Chapter 373 Dreaming of the Dark Sword

“…Funeral!”

As the pitch-black broadsword swung down, black blood splashed, and the crowned knight in armor and holding a greatsword, as well as the robed man on his back, fell down together, without a sound.

Then, the lower-level knight who killed the enemy felt relieved and fell to the ground in a big letter position on the spot.

“…The road is under my feet.”

With the last sentence, everything around sank into darkness.

In the darkness, there seemed to be a bell ringing, echoing endlessly.

“Dong——! Dong——!”

——Li You suddenly opened his eyes!

He raised his hand and pressed his head, and his brain seemed to still have unbearable pain. However, the dream just now made him unable to come back to his senses for a while.

“…The dog-headed man defeated the twin princes with the dark sword? How could I have such a dream?”

Li You laughed at himself, “Even if I return to my original world in the future, I won’t see such a thing, right?”

Shaking his head gently, Li You looked around.

This time the teleportation was a little different. He lost consciousness after entering the portal in the biochemical world and just woke up from a dream.

As for where he is now...

In a corner of a deserted cemetery, behind him is an open sarcophagus, and next to it is a bent dead tree with bark that looks like stone.

The dirt road extends in front of him, leading to the center of the cemetery, and on both sides of the road are clusters of tombstones and open sarcophagi.

"Ashes Cemetery... I really miss it."

The scene in front of him evoked Li You's long-lost memories. After all, Dark Souls III is the first game he officially entered the single-player game circle.

What? As for what he played earlier?

The forum learning version (cough)...

Of course, this time of crossing is also different from the previous ones. He already knew that he would come to this world before crossing, so he also made some preparations.

But the challenges of this world, if not unexpected, will also be unprecedented.

[Ding! ]

[Congratulations! ]

[You have successfully entered the game world, and your current location: Ashes Cemetery. 】

【After completing the first contact, the reward will be drawn. 】

"First contact, no problem."

Li You raised his hand, and Thunder Moon Shadow appeared in his hand.

Since he landed in the Ash Cemetery, there are many zombie monsters here.

For example...

Li You walked a few steps along the road, and indeed saw a monster wearing a robe, holding a broken sword, and standing at the intersection in a daze. This is the most basic miscellaneous soldier in Dark Souls - zombies, or wandering souls.

The world view of Dark Souls is unique. If it is explained in a simple and easy-to-understand way, that is, in this world, "soul" is the origin of life and the source of power.

In the world of Dark Souls, all life in the Age of Fire has its own soul, which brings power, and the changes in the soul will act on the body and change the body's form.

Defeat the enemy and absorb their soul power. If you are defeated, you will lose your soul power. Simple and direct logic.

So in the world of souls, the stronger the soul, the stronger the individual, and vice versa, the weaker it will be.

At the same time, in the world of souls, there are "undead curses" and "undeads". Undeads will have a mark called the Dark Ring, from which their humanity will continue to drain away.

Although undeads will be resurrected even if they die, it is difficult to make up for the lost souls and humanity.

When the souls and humanity of undeads are gone, they will lose all their memories and consciousness, and become empty wandering souls... and become zombies.

The zombie monsters that Li You saw came from this.

Hearing the footsteps of someone approaching, the zombie that was originally standing at the intersection with his head down in a daze immediately turned his head and looked over. The moment he saw Li You, he let out a low roar from his mouth, then raised the rusty broken sword in his hand and rushed towards Li You!

Although it looked like a kind of worthless monster that did not threaten anyone, Li You did not let down his guard. He didn't know where the lower limit of the world of souls was, but the upper limit was very high, and it was definitely not something that could be dealt with casually.

So Li You did not dodge, but raised his knife, used his energy, and faced the zombie's broken sword!

"Dang——!"

A crisp knocking sound rang out, and the energy attached to Li You's knife shook the zombie's broken sword back violently, and its whole body staggered a few steps and almost fell.

And Li You felt the force on the broken sword just now, and his eyebrows raised slightly.

It was not as he expected in the worst case. The zombies he encountered first in the game could break his defense. The attack power of this zombie was ordinary, which was equivalent to that of a strong adult.

But from another perspective, if this weakest soldier has such combat power, with the speed of enemy upgrades in the Dark Souls world view, then those late-stage BOSSes may be really troublesome.

Li You was thinking, and the broken sword zombie had roared and rushed up again, waving the weapon in his hand wildly at him!

Zombie Sword Saint Eight Consecutive Slashes!

Although the Broken Sword Zombie is the weakest monster in the game, in the Souls series, the strength of the enemies will increase as the number of rounds of play increases.

So the Broken Sword Zombie, which can be killed with one sword in the first round, can kill the player instantly if it appears in the high-level and late-game maps with this random zombie eight-combo.

This is an old tradition of the Souls series.

Of course, Li You did not intend to try the zombie eight-combo damage, even if his recovery ability has been greatly enhanced.

He raised his sword and shook it, knocking the weapon of the Broken Sword Zombie away, and then swung his sword and cut off the opponent's head.

The headless zombie fell to the ground with a plop, and there was no sound. And from its body, a small and dim white light flew out, staggering towards him, and circled around him for a few circles, as if looking for something to attach to, but found nothing.

Li You: "...Huh?"

The soul of the zombie seems unable to be absorbed by himself?

Is it because his "soul" exists in a different form from those people in the Dark Soul World?

But then again, if it can be absorbed, where is this power stored?

Li You fell into thinking.

As for the little soul dropped by the zombie, it circled around Li You, but had nothing to attach to. If this continues, this pitiful soul power will probably be scattered between heaven and earth.

They will certainly not disappear, but may combine with other scattered souls to condense into large and small ownerless souls.

But at this moment, under Li You's collector's robe, the soul pendant suddenly lit up and floated up on its own.

Then, the little soul floating in the air, like a fish that found its home, immediately rushed to the pendant, and was finally absorbed into the gem on it.

Li You was slightly startled: "...Oh?"

The soul pendant can absorb these souls? This is really... not surprising at all.

After all, this thing was originally obtained from the world fragments of the dark soul.

However, in what specific form is it absorbed? Can he use it?

Li You was about to study it, but then the system prompt sound echoed in his mind.

[The first contact has been completed. ]

[Finally confirmed-your main task in this world is:]

[Replace "Nameless Ashes" and complete the mission of Ashes. ]

[Good luck! ]    Li You: "???"

Wait a minute! ?

I'm going to pass on the fire? Really?

Li You was confused.

"...Wait, think calmly."

Although the main quest is only a short sentence, it contains a lot of information.

First, it said that Li You should replace Wuming Ashes. Does this mean...he took the position of the original protagonist of the game?

The original protagonist Ashes is gone?

If Ashes are gone, how can the mission be completed! ?

-In the world view of Dark Souls, "fire" is a special existence.

The first fire of the Dark Souls world is the power to maintain the world and light. The so-called fire transmission is that heroes and fire kings use their souls as fuel to maintain the burning of the first fire.

The "ashes" mentioned by the system, also called fireless ashes, are actually a special kind of undead. The simplest and crudest understanding is that they are undead who have been burned once, but not completely burned, and then pulled up again.

So they are also called non-combustible garbage (crossed out).

The ashes still have the characteristics of undead, but they also have unique features, such as not accumulating curses and losing humanity due to death, and for example...they can use the power of "remnants".

The ember is the smallest spark, the remnant of the heroes' power, and therefore has a great attraction to Ashes.

In terms of gameplay, the ember can increase the upper limit of HP and unlock the function of online summoning spirits.

Of course, let's not talk about the gameplay function of the ember. From the setting point of view, it is precisely because of its own specialness that Ashes can accommodate the power of the ember and finally complete the mission of passing on the fire.

And now, the system directly lets him replace the protagonist of the game, the nameless ash?

This really makes Li You unable to do it: he is not an ash, and he can't be ignited!

So how to complete the mission?

Or does "completing the mission" not necessarily mean passing on the fire, and he can also choose other endings?

Li You has started to have a headache.

[Ding! ]

[Contact with the residents of this world has been completed, the system is being updated, and the new world rewards will be drawn soon. ]

[Please note that due to the difference in the world background, this reward draw will be changed to a fixed item distribution. ]

[Ding! ]

[Obtained "Dark Ring" × 1. 】

Li You: “!!”

Dark Ring?

He didn’t care about anything else, and quickly opened the system panel and looked at the item description… It was exactly what he thought.

[Dark Ring: The mark on the body of the cursed undead. After using it, it will become a brand attached to the body. Although it cannot make people immortal, their humanity will gradually fade away over time until they become zombies. 】

[Note 1: Limited props, cannot be used by others. If you complete the main task after using it, you will receive a special reward. 】

[Note 2: Special props, if you choose to use it, you can maintain your humanity by devouring powerful souls. The Dark Ring that absorbs enough souls can be converted into firewood to continue the first fire. 】

[Note 3: Limited props, you can use this prop before any fire king is defeated, otherwise this prop will disappear. 】

Li You: “emmmmm…”

Are you making it difficult for me?

The special reward prompted by the system is indeed very tempting, but the risk of this thing is really high. If you don't do it well, you will become a zombie in this world!

Li You thought about it and decided not to rush.

Anyway, it can be used before defeating any Fire King, so he still has a lot of room for operation.

For example, take the classic route of the first BOSS Gray Guda, the second BOSS Dancer, and the third Dragon Hunter Armor...

Putting away the Dark Ring, Li You breathed a sigh of relief.

He had just arrived, and the system had given him two big problems.

Is this the world of Dark Souls?

After a pause, Li You thought about it for a while and decided to go out of the Ash Cemetery first and arrive at the player's base camp in the game - the Firelink Shrine.

From the perspective of gameplay, the Ash Cemetery is just a tutorial and a prologue for beginners. Once you enter the Firelink Shrine, that's when it officially begins.

Although, the gatekeeper BOSS in this prologue is not very friendly to newcomers...

Walking two steps forward along the main road, this is the center of the cemetery. A broken and weathered stone altar shaped like a holy grail stands quietly in the center.

Another zombie sat in front of the altar with his head in his arms, swaying left and right. Next to him, there was a knight's body in full armor sitting on the ground, leaning against the broken part of the altar.

There was no need to test this zombie. Li You strode forward and beheaded it with one sword!

The Broken Sword Zombie fell down, and a very small amount of soul was absorbed by the soul pendant. Li You put away his sword and looked at the knight's corpse.

He leaned on the altar, with his scimitar and shield at his side, looking up at the sky. His posture seemed to be looking at the light, but he also seemed to have figured something out and was relieved.

Li You sighed in his heart.

It was not accidental that the knight's corpse appeared here. His equipment and movements were all copied from the NPC who rescued the protagonist from the prison of the Undead Asylum in Dark Souls 1, the senior knight Oscar.

In Dark Souls 1, although he saved the protagonist, he fell down due to his injuries, and his humanity and soul were unable to support him. At the moment of his death, he gave the protagonist the recovery item for the undead, the element bottle, and entrusted his mission to him.

And this corpse in Dark Souls 3 is a tribute to Oscar. This is also true for the "Element Ash Bottle" that players can pick up here.

Li You silently remembered the next generation of Oscar, then thought about it and tried to open the helmet of the corpse to see what was inside.

Although the helmet was very strong due to weathering and rust, Li You still used a little force to break it open. Unfortunately, under the armor was just a rotten skeleton, which had almost turned into powder because of the long years.

"…Yes, this is a complete world."

Li You shook his head and stood up.

He did not find the Element Ash Bottle on this corpse. I don't know if it was because he was not Ash, so he didn't have it, or it was taken away by someone else.

Li You then continued to move forward, quickly dealt with the zombies along the way, and came to the second area of ​​the cemetery along the cliff path at the end.

Of course, he knew that there were other things to collect in the Ash Cemetery, but he was not in a hurry to do that now. Everything would be said when he arrived at the Fire Sacrifice Site.

Therefore, except for the original campfire point in the cemetery here, which Li You tried several times but failed to respond, nothing else could waste his time. Li You quickly crossed the Ash Cemetery and came to the place behind that looked like a small amphitheater.

The second convention of the Soul series is that a sudden open space must have a boss battle.

In the middle of this open space, a tall knight wearing heavy silver-gray full body armor half-knelt on the ground, and a metal halberd pierced into the ground beside him.

However, the most eye-catching thing was the dark long sword with a spiral blade inserted in his chest, with a charred mark on the sword body as if it was burned, and from another angle, a strange object behind him that looked like a tree root but seemed to flow with black grease.

This is the gatekeeper boss of the Ash Cemetery, the friend of the newcomers, "Ashe Judge" Guda.

Li You just thought for a moment, then stepped forward and grasped the spiral sword on Guda's chest.

Of course, he fought the prologue boss by himself, which also made it easier for him to estimate the overall strength of Soul III.

"——Teacher Guda, get up for class!"

As he said that, Li You tightly grasped the spiral sword and pulled it out with force!

The next moment, the originally sculpture-like "Ashe Judge" trembled all over and actually moved!

"Ugh——!!"