It takes him more than five whole seconds to take out even the most fragile of foes. Little wonder he has gone mad.

--Excerpt from Chaeli’s scout report

Chilly looked around the corner and saw that the hallway split again. On a hunch he travelled down the left path and found himself back next to the looted silver strongbox. The hallway looped in a tight circle.

Chilly continued around but this time chose the right path. He quickly found himself at the entrance of a large circular chamber with a level 5 Mrawll Warden, two level 3 Mrawll Keepers, and a level 3 and 4 Mrawll Mages. The room also had several stone tables with manacles fused into the surface as well as several shelves lining the sides of the room.

In other words it looked suspiciously like the mess hall that he had found originally. Somehow through the twist and turns of the Prison he had looped back on himself.

Chilly turned back. He still wasn’t planning on tackling the room. Especially since all he would gain was one experience point and the dubious contents of the cupboards.

He retraced his steps to the mark that he scratched into the wall.

“Now if I recall correctly...” He murmured to himself as he scanned the intersection. Suddenly a penguin popped into existence at his side.

“Right, left, left, straight, right, riddle, back, right, right!” the penguin declared proudly.

“Is that the path I took?” Chilly raised an eyebrow at the enthusiastic penguin.

The penguin nodded emphatically, “Right, left, left, straight, right, riddle, back, right, right!”

“Ahh, in that case,” Chilly used the penguin’s instructions to retrace his steps to the intersection right before the right turn to the riddle.

Turning right instead of straight led to a long hallway devoid of monsters. Chilly traversed it cautiously as he was wont to do. At the end of the hallway was yet another intersection. He turned to Poidude the penguin at his side and said, “taking a left, you got that?”

The penguin nodded happily.

Chilly still marked the wall with an arrow pointing back the way he came.

The left hand passageway wound unpredictably which was distinctly uncomfortable to navigate. Still he managed to get to the end were a large room that looked similar to the torture room from before. It had two torture tables but fewer Mrawll. Only two level 4 Mrawll Wardens, one Level 3 Mrawll Keeper, and one level 4 Mrawll Mage.

Chilly turned back, he had no interest in taking on such a challenge just yet.

“So right, not left,” Chilly said to Poidude the penguin.

The penguin looked slightly confused, but enthusiastically nodded its assent.

Chilly scratched an X on the wall leading to the room with the Mrawll and turned right.

Still no monsters burst out to greet him and he was confronted with yet another intersection.

“This is a bloody maze.” Chilly muttered as he scratched an arrow on the wall. He turned left, only to be greeted by another intersection after only a half dozen steps.

Chilly sighed, marked the wall, and turned left again.

One of the penguins along the way hopped into his path.

“Thanks for the chapter!” Lord zevo the penguin called cheerfully.

“Thanks for the chapter,” Chilly acknowledged amicably. The penguin nodded happily then vanished in a puff of smoke. Chilly stared for a moment then continued on his way.

The tunnel terminated in another one of those torture rooms. There were only three Mrawll in this one. Two Mrawll Wardens at level 4 and 5 respectively, with a level 4 Mrawll Mage backing them up. Chilly frowned and retreated to the intersection. He turned right instead and soon found himself in front of a small room with a single level 4 Mrawll Warden in it. At the rear of the room, Chilly noticed a bronze chest sitting on the floor.

Bronze Strongbox

Level: 5

Chilly stepped into the room and quickly took care of the Warden. It didn’t drop anything and its attack patterns were trivial at this point to handle. He approached the Bronze Strongbox curiously and triggered it.

Like the Silver Strongbox from before, smoke poured out of invisible crevasses in the chest. The smoke initially grew but then coalesced down to a vaguely humanoid shape. This time however, instead of taking the form of a ghostly knight, it formed a thin bronze golem with dozens of sharp blades sticking out at odd angles.

The moment the smoke fully coalesced, an information box popped into existence before Chilly.

Bronze Strongbox Guardian

Level: 5

The blades floating around the monster began to spin, rapidly gaining speed until it was like looking into a blender. Chilly watched curiously as the monster prepared. He didn’t summon Incinerate just yet. He wanted to see if this monster would be able to hurt him, and if so, by how much.

Suddenly, a bronze blade moving so fast that it was practically invisible lashed out and ripped a ragged cut across Chilly’s face. He winced and took a step back, but before he could even put his foot down properly another blade ripped into his stomach. Chilly hunkered down as blades whipped out and cut into him as he carefully watched his life regeneration fight to overcome the damage.

Spoiler :

“Huh,” Chilly grunted as he began channeling Incinerate, “It's like a cute little blender.”

Fire coursed out and licked hungrily at the shining bronze. The guardian didn’t react in the slightest to the heat. But before long the shiny metal was glowing slightly under the intense heat.

Nearly seven seconds of just standing there and taking the harsh blades later, the guardian fell. Chilly rose from his hunched position and smiled. This fight had definitely been harder than the level five silver guardian, but his regeneration life and armor had been more than enough to withstand it.

You have slain a level 5 Bronze Strongbox Guardian!

You have gained 1 experience!

(AN: I forgot to give Chilly experience for the two silver strongbox guardians in the previous two chapters :( he has enough experience to hit level 6 right now.)

Congratulations! You have leveled up!

You are now Level 6

Will your status screen open to allocate your points.

Chilly smiled broadly as the penguins around him all cheered. He dismissed the windows and approached the chest and peered inside. Inside, five ceramic bowls lay elegantly at the bottom of the chest.

Essence Resonator

Allows for multi essence crafting

“Well,” Chilly said and picked up one of the bowls. It was tiny. Too small to use comfortably for a meal, but perhaps the right size for a shot of alcohol or the like. Definitely large enough to hold several essences of various sorts.

Chilly tried to store the bowls in his ring, and surprisingly it worked. Even though they weren’t technically essences they vanished just the same.

When he returned to the Shrine he would definitely try crafting with these bowls. If his guess as to how they worked was correct, then they would allow him to create an item with four life related modifiers. Not that he had any rare Essences of Steel. It was really frustrating that the enemies here didn’t drop any easily accessible essences.

Several penguins were giving him angry looks by now so with a chuckle, Chilly brought up his character sheet and showed it to all of the little furballs.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

6

0/6

1

Fire

Life

Life Regeneration

414/414

88.14

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

84

45.65%

3

2.91%

5

4.76%

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:

Hide Gauntlets

???

Jewelry:

Iron Ring

???

Mainhand:

Skull of the Bone Giant

???

Offhand:

Iron Kite Shield

He had finally broken past 400 life, and he was soon to pass 100 life regeneration. Amusingly, his armor hadn’t changed much for several levels now while he had gained a couple incidental points in both fire and cold resistance.

Incinerate

Unleash a beam of fire that burns enemies that it touches. The beam dissipates after 5.5m

Deals 105.4 Fire damage per second

Channeling

Augments available

Incinerate had also grown, with an additional 20 points of fire damage per second and gaining a marginal increase in range.

Vitality

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

Regenerate 7.5% of maximum life as life per second

24.9% more life

The numbers had gone up. Presumably. It was a little hard to tell since he had been messing around with gear with increased Vitality’s effect.

Pious Path

Walk along the path of the holy. If the path does not exist, create it yourself. While moving or stationary, consecrate the ground beneath your feet granting life regeneration to you and allies.

3.7m radius

30s duration

Sadly it didn’t seem like the duration of the consecrated ground increased with levels. Radius did. With how much increased effect of consecrated ground that he had it had almost doubled from its original two meters. Sure most of that increased effect had come from an Augment but still.

“Ehh, good progress right?” Chilly grinned at the penguins. Some nodded but several poked at Incinerate insistently. “Alright, sure, I’ll augment it now. Ignition, right?”

Chilly pulled up his augment menu for Incinerate and perused its contents.

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

As before he wasn’t super impressed with the other options. Ignition seemed to be the greatest damage increase so without overthinking it, he selected it and basked in the feeling of the augment settling in.

Incinerate

Unleash a beam of fire that burns enemies that it touches. The beam dissipates after 5.5m

Deals 105.4 Fire damage per second

Ignites enemies for 36.9 Fire damage per second

Channeling

“Now that’s an upgrade.” Chilly murmured with satisfaction. “I think its time to take out one of the big rooms.”

Chilly looked into the room with only three Mrawll.

He confidently stepped into the room. The three Mrawll turned to face him, with the two Wardens immediately charging. The Mage though slowly backed away as it raised its staff. A pulse of white power burst out of the tip and rocketed past the two Warden’s and caused a spike of stone to rip out of the ground and impale itself into Chilly’s ankle.

Chilly grimaced and moved his leg back only for two more spikes to further make his footing precarious.

Spoiler :

Chilly grinned at the absolutely miniscule amount of damage then positioned himself such that the two Warden’s would reach him at the same time.

They reached him and lifted their clubs high overhead. Just as they brought them down the Mage in the back pulsed its staff. A ring of stone spikes erupted in a circle around Chilly. They curled inwards, impaling him at chest height and preventing escape. Chilly’s eye widened as two enormous clubs came careening right for his head.

He heaved with all his might causing the spikes trapping him to break, but by then he was too late.

Crash!

Spoiler :

Chilly flew across the room and slammed into a wall with blood in his eyes and his vision blurry. Pain wracked his frame and made it difficult to remember what had just happened.

A spike of stone erupted from underneath his stomach causing him to cough up blood, but it did bring him around. His life regeneration worked overtime to restore him, and he felt his torn and broken body knit itself together as he turned to focus on the Mrawll Mage. Without the Mage the two Wardens would be a piece of cake.

Chilly rolled to his feet and unleashed his recently upgraded Incinerate on the Mrawll Mage. White hot flames raced across the room and lit up the dry fabric of the Mage’s robes like a torch. Where before the fires were simply hot, now Incinerate actively ignited the Mage’s body and clothes.

It went up like a torch, the fire growing so large that it licked the ceiling hungrily as it consumed the Mrawll with terrifying quickness. The Mage desperately summoned two more spikes that barely registered before it created a circle of spikes in desperation.

Before it could do any more it succumbed to the flame.

Spoiler :

Chilly turned to the two Wardens just as they were about to slam down on him. He desperately jumped to the side but still got hit by one of their unreasonably powerful blows.

Spoiler :

Chilly flew across the room again, this time rolling until his momentum was brought to a stop by friction. He groaned but rolled to his feet. He turned to face the two Mrawll and unleashed his upgraded Incinerate. Fire raced across the room and began to lick hungrily at the flesh of the two monsters. They trembled then ignited as fire seemed to bloom from every part of their bodies.

Their skin rapidly blackened as they successfully pulled their clubs off of the ground. In unison they turned to face Chilly once more then charged across the intervening space. Chilly rapidly realized that one of the Warden’s had managed to get in front of its brethren which would stagger their blows.

Chilly immediately stopped channeling and raced towards the Warden. As soon as he was within range, he stopped and leapt back and to the right. Stone splinters showered him as the monster’s club destroyed the spot where he was just at. He rolled to his feet only to immediately jump again in order to dodge the second blow.

Chilly rolled to his feet and channeled Incinerate at the weaker Warden. Fire played happily over its skin, leaving trails of glowing embers that bloomed and dimmed as the intense heat caused the wind in the chamber to pick up. The various stitches across the monster's flesh snapped and released broiling pus that immediately caught fire as it splashed wetly onto the floor.

Chilly curled his lip at the biological napalm. He tried not to look too closely at what was happening to the Mrawll as it collapsed. He immediately turned his attention to the level 5 Warden but only managed a single second of continuous dps before he was forced to dodge its infernal club.

He rolled to his feet and channeled Incinerate once again. Fire burned the creature's flesh, charring its muscles and forcing it to its knees before it could manage to swing its club one final time.

Chilly stood at attention for a moment as he confirmed that nothing else moved in the room, before he sighed and stopped channeling Incinerate. Several penguins lining the edges of the room jumped to their feet and clapped their flippers excitedly at Chilly’s victory.

“Thank you, thank you,” Chilly bowed dramatically towards the watching penguins. “That was one hell of a fight, though. Jeez.”

The fight had been way too close for his liking. If he hadn’t leveled up he would have definitely died. Not only would he not have had the small boost of life, but he also wouldn’t have had enough damage to take care of the Mrawll Mage before the two Warden’s had recovered from their first hit. If it managed to trap him in spikes again...

Chilly shuddered.

That was crucial. Taking out the Mage quickly had allowed him to narrow the amount of enemies that he was fighting concurrently. He had proven earlier that it was possible to fight as many Warden’s as necessary as long as you managed to sync up their attacks. Adding the Mage to the mix made things complicated. By itself, the Mage hadn’t done significant damage. It was the combination of the spike wall with the Warden’s slam that had almost gotten him.

Chilly sat down roughly as he struggled to bring his heart rate under control. That was perhaps as close to death as he had gotten in a while.

Suddenly, something clamped around Chilly’s ankle and pulled.

Chilly screamed at the top of his lungs as he was dragged across the room. Only half aware of what was going on and panicking, Chilly channeled Incinerate wildly. Fire arced through the air and scorched the ceiling.

He looked around wildly for the enemy but didn’t see any foes. He was alone in the room with the Mrawll corpses and the two torture tables.

More manacles snapped into place around Chilly’s other ankle as chains snaked around his waist and tightened. Chilly started hyperventilating as the chains ground tight enough that it became hard to breath.

You have been made Vulnerable .

You take 5% increased physical damage per stack of Vulnerable

Spoiler :

Chilly was slammed onto a table as further chains began encasing him from head to toe.

You have been made Vulnerable

Suddenly it clicked. The torture tables which he had been avoiding passionately through the fight was actually alive!

Chilly twisted his wrist to point downwards and Incinerate blasted towards the table beneath him. It immediately ignited, causing Chilly to catch fire by proximity. He didn’t care though and kept blasting fire at the evil monstrosity.

More chains wrapped around him, but he could already tell that they were flagging.

Suddenly the chains attached to Chilly crumbled and the table holding him up collapsed. He fell into a pile of burning wood splinters just as another chain attached to his leg.

Spoiler : This is supposed to represent Chilly burning himself with Incinerate.

“Ahh, hell no!” Chilly screamed and unleashed Incinerate at the other table in the room. Before he could even get dragged all the way to the other table, it too collapsed into a pile of smoldering splinters.

Chilly scrambled back until his back hit a wall and he stared at the contents of the room suspiciously. Three corpses and two broken tables met his gaze as he scanned for anything else that could presumably harm him. Several penguins walked around the room, giving the dead tables a curious investigation.

“Sometimes I wonder if you're a masochist, but you're definitely not one. Just a little wrong in the head,” NickXenix mused as he looked at the broken remains of the tables.

“Ha,” Chilly huffed, “Ill take that as a complement.”

The penguin smiled wryly as it continued, “What would the natives outside think of you after you get out? ‘Crazy Hobo escapes from an undead dungeon, he claims to be from far, far away.’”

“I haven’t really thought that far, Mr. Xenix. Would be kinda cool to meet some other people though. Should make this dungeon slightly simpler.” Chilly sighed as his heart rate slowly relaxed.

Chilly exhaustedly pulled himself to his feet and walked over to the tables. A glint of essence caught his eye and he nervously pulled out an Essence of Garnet out of the remains of the table.

“What kind of evil git creates a beastie like this.” Chilly asked eventually. Out of all the monsters that he had faced in this dungeon, none of them had scared him like the chain table. It was basically a mimic. Hiding in plain sight, then attacking when you least expect it.

Chilly shuddered. He was confident that he had tried to identify the tables before he had entered the room. Nothing had shown up, which showed that there were monsters out there that could hide from Identify. That meant that if no identification window appeared, then it was still possible that monsters existed in the room.

It hadn’t been that dangerous really. It couldn’t have been level five. Probably a level three or four. It hadn’t done enough damage to overwhelm his regeneration. Still. It was actually an interesting monster that could potentially kill him. If he accrued enough stacks of vulnerability then even a low level enemy like that could kill him.

Chilly shuddered once more then kicked at the pile of ash.