Jason waved to Jinah from the doorway as she left with her friends. As soon as she was out of sight, he took a deep breath, calmly shut the door, and headed up the stairs to his room. Today was it, the day he entered into a world dark and miserable enough that even God called it a terrible place.
He'd finished his [Daily Quest] in the morning and like he expected, the rewards had changed. The 150% completion was removed and the 1,000s took the place of the 200% reward. He'd still completed the max bonus, while a thousand souls won't be much down the line, for now it still counted for a good few levels.
He'd already turned in Quest and received the souls. There was no point in saving the heal for emergencies, his system had warned him on the first day that the [Status Recovery] was only to be used as intended for after the Daily's and that abusing this privilege would result in losing [Daily Quest] rewards altogether.
Now however, he was headed into Lordran with an extra 5k souls to spend on levels and he knew he'd be needing every single one. The Asylum Demon was not something he was looking forward to.
Entering his room, Jason checked to make sure he had everything he needed before heading out. Bringing up his [Equip] page, he looked through his inventory and nodded once he was satisfied. Food, water, extra clothes incase the ones he enters with get destroyed, and a mask incase the world smells worse than initially expected, everything was neatly organized where it belonged.
He had no weapons or armor apart from a kitchen knife and some folded up newspapers, so he had to hope that the chosen undead wasn't hollow and had some to spare. There was always the option of using devil [Slayer Magic], but he didn't know how effective that would be to put all his eggs in one basket.
With one last look around his room and throwing his watch in the inventory just in case, Jason took a deep breath and activated the token. He walked forwards to opened his bathroom door and just like he'd expected, a black hole-like portal filled out the frame.
After throwing a quick prayer to God that he didn't screw him over, Jason stepped into the darkness.
••••••••••••••••••
Undead Asylum
••••••••••••••••••
An undead fully shrouded in hardened black leather, watched as what appeared to be a knight tossed a corpse into his cell. He couldn't remember how long it'd been since the last time he seen someone who hadn't been hollowed. Gwyn's balls, he couldn't be sure he wasn't hollow himself by this point.
Idly stroking his most treasured pendant protectively, the undead warily poked the corpse with his boot. Upon observing no movement, he looked up just in time to see the 'knight' nod at him before leaving.
"What a daft bastard," he grumbled before leaning back against the corner of his cell. "Who just throws bodies wherever they please? This is an undead Asylum, not some catacombs you can just toss your dead weight into. I swear, ever since the curse, peop-"
His rant was cut short as a portal opened up right on his position, completely disintegrating him from the world. The cell lapsed back into silence for a brief moment before an Eastern boy in his mid teens stepped through the black gate.
"Damn!" Jason choked out between gags as he scrambled to put on his mask. "It smells even worse than I initially thought possible, I'm pretty sure I can taste the rotting flesh through my nose."
It took a few minutes and a couple air fresheners placed in his mask, but eventually Jason got ahold of himself enough to look around the location he'd come out in.
'Wow,' he thought, refusing to open his mouth by this point, 'it looks just like the game, there's even the body that Oscar tossed down. But… the door's still locked, where's the chosen undead?'
Turning around, he cringed at seeing the perfectly round sphere carved into the corner wall, right where it appeared someone had been resting for a long while.
"Oops," he muttered, before an idea came to mind. "Arise."
…
'Damn, it was worth a try I guess,' he thought. Turning around, he tried once again on the corpse lying on the floor, "Arise."
[Shadow Extraction failed. It has been too long since this body has died, continued attempts are deemed futile.]
"Tch," he clicked his tongue in distaste, his first and second attempts at [Shadow Extraction] on anything bigger than a pigeon had both failed. He'd already dismissed every shadow summon he'd raised over the past months, they were all just too stupid to do anything useful. He'd come to the understanding that anything less complex than around dogs would continue to follow their instincts after becoming a shadow.
It made some sense, all the animals in Sung Jin-Woo's army were monsters. It's reasonable to assume they were more intellectually capable than their mundane counterparts. Beru had even gained the ability to speak and he was an ant, albeit that was a special case.
Disappointed, Jason reached down and grabbed the glowing mass floating atop the corpse. It looked eerily similar to how the Travel Token had so he crushed it in his grasp as well, revealing a dirty and rusted key at which he nodded, pleased.
Turning around, he inspected the perfectly sheared sphere in the corner walls and floor once again. There was truly nothing left of the chosen undead. Not that he particularly cared about them, he just wondered if they'd have the same starting items as in the game. Some armor would've been nice.
Right as he turned to leave however, a glint off the sunlight pouring in from above caught his eye. As he bent down and reached for it however, his expectations soured to disappointment once again.
"Tch, it's just the useless pendant," he grumbled as he stood up, tossing it back over his shoulder on the ground. 'Was it too much to ask for Firebombs? Though, I guess they'd have been destroyed alongside the body, it's kind of a miracle that the pendent survived at all…'
He hesitated at that thought and turned back to look at the thing again. It had somehow managed to land back in the beam of sunlight and once more gleamed with temptation.
Jason almost reached for it, but stopped and with a force of will, strode towards the cell door while mumbling under his breath, "I'm not gonna fall for it again Miyazaki. You got me the first time, but not today."
Coming up to the door, Jason inserted the key into the lock before pausing once again as he thought, 'Why am I even using this…'
Activating his magic, Jason used the Shadow Form spell and fazed through the bars as if they weren't even there. He reformed on the other side and nodded in smug satisfaction at his plan working.
'Who needs a Master Key when you have magic?' Jason thought proudly. Since this had worked, it proved that there were no powers in this world working to ensure it functioned like the games. There had always been a lingering doubt in the back of his mind that somehow, he'd be forced to go through this world strictly according to the logic of the game. It was a relief to finally disprove that theory and Jason's posture unknowingly relaxed at the revelation.
Venturing down the hallway, he came across the first 'living' being he'd seen in this world, a shriveled figure bent over with its head in its hands and wearing nothing more than dirty rags. The hollow didn't even acknowledge his presence as Jason walked up to it… and proceeded to blast its head off with a burst of magic.
"Huh," he mused as the body crumbled to the floor. 'I thought I'd feel something about killing these guys for the first time but nope, nothing.'
'You could even say it felt kind of,' he smirked, 'hollow.'
While chuckling at his own pun, Jason walked over to the other Hollow and proceeded to put it out of its misery as well. It was then, in the silence of the hall, that he noticed the noise. The screams, screams of pain that seemed to resonate from the bodies of the Hollows he'd just slain.
Smoky black tendrils appeared to rise up from their corpses and Jason grinned at the sight. This had never happened with the dead animals he'd come across back on Earth and he'd begun to think that maybe his system just didn't work the way it had in the manhwa. Seeing the smoke rising from the fallen bodies however, he realized that the system just didn't view them as acceptable enough summons and the messages now displayed floating over their bodies proved that.
[Shadow Extraction may be used on this target.]
[Shadow Extraction may be used on this target.]
Jason's grin got even wider behind his mask as he uttered the word, "Arise."
As the words left his mouth the black smoke billowed, then gathered as hands reached out from the corpses and pushed up off the ground. They came to their feet with stumbling steps and soon, two black figures stood motionlessly before Jason.
[Hollow Shadow Lvl.1 - Rank: Soldier]
[Hollow Shadow Lvl.1 - Rank: Soldier]
Looking at the Rank, Jason was excited. All the Shadows he'd summoned before this had been categorized as Unranked so this was a first. With a thought, he looked over the info for the [Soldier] rank.
_______________________________
[Soldier Grade]: Soldier rank shadows serve as basic infantry in the Shadow Monarch's army. In terms of strength, they are usually below most known supernatural beings.
_______________________________
A little simple, but it told Jason what he needed, these guys were just about as weak as regular humans. Since his [Shadow Extraction] skill allowed him to summon up to the [Knight] rank, then that should mean that those can compete with weaker fallen angels, devils, and the like.
After giving his summons another look over, Jason motioned for them to follow and exited the corridor. After walking around some shallow water and climbing up a ladder, he came into an open courtyard.
Right before a large set of double doors, in the center of the clearing stood a twisted sword, stabbed into a pile of ash and smoldering with dim embers. Jason walked up to it like he had countless times before and stretched out a hand towards the hilt of the blade with an excited grin.
That grin froze however when, instead of his presence igniting the bonfire, the small embers at the base of the sword shot up the blade and into his arm. The shock had been so violent that it knocked the air out his lungs and forced him to his knees, his left hand still unable to remove its grip from the hilt.
Jason let out a silent scream as the flames carved their way down his arm, over his shoulder, and into his chest where they began to smolder and burn into his left pectoral. As Jason clawed at his chest with his only free arm, he began to bang his head into the ground as the pain was just too unbearable. He gnashed his teeth until his gums bled as he suffered through what felt like someone driving molten stakes into his heart and then digging around with them for whatever was left over.
Right as he was on the verge of passing out however, the pain faded like a wisp of smoke on the wind and barely a dull ache remained. His left hand was now free from the sword and he could see it was bleeding from how tightly he'd gripped the thing.
Jason fell on his ass and panted as he tried to wrap his mind around what happened. With shaky hands, he pulled off his shirt that was still smoking with a giant hole in the chest. What he saw underneath, made his face grow even paler.
The mark of the accursed, the brand of humanity, the Darksign. That Darksign, still glowing a dull red and throbbing with pain, was branded right into his chest over his heart! Panicking, Jason hastily pulled up his system.
Seeing nothing out of the ordinary on the main [Status], apart from some missing HP, slightly eases his worry. However, before he could begin to relax, he opened the [Skills] tab and what he saw confirmed his prior suspicions. He had indeed been changed, or his [Shadow Human] skill had, to be exact. What now stood in its place was this;
_______________________________
[Accursed Brand] Lvl.MAX:
The User's being has been transformed and the skill [Shadow Human] has evolved through the acceptance of the Darksign by the system. The User now has the ability to absorb souls from those slain around him. Be warned however, should the User perish, only an eternity of hollow undeath awaits.
_______________________________
Jason stared blankly, rereading the description over and over again. In the end, he didn't know whether this was a good or bad thing. On one hand, he'd never planned on dying within the Dark Souls universe in the first place, so the outcome could be seen as a net positive. Other than needing to wear a shirt at the beach from now on, the skill finally explained why he hadn't received any souls from nearby deaths up to this point.
On the other, it also drove home the grim consequences of dying not just in this world, but now even back home. Would the undead curse spread to Earth if he fell there before becoming the full blown Shadow Monarch? Could that end up being a worse fate than him failing to stop whatever God's avatar had sealed away? How would his parents react to their fifteen year old son suddenly having some strange marking on his chest?
Jason sighed and dusted off his rear as he stood up from the ground. What's done is done and there's no use fretting about it now. He glanced at his two shadows that stood dumbly off to the side and hadn't offered to help through that whole ordeal.
"Guess hollowing translates to their shadow forms as well," he mumbled before pausing, just now noticing that the asylum didn't smell as bad as it had before. He removed his mask, took a whiff, and nodded, it indeed appeared that the smell had been muted. "Looks like that Skill does more than it lets on."
Jason peered up at the two giant doors that led to the Asylum Demon and then back at the bonfire. He hesitated at whether to level up now, or see if there was a weapon waiting for him on the other side of the complex. If there is, he needed to save his points for when he saw what it was. His stats were so low that he didn't think he could wield any of them properly as they were now, so he'd need to invest them carefully from the start or he'd have a weapon he couldn't even wield.
Coming to a decision, Jason walked up and placed both hands on the door before slowly heaving it open with great effort. What greeted him was another open courtyard lined with pillars, a suspiciously weak looking floor, and several more Hollows stumbling about.
After confirming his prior knowledge, Jason sent his two Shadows forward towards the center of the court before sprinting to the left side with all his strength. Half way there, he had to blow the head off another Hollow that charged at him, right before stumbling as the ground shook… the Demon had landed.
Jason didn't hesitate, with his Shadows distracting it, he ran through the open gate right as the Demon roared and it fell shut behind him. His mana fell a few times as his Shadows died and reformed, until he remembered to recall them with [Shadow Preservation] and re-summon them nearby.
Seeing the bonfire in the room, with more wariness this time, Jason once again stretched out his arm and grasped the hilt of the embedded sword. As he sent his mana into the blade, flames roared up the shaft and the bonfire bloomed into full burn. With a sigh of relief, Jason backed away from the blaze and looked towards the exit. It wasn't time to rest just yet.
He instead sent his Shadows down the hall first in order to block any arrows with their bodies and a few drops in mana shortly after, confirmed it was the right choice. It seemed that arrows were fired at normal speeds in this world, which brought up worrying thoughts about Anor Londo in the future.
Jason headed into the first alcove and grabbed the item that rested within. Crushing it revealed a small shield that was deceptively heavy in his arms.
As he put the item into his inventory, a welcomed surprise showed itself on the system's screen.
_______________________________
[Target Shield]
Small round metal shield with four protrusions used to parry attacks. Small shields are always less stable, but landing critical hits after parry is easier. This shield is specialized for parrying.
Parameters:
STR: 11(D) - DEX: 8 - INT: 0 - FTH: 0
_______________________________
'It's good to know I won't be fumbling around in the dark when it comes to weapon and armor requirements,' Jason thought to himself as he closed the system and headed further down the hall. 'No matter how much I played the game, it's impossible to know everything.'
Coming to the end of the corridor, Jason reached down and grabbed the item here as well. Crushing it confirmed his thoughts about what class the chosen undead had been.
_______________________________
[Bandit's Knife]
Primarily a slicing weapon, but highly effective when used for critical hits, such as after parrying or from behind.
Parameters:
STR: 8(E) - DEX: 12(B) - INT: 0 - FTH: 0
_______________________________
"A thief," Jason muttered as he turned back towards the bonfire. He was lucky he had spells like Shadow Form and Step or he'd probably been pissed about losing the Master Key to the portal. The weapon was decent, though he didn't see himself using it long term at least with the low requirements he'd be able to wield it.
Sitting down near the bonfire, Jason recalled his Shadows before sending some mana into the flames. What happened next was dizzying to say the least, the world shifted and blurred as it gradually became shrouded in fog until only the bonfire and Jason himself remained.
"The games really didn't do it justice," he grumbled while he grabbed his head in an attempt to keep the world from spinning. "Damn, that sucked. This better be one of those things you can get used to like apparating in Harry Potter, because I am not looking forward to almost vomiting every time I need to level up."
Once his head settled and the world made sense again, Jason looked up to see his system opened to his main [Status] page, except it looked slightly different.
_______________________________
[Level Up]
Level: 1 => 2
Souls: 5020
Souls Required: 500
—————————
HP: 500/500
MP: 60/60
SP: 70/70
—————————
Vitality: 5 (+)(–)
Attunement: 6 (+)(–)
Endurance: 7 (+)(–)
Strength: 5 (+)(–)
Dexterity: 6 (+)(–)
Resistance: 4 (+)(–)
Intelligence: 6 (+)(–)
Faith: 4 (+)(–)
_______________________________
Remembering the stat requirements for both the knife and shield, Jason attempted to raise both his strength and dexterity to the required numbers but ran into two problems. For one, he only had enough souls to increase his level 8 times, which came out to 4860s. Which meant he was one level short to wield the [Bandits Knife] unless he wielded it with two hands.
The main issue however and one that would impact his build permanently, was the warning that came from his system. It had informed him that, even though [Shadow Human] had evolved, his body was still required to 'maintain a certain equilibrium.' This meant that his highest stat value couldn't exceed his lowest by more than 5 points.
After coming to this grim realization, Jason sighed before just putting 3 levels into both Strength and Dexterity with the last 2 going into Faith and Resistance as 1 each. This meant that now his highest stat possible would be 10 and it would remain so until the three level 5 stats all got raised themselves.
Jason groaned as the world once spun as it returned to normal. This was going to be a long day.