Chilly scrutinized the boss room. For that was what it looked like. There was little doubt in his mind that the large cathedral-like area was anything but a challenge.

The room was large. Definitely large compared to the other rooms in the dungeon, but also large in general. It could easily accommodate a hundred or so people. Perhaps more if the people collectively agreed not to mill around too much, though that might irk a certain health and safety agency whose presence was currently decidedly lacking. Besides, the vaulted ceiling gave it a feeling of openness that belied the subterranean locale.

In fact, the only reason that Chilly could even see the ceiling was because of the pillar of light originating from the shrine.

Along the walls there were buttresses that supposedly held up the ceiling, though Chilly doubted it since they didn’t extend far enough to truly have enough mechanical advantage to achieve that purpose. While interesting from an architectural perspective, the alcoves in between the buttresses were not large enough to hide inside. Perhaps, some cover could be garnered from an extremely oblique attack, though such an attack seemed unlikely given the circumstances. Plus hiding there would just trap him in a corner.

The corpses on the floor were another mystery. Their purpose wasn’t obvious, leading him to believe that they were some mechanic that the boss would utilize. Perhaps raise them to fight at its side, or blow them up. If the boss revived the corpses that would lead to a problematic outnumbering situation. Even more troubling, if the undead became Putrid Ghouls then the arena would get covered in desecrated ground. A hit to his regeneration that he could not afford to take.

The weeping angels were clearly mooks; there to assist the boss in the fight. It was unclear what their behavior would be but going in blind against two novel enemy types would be the height of stupidity.

Especially since he was in the unique situation to remedy that failing.

With nothing more to learn from pure observation, Chilly retreated. The warnings that the penguins had given him about the table would have to be shelved. He needed experience fighting the angels.

He set up his door to block the passageway leading back to the Shrine, careful to make sure he could slip beyond should a dangerous situation arise. Then stepped closer to the cursed table, and apprehensively stared at it.

When the angels didn’t respond, he skittishly poked the table with the end of his axe.

“Thanks for the chapter.”

Chilly yelped and jerked, twisting around and pointing the axe at a penguin standing innocently beside the upright door.

Quaesitor Mortem

???

“Oh, god. My heart... Thanks for the chapter, I guess.” Chilly replied. The penguin nodded then wandered off.

Waiting for his heart to climb down his throat to take its rightful place behind his sternum, Chilly turned back to the table and this time gave it a more solid poke.

Again no response.

Frowning, Chilly approached one of the statues themselves. Within touching range, the statue still didn’t respond. At this distance though, Chilly could marvel at the beautiful artistry of the statue. Whoever had carved it was very talented in giving the angel’s clothing natural curves.

He refrained from actually touching the statue. That’s just asking to get whacked.

Chilly chewed at his lip while staring at the statue. He checked the other statue, then down the two other hallways. They were similar to the ones he came from; long stone hallways with periodic dark alcoves lining the walls that presumably held sarcophagi and undead.

Eventually it became clear that the angels would not react to just Chilly’s presence. Perhaps doing something with the table would trigger them, though if that was the case then they would stay still for the rest of time. There was no way that Chilly would get closer to the table than absolutely necessary.

If they wouldn’t attack, then that meant they were either neutral or allies. If they were neutral and only responded in self defense then that was good in a sense. It meant that should he wish, he could just walk by. Unfortunately, Chilly was going to take on two of the things in an open room where his door wouldn’t be a good shield. Knowing how the statues behaved would be crucial.

That left allies.

“Hello?” Chilly waved awkwardly at the statue. “Sorry to bother you but would you happen to..uhm...be evil?”

The statue looked stoically down at him. Unchanging.

“Well...see I was brought here. Teleported? Yeah, I’m here now, and everything else tried to eat me, so I was wondering if you... you know...”

Chilly trailed off as he realized that there was a possibility that he was talking to inanimate stone. Bringing up the system interface confirmed that the statue was a ‘Weeping Angel’, and not just some rock. So...sentient. Probably.

Behind him, a penguin silently giggled while giving him and the statue amused looks.

Chilly sighed. He trudged back to his door and slipped behind it. Standing behind cover, he felt more confident that he had tried all the options. With deliberation, he aimed at the Weeping Angel and unleashed Incinerate.

Fire flooded through the doors bars, rushing past the intervening space and engulfing the first weeping angel.

Stone limbs immediately creaked to life. Ponderously rotating age-old joints, and stretching the stone in ways normal rock could never endure. Dust fell into the chaotic flames creating hypnotic patterns. The angel, lumbered off of its pedestal and turned to face Chilly.

Somehow the fact that it wasn’t hurrying while entirely engulfed in flame was deeply terrifying.

The thought that the angel was immune to fire damage flashed through his mind, before it was chased away as he spotted hairline fractures developing along the surface of the Weeping Angel’s skin.

The monster raised its greatsword slowly. Then with a burst of uncharacteristic speed, slammed it into the ground. Instead of shattering, or breaking the ground. The sword slid in. Halting unnaturally after several inches and unleashing a wave of distorted air. The distortion interacted somehow with the paved floor, absorbing the energy and forming a series of stone spikes that ruptured out of the ground before sinking back in, only to be replaced by more spikes that were further along.

As Chilly watched a literal wave of stone spikes washed towards him.

Chilly braced.

The door shuddered under the impact.

A spike of stone rose out from underneath him and impaled him through the thigh.

His health immediately began ticking up, and the injury wasn’t that painful however horrific it looked. Despite that, the shock of the sudden injury caused Chilly to cry out and fall backwards.

Fall backwards right on top of more spikes that were rupturing out of the ground behind him.

Groaning, Chilly rolled to his feet, managing to grab the torch in his haste, and dashed back down the hallway, away from the Weeping Angel.

Chilly turned around and spotted the Weeping Angel step ponderously over the fallen door. From a distance, Chilly couldn’t tell what the door's health was.

As fast as he could, Chilly resummoned Incinerate, and trained it onto the statue. Fire raged once more, lighting the hallway once more in flickering firelight.

The Weeping Angel, its stone skin beginning to crack for real, raised its sword once more. Then with another burst of speed, slammed it into the ground and created another wave of stone spikes.

Chilly watched the spikes travel towards him, and at the last second, dismissed Incinerate, and jumped as high as he could.

Stone grazed the bottom of his feet, as he curled up at the arch of his jump.

He landed lightly, releasing flame down the hallway with impunity.

Fire flowed around the Weeping Angel. Cracks suffused its skin. Extending not only up to its face, but down the length of its stone weapon. As the blade rose up from the ground, pieces of its structure cracked off and fell to the floor.

The Weeping Angel struggled to straighten. It took a ponderous step forward, and brought its blade down onto the ground with a crash. A wave of ruptured stone traveled down the hallway, only to be jumped over by Chilly. The only result of the maneuver pausing the steady stream of fire for but a brief moment.

It tried to pull the blade out of the ground once more, but as it pulled, a deep crack reverberated through its form. The cracks along its surface extended, spider webbing out, until suddenly, all the stone crumbled to the ground.

You have slain a level 3 Weeping Angel!

You receive 1 experience!

Except. Something was left behind. Where the once marble statue stood, a flesh covered skeleton standing amidst a pile of rubble. Bright red muscles hung loosely off its frame giving it the appearance of a decrepit example of human anatomy.

A moment passed like an eternity as Chilly observed the new kind of undead standing wreathed in flame with morbid fascination.

The moment was broken as the Weeping Angel’s true form leapt into action. Completely unlike its previously ponderous motions, it now moved with the jerky alacrity of insects. With a single bound it jumped out of the remains of its stony shell. It landed on all fours and cocked its head to the side with a click of bone on bone. Then it charged.

A shiver ran down Chilly’s spine, and planted his stance.

A moment later he received the undead’s charge. Despite his best efforts, he and the undead both fell backwards in a tangle of limbs and flesh.

Chilly grunted as he landed on his back. One hand reached past the slimy red muscle and grabbed onto the creature's ribcage, while with the other he held onto its grinning skull. With the newfound leverage, and a faintly nauseated feeling, Chilly held the creatures gnashing teeth away from him.

It was relentless though. All four limbs flailed wildly, sharpened bone rent his flesh as it passed harmlessly through his cosmetic chest piece.

Despite the horrendous wounds, the pain wasn’t all that bad. The worst part of the experience was actually the feeling of a foreign object exploring the integrity of his stomach lining.

Chilly kept up Incinerate throughout. Fire burned up through the undead’s rib cage and into its skull. Hellish flames burst from dead eye sockets searing the grotesque flesh. Boney claws slashed his shoulders and chest. Leaving ragged gashes that immediately began to heal under the cosmetic armor.

Chilly forced its skull to the side, its teeth pushed as far as reasonable from his face as possible. Still the creature gnashed its teeth, jerking and twitching to get close enough to get a bite out of his tender flesh. Its legs reached up and out dragging along the length of his thighs and shins.

Abruptly all the fight fled the undead, as it fell to ash in his hands.

Chilly jerked as his grip literally turned to ash in his fingers and the clash ended.

Chilly sat there on the floor just breathing for a couple seconds as he regained his bearings. No death message had appeared when the flesh ghoul had turned to ash. In addition, there were no essences scattered around the ash at his feet, which led him to believe that the flesh ghoul was not a real monster. More of an on death effect that got triggered once the Weeping Angel perished. Similar to the desecrated ground that the Putrid Ghouls release upon their own death.

Chilly glanced at his health and grinned at the nearly full health bar. With newfound vigor he levered himself to his feet and stomped over to the fallen door.

Peaking into the room with the other Weeping Angel he saw that it had stayed in the same exact position that it had been in previously. It was completely unreactive to the combat that had occurred literally at its feet. Basically unlike all video games everywhere.

A pleasant surprise really.

Chilly jumped as a penguin beside him started clapping its flippers happily.

Chilly grinned at the little guy. “Good fight. Lost a little too much health, but we can fix that. It seems that in the stone form they are slow and periodically release the stone rupture spike attack thing. The spike wave travels in a straight line and hurts anything on the ground, though suspiciously it leaves the actual floor surprisingly undamaged after the fact. It can also shotgun which is bullshit but hey, I guess that was my fault for falling. Either way, it can be jumped over. That and the fact that the Angel’s are neutral until agro-ed means that the boss room up ahead is actually just a one on one if I am careful.”

“What do you think, little guy?”

The penguin clapped cheerfully but didn’t respond otherwise.

“That would be pretty funny, yeah. The statues turning on the fat goblin if it accidentally hits them would be a hoot.”

Conversation successfully completed and his social stamina exhausted, Chilly waved goodbye to the penguin and went back to sift through the pile of stones for loot. A bit of digging later came out with a chalky white sphere that brought up a familiar interface.

Unknown Essence

Take this to a crafting bench to learn of its properties!

Eyebrows raised, Chilly pocketed the chalky sphere and made his way back to the crafting bench in the Shrine. He identified the novel essence.

Essence of Regret

Unspecializes an Augment.

Eyebrows raised even higher, Chilly shrugged.

“Huh, I suppose I can change my augment now. Though I don’t particularly see a reason for it right now.”

While he was considering the applications of the new essence a penguin approached from behind, and hopped on top of the crafting bench with a flourish.

NickXenix

???

“Hello! The Kobold Scholar is back again!” The penguin chirped cheerfully.

“Why hello to you to Mr. Nick Xenix. Thanks for the...” Chilly was cut off as the penguin continued.

“Hmm, Chilly. It's all fun and games until a new type of monster cuts your health regeneration.”

Chilly froze. “Are you saying that the goblin will-”

“Oh! And my library is in the Eternal Forest, don't mistake that for the pesky Necromancer Lairs nearby!”

“Ok, but about that health regeneration thing-”

“You should probably thank...” The penguin suddenly went silent. Its beak continued flapping, but no sound came out. “...manifest here.”

“Are you-” Chilly started.

“Who’s...” The penguin went silent again. “...another penguin.” It finished looking at Chilly proudly, as if it had provided the answer to some great secret.

“Your connection is bad, I didn’t get that last part.” Chilly said doubtfully.

“Pee ess. This is a recorded message so don't bother. Kekekekeke” The penguin laughed maniacally then hopped down from the crafting bench and sprinted away in perhaps the least straight line possible. A second later it tripped over a candle causing it to drop Realm Walker and vanish in a puff of smoke.

...

“That penguin’s drunk.” Chilly surmised after a second. “Doesn’t mean it doesn’t have good advice. Or prophetic advice.”

The fact that the penguins were using recorded messages wasn’t a surprise. Chilly had guessed that just from reading the description of Realm Walker. Though it was nice to hear confirmation. The other bit of information was more immediately relevant. The penguin had implied that the upcoming bossfight would have some ability to reduce health regeneration.

Sure the penguin might be wrong, but that seemed unlikely. Any being that could wield a level thirty weapon and project an avatar across realms probably wouldn’t have trouble walking over to the other room and using some high level identify to see the goblin’s abilities.

Reduced regeneration. Right. That would be bad.

Although, ironically it didn’t change his strategy. Presumably the penguin was talking about sap, when it talked about reduced regeneration, though there could be other methods to reduce regeneration. Regardless, he could use the Essence of Regret and change his Vitality augment to the one that reduced the effect of sap on himself, though it wouldn’t be better than just the raw regeneration the current augment provided.

Since the augment reduced the effect of sap by 60% and sap itself reduced regeneration by 40% then the new sap would still reduce his regeneration by 16%.

...

The math got wonky, but it felt as if that would still result in less health regeneration than just his first augment.

He hadn’t found a method to cleanse debuffs either. Or upgrade his gear to the point where he wouldn’t be affected by sap or hinder or whatever other debuff. No. At the current state all he could really do was delve onwards to the best of his ability.