Speaking of high spirits, the guardian was lighting candles on the ceiling. At some point while Chilly was gone, another blast of wind had extinguished all the candles in the Shrine. This dropped the Shrine into darkness once more, but Chilly wasn’t too worried. His torch was adequate lighting for his purposes.

At the crafting bench Chilly arrayed his two Essences of Azurite beside the new level two helmet. Not the most expansive collection. With not much choice in the matter, Chilly used the essence of Azurite on the helmet.

Iron Barbute

Magic

Helmet

iLevel: 2

9 armor

10 life

0.59 life regen

Oh, pretty good.

Replacing his current helmet increased his life to 159, his armor to 39 with 28.06% mitigation and bumped his life regen to 10.05 per second. A small but decent upgrade. So far it didn’t seem like higher leveled gear provided much in the way of improved stats. Though there wasn’t much of a sample size to determine that for sure yet.

There was another thing that he had been meaning to test out. Earlier, he had left the axe behind in favor of the sword. Not for any particular reason other than he was excited to try out the door strategy. Now though it seemed foolish. While he did not attack with his weapons, they certainly could provide him stats that he needed.

Equipping the axe, Chilly brought up the description of Incinerate.

Incinerate

Unleash a beam of fire that burns enemies that it touches. The beam dissipates after 6.1m.

Deals 50.4 Fire damage per second

Channeling

“It does work.” Chilly murmured. The increased area of effect modifier on the axe actually did improve the range of Incinerate. So far the range had been sufficient, but any improvement was a good improvement.

“I really need to stop forgetting things like this. It’s going to get me killed.” Chilly murmured, “This means I need to farm up some more essences and get all my gear upgraded to have two mods. Basically just my plate vest and my boots for now, but I still haven’t found gloves or jewelry yet either. All together that would require at least 3 more essences on the low end.”

Saying that, Chilly took off his boots and placed them on the crafting bench. The question was whether he should use his last essence on them. There would be a chance at more life or life regeneration but he might lose the 6 armor that was already on the boots. The other alternative would be to wait to find another pair of boots that were higher level.

Chilly considered for a moment, but eventually decided that it would be better to save the essence. Realistically the gain would be small, and saving the essence in case he found a pair of gloves would provide a larger boost. If he found a hoard of essences in the Mausoleum, then he could use one on his boots for the hell of it. For the moment it was prudent to wait.

Chilly replaced the boots and looked at the ghost light candles. It was oddly therapeutic. Like watching paint dry. Chilly chuckled quietly at the joke. There really wasn’t much to do here though. Other than continuing to explore, of course.

With a shrug, Chilly walked out of the Shrine.

You have entered the Mausoleum

He made his way over to where he had left the door and dragged it over to the first left hand turn that he had yet to explore. Carefully, he pushed on, keeping the door interposed between himself and any potential danger that the dungeon might throw at him.

At the intersection Chilly paused, flaring Incinerate for added light. To his left, was a short hallway with two alcoves on the right hand side, while the path on the right had three alcoves on the left hand side and one on the right. The singular alcove on the right seemed to be at the right location to connect to where he had been previously. The added range on Incinerate gave him just enough light to see that after all the alcoves on the right hand hallway, lay a sharp right turn leading deeper into the crypt.

Since the left hand path dead ended rather quickly, Chilly decided to clear that area first. Careful that nothing would sneak up on him, he slowly maneuvered the door until it blocked the way to the first alcove.

Suddenly the door was forced back, a hissing snarl and the sound of tearing wood filled the corridor as a ghoul lunged from the darkness at the door.

Putrid Ghoul

Level: 2

Life: 186

Chilly gasped, desperately grabbing at the door to keep it steady.

Using his shoulder, Chilly rammed the door, wedging it into the entrance to the alcove and locking the ghoul on the other side. He grabbed the bars to further stabilize the door and unleashed Incinerate. Fire flared through the iron bars.

The ghoul screeched-

You have been Hindered

-and redoubled its mindless attack on the lifeless wood.

Chilly held steady, a grim smile on his face, as abruptly the weight on the other side of the door ceased and a wave of purple miasma seeped past the transient barrier. The sudden loss of pressure caused him to nearly overbalance, but with an awkward shuffle and a hand against the wall he managed to catch the door before it crushed the ghoul’s remains.

“Huh, it didn’t take as much damage this time.” Chilly noted idly as he dragged the door out of the miasma. Then with an all too smug expression walked onto the desecrated ground to loot the ghoul.

He pocketed the single essence of Iron laying beside the charred corpse and turned to examine the room. A broken sarcophagus lay innocently in the center of the room. To the side, the wall to the adjacent room was broken, revealing an identical chamber with a surprisingly intact coffin.

With no immediate threats, Chilly turned his attention to the broken sarcophagus.

Plated Gauntlet

Common

Gloves

iLevel: 2

7 armor

Chilly grinned, and put on the gauntlets.

“What do you think? Should I go back to the Shrine and enchant these?” Chilly asked a nearby penguin as he held up the gauntlets to the light.

The penguin shrugged, then raised its sword and charged down the hallway.

“Yeah, I agree.” Chilly said, amused. “Let’s wait until we’ve collected a bit more loot and then we can go back and craft all the gear at the same time.”

Chilly carefully ducked through the hole in the wall and paused at the closed sarcophagus. Obviously there would be a ghoul inside, and even more obviously it would attack when he opened or broke the lid.

Chilly felt tempted for a moment to just start burning, he was significantly stronger than he was before, but in the end sighed and waited for the door to recover completely. When it was fully recovered he maneuvered it so that it was lying flat on top of the coffin, then with an amused chuckle he stood on top and unleashed Incinerate through the bars.

A second later the stone lid shattered revealing...

A suit of armor.

Confused, Chilly turned off Incinerate and leaned down to see the armor more clearly.

Iron Barbute

Magic

Helmet

iLevel: 2

7 armor

9 life

7 armor

Iron Plate Vest

Magic

Body Armor

iLevel: 2

8 armor

7 life

9 armor

Iron Kite Shield

Magic

Offhand

iLevel: 2

9 armor

9 life

6 armor

Iron Greaves

Magic

Boots

iLevel: 2

8 armor

8 life

9 armor

Iron Pants

Magic

Pants

iLevel: 2

6 armor

7 life

7 armor

Iron Gauntlets

Magic

Gloves

iLevel: 2

6 armor

10 life

7 armor

“Well well well, look what we have here.” Chilly murmured. Stunned at the veritable hoard of riches laying underneath him. Closer examination revealed that there was a skeleton underneath all of the armor, but no popup appeared, so Chilly assumed that the skeleton was not undead.

Laboriously, Chilly levered the door off of the sarcophagus. He brushed the stone dust off the suit of armor then began removing them from the coffin. As he encountered bones, he chucked them back into the sarcophagus, doubly glad that he had just found gloves. Though the gloves probably were covered in dead gunk as well.

Chilly shivered and forcefully pushed the gross thought out of his mind. His usual grin once more gracing his face, he replaced all of his gear except for his helmet and opened his character sheet.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

3

0/3

1

Fire

Life

Life Regen

194/194

11.6

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

84

45.65%

0

0.00%

0

0.00%

0

0.00%

0

0.00%

Incinerate

Helmet:

Iron Barbute

Vitality

Body Armor:

Iron Plate Vest

???

Pants:

Iron Pants

???

Boots:

Iron Greaves

???

Gloves:

Iron Gauntlets

???

Jewelry:

???

Mainhand:

Iron Axe

???

Offhand:

Iron Kite Shield

“Good god, I hit the jackpot.” Chilly stared in wonder. Then gave the pile of gear laying at his feet a bemused expression. “Guess I’m going back to the Shrine now.”

Chilly loaded up all of his old gear in a bear hug, and went to store them in his stash at the Shrine. Amusingly, even though the torch wasn’t equipped, it still provided light in a radius around it. Though the radius was smaller. Almost as if the 26% increased light radius mod wasn’t being applied. The iron axe with its increased area was still better though, since it provided combat stats.

Several minutes later he returned to the door and prepared to continue his delve.

“I wonder if I even need the door anymore. I already have more armor than it.” Chilly laughed quietly to himself, then shook his head in chagrin. “Who am I kidding? It has twice as much health as me. I’m keeping it until I’m old and grey or thirty, or whatever happens first.”

Chilly chuckled again, but froze as he heard the staccato patter of rapidly approaching feet. His heart trying to climb out of his throat, Chilly lunged behind the door with a yelp of fright, and scrambled to orient his hand towards the sound.

Half a second later he thought lost his nerve and preemptively unleashed Incinerate. Flames roared down the hallway, revealing an unfazed penguin sprinting towards him while carrying Realm Walker over his head.

The penguin rushed right into the flames then skidded to a stop right in front of the door. Its body practically vibrating with suppressed energy.

Poidude

???

“Thanks for the chapter!” It squeaked.

“...thanks for the chapter?” Chilly replied hesitantly.

“MeepMeep!” the penguin hopped into the air, clapping its feet together at the apex of the jump, “1% more life is 1% more regen. MeepMeep.” The penguin hopped once again into the air. Then it spun around, and sprinted back into the darkness.

A fading ‘Thanks for the chapter’ echoed off in the distance.

“...thanks for the chapter...” Chilly sagged, collapsing to the floor. His adrenaline levels plummeted for what felt like the hundredth time. “Scared the shit out of me.”

More life equates to more regen. Useful advice, even though it only applied to the life regeneration that he got from Vitality. The life regeneration from his gear didn’t scale with life in the same way. The advice had also come from a new penguin. Which was cool. Perhaps the penguins were becoming more willing to spend the resources to transmit their messages. Or the resources were more abundant. Regardless, Chilly wouldn’t complain.

The more help the merrier.

“I wonder if the penguins could help me scout?” Chilly exclaimed, suddenly getting a revelation. Excited, he turned towards a nearby penguin. “Wait, Mr. unnamed penguin. Do you mind going down that hallway and telling me what is over there?”

The penguin shrugged its shoulders and plopped down, examining Realm Walker.

“Come on, please! You’re basically immortal. Go on down there and tell me what you see. It would be super helpful. I promise.”

The penguin scowled at him, and dropped Realm Walker in a huff. A cloud of rapidly dissipating smoke popped into existence.

Chilly pouted, but couldn’t stay annoyed for long. He had just gotten a massive gear upgrade and was itching to test it out on something.

Chilly continued on. Progress was slow because of the door, but there was no way that he would leave it behind. He passed the hallway that led back to the Shrine and carefully peeked into the next alcove on the left.

Empty. Or at least empty of undead.

He leaned the door against the wall, and strolled inside. The alcove was identical to all the others with a sarcophagus coming out of the far wall, but unlike them this alcove was both missing its lid, and missing any walking dead.

Chilly peeked inside, and grinned when he spotted an Essence of Iron lying among the stoney detritus. Looting it, he retreated out of the small room. Retrieving his door, Chilly continued on. He peeked inside the next room and-

Putrid Ghoul

Level: 2

Life: 199

-recoiled as he spotted a ghoul crouching in the far corner. It was facing away, seemingly intently focusing on the back wall. Not to let such an opportunity pass, Chilly levered the door into position and opened fire.

After the requisite screeching and explosion into purple smog, the ghoul’s lifeless corpse collapsed. A wide smile on his face, Chilly dragged the door back out of the miasma.

The door was working splendidly.

He walked over to the corpse and kicked the charred rib cage to the side, revealing an Essence of Iron glimmering faintly in the torchlight. Taking a peek into the sarcophagus revealed-

Iron Plate Vest

Common

Body Armor

iLevel: 1

4 armor

-a level 1 plate vest. Chilly considered for a moment but decided to leave it. It didn’t seem worth taking back to the stash. Especially with such a low amount of armor. With a cursory glance around the room, Chilly noticed a break in the wall on the right. It was where the ghoul had been staring before he had killed it.

The hole was at knee height and barely large enough for him to reach a hand through. He kneeled down beside it and peeked through. The magical torch light flowed through the hole and illuminated the other end with minimal shadows. Still very little was actually revealed, and all that he managed to discern was that the adjacent room was in poor condition.

Wiping the dust from his knees, Chilly returned to the hallway, and waited patiently for the door's health to recover. When it had, he arduously hobbled it towards the next alcove.

Peeking once more around the bend, Chilly confirmed that there were no undead in this area. Carefully he stepped beyond the threshold.

The stone tiles on the floor were chipped and marred. Divots in the age-old rock collected pools of brackish water. The ubiquitous black mold grew rampant, emitting an overpowering must that seemed to take root on the back of his tongue.

Grimacing at the unpleasant aroma, Chilly flared Incinerate to provide the room with a little more light. Black mold sizzled exacerbating the smell. Rock piles lay scattered around, getting progressively larger until the entire floor was covered in a mountain of broken stone.

Above the threshold to the room, the ceiling abruptly arched high. Instead of the smooth grey brick that was common up until this point, the stone became craggy and broken. It rose high into the air, though not beyond the point where Incinerate’s flames could illuminate. The increased area on the axe was already proving handy.

Sometime in the past, this room had collapsed.

Chilly carefully stepped into the room, but quickly halted his progress. Getting to close too the oppressive moldy smell seemed like a bad idea in general. Not to mention that the stones made traveling difficult to the point that he would be required to leave the door behind. Something he was not ready to do. At least not just yet.

Not entirely willing to leave the room just yet, Chilly scanned Incinerate across the far wall while carefully inspecting for any holes, or passageway that may lead onwards.

After finding no obvious pathway forwards, Chilly retreated from the room, satisfied that he wasn’t leaving anything obvious behind. He returned to his door and made his way over to the last alcove on the right. Peeking around the bend revealed a long hallway. Nearly as long, if not longer than the hallway where he had encountered his first roaming ghoul. Halfway along the length, the hallway opened up to reveal a spacious room.

Luckily, there didn’t seem to be any blatant undead. Curiously though, there was a penguin standing along the wall staring intently into the room.

Quaesitor Mortem

???

“Oh, it's you again.” Chilly murmured, making his way over to the scholarly penguin. The room that the penguin was staring into was similar in structure to the other rooms, but seemed to have a different purpose. Instead of sarcophagi, the room contained a single large stone table, whose purpose seemed more along the lines of ritual sacrifice or embalming than a pleasant meal. Along the walls, instead of holes in which sarcophagi could be stored there were two imposing angel statues with stone swords staring imperiously down at the table.

Weeping Angel (x2)

Level: 3

Chilly froze at the sight of the system popup, but slowly relaxed as the angels didn’t seem to react to his presence. Careful not to trigger them in any regard, Chilly sidled over to the penguin who continued to stare thoughtfully at the stone table.

“Hi there. Uh...Thanks for the chapter?” The greeting still sounded strange in Chilly’s mouth.

The penguin turned to regard him.

“They call us Astrals,” It replied somberly, “Some say those who see us are cursed. Others say they are blessed, but you are neither.”

“I...see. Do all Astral’s use Realm Walker?”

“You are neither the hero nor the villain of this story for they are both long gone.” The penguin replied, turning its attention back to the stone table. “We are sorry for your pain even though we have not caused it.”

Chilly nodded along. Clearly either the penguin could not or would not respond to any direct question. Likely because of Realm Walker’s delay. Though there was that interesting reference to stories again. It seemed that the penguin’s culture revolved heavily around chapters, and books in general.

“I will give you my final piece of advice for now.” The penguin continued. It pointed Realm Walker at the stone table with a quivering flipper. “What are tables used for?”

“Uhm,” Chilly said hesitantly, “Ritual sacrifice?”

The penguin tapped Realm Walker on the ground twice. Seemingly in satisfaction before it turned towards Chilly and placed both flippers on the sword's hilt.

“We will be with you every step of the way. Thanks for the chapter.”

With that the penguin released its grip of Realm Walker and burst into a cloud of rapidly dissipating smoke.

“Thanks...for the chapter.” Chilly said to the smoke, “That is actually pretty reassuring. A bunch of cosmic beings watching over me; Giving me advice and making sure I don’t get eaten or something. A little creepy, but nice.”

“But my god, was that not a warning. Right, I’m not going near that table. I’m not going near any tables. They’re probably trapped to explode so hard it would make my ancestor dizzy.”

Decision made, Chilly quietly shuffled his door along the edge of the room, and past the evil table. He kept both eyes on the two angels, and the table. Especially the table. Only an idiot would ignore multiple warnings from ancient astral beings.

As he crossed the room he noticed that it actually had four entrances. The one he came from and the one he was going to, but also two others on the other side. He ignored them for now since getting there meant crossing in front of the angel statues.

After a tense minute, Chilly made it to the other end and let out a sigh of relief. Nothing like the existential dread of the unknown to stiffen up the shoulders.

Shaking his head at the precariousness of his situation, Chilly continued down the hallway until he reached another sharp right turn. Peeking around the bend revealed a massive chamber with a vaulted ceiling filled with corpses.

In the center of the room sat a fat goblin on a stone throne flanked on either side by two weeping angels.

Weeping Angel (x2)

Level: 3

Crypt Goblin

Level: 3

But somehow the three level three enemies weren’t what drew his attention. Chilly’s eyes were drawn to a large stone plinth radiating a pillar of slowly rotating golden light that speared the ceiling with its radiance.

Shrine of Tel’Atur

Grants nearby allies 100% more damage

Desecrating this shrine destroys it and steals the effect for 60 seconds.

Chilly grinned evilly. Level four was just around the bend.