Chapter 8: Desperation

Eager to test my new skills I gleefully skipped over to the

Asylum Demon's arena. While tightly clutching my broken straight sword in hand I pushed open the heavy ass giant iron doors. Like seriously did they expect dumb as brick demons to use doors like normal people? Wait, did they even expect demons to guard the prison? Whatever, that's irrelevant. What's actually relevant is me shoving this broken blade up the Asylum Demons' shitter.

/*Creak*/

While making direct eye contact with the asylum demon perching on the arena's broken roof I walked forward slowly. And as soon as I passed his imaginary line he jumped down to deliver me yet another brutal death.

Well, I don't plan on making it easy or pleasant for him.

His first attack is a forward diagonal slam which I avoid by dodging to the side just before it hit by rolling. With that role, I noticed that since my skill has leveled up it has become easier but not nearly as much as the first time I got the skill. This time he pulled a different move, instead of pulling the hammer back to himself. he instead swung toward me with his hammer still on the ground, basically dragging it toward me.

Instead of cowering away and panicking I focus on the swing at waited for just the right time. And the moment the hammer was a meter away from colliding with me, I jumped over it. The Asylum demon, unable to stop the momentum of the swing, kept going whilst I advanced toward him.

Arriving right in front of his bulging gut, I stabbed forward with my broken straight sword. As my blade contact with his front, I felt that, while I did do damage it was so little to the point that it was negligible. But I guess it was to be expected after all I was attacking a giant demon with a broken blade duller than a butter knife.

But what else could I even use-

Punch it

what? no that's stupid.

Dew it

In a moment of weakness, I succumbed to my primal instincts passed down to me by my primate ancestors to punch the big thing. So before the asylum demon could recover to do another attack I passed my blade to my left hand and channeled all of my strength from my monkey ancestors(and my boxing skill). I clocked the Asylum Demon right on his gut.

ow.

I definitely broke my hand. Punching the giant thing on the gut with my frail hollow body wasn't really the best of ideas huh? Now I'm in front of the giant thing with his great hammer raised above and my dominant hand broken. But I'm not one to easily give up, seeing the hammer coming down on me I immediately roll under him.

Man, rolling under a giant demon's sweaty asscheeks is not a pleasant experience at all.

Behind him, I start slashing his ankles with my left hand as my right couldn't properly hold my sword. Even though I knew it was futile I keep slashing. He jumped up and slammed down but after avoiding that I still kept slashing and stabbing relentlessly at his backside. Whilst it dealt no real damage to him, just the fact that it caused him pain was enough.

But in the end, all it took was for me to roll too early causing the demon to be able to adjust.

[YOU DIED]

<{Curse of Undeath} has activated>

Back at the bonfire after my death, I caught my breath and rested a bit since I just died and the chance of me falling asleep was minute. After resting for a minute or two I noticed some new notifications I had missed.

< Your skill {Broken Swordsmanship lv.1} has leveled up! >

< {Broken Swordsmanship lv.1} -> {Broken Swordsmanship lv.2} >

Wait, how did it level up so fast? Hmm, maybe combat skills level up faster when under more pressure? And that coupled with the fact that it's faster to level up skills than to get them would make it reasonable that Broken Swordsmanship leveled up in such a short time. Then that means...

The fastest way to level up my skills is by relentlessly challenging Asy,

isn't it?

Asylum Demon here I come!

But before I go...

That makes 11

Now with that out of the way, the most efficient thing I can do at the moment is to keep challenging the Asylum demon to suicide runs to improve my skills quickly. What am waiting for then? Let's go, you fat ugly bulbous giant bastard!

With that I strode over to the Asylum Demons crib to challenge him once more, trying to use as much of my skill as I could while trying to balance dodging and attacking. But while trying to juggle all that you will eventually slip up.

[YOU DIED]

<{Curse of Undeath} has activated>

That makes 12

But what does it matter that I died? failing and dying didn't matter. They were just a temporary setback and a break, while dying was painful it was nothing I couldn't tolerate. So after every death, I gave myself a brief break and then I strode in again. I fought against him, again. I died, again.

[YOU DIED]

<{Curse of Undeath} has activated>

That makes 14

But I was improving each time. Getting better at dodging.

< Your skill { Acrobatics lv.2 } has leveled up! >

< { Acrobatics lv.2 } -> { Acrobatics lv.3 } >

[YOU DIED]

<{Curse of Undeath} has activated>

That makes 17

Getting better at wielding my blade.

< Your skill { Broken Swordsmanship lv.2 } has leveled up! >

< { Broken Swordsmanship lv.2 } -> { Broken Swordsmanship lv.3 } >

[YOU DIED]

<{Curse of Undeath} has activated>

That makes 28

Getting better at exploiting openings.

< Your skill {Critical lv.1} has leveled up! >

< {Critical lv.1} -> {Critical lv.2} >

[YOU DIED]

<{Curse of Undeath} has activated>

That makes 32

Learning new things.

< You have acquired the skill { multitasking lv.1} >

[YOU DIED], [YOU DIED], [YOU DIED], [YOU DIED], [YOU DIED], [YOU DIED], [YOU DIED], [YOU DIED], [YOU DIED], [YOU DIED], [YOU DIED][YOU DIED]...

...

I kept challenging him, again and again. Eventually, instead of being reluctant to enter his arena knowing only death behind the doors.

I got used to it, I no longer feared him and maybe even started enjoying the fight even a tiny bit. The more I fought the more my skills improved. The more my skills improved the more I could fight.

At around my 50th attempt or something, I decided to take a break for my mental wellness... Hah! Fooled you, I'm taking this break because I noticed something during my endless crusade against the heretical Asylum Demon. I'm actually not taking full advantage of this place.

Because my skill level up speed has begun to decrease due to exhaustion. I have decided to find new things to do in the Eastern? Northern? Undead Asylum. So I decided to have a look around to find things to do. I went around back and forth from my bonfire and my cell while searching for anything of use right now. And I actually found something useful.

Bricks.

That's right, bricks. There are so many loose bricks here is insane how have not noticed them before, or more likely just never paid attention to them. But seeing those bricks gave me an idea for a new skill and a new strategy against the Asylum Demon. The throwing skill should be relatively simple to get. And getting hit by a brick in the face is certainly more effective than getting poked with a dull piece of metal.

And boy these bricks are tough as hell. At least stronger than any brick I've ever seen on earth. These will certainly hurt the Asylum Demon, and I won't have to worry about the bricks breaking during practice. They are perfect. So I went around the asylum like a madman checking basically everywhere outside the arena for loose brick. And I managed to find quite a lot.

< You have found {127x Bricks} >

After that came practice throwing with my old hollow partners.

''Eyyy Gurt, my man, did ya miss me?''.

''...''

''Guess what buddy? I've got a new and exciting activity to do for us. It's called getting bricked, Are you ready?''

''.....''.

''Great, I'll be the pitcher and you'll be the catcher.''

So then I played a few rounds of bricked with Gurt until his untimely demise. Then I moved on to Gilbert then to Gimothy. And when they all died I went back to my bonfire to restart it. Each time I tried to get better at throwing, adjusting my posture and the way I threw along with the speed each time. And when it became night and I felt sleepy I just challenged the Asylum Demon to grind my other skills.

[YOU DIED]

<{Curse of Undeath} has activated>

That makes 60ish

Then go right back down the ladder. Got to hollow, throw brick. Pick up brick, throw brick at hollow. Repeat until hollow dies. Move to next hollow, repeat. I'm not turning into a hollow. I'm turning into a damn monkey throwing bricks like they are his own shit. At least the occasional broken straight sword drop gave a drop of dopamine in this musty ass asylum.

Thankfully, after like a 100 to a 150 hollows and two deaths later I finally got my throwing skill. And you may ask, why didn't you try grinding this skill against the asylum demon? Well, I'm very glad you asked, it's because a giant trying to turn you into paste doesn't really help one to learn how to throw stuff properly.

< You have acquired the skill { Throwing lv.1 } >

___

< Throwing lv.1 > (Passive)

Represents your proficiency in throwing projectiles.

Effect:

-Slightly improves accuracy when throwing projectiles

-Slightly increases the power and speed behind projectiles.

___

Immediately after getting the skill I once again felt something inside me change, though not as much as the critical skill. When picking up the brick I felt that I instinctively knew how to better throw it. The effects of skills never fail to amaze me. They feel like they reinforce an existing part of myself that I didn't even know existed.

But enough of that, now that I have acquired the throwing skill it is back to the grinding chamber with me. And using the bricks I felt like I was actually hurting the asylum demon. Not by much, but progress is progress. But having to pick them up the next round definitely caused a few deaths. But overall I was satisfied with this new skill. After all, any pain caused to the Asylum Demon is a plus for me. And it definitely led to me saving on some broken straight swords being broken further somehow.

But eventually, the long times of no sleep left me exhausted. Not physically, of course, the bonfires and the asylum demon made sure of that. But dying painful deaths dozens of times in a row really tires a man out. And sleeping was out of the option so I found a therapeutic but useful activity for me to do.

So when the times get too tough I just head down the ladder and beat up some unretaliating hollows with my bare fists, taking my pent-up frustrations and anger on them while leveling up my boxing skill and supplying me with broken straight swords. Win-win. And after beating a few dozens of hollows to kingdom gone with my bare hands, I go back to getting pounded to paste by the Asylum Demons.

At some point, it became my daily life. My new normal. Fight the Asylum Demon, die, repeat. Get tired take a break and try some stuff to amuse yourself. Beat some hollows to death. Fight the Asylum Demon again. Pass out, wake up from night terrors. Repeat. It wasn't much but it was honest work. By that I mean it honestly wasn't much.

Even after so many attempts I still haven't, In game terms; gotten his health bar down to half yet. How the hell was I supposed to defeat the giant demon with my bricks and broken swords again?

/*sigh*/

I'll figure something out.