That’s where I stopped last night as well. Finding that elevator and shortcut back to the original bonfire. It’s funny that after hanging onto all the souls early on before the firelink shrine, ever since then I haven’t been able to bank hardly any souls at all. I always get greedy and never go back, and end up losing them all. But I know from previous Souls games that this should be fine. I’m sure I’ll catch up on Souls later.
I did manage to get just enough that I can use the longbow now. So my last act last night before logging off was to use the longbow on the dragon and collect the loot in the area he was guarding.
It’s too bad I have nowhere near the stats to use any of the weapons I found there.