Chapter 11: Lordran at last!

Although I was greatly surprised and nearly stabbed the giant crow as it snatched me up I thankfully remembered that it was actually supposed to happen and that I didn't randomly get snatched by a 7ft crow-thing. So I decided to just relax and let crow express airlines take me to Lordran.

But, yknow it's really hard to relax when you are flying hundreds of meters in the air held up only by the talons of a gigantic crow. Not to mention the freezing cold along with the air from high speed made the experience pleasantly horrible.

But the driver was silent the whole ride so I would rate it 4 stars.

Thankfully the flight wasn't too long. Or at least long enough for me to freeze to death. As we approached the firelink shrine I actually got to witness the grand architecture of lordran and I gotta say.

What did the guy who built this place smoke and where can I find some?

Because him being high is the only explanation I can give for this architecture. Walls built seemingly at complete random, houses built in ways that block roads. Either he was on something, was a maniac, or a sadist. Or all of the above. And I got this from just a glance!

But I do have to admit, the controlled chaos of Lordran's architecture was a sight for the sore eyes. Because while inconvenient, it made one hell of a scenery. And now the firelink shrine, it was simply gorgeous. I admit, I'm a sucker for overgrown ruins and this definitely tickles my fancy.

Even in this dying world filled with chaos(literally, I'm looking at you Bed of Chaos) Firelink shrine was an oasis filled with greenery and life in such a bleak world. It was quite literally a place signifying hope in a dying world. The place where the altar of the first flame lies.

As I admired the scenery I failed to realize that my uber had already reached its destination. And the damn bird didn't even give me a chance to ready myself before he dropped me face first into the dirt and flew away.

*plop*

Slapping the dirt and grass off of me I stood up when I heard somebody talking to me. Turning to the sound of the voice I saw... Crestfallen Warrior? Or whatever his name was address me.

''Well, what do we have here? You must be a new arrival. Let me guess. Fate of the Undead, right? Well, you're not the first. But there's no salvation here. You'd have done better to rot in the Undead Asylum... But, too late now.''

Wow, his condescending tone is really pissing me off. I'm sure he didn't mean it but having been told it would have been better to rot in the Undead Asylum after all I did to get out of there just feels like being spat on the face. But regardless I reigned in my anger.

After all, this was my first real human(or undead) interaction in what feels like years! And before you ask, no, hollows don't count. So I really did not want to mess up our relationship by doing something like stabbing him.

Alright, first impressions matter the most. And if this world has forced the title of the ''Chosen Undead'' on me. Then well, it's only right I get to have some fun with it. So I stabbed my sword into the ground and exclaimed semi-sarcastically.

''Indeed, for 'tis I the Chosen Undead hailing from the Northern Undead Asylum. Pleased to make your acquaintance.''

Nailed it. The voice exercises I did while riding the giant crow uber service really helped me to not sound like how I look. But man did that sound way cooler in my head. I should really relearn how to interact with others.

''Hah hah hah hah... Quite the eccentric fellow arent you? Well, since you're here... Let me help you out. There are actually two Bells of Awakening. One's up above, in the Undead Church. The other is far, far below, in the ruins at the base of Blighttown.

Ring them both, and something happens... Brilliant, right? Not much to go on, but I have a feeling that won't stop you. So, off you go. It is why you came, isn't it? To this accursed land of the Undead? Hah hah hah hah...''

I just nodded and went toward the bonfire.

Yeesh, what a weird fellow, and that's coming from me of all people. I didn't really like him in-game for his endless pessimism but I can't really blame the guy for giving up in a world like this. But his words still rub me the wrong way regardless.

But now that I was in Lordran proper I could do something I was itching to do for a while now. First I popped my solid humanity to gain 1 liquid humanity then I sat by the bonfire and finally, finally I get to reverse my hollowing and restore my humanity. I held my hand out toward the bonfire like I was offering something and sacrificed one of my humanity to reverse my hollowing.

[HUMANITY RESTORED]

I felt the humanity in my hand dissolve as I felt a warm and comfortable feeling rush through my body. I felt my entire body get revitalized as the feeling intensified. My muscles expanded, my beef jerky-like skin regained a healthy color, and my blood warmed up like that of a living person. After a few seconds, my humanity had finally restored.

In slight disbelief my hands wandered around my body, feeling up every detail. The more inspected my body the more uncharacteristically emotional I got. My days spent as a beef jerky zombie hollow had really taken its toll on me it seemed.

My hands felt around the familiar face. My face wasn't hollowed, It felt surreal. For a second I even felt paranoid thinking I was going to wake back up in the Asylum Demons arena but no. This was real, I had made it. My blood was warm and I was alive. Unable to handle the storm of emotions brewing inside me I couldn't help but let out a few stray tears.

After a few moments, I recomposed myself and stood up. After all, there was plenty of loot here just begging to enter my inventory. And I'm not cruel enough to refuse their pleas. First up I looted the 3 humanities off of the corpse hanging by the well. And although I was curious about what was down the well and even considered jumping down to satiate my curiosity I decided against it.

I am not wasting my human form to jump down a well. Plus the crestfallen warrior is watching me and it would be very awkward to explain why I jumped down a well for apparently no reason. So jumping down the well is shelved.

For now at least.

I also grabbed the 6x firebombs of the corpse after the doorway next to Mr. GiveUpOnLife. Next, I went into the middle corridor and met him. Petrus the piece of dung pie coward. The moment I stepped in our eyes met and he spoke.

''Hello there. I believe we are not acquainted? I am Petrus of Thorolund. Have you business with us? ...If not, I'd prefer to keep a distance, if possible.''

I just ignored him and went up the stairs.

Although I really wanted to kill the PoS I couldn't right now. Though I'm pretty sure Mr. Crestfallen couldn't give two shits about me killing him. Murdering him now would be counted as a 'Sin' and miss cleric(Whatever her name is) and her two stooges would probably attack me on sight. And ''I knew he would betray you.'' isn't a very solid excuse that would holp up in undead court.

So sadly, he lives to see another day.

I first headed all the way upstairs then took the Soul of a Lost Undead on the corpse. Then I went one floor down and jumped down the elevator shaft to loot the secret section overlooking the graveyard. And I promptly liberated those chests of their loot.

< You have acquired:

4 Cracked Red Eye Orbs

Morning Star

1 Talisman,

6 Homeward Bones

4 Lloyd's Talismans >

Though I highly doubted that I would actually use the cracked red eye orbs and the lloy, loid,, or however in hell you spell his names' talisman. It was good to have them on me regardless. Plus it would damage my very being as a hoarder to leave loot on the ground unattended.

I decided to leave through homeward bone dust as I sure as well wasn't tackling the bone zone with this many juicy souls on me no thank you. And I gotta say using the homebone really felt trippy. Crush a bone and a warm light teleports you to a bonfire. Weird stuff.

Now, it was time to finally level up now that I was at a bonfire. And I knew exactly the stats I would spend my bounty of souls on.

[Soul level : 6] -> [Soul level : 12]

{Vitality : 11 }

{Attunement : 11}

{Endurance : 11 }

{Strength : 11 } -> {Strength : 17 }

{Dexterity : 11 }

{Resistance : 11 }

{Intelligence : 11 }

{Faith : 11 }

<[Souls required: 4812 ] Confirm: Y/N>

'Yes'

Immediately after confirming I felt the souls inside me transform into my strength. Enhancing my body and making my muscles more powerful. It felt almost intoxicating. The feeling of your accomplishments turning into tangible power felt great.

And people may ask, John you beautiful bastard why did you put all your stats into strength and not distribute it evenly like a sane person? First of all, look at the deranged trait buddy.

Secondly, you don't need vitality if you don't get hit, resistance is useless, I don't have crippled stamina unlike the game so endurance isn't an issue. I don't have access to magic so magic stats are off the table. And not leveling up dexterity is out of principle.

Now that my souls are spent it's time to head through the bone zone or as boring people call it, the graveyard to retrieve the weapon for me. So bringing out the morning star in my hand I made my over to the graveyard. And just before what I assumed was the skeleton's aggro range I took a deep breath.

Then I hauled ass as fast as I could toward the loot.

While running I heard the skeletons rise up. But I just ignored them and vaulted over the graves grabbing whatever light I saw in my adrenaline-fueled sprint. The more I moved the more skeletons I felt reform to chase me.

*Duck*

Trusting my instincts I narrowly ducked under a sword aimed at my neck. But not wanting to lose my momentum and also my life in the process I rolled from my ducked position and kept sprinting while parkouring over and around the graves to delay my death while picking up items.

I don't know how but I had somehow managed to reach the higher part of the graveyard while the horde of skeletons were chasing me. The moment I grabbed what I assume was the winged spear, the jumbo-sized skeleton awoke and swung down. Thankfully I rolled to the side fast enough to not get bisected.

Vaulting over another set of tombstones to create distance I desperately ran over to the last item in this Gwyn-forsaken graveyard. The horde was hot on my tail as I dodged several skeletons leaping at me. The graveyard was considerably bigger in real life and had more skeletons in it so my job was that much harder.

While running one of the skeletons managed to slash my back and another my shoulder. And just was I was about to reach the last light I felt a sharp pain in my leg and fell down.

Shit.