Dark Souls: No longer nearly nude

Small golden embers converged out of the vaporized dust remains of Iudex that floated in the air and formed a golden soul.

It was the first soul that wasn't a pure white and when it submerged into Drakes ring, giving him strength, there was something that was different this time. With the surge of power came a flurry of knowledge. The soul contained the essence of Iudex, a mighty warrior skilled even after death, so along with strength, it also imparted knowledge. Iudex's weapon art, his skill in the halberd, was gifted to Drake.

His power had increased two-fold from before, not including any skill he may have gained from Iudex.

Drake picked his spear off the ground and gave it a twirl testing out his new halberd knowledge with a similar weapon.

After testing out a series of moves, he realized something.

"So it's not that easy, huh?" Drake sighed. The knowledge was there, but the muscle memory was not, it was like trying to play a piano concerto, knowing where your fingers needed to be at any given moment but never having played before. Still, the knowledge was useful.

With Iudex now dead, all his primary goals had been accomplished. With the Lizard dead, the first Bonfire cleansed, and with Iudex killed, the way up to firelink shrine should be open. Drake still had some things he wanted to do before leaving. Hopefully, he could 'acquire' the Uchigatana from the Swordmaster and buy some proper clothes from The Handmaiden. There were also a bunch of items he wanted to collect, hidden around the shrine.

Drake picked up the coiled sword and stored it into his bag before pushing open the green copper gate that blocked the way up to the shrine.

He needed souls to trade with the Handmaiden, so he wanted to try killing a hollow without directly absorbing the soul to strengthen himself. Walking up to a hollow, before it could even growl, with his spear he pierced directly through an eye, killing it instantly.

The white stream of its soul rushed towards Drake, but this time as its light twirled around the dark sign substitute Quella had gifted him, he willed it to stay inside his ring, and after a brief moment, it was stored within.

Like before Iudex, he went through and cleared out the majority of the hollows, collecting souls to use as currency as he did so. He avoided the area the Swordmaster was in, for now, planning on dealing with him once he brought some decent apparel from the Handmaiden. He did not want to fight again in his current nearly nude state. Drake managed to find some loot on his way up to the firelink shrine, a homeward bone, which turned to ash as soon as Drake touched it filling his divinity a minute amount and also a signet ring engraved with the depiction of a howling wolf.

Drake equipped the ring on one of his free fingers, after putting it on, a strange feeling settled over him, the ring made him feel like the ground beneath his feet was firmer and his joints less yielding.

The ring gave him a stat known in the game as poise.

With the ring equipped, Drake made his way inside the firelink shrine, after going down some stairs, he walked straight passed the blind firekeeper and a man huddled up in despair, down a corridor and up to an old woman sitting with her goods.

Standing before the Handmaiden, she turned her head up to look at him before saying.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, traveler. I am but a humble handmaiden of the shrine.

Weapons, armor, trinkets, and spells... I've lots of little things to ease the burden of a weary traveler such as you. ...And yes, I'm Undead, like most, but not so charitable as to just give my goods away.

Drake looked down at the goods on display. There were a few scrolls, an assortment of weapons, shields, charms, bombs, bolts, and a full set of padded chainmail armor, among other miscellaneous stuff.

Drake picked out for himself the chainmail armor set, it came with a leather gauntlet, chain helm, armor, and leggings. With that, he finally had himself some decent apparel. The Handmaiden directly took the souls as he picked up the items, and after buying the set, he still had some leftover souls.

With his remaining souls, he brought himself two magic scrolls, curious at the possibility of magic, a new dagger to replace his old one and a homeward bone, that he avoided touching directly lest it be absorbed. Drake was planning to trade the homeward bone and a firebomb with the crows that sat atop firelink shrine for some additional armor and another titanite shard.

Feeling considerably better off now that he was clothed, Drake thanked the Handmaiden before walking a little further down the corridor she sat under. He heard the Handmaiden behind him say. "Traveller, be sure to bring more souls," she finished with a greedy chuckle.

At the end of the corridor, there was a short, stout man hammering the impurities out of a weapon.

The man greeted him on approach.

"Well, a newcomer, I see. I am Andre, I serve in this shrine as a humble smith, forging new weapons.

A toilsome journey I'd wager your on. You'll be requiring good arms.

Let me smith ye' weapons. I am a smith, such is my purpose."

Drake asked the man a question, pulling out the titanite stored in his bag "If I were to bring you a weapon, do you think you could upgrade it with these." Drake passed over to the man his titanate slab and shard.

"There are two ways to smith weapons. Simple reinforcement is one, and infusion the other.

Reinforcement is straightforward. It strengthens a weapon without altering its property. With this here titanate, I can reinforce ye' weapon. Bring the weapon, and I'll do the smithing.

It's m' purpose, after all!"

Drake left the titanate with Andre, wanting to lighten the load in his bag, and went over to the firekeeper. He wanted to see what help she could provide him.

He still had the coiled sword in his bag, so he thrust it into the fire pit before turning to talk to the keeper.