Chapter 179: Death Is Too Natural!
The seemingly difficult bosses of previous games usually follow a pattern. For example, the Ancient Dragon scales the summit and executes them with a single blow in the air. Or Yhorm the Giant uses the stormbreaker to dispatch them instantly with five charged attacks.
Tom believed that the Undead Asylum demon before him must have a way to deal with it, instead of just using a knife to shave its feet.
Upon entering the main door again, he finally noticed something different. In the center of the room, near a pillar, there was a warning on the floor. Clicking on it brought up a message: "Run!" However, this warning was close to the pillar, which required the player to take two steps forward.
During these steps, the boss jumped from above, diverting the player's attention directly to it, instead of to the warning on the floor.
Tom also noticed carefully that, after the demon jumped, it froze in place for two seconds. This moment was clearly reserved for the player to activate the warning.
Like most players, his first instinct was to kill the boss as soon as he saw it. Boss battles in Dark Souls are generally structured around one boss per scene, and defeating it allows you to advance to the next. Only story-based bosses, like the Ancient Dragon, allow an interface bar and an exit to appear.
"So they were waiting for me here! What a shame! The excellence of a great Firelink Bearer is not only about skill, but also about mindset!".
Upon entering the passage, Tom smiled slightly as he watched the doors descend behind him. A new Dark Souls? That's it! That's it! He lit a bonfire at the entrance and, at that moment, as if he were pinching embers, Tom felt a surge of confidence.
Moving down the passage, Tom saw the knight's weapons: a shield and a sword.
"So you can only get the weapons here!".
Looking at the weapons and shield in his inventory, Tom couldn't help but complain.
Picking up the equipment was quite simple, except for the annoying archer in the narrow passage. Tom accidentally took two arrows. Upon looking at his half-full health bar, he felt a little uncomfortable. In the world of Dark Souls, being at half health was incredibly insecure; a single misstep could lead to death.
"Where is the Healing Talisman? Have they canceled it?" Tom muttered as he continued on.
However, he also noticed some differences from the previous game. In the previous one, the fog door represented a boss fight he had already encountered. When Tom saw the fog door for the first time, he thought he would go through it to fight the same Undead Asylum demon from before, considering that he only had half health and no talismans.
But once he went through it, he realized that it was just a new scene, a fog door that blocked the player's view. He was bewildered. Why was this design in the game? Wasn't it a little unnecessary?.
While muttering, Tom also saw a knight imprisoned in a cell, the same knight who had rescued him before.
"How do I open this? Is there a key after defeating the previous demon? But that doesn't make sense! Wasn't my birth gift a master key? And where is the lock?". Tom felt bewildered as he contemplated the prison before him.
He tried to attack it, but it had no effect. He could only explore another place.
Following the small staircase that led down, Tom was surprised to discover that the impenetrable iron door in front of him led to the courtyard where the boss battle had been fought. Through the opening, he could even see a lit bonfire.
So, after going through the small door where he had faced the boss, could he return here?. This surprised Tom.
In fact, similar displacement techniques were used in the previous game, Dark Souls, but they were relatively simple. However, this Undead Asylum, with its long sewer-like passage and its way back through the staircase, was truly amazing. This spatial journey from top to bottom was truly extraordinary.
After all, this was just the beginning of the game, a tutorial map for beginners.
After a brief moment of surprise, Tom could only choose another staircase. Let's see if there is another exit?. With this idea in mind, Tom controlled his character and ran towards the stairs.
Slowly going up, just when he reached the middle, he heard a roar in his ears. Then he saw a large dark iron ball suddenly roll down the stairs. Caught by surprise, Tom didn't have time to dodge it. In addition, the archers in the hallway hit him several times, leaving him with only half his health.
And then... those three familiar words appeared on the screen again.
"You're dead!".
"Shit!". Tom, cursed to himself.
What a pain!
Traps are an important feature of Dark Souls, such as treasure chests and all kinds of traps. But in the previous game, he had only found his first trapped treasure chest after defeating Gundyr and arriving at the Wall of Lothric.
But now, this gigantic iron ball was crashing down. He didn't expect it at all. He hadn't even defeated the first boss, and this trap was already approaching?
Furthermore, this gigantic iron ball looked identical to the bone ball from the Catacombs of Carthus. The only difference was that both were not on a cliff.
But this death was too natural, wasn't it?
Despite his death, Tom made a new discovery. It was this huge iron ball that went through the wall of the cell where the knight was.
"So the fog door was telling me that there was danger behind it?". After resurrecting at the bonfire, Tom went over the map. Since he had already activated the shortcut, he had not saved his game in the courtyard, so he resurrected at the bonfire in the hallway where he had recovered his equipment.
After resurrecting, Tom ran back to his death point and talked to the knight in the cell.
"Ah, you... you're not a ghost. How wonderful...".
"I'm dying. If I die, I won't be able to maintain my sanity."
"I have to ask you a favor. Since you're an undead like me, please accept my request and listen to me...".
Then a question arose: yes or no. It seemed like a main story mission, so Tom said yes.
The knight continued.
"It's a shame to say, but this favor is my mission...".
"I want to entrust it to you, a complete stranger...".
"It's a saying that runs in my family." 'Immortality means having a mission. With this immortal body, one must go from the Undead Asylum to the Land of the Ancient Kings to touch the Bell of Awakening and learn the mission of the undead.'
"Thank you... This way, I can finally die with hope."
"Ah, there's one more thing. I will entrust these things to you to keep."
After a brief conversation, Tom got the familiar healing talisman and the key to the east side of the second floor of the Undead Asylum.
"Five healing talismans? My God, how many!".
Seeing the healing talismans he had gotten, Tom was surprised. After all, before the fight against Gundyr in the previous game, there were only three. Even when he went to the Firelink Shrine and transformed the blue bottle pulse into a Healing Talisman, there were only four.
'This time there are five!'.
"But, brother, did you forget something?".
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