Blood Drunk Hunter (Shadow Slave/Bloodborne Fic)

Months passed as Gehrman became absorbed in his work. It took him two weeks to make the artificial cave his permanent residence. He took a lot of time making sure it was safe; though, he did get a bit carried away. 

The vision of this new home was more complicated than a mere bedroom. It was, instead, a new Hunters Workshop. Here he was able to do research without bothering anyone, while also having a great amount of test subjects delivering themselves to him. The Nightmare Creatures of the Dark City were strong, strong enough that Gehrman did not feel comfortable exploring too deeply, but that did not mean that he didn't have a large supply of material. On the contrary, he was able to kill and consume around five creatures every day. 

The bones and fur of these creatures filled many different roles in the New Workshop. The first and most important use was keeping the cave stable. He lined the interior with sturdy bones that he carved to fit the slight curve of the ceiling. He made sure to use only a certain type of bone in order to ensure consistency. In this case, it was the bone of a particularly large Beast that resembled a bear, except for the giant snake that acted as a tail. The bear had no eyes, but seemed to have a distinctly impressive sight. It seemed that the snake part afforded it something similar to his [Sixth Sense]. It was a ferocious beast, but very exploitable. Through simple sounds he very easily managed to disorient the creature, allowing for him to slaughter them fairly consistently. 

After the structure of the initial cave was solidified, he expanded, creating several small rooms off of the initial larger entrance area. Each side area had a different purpose. Storing corpses, storing shards, a smithing area, a well/water purification room, a dining hall (which was just a table), and the actual work room where he could construct different things. 

Both storage areas were simple, and required no further embellishment, though they did steadily grow bigger and bigger as time went on. The corpse room itself went from 10 square meters to 15, to 20 over the past months. 

He used the material from the corpses first in the smithing area. Old Gehrman had been intimately familiar with this kind of work, so he knew just what kind of things he needed to get it going. It took one month of work, but he finally got it working with a clever application of his Aspect. His control over his own blood skyrocketed as he for the first time, he started using it outside of his body. If he used all his will, he could harden his blood into something of similar strength to a Dormant Memory, but this was only temporary. The blood lost its heat and became unusable within minutes. 

A few minutes was all he needed though. After all, he could simply poke himself a bit and get more blood. This process of blood drawing became second nature to him. Gehrman could actually control the blood as it was in his blood stream and create a small point that would poke a hole through the vein and skin. He practiced it hundreds, if not thousands of times. It became as exact as any doctor's needle. 

It was also around this time that he experimented more with his clothes. Wearing the full [Hunter's Attire] was not practical for this kind of work. Instead, he did something that he had seen some of the other Sleepers do: summon the Memory partially. Gehrman was worried at first that this wouldn't work given his weird relationship with the Spell, but it appeared that since he already had the Memory, there weren't any issues. 

The first layer of the [Hunter Attire] included a gentlemen's buttoned shirt and tough, plain trousers. The shoes were fine, but both the hat and gloves remained in his Soul Sea as well. 

With this, he was able to start creating again. His first creations were simple tools that would help him mold the others. After some experimenting he found out that the bone, claws, and teeth of dead Nightmare Creatures still held the same level as they did when they were alive. Therefore, Gehrman did have the ability to make weapons of the Awakened tier, but he wouldn't be able to make Memories out of them. In other words, when those weapons broke they would be gone for good, and he had to physically carry them at all times. 

However, after the tools, the first things Gehrman made were traps. Ignoring the other Sleepers of the Bright Castle would be foolish. He doubted they would bother him, but there was no telling when his collection of corpses and shards would become enticing enough for some fools to come knock on his door. The first trap he set was a simple alarm. He tried to build it in a way that would only be loud inside the cave. He didn't want the neighbors to come bother him after all. 

The amount of useless knowledge that the kid had was frankly impressive. It was comprehensive enough that setting up this kind of thing only took four days. After that, setting up some simple bolts in the wall that would fire at the pulling of a lever only took six days. All the while he worked on getting fresh water. He was able to create a well, this time from old Gehrman's knowledge, and he connected the furnace from the smithy to this room as well; he would boil the water until it became fresh. 

It didn't taste great, but it would help him live. Besides, his constitution was such that he could go a day or two before getting thirsty. He still tried to drink every day though, determining that constantly drinking Beast blood ought to be supplemented with actual water.

Three weeks into his stay he realized a discrepancy in his [Blood Fragment] counter. Fourtantly, it was a good discrepancy; the counter was five fragments higher than his count in his head. He had been ignoring it for a while, attributing the change as a simple counting error from his madness tinged brain. However, this was not the case. After some searching in his runes he found the reason.

Innate Ability: [Predator]

Ability Description: [Every time you consume the flesh or blood of the Corrupted you will absorb some of its strength, the stronger the madness in a beast the stronger the absorption.]

The key term that he had overlooked was "flesh." Everytime he ate his breakfast, lunch, and dinner he had been adding to his counter bit by bit. Though this lifestyle was lonely, it was highly efficient! That wasn't all though, after he analyzed this he came to realize the true power of Innate Ability.

[Predator] was not just explaining how the Blood Fragment system worked. It also explained why Gehrman's strength was increasing rapidly. Of course, he was taking effort to improve his frail, youthful physique. But his improvement was nothing short of insanity, his form was still lithe, but it also had powerful muscle hidden underneath. In just a few short months he nearly caught up with Old Gehrman's physique in the First Nightmare. In fact, if he pushed his Aspect ability to its maximum he could reach that level. 

The reason for this was that his body (without any supernatural enhancement) was taking in some of the raw power of the Nightmare Creatures. It was eerily similar to how those creatures grew through consuming other beasts and humans. 

This progress allowed him to start gathering even stronger materials. After two months, he managed to slay his first Fallen Beast. It had the name [Corpse Eater] and resembled a leech. It was disgusting even by Nightmare Creature standards. It was dangerous to fight, as its status meant that if it were to connect to Gehrman even for a moment, then he would die. However, this was not an issue. Gehrman spent a week studying its attack patterns. Since it was a Beast, the number of variations was low. From an outsider's perspective it might have even looked easy. 

It was definitely worth the risk though. The first time drinking the blood of one of the Fallen was exhilarating. It offered double the Blood Fragments and it offered a higher quality boost to his physical strength. So much so that he actually noticed the difference. 

Fortunately for him, the [Corpse Eaters] seemed especially fond of Gehrman. This was likely due to the amount of corpses he had locked away in the workshop. The first time that one of them invaded his home had terrified him. A clumsy bell that had been reforged from some of the old metal he found in the Dark City alerted him of the intrusion. It was then he realized that his defenses had been woefully inefficient. The Fallen Beast had breached the heavy stone doors (that were only supposed to open via a hidden lever) through sheer brute strength. It had devoured the stone and then got shot full of bolts. Unfortunately, those bolts had been fashioned out of the teeth of Awakened Beasts. This meant that they did little more than annoy the thing.

By the time Gehrman reached the Beast, it had nearly finished devouring half of his stock. Thankfully, this also meant it was vulnerable. He coated the [Burial Blade] with his own blood which he quickly pulled from his wrist. It coiled out and around his gloves and coat making it gleam with deadly intent. Then, he swung with all his might, fatally wounding the stationary creature. 

The Spell had congratulated him, and Gehrman congratulated himself by dining on the things flesh and blood. The body of the thing was especially unnerving. He had to char the thing in a furnace before he was able to find it edible. The smoky flavor was overpowering, but at least it didn't taste like worms. 

After that, he spent the next couple hours doing a total overhaul of his traps and defenses. First he designed a separate entrance to the corpse storage. It was terribly small and filled with tiny knives. The knives wouldn't hurt it much, but that wasn't the point. Once the attached pressure plate was activated it would set off a different alarm. 

The plan was for the leech to make its way through the tunnel and get shot with special bolts, this time made out of the creepy teeth on the inside of the [Corpse Eaters]. These teeth were also of Fallen Rank, and they managed to wound the bastards. However, Gehrman would need to make his way through a new tunnel that he had created for quick access from his bedroom to the corpses. Then, it was simple to finish off the supposedly terrifying [Fallen Beast]. Without him even realizing it, Gehrman had made a farm of sorts. 

It wasn't perfect, and it required a lot of maintenance, but besides that time when three of the Beasts came at once there was no issue. Just like that, he was able to start upgrading more and more of his traps and home supplies. He had crafted a series of throwing knives to act as distractions. He had started work on a special Kirkhammer that would be able to knock armored enemies on their ass. And he had added a couple of traps in his bedroom as well. A series of the Fallen ranked bolts would rain from the ceiling, covering the small room entirely except for the bed which he would theoretically be standing on. The idea was to pull a hidden lever through sneaky control of his blood, catching the enemy off guard. 

After these renovations, he decided to also make the Workshop more home-like, taking the ragged and nasty fur of those weird bear-snake Nightmare Creatures and making rugs and comfy clothes. 

When all was said and done, he had created a great home and gotten a lot stronger. 

Three months after his arrival at the Forgotten Shore, Gehrman was feeling pretty good. 

[Blood Fragments: 927/1,000].

As for the sealed Memories, that was also going well. The scythe, attire, and gun had become Awakened during the Flesh Reaver escapade. At that point the counter had been reset and the number required for the equipment to recover Ascension increased ten fold. Even still, Gehrman had put a good chunk in it.

[Enemies Slain: 381/1,000]. 

The Memory's power didn't increase incrementally like Gehrman did with every single Blood Fragment he acquired. Even still, as long as he kept up this pace and acquired both Ascended weapons and armor, he would likely be unstoppable. Perhaps he could even have a go at that Fallen Terror. It would make him feel good if he managed to save all the Sleepers here. 

Little did he know, one other Sleeper was plotting to do the very same thing. 

That Sleeper who would be the catalyst for the death of hundreds. 

A spirit of ruin had arrived at Bright Castle. And following her was a blind prophet and a deadly shadow.