84 A new voice in the dream

Back in the dream, Surgit took a long nap and regained his strength. He was glad that he managed to get back to the dream in one piece and without dying to any beast on the way. What made him happier was the fact that he had found a way back to the bottom of Old Yharnam without having to dodge the bullets of the Gatling gun.

He wondered if the man atop the clock tower bothered to come down and look for him at all. He had managed to clear the town from the beasts roaming it. He had the feeling that he was close to finding that chalice Gehrman spoke of.

He searched for the old man again in the dream but there was no sign of him. He then went to the doll in order to upgrade his attributes. He closed his eyes and made to check his echoes. He was back at the empty dark space. It felt like he was floating serenely in pure emptiness. He didn't feel as he would in his waking state. It was as if he was transported to another world where the normal senses were dulled.

The dream suddenly shifted to empty dark space. Dots, far away in the distance, shone dimly. As he concentrated on them, he realized that he approached them. There was no need to will his body to move. All he had to do was concentrate on a dot to be transported next to it. Ghostly figures danced around to form a big sphere. As he got closer, the doll had slowly transformed into a ball.The shapes produced strange echoing sounds. Some were moans. Others were laughter, while most of them just whispered: 'Bless us with blood. Bless us with blood.'

Surgit, in his meditative state, could observe the echoes and even discern some of their speech. He concentrated on silencing the voices. To his delight, the sound was muted and he could only see the ghosts moving in a circular motion.

On another side of the vast dark space that engulfed him, Surgit saw another dot. It was similar to the one he stood next to. They shared the same green color. He opened his eyes since his head started throbbing. Excessive use of insight led to head splitting headaches.

"Now I have two green dots whereas before, I could only see one," Surgit said pensively. He went to the doll to ask about the attributes he could upgrade. It was his way of processing the way he could improve. He decided to analyze the situation by process of elimination. The previous time he knew he could only upgrade his bloodtinge and arcane, but neither skill nor strength.

He decided to have a chat with the lovely doll: "Tell me dear doll, what attributes can I upgrade?"The doll inspected Surgit then reported that he could upgrade all his skills. He decided to upgrade his strength then inspect his echoes afterwards.

- "Very well, let the echoes become your strength. Now shut your eyes."

He felt a warm, invigorating sensation take over his whole body. When he opened his eyes, he saw that doll was standing again, motionless, in front of him. Surgit felt his body with his hands. There was no considerable change in his physique.

He felt stronger nonetheless. He clenched his hand on his cleaver. Even his grip on the weapon felt firmer. With that much strength, he was sure he could finish off the beasts in Old Yharnam with more ease. He decided to inspect his status, eager to see if any change had occurred in his titles.

Name: Surgit

Insight level: Narrow minded

Strength: Waste of Skin (3)

Skill: Skillful (2)

Bloodtinge: Blood Hungry (1)

Arcane: Blind (1)

Nothing changed in his titles but he still noticed a certain change. Each time he upgraded an attribute, he would gain an increased number next to it. That meant that he was progressing albeit slower than he hoped for. His insight level still felt insulting.

The doll didn't help him get any new information though. As far as he could tell, she knew as much about echoes and insight as he did. He inspected his echoes using his third eye. Nothing manifested in the dark space he was floating in. The green dots he had seen before had completely vanished.

"So every dot represents a certain amount of echoes I can use to get stronger," Surgit was thinking aloud. "The first time I needed only one dot in order to upgrade my skills. That explains why Arcane and Bloodtinge were still an option for me when I had just one echo dot." He was crisscrossing the hunter's workshop. "Now that I had accumulated enough echoes, two green dots formed in the echo space."

Walking back and forth from one end of the room to another helped him think better. "I could upgrade my strength. This means that I would probably need the same amount of echoes to develop my skill." He stopped for a moment and tilted his head up, towards the ceiling. "I wonder how many echoes I need to upgrade my strength even more. Where would I possibly hope to get more echoes to become stronger?" He shrugged then continued walking. "I guess I can just die and kill the beasts again. It would cost me more time but it sure is an option."

He decided to stop pondering on the matter. He had a basic idea of how he could develop his attributes. He would give it some more thought once he collected more echoes. He remembered that he could also upgrade his cleaver. He put the weapon on the workshop's bench and fumbled in his pockets. He had a blood shard and the tool to insert blood gems on his weapon. It was high time he started experimenting.

He tried to insert the blood gem on the flake shape his cleaver had. The slot on which the shape was engraved didn't look deep enough to fit the blood gem he had. He took the tool he had and tried to insert the gem into its respective slot. Nothing happened.

'I guess I have to start learning with no basis to go from.' He crossed his arms and looked at the weapon. The books in the hunter's workshop only detailed some beasts and their fighting style. He couldn't find anything related to upgrading his weapons or his attributes.

He took the blood shard and looked at it. It looked like crystallized blood. Even blood was strange in Yharnam. He found a bowl filled with blood that refused to coagulate.Rust had built up on the hinges of the door to Old Yharnam and dust accumulated on the stone railings of the city. Blood, on the other hand, didn't solidify.

And there he was, holding some form of crystallized blood. He knew that he had to infuse it into the weapon in order to make it sharper. He rubbed the shard on the surface of the saw. The crystal started shrinking in size and the weapon began glowing. It worked like a charm. The more he rubbed, the shinier his weapon became. As soon as he finished, he noticed that the slot for blood gems was deeper.

He took the gem and inserted it with the help of the tool he had picked up. "That was easier than expected," said Surgit in a cheerful tone. He gave his weapon a few swings. It had become slightly lighter. He didn't know if it was due to his increased strength or the blood shard infusion. It would be best if it were the two of them.

He decided to compare his cleaver to the spear he had picked up. If the slot for blood gems on that weapon was faded, it would confirm his suspicion. He threw his arm towards his back in order to get his spear. His arms waved stupidly above his shoulder as he slowly realized that the spear wasn't there anymore.

'What the hell is going on?' he was taken aback. He thought he had his spear on him when he came to the dream. He started doubting his memory. He swore he had it when he arrived to the lamp. The only explanation he had was that it vanished during his teleportation, from the dream to the city. "Those damn little creatures!" he swore as he descended the stairs towards the messengers' fountain. The messenger in there welcomed him with a low howl. "Where is my axe?" he asked furiously. "I saw you take it earlier when I was with Karla; you and other little ones that looked like you!" He stopped for a moment. He realized it might not even be the same messenger that took his weapons. "Where are my weapons?" he shouted. It was more of desperation than frustration that he screamed.

The messenger dived inside the dark water pool and a screen emerged. The screen detailed the names of the weapons he had.

Weapon: Hunter's axe.

Echoes acquired to unlock: NO

Weapon: Rifle spear

Echoes acquired to unlock: NO

Surgit looked at the screen. From the way the screen functioned when he wanted to buy items he knew that in order to know which item he wanted, he needed a yes or a no. He assumed that the messengers knew how many echoes he held and told him if he could afford one item or another.

Surgit had used all his echoes on upgrading his strength. This meant that he couldn't unlock the axe yet. But why were they locked? Perhaps it was because the weapon didn't belong to him before. He hoped that those weapons would be cheaper and better than the ones he saw on sale in the messenger's shop."Well, I guess I'm done here."

He didn't have the echoes to unlock his weapons. He didn't want to dally for too long in the dream either. He wanted to find the chalice Gehrman spoke about. He felt that he was getting closer to his objective. He wanted to get the item then head back to meet Karla.

As he headed towards the messenger's fountain in order to find his way back to Old Yharnam, he heard a strange noise in the distance, within the dream. It was the first time he had heard something of the sort. The dream was usually silent, too silent in fact.

The smallest noise could make anyone uneasy when one gets used to complete silence. Surgit clenched his saw and ran towards the source of the noise, to his surprise, he saw a person. 'A new hunter? It must be, no one can have access to this place unless they are hunters.' He advanced slowly towards the new person then he heard the man speak: "Ah Surgit! I'd hoped to meet you here." Francis looked different, and what's more, he was alive. Surgit couldn't utter a word.