With every step he took, Surgit would hear his boots. .h.i.tting the hard wooden floor, thud, thud, thud, thud. The rhythm of his march was in synch with his breathing. He would stop every four steps, check his surroundings and p.r.i.c.k his ears. The Forbidden Forest teemed with traps and danger hid in every corner. He couldn"t leave anything to chance.

Surgit slowly approached the edge of the wooden platform on which he walked. From where he stood, he could roughly estimate that there were other floors below him. "This tower is taller than I expected."

After he disposed of the cannon operator, Surgit bombarded the other houses he hadn"t inspected. He entered the windmill after that. From the entrance, the tower looked to be 2 storeys tall. However upon entering the place, Surgit realized that the building went deeper. "I must"ve come through a secondary entrance," he thought to himself as he felt a cold breeze caress his face.

Outside, wind swept by the building and found its way through via small holes on the outer wall. The tower stood unkempt for so long that its walls started crumbling. The inside was worse though. Wooden planks that used to const.i.tute st.u.r.dy floors have become unstable. Surgit understood that and treaded carefully.

As he advanced, he could see a faint light coming illuminating a specific spot in the tower. "It must be a window." Surgit p.r.i.c.ked his ears as he advanced even slower. In the darkness that enveloped the building, he could only rely on his other senses. The wind that came through the window and the little holes carried with them the stench of death.

When he got closer to the opening in the building Surgit heard the wind howling, almost slapping him. The change of scenery disrupted his concentration. Silence was instantly gone, replaced by the howling wind. Surgit stood next to the large open window and snuck a peak outside. "If I drop down there, I will have to find my way inside again. I don"t even know where this would lead me, better be safe and explore this place first."

The loud wind, relentlessly smashing against the building, hid the sound of an axe being dragged down on the wooden floor. Surgit only noticed a small change but couldn"t quite figure out what it was. "I"d better get away from here, I can"t use my ears properly." He walked deeper down, carefully descended the creaking stairs then noticed a faint moving light ahead.

A person, or monster in humanoid form, held a torch in one hand while it dragged a crude axe on the other. The axe, trailing on the wooden floor, made a threatening sound. Surgit slowly approached, he meant to surprise his foe. The torch the man held illuminated the place. Surgit could make out the outlines of the building better. "As I suspected, I came through a secondary entrance."

From what he could deduct, he arrived at the ground floor. The torch carrying man-beast stopped and stood next to a corner. "What are you playing at?" thought the paranoid Surgit. His foe stood with his back to him. It unnerved Surgit. No one would stand still in a corner with their backs fully open for attacks.

Seeing that the man-beast didn"t move at all, Surgit decided to leave him be and explore the place first. "If it looks like it"s too easy to be true, then it is." Surgit made sure to make silent steps even though the wooden floor didn"t help much. The man-beast remained motionless despite the obvious loud footsteps behind him.

After inspecting every corner of the ground floor, Surgit decided to approach the motionless torch carrying beast in man"s clothing. He sheathed his sword, merging it with the hammer"s pommel. He cautiously walked behind the beast then smashed down his weapon. "Bam!" the sound of the hammer crashing down on the beast"s vertebrae broke the silence that reigned over the empty tower.

A shrill scream filled Surgit"s eyes. Wincing, he retreated a few steps, trying hard to repress the urge to cover his ears. Something was happening to the man-beast in front of him. Surgit fought the pain and raised his axe again, bringing it one more time down on the beast"s skull. The sound of breaking bones reached Surgit"s ears as the screaming subsided.

Blood filled the ground. The torch rolled down on the ground as it was released by the beast"s limp hand. Surgit picked it up, "I should"ve kept the torch instead of leaving it with the messengers." The little ones could easily take items from Surgit in order to store them in the dream. When it came to taking transferring items from the dream to the waking world, Surgit found them uncooperative.

"Perhaps not all of them are willing to trap me," he though as he observed the corpse at his feet. "Or they might be trying to get me to drop my guard down." Surgit started believing that the world conspired against him, trying to stop him from reaching the academy. "The more they struggle, the biggest the secret they hide." Surgit was certain he"d find some great secret hidden in the academy.

The road may be long, but he didn"t care for it. He faced hardship before in Old Yharnam. Surgit learned to conserve his strength. He would engage hordes of enemies only if he"s forced to. He didn"t want to waste his energy and blood vials anymore. Besides, the towers seemed to be close to each other. Perhaps he"d find a way to reach the first one.

He noticed a lantern inside the first tower. Apart from the man behind the barred door, the lantern was his second motivation to reach the tower. It would provide a great checkpoint for him in case he met some unknown danger.

Surgit left the tower through the big gate at the ground floor. A bridge linked the tower to the other side of the valley. The Forbidden Woods, like Old Yharnam, were located in a large valley. Old Yharnam was located on the opposite side of the Forbidden Woods and the modern city of Yharnam was located on top of them both.

As he crossed the bridge, Surgit was thinking of the dark room he found next to the man-beast he killed. If it weren"t for the torch, he wouldn"t be able to find it. It was well hidden. There was nothing noteworthy in there apart from a conspicuous lever. Surgit tried to activate it, but it seemed to be blocked by some strange mechanism. "I hope I"ll be able to find a way to activate that thing. If it"s tightly locked, it must hide something interesting."

Surgit didn"t notice the change in his personality. He had become greedy for treasures and trinkets. Everything in Yharnam was shrouded in a dark fog. Only by searching carefully can a person link the puzzle pieces together and find valuable information.

The sound of hissing snakes brought Surgit back to the waking world. In front of him, a strange scene unfolded. A man, similar to the one he had just executed, approached him. The startling difference was that the man lacked an important feature: a head. Its head was replaced by a mult.i.tude of entangled snakes.

"First, I had to deal with mobs and traps. I prefer weird abnormalities to traps. At least I have a clear objective, attack, maim and kill." He locked the hammer on his back and unsheathed his sword. The snakes wavered on top of the man"s body like swaying tree branches. The snakes hissed in unison, announcing an intruder to the body they possessed.

The man puppet dashed towards Surgit at a frightening speed. Surgit couldn"t help but retreat. He didn"t know how this thing attacked. "If I let that thing scream some more, it could have transformed into this." Surgit wasn"t sure if he had made the right move when he crushed the thing"s skull. He could at least understand the weakened beast"s attacking pattern before facing this one.

He shot the spot where the snakes were entangled. This only helped enrage the beast some more. The snakes" puppet moved even faster and closed in on Surgit who quickly transformed his weapon and swung his horizontally. This display of power was only possible after Surgit gained a new rank in strength.

The hunter"s Kirkhammer hit the puppet"s torso, breaking bones and projecting the body away from Surgit. "Amazing!" Surgit was stunned at the power of the Kirkhammer. He previously used the hammer by swinging down on his enemies. He never thought of using the horizontal swing unless his enemy was on the ground. This last attack hit the strange creature and propelled it over the bridge, down towards the bottom of the valley.

"The only downside is that I remain open for retaliation. I can"t use this swing unless I"m sure the attack will connect." Surgit crossed the bridge and soon found himself on a descending road. On his right was a large building. Surgit followed the building with his eyes until he reached the top. Blades, as large as the Blood Starved beast, swayed back and forth due to the wind. "Even this strong wind can"t make the windmill work properly. It must be broken."

Surgit entered the building through the main entrance. His experience with the previous tower confirmed that the barred door was a secondary entrance. The one he walked through was the main one. He soon reached a platform that could be used as an elevator. After activating the contraption, the platform move upwards.

"Ahh, the new face, are you? What an accomplished hunter... it would appear," Bucket head chuckled. "I am Valtr, Master of the League. Members of the League cleanse the streets of all the filth that"s spread about during the hunt. Like any half-decent hunter ought to, you know? Haven"t you seen enough of these wretched beasts, freakish slugs, and mad doctors? Sentence these fiends to death." Valtr"s tone was dead serious. "With the help of your League confederates. What do you say? Why not join the League?"