11 6
And thus, Diluc 'reached into' the firekeeper to gain more strength. As he did this, he thought about the difference between his firekeeper and the one from the game. In the game, she was much more old-fashioned with her speech and acted like a lady. For him, she was more like a mature lady that couldn't wait to sink her teeth in.
Regardless, he adjusted his stats
----------------------------------
Name: Diluc
Race: Undead Human
Job: None
Quirk: Dimensional Travel (Doom, Dark Souls, Bloodborne)
Level: 11
HP: 220/200
MP: 230/200
VIT: 22
STR: 25
AGL: 20
INT: 23
ITM: 20
--------------------------------
Unfortunately, his level hadn't increased by much. He still saved a bunch of souls, it wouldn't be smart to spend it all at once when he doesn't know if merchants are the same as in the game.
He was aware that ITM was Internal Magic. It was basically a stand in for unique magic systems like Bloodtinge from Bloodborne or Faith from Dark Souls. The reason he didn't touch this stat is twfold; one, he would basically be nurturing two different systems, and two, he would have to find different items for each different type of 'ITM'.
Well, that was his justification, he just wanted to be a magic swordsman rather than a god preaching blood demon.
"Good choice Ashen One, you seem to be favoring strength and the arcane rather than speed and faith. It is good to have a focus." The firekeeper commented on his stat allocation.
"Yeah, being a magic swordsman sounds badass. Anyway, I've got a couple things to do, I'll talk to you later!" Diluc replied as he kneeled at the bonfire and vanished.
He appeared at the undead settlement again. This time, he'd do something he neglected last time he came here. He ran down the stairs and past a fallen carriage. Behind it were two skinny dogs that he quickly took care of by decapitating them.
He ran closer and closer to the edge of the broken bridge to where many hermit-looking people kneeled in the direction of the high wall of lothric.
Now came the difficult part, which one of these guys is the one he needed?
Thankfully, being in real life made it easier.
"Which one of you is Yoel of Londor?" He shouted to the hermits. All except one kept groveling. The one that stood looked back to Diluc and approached him.
"May I ask why you have called for me?" A cowardly voice came from the hermit.
"You have the ability to give strength at the cost of further hollowing someone, I need to make use of that ability." He replied. This is something he had to do to become stronger, the thing he will hate most about this is that he won't have the confidence to flirt with the firekeeper while he's all shriveled up.
This means that drawing out his 'true strength' and then returning the next day, Yuria should show up. In which case, he'd buy many purging stones to retain his human state without pissing off Yuria.
This way he'd inherit the flames and still be a beautiful bastard. Unfortunately, he'd have to marry Anri as well but that really isn't much to complain about.
"Ohh. I am honored, truly. I should be dead, yet you have granted me purpose anew. I, Yoel of Londor, do solemnly swear myself to you." The hermit says. Diluc had played Dark Souls 3 to completion multiple times, this was a one-to-one recreation of Yeol's voice line.
The hermit then disappears in a white light as he uses a white summoning sign.
'I really need to learn that, although I can still teleport through the bonfires.' He pondered. Adding teleportation to his list of abilities would be useful.
Regardless, now it was time to get a bit stronger.
----------------------------------
Name: Diluc
Race: Undead Human
Job: None
Quirk: Dimensional Travel (Doom, Dark Souls, Bloodborne)
Level: 16
HP: 250/200
MP: 230/200
VIT: 25
STR: 27
AGL: 20
INT: 23
ITM: 20
--------------------------------
He also bought the 'Soul Greatsword' from Yeol for 5,000 souls. Because of Diluc's stats being naturally bigger than usual people, his level ups from the firekeeper also became more deer. It already took about 4,300 souls to level up once.
The 'Soul Greatsword' was quite large which would allow him to hit many enemies at once, he could also disable it at any time which allows for some interesting feints.
He also bought the 'Heavy Soul Arrow' for 2,000 souls so he could fight the Cursed Greatwood on equal footing.
He looked at his pitiful 312 souls and cried inwardly. Although, this isn't the total of his souls considering he can crush souls he finds for more but he wanted to save them for a rainy day.
He then goes back to the boss room of the Cursed Greatwood, it's always a long walk to get here.
Because of his 20 INT stat, he was able to equip both 'Heavy Soul Arrow' as well as 'Soul Greatsword' at the same time.
He walked into the boss room with a new found confidence. He quickly culled the grunts so they couldn't interfere with the fight and approached the boss while pulling out a crap wand he found off a corpse.
He pointed it at the Cursed Greatwood and began firing at the eggs.
The boss was no match for the spells being used like a machine gun and an Ashen One who changed all his estus flasks to ashen estus flasks.
Even after the Cursed Greatwood tried to get an advantage by destroying the arena, it couldn't escape the onslaught of magic arrows.
Each arrow popped an egg and before long, its large tree body became unresponsive.
The white arm that was in its crotch stopped trying to defend itself and everything turned to white dust.
With a small change to his strategy, Diluc had easily killed the boss that would have demolished him otherwise.
He felt a stream of souls enter his body and a dark object where the corpse of the Cursed Greatwood once sat.
Knowing what this was, he collected it and lit the fireplace at the bottom of the giant pit where a boss room once stood.
He teleported back to the firelink shrine and immediately ran over to where Yeol usually sits. Diluc found his corpse lying where he once stood and a black masked lady in the same room.
"...Oh, prithee...art thou good Yoel's master? I am Yuria of Londor, a close friend of his. Tha-" Yuria was interrupted.
"Yeah, I already know everything, usurp the flame and all that. But that's not important, I'm shriveled up and I'm not good looking at the moment, give me a purging stone." Diluc says with no nonsense.
"Understood, my lord." Yuria replies as she pulls a purging stone out of her clothes and hands it to Diluc and takes 4,500 souls in return. He instantly crushes it in his hand as his body returns back to normal.
Feeling his body return back to normal he kisses Yuria on her hand and leaves her with a wave.
'That's fine in the medieval era, right?' He justified his action although both you and I know that he just wanted to kiss an attractive woman's hand. I mean, who wouldn't?
Yuria didn't move her body for a while, unknown to Diluc who had already went to spend some time with the firekeeper.
'I have a good feeling about this Lord.' Yuria thought to herself.
Back with Diluc, he was sitting next to the firekeeper, watching the bonfire's flames while talking.
"You've obtained dark sigils in the period you haven't talked to me?" The firekeeper questioned with a furrowed brow.
"Yeah, I plan to usurp the flame when I get to that point." He responded with a nonchalant tone.
"Are you fine with allowing the world to go back into a dark age?" She questioned in return.
"I'm selfish, nor will I be here to reap what I sow. So no, I don't mind. Hopefully, you won't be here either." Diluc spoke. The firekeeper was slightly concerned with the implications of his words.
"What is that supposed to mean? Will you kill me?" The firekeeper asked. She was quite confused. She couldn't die after all.
"No, no. I won't kill you, even if you can just appear again. However, I can't go into more detail. That's a secret for my partner." He said while putting a finger to his lips which were curved into a smile.
"Hmm? And how would one become your partner?" The firekeeper asks with a playful tone, mimicking what he said not too long ago.
"Well to begin with, they'd have to be fine not being the only one. I'm already engaged to someone and if this plan to usurp the flame comes to fruition, I'll be marrying someone else along the way." He explained. There was no benefit to lying to her face about the fact that he had multiple lovers. The only way that would end would be with a knife in his back.
Thinking about this, Diluc realizes that he has to tell Momo about his plan in the future and really isn't looking forward to her reaction or the reaction of her father. He also glanced at the firekeeper's face to gauge her reaction. Her face didn't so much as twitch.
"Anything else?" She asked, eager to hear anything else.
"Hmm, A decent personality, similar interests, and good-looking is always nice to have. Ah, I don't like to get cheated on, so loyalty is a must." He elaborated.
"That's quite hypocritical, don't you think?" The firekeeper responded.
"Of course, it is, but I inform women of it ahead of time. If they want out, that's fine. However, I don't want to come home to see someone else in the bed with one of my women." He explained.
"I'll keep it in mind." The firekeeper spoke. To be honest, she didn't care much about the fact that he was aiming for a harem, such things were very common in this era, she just wanted to nitpick.
