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Chapter 180 - Chapter 180: Alex Had It All Figured Out!

Chapter 180: Alex Had It All Figured Out!

Tom paced back and forth as he watched the knight in front of him. He couldn't help it; he was just filled with envy.

Why were all undead knights knights? How could your equipment be so luxurious? Then he looked at his own shabby equipment. The disparity between knights was huge, wasn't it?.

And didn't you say you were dying and asked me to help you pass the fire? You won't need this equipment anymore, so why don't you give it to me?.

Looking at his own small iron shield, then the other man's ornate shield, Tom felt a surge of envy. At that moment, he felt the urge to hack him to death and then rip off his shield. But he restrained himself.

He had a feeling that this knight might be related to the main story later on. And according to his knowledge of Dark Souls, if he attacked the knight at that moment, there were generally two possible scenarios.

First, the knight was a generatable NPC like the Fire Keeper.

Second, this knight, now looking sickly and proclaiming his resistance, suddenly got up full of life, demonstrating the true morale of the undead.

After careful consideration, Tom decided to leave in silence. The world is such a beautiful place; humans, especially the undead, should not be so impulsive.

With confidence, Tom continued, climbing the stairs and reaching a corner. Suddenly, two dagger-wielding zombies came out of the corner, followed by an archer who shot a stinging arrow. An arrow hit him right in the chest, causing his character to stop briefly. Then, the two nearby dagger-wielding zombies launched an unprecedented wave of slashes against Tom.

Combined with the archer zombie's hardening arrow in the distance, the combination was a perfect succession. Compared to the simple loss of a small health bar caused by a bow and arrow, the damage inflicted by the unbridled attacks of the dagger-wielding zombies was a bit unreal. In fact, being hit by an arrow causes the game character to stop, with no time to roll and dodge.

With a flurry of attacks, Tom's health bar was completely depleted.

"What's wrong? What happened? Why are these two zombies so fierce?".

Seeing the familiar "You're dead!" on the screen, Tom was completely bewildered. He had already run into zombies before, right after leaving the cell. But why were these zombies so fierce now armed?.

After resurrecting, Tom decided to be even more cautious. After all, he was playing Dark Souls! He couldn't let his guard down like that again.

Upon returning to the second floor, Tom mentally warned himself. After resurrecting again, he carefully lured the monsters, eliminating the archer and two dagger-wielding zombies.

In front was a passageway, and upon entering, he saw a ghost soldier wielding a sword and shield. Behind him, a locked door. Instead of immediately entering the white, misty door, Tom pounced on the ghost soldier. However, the ghost soldier in front of him was surprisingly weak, even less formidable than the two dagger-wielding zombies and the archer.

"Just this trash?". Picking up the white light, Tom got a Zombie Soldier Shield. However, after checking the stats, it was similar to the kite-shaped shield with a tower design he was born with, but it weighed even more. This immediately condemned him to death.

'That knight couldn't even fit in his full armor, and he still wanted his heaviest shield?'.

Humming a tune, Tom headed for the door behind him, but was stunned by a clue: there was no key.

"Wait, wasn't my birth gift a skeleton key? The skeleton key can't even open this horrible door!". Tom couldn't help but feel a pang of frustration.

But if this was not possible, the fog door was obviously the only way to get in.

Upon reaching the white fog door and entering, Tom found himself on the rooftop of the previous room, with the Undead Asylum demon below. There was also a warning in front of the fog door: "You can perform a descending attack."

"The design of this map is amazing! It's all connected!", Tom exclaimed without being able to help it.

This interconnected design is a key feature of Dark Souls. So far, Tom has discovered three places in the Undead Asylum that intersect with each other, which surprised him a lot.

The next words were clearly going to be the same as in the fight against the ancient dragon from the previous game: a fall from above. Thinking about it, Tom couldn't help but smile as he sheathed his shield and changed to a double-handed grip.

"You can't hit me? Come on, hit me, please, please, kill me!". Standing on the balcony, Tom pondered how to execute the Undead Asylum demon. He saw the boss below, stalking him back and forth, looking at him fiercely, and a smug smile appeared on his face.

But the next instant, Tom's smile froze. He saw the Undead Asylum demon suddenly roar, jump, and brandish his hammer directly towards his second floor.

With a loud bang, accompanied by a trembling screen, the second floor where Tom was collapsed, and the game character lost a large part of his health upon falling.

Before he could get up, the boss brandished the demon's hammer again.

"You're dead!". The familiar words reappeared.

"Damn it! I can't wait, or it will attack me right away!". Tom was completely stunned.

This was something he didn't expect. More importantly, a bronze trophy for the game's achievement, "Excessive joy leads to sadness", appeared in the lower right corner.

Seeing the name of the trophy, Tom felt a pang of pain in his stomach.

'So, was all this what Alex was predicting?'.

He had already anticipated that some players would deliberately show off in front of the boss, hence the rule: don't attack immediately, but wait a while before activating the attack.

Soon, Tom, resurrected by the bonfire, returned to the balcony on the second floor of the Undead Asylum.

This time, Tom had learned his lesson and didn't just stand there idly. He jumped off the balcony, hitting the boss's head hard with his weapon.

The boss's health was visibly reduced by half. With the armor already stripped, Tom's agile body rolled on the ground, raising his hand to give the boss a complete foot massage.

"That was a real attack!".

Tom sighed as he watched the boss's health bar go down. There was no scraping, but it did inflict considerable damage. The difficulty level changed completely.

Tom even felt that it was not as formidable as Gundyr from the previous game. Unlike Gundyr, this boss did not even have a second stage of transformation.

"You look like a rebellious demon? Leave the group, what a disgrace!".

He rolled and hit twice. Soon, the boss in front of him let out a groan and collapsed dead.

Tom, for his part, obtained a key to the gates of the Undead Asylum, as well as something called "humanity."

With the key the boss dropped, Tom opened the doors. He continued moving forward until he reached the cliffs behind the Undead Asylum, where he successfully activated a cinematic scene.

According to ancient legends, a few undead are allowed to leave the Asylum and make a pilgrimage to distant lands. As the background narration began, a huge black bird suddenly descended from the sky and appeared before him, just as it had come out of the Wall of Lothric after defeating the Abyss Watchers. It caught the game's protagonist and flew away in the distance.

"That's the land of the ancient kings... Lordran!".

Crossing the dense clouds, Tom saw a magnificent ancient city-state. However, it seemed completely silent.

Finally, the bird dropped him in what looked like ruins. At the same time, the name of the area appeared in the center of the game screen: Firelink Shrine.

"What a familiar place!".

Unlike the magnificent Firelink Shrine before, this one seemed a bit more modest. It was completely different from what he had imagined, even outdoors. In the center, a bonfire was burning, which stored the progress. Looking around, the entire Firelink Shrine seemed like a ruin.

"From now on, the Firelink Path is finally on track!". Upon observing the Firelink Shrine, which, while different from the previous game, was still the place where the dream of the legendary path began, Tom sighed.

Although he died four times naturally in the Undead Asylum, he can only say that it's not a big deal.

 

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