9Kane thought the entrance exams for university would be the hardest part of entering the next stage of life but then he got taste of the student life. Usually sleeping after overworking yourself to death was the best feeling one could get, but it seemed Kane couldn't get even that. Instead, he felt something cold, hard and… dusty?
With a confused gasp Kane woke up in the old rusty coffin, surrounded by Ashe and dust.
'What the heck!?'
He jumped out of the coffin and almost stumbled into the mud.
"W-Where the hell am I!?"
A long toll of the ball could be heard in the distance, but Kane was too busy looking around franticly to notice.
"Did someone just seriously kidnapped me and dumped me here!? Like, Come on!"
He wanted to shout more but stopped as he felt himself wearing something heavy and metallic. Looking down at his body, a pair of knight gauntlets, boots and armor greeted him in return.
'Wait a minute…'
This armor… looked awfully familiar.
He looked around and glanced at the road ahead.
That creepy ass forest felt familiar.
'No freaking way…'
He run up to his coffin and looked into it, finding a pair of a sword and shield.
'No freaking way…!'
He glanced up at the road and run along it, stopping at the corner and carefully looking out from there. There in a distance an individual stood still, numbly staring into nothing in particular whilst holding a knife in his hand. The long black cloak hid his futures but Kane knew exactly what was under there.
"NO FUCKING WAY!"
"Grahh!?"
"Oh shit...!"
His little outburst got hollow's attention but Kane skillfully ducked behind the bushes in time to avoid its gaze.
"Bruh, this dump totally looks like an opening level from Dark souls 3! Did I somehow got the legendary wish of every weeb and transported into Another world…!?"
…
…
But Why in Dark souls of all things!?
"No, Calm down… This can still be a prank from someone. I gotta check some things out first."
Kane peeked at the groaning Hollow who was looking around, searching for the source of the voice. Then he silently crawled back to his coffin and retrieved his weapons.
Swing! Bruum! Swing!
"Feels heavy…" he run his armored finger tip across the edge of the blade, seeing it leaving a small scratch on the surface of the fingertip.
"And sharp, too. I am not an expert but this is either a real thing or one heck of a replica! Now… Let's see how legit this place is."
The hollow aimlessly stumbled on his two feet like a drunk head, still facing Kane with his back as he slowly sneaked behind it.
'Wait, what if this really is a prank. I can't just stab him in the back without being sure if this guy really is a paid actor! I could do some serious damage to him! Real or not this thing is sharp…'
If this really was a prank, obviously the guy would have to play the role of the hollow and act all kinds of mad, but if he really just somehow magically got transported into the world of dark souls, needlessly alerting the hollow of all things of his presence would most likely end with him being attacked by it like a rabbit dog.
'What to do. What to do. What to do!'
…
'Fuck it. Even if it's a real thing, the worst thing that can possibly happen is me dying and even then, I will just come back to life! All right… Let's do this.'
With a sharp inhale of the air, Kane shouted at the thing.
"Hey!"
"!"
The lazily stumbling hollow froze and instantly looked at Kane's way.
"What's up my dude…?"
"…"
"…"
"Graaah!"
"Oh shit!"
The hollow dashed at him madly with full intent of killing. Kane's body froze as it went into fight or flight mode, but before his mind could make a decision, his body reacted on its own and pulled up the shield.
Crash!
"Shit!"
He grunted as Hollow rapidly bashed its knife at his shield. Kane's eyes followed the sparkles the crash of two metals produced as the horrifying realization hit him.
'That thing's a real deal!?'
Hollow kept his rampage and Kane yelped as he got pushed back.
"H-Hey! Crazy bastard! Stop-!"
The last attack forced Kane back, causing his leg to slip in the mud, making him lose his footing and crash down on the ground. The hollow followed the suit as he dig his blade deep into the fallen Kane's leg, tearing through the leg gear and stabbing the metal into his leg.
"Akh-Fuck! You fucker!?"
With Hot anger and high surge of the adrenaline, Kane slammed his fist into hollow's face, sending the creature several feet away.
"Akh...! Oh Fuck…!"
Kane softly touch the hilt of the knife that was lunged deep into his leg, that most likely hit at least one of the big arteries in his lower half of the body. He hissed from the sensation of burn as he tried to move the knife, but quickly let go of the thing.
'Fuck… It hurts, this shit head really actually tried to kill me!'
He glanced at his attacker as it slowly got up on its feet from where it landed.
"This fucker!"
Actor or not…
"I am killing you dead!" He roared with Anger as he grabbed his sword and lunged at the hollow. Ignoring the sensation of the metal in his leg, he lunged the tip of his blade right into the chest of hollow.
"Ueuh…eh…"
It grunted, surprised. Kane simply stared into eyeless skinny skull face through the visor of his armor as he twisted the blade, making creature gasp before it went limp.
"Shit..."
Kane let out ragged gasp as he let go of the blade and laid down next to the corpse. He wanted to take in air to cool off and calm his mind, but…
"Gasp!"
He suddenly felt the sensation of something cold entering his body. He quickly set up and touched his chest. He glanced between himself and the corpse.
"Did I just get souls from this bastard?"
He could definitely feel something cool moving inside him. The sensation felt very alien and creepy, but somewhat manageable and… content?
"-! Uck!"
Kane winced in pain as his previous wound let itself be known again. He needed a way to fix this before he bled through the whole cemetery.
"Wait…"
He suddenly froze as he remembered an important detail. In the game, no matter which class you chose, you always had at least 3 Estus flask with you. Kane quickly searched his pockets, every and any inch of his body for the 3 holy bottles.
"What the...?"
He found a small box attached to back of his waist.
"Survey says it's a bottomless box?"
That would be too much right?
Opening the box, darkness within it greeted him in return. Truly in old fashion of every soul's protagonist, naturally the first thing that came to Kane's mind was dripping down his fingers into the dark. Shuffling through it, slowly to his disbelief His whole arm went into the box. The vary sight would probably crunch the brains of his physics professors back in his Uni.
"Yeah, at this point I have no doubt about where I am…"
Focusing his thoughts on the shape and look of Estus flask, he shuffled until his grasped something small. Pulling it out, the small yellow bottle greeted him back.
"Haha...Ha…"
The liquid inside the thing felt hot, He could actually feel its heat in his soul. He grabbed the knife and pulled it out quickly and a bit painfully. He bit his lips to stop yelp from coming out. Then he sipped little bit of the liquid and hoped for best.
Truly, not even second later, he watched in amazement as the wound knitted itself back together and disappeared like it wasn't there in the first place. Kane numbly run his finger through the tear of his pants on the smooth skin of his leg.
"Ladies and Fucking Gentlemen. Welcome to the Dark souls…"
Just like he remembered in the game, there were more of those cloaked freaks as he moved forward.
"Hiya!" Kane grunted as he swung his sword and decapitated another hollow on his path. After carefully cautiously fighting them, Kane remembered their pattern from the game, after that they because less off a threat and more of an annoyance.
'If anything, I am surprised how good I am at this!'
Swinging sword was a one thing, cutting through a bag of dusted flesh another. Kane quickly got used to fighting with sword and shield. In fact, he felt 10 times faster and stronger than his regular self from his real life! Even his proficiency with sword was, well, decent!
'Must be perks of Knight Class. Anyway, it should be somewhere around here…'
"There it is!" Kane exclaimed as he happily jogged towards a knight's corpse resting on ruins.
"I always found it funny how this dude is literally a reference to Good old Oscar." Kane mumbled to himself as he snatched the blue Estus flash from dead man's grasp.
"Not sure about magic, but I will fancy Pyromancy and Weapon arts in the future so this should be useful."
Wheew! Bang!
His arm moved before he even registered the arrow heading towards him. Blocking the arrow with his shield, Kane glared at the hollow who reloaded a crossbow in the distance.
"You cheap-shooting-Freak!"
Kane dashed with his shield up, deflecting the other incoming arrows. The hollow was startled at the sudden approach of its prey and in its a desperate attempt to fight back it swung the crossbow at him.
Boink!
Unfortunately for him, the thing bounced off the shield and Kane's sword swiftly went through its neck, detaching the head from the body.
"Phew. Now with this out of the way."
There were two ways leading out of this dump. Kane grudgingly looked at the small flooded passage on his right.
"Yeah no, that lizard can go fuck itself. I will come later when I will need materials, for now I need to lit the bonfire."
Finally leaving the dark depressing ruins and theme of dead trees behind, the view that spread in front of him made Kane Agape.
"Wow…Just, Wow..."
Obviously, it was already beautiful within the game engine, but seeing it in person in "real life "was something else. The endless mountains with white sparkles of snow, the humongous castle resting on the mountain on his right… It was beautiful.
"This is one heck of a back ground for selfie-! Oh, wait I don't have phone anymore, dang it…"
As much as beautiful the view was, the true prize awaited Kane at the top of the hill.
"Finally… Some semblance of comfort at last… As well as my immortality checkpoint."
Kane lovingly gaze at the bonfire in fort of him. He kneeled and rose his hand, waiting for the bonfire to lit up and bask him in its warmth…
…
…
Eh?
"Why isn't it lighting up?"
Kane stood up and waved his hand a bit closer to the bonfire. Still nothing,
"Dang it!"
For the next 5 minutes, Kane spent Doing different kinds of poses involving stretched hand towards the bonfire in hopes of it lighting up.
"Dang it, this is embarrassing at this point! Why won't you light up!?"
…
"Hello!? I said burn!"
…
"Sezam burn up!"
…
"By the name of Gwyn, I command thy Light up!"
…
"Come on, please?"
…
"Please…?"
…
"Sigh…"
Kane dropped down on the ground in defeat. What else could he do? The character in the game would just stand next to the thing and it would light up when he stretched his hand! What else…
'Hmm… Maybe.'
Kane took out Estus Flask and glanced at it. The first flame was a spiritual and religious thing in this world. You needed some sort of connection to it to harness its power. Maybe that was why he could feel and use the essence of Estus flask. The essence was connected to the first flame and with him connecting to the Flask, he was connecting to the first flame. Which was the reason how he could draw the power of first flame through the liquid and heal his wounds.
He glanced at the bonfire.
'Maybe I just need to feel it…'
Instinctively, He closed his eyes and focused on himself. He could feel emptiness of his body, akin to the void. In the center of the void, he could feel the sovereign less Souls he got from the hollows, running around in his own soul, unchecked and uncontrollably. Looking deeper into himself, he found a… Dark Ring? Wait, He knew that ring.
'That's… The dark sign, the mark of the undeath.'
Slowly, he reached out to it. Just as he was about to touch it.
Blaze!
" ! "
The bonfire Infront of him light up in flames. Kane blinked a few times, before chuckling to himself.
"Guess that's how you do it."