(AN: Pious Path now creates consecrated ground regardless of whether Chilly is stationary or not. This is a Buff. I realized that it would be too difficult to juggle the different life regeneration numbers if sometimes he wasn’t standing on consecrated ground.)

The doors of the Undead Parish burst open with a crash as Chilly raced across the threshold. Bone darts immediately pelted him as he ran towards the left side of the room. A larger bone spike slammed into his shoulder and caused him to stumble as he struggled to regain his balance mid sprint.

In seconds he made it across the way and dodged through the threshold and into the relative safety of the already cleared room. He was surprised at how little damage he had taken through the exchange.

Spoiler :

The room was as he had left it before. An open empty silver chest with the remnants of undead ghoul littering the floor.

It was amazing that barely several hours ago he had been here to collect the reward from the Silver Strongbox. The fight had been tough, but manageable, with a relatively foregone conclusion. Now though, with his enhanced stats and improved regeneration, Chilly couldn’t see the Silver Strongbox Guardian even being able to push him around.

Chilly breathed in deeply several times in preparation. Then he rushed right back out into the unrelenting hail of bone flechettes. He followed the wall to the left, gaining speed until he launched himself over the short gap between the walkways.

Chilly landed roughly. The constant barrage of flechettes unbalancing him and causing him to get shoved in odd directions. Regardless, he straightened up and immediately dashed into the next doorway and to relative safety.

The room was longer than the previous side rooms, and contained three wandering ghouls.

Putrid Ghoul (x2)

Level: 3

Life: 184, 207

Armor

Fire Resistance

Cold Resistance

Lightning Resistance

Chaos Resistance

37

6

9

8

2

Putrid Ghoul

Level: 2

Life: 188

Armor

Fire Resistance

Cold Resistance

Lightning Resistance

Chaos Resistance

31

2

3

2

1

Chilly stood his ground as the ghouls noticed him. Golden light bloomed out from him and flooded into the ground. Tiny little crosses materialized all around him and rose into the air. They seemed to orient aggressively towards the nearby undead. Chilly felt the rush of life flow into him as he channeled Incinerate at the ghouls.

The ghouls didn’t seem to like the glowing crosses at all. Though it was hard to really tell. Their jaws unhinged and their previously placid behavior replaced with feral snarling. They charged at him teeth first only to swallow a mouthful of superheated flames.

Fire flowed hungrily over their desiccated skin, eating away at the aged flesh. Skin burned and blackened at a tremendous rate as the level five skill consumed the low level undead.

The ghouls screeched in unison.

You have been Hindered.

The closest ghoul leapt at Chilly with its claws extended. Chilly grunted as he caught the rampaging beast on his kite shield, using the wall at his back for support. Before he knew it the other two ghouls were on top of him. Their claws flashed and his life flickered as their natural weapons cut deep into his flesh.

Chilly gritted his teeth, and washed the ghouls in fire. He shoved the ghoul that had landed on his shield back onto its fellows. The undead stumbled back, but used each other as springboards to rush him once more. They lunged forwards, their teeth gouging bits of flesh off him.

Chilly aimed Incinerate at the rampaging undead around his kite shield. The level five spell was doing a fantastic job. Bright orange cinders glowed brightly over the ghouls blackened skin. Glowing cracks of superheated carbon spiderwebbed haphazardly across the surface making the undead look like they had just escaped from the deepest depths of hell. Most disgusting was the billowing plumes of noxious smoke that rose from the hottest areas.

Two of the ghoul succumbed to the fire near simultaneously. Their limbs lost animation as their distended jaws loosened off of Chilly’s body and they crumbled to pieces at his feet.

The third ghoul took another frustrated bite out of his forearm before it too couldn’t withstand the searing flames of Incinerate.

Spoiler :

Waves of purple miasma burst out of the three corpses but were met by the glowing crucifixes with angry red and gold sparks. The crucifixes seemed to materialize fully, becoming less transparent as they combated the unholy effect. The closest crucifixes to the fel energy lost their color. Fading to grey as cracks developed along their length until they cracked into black and purple dust. However there were many crucifixes emerging from the ground. Too many for the small burst of desecrated ground to deal with. The holy ground fought back the purple miasma valiantly, consuming and being consumed as it destroyed itself as it met its polar opposite.

Just then, another wave of golden light emanated from Chilly’s body and re-consecrated the ground around him. Invigorated, the crosses consumed the purple miasma in a rush of gentle light. Pushing it back until there was nothing left within two meters of Chilly.

Just then he heard the sharp staccato of bones on stone from behind him. He turned around to see two skeleton warriors making a beeline for him from the door that he had entered through. He lifted his arm and channeled Incinerate at the two skeletons.

Skeleton Warrior (x2)

Level: 2

Life: 150, 188

They clanked their jaws ineffectually as they struggled past each other through the narrow doorway. The first one through, raised its sword and slashed across his chest. The second was not far behind and delivered a brutish thrust past the first skeleton’s ribs that poked right through Chilly’s iron kite shield and embedded itself somewhere in his gut.

Chilly shoved them back. They stumbled, the first one collapsing as its bones crumbled to ash, while the second righted itself with fragile bones. It pushed off the wall before lunging desperately with its sword to cut Chilly across the forearm, before its bones cracked and shattered as they fell to the floor.

Spoiler :

Chilly watched his life bar fill with satisfaction, as he ended Incinerate with a flourish. Then he walked over to the center of where the three ghoul had exploded and stood still. A wave of golden light banished the rest of the desecrated ground, eliminating the faint discomfort from chaos degeneration and bringing with it a pleasant sense of warmth and comfort.

The gentle golden glow illuminated the cracks and crevices in the ashen remains and glinted softly off of a pair of Iron Essences. Chilly leaned down and pocketed them then rose as he took in the room for real.

It was larger than the other two annexes that he had visited previously, but still much smaller than the main hall of the Undead Parish. Other than a plain looking lectern sitting innocently at the far end with a penguin beside it, the room lay bare. Not a single chair, or piece of art lined the walls. Only bare stone with bits of black mold growing sparsely to provide variety. It really made one wonder if these halls had once had a purpose or if they had been specifically created to serve this dungeon.

Against the far wall was a perfectly smooth section of wall. Everywhere else the walls had been made of large stone bricks as one would expect in a dungeon. This wall however was both smooth and made of lighter colored stone. Suspicious. Very suspicious.

Farther in and on the right was a door that led back into the main hall.

Spoiler :

Just then, the sound of chanting emanated through the halls followed immediately by a wave of fallow energy that got sucked into the dead remains of the five undead that Chilly had slain. With a sigh, Chilly burned down the reanimating undead, then pulled out his bucket helmet to dispose of the remains.

When he was done, he approached the penguin sitting beside the lectern cautiously.

Jaydcar

Level: 12

???

“We are amidst strange beings, in a strange land.” The penguin began, “The flow of time itself is convoluted; with heroes centuries old phasing in and out. The very fabric wavers, and relations shift and obscure. There's no telling how much longer your world and mine will remain in contact.” The penguin nodded to Chilly then gestured at the lectern, “But, use this, to summon one another as spirits, cross the gaps between the worlds, and engage in jolly cooperation!”

Chilly looked closer at the lectern.

Crafting Lectern

Level: 4

Change the level of an item to 4

Uses remaining: 1

Chilly’s eyes climbed into his hairline. “Thank you Mr. penguin. This is mighty helpful. I too would love to engage in eh... jolly cooperation. Though I must confess, I have not perused the instructions on spirit summoning just as yet. Any advice on where to start would be helpful.”

Jaydcar the penguin chuckled then vanished.

Chilly shrugged to himself then considered the lectern. He could use it on one of his present pieces of gear, or wait until he had cleared the zone. Both had merits. He didn’t particularly feel like using it now. The only spare gear he had on him was his ash and dead ghoul bucket helmet, which he wouldn’t wear even if it suddenly gave him a thousand life. Using the lectern on his equipment was possible but he didn’t really know what changing the level entailed. If it made the item normal then he would have to trudge back to the Shrine and re enchant at the crafting bench.

That would kinda ruin the mood.

The alternative was to wait until he cleared the zone. He would have more time to decide on what item to use it on, plus he could get the input of the penguins if they had any wisdom to share. Besides, There was a Bone Mage who had ordered a smack down, and Chilly was itching to deliver.

Regardless he would have to test to see whether the crafting lectern would reset along with the rest of the dungeon.

Chilly turned to leave the room through the far exit but paused at the doorway as he noticed two penguins conversing between themselves several steps into the main chamber.

Sermiser

Level: 8

???

“Success so clearly in view... or is it merely a trick of the light?” Sermiser the penguin said quietly as it stared off towards the Bone Mage.

Sure Ruse User

Level: 11

???

“A trick, you just need to look at my sufficiently schlau sόbriquet to see that I know my way around those.” The other penguin replied just as quietly.

“Heya, guys. What’s popping?” Chilly called from the annex doorway.

The two penguins jumped at Chilly’s voice. They gave him odd looks before turning and walking deeper until they disappeared behind one of the two great pillars.

“Has anyone seen Nobody? I have some...” Chilly heard Sure Ruse User call as it walked away, but the rest of what the penguin said was too soft for him to understand.

“What’s popping?” Chilly berated himself quietly. “Just say hi like a normal person. Jeez.”

He looked out past where the penguins had been standing and observed the third walkway. Two more level two skeletons were charging him, but he ignored them for now. Directly in front of him lay the first of the two massive pillars. It was big enough and positioned favorably enough that he would actually be hidden from the sight of all three Bone Turrets.

Chilly dodged back as the skeleton sword slammed into his face. He channeled Incinerate just as the second skeleton jumped around its colleague and jabbed him roughly with the tip of its rusted iron sword.

Spoiler :

Chilly grimaced at the two distractions and burned them down and quickly disposed of the charred bones in the nearby pit. A quick glance revealed that the two skeletons hadn’t dropped any essences. A shame. He was growing quite a collection.

This walkway was the one with the resistance Shrine. It sat in between the two giant stone pillars and emitted a pillar of light straight up towards the ceiling. Chilly hopped out from the safety of the side room and took a peak at the description before jumping back to safety.

Shrine of Tel’Atur

Grants nearby allies 40% more resistances

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

It was what gave all the monsters in here unusual resistance and soon...Soon it would give him the power. All he needed to do was to touch it.

Chilly ran out of the side room and ducked behind the aegis of the large stone pillar. A few bone spikes glanced off his armor, but not nearly enough to dent his considerable life pool.

Spoiler : Ha! Trick you, I did!

He peeked around the corner only to duck right back as a large bone spike from the Bone Mage nearly impaled him in the eye.

There were a few things he could do. All of them involved going to the resistance shrine and desecrating it to steal its power. What he did after that was the question though. On the one hand he could try bum rushing the Bone Mage and using the extra resistance to overwhelm it. On the other hand, he could use the extra resistances to get rid of the Bone Turrets for good.

...

Getting rid of the Bone Turrets seemed more appealing.

Chilly walked to the right side of the pillar and stepped out from behind the protection of the pillar. Immediately two of the three Bone Turrets began pelting him with flechettes. He channeled Incinerate as he kept a careful watch on his life pool.

Spoiler :

It turned out there was nothing much to worry about. Chilly smiled broadly as the first Bone Turret crumbled to ash, and he returned to the cover of the pillar. To his left the sound of chanting began anew, and a frown graced his face. He poked his head back out, to see the Bone Turret reanimating.

With a sigh he channeled Incinerate until the shattered bones and ash stopped twitching. Then he hopped over to the platform and began shoveling the remains over the edge. From this position he was visible to both remaining turrets, but they were of no consequence.

He had outgrown them.

Spoiler :

The last of the ash fell into the pit as Chilly straightened. He was still tanking the odd bone flechette but he ignored the faint pinpricks. This was turning out to be easier than he thought. He was considering just going for the Bone Mage when the words of the penguins rang through his head.

Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer

That settled it. He would do this slowly and carefully. There was no need to rush.

Chilly returned back to the second walkway and walked out enough that he was protected from the Bone Mage by one of the pillars. Then he channeled Incinerate at the second Bone Turret while tanking the errant flechette.

Moments later the turret collapsed into a pile of cracked bones and ash. He made his way over and began shoveling the gunk into the pit. Now that he was standing in the center of the walkway, he was within sight of the Bone Mage, and so had to periodically brace to absorb the much more substantial projectile.

Spoiler :

As he was shoveling a penguin popped into existence beside him.

Luminatira

Level: 9

???

“Thanks for the chapter!” the penguin chirped.

“I’m a little...busy here.” Chilly grunted. He glanced off to the side and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Aren’t you the penguin who told that corny joke last time?”

This was also the first time he had seen a penguin with an beside its name. A shame that the penguins never talked about what that number meant, since it was clearly not level. Perhaps it was how much experience the penguin had. Could mean that this penguin was close to leveling up.

...

Food for thought.

Luminatira grinned, “Hey remember that ring? We're pretty sure it's not cursed, could be a big help if it isn't!”

“Oh, yeah?” Chilly raised an eyebrow. “How ‘bout after this we go there together and you pick it up first to see if it's cursed hmm? You know. Since you’re so confident.”

Luminatira laughed then leaned in conspiratorially as a bone flechette zipped right by its beak.

“Hey, wanna know why skeletons are so bad at high-stress jobs?”

Chilly narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Is this one of your jokes?”

“Because they're easily rattled!” Luminatira chortled happily, patting its belly in amusement.

“Alright, ha, ha.” Chilly said dryly. “Very funny, now shoo. I’m shoveling old dead people here.”

Luminatira shrugged and waved him off, as if it was actually Chilly who had no sense of humour. Then it waddled off to explore the dungeon some more.

Chilly finished shoveling the last of the turret remains over the edge, and collected the single Essence of Emerald that the turret had dropped. He returned to the third walkway and blatantly walked into the fire of the various undead. He stood beside the Resistance Shrine and giggled to himself as the projectiles simply glanced off of him.

At this point there almost wasn’t a point in desecrating the shrine.

Yes

The pedestal cracked as its energy crackled and shifted as it redirected and flowed into Chilly. His skin took on an unnatural toughness as he felt the power settle within him. Chilly laughed as the meager attacks by the remaining turret and the Bone Mage became even more ineffectual.

Spoiler :

With newfound vigor, Chilly turned to the last remaining Bone Turret and flooded it with flames. A couple seconds later he hopped onto the turret’s platform and began kicking and shoveling the remains over the edge.

Chilly hopped back and made his way across the walkway towards the ruined remains of the next area. The side of the Undead Parish had fared the worst during whatever event had caused much of the masonry to fall into the void. The room itself was gone with a giant chasm spanning its center across which Chilly saw where he had nearly died last time he had come here.

Spoiler : You are here btw.

He turned left and walked through the doorway.

Another small room, this time with two putrid ghouls staring blankly at the walls.

Putrid Ghoul (x2)

Level: 3

Life: 154, 207

Armor

Fire Resistance

Cold Resistance

Lightning Resistance

Chaos Resistance

26

5

6

6

1

At his entrance they turned and charged. Chilly immediately focused on the one with less life. Incinerate flared out, catching the creature straight in the jaw as it lunged at him. Claws scraped ineffectual over his hardened armor. Sparks flew as the second ghoul joined in.

Chilly maintained his focus on the weaker ghoul who was rapidly cooking under his attention. More claws and teeth flashed out, but Chilly ignored them all. He leaned his head back, but otherwise allowed the two underleveled ghouls to wail impotently at his arms and chest.

The first ghoul crumbled to dust, eliciting a burst of purple miasma that was immediately stifled by Pious Path.

The second ghoul maintained its assault. It opened its jaws wide and clamped down on Chilly’s raised forearm, and began jerking its head side to side like a dog with a chew toy. Chilly chuckled lightly as the ghoul exerted itself.

He barely felt a thing.

Spoiler :

A couple seconds later, the second ghoul collapsed and he was once more alone and unmolested.

He took the time to pick up an Essence of Azurite, and observe the room he had found himself in. Behind him was the doorway to the third walkway, while to the left was the one to the fourth and final walkway. On his right however was a thick wooden door with banded iron reinforcement. Before he could go and investigate a penguin popped into existence right in front of him.

NickXenix

Level: 18

???

“Thanks for the chapter!” NickXenix said cheerily. “Hello Chilly, having a nice day I see.”

“I am thank you for noticing,” Chilly replied with a grin.

NickXenix turned slightly and got a far away look in its eyes.

“What's that? I can't hear you~!”

Crossly, the penguin turned to stare at the wall. Chilly followed his gaze, a little confused as to what was happening. That seemed like a common occurrence with this particular penguin though so he just rolled with it for now.

Suddenly the penguin hopped angrily and exclaimed at the wall. “I'm over 18,000 years old! I'm legally allowed to...”

The penguin trailed off for a moment.

“...But mommmmm! Just five more...”

The penguin paused again. Then stomped its foot and seemed to deflate.

“Okay fine,” NickXenix said, “I'll go blow up the pesky...”

In a puff of smoke the penguin vanished leaving Chilly unsure of what exactly he had witnessed.

Putting the additional odd encounter out of his mind, Chilly walked over to the wooden door and carefully tried the handle. Surprisingly it was unlocked, so with the utmost care and fear of the unknown he poked his head through.

You have entered the Prison

A wave of unusually warm air blew over him. Beyond the door was a long hallway that quickly opened up to a large circular chamber. In the center of the room sat a giant fat man with dark grey skin and a large tree trunk sized club held loosely in his right hand. Chains bound the creature's upper body. They covered his chest so densely that it had practically become a shirt. The chains wrapped around his chest and snaked down his arms where they continued down the length of his brutish weapon until they terminated with a large nail at the tip of the club.

Dozens of heavy ugly stitches spiderwebbed across its exposed skin, making it look distinctly like Frankenstein's monster.

Mrawll Warden

Level: 4

A penguin materialized out of a wall and took one look at the giant creature then jumped up and down and pointed at it in delight.

Poidude

Level: 5

???

“Ogres are like onions!” It exclaimed, delighted. “Thanks for the chapter!”

Chilly frowned, the penguins were being extra weird for some reason.

“Thanks for the chapter,” Chilly whispered back then retreated back to the Undead Parish and closed the door firmly.

You have entered the Undead Parish

There would be plenty of time to take care of the Prison later. Right now he had an appointment with the Bone Mage to keep.

He strolled onto the fourth walkway and was immediately assaulted by three waiting skeleton warriors.

Skeleton Warrior (x3)

Level: 2

Life: 179, 191, 200

They swung their swords at him, to which he responded by channeling Incinerate. Fire flooded out and met bone. The bone lost. Chilly stepped through the burnt husks of the skeletons not even bothering to kick the remains into the pit as he stepped up to the edge of the walkway.

He was now within five meters of the Bone Mage.

Fire lanced across the space and hungrily tore at the skeleton’s loose clothing. In response the Bone Mage finally stood up from its ascetic throne and thrust its open palm forwards. Mystical blue energies coalesced and flew towards Chilly. Before they even got to him, they diverged and condensed into dozens if not hundreds of bone shards that began spinning rapidly around him in a cyclone.

He stared curiously at the storm as the Bone Mage summoned another spike. An odd quirk of his fighting style that he could just kinda look around while channeling the beam of fire. The storm of bone was definitely damaging him, but not nearly enough to overcome his regeneration.

He braced as the bone spike slammed into him.

The Bone Mage was beginning to look damaged. Its bones were entirely black with faint cracks that grew alarmingly fast across its body. The faint pop of splitting bone could be heard from underneath the rapid pinging of the bone storms little shards.

Another bone spike materialized above the skeleton’s outstretched hand. It spun there for half a rotation, before blasting out and embedding itself into Chilly’s abdomen.

Chilly grunted at the blow, but smiled in satisfaction as the fire overwhelmed the Bone Mage, who crumbled into a pile of black ash and bone shards.

Spoiler :

(AN: forgive the spam from the bone storm. It isn’t actually dealing zero damage. It's dealing 35 damage per second. I’m just cutting off the trailing...you know what, don't worry about it. How should I represent degens in the future?)

The moment the Bone Mage fell, the storm of bone shards dissipated in an instant, Leaving Chilly standing amidst piles of ash in an empty Mausoleum. He hopped the gap and walked up to the throne and sat on it proudly.

“Damn straight.”