This is the easy area?
After my misadventure with leveling up and deaths in skeleton land, I finally meandered my way to the aqueduct that just looked like background scenery. Holding my shield up, I engaged the first two hollows, then ran towards the soldier only to get hit from above with a firebomb. The soldier took advantage of it, but I managed to get back and heal with one swig of my- That’s all it heals? What the hell? I eventually defeated this first ambush, and entered the aqueduct, killing the rat at the close end before entering this wondrous “Undead Burg.” I breezed through the hollows guarding the fog door and entered it, wary of some kind of boss. I emerged from the stairs and- OH SHIT! DRAGON! Upon recognizing this, I raised my shield only to realize that all this thing would do was fly off. Well, that was lame. I continued on, conquering the three hollows and an archer before discovering a bonfire. Ahh, rest. Hey, why do I only have 5 estus now? I got ten from that Firelink place, what gives. This now is when I experimented with humanity, which, while I have heard complaints of not making sense… I understood pretty fast. There is an option for kindling at a bonfire. You can’t kindle if you’re hollowed. You can’t reverse hollowing without humanity. How do I add humanity? I have like 5 right here. Ohh, there we go. Now I have 10 estus!
So now I continued on, dispatching the hollows as I went, and continuing to level intelligence along with strength, vitality, and endurance. Eventually, I made it to a group of three hollow soldiers, who promptly owned me. And again. And again. Over and over. Eventually I stopped and went to where the Undead Merchant resided, he insulted me, I killed him… it was kind of ugly. But I got a cool sword out of it and started levelling Dex to use it. Then, on my run to the Taurus Demon, some guy dropped a battle axe. Upon seeing this rise in damage, I promptly switched to the new weapon and started killing my way to the bridge. I felt so unstoppable that I thought I could easily kill the Black Knight before the tower. Needless to say, I avoided that lower area for a time. After entering and seeing a long bridge with another door at the end I turned around and couldn’t get back through, although I noticed a ladder and went up it, killing the crossbowmen up there before going back down to face this as-yet-unknown boss. When it jumped down, I immediately ran back the ladder, climbed up it, and waited for him. I dropped down, taking about a quarter of his life. Yes! I’m using the environment to get an easy kill! Let’s do that agai- oh. He can hit you off the ladder. Quick, roll away from his-
And so ended my first encounter with the Taurus Demon. I threw myself at him a few more times, then made it through, feeling even better than beating the Asylum Demon. Yes! I can beat this game.
I made it to my buddy Solaire, who gave me a useless online item. Remember, I didn’t pay for Nintendo Online, so my Dark Souls was without help from or for me. He promised his help, and I ran across the bridge to discover that the dragon had developed a taste for crispy undead. I survived the fire blast to open up the shortcut, grateful for the bonfire. At this point, I had no idea of the Drake Sword, and no ranged weapon to get it. So I went under the bridge… about 10 times because some asshole rat would poison me. Eventually, I emerged back to sunlight and thought, “Sure! I’ll go up this tower!”
Another Black Knight politely, if a little firmly, informed me that this was his tower and I was trespassing. After some light discussion he got angry and removed me from his tower by force. After another try, I made it to the courtyard, where I discovered that a boar had been armored and was going to kick my ass. I ran down the stairs in the courtyard and just left him as I explored the lower depths. I got the mystery key and entered the fog door, then saw an enemy with his back turned. Ah ha! Easy kill! Lemme just sneak up and-
And so ended my first encounter with a Balder Knight. When I finally made it back and killed him, I took the knight shield from the corpse he was guarding (why he was guarding it, I do not know) and, ignoring the stats but thinking it was pretty, equipped it. Finally, I fought my way to Andre, rested at the bonfire there, and said, y’know what? I like the look of this massive German sword. I’ll level up until I can use it!
The Titanite Demon kicked my ass from his lair about 20 times. I still hate fighting the damn things to this day. The rest of the Parish story, as well as that of Darkroot Garden/Basin, will have to wait for another day.
Be safe, friends. Don’t you dare go hollow.
