I walked through the entrance, stepping into ankle deep sewage. The murky waters permeated foulness that assaulted my sense of smell with every step I took. The waterways was just one straight tunnel, illuminated only by a few torches on the mossy cobblestone wall. A squeaking noise came from my left. I turned to see an undead rat chewing on the remains of a corpse. The animal had been mutated by the plague. It was over a meter long, its height reached the level of my waist. Parts of its fur had fallen off to reveal rotten flesh underneath. Its right ear hung by the side of its head, held on by a few tendons. It was an abomination.

I put my catalyst away and raised my dagger. I would eventually need to practice my swordsmanship, and this rat seemed like a good place to start. I raised my shield and slowly advanced towards the monster. Hearing my footsteps splash through the murky waters, it turned around to face me. It lunged in an instant, crashing into my shield and knocking me back a few steps. It could gather quite a bit of momentum in that short distance. But something felt wrong after that brief moment of contact. It was very faint, but I could feel my body growing weaker.

I was poisoned.

I didn’t take into consideration how an undead rat eating corpses in sewers would be infested with blight. It was a moving cesspool of disease. All it needed to do was come in contact with me, directly or indirectly, to contaminate me. I raised my shield and walked towards it once more with this information in mind. The fight ended quickly. I had no choice but to let it attack my shield and cause the poison to build up inside of me, but I took advantage of its brief moment of vulnerability after attacking, using that interval to quickly stab it in the side with my knife. After a few attacks, the rat fell to the ground, dead for good.

I rested for a moment to let the poison dispel from my body. I absorbed the souls from the dead rat and the body it had been chewing on, and walked off to the other end of the waterway. After about a minute, I reached a gate in the waterways. I tried to open it but it was locked. I turned around and headed through a doorway I had passed. Past the doorway were stairs that brought me out of the waterways and into the Undead Burg: the first part of my pilgrimage.

I looked at my surroundings, amazed. I entered the Burg through the waterways, arriving in the upper levels of the Burg. I could see houses and buildings far below me, and the city streets that were infested with undead dogs. Huge walls towered over the entire city, blocking out the sun.

I looked over to my left and saw two hollow soldiers creeping towards me. One of them lunged forwards with his flimsy sword and I easily parried it, returning a riposte and killing the hollow instantly. I quickly rolled to the side, crashing into a stack of barrels and barely dodging a swing from the second hollow’s battleaxe. Luckily the barrels had become brittle over the passing of time and there wasn’t much of an impact. I got up and brushed the wood chippings off me. This time, I engaged first. The battleaxe dealt more damage than a standard sword, but it made the hollow move slower as well. I easily got behind it and stabbed it in the back with my knife. I twisted the knife and pushed the hollow off of it with my foot.

Sensing danger, I raised my shield just in time for a firebomb to crash into it. The force of the explosion knocked me back a few steps and I took some damage from it. I looked around to see where it had come from and I spotted a third hollow a few meters away, standing in front of another wall of mist. I had missed it while fighting the other two because it had been hiding under the shade of a building. I rolled forwards, dodging another firebomb and sprung to my feet, attacking it with my knife. It took a few slashes for the hollow to die. Regular attacks aren’t as effective as ripostes and backstabs.

As the hollow died I felt a sharp pain across my back. I turned around and raised my shield, blocking another attack. The hollow had probably been hiding in one of the buildings, and had crept up behind me after I walked past it. The hollow swung its sword once more, and I made giant blunder. I tried to parry the attack as I had done so many times before, but I misjudged the timing and the blade just grazed my shield and tore through my chest.

At this point, I didn’t want to take anymore chances. I backed away from the hollow and pulled out my catalyst, channeling a soul arrow. An orb of mana gathered at the tip of the catalyst and shot towards the hollow, killing it. I grabbed my Estus Flask and took a sip. The ambrosia seeped down my throat and throughout my body, healing my wounds and dispelling my exhaustion.

I took a moment to regain my calm as well. Perhaps that hollow was a fortuitous encounter. It was a stark reminder that danger lurked everywhere in this world, and that if I want to hold onto my sanity, I must always be vigilant.

I took a deep breath and passed through the wall of mist. I entered a building with a staircase leading up to an opening on the second floor. I followed a glowing light behind the staircase. The glow came from the souls of a corpse sitting against the stairs. I took its souls and walked up the staircase. Remembering the mess with the hollow, I raised my shield and proceeded through the doorway with caution.

Out of nowhere, a red dragon crashed into a terrace in front of me, sending pieces of rock and debris everywhere. It then flew away, gone as quickly as it arrived. So on top hollows, I also have to watch out for dragons.

Wonderful.

Few things to say.

It looks like I'm back? Even though I haven't posted in a while I've still been writing Dark Souls here and there. I was going to wait until I had around 10 chapters saved until I started posting again, but I just felt like uploading some chapters.

Also, forgot to mention that I didn't list the resistance attribute in chapter 4. Resistance is an attribute in the actual game, but no one ever invests souls into it because it increases automatically when you level up other attributes.

Lastly, I've known for a while that my summary kind of sucks. Should I write a new summary, or should I get rid of the prologue and just use it as the summary?