C56: A Royal Cainhurst Welcome
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The overall journey inside the carriage was quite pleasant, though the surroundings I was taken past much less so.
The Ocean.
The horses walked on the ocean and dragged the carriage which had me inside, with it.
This is still a strong worry of mine even with my current state mostly due to both my past lives, as a normal future citizen as well as hunter life, both nearly drowned.
You would think that two negatives makes a positive but instead I'm scared of water-squared. It sucks. Especially since my elevated mindset has no actual reason to be afraid of water.
Even though I know what rests beneath.
As we go, the weather grows far more intense, a giant snow storm where the horses gradually get covered in snow. I would have been concerned if there was a coachman but there isn't. Instead it's a ghost Coachwoman.
I have to applaud Cainhurst's hiring team for seeking true gender and Racial equality. Bravo. Especially with how bad the weather is right now. A normal beast would have frozen to death already. Thankfully the horses are quite a bit tougher.
My Journey seems to come to a short close as my carriage crosses a bridge which then breaks down behind us. I hear the horses release a few sounds before only the wind that keeps blasting away is the only thing that is heard.
I open the carriage door and step down only to be met by the sight of a giant gate atop a series of steps up. I'm about to climb but choose to say goodbye to the horsies before making a startling realization.
They're dead. (dun dun dun)
I kneel beside them, plant a kiss on my palm which I then rest against one of the horses heads'.
"Rest easy Barrel Breaker and Thunder Might. I'll take it from here" I choose to immediately give the horses names. Specifically ones that I believe that Race horses would have, even though I know nothing about that particular field.
I get up and begin my trek up the steps until I reach the gate which begins to rise up on it's own. Though I feel like I saw something on the edge of my vision at the very top of the wall which is connected to the gate.
Shrugging, I make my way inside and light the lamp before taking a look around and being thoroughly disgusted. At the bottom is a small ravine of plentiful snow covered rocks where three to four feet long worms that are hidden amongst said rocks. There is an item at the bottom there that I only could actually see when standing close to an elevator which I believe is a shortcut route.
The main path to the doors of Cainhurst Castle is riddled with giant mosquito people which big red sacks for bellies'.
I can tell they offer few souls in exchange for the amount of trouble they give. But I might as well clear them out.
Dashing in, I surprise the first mosquito which seemingly trembles in fright which is surely a strange response, though it might have to do with my vastly improved speed which essentially acts as a stun of it's own against the slower beast which shortly explodes into blood and gore from the known combination of skills.
"Ew, even its blood smells like shit. Just insta-kill them next time. No need for the extra bits" I mumble to myself in disgust as my newly evolved senses are still sensitive to scents. It's partially why I wanted to take a break from the dungeons as the scent of mold and spider shit in any random corner of the long hallways drained my mental energy.
I cover my nose with my left hand even though I still have the cloth of my hunter headset on. The smell is just that strong as I clear out the rest of them using a weaker combination of just Overwhelming with my weapon echo rune. Once I clear them out, I remember that I had a few other rewards from my last quest that I haven't redeemed yet.
"Hmm, ill save the greater skill shards for later but ill use the rune now."
[Divine Rune used. Forming Rune. Divine Rune of Aberration obtained. ]
" --__--" I just stare at the notification, positioning the screen lower, so I can properly stare down at it with all the disappointment I could. The ultimate 'Are you Shitting me?' look that I could ever give. As if in response, the system attempts to showcase the benefits of this new rune.
[Skill: 'Pet Skills' level 4 has been integrated with the new divine rune. Host may now use echoes to obtain random traits which can be 'safely' grafted onto a pet or utilize a combination of traits to give birth to a new creature egg. The Pet Sub-System has been revamped to showcase these new features.]
"Hmmm, ya know, you almost got my interest up. Until I saw that it only gives me more eggs to catch. Eggs that I need to spend my echoes on to hatch faster. Oh right, speaking of echoes, I have to spend that for random traits….thats just more Gacha. Hwy." I rant for a few minutes before grudgingly going down to the pit and clearing out the snakes and a few more mosquito beasts before getting a tempering blood gem (3) for my troubles. Sure I also got a few thousand echoes too but thats for killing all the worms.
While I do take a brief moment to look through the menu, I see that my first egg is still many months away from hatching even with all the time anomaly BS going on in Yharnam.
They will respawn once I leave as is the case for the Mosquitos as I cant riposte either of them. Even though the Mosquitos are certainly more humanoid. Perhaps their considered under the same bipedal class as the dogs so maybe thats why.
Regardless, I get a bunch of numbing mist up top before climbing the last few steps to the front door and instead of simply pushing the door open. I try being civilized for a change and knock.
Knock Knock. EEERRUEEY.
The door actually begins to shift open with an ominous tone which actually hurts my ears and so I begrudgingly spend my small bit of newfound echoes to buy oil which I then use in conjunction with my jumping skill to allow all the hinges on this side of the door to stop creaking.
Since I accomplished this before the door was even fully open. I can see the expression of shock at the well dressed ghost lady's face. She seems to notice the bottle of oil in my hand and the look of satisfaction on my face as I admire the door.
"Greetings, I have come upon receiving a letter from the lord of this here castle. Might you be so kind as to guide me to them? Oh also, I've taken the liberty of cleansing the courtyard behind me as there was some terrible pests lurking around. Releasing a hideous scent which " I greet the ghostly lady with a gentle tone which seems to inflict a second helping of shock upon her. She appears mesmerized. Though that soon changes as she hears me speak about the worms and mosquitos and she turns a shade of red.
Firstly, the hand maiden aka Silver Lady is blind which I only just noticed as with trembling hands, she briefly grooms herself before turning around to release a soothing melody. Though not before hiding the knife in her hand within her own dress, somehow.
"Haaa-aahaahh" the song like a call to arms rouses all the other silver ladies in the surroundings as they rush like never before to line up on both sides of the entry way. Of course they too hide their knives as it's not very proper. The first silver lady speaks to the one that appears just beside her and they seemingly whisper though it just sounds look a collection of "ooohs" and "aaahs" before that first lady moves away and another takes her place as they shift around to accommodate everyone on this floor. A Cainhurt servant, a kneeling old lady also hobbles over in this time with her hands raised, seemingly to receive the bottle of oil from me so that they could complete the job, aka the other door, for me.
I shrug and hand it over to her and she bows as much as she can. Her face seemingly kissing the floor as I walk by while the Silver Lady who opened the door begins to lead me through. She had regained her pale, nearly see through coloring. Soon we reach the stairs leading up.
Along the way, the silver ladies curtsy or bow one by one from both sides before the last on the right side, then when I arrive at the stairs leading up. Another lady steps out and kneels before me, holding out something for me. It's the Reiterpallasch. A Cainhurst style rapier with a simple design that also allows it to shoot bullets through the tip of the rapier. To me that seems like bad weapon design as the rapier aspect is all but useless now but I could be wrong as RWBY made it work with magic dust. It could work for me with magic bullets too.
"Thank you" I say with a small smile that they probably couldn't see but the lady still trembles as I take it and the lady bows once more before retaking her spot on the right side of the aisle. I wave my hand and the rapier vanishes into my inventory. I can hear some shuffling behind me though I don't turn around to check.
Heading up the stairs and to the left, I'm greeted by more silver ladies and another Cainhurst servant who tries and fails to hide themselves in the crook of the next door which leads to a very large room that seems like a dining hall. I do now get an overview of the entrance below and spot a few of the silver ladies seemingly collapsed on their knees, pink colored and panting as others try and fail to comfort them gently.
'Do I have some sort of mystical aura coming out of me?' I can only question myself for why they are acting this way as I continue onwards.
From the dust on the floor, I can tell the tables were recently moved to be linear and clear. As I reach the end of the room once more. Another lady holds out a box for me. Taking the box and opening it reveals a Cainhurst style dress. Certainly fit for a noble lady. I accept the gift and make it vanish once more as this lady also trembles and steps aside.
Ascending up the steps once more. I enter the third floor that shares a similarly dirty but recently rearranged dining room hall where I offhandedly comment that my gun has grown quite rusty after such a long usage on the hunt. The same silver lady escorting me seems to originally pay it no mind though I can hear the soft echo of the same oooh aah coming from her. I can see that another lady in the distance opens a chest and takes something out from it which rests upon a royal purple pillow at the end of the hall once again.
[+1 Evelyn]
"Oh, ho, thank you ladies. I cant tell if this is the generosity of the host or your own but I do wish to make my appreciation known" I give the one who gives me the gun a headpat and she immediately collapses, all pink throughout her body and dress. I look to my guide who is similarly pink but seems to be holding herself back.
The next area takes us outside for a bit and with my guide, the bat like beasts don't try to challenge me as they instead jiggle a bit as if trying to get comfortable as gargoyles which I do find a bit entertaining.
The two of us enter the next room after stepping indoors which is a giant library-like area but my guide does not take me to the stairs leading up, while I somewhat remember from my gamer days that there is a switch to be pulled that would pull one shelf back to reveal a long ladder…or something like that. The latter details are a bit fuzzy but I'm sure it would be a path that inconveniences the player in some way.
My guide instead leads me to a wall where she pulls a light fixture which reveals a hidden area with a lift that she motions for me to get on. I do and she presses a button where I begin to rise up to the top while the lady floats beside me. The pink glow on her slowly retreads but not fully, as if tainted by it at her core.
Along the way I'm given three new items, the first is the cainhurst knight set, Executioner set and the last is the Warm blood gemstone with 13.5 blood tinge scaling. I'm sure with better scaling, my 'pistole' and the Evelyn would get much better usage out of them. In the distance, I also see a small group of silver ladies gut a scurrying beast for its blood stone chunks which they quickly clean and begin their own way up to meet up with me.
The silver ladies treat me to the aforementioned chunks, along with a two kin coldblood, specifically the level 10 variants which I happily accept. There is also the guard knight's wig which feels like some sort of samurai hairdo. Overall the tour of the castle has been my most leisurely experience since waking up.
I soon arrived at the very top. And by top, I mean the actual roof of the castle where the silver lady stops just outside what looks like a dead end with a corpse seated in a chair on the other side.
[Challenge mode activated]
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Word Count =2478
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