“Welcome home good hunter. What is it you desire?” The melodious voice of the doll welcomed Surgit as he approached her. Her face, devoid of emotions, still looked noble and extraordinarily attractive. Surgit wondered who the doll was inspired from. He would have loved to meet the person who inspired such a wonderful art creation.

He wanted to upgrade his skill and strength but was unsure of how the doll would react to the echoes he had. When he inspected them with his insight, he could see the same green cluster of light in the enveloping darkness. He didn’t know what that meant exactly. He didn’t even know how many echoes were enough for him to develop his skills more. He inspected his status using his insight again. It read:

Name Surgit

Insight level Narrow minded

Strength Waste of Skin (2)

Skill Skillful (2)

Bloodtinge Blood Hungry (1)

Arcane Blind (1)

Since the doll was enigmatic regarding how he could upgrade his skills, Surgit decided to use a different approach. He addressed the doll:

“Can you tell me what the skills that I can upgrade are?” “Certainly good hunter. Place your right hand here.” She extended her arms towards him. “Let the echoes become your strength.”

Surgit did as he was asked. After a while, the doll rose and informed his that he can only upgrade his bloodtinge and arcane. ‘If I can only upgrade my bloodthing and arcane, that means that the cluster I see serves to help me get only one improvement.’ Surgit was deep in thought. ‘This means that those echo clusters serve as some kind of badge to get me promoted through some kind of ranks.’ He was thinking methodically, trying to understand the whole system in a logical manner. ‘Then this means that I need more echoes, which would lead me to forming more clusters.’ He had to clear all of Central Yharnam in order to accumulate one cluster. If he had to repeat the same process again and again, he would have to clear all of Yharnam before he could even hope to get a better grade. And how big was Yharnam? How much did he have access to? Would clearing all streets be enough for him to be strong enough to end the hunt?

All of these questions raced into his mind to the point that it almost drove him to desperation. There was so little information and so much mystery. If only there was someone who could at least give him a hint to what he should do. He felt lost and alone. The only sane hunters he’d met were that lady crow and the sleeping old man.

“Did you speak to Gehrman?” the doll asked as if she read through his mind. “Yes I have heard his snoring,” Surgit commented, frustrated. “He was a hunter long, long ago, but now serves only to advise them.” “Really?! All the guidance I got from him was the instruction to go out and kill beasts. The man snores more than he speaks.” Surgit had had enough of mystery and enigma. He wished someone could come and give him the answers he needed already. “He’s in the workshop now. Go and talk to him. He may be of some help this time.” The doll hadn’t even changed her tone or her facial expression. She spoke in the same melodious voice, her face showing no trace of emotions. That sent chills down Surgit’s spine. “Fine, I’ll go talk to him, he may be of help this time,” Surgit finally conceded. “Farewell good hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.”

‘And here we are again with more enigmatic gibberish.’ Surgit dragged his feet up towards the workshop. Gehrman was his only hope at finding out some more about the echoes. The books he read only detailed information about beasts’ strength and the way a hunter could deal with them. Besides, reading for too long would only give him terrible headaches. He didn’t want to make it an occurring experience.

He went inside and found Gehrman sitting in front of the fireplace again. He wondered where that man could disappear to, although limited in his movement with his wheelchair. The old man heard Surgit’s footsteps then turned towards him. He had that faint smile about him. Surgit didn’t know if it was out of malice or genuine simplicity. The old man started speaking before Surgit could utter a word. He had that annoying habit of going on monologues and not giving Surgit space to place a single question. “The moon is close. It will be a long hunt tonight.” Gehrman was speaking in a serious tone. Surgit started noticing that a lot of people started telling him about this hunt being long, as if it were an exception.

“If the beasts loom large, and threaten to crush your spirits, seek a holy chalice, as every hunter before you has.” Gehrman went on with his long speech. “And where might I find one of those chalices?” Asked Surgit, hoping that this time, he could get an answer. “Most of the holy chalices lie deep within the tomb of the gods. And the few that found their way to the surface… were lost again in the hands of men.”

‘Here we go again with this enigmatic gibberish…’ Thought Surgit, somewhat frustrated.

“But if the old hunter tales remain true…one of the holy chalices is worshipped in the valley hamlet. Yet the town is in disarray… It was burned and abandoned, for fear of the scourge, home now only to beasts. The perfect place for a hunter, wouldn’t you say?” Gehrman had finished with his monologue and started giggling in his old husky voice. “Old hamlet that was burned. I got it old man. But tell me, isn’t there a place where I can upgrade my weapon? I found this gem that could help me enhance the capabilities of my cleaver.” Surgit had heard of a place that was burned in fear of the beastly scourge, he thought it a good idea to ask the people he knew in Yharnam about it rather than Gehrman. “The bench next to the fireplace is where hunters like you upgrade their weapons. If you have the right tools that is.” Said Gehrman, and immediately fell back asleep, as if Surgit didn’t exist anymore.

‘Well, at least I got an answer to one of my questions this time’ thought Surgit as he watched the old man sleeping. He turned towards the bench. He had seen it before, the first time he was in the dream and was looking for a weapon to kill the werewolf with. He had the gem and he needed now to find a way to use it on his weapon. He took his cleaver and put it on top of the workbench. As he inspected it, he found three faint symbols on the blade. Two of them had the shape of a flake, matching the gem he had and one had the symbol of a crescent moon. The symbols were engraved on the saw and he tried to place the gem he had found on one of them; to no avail.

He closed his eyes and decided to use insight in order to see what his bare eyes couldn’t. A murmur could be heard in his head, ‘You need the blood gem workshop tool in order to upgrade your weapons using gems. You can fortify your weapon using blood stone shards too.’ The murmur ended and Surgit opened his eyes. He had neither shards nor the blood gem tool. He had to go back to Yharnam and search for them.