Not a big update tonight:

So my evening began with helping a friend I had made through the game with the Cave of the Dead, which considering how short it was and my own experience, I felt like a freaking super star for once being able to slam in there and take out all the cronies left and right. Even took down two of the three Gank Squad bosses by myself.

After that, I tried my hand with the third Cave of Dark for the Pilgrims of Dark Covenant and kept dying stupid deaths thanks to all of the freaking bottomless pits. I ran out of human effigies and decided to just focus on the Ivory King DLC.

I was able to reach my first Knight to help me with the boss, but not before a lot of trial and error. The enemies in this DLC are tanky as hell and I had to use a few Repair Powders and most of my arrows just to make it back to one of the bonfires in one piece. I've also decided that along with the Ice Hedgehogs, my new least favorite enemy type in this area is the re-imagined Crystal Giants from the Duke's Archive. You know except now they are ice based, have much better speed, which was like their only weakness in the original. Still high poise, still lots of damage. I also lit some torches that led to a cavern with a bunch of those backstab happy priestesses and decided to play it safe and just call it a night at this point. I'm still looking for the optional zone cause I usually try to complete it before the final story boss battle if I can if not first, but this one seems really well hidden for some reason.