What is a...penguin?

--Excerpt from Chaeli’s scout report

Chilly turned away from the poem in despair. He had always sucked at riddles. Whenever he read one it always felt like there could be a million and a half things that could satisfy the riddle, while simultaneously none of the options were actually correct.

The first line for example. One by one they fell. Plenty of things fall one by one. It could be dominos, or apples, or hell even the moon fit that description. Probably not the moon. Unless there were multiple moons in this world. He hadn’t seen the sky yet so it was technically possible.

...

Wait...What if the riddle was referring to soldiers? Or maybe to the undead in this dungeon? Undead literally rise because they’ve fallen.

The next line though confounded things greatly. Their owner’s used them well. That implied that the first line wasn’t some mundane object like a domino. Might not be soldiers either. Unless! The soldiers were slaves, or just that there were some ownership going on. Spartan soldiers were mostly slaves weren’t they? Or was he thinking of a different culture. Romans?

Now that he thought about it more deeply, it could also refer to weapons in general.

That would sort of work. A sword can fall, or break after their owner’s used them well. It also meshed with the next line that said Now naked to the eye. That could refer to a sword being sheathed, then being drawn, used and broken to lay forever on the battlefield.

Thus culminates their fame was just a weird line, but there were plenty of weapons that were named or otherwise had ‘fame’. Excalibur for one. Falling in battle could certainly be considered the end of that.

The last line made sense too for weapons. Return from whence they came. Swords were made out of metal, and metal came from the ground. Well... technically metal came from stars, but this riddle probably didn’t care about such pedantic thoughts.

“Huh,” Chilly murmured to himself, “maybe I’m not so bad at riddles after all.”

He stepped up to the flat wall and felt around. The two ceramic bowls stuck out to him as being important somehow but he wasn’t entirely sure how.

“The answer is weapons!” Chilly declared quietly at the wall. His voice echoed quietly through the stone hallway.

He waited a moment, but when nothing happened, he frowned. Hesitantly, he considered his staff then placed it in one of the ceramic bowls. There was a chance that it would eat the weapon, but Chilly didn’t feel like walking all the way back to collect a sword just on the off chance that it would somehow be correct.

He waited a minute but still nothing happened. His frown deepened further as he collected the staff.

“Nah, I suck at these things.”

He really had no clue what the answer could be if it wasn’t weapons. Either he was failing spectacularly at conveying his solution to the door, or it only accepted swords or something. Or it was something else. What that something could be, Chilly didn’t know.

Maybe it was just a smooth wall used to trick dungeon divers to waste their time talking to an unfeeling wall.

Nah, couldn’t be.

Chilly turned to a nearby penguin and gestured to the riddle.

“You happen to come across this riddle across your millennia of existence, Mr. penguin?”

The penguin squinted at the riddle for a second. It raised its flipper excitedly before sagging. It shook its head despondently, and plopped onto the floor.

“Hey, hey little one. All's good. It's not the end of the world. There was probably just rubbish behind this riddle wall.”

Spoiler : (AN: there is not rubbish behind the wall)

Chilly leaned down to comfort the penguin. It was slightly difficult since he couldn’t actually touch the penguin. Instead he opted to just tap his hand an inch above the penguin's shoulder in an encouraging manner.

After a couple of minutes the penguin perked up and pointed at the other end of the hallway in excitement.

“Continue exploring?” Chilly asked with a smile. “Yeah, sure, let's do that.”

Chilly straightened up then slowly began to walk down the hallway. The passageway quickly turned to the left and he peeked around the corner to see a small circular room with a level four Mrawll Warden pacing in tight circles within.

On either side of the room were archways that led deeper but on quick inspection it looked like the Warden was alone. Chilly confidently turned the corner and provoked the hulking monster with a wave of Incinerate to the face.

Mrawll Warden

Level: 4

Life: 366

Fire arced across the intervening space and began to eat hungrily at the Mrawll’s stitched skin. It flinched back then let out a guttural, pain-filled roar. A moment later it raised its large club and lunged at Chilly.

Chilly crouched down as the beast approached and prepared to leap. Just as the club was coming down, he heard another guttural roar coming from the side passageway on the right. A moment later, a third roar came from the passageway on the left.

With no time to process what was happening, Chilly dodged out of the way of the careening club. It smashed into where he had just been standing causing the ground to quake and dust particles to fall from the ceiling like snow. He rolled to his feet and immediately twisted his neck around as he tried to figure out where the two additional roars had come from.

Right behind him, rushing out of the passageway was another Mrawll Warden.

Mrawll Warden

Level: 5

Life: 412

Chilly’s eyes widened as the club came crashing down.

More on instinct from the hours of practice dodging then any conscious thought, Chilly leapt to the side once more. By some sort of miracle he managed to get out of the range of the slam before the club crashed into the floor.

Once more dust rained from the ceiling as tiny shards of stone pittered off of Chilly’s face. He rolled to his feet only to be forced to leap to the side once more as a third Mrawll Warden barreled out of the left side room and did its utmost to use his head as a nail.

Mrawll Warden

Level: 4

Life: 329

Two level four Wardens and one level five. Chilly grimaced as he backed away into the left hand room. He briefly noticed a silver strongbox sitting tucked away in the corner before his attention was dragged back to the three Wardens.

The first Mrawll recovered from its reckless attack and rushed towards Chilly with its club held high. Before Chilly could even consider using Incinerate to whittle them down he was forced to dodge to the side once more. Sure he could take a hit, but the mere act of being launched across the room meant that he wasted precious seconds rolling back to his feet, not to mention risking getting hit when he was down. If he had higher knockback resistance maybe he could try that, but as it stood it wasn’t a viable strategy.

Chilly rolled to his feet with a grimace as his dodge took him near another of the Mrawll. It immediately brought its club down as Chilly was forced to roll away.

Chilly raced to the far side of the room as the level five Mrawll charged him while its two brethren recovered from their slams. A quick glance revealed that the fire damage that he had dealt to the first Mrawll had already disappeared completely.

This wasn’t working.

Chilly narrowed his eyes as the level five Mrawll approached. If he could somehow get the Mrawll to sync up their strikes then it would be possible for him to have nearly four whole seconds of solid dps in between each slam.

With that plan in mind, Chilly backed away from the level five Mrawll as far as was reasonable. The moment the club came down he leapt to the side, then immediately sprinted over to the two Wardens lumbering behind.

Fighting his instincts, Chilly ran directly towards the two apocalyptic rage beasts. Just as he got into range of their clubs he leapt forwards in between their disgusting legs. Two simultaneous crashes sounded behind him as he frantically scrambled to his feet and continued sprinting as far as possible from the recovering monsters.

The level five Mrawll recovered first and began to lumber towards him, but because it was farther back, by the time it had reached the other two Mrawll they had also recovered. The result was that all three lumbered directly at Chilly with the implacability of a freight train.

Chilly gulped quietly as he prepared to dodge the beasts.

Three clubs rose high into the air and fell in unison. Chilly leapt to the side, but felt a twinge of horror as a concussion of force crashed into his ankle and he was sent flying against the far wall.

Spoiler :

He crashed into the far wall bonelessly as he nearly lost what little liquid remained in his stomach.

He desperately scrambled to his feet as he watched his life shoot back up. Before he even had gathered all of his wits, he unleashed a torrent of flames at all three Mrawll. Skin withered, and flesh charred as the flames danced hungrily over and around their misshapen bodies.

Getting used as a golf ball had made him lose a second or two of dps, and before he could do serious damage all three Mrawll dragged their enormous clubs off the ground and charged him again.

This time as the three clubs came crashing down, Chilly gave the jump everything he had. He consciously tucked his knees in tight against his chest as soon as he could. This caused him to skid harmlessly on the rough stone floor as stone shards showered him from behind but luckily it was enough to avoid the overlap of the three obscene clubs.

Quick as a flash, Chilly jumped to his feet and blasted the level five Mrawll Warden with a concentrated dose of fire. It barely reacted as its skin boiled and pus filled boils burst out from around its heavy stitches. It stubbornly stared at its club as it ponderously pulled it back towards itself.

Chilly counted seconds in his head and just before the Wardens were ready for another hit, he canceled Incinerate and jumped right in front of all three of them.

In unison the three stupid monsters raised their clubs and brought them down with a crash.

Chilly hopped back, making doubly sure that he tucked his legs in to avoid the three spherical area of effect concussions.

Chilly fell to the floor thankfully unsmooshed and immediately rolled to his feet for what felt like the thousandth time. He turned to the Wardens and unleashed Incinerate on the level 5.

Fire raced over its still form. It had barely a second or two to recover from the previous time which was not nearly enough to regenerate past the damage. Globs of smoldering flesh detached from the monstrosity and slid off of it before splatting wetly onto the floor. More skin charred and the beast began to lose what little resemblance it had to humans.

Once more the three raised their clubs, and once more they fell with an earth shattering crash. Even though Chilly hadn’t thought them intelligent from the outset this level of autonomic behavior was pushing his believability. It was almost as if they didn’t have a brain at all. Or maybe only one the size of an insect’s. The Bone Giant had displayed a similar dedication to its attack pattern but it was fully undead so it didn’t count.

Regardless, Chilly avoided them and resumed burning down the highest level Warden. As he did so he turned to a nearby penguin.

“You know, It was sorta touch and go there in the beginning, but now-” Chilly leapt back as three more clubs slammed down. He quickly returned to his position right in front of the three monstrosities and continued blasting.

“-its not even scary.” Chilly finished with a huff.

Just then the level five Warden collapsed in place as the fire overwhelmed its significant life pool.

You have slain a level 5 Mrawll Warden!

You have gained 1 experience!

Chilly dismissed the message and immediately turned the ray of fire on the other two Mrawl.

A penguin at his side put both tiny flippers on its hips and stared at Chilly accusingly.

“I could have-” Chilly began but stopped as two clubs rocked the room. He got up from where he had thrown himself and stepped back into position.

“I could have hit all three at once before, you’re right.” Chilly replied to the penguin reasonably. “But I figured that it would-” Chilly leapt backwards again. “-be better if I got rid of the heavy hitter first without trying to bite off more than I could chew.”

The penguin seemed to consider this, then squeaked as its form was obscured by the two Mrawll Warden’s falling on top of it.

“Gah,” Chilly cried, “You ok little guy?”

The penguin popped up from underneath the bodies looking mighty cross. It kicked the enormous bodies angrily. Naturally its little toes passed harmlessly through the corporeal entity. Getting frustrated, the little penguin smacked the giant dead humanoid's head with Realm Walker, though with similar results.

Chilly gasped

“You should have said that sooner.” Chilly accused the obdurate penguin. “I totally should have tried to get them to hit each other.”

The little angry ball of cuteness looked up in confusion at Chilly, it went to scratch its head, but Realm Walker slipped from its flipper. With a look of absolute horror on its face, the penguin scrabbled at the sword as both it and the weapon returned to smoke.

Chilly smiled at where the little penguin had just been, then slapped his thighs and straightened. The Mrawll Warden’s were no trouble at all once he figured out how to dodge their one and only attack. Sure if they hit him it was super scary, but the attack was telegraphed and always at the exact same speed. After all of the times that Chilly had witnessed the large monsters smash the ground both during his training and now, it was almost trivial to dodge the blows.

Several of the Wardens at once did pose a slight issue if their swings weren’t in sync, but that hadn’t been so troublesome to choreograph.

Satisfied with the efficacy of his practice Chilly sauntered over to the left side room and took in the silver strongbox.

Silver Strongbox

Level: 5

Chilly smiled, then activated the box.

Like before, silver smoke poured out of the strongbox and coalesced into the shape of a ghostly knight. Unlike the previous silver strongbox that Chilly had encountered, this one had a glaive which it held proudly over its head.

Silver Strongbox Guardian

Level: 5

Life: 442

Without further ado, Chilly channeled Incinerate at the ghostly knight.

The knight silently settled into a ready stance and advanced through the flames. Unlike the corporeal creatures up until now the flames didn’t leave lasting damage to the ghost. Instead they passed through its body with only the barest indication that there was an effect.

This didn’t bother Chilly as he had fought the creatures before and knew that his flames were more than effective at harming the knight.

The glaive wielding knight swept its blade in a wide sweeping strike.

The blade sliced into Chilly’s abdomen and pushed him back, but didn’t do enough harm that it hurt. Chilly grinned and stood his ground as the knight twirled the glaive and slashed again.

The blade once more left a clean cut across Chilly’s chest but before the blade had even finished exiting the wound, the flesh had begun to knit itself together.

Chilly sensed a faint frustration emanating from the guardian as it swung its bladed glaive at him repeatedly. Each time the blade struck Chilly dead on, and each time the hit was absorbed with ease. Chilly didn’t bother dodging the attacks. They didn’t hurt at all and didn’t even have any force behind them so he wasn’t thrown around like he was when the Mrawll Warden’s managed to land a hit.

Spoiler :

You have slain a level 5 Silver Strongbox Guardian!

You have gained 1 experience!

It took a good couple seconds but eventually Incinerate managed to burn down the Silver Strongbox Guardian. The ghost dissipated in a swirl of glittery silver smoke as the strongbox behind it creaked open and released a gentle silver glow.

Chilly approached eagerly and looked inside.

Hide Gauntlets

Rare

Gloves

iLevel: 5

21 life

24 life

1.33 life regeneration

12 armor

5 cold resistance

Chilly’s eyebrows rose up into his hairline.

“Another base type.” He murmured to himself as he pulled out the hide gauntlets out of the chest. They were made of a rough leather that was tough but supple. Unlike his current iron gauntlets these provided life instead of armor for the first mod on the list.

Now that he noticed it, Chilly saw that all of his iron pieces of gear provided an armor bonus. This meant that if he found any other pieces of hide armor then they too would provide life by default. And boy was it a lot of life. These single pair of gloves gave him 45 additional life.

Barely hesitating Chilly shucked off his current pair and watched his stats change.

336 -> 393>

70.33 -> 83.12>

71 -> 84>

0 -> 5>

(AN: 1st number is with Iron Gauntlets L2 M equipped. 2nd is without any gloves. 3rd is with Hide Gauntlets L5 R)

Chilly whistled at the massive bonus to life. Sure he lost 2 points in armor, and technically his percent regeneration was lower, but the new gloves were overall a pure upgrade. Smiling broadly, Chilly tied his old pair of iron gauntlets to his belt and turned to leave.

He stepped around the corpses of the three Wardens. A shame that they didn’t drop essences. Or at least, Chilly wasn’t willing to go digging to see if they had dropped essences.

There didn’t seem to be any passageways that continued deeper, so Chilly exited the way he had entered. He walked past the riddle once again, and gave it a regretful look but put it out of his mind. There was a chance that if he just slept on it, he would figure it out, but if the solution didn’t come to him, then there was little point in trying to think of something.

Just as he reached the intersection a voice from behind him caused him to pause.

“Nobody move,” it grated, “I dropped me brain.”

Chilly froze with one foot still partially raised.

“Ewww, it's wriggling! How the hell did you drop it?” another penguins voice echoed shrilly from behind him.

Chilly still stood frozen and was slowly tipping but decided to risk a slight movement. In a flash he reached for the near wall and stabilized himself with an outstretched hand.

“I can't...quite remember.” The first penguin grated out harshly. It seemed unsure. “I think my memories are in me brain.”

There was a faint shuffling sound from behind Chilly then silence. Chilly hesitantly looked behind him but didn’t see any penguins. No brains either. A quick glance under his foot confirmed his safety so he slowly relaxed his stance.

That was weird. But all Chilly could think of was what level of regeneration he would need in order to survive without his brain for an extended period of time.

He turned right at the intersection as he pondered that question. Going left would return him back the way he had come. He would eventually choose that path but for now, he wanted to explore a little more.

The right path almost immediately turned sharply to the left. He was about to rush around the corner in excitement when a penguin materialized right in front of him and gave him a stern glare.

Chastised by the silent treatment, Chilly took several deep breaths to remind himself that he was still in very dangerous territory. Then he carefully peeked around the corner to see what lay ahead.

The passageway continued for several feet before opening up into a large oval chamber. A single Mrawll Warden paced restlessly in the center. At the far side of the chamber another hallway continued off into the darkness.

Chilly glanced at the penguin at his feet for permission before stepping out from cover. As soon as he stepped into the room the Mrawll Warden perked up and roared.

“I wonder why these guys don’t hinder me when they roar.” Chilly said conversationally to the watching penguins as he idly began to channel Incinerate at the charging brute.He kept his ears peeled for additional roars but none came.

Just as the beast was about to slam its club down, Chilly leapt to the side and tucked his legs in, transitioning the jump into a smooth roll that allowed him to pop to his feet barely a second afterwards.

He smoothly began channeling Incinerate as he idly watched the skin melt off of the Warden’s flesh.

Several seconds later the Warden lifted its club, but its attack was easily dodged. Before it could manage to pull its club back for a third strike it collapsed bonelessly onto its face.

Chilly brushed the dust from his new gauntlets and made his way over to the far passageway. Another T-intersection greeted him after several steps.

“I am so going to get lost.” Chilly grumbled to himself as he used his staff to scratch a big arrow into the wall indicating the way he had come. Then without really thinking too hard about it, he turned right.

The passageway narrowed considerably and wound tightly to the left. After what felt like a 180 degree turn Chilly stopped as he saw a Silver Strongbox sitting on the side of the passageway.

Silver Strongbox

Level: 5

Chilly smiled and triggered the box. He stepped back as the smoke condensed into the shape of a warhammer wielding knight.

Silver Strongbox Guardian

Level: 5

Life: 407

Chilly stoically took the hits directly, but his massive life pool, regeneration and small amount of knockback resistance made the fight a joke. In no time at all Chilly stood victorious as the guardian faded away.

Spoiler :

You have slain a level 5 Silver Strongbox Guardian!

You have gained 1 experience!

Chilly approached the chest and peered inside curiously.

Iron Plate Vest

Rare

Body Armor

iLevel: 5

5 armor

23 life

1.39 life regeneration

6 fire resistance

18% increased effect of consecrated ground you create

It wasn’t another hide armor, but that was fine. A rare plate vest of any kind was a welcome upgrade. Chilly shucked off his current plate vest and put on the new one. As he did so, he watched his stats fluctuate in anticipation.

362 -> 389>

71.76 -> 83.64>

76 -> 81>

3 -> 9>

Chilly frowned as he stared at his stats. That...didn’t seem right. Somehow the new level 5 rare plate vest with four mods on it was worse across the board then his level 2 plate vest that he crafted himself to have life and increased vitality effect.

Well technically he was getting more fire resistance but that was a dead stat at the moment, so it didn’t really count.

Chilly reluctantly unstrapped his new level 5 plate vest and re-equipped his old one. It was a sad day to have to skip the item but the stats never lied. If they said the old one was better than the old one was better.

Shrugging, Chilly picked up the new plate vest and threw it over his shoulder. He wouldn’t use it, but he certainly wouldn’t throw it away. Perhaps he could find another essence of steel to upgrade it. It was still a level 5 piece of gear after all.