Scratching his head, Ben was now completely confused.
Before even playing, he had actually planned out his style and strategy.
That was to find a good shield and play cautiously, minimizing the difficulty in the early game.
Once he finished the first playthrough, he would switch to other styles for the second playthrough.
After all, Ben wasn't an expert at Dark Souls, but he had still spent hundreds or thousands of hours on it and had some understanding.
If he could beat the monsters in the early game, he wouldn't rush to level up. This would help him avoid many detours and allow him to better develop the style he wanted to play.
Looking at the Hunter Axe and Shotgun in his hands, Ben felt strange.
He had basically understood the settings for things like visceral attacks and gun parries through the messages on the ground.
But honestly, he still wanted a reliable shield, because only Dark Souls players could understand how great it was to have a big shield.
"But, Boss Lucas said there were shields, so there must be shields in the game. I just don't know at what point I can get one."
Ben hesitated for a moment and decided not to overthink it.
After all, he had a competition with Zack.
Even though he was five minutes ahead, he didn't know what Zack's situation was.
And from the game's various system introductions, he felt that Bloodborne shouldn's be too hard.
Besides the regaining health mechanic, the most important thing was that players could carry up to 20 blood vials.
For example, after coming out of Iosefka's Clinic, he still had 4 blood vials left, besides the two he used to fight the villagers.
And he could buy blood vials from the merchant at the hot spring, just by spending some Blood Echoes.
So Ben felt he had to hurry. Treating someone to dinner was a small matter, but losing to Zack would be a big deal!
Of course, before exploring the unknown path and finding the BOSS, Ben had something else to do.
Using the lantern to teleport back, Ben returned to Iosefka's Clinic. Facing the werewolf with one-third health, Ben switched the Hunter Axe to its long-handled form and charged up a big windmill attack.
The axe blade hit the werewolf hard, causing a spray of blood.
At the same time, Ben was surprised to find that the windmill attack not only did a lot of damage, clearing the werewolf's one-third health, but it also had a knockback effect.
The werewolf in front of him flew several meters away, and then a white orb appeared on its body.
"Holy crap, this Hunter Axe is invincible!?" Ben exclaimed in surprise.
He never expected the Hunter Axe to have a knockback effect.
Picking up the white light from the werewolf, he got lucky and got a blood vial. Then, following the previous path, he continued forward, taking out the Yharnam villagers holding torches and axes with a single windmill attack.
And this confirmed his guess that the long-handled mode of the Hunter Axe did indeed have a knockback effect.
Although he could only spin twice because of his stamina, the damage was ridiculously high.
As for the Shotgun weapon, Ben felt it was useless.
He tried to do a gun parry, but it didn't work at all. Instead, he was hit twice for nothing, and the bullet damage was very weak.
He didn't know if the damage would increase with later upgrades or better guns, but he really didn't want to use it for now.
"Anyway, this gun is just a temporary weapon. It's time for you to retire when I get the shield." Ben sighed, put the gun away, and chose to dual-wield the long-handled Hunter Axe.
Returning to the lantern in Central Yharnam, Ben found a lit room in front of the lantern where he could communicate.
'My name is Gilbert, and I'm a foreigner like you. You must be having a great time, right?'
'The people of Yharnam... have a special way of treating guests.'
From Gilbert, Ben still got a lot of useful information.
For example, the Dull Blood, which seemed to be closely related to the main story, might have some information in an organization called the Healing Church.
However, to go to the Healing Church, he needed to cross the canyon to the Cathedral Ward in eastern Yharnam.
This was a map guide for the player, because the map was a major feature of Soulslike games.
There was no so-called mini-map or large map, it all depended on the player to explore on their own.
Plus the high difficulty, so basically skilled Souls series players knew the maps by heart, and there were players' bodies in every corner of the map.
But what Ben regretted was that he was one of the first players to enter the game, and he hadn't quit the game in the middle, so he didn't see the souls of other players who had died or the messages they had left on the ground.
"The people of Yharnam treat foreigners in a special way? Heh? How special can it be? Like the Undead Burg, with simple and passionate people who are welcoming and hospitable?" Ben chuckled and didn't take it too seriously.
After a brief conversation, Ben prepared to continue exploring.
He tried to push the door next to him. Like the one on the first floor, it was locked. Obviously, this was a shortcut that would be unlocked from some point in the later map.
Ignoring the path he couldn't take yet, Ben advanced with the long-handled weapon.
He didn't know if this form was good for fighting BOSSes.
But it was incredibly useful for dealing with small monsters.
Continuing forward, at the corner of the stairs on the right, Ben saw a villager holding a torch and facing away from him.
Next to the villager, there was another villager lying there like a corpse.
"Tsk tsk, Boss Lucas's trap can only fool newbies. An old fire-keeper like me won't fall for it." Ben chuckled, but also felt a bit emotional. It really was the familiar taste!
Ben didn't lock his target on the Yharnam torch guy facing away from him.
Instead, he switched the Hunter Axe to its short-handled mode, walked to the monster dressed as a corpse, and charged up a powerful overhead chop.
As the axe hit the 'corpse', a health bar UI suddenly appeared above its head, and the charged axe strike emptied it completely.
"Take that!" Ben smiled happily, and the low mood he had from being tricked by the weapon setting was restored.
"Is that all? You think you can trick me?" Ben laughed and happily walked down the stairs.
As soon as Ben got off the stairs, he wanted to see the difference between the two paths in front and behind him.
Then he heard four Yharnam villagers patrolling in his direction, rushing towards Ben like mad dogs.
'Away! Away!'
The villagers shouted like crazy, showing their simple and passionate hospitality to foreigners.
A torch, shield, pitchfork, butcher knife, and scythe, four different weapons were swung at Ben in a frenzy.
The narrow terrain, combined with the fact that he had used up some stamina running down the stairs, and the Soulslike game's feature of small monsters having extremely high attack power, directly plunged Ben into silence.
[You Died!]
The familiar death screen appeared.
Authentic Souls, authentic death screen, this taste is just right!
(End of this chapter)
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