C87: Pthumerian End Pt2, Electric Boogaloo.
8/5/2026
next chapter on the 8th.
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A pale man rushes at me as I'm passing through a room before I flick my finger at it, causing it to explode from the remnant mana in the air that was propelled at it.
"Oh yes, the strengthening is working as intended." I comment as I step into the side path of the third floor. The second was a complete bore and the boss wasn't even the Pthumerian Elder, Just a giant headless beast which is pretty weird. Though I did get the Great Pthumeru Ihyll 'Root' chalice which has only intensified my body's reaction to just outright leave but I don't like that and thus im pressing forward and completing it.
I don't really like that sensation, as if my body seeks to undermine my own will. Hmm, could it be that the will of the original hunter never properly merged with me? That would be pretty crazy.
Well, for now I press forward into the third floor. There are a few items 'close by', mostly bullets and a few vials scattered around. I yank a gemstone from a random watchman.
I travel to the lower area first as it is the big hole in the center with a few rusty cages in the middle of it. There is a summon sign…I get it. Might as well. This is probably the last dungeon ill do as the others have no real worth other than resources but with me in such a deep depth, I'd need to do lower Loran only to replenish the current grade of materials.
So the lower grades of Hintertomb and Izh are essentially worthless. Nevertheless, I find myself in a wide open 'hall'. Just a block of missing stone with a ladder in the distance. The scorpions with their dumb green stingers and exploding acid blood are shoved away by earth spikes meeting the stinger in the middle and then an earth wall shoves it away once it dies to my blade.
There is another summon sign which I take for the sake of taking and then force choke the random hunter in here with the stone hammer hunter weapon. Too bulky and slow. This is precisely why I like using the saw cleaver the most as its light weight and serrated nature just fits so well with my physique. This allows me to crush most of my enemies under the sharpened blades, a very satisfying crunching sensation when sheer bones crumble like twigs.
Going up the ladder, or rather jumping up from beside it, I have a two floored room. The second floor which im on is just an elevated walkway to the next room while below it is a small cave that has pathways into other rooms. A pool of blood rests below.
My nose twitches but my expression doesnt change. I rube my chin as I comment, "Well that's not good. I've gotten so used to the smell of shit and filth that it doesnt even phase me anymore." I complain as surely this will impact my mental health should I ever be able to leave.
In the next room is the same as so many others. A three layered area staircase room with said stairs on the left and right side of the room. the top layer having a watchman that I stole from and the switch to the boss right behind them. I simply pull the lever before making my way back. Of course I ignored both the ladders on my way there.
I have to lift up both the bell-tuned hunters just to have them not try to phase into each other and get stuck on the aforementioned ladders like the idiots they are. At that point, you have to wonder, were they this stupid in real life or is this a spirituality issue that makes them this retarded. Of course there is also the third option where somehow the game logic bleeds into this world.
Regardless, I step through the hall and reach the final boss room with two spirits in tow. I push open the door to reveal the pure white pale lady with those gaudy neck frills around her own. She clasps her hands in front of her pregnant belly that reveals a bloody hole there.
I stand before her yet she makes no movement, the only things moving are the two spirits that I immediately lock down with my knockoff shadow stitches.
"Sooooo uh. Do we fight?"
"It is not too late for you" She speaks out. A harmonic voice calls out like the wind before i feel a pain in my head.
[Knowledge has leveled up. Level 3->level 4] another popup flashes before me and my headache returns to full power again.
"Ugh, what do you mean?" I get no response as the Queen of Yharnam begins to fade before my eyes, she caresses her stomach before she fades and the only thing left behind is the Yharnam Stone. A calcified fetus, the unborn Great One. Torn out of the stomach of its own mother, the queen of this land, long forgotten. Existing only as a shade to watch over her own child suffer for the ambitions and entertainment of another Great One.
I sit there in silence as the past memories overwhelm for a second as my headache fades too. I do not feel any sort of accomplishment from finishing the chalice dungeons. The sensation guiding my body was right. I should have just left the moment I got the root chalice.
I simply light up the lantern and return to the dream before extinguishing all my previous dungeons and bringing up the Great Pthumeru Ihyll root chalice dungeon. Im a bit short on resources but the messengers acknowledge my expertise and allow me to use some of my insight to buy the necessary ritual items such as the red jelly which I only had one of after getting it from the second floor of default Ihyll.
With the rest of the ritual blood and tomb mold, I got those from various enemies or chests from the Ihyll dungeon as well. Only the Red Jelly was missing.
I then look through all my notes and examine if they hold a clue. Most of them are are not related to the Ihyll root chalice so I throw those away. Only three are left, one of which i got from the defiled chalice and that is '7pn5jxn7' , which holds a T3 Lake rune as well as the T3 communion rune. I would like the lake rune but don't need communion. Plus I don't have the intense feeling that I do with just the base root chalice. It also doesnt help that I would need both the Fetid and Rotted Offerings. I just barely have enough backbone from the second floor of base Ihyll but don't want to waste anything should I need them.
The second being 'jrwffkyp' which holds a blood rock for me to collect which is very useful as having only one rock so far means I still have a chance of messing up and not being able to duplicate it myself with all my previous blood stone pieces.
There is '5bfq7tyk' which only needs the Fetid offering for the chalice. I only see mention of the Lost Chikage yet my heart feels like it's going to burst out of my body if I delay making this ritual at all.
With no holding back the urges as I truly am curious of why I am traveling to a place i've never gone to before. I've certainly done root dungeons before until I realized that I didn't need to as the bosses never gave anything important. At most the dungeons themselves were randomized and the kidnappers kicked my ass in them but otherwise useless.
I go through the ritual and the same radiance that encompassed the regular Ihyll dungeon lights up again. This time though, it takes on a noxious atmosphere as the Fetid offering is processed. I swear I saw a skull and crossbones appear for a moment in the midst of the moonlight radiance of the ritual.
Shaking my head of the illusions, I finalize the ritual and then enter inside the tomb for what I consider the final time.
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The architecture is nothing unique. Yet everything changes once I open the door. I do so manually as if being alerted that anything less would diminish the value of this place.
I feel a heat pass over me, it's pure humidity, a sensation I had essentially long disregarded since my time of being a Nox hunter. It's been so long since I last sweat from just the heat. Yet I soon realize that everything about me feels much heavier.
I turn to my side and see Gehrman. He gives me a nod as we explore the tomb the healing Blood church had said they had gotten a read on but couldn't spare any of their own hunters. The decrepit bastards.
"Oi, asswipe, theres a door to the left" I call out to the bastard that is my adoptive father as he just glares at me until I open the fucking door like the lazy bitch he always acts like this.
We first encounter a pale man which records dictate was a regular Pthumarian citizen that survives mindlessly as there is no blood for it to consume to rejuvenate itself.
Clink. My hunters axe elongates as I use my new range to slash horizontally and maneuver that into a downwards swing. I hit both times but it's hard to retract my weapon after that second swing during which the pale man rushes at me but I simply pivot on the blade which is sitting on the floor to drop kick him before the old man finishes the creature off with his Burial Blade.
I roll my eyes at his lazy attitude as he sneers at me while I lift up my axe and place it against the back of my neck. My arms curl around the shaft of the axe with practiced ease, allowing my hands to droop around. "It really doesn't suit you. You're too lazy to properly wield it, never bothering to increase your muscles and using random tricks that could fail you at any time against a mightier foe"
"Then show me a mightier foe that can kick my ass when I'm prepared" I retorted against the old man who lets his dementia kick his ass everyday, oh how I wish I could do the same to him.
The two of us continue on, facing off against a few beastly dogs with a noxious smell to them. Likely surviving by feeding on ancient corpses, giving them a half Pthumerian physique. The two of us took one dog each before I finished off mine with a molotov Cocktail. Gehrman falls a bit short as he is ambushed by another enemy, causing him to split his attention until I come to the rescue. Another piece of debt that I'll never get to use as the old man just doesnt allow me to kick him in the ass, not just literally but figuratively too.
At the end of this bloodied room, we find another tunnel that we travel through until we reach a room that has adjacent staircases leading up to a third floor. Gehrman has us climb to the third floor so that we could 'work our way down'. Unfortunately, this leads us into another room that has multiple floors but this one is just connected by a ladder. I light the chandelier in the middle of the room to brighten it up before opening one of the doors here that leads into a long room with a few more pale men and one coffin at the end.
We worked together to take out the pale men before approaching the coffin. Gehrman has me examine it for traps since it's an ornate golden chest but I find no traps and so he motions for me to open it.
I do and am immediately scared of all the shit in my pants as a decrepit arm grabs at my face and throws me halfway across the room. As im sent flying, Gehrman has to fight the sage himself but while he holds his own, his stamina is leaking out like a faulty faucet and so I support him so that we could retreat together. I'm not able to close the first door as it is jammed into the ceiling of the doorway but the second I close but hear banding on the other side.
We continue to retreat until we return to the very entrance. Once we do. I pat my pockets before realizing that when the sage threw me away like a rag, something I had in my pocket fell out. I feel all my pockets like im looking for my keys and phone yet I still don't find the thing im looking for. Gehrman eyes me weirdly but my own mood heavily sours as I say "your fault". The two of us chat and come to the conclusion to seal the place away and I hesitantly do so, not sure where I even dropped the precious item. A bad memory certainly doesnt help and thus im helpless as I burn the fuse of explosive powder from Djura that seals away the tomb.
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I find myself at the end of that path in that large room with a sage and a few pale men lying down beside me, torn apart with the Moonlight Greatsword in hand, the arcane energy burning the blood that flows on it until it returns to it's pristine state. I look over and use one hand to push open the lid of the half golden coffin that held the sage before.
I find it empty with the exception of 2 ritual blood 5 and a small box. I collect all three items as i examine the small box and what is held inside .
[Knowledge has leveled up: Level 4->level 5] & [Ring of Betrothal]
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Word Count = 2423
Stone Me.