[You have slain a Burdened Gravedigger Lv.50]

[You have obtained 9,969 experience points.]

[You have obtained (3) Purge Ticket.]

[You have obtained (1) Journal of the Damned.]

Daru's brows rose after reading the notification.

The battle with the Burdened Gravedigger turned out to be quite the disappointment, as the abomination was slower than even a Lost Damnedling, though many times more powerful.

Other people might crumble to the pressure of such horrifying strikes, but not him.

As a result, although the battle was quite long due to the hulking abomination's massive hit points, it was relatively easy for him to defeat it.

Daru decided to wash away the disappointment by checking the description of the [Journal of the Damned.]

==

Name: Journal of the Damned

Type: Consumable

Tier: N/A

Level Requirement: None

Description: A list of condemned souls, compiled from the twisted memories of one who was equally cursed, burdened with a harrowing task for eternity.

==

'Hmm? Another consumable item?'

Daru used it without a second thought.

A moment later, a huge amount of unsettling information flooded his mind, but strangely gentle — soothing, even.

It was as though they had long existed in his mind, and they had long been deeply engraved, given that the information didn't give him any sort of mental burden.

Names.

A lot of them.

He didn't know exactly how many he learned with a tap of a holographic button, but aside from them, he also learned the locations of where these names could be found.

This gave Daru a rough sense of how massive the cemetery was.

The Ancient Settlement was already as huge as two to three novice zones in Valmaris, yet this Cemetery of the Damned was double, almost triple, of even that.

The monochrome world turned out to be far larger than he thought.

'Then what about that monument?' he mused, closing the inventory window.

In the end, Daru only shrugged, unwilling to waste any more mental energy on such matters.

The future is long, and although gray, it was bright gray.

He would reach his destination eventually.

With a sigh, Daru continued walking around, encountering yet another type of wraith — still a curious level fifty Swordspawn — called a Twisted Custodian, though aside from the name and its somewhat female-like build, it didn't differ much from the Ashen Cleaners.

The cemetery of the Damned was harrowing.

However, if he were to choose a word to describe it, Daru would say that the cemetery was clean and orderly.

So much so, in fact, that it was difficult to find resting spots.

He also hadn't found a single sustenance, which was, honestly speaking, quite the cause for concern.

But Daru still had enough for at least two more days.

At worst, he would have to temporarily return to the Ancient Settlement.

Thus, for the whole day, all Daru did was grind levels and collect [Wretched Soulslips] and [Journals of the Damned].

He was able to level up to 49, choosing to allocate all five attributes to Perception.

It would increase his chances of survival in this new location and would, in turn, allow him to hunt more efficiently.

Gravediggers were surprisingly a rare sight.

So, he mostly killed Ashen Cleaners, followed by Twisted Custodians.

He had not found a chance to challenge the elite Accursed Soulcatchers, as not only were they a rarer sight, but he had not seen one alone since the first time he did.

They were always waiting beside a Burdened Gravedigger and would leave after watching the Damnedling it caught get buried beneath the unholy ashes.

Nonetheless, he planned on testing the combat capabilities of one the moment he got a chance.

Time inevitably flowed like so, its cosmic and mystical yet ever-powerful clutches reaching even the eerie, ashen domain.

Daru's archive of random knowledge, names, and grave locations grew with every kill.

The ones he got all seemed useless…until a pair of information suddenly weren't…

Obtaining yet another [Wretched Soulslip] from a random Ashen Cleaner near the end of his third day — as Daru's makeshift sense of time called it — another stream of random knowledge about the damned entered his mind:

"Nando…he's been around…he knows some things...a lot of things... A pity that his wretched head got left behind…"

This specific name was more vivid than the others to Daru, as it was the only name he had learned that did not have a surname.

It was simply that…

Nando…

Daru thought for a while, deciding to return to his hollow first.

He was quite fatigued, and Nando's gravestone was quite far from where he was.

Daru thought that it would be better to rest first, look for and stock up on sustenance, and increase his level one more time.

He was not far from another level up, anyway.

What's another day or two of delay?

Sleeping until his eyes opened naturally, Daru moved his gravestone door and stretched, heading for the black metal arch to exit the cemetery and look for sustenance.

Among the things he learned was that the cemetery didn't have them.

Or perhaps it did, and it was just that he hadn't had the luck to stumble upon the specific location where he could obtain them yet.

One thing Daru was sure of, though, was that the condemned staff of the cemetery wouldn't drop Limbo Carrots, Hellberries, Limbo Celeries, or any other type of similar consumables, only Purge Tickets, slips, and journals.

He would have to go out and hunt a few Damnedlings.

That he did, allotting an entire day wandering the vicinity of the route he and Rocante took to arrive at the cemetery and the specific area of the riverbank the hulking horror would use to cross to and fro the Howling River.

Unfortunately, he didn't have much luck and was forced to return to the Ancient Settlement, using up more time than he preferred.

He was able to stock up enough for around four days there before he returned to the cemetery.

Daru had more or less confirmed Rocante's routine on this side of the river by now, and so, he stopped stalking the hulking horror and went about his business in the Cemetery of the Damned, returning what his sense of time called the early evening of the next day.

He was about to enter the black metal archway when he caught a glimpse of something in his peripheral vision.

A Lost Damnedling — headless, staring with strange persistence into the depths of the cemetery, yet was unwilling to enter.

===

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