Looking at the bonfire in front of the courtyard, Ben quietly lit it, feeling excited inside.
The game had just begun, and already there was a bonfire. This clearly meant a boss fight was coming.
Thinking of Iudex Gundyr from the last game, Ben couldn't help but look forward to the boss he would soon face.
Especially since in front of the courtyard stood a huge stone gate—for Dark Souls players, this wasn't just a hint, it was basically telling you straight out.
Back when he first faced the Ashen Judge, Ben got beaten up badly. But now that he was much more familiar with the rules of the game, he felt like he was finally ready to shine.
"But wait, why don't I have an Estus Flask? Don't tell me it's because I woke up in a prison cell and they took it away?" Ben complained.
He realized that, strangely enough, his character had no Estus Flask at all.
Sure, he woke up inside a prison cell, but the armor on his body was still there—so why was the flask gone?
In the last game, when he crawled out of a grave, he still had one!
But after grumbling a bit, Ben didn't care too much.
It was probably just a design choice to make things harder. Facing the first boss without healing items would obviously make it much tougher.
"But this is really not friendly to new players at all. One mistake and you're dead." Ben muttered as he pushed open the heavy gate to the courtyard.
With a loud creak, the doors swung open.
He moved his character forward into the room.
It looked completely empty, except there was a glowing message on the ground near the door.
Ben also noticed that the floor was covered with bloodstains in several corners.
Clearly, the game still had the same system as before—when other players died to a boss, they left their blood behind.
But where was the boss?
Just as Ben leaned down to check the message, a huge shadow suddenly dropped from above. With a thunderous crash, a massive demon holding a giant hammer landed right in front of him.
The screen flashed, showing the battle UI and the boss's name: Asylum Demon.
"Wait a sec, isn't this the same demon from the top of the tower in Farron Keep?!"
Ben stared at the screen in shock.
The monster looked almost exactly like the Stray Demon he had fought before in Dark Souls, just a little smaller in size.
But the pressure was no less terrifying. Because the fight was inside a closed room, the demon's huge body took up nearly the whole screen, making it look even scarier.
And yet, Ben felt oddly relieved when he saw it.
This wasn't some brand-new monster, but an old face.
He had fought a Stray Demon before at the top of Farron Keep's tower. Sure, he died twice when he first saw it—but he eventually beat it!
So what if he had no shield, no Estus Flask, and only a broken sword?
As a proud Unkindled, he had seen it all before.
Would a single demon really stop him from continuing the legacy of fire?
With a smooth roll, Ben dodged the hammer's slam and slipped behind the boss.
He swung his broken sword and struck the demon's back.
But then… the number -6 floated up from the boss's body.
Ben froze. That meant his attack had only done 6 damage.
And looking at the demon's giant health bar, maybe—just maybe—it had lost the tiniest sliver of HP.
He squinted hard, trying to spot the missing chunk on the bar.
But honestly, it looked like nothing had changed at all.
"Am I hitting it the wrong way?"
He rolled back twice to regain stamina, then darted in again to swing a couple more times.
This time, the damage "spiked" to double digits.
"-11."
Ben stared at the screen and finally realized the truth.
The broken sword he had was completely useless.
At that moment, his mood totally collapsed.
"You've got to be kidding me! What kind of trash damage is this?!"
Back in Dark Souls, Ben had also tried starting as a Deprived.
That class only had a flimsy little club, but at least it packed a punch.
It staggered enemies really well too—he even used it to crush Gundyr after a few war cries in dual-wield mode.
But now? He picked Knight as his starting class, and not only was the armor way too heavy, the shield and sword were both missing, leaving him with just a broken blade.
If that broken sword still did decent damage, he wouldn't complain.
But right now, hitting the demon with it barely left a scratch!
If the damage numbers hadn't popped up, Ben would've thought his attacks weren't even breaking its defense at all.
But the problem is, with that tiny bit of damage and attacks that barely hit double digits starting with a 1, how long is it going to take to trim this thing's toenails? Until the year of the monkey?
Ben was speechless as the demon in front of him raised its massive hammer high and smashed it down hard!
Lost in thought, Ben didn't react in time and took a direct hit. Half of his health bar was gone in an instant.
"Great, now I gotta add this: I don't even have an Estus Flask!"
If you expect me to clip toenails, at least give me some clippers, right?
You hand me a napkin—how am I supposed to cut toenails with that?
Maybe after attacking for a while or taking off some of its health, there'll be a cutscene kill or something.
Could it be that I don't actually need to kill it myself?
Totally possible!
But in this tiny space, with no Estus Flask to heal, before Ben could take off much health, the demon caught one mistake and smashed him flat with one hit.
[YOU DIED!]
Ben sat silent in front of his computer for a moment.
As the screen faded to black, Ben respawned at the bonfire.
But this time, he didn't rush back in. Instead, he started thinking.
"Am I doing this wrong? No Estus Flask is one thing, but that broken sword does almost no damage. Did I miss some items earlier?" Ben stood by the bonfire, replaying what had just happened.
"Could it be that to beat this boss, you can't heal and have to slowly grind it to death with a broken sword?"
"No way!" Ben frowned.
If that's true, then this game is way harder than the previous Dark Souls.
With that broken sword's weak damage, how long would it take to kill it?
Probably only those legendary players who chopped Yhorm's toenails with an axe or trimmed the Ancient Dragon's nails could pull this off.
And there's no Estus Flask here either.
This is almost like a level-one Nameless King challenge.
But you have to understand, people who can pull off a level-one Nameless King run are all top-tier pros.
For regular players, who could do that?
Obviously, this is just a tutorial boss. There's no reason to make it so hard for newcomers, right?
Plus, Ben knew one thing: Lucas usually doesn't design games that are this punishing for no reason.
Well… except for that hammer game that almost made his blood pressure explode.
And Dark Souls was never about cheap difficulty. It's tough, but it's fair.
After running through the area again and confirming he didn't miss any items, Ben looked at the boss room ahead and gave a little snort.
"So, there's only one truth!"
(End of The Chapter)
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