but you will be able to find an optional boss later that will give you a map that shows you where all the grubs are if you can't figure it out right now, i'll tell you that much
the only thing i can think of that's really a lategame investment is like....upgrade path for your weapon, maybe?? and another area you'll probs get to a bit later
I got past dung defender and liek four miles into the next nightmare labyrinth of spikes and then died and now I'm back where I took the screenshot at hte top of this plurk
yeah there's like one natural bench in the ancient basin iirc but my brain did gloss over the spikes you have to hop around over to get into the meat of the area
generally the guards spawn with enough leeway that even if you ram into them you won't take more than like one damage and then you can just fucking run like hell more or less
that i just exasperatedly killed myself, went back to my last save point and then rode stagways to jiji to summon my shade so i could get my stuff back
either soul catcher (get more soul from hitting enemies) orrr spell twister (you'll need to go back to soul sanctum to get it if you didn't find it in the secret room before, but it lowers spell cost) both cost 2
visions of blighttown