I believe him mad. Dungeon madness perhaps. Though all evidence suggests he is a recent addition to this cage.

--Excerpt from Chaeli’s scout report

Chilly lay back after sucking out that last of the water from his improvised water filter. It tasted like dirt but it was hard to argue with the results.

You are no longer Dehydrated

Chilly set down the helmet with a sigh as the last of the faint tingling of chaos degeneration faded away.

A penguin raced over to the helmet and hopped on top.

Poidude

Level: 5

???

“I’ve got a jar of DIRT!” The penguin shouted.

“What?” Chilly said incredulously, “No this is my jar of dirt. I worked hard for it.” Chilly grabbed the helmet and yanked it from underneath the penguin.

Poidude pouted prettily. “Thanks for the chapter, I suppose...”

Another penguin joined in.

Sermiser

Level: 8

???

“Bro, can I eat that?” Sermiser asked, staring hungrily at the helmet water filter in Chilly’s hands.

“What?” Chilly said again, he took the helmet and hid it behind his back. “Mine. My dirt. No eating. Besides, who eats dirt?”

Poidude sidled up again with a mischievous grin. “Ah, but what's in my jar of dirt?”

“My dirt.” Chilly emphasised, scowling at the two penguins darkly. “There is dirt in this helmet. And a few scraps of cloth. Nothing edible I promise. If I find that either of you two stole my dirt then I’m gonna be so mad.”

The two penguins gave each other a look that had Chilly’s hackles rising, before they both dropped Realm Walker and disappeared in a flash of smoke.

Chilly hugged his helmet closer to his chest as he stared at the remaining penguins suspiciously. With as much care as he could muster he stealthily got up and sneaked over to the stash. Making sure none of the penguins weren’t staring too closely, Chilly rapidly popped the lid and hid the dirt filled helmet inside the chest. He snapped the lid closed and scanned the room.

None of the penguins seemed to be interested in the chest.

Good.

Chilly straightened up, and considered what to do next. He was still hungry, though with his thirst quenched it was easier to think clearly. He also had the level four shield that he could try crafting up.

Chilly thought about doing all of this, but realized that he was tired. Not exhausted. But tired. It had been a long day and there wasn’t any real hurry. It would be good to rest up and tackle the challenges of the new day with fresh eyes.

With that decided Chilly hid his torch in the stash and curled up beside the campfire. He would get a bed at some point, but for now. This was good enough.

“Thanks for the chapter.” a voice coming from roughly an inch in front of his face woke Chilly with a start. He jerked back and smacked his head on the side of the bench as he recoiled.

NickXenix

Level: 18

???

“Gah, what the hell man?” Chilly cried deliriously, as he struggled to gather his bearings after just having been woken up. For some reason it was really bright in the room, something that his eyes were not happy about.

NickXenix leaned forwards and tapped him on the forehead with a single flipper.

“May the stars watch over you.”

A flash of light burst into existence for a fraction of a second and faded just as quickly. Chilly froze like a deer in headlights as he tried to understand what had just happened.

NickXenix smiled mysteriously then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Chilly squinted in the bright room, as he felt his body for any changes. Nothing hurt. Nothing seemed out of place. His character sheet was as it was before he had fallen asleep. Was the penguin just messing with him? That did seem like a reasonable possibility considering who that penguin was.

Though that penguin was level 18. It was possible that there was a method to its madness.

Chilly rubbed the gunk from his eyes and looked around. The Shrine was very bright. Nearly all the candles were lit. Bright cheery flames lit up the relatively small cavern beyond what Chilly had seen of this place before. It didn’t help that Chilly was surrounded by a circle of consecrated ground that added to the light with its own gentle golden glow.

The ghost seemed almost giddy as it approached the last of the candles. Another candle wooshed alight and the room just got a little bit brighter.

Chilly suspiciously got to his feet. Whatever was happening seemed dangerous. The ghost was undead and it clearly wanted to light up the room. Whatever the reason, it didn’t seem like it would be healthy for Chilly to stick around.

He carefully gathered his things and jogged over to the Mausoleum. He paused briefly as he saw that the door was still missing. He logged the observation and passed the threshold.

You have entered the Mausoleum

He turned around and peeked back inside the bright room.

The ghost floated to another candle which wooshed alight. Chilly squinted, scanning the room for potential dangers. He made sure that there was nothing obstructing his escape.

Suddenly a powerful gust of frigid wind erupted from the tunnel to the Bone Pits. The ghost spun around in horror as every open flame in the room flickered wildly. Candles shivered under the gale, as their flames danced and struggled to remain alight.

Chilly hunkered down as the cold air washed over him and he observed from the sidelines.

One by one the candle flames were snuffed out. First individual candles got blown out, then the flames were extinguished in droves. Barely a couple seconds later every light source in the room was eliminated except for a narrow circle of faint golden light around Chilly’s feet.

When the last of the flames were extinguished a wave of something nearly imperceptible burst out from the giant doors of the Desecrator’s Shrine. Chilly only noticed it because he was watching carefully. The wave exploded outwards lightning fast and passed over everything harmlessly.

A pressure suddenly appeared right in front of Chilly’s nose as he was forced back. Before his very eyes matter materialized before him. First wooden fibers appeared out of thin air, then they merged and collected iron fragments that fused into iron bars that embedded themselves into the wood. Hinges materialized and bound themselves to the rapidly regenerating stone.

A second later, an oddly familiar wooden door stood closed before him.

Wood Door

Level: 6

Life: 407

Armor

Fire Resistance

Cold Resistance

Lightning Resistance

Chaos Resistance

66

16

35

42

9

Chilly nervously glanced through the bars at the glowing ghost then down at the pool of light at his feet. Pious Path was literally putting him in the spotlight.

The ghost though seemed resigned rather than vengeful. Its previously ecstatic behavior was gone in favor of a more demur approach. It floated lazily towards the nearest candlesticks and lit them one by one.

Slowly, light returned to the Shrine.

Chilly heard a scuffling from behind him. He turned to see a level two ghoul charging at him.

Putrid Ghoul

Level: 2

Life: 141

Armor

Fire Resistance

Cold Resistance

Lightning Resistance

Chaos Resistance

22

1

2

2

0

Chilly leaned against the solid bulk of the newly created door and caught the ghouls' charge. It swiped at him viciously but at the end of the day couldn’t do much against his staggering life regeneration.

After a couple of seconds Chilly grew tired of the Ghoul’s inane scramblings and he began channeling Incinerate. Two seconds later, the ghoul crumbled to dust at his feet.

Spoiler :

Chilly tossed the blackened rib cage to the ground and turned back to the door.

“The dungeon reset.” He murmured to himself. “I suppose that was obvious.”

He pushed the door open and entered the Shrine. A quick scan confirmed that the trapdoor to the Annex was back and that even some of the stones that he had kicked around had returned to their original positions.

He sat before the campfire and called the penguins to join him.

“I guess we witnessed the dungeon resetting.” Chilly started out, then he pointed at several unruly penguins. “Yeah, yeah, you've probably witnessed it several times by now. My point is that I saw it for the first time.”

“Anyway, I think there is a lot to do today. We need to craft up the new shield, and the new ring. Might as well go back to the Undead Parish and upgrade the level of the ring to four. It is our lowest level item after all.”

The penguins nodded along, periodically gesturing with Realm Walker or otherwise indicating their agreement.

“This is a chance to collect more essences though I suppose I’m not sure I will ever need all the essences of iron and azurite. Regardless, we can take stock and use some of the essences. After all that I suppose we will try and tackle The Prison. I think the Holy Sanctum is a little too scary, so we should wait until we are higher level and then steam roll the fight. Sounds good to everyone?”

The penguins seemed to consider before some nodded in agreement.

“And I guess one last thing to do today is to get food, though I’m trying not to think too hard about that.”

Chilly levered himself to his feet and made his way to the crafting bench. He pulled out his essences and started counting them up. As he was doing so however he noticed that one of his essences of iron was different then the rest.

Essence of Steel

Rerolls modifiers on rare - or lower - quality equipment with a single guaranteed resistance modifier.

He picked up the silver coin curiously as it dawned on him. “This was the essence that the level six putrid ghoul dropped! I totally forgot about that.”

Spoiler : (AN: yes, totally didn’t forget about that. Shh, let's pretend it was intentional)

Delighted Chilly moved the vastly superior essence to the side and tallied up the other essences. In total he had fifteen Iron, fourteen Azurite, three Garnet, four Regret, two Emerald, three Obsidian, and one Steel.

A decent amount, though only the Emerald and the Steel essences excited him.

Now that he had the iron ring it was time to test out the Dimensional Essence Vault. Not entirely sure what he was doing, Chilly picked up an essence of iron and tried to will it into the ring.

Nothing happened.

Next he tried touching the essence to the ring, while willing the item to get absorbed. In a flash, the essence vanished and Chilly got a strange sense that he was now in the possession of a single essence of iron.

He shook off the feeling and tried to extract the essence. It simply materialized in his open palm as the table in his thoughts updated with the reduced number.

“Huh,” Chilly said, then slurped up all the remaining essences.

Dimensional Essence Vault

Essence of Iron

15

Essence of Azurite

14

Essence of Garnet

3

Essence of Regret

4

Essence of Emerald

2

Essence of Obsidian

3

Essence of Steel

1

“Nice,” Chilly said as his stomach rumbled, “I guess we can go get food now.”

Chilly got up, and walked into the Mausoleum. He walked down the initial hallway and considered. Full clearing the zone had its merits, but he had more interesting things to do.

Instead of turning right and culling the three level one ghouls for essences he turned left. He walked down the hallway and turned right. He walked right by the first little crypt. The ghoul inside predictably went mad with rage. It charged him latching onto his back and tearing at his armor with wild abandon.

Spoiler :

He ignored the ghoul. Continuing to walk down the hallway. As he passed by the second crypt a second ghoul enraged and charged him. He winced under the combined assault, but wanted to see just how far he could take this.

Spoiler :

He continued walking as another ghoul jumped him.

Spoiler :

Still he walked on. He rounded the corner and a level two ghoul leapt at him. He staggered at the added weight all while watching his life total with a critical eye.

Spoiler :

That wouldn’t do. Incinerate flared out, igniting the three level one ghouls near instantly and rendering them back to ash. The higher leveled ghoul took slightly longer but before long it two was just a pile of smoking remains at Chilly’s feet.

Chilly leaned down and collected two Essences of Iron.

“Not quite there.” He murmured. It would take a little more defenses and levels before he could walk through the Mausoleum without a care in the world.

He continued on, collecting several ghouls before frying them in totality with his overleveled skills. There was a certain satisfaction to it. Being nigh immortal against creatures that had caused him so much trouble not too long ago.

He continued on his way and collected all of the essences that the undead dropped.

He paused at the entrance to the crypt goblin’s lair. He needed food and precooked goblin meat hadn’t turned out so well last time. He would have to end this fight a little differently.

He ran into the room and tapped the shrine to absorb its effects. Then he tackled the goblin and brought it to the ground. Chilly wrestled with the goblin, managing to get on top as the goblin slithered and writhed beneath him. The goblin’s staff pulsed with purple power as three skulls burst out and immediately slammed into Chilly’s chest. He winced at the chaos damage but ignored it. Pious Path combined with Vitality was more than enough to tank the damage of a single level three creature.

Spoiler :

Chilly jerked the goblin over, such that he was lying atop the diminutive creature. He grabbed the monster’s staff and forced it underneath its chin. Then he pulled. The crypt goblin choked, but responded with another three purple skulls that slammed into Chilly’s chest.

Chilly winced again and held on. He counted the seconds as he waited for the beast to lose consciousness. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Instead a profound shudder ran through the creature as the first stack of Asphyxiation settled on its bones.

The goblin bucked wildly, trying to release Chilly’s hold on him. Chilly struggled, but the goblin managed to sneak in a breath which noticeably reduced the pallor that had settled over it from Asphyxiation stacks.

This wouldn’t work.

Chilly cursed, and jerked both of them to their feet. The goblin snarled and released another blast of purple skulls point blank. The skulls absorbed into his chest with a sickly feeling but he ignored it as he grabbed the diminutive humanoid in a shoulder carry and stalked angrily out of the room.

The goblin struggled wildly, scratching and scraping while also unleashing a constant barrage of chaos damage skulls, but it couldn’t escape Chilly’s hold. He was more than twice the height of the goblin and easily outweighed it by a similar if not greater margin.

Chilly stepped into the mold room with the goblin. The goblin continued its mad ravaging which only intensified as the poison began to stack up. Chilly narrowed his eyes as he studied the filthy goblin, then heaved the goblin over and shoved its face into the black brackish water.

A heavy pallor fell over the goblin as its motions weakened. Chilly held the creature there for several seconds until it succumbed to the poison in the water and the air. Exhausted and more than a little filthy, Chilly dragged the goblin back out of the room and watched his life regenerate rapidly through the multiple stacks of poison on him.

A pulse of purple power blasted out from the goblin’s staff as giant bones materialized out of thin air. Chilly sighed and blasted the animating bones with Incinerate. Before the Bone giant could fully manifest it had been destroyed.

Chilly sighed, and slumped back down.

A penguin looked between him and the goblin with no small measure of confusion in its eyes.

“What?” Chilly asked defensively.

The penguin looked at the crypt goblin with a meaningful glance.

“Look, I thought about it, ok? It just doesn’t come naturally. You try putting a sword through a living breathing creature.”

The penguin gave him a disbelieving look.

“I’ve seen enough movies man!” Chilly retorted. “You think punching him would have been any less brutal?”

The penguin harrumphed and tapped its foot twice in consideration.

“I dunno. When I use Incinerate it's somehow cleaner. Yeah I know that fire is a nasty way to go, but when there is fire everywhere and they are clawing at me, I kinda just close my eyes and wait for it to be over. I’m not feeling them struggling for breath or whatever. With the undead at least they are already dead, so it's not as bad.”

The penguin waved its flippers emphatically.

“So I tried that, but I aint choking this guy out for however long it takes for asphyxiation to take it out. I mean. It would take at least a whole minute for it to get a reasonable number of stacks, and even then I don’t know its regeneration. So it could be longer is all I am saying.”

The penguin narrowed its eyes at him.

“Dude! It was wriggling!” Chilly harrumphed, “Man, I don’t need to explain this to you, look it worked didn’t it. The thing is dead and completely unburned.”

The penguin put both flippers on its hips in a reproachful manner.

“Sure, I’ll take a sword next time,” He sighed, then mumbled much more quietly. “Body might be poisoned now, I guess.”

Chilly simply sat there for far longer than he probably should have just thinking. He hadn’t been lying to the penguin. He had considered using a sword, but he had been sure that choking it would have worked. But, in the heat of the moment it felt so fundamentally wrong to be grappling with the little guy who was fighting for its life.

Hell, getting levels and experience was awesome. Upgrading skills and getting new ones? Even better. But fighting? Chilly would vastly prefer it if he could just stick to using Incinerate. Preferably from a distance but up close and personal was also palatable. Maybe there was a way to gain levels in this place that didn’t involve killing undead.

Chilly snorted at the implausibility of that and rolled to his feet. He grabbed the already cool body and carried it to the Shrine. He collected a sword from his stash and stared at the corpse for a bit.

“Any of you know how to prepare meat?” Chilly asked the gathered penguins. None of them seemed to have any clue.

What followed was a grisly display of shoddy knife work, but Chilly eventually managed to cut off several ragged steaks from the goblin. He was covered in gore and dying for a bath by the end of it but by god he had done it.

After a brief stint over the flames of the everburning campfire, the meat was ready and Chilly took his first taste.

Tough.

...

Needed salt.

...

Not poisoned though.

Chilly swallowed the bland meat. With a sigh, he took another slice and ate it as fast as he could to skip the taste. Halfway through his meal a pleasant notification appeared in his vision.

>

He finished the meat as fast as he could and hopped to his feet. The penguins around him startled at the sudden motion but seemed to catch on to his mood.

“I need to kill something.” Chilly declared. “With fire. Lots of fire.”

You are no longer Starving