C35: hemwick Charnel Lane Pt3: Entering the Horror House
In case anyone didnt notice, we have new cover art. This was a commission I had made with an artist who approached me. it turned out alot better than expected. ill post here the full pic, at least whatever WN allows me to. the text on the pic is WN's inside designer aspect via inkstone. I got rid of brand of wn.
On the other hand, Ive also published this book on Space battles forum if anyone has trouble with wn for any reason. they have the exact same update schedules so nobody has to worry about any differences between the chapters progression/updates.
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Stepping before the barnhouse, I am immediately assaulted by a random woman with, you guessed it, more molotov cocktails. Yoinking her supply after bashing her head in. I take in the dark and cloudy surroundings when I pause as my tracking skill has detected another nearby enemy lying in wait.
Stepping forward to stomp down the skull of the slowly rising medieval Spanish woman who would totally bandage up their face if it gave them a high chance of getting a chainsaw to tear into my spine.
I get a blood tempering gemstone out of it and continue forward to get attacked by another dog who somehow notices me when I barely notice it until I remember to turn on night vision and everything is clear again.
I smack the dog down and pass by the heavily smoking stacks of Hay, except it's not smoking. There is just a crap ton of fireflies buzzing around them for whatever reason that it looks like a flowing cloud of light green.
Climbing up the ladder here, I find the upper area which has broken floorboards to reveal stone underneath.
"Am I just on a giant rock or did they somehow set up a stone slabs underneath the wood?" I question the architecture but only for a brief moment as i soon find two paths before me. One is forward, naturally the main path, while the other is a staircase leading a bit back down some steps and across the rafters of the barn stalls I had just killed a bit inside moments ago. Naturally choosing the second option to fulfill my loot goblin tendencies. I jaywalk across the beams as nobody could stop me.
Making it across, I easily hear the noise of something charging up and immediately think of a machine gunner, the wheelchair variety of course. Dashing forward, I take down the singular enemy and get my new four bullets. I explore a bit but find nothing until i reached the end which is just above the initial entrance to the barnhouse.
I collect the Adept blood gemstone here and the madman's knowledge before realizing something. Im standing on a stone floor on the second floor above the entrance.
"How the hell is this being supported?" I am genuinly curious as such, I go back and fall down to the stalls below from the rafters and then walk to the entrance. Along the way, I spot that the right side of the inside wall is breaking apart, revealing another stone wall.
"Ohhhhh, I get it now" I realize as I step outside.
"Brick, stone wall, wood. Three layers is how this piece of junk is standing up. But that only explains the entrance, the pillars would have to be super strong. Sure there are a lot of them because of all the stalls but still, that is stone my guy" I huff in annoyance at the architectural design of the building as I walk back in and climb the ladder again. Almost getting momentarily annoyed at the rafters I walked just moments ago as there are no pillars supporting said rafters or anything leading upwards to link with the roof.
I was about to go crazy until I remembered that there would be no stone here except the roof, likely bricks on top but no thick slabs of stone. Shrugging I climb up the ladder again. This time I go forward.
I spot the nearby scurrying beast, scurrying towards me that is. Until it notices me and turns around to run but I was faster and had more meth than it so it died. Giving me two twin blood stone shards and 33 echoes. Very nice. Of course I have no actual meth, so I chug down a blood vial to stimulate the same sensation of my impending stupidity as my body heals from previous damage I took. The hollow sensation in my chest annoyed me after some time.
I proceed forward and find a bottle of bloodshot eyes, lots of eyes around here. I continue on and get outside again. There is not much here except a lovely view of red and black clouds as bits of light seep over from the distant mountains.
Speaking of distance, there is a castle a bit to the left from where I exited from. "Is that Cainhurst castle?" I question as im confused of how the healing church or any others who hate vilebloods could never find it. It's right there. If does look like the bridge is broken or something but you have the boats, their broken since someone emptied the sewers of Central Yharnam but fix those and you're good to go.
I rant in confusion before going around the corner and fighting a woman with a hammer again. With an additional 365 echoes in the bag. I step forward, seeing the edge of a broken bridge with a shiny item on it when suddenly I got another 806 echoes out of nowhere…
"Did someone die somewhere here?" I ask out loud in proper confusion as none of the enemies here give a 806 echoes, the closest is the brutes but they are 787 or 876. Don't get me wrong, im not complaining, just curious to know how it happened. Regardless, I have trouble ahead.
I spot two more women and a brute walking around on this rooftop area with me. Upon spotting me, the women rush over and I take them down, getting 332 and 299 respectively as one has just a hand saw while the other has a scythe or halberd that is on fire and on the brink of melting. To study this, I collect the scythe before getting a tempering blood gemstone (2) from the body. While I'm distracted by the loot, the brute comes forwards towards me, planning to punch me with its bare fist. I shoot it and it falls with my fist plunged into its chest.
I get 2 vials from it and get the coldblood dew 3 from a corpse nearby and then continue forward. I soon spot another few enemies here. One is a molotov throwing lady but there is a tree between us and she is too dumb to walk around it.
There is also another dog here, walking around while another lady hides in the corner. Both these creatures spot me and rush at me. I take them down as the woman actually blocks the jump charge of the dog with her ass, so since they are so nicely jumbled up together. I put them down with three hits in total. The first to the woman, second to finish her off and nick the dog while the third finishes it off.
I get a regular bloodstone shard from the dog and a vial from the woman before dashing forward and slapping the molotov thrower, who stopped when I stopped moving and was too slow to react once I did move again.
The slap sends her off the wall. She gets back up and continues throwing to throw cocktails at me but it only brushes against the stone wall below me that the lady was previously standing on but now I am.
I aim my gun down and fire twice to take her down with ease, getting 365 echoes from her before stepping on the bridge here.
Out of the peripheral vision, I notice something and then I hear a high pitched growl from the villager here before i kick them and send them off into the mud stained puddle below where I spot two executioners.
I cross the bridge and begin walking down the spiral staircase where i find more clouds of fireflies again, but this time there is no hay. There is only the bodies of who knows how many victims of the hemwick witches and executioners wrapped up in brown sacks, curled up all over.
I step outside only for a wandering executioner to spot me. Walking over, it swings which does hit me but I also got my bullet off and stunned it. I recover faster than it and dash forward, just in time to get the riposte and heal back up with my pseudo vampiristic powers.
I get a nice chunk of souls from that, around 3k. If the other enemies here gave a bit more echoes, I might have considered this area to be a farmable region but it's too long even with the previous gate I saw now being opened up by me as I pull the switch. That still leaves around nine to 13 enemies I encounter before even getting to these two.
The enemies here are weaker than the hypogean Gaol and thus far, i've only gotten around 15k thus far. It's a bit more than hypogean without considering buying the 2k bold hunter marks but it also takes longer. The executioners timing is also a lot harder so there is a higher chance of me getting hit, while I can heal now and the executioners drop four or five blood vials. That doesnt mean I can just heal willy-nilly now that I have collagen paste and mutagen vials.
I took down the other executioner here as it gripped its halberd with both hands, planning to crush me with it but I just shot it and plunged my fist into its chest cavity, at least the cavity I put there. I then spot a wandering dog that I take down only to be ambushed by another three as they charge at me from the right side wall, hidden by gravestones.
I get hit a few times but im not down for the count, i've put stats into vitality for this exact reason, survival. I counter with a few strikes of my own and slay all three before finding a pair of woman and dog standing just before the broken bridge I saw from up top earlier.
Speaking of bridges, where did the woman I slapped off the bridge go? I haven't seen her since. I didn't get any echoes from it either. Questions for me in a few minutes once I get whatever item is at the edge of this bridge.
I dash and take down the woman before dashing out when the dog tried to bite me and I took it out too. I got another bloodstone shard before moving out to the bridge. I see that there is plenty of smoke around the edge, so im a bit careful as im pretty sure it's instant death if I fall.
[Sea rune acquired]
"Ah, useless" I mumble to myself before I demonstrate tech never before seen in a standard Fromsoft game before Elden Ring. I lift my leg higher than an inch and climb back to the steps of the broken bridge behind me.
As im walking away, I pause and look back , walking back to the edge of the bridge again as I peer into it.
"If there is a literal ocean of water here, how does the gaping bright hole from before exist? They're practically neighbors of death. Wouldn't the water have filled the hole or something?" I scratch the back of my head as I mock whoever made this world.
Shaking my head of distracting thoughts, I return to the center of this area and begin climbing up a hill with tons of tombstones of the left and right until and opening is made on the right side splitting into two paths. The left leads to a high up building while the other leads to a crevice with another executioner in it.
I take down the excecutioner but not before being thrown around a bit b/c I kept missing my shots and timing but I do get it eventually. Even as I'm getting the riposte, a woman suddenly falls down into this area from the other path.
"Two, ha ha ha" I break out of the riposte animation and then take the woman down before a second comes down.
"Three, ha ha ha" I 'chuckle' again as a third comes down before no more appear. I get the vials from the executioner before opening the chest here and getting a blood gemstone for my troubles.
I pop a vial before going up the hill further into the house here. The first room is gathering of broken beds and random pieces of wood and even a few body bags with flies around them. I spot something shining but it's hard to tell if it's an item or more bugs, So i shatter the jars here and find an item. Madman's knowledge. My actions also seem to disturb the ecosystem because a scurrying beast pops out of nowhere which I slay for another set of two twin bloodstone shards. I pocket both items before beginning my trek down the long stairs when the system gives me a notification.
[Challenge Mode activated: Approaching Boss Arena: Witch of Hemwick. Set difficulty setting]
"Does this boss have anything locked behind it?" I try to ask the system and it surprisingly answers.
[Rune workshop tool]
"Oh, then most of it is useless" I comment as the vast majority of runes i've picked up this far have only been for more vial storage, more bullet storage and maybe one for beastification and one moon rune for money. Only the money rune is useful but the small percentage that I already get from Harvest (skill that gives percentage more echoes) is already doing the work of the one rune I have. Sure it might stack but im not in a hurry for it unless I can get more moon runes.
"Ah fuck it. I'm curious to see what it's like. Set difficulty to 100"
The world shakes around me as even with the fog wall up, I can feel the powerful presence inside leaking out until it just suddenly stops like it was never there.
[Boss has been modified to a new game plus 100 standard. Due to the high difficulty, modifiers have been cut down from 10 to five. These five modifiers have been provided to the boss:
1: Arch-tempered
2: Caster
3: Arena buff: Nightmare House
4: Evolution of Mind
5: Guardian of Sealed Summons]
"Oh joy, good to know that anything below 100 gets ten buffs instead of just five, at least they are a bit weaker…i assume" I muse to myself as I step through the fog wall before I get another ping from the system.
"Due to the random modifiers and difficulty. Some of the current modifiers have merged into a new state:
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Word Count = 2591
Finishing up the rest of the Lane. Setting the boss difficulty and preparing my ass cheeks for the suicidal ass fucking im getting next chapter.
Enjoy
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.
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