"Maru, could you please stop jumping? You're making me dizzy."
Leon rubbed his forehead, watching the small figure bouncing endlessly ahead of him.
"Heh! Jump! Slash! Jump! Slash!"
Laughing with genuine delight, Maru launched herself into the air. The Sellsword Twinblades flickered in her hands like a pair of restless butterflies, carving through the air as she took down the Corvians ahead of her in rapid succession.
Right before each one died, something strange happened — the wound erupted in a sudden torrent of blood, drenching her further with each kill.
Completely soaked in crimson by this point, she only laughed harder and pushed on to the next target. Each Corvian let out an agonized shriek before dropping, and the whole scene had drifted somewhere into Yharnam territory without anyone quite deciding to go there.
"I think Maru's mental state might be sliding somewhere concerning," Terl said, shaking Drew's shoulder with genuine worry.
"Maybe try a calming spell on her?"
Drew glanced down at his own short legs, mouth twitching.
"I can't catch her."
The moment Maru had picked up the Twinblades, two distinct combat styles had surfaced in her mind fully formed. The first: rapid dual-blade combos, leveraging her exceptional agility to slip past enemy attacks while opening a dozen small wounds in the process. The second: launching into the air and bringing both blades down in a plunging strike — not a simple overhead chop, but something requiring real technique to land cleanly.
These techniques had arrived the same way the Farron Guard who inherited the Wolf's Blood instinctively pictured the Great Grey Wolf Sif wielding a sword — knowledge transplanted directly into muscle memory rather than learned the slow way.
She could either consciously study and execute the moves herself, or let the weapon guide her body the way a Weapon Art typically worked. Letting the weapon take the wheel felt unreliable to her, though, so she'd committed to learning it the honest way — through combat, one fight at a time.
Which raised an interesting question. The Twinblades originated in Dark Souls III. So why did they come bundled with a jump-slash technique the Ashen One had never actually possessed?
Simple.
The Ashen One's knees had never functioned properly.
Adventurers had working knees.
Maru had previously used the Bandit's Curved Sword without any jump-attack option attached to it. Apparently the dungeon had decided this particular weapon warranted a patch.
A dungeon that pushes updates as needed.
Genuinely impressive, in its own way.
"Maru, settle down!"
Leon and the others chased after her enthusiasm as best they could. Before long, they'd descended into a ruined structure, and passing through it revealed a new location name.
[Crucifixion Woods]
"Boss! New enemies!"
Following her voice, everyone looked ahead.
A sprawling forest opened before them.
Hollows wandered through it carrying thick, crudely sharpened wooden stakes — not spears, really. Just sticks with a point.
They staggered as they walked, struggling under the weight of their weapons as though liable to collapse at any moment.
They looked hopelessly weak.
Looking further, the forest was packed with them — countless Hollows, many accompanied by hunting dogs. Despite the sheer numbers, the sheer harmlessness of their appearance failed to trigger anything close to fear.
Instead, one thought crossed everyone's mind simultaneously.
This is going to be a mowing simulator.
Maru had the same thought and acted on it immediately.
She charged into a cluster of stick-wielding Hollows, cleared the accompanying dogs first for tidiness, then began practicing her jump-slash technique on the Hollows themselves.
Honestly — the standard attacks were already satisfying.
The jump attacks were on another level entirely. Every leap felt like flight. It was as though this pair of Twinblades had been designed with exactly her fighting style in mind.
Just as she settled fully into the rhythm of it, a Hollow behind her raised its sharpened stick.
"Maru — behind you!"
"Saw it, Boss! I've got this!"
The stake thrust toward her. She ducked beneath it, casually cut the creature's knee out from under it, and drove a blade through its skull the instant it hit the ground — flicking blood off the edge in one fluid motion afterward.
A genuinely stylish sequence.
Only then did she notice she was surrounded.
Dozens of Hollows converged on her position simultaneously, sticks raised, moving with the momentum of a runaway train.
"You think I don't have knees either?"
She launched skyward, letting every attack pass beneath her, spun mid-air, and threw both twinblades outward. They punched through two Hollows' skulls in the same motion. A simple hook of her fingers, and the blades snapped back into her waiting hands.
Only then did anyone notice the faint magical threads running from the hilts up to her fingers.
While Maru continued her demonstration, Leon squared off against another charging Hollow. Assuming it would be a routine strength test, he raised his shield —
"Hm?"
His expression shifted instantly.
He was shoved back several feet without meaning to be.
The strength behind that impact was startling — hit by a wooden stake, but the momentum felt like being clipped by a moving cart. Had his shield been of lesser quality, it might have punched clean through.
"Terl, a hand here."
Terl's punch sent the Hollow flying. Only then did Leon lower his guard.
Had he been half a second slower raising his shield, that hit would have done real damage. These unassuming, staggering figures could apparently produce explosive strength on a moment's notice.
Every monster in Sein warranted caution, without exception.
Watching what one Hollow had nearly done to him, Leon reconsidered Maru's freewheeling combat style entirely — she'd effectively been dancing along a blade's edge and not fully aware of it.
He crossed over immediately, cleared the remaining Hollows, and pressed a hand firmly onto the top of her head, delivering a thorough lecture on the spot.
Her enthusiasm for jump attacks cooled a few degrees.
"The water in Crucifixion Woods isn't poisoned?"
Discovering the scattered pools throughout the forest were actually safe to touch left everyone feeling as though they'd wandered into a fever dream.
Good heavens. Water in Sein that wasn't a hazard? Had they slipped into some alternate illusion of the dungeon by accident?
Pressing forward, they ran into familiar enemies —
Werewolves bound to wooden stakes. The unfortunate souls who had failed the Trial of the Wolf's Blood. Compared to the stick-wielding Hollows, these frenzied creatures posed a considerably more serious threat, moving with savage speed and unpredictable aggression.
After clearing them, the drops turned out to be nothing more than Purple Moss Clumps and Green Blossoms. Even with the Wolnir's Finger Bone boosting their Luck stat, the best result was a slightly larger, more potent Green Blossom.
Deep in the Woods, they hit one of Sein's signature traps.
A single werewolf, bound helplessly to a stake, howling in visible misery. Directly in front of it — a conveniently glowing item.
By any reasonable read, the setup was baiting adventurers into killing the defenseless creature for the reward.
Anyone who actually took that bait would find out very quickly that three additional werewolves, hidden behind nearby broken stakes, had been waiting patiently for exactly that mistake.
Leon looked at the whole arrangement and laughed.
"This takes me back to my first run through Sein Dungeon."
Something about it felt like their old memories waving at them from a distance. Purely for nostalgia's sake, he walked over and triggered the trap on purpose, reliving that particular flavor of youthful recklessness one more time.
Then came another familiar sight.
A giant crab. And a full entourage of smaller crabs alongside it.
"Why are these things everywhere?"
Facing yet another Crab Lord, the group had nothing left to say. They were genuinely developing crab fatigue at this point.
"I've got it," Maru volunteered, since the crab blocked the only path forward and someone needed to deal with it.
Its relentless pincer slams were dangerous in theory, but her speed gave her confidence she could dodge cleanly.
Clang! Clang!
Sparks scattered off the shell.
Maru looked at her Twinblades. Then at the crab's shell, barely scratched despite her efforts.
Her expression said, without words: You have got to be kidding me.
Her unstoppable jump-attack streak had finally hit a wall.
"Damn it — is this just a hard counter for light weapons against heavy armor?"
She fell back on mobility instead, circling and striking whenever an opening appeared. She could grind it down eventually, at that rate —
"Gurururu!"
The crab burrowed underground and vanished.
"It ran?"
Maru went still, listening carefully. No movement detectable beneath her.
Just as she turned to head back toward Leon —
Two enormous pincers erupted from the ground directly beneath her feet.
"Knew you'd try that!"
Already braced for it, she kicked off one pincer, using the recoil to launch herself onto a nearby cliff face. Clinging to the rock, she was in the middle of preparing a smug remark for the crab below —
When the wall beneath her began trembling.
She turned her head, slowly.
Two enormous, pitch-black eyes stared back at her from a distance of roughly six inches.
"Ah… hello…"
Her eyelid twitched.
Because the "rock wall" she was standing on was, in fact, a second giant crab, perfectly camouflaged into the terrain.
That is deeply unsporting, Sein.
"Boss, help!"
The crab beneath her began thrashing violently as the first crab summoned a swarm of smaller crabs, all converging on her position at once.
Maru let out a genuinely miserable scream.
"Leon… should we go help her?" Drew asked, unable to watch Maru sprinting for her life any longer.
"Let her sit in it a bit more," Leon said immediately. "She's been getting far too confident lately. Humility's overdue."
He still stepped in in the end — just before the crab could grind her into the mud.
"When we get back, I'm eating an entire crab feast in revenge!"
Her furious shouting summoned even more crabs from every direction.
Deeper in the forest, Terl ran into something that would follow him into future nightmares.
"AAAH!"
The burly giant let out a scream that would have fit better on a frightened child, then dove behind Leon and pointed forward, trembling.
"T-that—!"
Leon looked up.
His own expression tightened instantly.
Maru couldn't stop the shout from escaping.
"Mushroom People!"
Between the dense tree layers, silhouettes emerged one after another.
The memory of Terl getting launched skyward by a single punch from one of these things back in the Great Hollow remained vivid enough to trigger an immediate group reflex. Even though every member of the expedition had grown significantly stronger since that day, they still held these adorable-looking heavyweight boxers in a level of respect bordering on outright fear.
A faint purple loot glow was visible among the cluster.
Everyone unanimously agreed to take the long way around.
Nobody volunteered for a direct confrontation.
As it turned out, ironically, they'd been bracing themselves for nothing.
The Mushroom People were already dead.
As they continued deeper into the forest, the number of werewolves gradually dwindled, while the stick-wielding Hollows became increasingly common.
Before long, Leon's party encountered a new type of enemy.
Tall figures wearing oversized pointed hats.
Sorcerers.
When gathered together, they formed a troublesome force.
"Why do I have the feeling I've seen these sorceries somewhere before?"
The way the big-hatted mages cast Soul Arrow looked almost identical to the Glintstone Pebble cast by the Raya Lucaria sorcerers.
It was practically the same spell with different visual effects.
Asset reuse.
Amazing, isn't it?
Of course, that was mostly a joke.
The two spells were fundamentally different despite their similar appearances.
After weaving through the relentless barrage of magical projectiles, the group finally eliminated every sorcerer.
By now, the scenery had gradually changed.
The dense forest gave way to the ruins of ancient stone buildings.
It seemed they had finally reached the heart of the Crucifixion Woods.
Since Wade had heavily altered the dungeon's layout, however, it was no longer possible to determine their location using the original game map.
After walking a little farther, they discovered a quiet corner hidden among the ruins.
Several bookshelves stood neatly arranged there, overflowing with tightly packed scrolls.
An unfinished scroll still rested upon a writing desk, as though someone had only recently been working there.
Looking at the countless scrolls, Leon suddenly felt an inexplicable urge to throw himself onto them and roll around.
It looked incredibly stress-relieving.
"There are books here."
Maru picked up a glowing item.
[Orbeck of Vinheim's Notebook]
[A notebook left behind by a sorcerer from Vinheim. It records a portion of his magical knowledge. Though the writing has completely faded, exposure to the light of sorcery may allow its bearer to learn the spells once recorded within.]
"This item can only be used after reaching the Lake of Liurnia?"
This appeared to be the first time adventurers had discovered an item that linked two completely different regions.
"Leon... don't you think this new area feels like it was made specifically for beginners?"
Drew suddenly voiced the thought that had been lingering in everyone's mind.
Leon nodded in agreement.
"I was thinking the same thing."
"On the Road of Sacrifices, adventurers can obtain a respectable weapon like the Mercenary Twinblades."
"Killing Corvians and the cage carriers has a chance of dropping Titanite Shards, allowing players to upgrade their weapons."
"The stick-wielding Hollows drop small souls, providing enough resources to strengthen either themselves or their equipment."
"The werewolves drop Purple Moss Clumps and Green Blossoms, perfectly countering the poison swamps and movement slowdown in Farron Keep."
"As for those giant crabs..."
He paused.
"I honestly don't know what purpose they serve."
"Maybe they're simply practice for the crabs waiting in the Lake of Liurnia."
He continued his analysis.
"The monsters here are challenging enough that a single mistake can still get you killed."
"But if you're careful—and just a little lucky—you'll improve tremendously."
"This new region is far better suited for training newcomers than Farron Keep."
It was almost as though this area existed solely to rapidly strengthen adventurers who weren't yet capable of surviving Farron Keep.
Exactly.
This was Sein Dungeon's pig-farming strategy.
Farron Keep was simply too difficult for a beginner area.
So the Road of Sacrifices had been added.
Here, ordinary people could quickly be raised to Level 10...
Even Level 20.
Once they exceeded Level 20, however, the souls available here would no longer be sufficient for meaningful growth.
At that point, they would have no choice but to venture into more dangerous regions.
And what could a mere Level 20 adventurer accomplish there?
The answer was obvious.
The Road of Sacrifices gave inexperienced adventurers the illusion that—
"If I just work a little harder... maybe I really can conquer this dungeon."
Then, after spending several days dying in those higher-level areas...
The dungeon would more than recover every bit of mana it had invested in nurturing them.
Everything afterward would be pure profit.
Even if someone reached Level 20 and decided to leave...
It didn't matter.
Once someone experienced the exhilarating feeling of rapidly growing stronger at a Bonfire...
Very few people would willingly give it up.
That sensation was real.
Their bodies truly became stronger.
It was even more addictive than drugs.
After experiencing the thrill of leveling up...
Could anyone truly return to patiently training through ordinary hard work?
Considering that most people couldn't even quit smoking or drinking...
How many could honestly resist staying inside Sein Dungeon?
Although this new area was a blessing for beginners...
For veteran adventurers like Leon, it felt somewhat lacking.
There simply wasn't enough excitement.
Perhaps this place really should be left for true newcomers.
Experienced adventurers like them—people who could glance at an ordinary bush and immediately imagine eighteen different ambush scenarios—
Should simply challenge higher-level bosses instead of wasting time here.
No sooner had that thought crossed Leon's mind...
Than he noticed a pitch-black figure standing perfectly still in the distance.
[Black Knight]
A C+ Rank Black Knight.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Forget everything I just said."
"There are still plenty of exciting things here."
Without hesitation, the entire group quietly took a detour.
They didn't even bother picking up the purple loot behind the Black Knight.
Fortunately, the Black Knight proved to be nothing more than one of Sein's little jokes.
The rest of the journey was filled only with ordinary monsters.
Gradually, everyone's nerves relaxed again.
Eventually, inside a ruined structure, they encountered two humanoid enemies guarding the path forward.
[Exile]
[Cleric Exile]
Both had once been Farron Watchers.
The Exile wore an intimidating suit of armor that radiated murderous intent.
Resting upon his shoulder was an enormous Exile Greatsword that gleamed with a chilling light.
One look was enough to tell he was no ordinary opponent.
The Cleric Exile, however...
Looked even more outrageous.
Compared to the original game, Wade had made a few modifications.
Strictly speaking, all he had done was change the weapon and replace the armor.
The original Cleric Exile wielded a Great Club.
Here, however...
It had been replaced with Drangleic's infamous oversized chicken drumstick—
The Smelter Hammer.
The moment the adventurers came into view, the Cleric Exile calmly coated the Smelter Hammer with Gold Pine Resin.
The already massive chicken drumstick instantly transformed into a glowing golden chicken drumstick.
Just looking at the absurdly huge weapon made everyone's scalp tingle.
"The enemies we've encountered so far haven't been particularly strong..." Maru said. "Well, except for the Black Knight. These two may look intimidating, but they shouldn't be that powerful either... right?"
"Stay on your guard," Leon warned as everyone drew their weapons.
While Drew began casting support magic over the party, the two Exiles charged forward.
Leon intercepted the Exile, while Terl and Maru moved to stop the Cleric Exile.
"Someone carrying such a heavy weapon has to be slow."
Maru rushed ahead without hesitation.
Launching herself into the air, she brought down her signature jump attack.
"I won't lose to you!"
Clang! Clang!
A shower of sparks burst forth.
The recoil numbed her hands.
Looking again, she saw that the Twinblades had left only a few shallow scratches across the Cleric Exile's heavy armor.
They hadn't even inflicted any real damage.
Heavily armored enemies...
The natural nemesis of agility-based weapons.
"Tch... I knew it wouldn't work."
Just then, the gleaming golden Smelter Hammer came crashing toward her.
Maru displayed an impressive feat of agility, slipping past the attack with only a few centimeters to spare.
A smug smile spread across her face.
"Too slo—"
BOOOOOOM!!
The unprecedented explosion of sound instantly froze the smile on her face.
The violent shockwave whipped her hair wildly through the air.
Beside her, the ground caved inward, leaving behind an enormous crater.
"Huh...?"
Maru's expression stiffened.
Slowly...
Very slowly...
She turned her head.
The Smelter Hammer had buried itself deep into the earth.
As the Cleric Exile effortlessly pulled it free, chunks of shattered stone flew everywhere.
It almost sounded as though Mother Earth herself were crying out in pain.
In that single instant...
Countless thoughts flashed through Maru's mind.
From the birth of the universe...
To what she wanted for dinner tonight...
It was as if her entire life had flashed before her eyes.
If...
If she hadn't dodged just now...
Wouldn't she have ended up...
Shorter than the dwarf Drew?
"U-Um..."
Like a frightened kitten, Maru slowly backed away while forcing an awkward smile.
"Y-You seem... to be in excellent health..."
The Cleric Exile paid absolutely no attention to her attempt at conversation.
He simply lifted the Smelter Hammer once more.
Preparing to smash it down again.
Maru immediately turned around and sprinted for her life.
"WITH THAT KIND OF STRENGTH, WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING HERE GUARDING A DOOR?!"
Hearing her shout, the Cleric Exile seemed almost eager to show off.
He casually reached into the nearby bushes...
And pulled out...
Another Smelter Hammer.
Dual-wielding gigantic chicken drumsticks.
Today...
He was the embodiment of absolute truth.
"YOU'RE WEARING HEAVY ARMOR AND CARRYING TWO OF THOSE?! HOW CAN YOU STILL RUN?!"