“Right so what do you guys think?” Chilly asked.

“You can't move while channeling, but why not cast other spells while you're stuck?” Nalhcal the penguin pointed out.

“That’s fair, I did just assume that.” Chilly replied. “Orbiting stars might be a good choice.”

“It never specified which part of you it orbits, nor its orbit shape, speed, and angle.” NickXenix clapped their flippers happily. “Star slingshots!”

“That would be pretty epic wouldn’t it.” Chilly grinned, “I am a little concerned about the damage over time that I would take per star. I can easily handle the damage, but it would take away my regeneration, which is basically all I really have going for me right now.”

“Beware specializing without expecting the enemy to do so.”

“I mean, I won’t be getting more regeneration this time around, but...” Chilly rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “I guess you’re saying that Moonlit Transcendance is best? Since it is basically the opposite of specialization.”

NW Stormraider nodded, as another penguin shoved it aside.

The penguin looked up at Chilly, narrowed its eyes, then said slowly, “Eliminate...the...variables!”

Chilly raised his hands defensively, “Sure, sure. I got it. Another point for Moonlit Transcendence.” Chilly hummed thoughtfully. “Though if we are talking about eliminating the variables, Moonlit transcendence gets rid of a couple, but also introduces one of its own. The only skill which purely eliminates variables is Starfire Aegis.”

The penguins erupted in angry conversations, discussing the pros and cons of each of the skills. It seemed that most were not happy about the current path the conversation was taking.

A penguin pushed to the front, and waved Realm Walker angrily until all the penguins quieted down.

“Be wary of the fickle Moon. Her honeyed words seem like a boon yet they may lead you to your doom.”

Chilly blinked, “That isn’t ominous at all.” He reread the description then murmured softly, “I guess I will lose a lot of armor with this skill.”

The penguin nodded emphatically, but was practically bulldozed by a tide of penguins that clamored angrily for Chilly’s attention.

“Whoa, slow down, I’m not picking yet. Hold your horses.”

The penguins relaxed a little, but seemed impatient. Suddenly Chilly realized that many of them probably couldn’t speak. There were odd rules that allowed some of the penguins to speak at length, while others never even made a single peep.

He should try and listen to everyone, not just the ones who spoke.

“Alright, let’s do it this way. Raise your flipper if you think that I should get the first skill. Orbiting Stars.”

A sense of tension left the penguins as a minority of them raised their flippers.

“It looks like...ten...fifteen...ok about twenty percent of you want Orbiting Stars. Ok, ok. What about Starfire Aegis?”

Significantly more flippers rose into the air. More than half.

“I guess that settles it.” Chilly said, putting his hands on his hips, as he counted them just to make sure.

“Burn thyself, burn thy enemy.”

“Amen,” Chilly nodded. “Alright for completeness, raise your flipper if you think we should use Moonlit Transcendence?”

Flippers went down, and more went up. Predictably about a third of the penguins thought that Moonlit Transcendence was the way to go.

“Ok, I think that’s settled. The consensus is that all of them are probably interesting, but most of you prefer Starfire Aegis, so I’m going to choose that.”

A large number of penguins sagged sadly, and a few even burst into tears as they lamented the loss.

“Hey, it's alright. I’m sure that Starfire Aegis is going to be super cool.”

Before the penguins could guilt him into changing his mind, Chilly selected Starfire Aegis.

Warmth flooded through Chilly’s limbs, spreading until he felt hot all over. A prickling of sweat beading on his forehead, as suddenly a line of fire erupted across his upper back. He winced at the heat, and craned his neck to get a glimpse at what was happening.

The line of fire was a literal one. A smoldering sheet of liquid magma oozed out of his back in a river of glowing embers. Except it wasn’t entirely opaque like lava was. Semi transparent, with mesmerizing patterns of orange yellow and red, the material looked a lot like the images of the surface of the Sun. Chilly’s eyes widened, as the cape made of roiling plasma lengthened slowly until it reached his ankles. It gently swayed in the nonexistent wind and left lines of scorched stone as it caressed the floor.

The cape emitted a shifting light that augmented the minimal glow of the consecrated ground. Most of the light spread backwards, but it still helped to light up the room.

Hesitantly Chilly reached out and grabbed the edge of the cape. It was hot, but didn’t burn him. Almost like a cup of tea that had just been poured. Too hot to drink, but possible to touch for a few seconds without getting burned.

Chilly let out an incredulous laugh as he spun around. The cape splayed out, little streamers of starfire flying out before their flame died.

“I’m a superhero!” Chilly cried ecstatically. He couldn’t stop staring at the shifting patterns of his cape. It was ever changing and beautiful in a way that reminded him of the stars in the sky.

“I want to see the sky.” Chilly came to the realization. He had never been one to crave the outdoors like some other people he knew, but being cooped up underground, in close to perpetual darkness for nearly a week was slowly grating on him. The constant subtext of dry moldy air, and the monsters only made the sense of desolation stronger.

He wanted out.

To see the sky.

To hear the song of birds.

To smell the fresh scent of spring.

But for that, he had to get out of this dungeon. There was only one way to get out. And that was to kill every monster in his way, until he found the exit or created one himself.

Resolve hardened. Chilly pulled up the augment menu for Starfire Aegis. He had one skill point remaining. It was time to use it.

Choose an Augment for Starfire Aegis. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 2 Augments.

Solar Prominence

To be one with the stars is to become acclimated to the heat

60 fire resistance

Coronal Mass Ejection

Your starfire burns ever hotter

Deal 6% of maximum life as fire damage to melee attackers

Star Fuel

Your very blood burns to sustain the inferno.

While at full life, consume excess life to burn enemies within 4 meters for 85% of the life recovered as fire damage

Body of Plasma

Infuse your very being with the matter of stars.

25% increased fire resistance

Solar Flare

The power of a star is not so easily avoided

Reflected damage also applies to ranged attackers

Gravitational Center

A star may be moved, but only at a steep cost.

150 knockback resistance

Chilly read slowly through the augments, but paused when he reached Star Fuel. Did he read that right? It would grant him 85% of his life regeneration as fire damage per second to everything within 4 meters? With his 108 life regenerated per second, that was... about 90 fire damage per second.

That was massive!

Quickly Chilly checked the other augments, glancing longingly at Gravitational Center, but eventually moved back to Star Fuel. It would deal very significant damage to every enemy that was reasonably close to him, and even bypassed the skills restriction of only hitting melee attackers. Sure Solar Flare would make the reflected damage apply to ranged attacks, but 90 fire damage per second to all enemies regardless of whether or not they attacked him was massive.

Much more than the paltry 20 fire damage per hit that the skill was currently giving him.

Sure, Star Fuel only worked while he was at full health, but it gave him another option for damaging things. Namely run around like a chicken with its head cut off as he let the fire aura deal damage to everything around him. It also neatly solved any problem he would ever face against untargetable enemies, or enemies that he couldn’t see.

Chilly glanced at the penguins, then selected Star Fuel. Worst case he would use an Essence of Regret to choose a different augment. He had 7 of the things just floating around in his ring.

Chilly’s cape flared, as it began emitting little streamers of superheated plasma in a perfect four meter sphere around him. Bits of black mold, and other flammable detritus all over the floor flashed brightly before dimming as only bits of smoldering embers were left behind.

Chilly spun around in a circle looking at the effect in awe as another exultant laugh burst out of him. He pulled up the skill description and smiled broadly as he read through it.

Starfire Aegis

Cloak your form in starfire, granting you an intrinsic protection from the spark, and burning foes that strike you.

41 fire resistance

Deal 24.6 fire damage to melee attackers

Deal 92.2 fire damage per second to enemies within 4m

Oh! That was nice. He had forgotten that skills improved per level. Instead of 20 fire resistance, Starfire Aegis got more than double that. The 4% reflected fire damage had also increased to 4.8%, which resulted in almost 25 damage per hit. It was a small but probably pretty reliable boost in damage for what was essentially a defensive skill.

The last line was what really made Chilly happy. 92 fire damage. Incinerate, his bread and butter, only dealt 122 fire damage per second. That wasn’t counting the burn it applied but still. The numbers were so close!

He hadn’t doubled his damage, but it was a near thing. Oh, how he wanted to test it out.

Chilly got up and made his way into the Mausoleum and found an undisturbed sarcophagus. Before he could even enter properly to destroy the lid, the stone cracked and fell to nothing to reveal a putrid ghoul already set aflame.

It writhed futility as fire coursed over its emaciated frame. Chilly stood several feet away and watched curiously, as little tendrils of superheated plasma flowed over to the undead. The streams of plasma rapidly accelerated when they reached the ghoul and swirled around the low level undead in a vortex of undeniable flames.

Suddenly a wave of purple miasma burst out, only to get suppressed by the glowing crucifixes of Pious Path. Chilly stared down at the glowing embers in mild surprise. He had expected the damage to be high, but the level 1 ghoul had barely survived two seconds.

A penguin popped into existence beside him. Instead of a sword at its side, it had a pair of wooden sunglasses over its eyes. Completely impractical since they blocked its vision, but so it was.

“Oh, hello there little one. Nice sunglasses.”

The penguin grinned broadly. “Oh young champion of fire let your tale blossom into something amazing.”

“That I will.” Chilly grinned broadly, and gestured towards the smoking cinders that hadn’t even managed to fully get out of the sarcophagus. “Just look at the damage that Starfire Aegis did!”

The penguin hopped up cutely to peer over the rim. After two awkward jumps it managed to catch the edge and looked inside. It nodded firmly as if the result was expected and turned back to Chilly. “Remember even the weakest ember can start a wildfire.”

“I will, thanks for the chapter Mr. Child.”

The penguin grimaced slightly at that, but whipped off its wooden sunglasses and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Chilly turned back to the smoking cinders. Now that he thought of it, 92 fire damage per second was almost twice as much damage as he had the first time he had faced a putrid ghoul. Now he could kill an innumerable number of the gaunt undead without even batting an eye. Well. That wasn’t precisely true. Higher level ghouls had significantly more health. Slightly more than twice as much if the Putrid Ghoul of Frost was any indication. But that only meant that they would barely last three or four seconds instead of one or two.

Chill quickly checked for an essence, but found none.

It was time to speed clear the Mausoleum.

What followed was an odd expedition where Chilly ran around the Mausoleum looting dead bodies as ghouls charged him, and fell before they even managed to land a single hit. The battle with the Crypt Goblin was even more amusing, as he simply let it summon all the level one Putrid Ghouls and watched as Starfire Aegis ripped through the ranks like a hot knife through butter. The Bone Giant was a little more problematic but with the combined might of Incinerate and Starfire Aegis, and a generous helping of dodge rolling, the undead fell.

Chilly sucked up all the essences in his ring, as he continued into the Undead Parish.

As he stepped through the door, he got predictably pelted by the errant bolts. It was a shame that he hadn’t gotten the augment which allowed Starfire Aegis to hit the Bone Turrets. If his math was correct then they would die within six or seven shots.

Here he noticed the first flaw with Starfire Aegis. Although he wasn’t in any actual danger, taking constant ranged damage did leave him at less than full health for a significant amount of time. It didn’t completely cut out the regeneration, but it cut it to the point where he was spending a significant amount of time waiting for his life to regenerate rather than dealing fire damage in an aura.

Perhaps this choice wasn’t as strong as he thought it was.

His doubts were quickly erased as he entered the side room and his life shot up to full. The few Putrid Ghouls couldn’t keep his life below maximum for long and were quickly eradicated under his two forms of spitting flames. Incinerate ensured that whoever got close was low enough that Starfire Aegis could finish the job.

He continued to clear the area, and got a better feel for the skill. It essentially made any low leveled mobs fall apart very quickly, but higher leveled monsters generally managed to survive the aura until they could hurt him and disable it. That wasn’t such a massive problem since he still had Incinerate to burn them down at range, but it did cut down on the damage.

Realistically in the low level zone, the constant attacks reduced the uptime of Starfire aegis to only four out of every five seconds. Still respectable, but only about 70 or 80 damage per second instead of the full 92. It was hard to judge since his life regenerated so fast, but it was something along those lines.

Chilly reached the Bone Mage and turned the skeleton to dust for what felt like the tenth time. He absorbed an essence into his ring and brought up the full list of essences.

Dimensional Essence Vault

Essence of Iron

24

Essence of Azurite

29

Essence of Garnet

10

Essence of Regret

11

Essence of Emerald

3

Essence of Obsidian

8

Essence of Steel

1

Essence of Arcanite

1

Essence Resonator

1

That was a lot of essences. They weren’t super useful at the moment, but maybe he would figure something out later.

He made his way to the Holy Sanctum and glanced inside without actually entering.

Priest of Purity

Level: 7

That confirmed it. The boss was matching his level.

It was ambiguous whether he should fight it now, or wait until he hit max level. At the very least it was probably a good idea to wait until he had all 8 skills at level 15. Even better if he could find other people in the dungeon and requisition their aid in defeating the boss. He could also wait another level to get another skill point to augment Starfire Aegis one more time. Really there was no reason to stop there. Every level made him significantly stronger.

Except.

He wanted to fight the boss now. The lower the level of the boss, the easier it would be. At least that’s what he felt. Perhaps he was wrong, but maybe not. Without any other evidence to suggest otherwise, it seemed prudent to follow his gut.

A penguin jogged up to him. “Thanks for the chapter!” It called joyfully.

“Thanks for the chapter Mr. Vino. How are you doing?” Chilly replied cheerfully. Exploiting the new skill to decimate the low level undead had done wonders for his mood.

“In Vino Veritas!” the penguin replied.

Chilly smiled, “I have no idea what that means! Thanks though.”

The penguin smiled in return then turned and vanished in a puff of smoke.

“That kinda sounded latin.” Chilly murmured to himself, as he closed the door to the boss. He would fight the boss before he leveled up again, but he would do it on his own terms. After he had upgraded his gear a little and prepared a little more.

Chilly went over to the Prison. The Mrawll had respawned and some of them could drop rare essences. If he collected enough of them he might be able to start crafting his gear again. That wasn’t really the reason he was here though. His goal was actually the silver strongboxes that littered the Prison. Each one contained a level five rare item that could potentially be better than his current gear.

He almost got lost as he cleared the zone. The marks that he left on the walls were gone after the reset, so he had to renavigate through the veritable maze of twisting corridors. It wasn’t too bad though. He vaguely remembered the path and the penguins were more than willing to assist him when he was unsure.

In the end he killed sixteen level four Mrawlls and two level five. He didn’t go into any of the larger rooms with multiple Mrawll. He probably could. His level advantage was pretty significant at this point, but for now he would stick to the known paths. Each body he burned until smoke clogged the hallways. Somehow the floating tendrils of plasma that flared off of Starfire Aegis helped with the body extermination. It was as if its definition of enemy was whatever Chilly wanted it to be.

The result was three Iron, two Azurite, two Garnet, one Emerald, one Regret, and an essence of Arcanite. A decent haul, but Chilly was most excited about the life providing Arcanite.

He passed the riddle on the wall, and considered it briefly, but couldn’t figure it out. Perhaps another day.

The real gems were the three Silver Strongboxes, one Bronze Strongbox, two level 5 crafting lecterns, and the Obelisk of the Divine.

The Silver Strongboxes all dropped a level five rare item.

Runite Greaves

Rare

Boots

iLevel: 5

8 cold resistance

26 life

1.32 life regeneration

3.6% increased armor

12 armor

Hide Helmet

Rare

Helmet

iLevel: 5

20 life

23 life

4 lightning resistance

19% increased area of effect

39% increased light radius

Iron Kite Shield

Rare

Offhand

iLevel: 5

9 armor

27 life

3.9% increased life

1.2 life regeneration

13 armor

The Runite Greaves would go directly to the stash. He wasn’t in need of cold resistance currently, but it would be useful to have later down the road. The Hide Helmet was a bit of a bust as well. It was a nice base type, but the mods were a little useless. Perhaps he would use an essence on it but for now it would also go into the stash.

The Iron Kite Shield on the other hand was perfect. Sure he already had two shields, but the more the merrier. Actually he could only wield two at a time, but the Black Steel Buckler was giving him fire resistance which he really didn’t need right now. Especially since his recent acquisition of Starfire Aegis. The extra life and armor would be godsend for any future physical damage that he would take.

The Bronze Strongbox had five more Essence Resonators in it. Well, it seemed like he had a reliable source of the magical bowls.

Several of his gear pieces he was planning on recrafting. Instead of using the crafting lecterns on them, he found a perfectly rolled normal Iron Barbute and Iron Greaves in the Mausoleum and used the crafting lecterns to upgrade them to level five.

Since most of his armor pieces were at 8 or 9 armor for the implicit modifier, he used the obelisk of the Divine on his hide gauntlets. That turned out to be a pretty awesome move because it raised the life roll from 21 to 27.

After all that he returned to the Shrine and used his two Arcanite on the Iron Barbute and Iron Greaves.

Iron Barbute

Rare

Helmet

iLevel: 5

10 armor

26 life

1.31 life regeneration

2.72% increased life regeneration

21 hinder resistance

Iron Greaves

Rare

Boots

iLevel: 5

10 armor

24 life

1.19 life regeneration

4.1% increased life

5 lightning resistance

After equipping them he pulled up his character and smiled in satisfaction. Now he was ready to challenge the boss.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

7

0/7

0

Fire

Life

Life Regeneration

579/579

127.1

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

88

46.81%

44

30.56%

5

4.76%

5

4.76%

0

0.00%

Incinerate

Helmet:

Iron Barbute

Vitality

Body Armor:

Iron Plate Vest

Pious Path

Pants:

Iron Pants

Starfire Aegis

Boots:

Iron Greaves

???

Gloves:

Hide Gauntlets

???

Jewelry:

Iron Ring

???

Mainhand:

Iron Kite Shield

???

Offhand:

Iron Kite Shield