Surgit was back inside the building preceding Old Yharnam. He was still in search of the chalice Gehrman had spoken about and he was pretty sure that it was in this town. Yharnam had too many secrets that were well concealed and Surgit had the feeling that he was about to uncover some of them.

Despite moving forward and having a goal to reach, Surgit couldn’t brush off the uneasiness he felt towards his future. The conversation he just had with Francis made the feeling even worse. Pale blood was rarely talked about, even in the pseudo expansive library Francis had found. That type of blood represented his only way of getting out of this place.

He was trapped in a land filled with beasts and mystery. He didn’t know where the chalice would lead him next. All he knew is that he needed to take small steps towards his goal. Overthinking would only lead him to despair. That seemed worse in his mind than turning into a beast. He decided to go look for the item Gehrman asked him to seek. Perhaps it held some answers.

As the blue light of the lantern shone next to him, Surgit puffed his chest and threw his shoulders back. He was pretty confident about finding the chalice. He had reached the bottom of the valley. It indicated that he was getting deeper inside Old Yharnam.

Gehrman said that people used to worship the holy chalice deep in the valley hamlet. Everything seemed to indicate to Old Yharnam. “There must be some other place of worship where the chalice is placed,” he was thinking out loud. Surgit started developing a “Francis habit”. “If I couldn’t find anything on that big cathedral, I might as well search every corner of this village.” He moved towards the open gate as he his mind drifted towards the things he’d learned about being a hunter.

For starters, blood ministration allows people to become hunters. Hunters acquire special powers that let them absorb blood echoes from any enemy they kill. Blood echoes on the other hand allow hunters to become even stronger and tackle more fearsome opponents. This results in the hunters being more capable of treading dangerous areas and getting closer to reaching Paleblood and transcending the hunt. Was this the reason why he couldn’t find any hunter around with the exception of a few such as Francis, Eileen the crow lady and Alfred? He wondered if he was about to find more of them as he progressed through more dreadful areas. At the moment he had to focus on finding the chalice and uncovering the secrets it concealed too.

He left the building and headed towards the tower he used as a shortcut to Old Yharnam’s entrance. Getting back to the gate of the first tower was harder than he thought. He had jumped from a high structure before. Now that he was on his way back he realized that in order to jump upwards, he would need to have beastly legs to spring up.

He decided to look around in order to find a way down towards the tower. He noticed a broken railing next to the gallery he used before. He looked down and found a way to jump down towards the top of the tower. “Bingo.” He jumped down and found himself in a small square preceding the building he needed to reach.

On the square, he met two female beast patients that came at him as soon as he landed. Two strikes for each enemy took care of the situation. Upgrading his skill was also useful to spot the weak spots of the enemies and strike at them.

Behind one of the corpses, Surgit spotted a small treasure chest. He opened it and found a torch. ‘This thing could be useful, I’ll keep it.’ He held the torch in both hands and realized that the wooden stick had some nice decorations on it. He inspected it using his insight and discovered that it had a name: Hunter’s Torch.

The wood seemed to be sturdy. It didn’t rot even though it had been stored in that chest for some time. He stored the torch next to his pistol’s holster and moved forward. He dropped down towards the tower and soon found himself back at the bottom parts of Old Yharnam. ‘Very useful shortcut indeed, I didn’t have to go through the raining bullets again.’ He thought as he moved towards the shady alley opposite the door he came out of.

He remembered seeing something in there that didn’t seem right to him. He was tired back then and not in the mood to explore the unknown but at that moment, he felt rejuvenated and ready for anything to come at him.

The streets had become darker as the sun completely sank below the sky and its rays departed from Yharnam’s gloomy world. Surgit relied on his enhanced senses and vision to tread along; there was no need to use the torch for the time being.

The narrow street widened and Surgit saw a house to his right, nothing special was happening around there. In fact, the comforting silence had become a bit unnerving. He decided to inspect a small impasse behind the house. He was there after all; it wouldn’t harm to be thorough in his search.

He found a corpse lying opposite a wall. There were traces of claws on the body and bites on its neck. ‘Something bad had happened to this poor soul.’ Surgit noticed that the dead person was holding something on their hand. He inspected it and found a tissue that contained three red pills.

As he made an effort to inspect them, he heard some footsteps behind him. ‘I knew it! It smelled fishy around here.’ It was a werewolf. It hid somewhere as the streets were dark and it was harder to notice it if it was silent.

Surgit didn’t have time to think his strategy through. He was trapped with little space to maneuver in. The beast walked slowly towards him, as if it was sure of its victory. “Bring it on you stupid monster. You all think you’re so powerful!” He shouted at the beast, trying to provoke it to attack mindlessly, and it did.

It jumped at Surgit, trying to bite his head off. It was the attack he was waiting for as it was the easiest one to read through. He quickly grabbed his pistol and shot the beast in the face. The werewolf instantly fell to the ground, staggered. Surgit advanced quickly towards the beast and destroyed its face with his visceral attack; dragging its spinal cord along as he pulled his hand out.

“Mindless beasts! You don’t learn, do you? There’s a difference between innocent victims and Hunters that can rip your heads off, don’t you know that?” He was shouting at the inanimate corpse of the werewolf. His heart was beating fast. The little ambush gave him an unexpected rush of adrenaline.

“And now I’m speaking to dead creatures, how amazing! Surgit you’ve officially lost your mind!” He moved back towards the main street where the tower stood. He took the tissue out of his pocket and inspected the pills he had picked up from the dead body with his insight. ‘Beast Blood Pellet: Large medicinal pellet supposedly formed of coagulated beast blood; Banned by the Healing Church due to their unclear origin. It grants a spurt of beasthood.’ ‘Interesting, a blood related item banned by the church, it must have some cool effects then. It may be dangerous, but I’ll give it a shot sometime.’