"Welcome to the First Day of Life in Death." the deep old voice rang into Yashiro's ears as he knelt on the ground where the Tree Sentinel fell to his sword.
Yashiro cried and yelled for the commands to bring out the settings to log out but, nothing happened. He lay on the ground with his face buried in his left arm. The last sentence still rang in his head. He clearly understood the meaning of those words, The Lands Between is plagued by death, it's a dead land and to live in this land is death itself.
"Am I in hell now, Did I die?" Yashiro cried still burying his face beneath his arms.
"How do I get out of this place, how long will it take, someone, please someone help me."
Yashiro was anxious and wasn't able to think straight, he was shuddering and his whole body went numb. He didn't wish to portray as some protagonist but simply play this game as a casual but, now he is trapped in this world and no one knows how or why. Suddenly, Yashiro thought of something and traveled to the Church of Elleh's grace site. He ran in Kale's direction who was still quietly sitting by the fire.
"You said there is some curse after the fourteenth moon, what is that?" Yashiro interrogated while catching his breath.
"The curse is..." Kale started to answer but suddenly his figure started to glitch out and a warning message flashed in front of Yashiro.
'The access to the specific information has been denied! Must proceed through the journey to access the information.'
Yashiro cursed in a low tone as he looked at Kale in disappointment, he only heard the last sentence, "To continue forward, you must find the humped old lady and trace the path in which she points."
Yashiro sat down by the fire and started to think of the times when his friends talked about Elden Ring and how to continue forward, He cannot remember anything about the humped old lady. He gazed at the night sky and his eyes followed a falling star in the northwest and he saw a stone statue that was placed in the corner of the cliff. He immediately stood up and sprinted in the direction of that statue. As the statue came nearer, he could see its features, humped back, one of its hands pointing straight in the North-West direction.
Yashiro jumped in excitement and jumped down the cliff and landed on a patch of grass, brushing himself he ran in the northwest direction. He crouched down to jump down a boulder and came face-to-face with an old, rusty wooden gate. He pushed the gate and it opened with a creaking noise. A golden light was illuminating the whole path, and Yashiro followed the light to find its source. A message was inscribed on one of the stairs which said, 'First Dungeon? Welcome to Stormfoot Catacombs'.
Yashiro lit the grace site and lit the torch that he brought from Merchant Kale, he didn't feel good while venturing into the dungeon. He came down the stairs and saw a spirit of an old person sitting on an old wooden chair, he ignored the person and followed the single path that then diverged into two, one went straight, and the other right. Yashiro took the straight path and he peeked into the cavern as he reached it. He found himself facing an imp who was silently waiting for its prey in the left corner.
As soon as the imp's stone eyes fell upon Yashiro, it came into an aggressive stance and started attacking Yashiro. He rolled back to dodge the attack but was scratched and the bleed effect was applied to him. Yashiro cursed as he drew his sword and slashed the imp rapidly, slaying it without much trouble. But, another imp who was still passive, started to throw stone darts at Yashiro which slowly build up the bleed effect and dwindled his health steadily.
After killing the second imp, Yashiro picked up two root resins from the dead body of a person and ventured through the second path to reach a hallway with a closed iron gate with a carved tree and two statues of maidens holding a lamp. Yashiro tried pushing the gate but it didn't move an inch, he then chose to take the path to his left reaching another chamber littered with imps. He got repeatedly hit by the imps who circled around him and it took several strikes and minutes to slay all of them.
Yashiro trod to the next chamber and got to a path that had an imp-carved stone pillar in the end which emit fire from its mouth at regular intervals. He stopped near the entrance and calculated the exact time and then rushed in towards the pillar, only to stop midway to dodge the incoming flames. He waited till the flames died down and rushed forward and hit the pillar with his sword, it triggered the mechanism and the stone pillar went inside the ground.
Yashiro then saw a ladder in the opening of the next path and started to climb only to reach another intersection. He made sure to collect the Grave Glovewort, a flower that can be used to upgrade the summoning spirits. After killing several imps, and collecting the summoning spirit called, 'Wandering Noble Ashes', he pulled a lever that opened the metal gate that led to the boss of Stormfoot Catacombs.
Before traversing through the golden mist that separates him and the boss, Yashiro made sure to rest at the grace and allocate all the flasks to Crimson Tears. He then went through the metal gate and touched the golden mist and came eye-to-eye with the boss, 'Erdtree Burial Watchdog', A catlike hound with a burning tail that guards the catacombs throughout the Lands Between, wielding a Greatsword.
Fear swept through Yashiro as he looked into the eyes of the Erdtree Burial Watchdog. He was frozen in place, but the monster kept coming towards him. It leaned back and immediately thrust its sword forward which successfully hit Yashiro and he fell to the ground. Yashiro came back to his senses and rolled backward to dodge the incoming Weapon Slam. He hit the Watchdog twice and rolled backward to dodge another attack and continued doing so until only half health of the Watchdog remained.
Suddenly, the Watchdog's head started to shake and it exhaled a stream of flames from its mouth while chasing Yashiro who ran with tails between his legs. The Watchdog immediately followed up with its Levitating Slam, producing a small shockwave on the ground. Yashiro who was in dangerously low health started to panic as he had only one flask of Crimson Tears. Nevertheless, he kept attacking in the small window that he got when the Watchdog did its Levitating Slam or Spinning Swipe.
Yashiro jumped back to dodge another Weapon Slam, drank the last flask of Crimson Tears, and yelled, "Let's end this you piece of stone."
Yashiro felt confident in attacking the Erdtree Burial Watchdog as he could perfectly read its mechanical movements and predict its next moves. Yashiro leaped into the air at the same time as the Watchdog and landed a final blow before it could attack, as the message of 'ENEMY FELLED' flashed across his visual field, he lay on the ground in satisfaction, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.