PSA from the author:
I had a couple things wrong for Gehrman's [Walking Workshop] Aspect Ability that I will now be retconning. Here are the changes:
The Bloodstone to Rank conversion.
I think that a while back I made a Bloodstone Shard = Dormant, Twin Bloodstone Shard = Awakened, Blood Chunk = Ascended, etc. This was because I was planning out of the gate to have Gehrman be able to create Memories, but I thought that might be too overpowered for an Ascended ability considering all else that it can do. TLDR, everything has been moved up a Rank, hence Blood Rock's now being searched for to create Supreme Memories.
The amount required to upgrade Memories.
I mistakenly had it as 2 for the first upgrade, then 4, then 8. (I think I also put it down as 12 total at one point??) I got confused since I was doing an Elden Ring run at the time. But since I've also just finished my NG+3 of Bloodborne recently, I realized my mistake. It is 3 for the first, then 5, then 8. Totaling to 16 of the relevant resources for every +3 in-game and +Rank in the story. This is a BIG difference, but honestly there is no way to retroactively go back and change it, so all the upgraded Memories will be staying the same. The [Greedy Bloodstone Tailsman] (which had gone through 2 of the 3 upgrades) will now need 8 Blood Chunks to become Transcendent.
For the future:
[Walking Workshop] will be upgraded upon Rank up to incorporate new things, so don't be too disappointed by my saying that he can't yet create Memories, you have a lot more than that to look forward to.
…
[Echo Name]: Moon's Phantasm
[Echo Description]:
A Phantasm is an Arcane entity born of dreams colliding. They act as the familiars of Great Ones, responding specially to their presence.
Gehrman's mind whirled and buzzed with new Insight as he tried to piece together the relevant memories. The only thing that came to mind were those empty invertebrate creatures that spawned near Ebriteas, deep in the Altar of Despair.
The empty shell of the creature – which was indeed known as a Phantasm by the Choir of the Healing Church – could provide an Arcane coating to almost any weapon.
Johann had found an Empty Phantasm Shell in a secret, upper compartment of Brygenwerth, and had used it to great effect throughout the night.
And then there was something more subtle.
A shelled invertebrate with Arcane propertie… hadn't there been countless shells in the Fishing Hamlet when Johann had gone there?
At the bottom of the underground mines torn into the nearby mountain, those shells littered the ground everywhere. Seeping in the dark, murky water and emanating an eerie absence.
Some humanoid monstrosities had made their homes in those shells, but they were separate from them.
In other words, those empty shells could very well have been discarded Phantasms themselves.
They did not appear to wield the same Arcane properties as the Empty Phantasm Shell of Ebriteas, but that could have been due to the long loss of their Great One's avatar on that plane of reality.
He had gained Insight from reading the description, indicating it as the truth. These "familiars" of the Great Ones were born from the clashing of dreams. Based on the Echo Description, it was likely that any time a Great One interfered with a Dream, Phantasms would be born.
So it was only natural that a Phantasm would be born when Paleblood breached the Dream Realm and the Waking World.
The Nightmare Spell had likely taken it upon itself to rid reality of any new creatures that spawned that way, but it appeared the Great One had found a loophole through the system of Aspect Legacy's.
Gehrman frowned.
This could be dangerous.
The Phantasm belonged to him. It was an Echo bound to his Soul…but his Soul was also Paleblood's. The Moon Presence had created this Phantasm, and due to Gehrman's nature this thing would serve him faithfully. After all, their identities were synonymous from the Nightmare Spells perspective.
But if the Moon Presence – the true Paleblood – gained more control, then it was entirely possible that this creature would ignore his will entirely.
Well, let's see what it can do first.
If this thing was an Awakened or Ascended then there wouldn't be much point in worrying about it.
But when he looked, Gehrman felt neither content nor dread, but instead confusion.
Rank: ???
Class: ???
Gehrman had never seen the Spell attribute question marks to anything sort of Memory, and he had never heard of such a thing occurring anywhere else. Still, there were more Runes he could look at, and as it turned out, these would shine light on the situation.
Attributes: [Stillborn] [Of The Moon] [Of The Void]
Abilities: [Finality Absorption]
Attribute Description:
[Stillborn]
This creature has not yet awakened to reality. Its form flickers between Dream and Reality. Without given substance, it will hold none itself. The quality of that which is given will determine its potential and power to lay claim to the realities it invades.
Attribute Description:
[Of The Moon]
Beholden to the Great One who birthed it. The nature of this familiar reflects that of the entity whose essence resulted in its manifestation. As such, it retains the same resistances as its master.
Attribute Description:
[Of The Void]
Beholden to the Great One who birthed it. The nature of this entity is of that which is deplorable and exiled. It may inherit the properties of Madness.
Ability Description:
[Finality Absorption]
Abandoned flesh may be absorbed by this Phantasm to anchor itself to the physical plane. At the behest of its master, it will feast.
Gehrman blinked in the real world, his eyes hung on the [Stillborn] Attribute.
Are you telling me that this thing…is completely useless right now!?
He summoned it. There was no time like the present, after all.
Unexpectedly, there were some white sparks mixed in with the pale purple ones. As he understood it, those sparks that occurred during the manifestation of every Memory and Echo revealed its creator.
All of his Memories emitted pale purple, the same color often associated with the Great One. It was the color that appeared with the access of different realities from the Hunters Dream, so it was – in Gehrman's mind – indicative of the creature's transdimensional power.
He had also seen red sparks a few times, those were creations of the Great Clan Valor.
Then there were the white sparks of the Nightmare Spell (and for some reason, Sunny's Memories also appeared with this color). Those Memories were the ones that everybody got, so it was interesting to see it mingled with this new Echo.
Perhaps Paleblood really couldn't make an Echo, and it had hijacked the process of creating one from the Spell to create this thing.
Whatever the process was that created this thing, it clearly was unnatural.
The moment the sparks cleared, Gehrman's eyes saw nothing before him. But his Sixth Sense could sense something. A flickering existence as the [Stillborn] Attribute had described.
Gehrman expanded his [Eyes on The Inside]. It took more than usual to see the shape of the Echo.
His first impression was that it looked to be a simple shell, not too dissimilar from one that a crab would wear. However, it was too large a size to be something like a crab's shell. Gehrman judged it to be about 1 meter in diameter, big enough to where he could pick it up, but it would be very awkward.
Looking deeper though, he saw the true creature. It was an invertebrate (the distinction that Phantasms were of this biological structure was odd to him, but who was he to question it?).
The invertebrate appeared fused to the shell's lining, and it moved in a pattern. The lines swirled to create a "golden ratio". Gehrman had come across the concept by happenstance while learning about architecture, and it surprised him that the memory survived his purging of that now irrelevant body of knowledge.
Perhaps it was because the concept of the golden ratio was so odd. It could not be explained by science, but the design was found often in various parts of nature, and it was hardwired to be pleasing or beautiful to the human who witnessed it.
Of course, none of this really mattered.
What mattered was the next step.
The Moon's Phantasm was useless to him at the moment, its embryonic state a far cry from anything powerful…
But Gehrman was still ecstatic.
"Abandond Flesh, in other words, you can come into this world and gain existence by absorbing corpses," Gehrman said.
At that moment, he felt his body turn instinctively toward a far away location. It was over a hundred kilometers away, but in the Fishing Hamlet, there just so happened to be a very potent corpse that would be quite fitting.
The corpse of Kos, the dead flesh of a Great One's avatar.
…
Gehrman resisted the urge to immediately go and visit the Fishing Hamlet.
Judging by the star's location, about a month had passed, so he would still have time before the slaughter of the Fishing Hamlet. He had already instructed Caryll to come to the shore of Hintertomb and send a signal when the forces of Byrgenwerth started to move, and so far, he had seen no such thing.
With his current senses, he could tell if something truly loud or bright occurred from a few kilometers away, so even in the heart of Hintertomb he would likely be able to tell if she set off some fireworks.
And indeed that was what she would do.
Gehrman had given her the recipe warily, along with a long, long list of warnings before he had headed out on this trip.
So for the time being, he still would be able to continue "grinding" and get more Memories and Upgrade Materials for his [Walking Workshop] Ability.
And he suspected that feeding the Moon's Phantasm the corpses of some Great Creatures would be quite beneficial as well. Though he didn't want to limit his cute Phantasm to the 5th Rank, he also didn't want it to be Divine or Sacred right off the bat.
He was still wary of the thing, so if it was stronger than the current Gehrman, he would be quite worried.
Judging from the wording of the Echo's Ability and Attribute, it was likely that the strongest corpse it consumed would be the Echo's "limit" and then the majority of what brought it into the physical realm would determine its current Rank.
Most Echos couldn't grow stronger in Rank, but it was possible it was just an exceptional rarity.
Sunny's Echo's could grow, after all.
Whatever the case, the benefit of Hunting Great Nightmare Creatures was too simple.
Though getting a Supreme Memory was unlikely, getting a Blood Rock, the natural next step in enhancing his preexisting Memories, might be more likely.
That was because in his Soul Sea he now had 73 Blood Chunks from slaughtering a bunch of Corrupted creatures this past month. That was roughly twice the amount of Memories he had received, so Gehrman suspected that the odds of receiving Blood Rocks would be doubly more likely as well.
From an energy standpoint, this made sense.
In observing Sunny's creation of Memories, his "Weaving", Gehrman gained a vague understanding of the sorcery at a conceptual level. One of its most base tenets was the more potent the Memory, the more complex it would have to be.
But no complexity was required in crystalizing the blood and Will of a Beast. They had even appeared naturally back in Yharnam, the process was a simple consolidation of the relevant energies. Unlike the vast webs of Memories, there could be no debate that even a simpleton could create them with a single command so long as they held the required power.
Gehrman also wanted to build a stockpile of the Blood of Great Nightmare Creatures. Now that he didn't have to worry about Blood Fragments, the most potent blood he could find would always go into the storage of the [Portable Blood Imbiber]. Though the Memory was starting to lose its usefulness due to its low Rank, its storage capabilities were still unreplaceable.
He considered using his new supply of Blood Chunks to upgrade it, but decided against it for now. Though it would be useful, compared to making some of his more deadly Tools and Weapons into Transcendent Memories, there could be no contest.
Speaking of those upgrades, since he was going after Great abominations now, there was no point in delaying them.
To fully upgrade his Memories Rank, it required 16 of the relevant resources. First 3 would be applied for base stability, then 5 to increase its overall deadliness, and finally 8 to push it over the limit with sheer power.
The first thing he did was finish upgrading the [Greedy Bloodstone Tailsman], it had only needed 8 Blood Chunks to finish its evolution, and now that it was complete, the feeling was immensely satisfying.
A Charm of the 6th Tier at the Transcendent Rank…this might very well be one of the strongest Charms in existence. Charms were rare in and of themselves, so getting one of a higher tier would have had a low chance, and there were only so many Corrupted Terrors and Titans that had been slain, so it must have been exceedingly rare.
Of course, the Sovereigns had likely gotten a few Great Charms over the years if they ever went out and actually killed some Great Nightmare Creatures, so he was hesitant to call it the strongest ever.
Still, it increased his resistances across the board to a large degree. With this, his defenses were not worse than an unequipped Transcendent.
After this, he was left with 65 Blood Chunks, which left him with the option to gain 4 other Transcendent Memories from the batch that were Ascended.
Naturally, the Memory that had been of most use lately would have to go next: [The Wrathful Shaman Boneblade]. It was especially dangerous in Gehrman's hands, and with it he could degrade any higher Class Nightmare Creature into a mere Beast in terms of intelligence.
And though it wasn't as practical, a small part of him needed to know what the Memory did to an opponent a Rank higher than it.
What had he really accomplished against the Winter Beast? Had he managed to make any difference for all those people at Falcon Scott?
In that same vein, the [Gluttonous Reitersplasch] would be next on the list. The poison and attack potency were already insidious. If they were forced in a straight fight, a Transcendent version might actually have been better than the [Burial Blade]. It was a sobering thought, as he had grown quite reliant on the scythe-blade, and with Gehrman's memories making up the majority of his experiences, his expertise in the weapon was the greatest.
Still, one-on-one against a Great Beast, the poison, and the fortification it would gain from Great blood would be enormously powerful.
The last two were also pretty straight forward. He could have upgraded the [Lustful Vial], but that would be simply impractical.
He would greatly enjoy the [Envious Executioners Gloves] in combat though, as their ability to stun opponents would no doubt be vital in his survival against multiple Transcendent foes.
Then, the [Slothful Evelyn], the weapon, had the potential for truly insane power. He suspected that at the Transcendent Rank, it may very well be able to slay Great Beasts at a close enough range. Its cost was high, but there was no doubt of its use.
Gehrman grinned.
His arsenal had become a lot more deadly, and if he truly applied himself, soon it would become even more so.
If he could get enough Blood Rocks to gain a Supreme Memory, then he believed he would have a real shot at surviving this whole mess and coming out on top.
…
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: I will be attempting to do daily updates for this week (the next seven days). The chapters won't be as long, but get ready for a lot of content.