C20: Brotherly Love and hidden Area(s)
Some fun facts at the end, pay attention to the [1] I post there and my actual reaction.
C26 is being worked on rn and should be published on my Pat today too
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CLICK I arrive at the top of the ladder and am about to pull myself up when I hear a click. Looking up, I spot the muzzle of a blunderbuss aimed at me.
"Oh hi Mark" I respond as a tremor passes through the gun wielders grip before pulling back. The man who can now be seen is quite aged but not on Gehreman's level. He is wearing a standard hunter set that is covered with a tattered cloak that now covers his whole body (Ashen Hunter Set) giving him a much whiter personage though it's almost as if I can still see bits of smoke seeping off him.
"You seem to have a recollection of you, even now, Brother"
"Fuck you too, just like the old man. Acting all mysterious and shit even as you probably planned to put a bullet in my body from that gun there." I respond in my typical crass wording as I finally get off the ladder."
"The coma has been good for your health, other than your filthy bandages, you look the same as when I last saw you…all those years ago." Djura, one of the eldest amongst the adopted children alongside myself who went off and helped develop the powder keg hunters to their current level. He leans back into the surrounding railings
I've helped him out in secret, blood vials, ammo and other resources when his group was branded as heretics due to their supposedly evil methods of killing beasts.
" Yea Im sexy and I know it, now can we move on to something useful. I got something to find which will involve alot of killing. Now that you know it's me, can I ask you to not shoot me as I clear this place?" I ask to help change the topic but it unfortunately steers in a direction I did not like as much.
"Do you know" He lifts his head, his eyes glaring at me and my relaxed pose as I sit cross legged next to the ladder.
"Know what exactly?" I know alot of things, tons more than this world can probably handle due to the now my gamer half that lived in reality being isekai'ed here and merging with the og hunter.
"The truth of healing blood" he reiterates, his tone turning solemn as he thinks about it deeper. He does take notice that my expression doesnt change.
"You know, I remember that day. The day we met our first beast, I had simply believed that Grant had died because a villager had gone insane and not that he was already in the midst of transforming. I remember how you had stayed in the back, curiously looking for the old man but wary of the surroundings." he reminisces over their shared childhood, being adopted, the start of their training, that first night in the forest when we looked for Gehreman and our new brother got his neck snapped.
My head drops down, a fair bit of shame for not doing more for the innocent child that died that night. "You knew back then too, didn't you" he finally asks, his tone a fair bit more hostile.
"I had overheard rumors of our foster father before being adopted. I heard of his work, stories of slain beasts and the madness that supposedly outsiders brought in in search of healing blood. I knew to be wary but I was one of the youngest." I reveal a fair bit but nothing too deep as it was the truth I was powerless to save my brother as they talked over me back then.
"You told us to run. You told us to keep away from 'it'. But we stayed frozen, we stayed silent. It is not your sin alone for this. You alerted Gehreman to save us. Revealing our position, we are all grateful for your actions that day yet we will still resent you for it as well."
"Maybe it would have been better to die that day, as children, our innocence intact." Djura sighs as he too sits down, seemingly losing the strength in his legs.
"I care for these beasts, I shall not let them be killed, I shall not let them suffer under your blade. Turn back and depart from here." He gives his final reasoning and lowers his head, averting his gaze from me as he soon lifts it and that of the Powder Keg hunter Djura takes its place, not my brother.
"I shall be the one to end this night" I proclaim and that seems to cause him to stop, his resolve momentarily shaken before he chooses to listen further.
"I know tons more than you. I have done tons more than you. I have been cursed and bled tons more than you. I shall end this night, I shall end this curse. I shall let Yharnam fall tonight. No more beasts, the secret of the blood shall be hidden, forever more. Even if I have to burn every single rock in this damned city to do so. The nightmare shall end"
Djura trembles physically as he feels like he has heard the ranting of a madman but he strangely can't find any words that would oppose my words. The strange confidence that he finds in my eyes is one he has never seen before in anyone except a select few.
"End it" Djura finally states as he digs out something from his pocket. Pulling out a key that he then tosses towards me, clanging on the floor as it stops at my feet. I pick it up and examine it.
[Old Yharnam Master Key: A special key that is able to open all doors inside Old Yharnam. Faint markings reveal it is well worn from usage the Initials 'D x X' are revealed along the hilt of it]
"Djura, you."
"I…cant tell them apart, so don't harm the beasts here." An awkward silence ensues as the realization of his words is now something I understand."
"Oh right, what about the maddened hunter just below you?"
"Leave Maximillion alone too…please, my former partner lost himself…we both have after her" his tone grows darker but his actions remain smooth as he tosses over a second item, a bag containing something as it lands beside me.
[Acquired Bone Marrow Ash x 6]
[Acquired Powder Keg Hunter Badge]
"May the grace of fire be with you." He leaves as a final token before turning away from me and continuing to watch over the forgotten city, resuming his duty as its protector.
Storing away the two items, I find that a few new items are added to my system store though I'll check that later when I return to the dream as it's safer there.
Going down the ladder, I found a platform just off to the side, between the two ladders (small platform connecting the two ladders, nothing else here) I climbed to reunite with my brother. I look down and see that it appears feasible to drop down without immediately dying from fall damage, though I remain suspicious as I hold onto the planks and drop down.
I didn't immediately die and no message about being out of bounds was stated. Making me quite ecstatic as I take up my weapon and slay the beast patient that I now realize was a catwalk as this was the spot where the patient had dropped down from when I was slaying them here.
I continue forward and arrive at what appears to be the top of the sacrificial room where the hanging corpse of another bsb is floating above an altar which is where I collected the ritual blood in the first place
"Wait, this is a legit area? I understand how I missed it before but seriously, what could be up here anyways?" [1]I look around and find four spots in the distance that are glowing.
"Woah" The first light brings me to a very long cat walk along a simple support beam where I nearly fall but my legs lock up around the beam itself which keeps me attached as I scramble to get back on top. I collect a blood stone shard x 1. Kinda sucks for a hidden area. But I keep going.
Next up, I drop down a secluded area and pick up some antidotes (x 3). And then I get the genius idea.
Summoning Gerald, I have him give me a boost back up so I can make my way to the other side of the building where there is a glowing item after a small gap. Gerald's strength easily lifts me up and then I drop down to the rickety pathway up here. Giving myself a headstart, I jump across the moderate gap before arriving at the item here.
[Jump skill acquired due to repeatable action]
[AcquiredBloody messenger head bandage (cosmetic)]
"What is the point of this, a cosmetic for the messengers? They already have a variety of hats, what use a bloody bandage. Eh whatever. But a jump skill, that could actually be good so I don't have to have Gerald throw me every time, though does this only apply to horizontal or all jumps?". I look through the skill menu and find that it provides a flat 5% boost to all jumps at level one.
Moving on, I make my way down, nearly breaking my ankles as I fall all the way down to the sacrificial altar area. Due to my teleporting shenanigans, I am forced to run away from the encroaching horde of beast patients. Running out the temple, I take the path to the right and then head on over to the shortcut ladder where I go through the long climb up before arriving back at the original entrance to that sacrificial altar chapel.
Taking the right side path amidst the smoke clouds created from burnt bodies, I am bombarded by beasts but keeping to my word to my brother, I simply go around them all the time as I collect the cold blood dew (3) before running back down as I get cornered and have to retreat. I end up in the area where the hunter is, I do spot the ladder but don't have a chance to get to it, as such I am forced to jump off the left side area where an opening down is.
Climbing further down I end up at the bottom of this building. Inside is a chest and I spot another glowing light. Running to get the light, it's only vials before I use the invulnerability frames from opening the chest to lure most of the beasts to me right here. Grabbing the tempering gemstone, I go through an opening in the surrounding formation and up the stairs. The system spots and saves a message about burning the bodies and also about the blood red moon but I didn't have a chance to properly read it at this time as I collect the rifle spear which was just along the hallway of stairs in this building, very easy to miss unless like me, going backwards through this area.
I also get the charred hunter set which I use the system to equip before barely getting out of the building as around 6 beasts and specifically two big ones that I found typically yell at you before outright raging the other nearby beasts. To avoid this, I ran past the hunter again and since the other beasts are still in that corner area where I had jumped off moments ago. I am able to safely run up the small steps to head inside. Using the master key for the first time, I enter a restricted area but it at least gives me a chance to breathe as I begin to very slowly search through it.
[lesser agility has reached the necessary experience. Level 2->level 3: -15% stamina used when running or dodging]. I grin as I catch my breath, opening drawers and cabinets for anything I could need.
Finding unopened spice bags and potatoes amongst other foods. I'm actually quite pleased with this round of items as compared to the first house I ransacked.
"Im surprised none of this has gone bad since this part of the city has been abandoned for years." I stand confused as I hold what smells like fresh bread. I don't take everything as my natural assumption was that this was my brothers house, which was why there were still fresh ingredients. But if he had his own home, why would he have a master key?
"Ah too much to think about, don't worry about it, hakuna Matata and all that business" I slowly open the door to find the beasts have indeed returned. I use my stealth skills to lock the door again as I rush out and up the few steps into a building.
There I find an antidote at the door entrance which I only notice due to the system prompt of picking an item up. Rushing forward, I am ambushed by a very big patient. Spotting a shiny, I rush in and collect before moving out again and upwards. I had gotten there a blood tinged gemstone.
Bobbing and weaving through all the charging beasts, I collect bloodstone shards guarded by the carrion crows as well as multiple antidotes and cold blood dew (2) from an area that has one beast hidden and then the other side of that same building has two fire paper. I am certainly trapped here as the beasts funnel in but I spot an opening and with their still clear golden eyes, I rush in between them. Barely evading the beasts in the cramped corner as I did lose the trail of a few of them with my scent masking skill.
After dodging them, though not without a few scratches, I run across the crumbling bridge to arrive back at my lamp and quickly teleport away before I am devoured.
"WHOO" I cheer in excitement as my adrenaline was really pumping there, being chased by almost 20 beasts at one point with how they were gathered. Though I did lose most of them right away like the highly immobile crows, I was still able to barely make it back.
With a solid 20+ thousand blood echoes. I investigate the store and find out that the rifle spear I picked up can be bought now too, along with Stake Driver, Rope Molotov Cocktail and Oil urn. The oil urn is most certainly the most useful of the bunch since I have no reason to throw molotovs behind me since I rarely run away from beasts like I have just now.
Technically i could try to use the rope molotov like that one chinese rope weapon with whatever knife or rock it has at the end but Im no cowboy and will likely miss it in the first place if I tried to spin it over my head and then throw it.
If i ever have to buy the rope molotovs, it would be purely to collect the rope and use the molotovs like usual…so technically they are quite useful but im unsure of when I would ever need that much rope.
I do consider getting the stake driver since I have seen videos where people one shot certain bosses with this weapon, this along with one of the cannons but I have no clue where the cannons are nor have the ability to make a proper build of that level since that makes me effectively useless against every other enemy except bosses.
For now though, I explore the store for any other new skills which I could use to overall enhance myself, be it a useful skill or something like the physique based skills that increase stats. Afterall, unless I can somehow get rid of the curse this very moment, I will likely not be putting any more echo into my actual level, especially as it will rapidly slow down unlike my physique which seems to have a set price….so far.
I can only hope it doesnt become too bad in the future.
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Word Count = 2940
Enjoy
[1] I truly did not know this pathway existed at all, Miyazaki, you've done it again. Granted I'm also embarrassed I forgot how to jump so I struggled to cross the little boundary that held the cosmetic item on the other side. Three playthroughs and never saw this area, and this same reaction appears when I found out about the lower area near that crazed hunter near Djura. Didn't Know that was there and the maps on the fexxtralife and whatnot sucked so i had to experiment as i was being chased by a horde of beast patients
Whether you like the chapter or not, drop a comment. I can't be letting myself get complacent in my writing. I still have plenty of growth in all forms.
discord channel still has the next chapter preview like usual:
Patreon.com/Xanok to find me.
If this chapter is read through paid services on Patreon then the P-Hunter message changes to 'kindled'. That will earn a different type of discord role where I will proactively take suggestions from you all or even create custom characters based on you/that you make. This code will change when it is released for free to create a proper distinction between a paid reader and a free reader.