Kuru sits beside the site of grace, thinking. 'What should I do now?' His first objective was to get Ranni to teach him, which he achieved. She also told him that she will teach him further when he arrives at her tower, she probably thinks he will have given up by then.

But he will not, he cannot.

'How to go about training...' Then an idea flashes through his mind. 'They level through use, as does my MP, so I should passively use them as much as I can, in or out of combat.' And so he does, his MP bar has already risen to double of what it was before.

His Sharingan blazes in his eyes, clearing his vision as has become the norm for Kuru. He also decides to emit a cold aura through use of the dark moon magic, a way of passively leveling it.

He stands up from the comfort of the grace and walks over to Kale, the red and white garbs the gray-skinned man wears making it easy to find him. He sits beside a fire, his donkey or horse, Kuru could not tell, behind him.

Kuru approaches. "I heard your talk with the blue lady." Kale begins. "No matter, I know you are civil. So, care to trade?" He offers, laying out a few items on a large blanket.

Kuru had barely enough Runes for the crafting kit.

[Crafting] Level 1/100

The skill of crafting and tinkering items together.

Vague, but all his skills are. Kuru goes on to chat with Kale, not much to say, they do not know each other much and, besides trading, don't want anything from each other. But company is appreciated in these lands.

But Kuru must continue his journey and so he goes off towards the gate where he should meet Melina.


He dashes towards the enemy, dodging the blade that was swung at him. And, after another gutting slash, this knight also falls by the hand of Kuru.

He turns towards the large gate that lay behind him, the camp of knights lay slain behind him. 'Only three deaths.' A good amount, if he where to say. He continues on towards the Site of Grace, the cold wind of Limgrave blowing on his back, the ocean does lay behind him after all.

His body trembles, he has been fighting and dying for about two days now. Most of his time was spent laying in wait for an opportune time to strike and also running from the three dogs. Yeah, those sucked.

His armor rattles as he falls to the ground, sitting next to the grace, awaiting her.

And she does appear, blue mist and particles form the green cloaked figure of his to-be finger maiden. Who he will spare, if she wants it or not. He is glad that the flame of frenzies influence has yet to show signs, she would not approach otherwise.

She kneels beside him and his grace and lowers her hood, revealing her face. One eye closed with some sort of seal, depicting a skeletal arm. "Greetings, traveler from beyond the fog. I am Melina. I offer you an accord." Her gentle voice takes some weight off of his shoulders even if he doesn't really know her.

"Ah, I am going to take you to the base of the Erdtree and you will be my finger maiden, correct?" He just wishes to speed things up a bit. What if he says things he should have no knowledge of? In this broken world, it doesn't really matter what you know. There are only a few select beings he should tread lightly with but neither Ranni or Melina should converse with them any time soon.

Melina looks taken aback by his words, her remaining eye wide with shock. "Ah- You are correct." She does not continue. No use questioning him, though she would like to know who told him, maybe Ranni? She did see him talking to her for a while, though she could not hear them.

"Then I accept." He says, his face as still and stern as it had been for a while now. The only change in expression Melina had seen on his face was when he was talking with the other two people he had interacted with, and even then only some times. Most of the time, his face is a still and focused stare. He continues, the serious look made him even more imposing than he had been when fighting that camp behind them, at lest he wasn't looking at her then. It also makes for a good incentive for her not to question his knowledge. "Now, you can turn runes into strength?"

Melina nods, finally having some semblance of control back. "Yes, I can. Wouldst you lend me thy hand?" She slowly reaches out to him, her hand course and with small inflections. The Lands Between are an unforgiving place.

He nods and his armor rattles as they clasps palms.

Kuru can see a screen appear in front of him.

RUNES: 3390

One tier in any E stat: 2000

One tier in any D stat: 5000

One tier in any C stat: 10.000

One tier in any B stat: 25.000

One tier in any A stat: 50.000

One tier in any S stat: 100.000

One tier in any SS stat: 500.000

One tier in any DEVINE stat: 1.000.000

Unlock the shop: 100.000

Mangekyo Quest: Level 100 Sharingan, 300.000

Rinnegan Quest: Senju DNA, 700.000

Dragon Communion Quest stage 1: 1 Dragon Heart, 100.000

'Certainly a selection.' He looks at all the options, buying a stage in INT with the Runes he has, ranking it up to D. What else seems interesting are the quest that he can see, dragon communion and the shop seem closest to being possible to obtain. The flying Dragon Agheel a few kilometers behind him at the lake would provide that heart. Though it is a dragon. But the good thing about not being able to die, or returning after death that is, is that everything you want to do, is possible and it's only a matter of time until it happens.

Well, you do die an infinite amount of times too.

He refocuses on the real world and let's go of Melina's hand. He hadn't even noticed that the rest of the world faded away while holding his maidens hand until the effect started reversing. Said finger maiden gives him something before leaving with a final 'I wish you the best of luck.'

Torrents Whistle

Summons a spectral steed for you to ride. Can double jump!

He holds the bracelet shaped instrument in his hands before blowing into it. In the same blue mist that Melina appeared in, a horse with horns and a saddle treads forth. "Hey buddy. We'll be spending a lot of time together. Mostly dying."

The horse nods, as if knowing that already. Kuru shakes his head, he needs to kill a dragon, he's good for runes and a heart he will apparently need more than he thought.


His flesh singes as he barely dodges behind a rock. The constant exposure to heat had already given him a resistance skill but he had seen neither hide nor hair of a pain resistance skill. Which he would appreciate much more at this moment. The dragon continues to spray flames at his rock, starting to even melt it. It's been 24 deaths and he does not plan to add another, so when the dragon ceases it's breath attack he jumps on Torrent and sees that he had barely avoided being crushed by one of it's feet.

He rides under the dragon and swings his blade upwards, chopping at the bone that connects the wing to it's torso. He had done that thrice now and the damage is showing, the beast moves the right wing less and had not flown anywhere since the second strike there. The dragons head turns to him and it opens it's mouth, a sign he immediately recognizes. Not planning to be eaten again, the first time his leg was crushed and he spent a good five minutes struggling in the beasts maw until it just burned him to death, he commands his mount to perform two jumps.

But Kuru knew that Agheel would do such a maneuver if he went under it's belly while he damaged it's wing, something he found out a few lives before, so he dismounts at the peak of his jump. At the very same moment, the dragon spun and crushed or smashed everything in it's horizontal vicinity. Kuru screams as he lands on the dragons head before shoving his Uchigatana through the flame lizards eye, the blade coming out the other.

His left arm was broken and a few ribs where cracked but, as the dragon crashed to the ground and disintegrated, he sighed in relief and joy. "I did it. I killed a fucking dragon." He had not the energy to shout his achievement but it mattered not. He did it.

5.000 Runes, Dragon Heart

He had almost given up at some points, when he was first burned to death he cried for a good ten minutes before attempting again, when he was crushed for the first time he felt claustrophobic in his own armor, but he thought of all the planning he had done, all the suffering he would forsake, and his own family, that it would all be for nothing if he cannot prove himself here. So he continued and he finally did it.


Invaded by Bloody Finger Nerijus

'Finally!' After resting for a good while, he went on to fight this guy, he plans on making a blood build for himself, he will still use everything he has, all magics and faiths, but the Rivers of Blood and any other blood build-up weapon he can think of are good supports for his spells. So, he needs to progress Yura's quest to obtain thee secondary piece of that build, Eleonora's Poleblade. He knows what fate awaits the man if he does this, so he does not plan on talking to him, he does not need to.

All these people will die when he ascends, so he should not get too attached to the side NPC's. He really hopes he can get Melina to his side, he does not wish to make her an avenger for a terrible world. He wishes to have her by his side when he destroys the world. He shakes his head, no time for that.

The man clad in Sanguine noble garbs and a red dagger in hand rushes at him, slashing a blade o magic blood at him. His sword mastery is now at level 34, almost half max, which means almost half of the best possible sword play possible, so he just ducks under the swing. Then, when the man comes in for a horizontal swing of his little dagger, he uses the reach provided by his Uchigatana, as well as the foresight provided by his active Sharingan, to cut the mans swinging arm off before he can extend the blade any further.

"AARG-" The invader cannot even finish his scream of pain as Kuru swiftly beheads him. The body falls to the floor before transitioning into particles like all the other corpses he had left in his wake.

Reduvia, 1.294 Runes.

He can feel the weight of the knife appear in a small satchel to his side. A good backup, to be sure. "I did it too fast for even Yura to show up." An amusing thought.


"So, why choose me?" He sits in the cave entrance of the cave that Patches dwells in, deeper inside. He is relaxing for a bit and decided to talk with his maiden a bit.

She sits on her shins a bit to his side, her face had relaxed from the last time he had seen her. "You seemed the most competent, and thy skills had been proven after slaying Agheel." She seems proud at his kill.

She is confident now, this is the Tarnished that will help her burn the Erdtree, that is her destiny.

Kuru looked at the wall in front of him before refocusing on her. "Sure, but anybody who cannot die will achieve their goal eventually. Infinite life means infinite time." He offers.

She nods in agreement. "But many change their goals, driven to despair by the suffering." She doesn't like the sad smile on his face at her last word.

His features reset though, he had seemed so human just now. At other times he looks so focused, like he lives only for his dreams and does not stop to enjoy the sights. Though when she saw the expression of satisfaction and accomplishment on his face after felling Agheel, she admits, she did feel for him, his sheer determination that she could feel wafting off of him made her consider if her goal is as admirable as whatever his is.

She does not think Kuru only desires to be Elden Lord, he had rarely talked about it.

Kurushimi nods at her argument, smiling to himself at her insistence. "If you put it like that." He pauses. "How many had you seen fall to their pain, Melina?" serious again, the swift changes in his facial features are not signs of good mental health.

The finger maiden thinks back, to her previous partners, to the ones she had seen fall from a distance, to the tales she had heard. "Many, far too many to keep count." Melancholy, a feeling she had rarely felt in the harsh lands she is unfortunate enough to be born in. She had cared little for all those she had seen fall from grace or submit to anger but they are all human, some partners of hers she even considered friends.

"What if I coul-" He stops himself, braking eye contact before his face takes on a more relaxed smirk. "Forget it. So, what do you do when you're a... ghost? Spirit?"

She enjoys him, all her other companions had lost most of their personality after just a dozen deaths, after realizing that becoming Elden Lord is far out of reach.

Kuru needed to stop himself, he cannot do this again. He cannot let her get too close, company is good and all but after... his family he had problems letting his wall of either seriousness or silliness down, his true feelings. So, he will continue to talk with her, joke or just nod along. He didn't know when he had formed those two masks, one for when he is more relaxed and another for when he had a goal in mind, a goal of persuasion, a goal of combat or a goal of power.

He'll continue to grow, making conversation if he is bored.


He ignored Patches, the man would only annoy him, and found Roderika's shack after running past the giant at the gate. He dismounted Torrent and walked to the small ruined shack to the side of the crumbling house where the sad girl sat, he does not need to talk to her. She will find her way to the Rountable or die trying, he does not care.

He only needed a roof, floor and Grace near the place where he can start to work out, train his powers. He didn't want to conquer the castle overtaken by misbegotten or stay in a ruin, all of those places had foes he would need to regularly slay as they where reanimated by the sealed nature of death.

The stormy wind that made the few cloth-y bits of his armor flap lessened as he walked into the house. It was smaller than the one he saw the girl sit in but he did not need much. It still had all the walls and roofs in tack, only a few holes in place, he could make this livable. He started to take off his armor, it was a bit difficult, the complicated nature of Japanese style samurai armor made it hard but he managed and was left in a black fabric shirt and a loose equivalent of pajamas made from firmer cloth as pants.

It's a bit cold, the wind flies inside from the stormy winds of- well- stormhill but he had burned alive thrice now and he greeted the chill with gratitude. He had made a list of what workouts he had done in his past life, the ones that exercised all the muscles it could without extra equipment, while riding Torrent and would start to build the routine today.

He would not progress for a few days, the pain of a limit-braking workout he planned would hider his battle prowess and he normally does not have the mindset to consistently physically train, he only did after military service where the routine was forced onto him but it would take a bit to get back into that headspace.

his mind had changed, he can recognize signs of trauma, the masks he had built and the almost fanatic way he went about gaining power and the way he immediately disregarded his own life after confirming his immortality but when he was alone, none of that mattered. When alone, he was Micheal. A man who died at 18, who saw his family perish in front of him. He had not been alone after the first time he woke up here and even then the system and his new goal distracted his mind enough but now, without any external stimuli, it was only him and the memories.

He can remember the birth of his brother, the times he and his dad worked on some project or when he went with his sister on her first day of school. But the where all gone, he cant even hope that they where watching him in an afterlife that he never believed in, he wasn't even in the same dimension. He craves them back, he hadn't noticed how he had thrown himself into a the strenuous exercise or when the tears rained to the floor as he did pushups.

It's an ugly image but only he can see it, Melina could be but he knows, after talking to her, that she also needs food and some times stays at the Roundtable for shelter.

"I'll avenge you all." he muttered to himself. Yes, he will burn the pain away, along with any future pain.

His heart ached for them, for the company he did not value enough when he still had it but, after he could no longer train, he only stared off to the wall as he sat against the one opposite. 'I need to calm down. This is the trauma response of my brain, they are dead, they will not return. Move on man.' But he also knows that he needs time to grieve, so he decided that he would stay in this shack today, thinking back and mourning.

It is hard and he will need more time but he knows he can get over this, he had dealt with trauma after his grandfather died and, while this is much worse, his heart aches again, he had experience, so this can be easier than it would be otherwise.


"Foul tarnished." The rough voice echoes out throughout the castle entrance. "In search of the Elden Ring." He looks towards the one tower he can see from here, one that was connected to the giant form of Stormhill Castle, and a golden light forms a cloaked figure. It had gray skin, his Sharingan can see, and horns protruding all over his body and almost completely over his right eye, while he held a staff.

"Emboldened by the flame of ambition." His cloak billowed in the wind as the one of cursed, but royal, blood jumped. A mass of dust and smoke spew from his landing point and Kuru had to cover his eyes.

"Someone must extinguish thy flame." The dust settles as he can see the omen again, the cursed lowering his cane as the cloak settled, the rope that kept the two sides of the clothing together seemed strained by the leap but it held on.

Kuru readied himself as he drew his Uchigatana, his first serious and intelligent foe. "Let it be Margit the Fell!"

Kuru could almost feel the choir start to sing at the declaration but he focused on the fight. He tried to use his Sharingan to cast an illusion on the Omen and the man stopped for a bit, his eyes glazed over, but he felt his illusion break as some kind of bright energy freed the mans mind. 'No easy way then.' His face only flinches slightly.

He covers his blade in the freezing energy of the dark moon and he fired two spears of frozen water, the Omen dodged them both.

Kuru rushed at the man. His eyes saw the swing of the cane and he was swift enough to duck below it, cutting twice at the legs of his foe, before he was impaled by the large, yellow glowing, dagger that was held and summoned in the monsters other hand.

His stomach feels empty and bloated, all his insides pushed away or spilling out as the man removed the blade. He died shortly after.


After sixteen more attempts at the Omens life, Kuru decided to go back to the grace at his shack and talk to Melina to start the dragon communion quest, while also leveling up with the runes he would have left over.

He greeted his maiden as he sat by the glowing shard and they started the act of transferring runes into power. He had saved up the 100.000 Runes needed for the quest by hunting everything in lower Limgrave he could. Over and over and over again. He had time and he saw the roadblock that Margit- or Morgott- presented to him.

Dragon communion Quest stage 1:

Locate a Church of Dragon Communion.

Consume a draconic heart bathed in the red flames of the chapel.

Win the battle of mind.

He then leveled up the stats he could, also seeing that his training had graded the physical ones up.

Kurushimi Uchiha.

VIT: D

DEX: D+

STR: E+

INT: D+

FAI: D

Student of:

Ranni the Witch

He then teleported to the church that he fought his way towards after seeing the quest and he walked into the ruined structure, the corpse of the dragon laying on a mountain of rubble made for an intimidating sight.

He took out the heart, covered in stone and far too large for any animal he could've imagined back on earth, except maybe whales, and laid in in the standing torch that emanated red flame. But the heart did not melt or charr by the fire, on the contrary, the heart started beating again. "Eww." But he swallowed his disgust along with as much of the heart as he could eat at once.

He saw the rest of the heart disintegrate and knew he needed only a bite, which he regretted not taking as the rough and iron taste filled his tongue. But that was only the start, he felt his brain throb. He knelt to the floor as he threw up but it did not remove the pain in his head, the vertigo that he is experiencing as his world spun.

Then his mind flashed with images of the moments before his death, the eye-less figure of his father smiling at him, the corpse of his infant brother, head snapped off, and his fingers dug into the floor. His vision filled with red as he cried onto the floor, he knew that dragon communion made most mad but he hoped he could resist.

But this was far worse than he could imagine, this draconic trait that had reared it's ugly head is targeting his strongest emotions, playing on his lowest moments. 'NO! You need to hold on, Micheal! The flame!' He focused on his goal, even as his mind tarnished the memories of his family with a rage that swept his mind unwillingly. He felt stronger, his body felt hot, a yellow flame started to seep out of his skin.

He saw the three fingers, in a damp and rotten room, howling at the unseen sky. They beckoned for him to relieve them, to inherit their gods power. 'I will.' He saw his family overlap with the door to the fingers. 'Avenge.' He clenched his jaw even more as he already had, can you break your teeth this way? The question falls to the wayside as he starts to focus again. 'Keep you sanity.' His rapid breathing calmed slowly, he locked the emotions of anger away, they will stay down in his deepest depths along with his sorrow and pain.

His vision returned, he saw the centimeter long motes he dug with his fingers, his skin was open on many places as he saw his skin turned red, he left his armor for this, he feared he needed to cut off a limb if it grew with some kind of draconic infestation, he did not want to turn to a draconic monster like those lava wyrms in the caves he remembered form the game.

You have become a draconic human!

Each dragon (and their human counterparts) possess an element.

Kurushimi Uchiha

VIT: D

DEX: D+

STR: E+

INT: D+

FAI: D

Student of:

Ranni the Witch

Draconic Trait (Stage 1):

Destruction/Fire

Draconic traits are gained appropriate to the user and are not skills and will only become stronger with the stage. These elements can be controlled to a certain degree, strengthened by the stage. More conceptual elements, like destruction, are harder to control but can be applied in any known manner that the concept is known for. Elements are part of your very being, your personality and mind will be affected by these elements.

He calmed down. He breathed and read the message, to calm down and to see what he gained. "An element? I don't think this was part of Elden Ring Lore." He stood back up, wobbly though. "But the quest was given by the system so..." He lifted his right hand and, in an instinctual response to his will, a yellow flame lit in his palm. A fusion of both of his elements influenced by the flame in his mind, he knew. It is a flame to melt away all. But he was knew he could use it more than just through incantations now, he hadn't found any yet but still, he knew.

He grabbed the flame with his left hand, the fire did not even singe him nor did he feel the heat, and he split the two basic functions of his fire apart. What was left was a normal, orange flame in his right hand and a red mist in his right. "Woah." His mind started to throb less and less as he focused on the additions to his very being. He flipped his left hand over and the mist descended to the floor.

Upon landing, the mist dissolved along with a good meter of the floor below him. He almost slipped into the empty hole that was left by the mist. He smiled slightly. "Oh you are so dead Morgott."