Despair

Yashiro touched the site of grace at the first step and while it enlightened, his eyes narrowed towards a person who stood right by the grace, covered in white from top to bottom, he could feel the person's piercing gaze on him beneath the white mask. Yashiro stood up from the site of grace and slowly walked towards the white-masked person.

"Hello there, I am Yashiro," he said introducing himself.

The person in the white mask glanced at Yashiro and exclaimed, "Oh yes... Tarnished, are we? Come to the Lands Between for the Elden Ring, hmm?

Before Yashiro could answer, the person continued, "Of course you have. No shame in it."

Yashiro nodded as the person continued, "Unfortunately for you, however, you are maidenless."

Yashiro tried to interrupt the person in the mask, "What do you mean by Maidenless?

The person simply ignored the question and continued with his talking, "Without guidance, without the strength of runes, and without an invitation to the Roundtable Hold...

You are fated, it seems, to die in obscurity."

"Luckily for you, however, there is one shining ray of hope for even the maidenless.

Me. Varré. Take care to listen."

Yashiro, who was listening to the person's words very carefully nodded in agreement and Varré explained, "Are you familiar with grace? The golden light that gives life to you Tarnished. You may also behold its golden rays pointing in a particular direction at times. That is the guidance of grace. The path that a Tarnished must travel."

"So, you mean the golden light that is emitting out of the grace, which is pointing towards a direction?"

Varré exclaimed in agreement, "Mm, indeed. Grace's guidance holds the answers. It will lead you Tarnished to the path you are meant to follow. Even if it leads you to your grave."

"I get it now. but, why everything feels a bit eerie, I mean this Varré guy is giving me chills as if he can see through me." Yashiro thought as he looked at Varré in his eyes.

"Grace's guidance will reveal the path forward, most certainly. To Castle Stormveil, over on the cliff. The home of the decrepit demigod, Godrick the Grafted."

"That is the first main boss of this game whom I must defeat. To Castle Stormveil it is then." thought Yashiro as he clenched his fists.

"It's time you set off, I should think. To Castle Stormveil, on the cliff, where grace would guide you. If you seek the Elden Ring, maidenless as you are." Varré suggested and chuckled.

Yashiro slid down from the edge of the cliff and avoided the Tree Sentinel and sprinted towards the Church of Elleh. It was a run-down Church that stood in the North-West of the First Step. As the evening was approaching, Yashiro entered the vicinity of the Church of Elleh, where he found the next site of Grace. Approaching it, he decided to rest until the next morning and he could feel drowsy as soon as he selected the option to rest until morning.

Yashiro opened his eyes as the first light of the sun touched his face, he saw a merchant sitting in the corner of the church by the fire. A horse was also hitched to a wooden pole behind him. Yashiro walked up to him and stopped as the merchant glanced at him to check him out.

"You are a Tarnished, I can see it. And I can also see... That you're not after my throat. Then why not purchase a little something? I am Kale, Purveyor of fine goods." he said while introducing himself.

"First, I would like to know more about you."

Kale started to talk about clearing his throat, "I am of a nomadic people. Selling wares as I travel. The land has been tainted by madness since the shattering of the Elden Ring. It's only Tarnished like yourself who keep things from drying up entirely. Let's say you're a very welcome customer."

Kale handed a parchment to Yashiro, "Now, why not purchase a little something?"

Yashiro opened the parchment and saw a list of wares with their prices in runes written on the parchment. He was confused that why didn't something like a panel was opened before him. He was sure that his friends who played the last VR version sent him the gameplay footage and it was completely different than this one.

"You know, if you can spare the runes, you should buy yourself a crafting kit. A crafting kit allows you to make basic items on your own. Essential really, if you intend to survive out here for any duration. The kit costs a bundle, and I admit, I do take my cut. But the important thing is that you survive. Every customer counts, after all." Kale recommended interrupting Yashiro's suspicions.

Yashiro snapped out of his thoughts and stammered, "Yeah sure, why not."

"I'm glad you took my warning to heart. You've made an excellent choice." Kale said thanking Yashiro.

Yashiro heard the tingling of the coins as the current number of his runes decreased by 300. After buying the Crafting Kit, he remembered the words of one of his friends, "If you can kill Tree Sentinel at Level One, I will be your servant for an entire month".

Yashiro didn't want to lose this opportunity and decided to fight the Tree Sentinel which he thought of skipping for later. He was aware that the Tree Sentinel should not be messed with as they have a huge Golden Halberd and many skills up their arsenal.

Kale saw Yashiro lost in his thoughts and he immediately knew what was going through Yashiro's mind. He immediately warned him, "Tarnished! Do you intend to battle the Tree Sentinel who is patrolling around the church, if yes, then I would advise against it for now?"

Yashiro ignored Kale's warning and ran in the direction of the Tree Sentinel. The Tree Sentinel was a heavily armored knight who rode a large steed and had a halberd and a golden round Greatshield known as, 'Erdtree Greatshield'. He was completely covered in golden armor from head to toe, which also included the steed. Yashiro tried to crouch into the bushes to avoid the aggro him. But, The Tree Sentinel already saw him and used a Charging attack, which Yashiro dodged by an inch. The Tree Sentinel immediately followed up with a Rearing Slam, slamming down his Halberd in the ground, creating a small shockwave that hit Yashiro, and his hitpoints dropped by fifty-five percent.

Yashiro rolled behind the Steed and stabbed it. The horse neighed loudly before suddenly throwing itself onto Yashiro's body, this heavily affected him as he was unable to react in time and got hit by horse bash. This left him with no health and he blacked out. Yashiro found himself back at the grace of the Church of Elleh as he regained consciousness.

"It's wise to leave that Tree Sentinel alone and return stronger and more experienced," Kale warned as he saw Yashiro getting up from the site of the grace.

Yashiro still ignored the warning of Kale and rushed to fight the Tree Sentinel. He was continuously killed by the Tree Sentinel and respawned at the Church of Elleh. Thirteen Moons passed by and Yashiro was stuck upon defeating the Tree Sentinel because he wanted to prove his friends wrong, and that Tree Sentinels can be defeated at level one and they are just lazy to do so. Until now, Yashiro had successfully reached the second phase of the field boss but wasn't able to completely defeat him.

"Tarnished, if you don't listen to me, the long-forgotten curse of an Outer God will dawn upon you, do not fight The Tree Sentinel anymore." Kale who was witnessing the events knew it was time for the dawn of the forgotten curse which will affect all the tarnished."

Yashiro received a notification for server maintenance but he ignored it and continued focusing on the Tree Sentinel who had a sliver of health left and he needed one more charged strike to be defeated. Yashiro rolled under the Tree Sentinel as he used Leap Attack to jump attack him and followed the Tree Sentinel with a charged attack from his blade, and he succumbed to death.

'ENEMY FELLED', A notification popped in the center of Yashiro's vision field but suddenly, everything went black and he could see several colored lines that covered the field of vision in an instant.

"What's happening, did the game glitch as there was some notification related to server maintenance?" Yashiro cried.

"How to LOG OUT now, since the game went dark and I cannot access anything." Yashiro's mind was littered with questions, but it was answered soon by a deep, old voice.

"Foul tarnished! in search of the Elden Ring, thee did dare to set foot in the lands between and ignore mine own warnings. Anon, has't a gust of despair and hopelessness. While thou art did trap in the lands between."