I stepped gingerly over the rubble and made my way to the knight. He was leaning against a section of broken wall, and I wondered for a moment how he’d gotten stuck in that room. There were no other entrances except for a hole in the ceiling. Maybe he’d fallen through, and that’s why he was dying?

“Hey there,” I said, trying my best to sound casual. I was pretty certain he had saved my life by sending me the key earlier, but it was equally likely he had just been throwing a corpse at me for the fun of it.

“...Oh…you…you’re no hollow, eh? Thank goodness. I’m done for, I’m afraid. I’ll die soon, then I’ll lose my sanity. I wish to ask something of you. You and I, we’re both Undead. Hear me out, will you?”

What is your decision? Yes or No.

“Um. Sure, okay.”

“Regrettably I have failed in my mission, but perhaps you can keep the torch lit. There’s an old saying among my family: Thou who art Undead, art chosen, in thine exodus from the Undead Asylum, maketh pilgrimage to the land of Ancient Lords, when thou ringeth the Bell of Awakening, the fate of the Undead thou shalt know. Well, now you know. I can die with hope in my heart. Oh, one more thing. Here, take this: an Estus Flask, an undead favorite. Oh, and this: Undead Asylum F2 East Key. Now, I must bid farewell. I would hate to harm you in death, so go now.”

He handed me a glowing orange flask and a key, then promptly died. I stared at him uncomfortably. I felt suddenly guilty about my earlier, uncharitable thoughts…but I also kind of wanted his armor. I reached out to try and yank the helmet off, but as soon as I bumped him, he disintegrated into white light and was gone. One hundred souls were added to my tally.

I backed up slowly and decided to do my best to forget that happened.

Back at the top of the stairs, I tried the Undead Asylum F2 East Key on the locked gate, and it swung open. Since I was still in the tutorial for the game, I saw a few signs that showed a variety of attack suggestions, including kicking the enemy to throw them off balance or doing a jumping attack. I took that advice with a grain of salt. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that I don’t think I’ll ever be good at video games. I make up for my lack of skill by increasing my stats to ungodly heights, and that’s enough to get the job done. Work harder, not smarter, right?

Now, by this time I was starting to get the hang of Dim Spirits, and I figured as soon as I turned the corner there’d be another enemy waiting for me–and I was right. Two undead started windmilling their arms in my direction, and I backed up to where I had more room to run around. I tried the lunging attack on the first undead, which knocked him out of the fight on the first hit. The attack had left me in a particularly vulnerable position however, and the second undead slashed me in the side before I could dodge out of the way.

I held up my shield and waited for the undead to use up his stamina slashing my shield, before knocking him down with two regular attacks. With those two out of the fight, I rounded the corner again, my shield held high. It looked like I had reached the top of the building, not quite the roof but the outer walkway on the top floor. The outer railing was a row of stone blocks topped by a spiky metal fence.

Stolen novel; please report.

An archer stood at the other end, but I knew how to deal with him. I held up my shield to take the damage from his arrows, and I walked steadily closer to him until I could take him out with a single, lunging attack.

“I am a god among men!” I shouted as the archer crumpled to the ground. After struggling with the stupid little sword hilt for so long, it felt intoxicating to be cutting these baddies down like wheat.

At this point, I had two choices. There was a fog doorway which, going by the guttural roars I was hearing, most likely led back to the Asylum Demon. The other option was a relatively normal doorway. I decided to start with that.

Inside was the first fully armored undead. It had a shield and a full longsword rather than the wimpy daggers the others had been wielding, and it came at me fast. I tried to raise my shield and strike at the same time, and what ended up happening was I flailed around a bit and got stabbed too many times.

YOU DIED.

The words flashed in front of me for a moment before I materialized back at the bonfire. “Damn,” I said. “That one’s tough.”

I moved a little faster this time, not so concerned about what I would find around the corner. I already knew what awaited me, and I knew how to knock out the first few undead.

I approached the final doorway cautiously, my shield raised. I had been paying attention to how I killed the weaker undead, and I was feeling just a little bit more confident. I kept my shield up until the armored undead slashed at me once. Then, while it was recovering, I lashed out with a basic strike. It took me about five hits to finally kill it, and I had lost about half my health in the process. The feeling of satisfaction when the armored undead fell, though, was unmatched. I grinned and kicked its lifeless body.

At the end of the room was another gate. I tried to open it, but this too was locked. I wondered if my Master Key would ever actually get me anywhere.

I went back to the fog gate. I could rest at the bonfire before going after the boss, but I didn’t want to have to fight the armored undead again. I could try one of the Estus Flasks, which I suspected acted as a sort of health potion, but I only had five of them and I wasn’t sure when I would be able to get more. It would be foolish to use them up before I even had an idea of how to fight the boss.

I took a deep breath and stepped through the fog gate, feeling again that misty coolness. On the other side, I found myself on a broken ledge above the asylum demon. It looked even grosser and more bulbous from up high, and even in VR it takes an effort of will to jump twenty feet down. I finally compromised with myself and jumped first onto the top of the Demon, then down to the ground from there.

I took a swipe at the beast, and to my delight I knocked out nearly a hundred health. That was still only a small fraction of its health, but it was leagues better than the two damage I’d been able to do to it previously.

It smacked me in the face with its club and I went sprawling, my whole body tingling from the blow. I jumped to my feet and ran around until I was face to face with its oversized haunches. To give you an idea of how big this thing was, its tail was higher than my head. I was able to get two strikes on it from that angle before it turned around and smacked me again, this time getting two hits in before I could fight back. That was enough.

YOU DIED.