A bit more progress in Dark Souls. In preparation for the new areas, I've been farming Royal Sentinels in Anor Londo to level up some more. These guys hit pretty hard, especially since I'm wearing light armor for better mobility, so it's not exactly a walk in the park. That said, with the Black Knight Sword +5, I can usually kill them in 2-3 hits, and they give 3000 souls each. It took a while, and I didn't do it all in one sitting, but I managed to raise strength all the way to 40. Consequently, my damage output skyrocketed, so this was definitively worth it.

Next up, I went on a weapon upgrade spree. First, I got the Very Large Ember from New Londo Ruins, which improved the Claymore to +15. At that level, it's roughly on pair with the Black Knight Sword +5 based on my current stats. However, the Claymore can be further buffed using various types of resin, which should help against bosses. On that note, I bought a bunch of charcoal resin from the merchant in the sewers, in case I need some extra fire damage. Lastly, I had given Andre the Divine Ember some time ago, and now I got a chance to use it. For the target, I picked the trusty Longsword that my warrior originally started with, and the result was excellent.

After all that, I finally decided to brave the Catacombs near Firelink Shrine. The skeleton enemies here gave me some trouble in the past, but my newly minted Divine Longsword +5 can permanently kill them, which made things a lot easier now. This area can get a bit confusing due to the low visibility and breakable floors, but everything fell into place once I got to the undead blacksmith and the nearby bonfire. After that, I ran past the spinning skeletons, heading straight for the boss, which was a surprisingly easy fight. Most importantly, the loot from that encounter included the Rite of Kindling, which can greatly boost the number of healing flask uses.

So far so good. I feel much more prepared now, so I may tackle one of the harder locations next. Should prove interesting.