(AN: I’ve done a minor overhaul in how my excel sheet calculates these things. As a result the Vitality Augment: Indomitable now provides 150 sap resistance instead of 60% reduced effect of sap on you. The overall effect has not changed)

“I can’t believe that the angel statues didn’t trigger.” Chilly said quietly.

He was sitting with his back against a wall with Incinerate burning a merry hole in the ceiling. His torch had fallen from where he had strapped it to his armor during the fight, and now illuminated a slightly hazy sphere near the desecrated shrine.

The miasma had dissipated revealing a remarkably undamaged room. Burnt corpses piled in one of the corners and a giant skeleton lay broken somewhere near the middle, but the two Weeping Angel’s? They were entirely undamaged and also entirely unconcerned with the damage that had occurred around them.

A very odd monster. Chilly couldn’t tell if he was lucky, or the monster itself was stupidly designed.

A penguin sidled up to him.

Quaesitor Mortem

???

“Thanks for the chapter.” It said looking pleased at the carnage inflicted upon the undead.

“Thanks for the chapter.” Chilly replied politely.

“That was an easy boss,” It continued, turning to face him fully. “However, for a beginner, you are doing great. Keep it up Chilly!”

“Thanks,” Chilly said, closing his eyes as he mulled over the words. If the dungeon would only get harder, then something needed to change. For one. Fighting a level 3 boss with level 2 gear was just not ok.

When Chilly opened his eyes again the penguin was gone.

Idly, he opened his character sheet and perused the changes from the level up.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

4

0/4

2

Fire

Life

Life Regen

Exhausted

212/212

10.92

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

Incinerate

Unleash a beam of fire that burns enemies that it touches. The beam dissipates after 6.2m.

Deals 62.7 Fire damage per second

Channeling

Vitality

Your body thrums with a powerful vitality increasing both your life and life regeneration.

Regenerate 5.8% of maximum life as life per second

7.2% more life

An itty bitty life increase and 12 more dps on Incinerate. He had finally crossed the 200 life threshold. Double what he had spawned with. That combined with his 84 armor really made him resistant to all forms of physical damage. A godsend against the skeleton.

What he didn’t have was chaos resistance. A damage type that seemed depressingly common in the Mausoleum. Between the desecrated ground and the purple missiles the Crypt Goblin had unleashed it was becoming problematic. Any form of chaos damage really chunked his health bar.

Regardless, now was not the time to think about it.

Exhausted, Chilly levered himself to his feet and returned to the Shrine of the Desecrator after collecting his torch. On the way, he patted the wooden door fondly, but left it where it was. He would need it soon.

He entered the Shrine, and made his way over to the campfire burning cheerfully in the middle. He sat on the bench and took off his gauntlets. Then he warmed his hands at the campfire until they were toasty. The dungeon was constantly chilly. Not so much that it was dangerous, but cold enough that it was miserable for long stretches of time.

A penguin sidled up shiftily. It glanced left and right as if it was about to be caught then jumped when Chilly noticed its presence.

NickXenix

???

“Thanks for the chapter!” The Kobold Scholar said cheerfully. “It seems I cannot...”

Once more the odd silence descended. The penguin continued talking, Its beak opening and closing but no sound came out.

“...worry about it.” The penguin finished. “May the force be with you, Kekekekek”

The penguin laughed maniacally. Then turned to the side.

“Prepare to-” it began, but was interrupted as a penguin flipper materialized out of thin air and with a contemptuous smack, disarmed the Kobold Scholar.

“#(&(@$." The penguin’s speech became unintelligible as Realm Walker clattered to the floor and it morphed into a puddle of smoke that soon dissipated.

Chilly just stared for a couple good minutes. He was too tired to try and parse what had just happened. Eventually he gave up, and slowly lay down on the hard stone bench.

Somehow it wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as he imagined it would be.

Chilly awoke to a powerful gust of ice cold wind. Candlelight flickered wildly before getting snuffed out.

Stygian darkness descended upon him.

Shivering and not entirely awake yet, Chilly rolled off his bench and curled up into a small ball. Fearfully he stared blindly into the darkness as he desperately tried to remember what was going on and where he was.

A moment later, a single candle burst into light in the distance. Chilly reoriented to focus on it with his entire attention. He glimpsed a ghost, floating placidly beside the candle, as another light bloomed to life.

Suddenly it all came back. The Annex. The Shrine. The undead in the Mausoleum. The Bone Giant boss fight and his near death to the life draining desecrated ground. He pulled up his character sheet.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

4

0/4

2

Fire

Life

hp regen

201/201

12.86

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

71

41.52%

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:

???

Jewelry:

???

Mainhand:

Iron Axe

???

Offhand:

Iron Kite Shield

His exhaustion was gone. It hadn’t felt like he had slept for long, but clearly it was enough to purge the negative status effect.

Suddenly Chilly noticed the Guardian of the Shrine approaching and he scrambled away. The Guardian didn’t give Chilly any mind, simply lighting the campfire before returning to its candle lighting duties.

The extra light was extremely helpful. With enough light to properly navigate, Chilly retrieved his gauntlets and returned his health to 212, and armor to 84. Then he pulled out his torch and stared at it in puzzlement.

Unlit Torch

iLevel 1

Common

12-18 physical damage

It...

The cold wind had returned the item to being white. Purged its magical effects. And destroyed his only reliable light source.

With a bemused sigh, Chilly went over to the crafting bench and used an Essence of Iron on the torch.

Lit Torch

iLevel 1

Magic

12-18 physical damage

2m light radius

21% increased area of effect

“Damn,” Chilly cursed. He hadn’t gotten increased light radius. Two meters base radius was really not that far. The two and half meters he had before had barely been enough.

“What a waste,” Chilly said. He dropped his axe in the stash and equipped the torch. While it didn’t have light radius it did have more area of effect than the axe did, and since he didn’t use the axe for damage, there was no reason to use the more weaponly weapon.

Plus this way he could hold the torch in his hand comfortably instead of awkwardly strapping it to his gear.

The slightly better modifier, increased the range of Incinerate a measly 20 cm. From 6.2m to 6.4m. Nice, but more light radius would have been far superior.

Chilly shrugged away the annoyed thoughts and made his way to the Mausoleum, but froze at the entrance.

The door was back.

Wood Door

Level: 6

Life: 407

Armor

66

Fire Resistance

16

Cold Resistance

35

Lightning Resistance

42

Chaos Resistance

9

He stood there slightly confused at what was clearly the work of night elves. Someone had not only brought the door back from where he had left it but had also reattached it to the wall with such precision that none of his ugly axe marks were visible.

It took Chilly a surprising amount of time to understand what was happening. He refused to move on until he had a firm grasp of the situation, this dungeon would kill him otherwise. Eventually he huffed out a lungful of air loudly, as it came to him.

“The dungeon reset.” Then a far more insidious realization crept up on him. “All the undead are probably alive again.”

A pause, “The bone staff!” he cried.

Chilly cursed, then facepalmed hard. All the loot from the boss fight was likely gone. All because he had been too exhausted to go and pick it up.

“Do better next time,” Chilly sighed then squared his shoulders. A sense of dread formed a pit in his stomach, as he realized he would have to fight the boss again.

Nothing for it, but onwards. Chilly carefully levered the wooden door open and snuck past.

You have entered the Mausoleum

Chilly crept forwards through the dank hallway. The light of the torch made things simpler, and soon he made it to the T-intersection. He poked his head out only to get a claw to the face.

Putrid Ghoul

Level: 2

Life: 151

25

0

0

0

0

Chilly recoiled back in surprise. The ghoul screeched-

You have been Hindered

-and chased after him. Chilly glanced at his health.

-and saw that it had almost recovered from the first slash, before another claw raked across his chest.

It barely hurt. Chilly glanced down with mild amusement then grabbed the ghoul by the wrist. The ghoul did not like that. It flailed wildly, doing everything in its power to rip and tear with all its available limbs.

Chilly broke out in open laughter. With a contemptuous flick of his hand, Incinerate bloomed to life. Flesh immediately blistered. Smoke ballooned outwards in a noxious wave. Within seconds flesh melted off bones and the ghoul crumbled into a pile of ash at his feet. A wave of purple miasma bloomed outwards covering the surrounding space in its disgusting aura.

“They can barely hurt me.” Chilly remarked with a grin. Idly he moved out of the desecrated ground only for his grin to widen as he watched his health shoot up at a blistering 12 units per second. In no time at all it was back to full.

He couldn’t tank a level 2 ghoul forever. But he could just stand there for a good long while soaking in the hits. It felt good.

Chilly leaned down and looted the Essence of Iron, before continuing on.

At the intersection he paused. An amused thought crossed his mind and he opened fire on the three closed sarcophagi on the right. Stone lids cracked in a fraction of a second, as the three ghouls jumped out into the ray of fire.

Putrid Ghoul

Level: 1

Life: 129-156

20

0

0

0

0

They screeched-

You have been Hindered

-almost in unison and charged through the roiling fire. Before they even managed to reach him, they collapsed into piles of glowing embers.

Chilly grinned, and briefly flashed Incinerate behind him. The light illuminated an empty hallway. No undead approached from behind so he walked slowly past the three charred ghouls. A glint of Azurite caught his eye, which he promptly pocketed.

In the room with the four broken sarcophagi there was the predictable detritus, a level 1 plate vest and another level 1 torch. He took the torch. It would be cool to enchant it with an essence and hope for another light radius mod. It felt wrong to roll over the area of effect mod on his current torch since it wasn’t bad. Much better than 1 or 2 physical damage to attacks. He didn’t even attack with his current build. At least the area of effect mod was useful.

Finding the torch and breastplate also meant that the loot in the dungeon respawned along with the monsters. An excellent state of affairs.

Tying the unlit torch to his belt, he continued back down the hallway. He made it to the sharp right turn and peeked around the corner. Still no undead, but that was expected. There hadn’t been undead in this hallway last time he had been here either.

He paced forwards slowly until he was right before the first alcove. Not remembering whether there was an undead in there or not, he paused, only to realize that he was being foolish.

With a smooth motion he stepped in front of the alcoves entrance and blasted with Incinerate. A ghoul screeched-

You have been Hindered

-and leapt at him. Claws flashed leaving bloody scores across his face and chest, but Chilly barely felt them. The injuries healed in seconds, almost but not quite keeping up with the damage. Not that there was much danger. The level 2 ghoul couldn’t last long under the concentrated fires of Incinerate.

Even if this particular ghoul had a rather impressive 206 health.

Chilly tossed a charred humerus with a grimace of distaste and kicked at the ashes for any Essences. None presented themselves, so he moved on to the sarcophagus. His last run through this area had yielded plenty of armor pieces and this time he was hoping to find an accessory that would round out his armor set.

Unfortunately this particular sarcophagus didn’t contain any jewelry. Sad, but kind of expected.

He retreated out of the alcove and considered. Continuing down the hallway would lead past two other alcoves with ghouls in them, but turning left would take him to the parallel hallway that had the full set of magic armor that he had looted last time.

Not particularly interested in the paltry sum of essences that the ghouls ahead could offer, Chilly turned left then immediately turned left. He approached the first alcove and the moment he could see inside, unleashed Incinerate at the waiting ghoul.

Several seconds later, the purple miasma dissipated and Chilly was one Essence of Iron richer. He ignored the immediate alcove and continued on to the last alcove in the hallway. Inside was as expected. Empty of ghouls, with an intact sarcophagus waiting surprisingly intact.

Chilly flashed Incinerate to get rid of the lid, and eagerly peered inside. To his vast disappointment. The armor inside was identical to the gear he was currently wearing. Except for his helmet of course, but he had crafted it to have regeneration which was better in the current situation anyway. At least, he preferred it.

Not to be discouraged, Chilly removed the various pieces of gear from the coffin and searched it meticulously for an amulet or ring of some sort that could fill his last armor slot. To his chagrin, he found none, and was covered in crypt dust for his trouble.

Shaking his head, Chilly left the alcove and turned down the long hallway. He peeked into the next alcove on the left but this one was empty of undead. A quick look in the sarcophagus revealed a level 1 helmet. Not something he needed at the moment.

The next alcove had a ghoul, but it was quickly taken care of with a blast of fire to the face and a bear hug. Now that he so far outclassed the ghouls their mindless aggression was kind of amusing. It seemed like a fun personal challenge to get them to calm down, or at least...get them to stop moving, while he burned them to re-death.

Yikes, that got morbid.

The next alcove was the mold-infested rock collapse room. As far as he could tell, it was identical to how it was before.

Chilly turned right at the sharp right turn and paused at the Cursed Table room. The Weeping Angels were back. But now that they were level three, there wasn’t much point in killing them. Except for Essence of course. Last time he had slain an angel it had dropped an Essence of Regret. A unique essence since it allowed him to refactor his skill augments. Currently, though, he was satisfied so he moved past.

The boss room. Finally.

Chilly looked in and spotted the fat goblin sleeping on its stone throne. The corpses around the room had reorganized, becoming uniformly spaced as they were before.

The question now was: now that he knew the fight, how could he make it easier?

The solution probably revolved around the double damage shrine. If he didn’t immediately take it, and killed the goblin with regular fire, then theoretically he could carry the double damage through the wave of ghouls and into the Bone Giant. With double damage and knowing the Giant’s moveset it should be trivial to finish it off.

The problem with this strategy was that he would be tanking a level three monster with double damage for...

Chilly checked the goblin.

Crypt Goblin

Level: 3

Life: 235

...three and a half, four seconds.

If he remembered correctly, the triple purple skull attack had chunked him for 60 health, or thereabouts. That meant with his current health pool he would survive three hits and die on the fourth. Assuming one attack per second...hmm.

It might even be able to vomit out a continuous stream of skulls if he just stands there and uses Incinerate.

He could try to grapple the goblin. Try to disarm it while burning it with Incinerate...

Chilly shook off the train of thought.

If it ain't broke, don’t fix it.

After making sure all his gear was properly attached, Chilly sprinted into the room. The goblin hobbled off its stone throne the moment he crossed the threshold. His feet pounded on the stone flagons as purple energies collected in the malicious skull staff. In a burst, three purple ephemeral skulls drunkenly floated up high into the air then zoomed at him.

This time, he didn’t bother dodging, just running forwards as fast as he could.

Chilly slapped an armoured gauntlet on the Shrine of Tel’Atur and hit Desecrate. Black energies swirled as the beam of golden light stuttered then shattered into a thousand motes of light which were rapidly absorbed by Chilly.

Intense power flooded through him.

Incinerate

Unleash a beam of fire that burns enemies that it touches. The beam dissipates after 6.4m.

Deals 125.5 Fire damage per second

Channeling

Chilly unleashed blazing hot flames at the goblin.

Panic overtook the goblin as it rushed to escape from the all consuming flames. It turned desperately, waddling on stick thin legs as it tried to escape. Barely two steps later it collapsed.

Chilly immediately cut the skill and rushed over to the pulsing staff. With a vicious kick he knocked it away from the dead goblin’s corpse. It skittered along the stone floor, throbbing with an inner purple light. A second later, a wave of purple blasted out from the staff.

“Worth a shot,” Chilly grinned wryly, then preemptively began incinerating the rapidly rising undead.

This time he didn’t bother running to the corner. Simply sweeping incinerate in a wide circle around himself going counter clockwise. Now that he was in the center of the room, he was able to hit all the ghouls at once, not having to worry that there were some out of his range.

As the fire arced outwards, incinerating flesh, and charring bones, the ghouls screeched in tandem.

You have been Hindered

Expected, but it made the fight with the Bone Giant harder.

He focused on the closer ghouls first but there was only so much he could do. As he was rotating, a ghoul ripped into his exposed back.

Chilly spun around and roasted the offending ghoul. It collapsed into a wave of purple miasma that immediately began ticking down on his health. Luckily, now that he wasn’t exhausted he still had positive regeneration.

Chilly spun back around, Incinerate roasting several of the ghoul’s that had managed to approach too close, before suddenly he was done. All the ghouls were dead, and the room was flooded in desecrated ground.

Desecrated Shrine of Tel’Atur

100% more damage

8 seconds left

Chilly rapidly scanned the room for the Bone Giant and almost immediately spotted it assembling several meters away. Incinerate bloomed, covering the Giant’s bones in white hot fire.

The Bone Giant creaked to life, and lunged forwards in a massive overhand slash. Chilly disabled Incinerate and ducked to the side. He turned and covered the giant in flames again. Fire licked along the giant's bones, small fractures developing from the intense heat.

The giant raised its sword as familiar purple runes burst to life and a shockwave summoned the bone wall ability. Chilly ignored it, focusing on dpsing as much as possible during the boss’s spellcasting.

A wave of weakness washed over him as the shrine effect dissipated, but it had served its purpose. The Bone Giant’s body was already practically ruined by the superheated flames.

Incinerate

Unleash a beam of fire that burns enemies that it touches. The beam dissipates after 6.4m.

Deals 62.7 Fire damage per second

Channeling

The bone arena in place, the Bone giant swiped at Chilly. Chilly dodged backwards and to the side. Then immediately lunged to the side to avoid the giant’s rapid followup thrust.

Chilly rolled to his feet, and unleashed Incinerate at the recovering Giant. Fires washed over and through its bones as it hunched down and in a mighty leap, jumped high into the air. Chilly dropped Incinerate and sprinted out of range.

With a crash, the Bone Giant landed, and with another crash slammed its sword at where Chilly had just been standing. Cracks spiderwebbed across its blacked skeleton as fire raced over it once more. It straightened slowly, but before it could properly stand up, its pelvis cracked, toppling it to the ground as its unlife left it.

Around him, the bone wall crumbled to nothing.

Chilly dropped Incinerate with a grin, and sauntered over to the fallen staff.

Skull of the Bone Giant

One handed staff

Rare

ilvl: 3

10-15 physical damage

Grants Summon Bone Giant

Grants Mass Revive Undead

6% increased physical damage

7% increased fire damage

Adds 6 cold damage to attacks

(AN: This staff was nerfed, because having defensive mods on weapons screws with my excel sheet...)

“My staff.” He said possessively, lifting the staff high and putting away his torch. A pulse of purple magic flooded into him as he sensed a change in his character sheet.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

4

0/4

2

Fire

Life

hp regen

Desecrated Ground

153/212

2.27

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

Summon Bone Giant

Pants:

Iron Pants

Mass Revive Undead

Boots:

Iron Greaves

???

Gloves:

Iron Gauntlets

???

Jewelry:

???

Mainhand:

Iron Axe

???

Offhand:

Iron Kite Shield

Incinerate

Unleash a beam of fire that burns enemies that it touches. The beam dissipates after 5.3m

Deals 67.1 Fire damage per second

Channeling

A nice boost to Incinerate. In fact the only boost he had seen of this type up until this point. But that wasn’t why he was here.

Without further ado, Chilly engaged the first of his two new skills.

Purple power raced up the length of the staff and shot out at the corpse of the recently deceased Bone Giant. Purple lightning arced across the surface of the black bones, scouring them clean and repairing the damage. Bone fragments shot across the room and integrated themselves into the skeleton. Making whole what Chilly had destroyed just seconds ago.

Chilly looked eagerly on, as the Bone Giant assembled and slowly rose to its full height.

“My Minion!” Chilly intoned.

Its purple eyes flared and it turned towards Chilly.

A hint of doubt creeped in.

The Bone Giant stepped forwards and lunged.