently. I would not survive my late night fridges escapades with sounds at these volumes. Every single floorboard would creak at this rate.' I think to myself as the axe of the chief attendant comes at me but I just grab it by the sharp edge and toss them into the endless abyss that is around us. I don't know why there are these holes here or where they lead but I have a strange inkling that I'll find out soon enough.
I go around and take out the regular attendants, even the ones that have a strange jester shape with their helmets and use crossbows unlike the unarmed versions I fought thus far. Though, fighting these three does alert another chief attendant but I repeat the yeeting process into another hole before taking the lift up to the upper area.
A great danger silently watches above me as I enter the outside area of this castle.
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Word Count = 2212
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