“I’m going to be honest. I’m not sure where to start.” Chilly muttered to himself as he stared at the list of notifications that cluttered his vision.

He had returned to the Shrine with his head spinning. Not particularly from the recent battle. Those wounds had healed in seconds. More from the barrage of notifications that leveling up had bombarded him with, and the decision paralysis that came with those options.

“If you keep talking to yourself, people will think you’re crazy.” A penguin sitting on one of the stone benches muttered as it twiddled Realm Walker idly.

Poidude

Level: 5

???

“Thanks for the tip.” Chilly replied dryly.

“Uh, wha?? I wasn’t talking to you!” Poidude replied incredulously.

“Huh?” Chilly cocked his head in confusion.

The other penguins seemed similarly confused, though several snickered openly. One particularly strange penguin morphed its Realm Walker into a car steering wheel and ran out of the chamber making car noises. That only seemed to encourage the snickering penguins, who burst out laughing at the display.

“I feel like I missed a joke.” Chilly muttered darkly. “Also why can I see your level now? Is it because I hit level five?”

A penguin pushed its way through the crowd.

Kreksyte

Level: 3

???

“Thanks for the chapter!” it chirped happily.

“Thanks for the chapter.” Chilly responded politely. Level 3. What did that mean.

“Since you found a chillier area...” The penguin paused dramatically causing renewed snickers to flood over the gathered penguins.

“Ha, ha. Yeah, I get it. Laugh it up.” Chilly retorted wryly.

“...if you find some ice,” Kreksyte the penguin continued, “you could take it back to the campfire to melt it and cure your dehydration.”

“I didn’t see any ice before, but I suppose I wasn’t looking particularly hard. Though, the level six and seven monsters are scary. I think I’ll try to tackle the Mausoleum first.”

Kreksyte the penguin bobbed its head merrily before retreating back into the crowd.

“Does anybody have advice on how to proceed with the level up?” Chilly called out into the crowd. “All these choices scare me.”

A penguin-

Jaydcar

Level: 12

???

-jumped up excitedly, then waved it’s flippers at the nearby penguins. They all nodded seriously and shouted in tandem.

“Remind Yourself That Overconfidence Is A Slow And Insidious Killer!”

Chilly winced and covered his ears. “Yup, got that, anything else?”

Level 12. Almost as high as the Guardian of the Shrine. How would a fight between them turn out? The ghost was...a ghost, and the penguin was basically a ghost. Intriguing.

Another penguin-

NickXenix

Level: 18

???

-jumped onto one of the benches.

“Oh the Stars, wonder at their magnitude and immense proportions of sheer size.” NickXenix pontificated.

Chilly sighed, then did a double take at the penguins level.

“The raw power contained within... Hey, are you listening?”

“No.” Chilly said curtly, “This is a serious moment. What I choose can determine whether I live or die. You and your crazy talk ain’t helping bucko!”

“Bah! I promise I'm not crazy, I'll even tell you a secret.”

Chilly narrowed his eyes. “Is it a crazy secret?”

“You might be tortured in a...” NickXenix’s voice faded away as his beak continued flapping. “...you really trust them?”

Chilly sighed again. “I couldn’t he-”

“Bah! Who am I kidding?” NickXenix scoffed. “Why would you listen to what the crazy penguin says as long as the other penguins tell you that they don't like him?”

“I like you!”

“Me too!”

“I want to have your babies, NickXenix!”

“Yeah, what he said!”

“You’re the best!”

“I’m a girl!”

NickXenix froze on the pedestal as the penguins around it erupted in praise. Pink visible rose from the penguin’s clawed toes and got steadily darker until his face was a bright cherry red. NickXenix gulped audibly then very carefully set Realm Walker down and vanished in a puff of rapidly dissipating smoke.

That only seemed to rile up the other penguins further as they searched for where the level 18 penguin went. Several ran screaming out of the cavern while others directly dropped their swords in an attempt to follow the high leveled penguin.

Chilly observed the penguin penguin interaction with interest and a fair amount of trepidation.

Another penguin calmed down the crowd after nearly a full minute of gratuitous flipper waving and beak bopping.

That One

Level: 10

???

The penguin with an odd name stepped to the front of the crowd and addressed Chilly with a fatherly smile.

“Well done, Chilly. You took one hell of a risk, but it paid off. Now step forth and give the ghouls a taste of their own ground effect medicine.”

Ground effect medicine? Chilly mouthed the term then recalled the three skills he had been offered.

“So you’re saying get Pious Path as my third skill?” Chilly replied. “I was thinking that, myself. The more regeneration the better in my opinion.”

That One nodded and gave a gentle smile. “Thanks for the chapter.”

Chilly nodded in return.

“Your name’s cool. I like the idea of calling people That One or this one.”Chilly pulled up his interface. “We could even add suffixes to the names, like That One the Great, or That One the Mighty. Would be easier than remembering Michael and Jessica and Bob. Just saying. Also, y’all sure about this?”

Chilly glanced at the crowd of penguins with a hint of hesitation. They all stood silently, eagerly awaiting his choice.

Confidence boosted, Chilly selected Pious Path.

A wave of golden light burst out from him, flooding outwards in a radius of two meters and sinking deep into the ground, and causing it to glow ever so slightly. A moment later, the consecrated ground began releasing little ephemeral golden crosses that floated upwards lazily before dispersing into glittering motes of light.

Chilly gasped as new life seemed to flood into him. His regeneration instantly bolstered by the holy ground effect that spread out in a perfect two meter radius circle at his feet.

For the first time since Chilly had arrived, the Guardian of the Shrine paused in its candle lighting. It gave Chilly and the area around it a carefully measured glance. Ancient as the stones around it, the ghost seemed to consider ponderously the ramifications of the holy ground effect.

Then, as if compelled by an unseen force, the ghost returned to lighting the candles one by one. Its brief moment of individuality as transient as the crucifixes floating up from the consecrated ground.

Chilly didn’t notice the ghostly attention however. He was too busy eagerly pulling up the augment menu for his new skill.

Choose an Augment for Pious Path. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 2 Augments.

Militant Faith

Your faith burns every brighter, unchallenged by both blasphemers and undead alike.

Consecrated Ground grants you an additional 2.5% of maximum life as life per second

Radiant Faith

Your faith radiates with the power of your will, further enhancing any consecrated ground that you spread.

50% increased effect of Consecrated Ground

Inevitable Judgement

You find those who are lacking, and bring them to justice. Regardless of their might.

Consecrated Ground causes undead to take 15% more damage

Divine Aegis

To walk the path of the holy is to be protected from the unholy.

Consecrated Ground grants 8% less damage taken from undead

Ceaseless Crusade

The path of the holy never truly ends.

Consecrated Ground spreads at a rate of 1 m/s for 4 seconds upon creation

Righteous Providence

To believe is to take one step closer to the divine.

Consecrated Ground grants 100 curse resistance

Chilly skimmed through the list quickly. The first two were generic additional life regeneration while the third and fourth had some interesting bonuses relating to undead. Chilly eyed Divine Aegis especially as the damage reduction seemed especially pertinent to him.

Inevitable Judgement would be an augment for later. Primarily because it only really worked with Ceaseless Crusade, or in really physically close encounters. While a two meter radius on consecrated ground seemed high, it wasn’t nearly far enough to allow Inevitable Judgement to help him in his coming encounter with the Bone Turrets in the Undead Parish.

Divine Shield was tempting. Very tempting. Less damage was always a good thing. Especially less damage that would apply all the time since he would always be standing on Consecrated Ground due to Pious Path.

Chilly scrambled around for a pencil and paper, but quickly sighed and resigned himself to doing the arithmetic in his head. Not counting the ice ghoul from the Bone Pits, all the undead had dealt physical damage to him. Therefore 8% less damage taken was roughly equivalent to 8% more armor in the present situation. At least. Probably.

So multiplying 86 armor by 1.08 gives...93? 92? Something like that.

Chilly double checked his math but was disappointed. He could get a bigger boost to defense from a new pair of boots.

Ceaseless Crusade didn’t make sense alone, since he didn’t really have allies that could benefit from the larger area, and Righteous Providence wasn’t all that useful since he hadn’t met anything that could curse him. Yet. It was possible that the ring in the Mausoleum was cursed and he had narrowly missed getting permanently turned into an undead or something. He would make sure to get Righteous Providence if he ever mustered up the courage to collect the ring.

That left Militant Faith and Radiant Faith.

Chilly grinned. Now that he was level five, he could augment Pious Path with both of the upgrades.

He hesitated just before allocating the augments. He only had three skill points to use, and he hadn’t even considered augmenting either Incinerate or Vitality.

Shaking his head at the near blunder, he brought up the two windows and considered all his options.

Choose an Augment for Incinerate. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 2 Augments.

Empowered Flames

Your flames burn ever hotter.

30% more Incinerate damage

Ignition

Enemies burnt by Incinerate catch fire dealing 35% additional fire damage over 4 seconds

Embered Heart

Ashes resonate with the power of Incinerate.

100% more ash effect

Chaotic Flames

Incinerate bolsters the flames within you.

12% more damage over time

Massive

Incinerate gains an additional 3m of range

Scorching Ray

The flames of Incinerate leave lasting scars.

Incinerate inflicts scorch

Choose an Augment for Vitality. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 2 Augments.

Heart of the Warrior

Your heart thrums with the might of the warrior.

Regenerate 3% of maximum life as life per second

Troll’s Blood

Your blood pulses with life.

24% more life regeneration

Titanic Vigor

Your flesh toughens, mimicking the endurance of Titans.

12% more life

Stalwart Bulwark

You stand firm against the powers that would see you fall.

Regenerate 3% of maximum life as life per second while stationary

Unity of Purpose

Those who have allied with you share a fraction of your indomitable vigor.

Vitality affects nearby allies with 50% less effect

Indomitable

To resist is to live.

150 added sap resistance

(AN: Some of the descriptions have changed since last time. The effects are the same.)

Chilly first looked at Vitality. While Incinerate had allowed him to kill things, Vitality was what really allowed him to overcome. He wanted more regeneration. There could never be enough.

Troll’s Blood, Titanic Vigor, and Stalwart Bulwark were all possible contenders. He could only augment one which was a shame, but at least one of these three would definitely get augmented.

While standing on consecrated ground he had 36.75 life regenerated per second. That was roughly 15% of his maximum health. Give or take. That meant that the 3% from Stalwart Bulwark roughly equated to 20% more life regeneration.

As in, if he hadn’t made any silly mistakes. Stalwart Bulwark was straight worse than Troll’s Blood.

That ruled out that option, which left Titanic Vigor and Troll’s Blood. A penguin had once told him, 1% more life was 1% more regeneration. True since practically all of his regeneration scaled with maximum life. That meant that Titanic Vigor was better than it initially appeared.

It did seem that he was lacking in the life department. The level 6 ghoul had a significantly larger health pool than him. Hell even the doors had more health than him, and still they got practically ripped to shreds by the ghoul.

A larger life pool would give him a larger buffer during which he could figure out a way to escape or recover in between engagements. It also meant that he might survive the eventual blow from a vastly overleveled creature if he made a mistake.

Titanic Vigor it is.

Power flowed through him as he selected the augment. He saw his maximum life flicker, and watched his life dash to catch up. His regeneration was higher than ever before.

That left two skill points.

Chilly stared long and hard at Ignition. It was probably a good idea to upgrade Incinerate’s damage. Probably. More damage meant enemies died faster which meant he took less hits. So in a roundabout way, it kinda sorta gave him defense.

Kinda sorta.

Chilly frowned. It was possibly a good idea. Even likely. But. It was more satisfying to just upgrade his regeneration as high as it would go.

Chilly glanced at the penguins leaning over his shoulder and eagerly reading the descriptions of the skills.

Worst case, one of the penguins would tell him that he was an idiot and he ends up using an Essence of Regret to swap the augment. The essences really weren’t that hard to find.

Grinning from ear to ear. Chilly allocated both Militant Faith and Radiant Faith.

A pulse of golden light burst out from him and seemed to get absorbed by the consecrated ground at his feet. The dim light that the ground gave off intensified. Growing to the point where it might conceivably be considered a night light. Or perhaps those aisle lights on airplanes. Dim but enough that he wouldn’t ever really be at risk of tripping.

The crucifixes also grew more numerous. Before they sparsely littered the ground and floated up to vanish in the air. Now though, they were everywhere. So dense, that it almost looked like he was standing underneath a golden smoke machine.

Chilly reveled as a burst of vigor flashed through him.

Eagerly, he pulled up his character sheet.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

5

1/5

0

Fire

Life

Life Regeneration

Starving, Dehydrated

297/297

59.26

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

86

46.33%

0

0.00%

0

0.00%

0

0.00%

0

0.00%

Incinerate

Helmet:

Iron Barbute

Vitality

Body Armor:

Iron Plate Vest

Pious Path

Pants:

Iron Pants

Summon Bone Giant

Boots:

Iron Greaves

Mass Revive Undead

Gloves:

Iron Gauntlets

???

Jewelry:

???

Mainhand:

Skull of the Bone Giant

???

Offhand:

Iron Kite Shield

Chilly laughed in delight as he beheld his massively empowered regeneration.

Suddenly a high pitched voice sounded from right behind him.

“How many padawans does it take to change a lightbulb?”

Chilly choked, “NickXenix, you ba...You’re not NickXenix...”

Luminatira

Level: 9

???

“None, they make the force do it!” Luminatira the penguin proclaimed as it laughed maniacally. Leaning back and raising both flippers high in a fair impression of a megalomaniac.

Chilly narrowed his eyes at the penguin. “...bro.”

Luminatira dropped the act but not the grin. It turned to him and winked. “Did you know doors can be used as moving barriers? Here's a hint! Use the door to block the turrets.”

“Ahuh. I could possibly use the trapdoor, but the wooden one is weigh too heavy.” Chilly snorted. “I could try that in the next dungeon reset. They are both...unfortunately indisposed at the moment.”

Luminatira giggled, and bopped back into the crowd of penguins. The penguins had begun to disperse as the action of leveling up had concluded. That said there were still a fair amount of them simply milling around. Almost two hundred if Chilly had to hazard a guess.

Chilly took one more look at this character sheet and couldn’t help jumping to his feet.

It was time to test out the new stats.

Chilly left the Shrine with a group of penguins in tow. He travelled through the Mausoleum without any mishaps. However when he passed by the large room where the crypt goblin had once summoned the Bone Giant he paused and entered slowly.

A single penguin was standing amidst the ashen corpses of the dead.

Abowden

Level: 15

Herald of Wisdom

???

Chilly paused at the additional descriptor. Herald of Wisdom was new. The penguin was at a pretty high level too.

Abowden turned slowly from the blackened corpse of the Crypt Goblin. The penguin assessed Chilly, then the consecrated ground at his feet. It seemed to consider for a long moment, before it smiled and nodded in satisfaction.

“Good luck!” It said then returned to studying the carnage.

“Thanks,” Chilly nodded in return. When the penguin didn’t say anything more, Chilly nodded again awkwardly. “Uhm, I’m just gonna...go?”

The penguin continued to consider the black ash at its feet. “Right,” Chilly muttered, and turned to go.

“Remember, if you get desperate you can always eat that goblin.” Abowden called after him, gesturing at the unrecognizable lump of charr and dirt at its feet. Abowden’s grin grew a mite mischievous. “...and maybe even drink it's blood!”

With a puff of smoke the Herald of Wisdom vanished.

Chilly eyed the dead crypt goblin with a distasteful expression. Even from a distance the corpse smelled partly rancid, and partly like a forest fire.

“Bloody penguins...” He muttered, quietly enough that the silent penguins standing near him wouldn’t be able to hear.

Chilly left. He was still holding out for a nice juicy steak and a coffee shop if he managed to defeat the Bone Mage. It was definitely possible that the Undead Parish was the last zone. Right?

Right.

Besides. At only one stack, Dehydrated and Starving only reduced his regeneration by 2 life per second. Not all that much. Certainly not enough to warrant eating meat that looked like a reenactment of the formation of coal. Perhaps when he hit three or four stacks, and he killed the crypt goblin with less fire, he could roast a leg over the campfire in the Shrine. Incinerate really didn’t leave much after it got through burning things.

Some of the penguins seemed mildly affronted that Chilly was bothered more by the fact that the goblin was burned to a crisp than the fact that it was a humanoid.

Chilly made his way over to the entrance to the Undead Parish. He considered the double doors then addressed the gathered penguins.

“I’m going to try just standing at the entrance and soaking up the attacks. See how long I can last before it becomes dangerous.”

A penguin approached. Its information box popped into existence as it grew near.

Quaesitor Mortem

Level: 12

???

“Thanks for the chapter.” the penguin said seriously.

“You too.” Chilly replied, “What’s up Mr. Mortem?”

The penguin stared at the doors. So intently that it seemed as if it was peering through them and studying the undead that lay beyond.

“In this world...” It began slowly.

“In this world there are two types of battles that you will encounter. For the mobs you will need a consistent source of damage per second. Incinerate for example. But for any of the...” silence “...you need accurate and heavy hits. Bursts of damage if you will.”

The penguin paused almost as if it was about to say something else then seemed to reconsider.

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” Chilly said sincerely.

If the penguin was to be believed, then Chilly knew what he needed to work on next. The moment he met up with one of the monsters that the penguin couldn’t speak of, then he would need a better attack spell. Basically something he could use and then run around as it did its massive burst of damage. As it stood, Incinerate basically tickled enemies if he couldn’t stand still for extended periods of time.

Chilly put those thoughts to the back of his mind and turned to the doors. He dragged them open and jumped outside.

Note: Reload the page to play it again.

(AN: We are trying out a new method of showing the damage. Hope you like it! Feedback is appreciated.)

Chilly jumped back behind the doors with a massive grin on his face. He stepped back as his regeneration pushed several giant bone spikes and nearly two dozen bone flechettes out of his chest, face, arms, and legs.

In seconds he was back to full health.

He could almost tank the three level 3 Bone Turrets indefinitely! The Bone Mage was the only reason why he had needed to jump to shelter and even then, it had taken several good long seconds for his health to get low enough to make him nervous.

Chilly laughed.

It was time to bring that Bone Mage to its knees.