Where the hell did he go?

--Excerpt from Chaeli’s scout report

>

The message reminded Chilly of how tired he was, but he ignored it for now. He would have plenty of time to care for his biological needs in a bit.

He swayed awkwardly back and forth. Left leg. Right leg. Left leg...

“Soo...” Chilly started. The ashen Guardian turned to look at him which caused Chilly to lose his train of thought. “Uhm, right. How was your day?”

The ashen Guardian cocked his head quizzically, then gestured to the anvil, the lava geyser, and to the iron collar atop his throat.

“Not so good, huh?” Chilly replied, “Mine was okay. You know. Beat a boss. Found you. Leveled up. All good things mostly.”

The ashen Guardian nodded his whole upper body in agreement. Then he picked up his hammer and tapped it several times on his other hand.

“Did I make anything?”

The ashen Guardian nodded.

“Not today no. I did make this beauty the other day.” Chilly grinned and passed his exquisite iron kite shield with the 30% increased vitality effect to the headless ashen man. The ashen Guardian gingerly took the shield and inspected it. After a moment, he handed the shield back and gave Chilly a big thumbs up.

The ashen Guardian shivered and another wave of ash fell off his frame to saturate the air.

“Yeah...” Chilly whispered awkwardly. Then more loudly, “Ahh finally!”

The ashen Guardian turned curiously to him, but Chilly just pointed at the penguin that was approaching.

“My friend is coming over, they might be able to translate for us.”

The ashen Guardian placed his hands on his hips doubtfully but said no more.

“Hey there Nirito, can you translate for us?”

Nirito the penguin glanced between the two, then sadly shook its head.

“Try seeing if he can write, it might help here.”

Chilly blinked, amazed that he hadn’t thought of that. He immediately turned towards the guardian with the proposition.

“Can you write, that would help with the language barrier.” Chilly asked the ashen guardian.

The ashen Guardian raised a hand to where his chin would have been but then sadly shook his head. He mimed writing something on his palm, then waved his hand, then shrugged.

“You can’t write?” Chilly hedged. The ashen Guardian shook his upper body and repeated the hand waving gesture. “Oh, you don’t have anything to write on?”

The ashen Guardian nodded.

Chilly frowned and glanced around the cavern. He rubbed at his tired eyes, bits of ash getting into the helmet and irritating the fragile tissue. The floor was hard stone, with no convenient sand that can be written on. Likewise Chilly had not encountered any paper or pencils conveniently laying around.

“Why can’t you scratch on the floor?” Chilly asked, trying to find a solution.

The ashen Guardian nodded, then picked up his hammer and the iron ingot that he had been smithing previously. He leaned down and placed a sharpish edge of the iron spike on the floor and began to hammer the back end. Chilly leaned forwards expectantly to see what the Guardian would say.

A minute later, Chilly looked in bemusement at the S carved into the floor.

Another minute and the ashen Guardian managed to carve out a shaky L, and O.

“It’s slow, I get it.” Chilly said. “This floor is stupid hard. I don’t remember the Shrine’s walls being this tough.”

Soot dusted off his knees and got up. He nodded his upper body and pantomimed climbing stairs.

“Stairs? Uh, up. Climbing. Oh, you mean this is a higher level zone?”

The ashen Guardian nodded.

“Makes sense I suppose. Still a pain.” Chilly muttered. “Wait, what’s that?”

Chilly squinted into the harsh light of the lava geysers, and spotted a gaggle of six penguins approaching. Each held Realm Walker loosely though only five of them were recognized by the system.

The group walked up to Chilly and his ashen companion and paused. The nameless penguin gestured proudly at the group, then popped into a cloud of smoke.

“Oh, hey guys. What’s up?” Chilly asked cheerfully. These were a couple of his favorite penguins. Who didn’t like seeing good friends, in a dark dungeon that he may never be able to escape from? Not Chilly. No sirree.

Peregrine glanced at the others, then gestured to its beak then to the ashen Guardian.

“Oh, you are here to translate? That’s awesome!” Chilly exclaimed then turned to the ashen Guardian in excitement. “Hey man, we got some translators. We can talk now. So I guess I’ll start. Hi! My name is Chilly. What's yours?”

The ashen Guardian turned its upper body suspiciously towards the penguins then reluctantly began to move his hands rapidly in what Chilly had deduced to be some sort of sign language.

[Greetings adventurer, my name is Sooty. Welcome to my hell.]

Chilly turned excitedly to the penguins in anticipation. He didn’t understand the sign language that the Guardian was using but the penguins might. They huddled up and began to converse amongst each other. After a second Peregrine the penguin stepped out of the huddle and faced Chilly solemnly.

Peregrine waved its flipper with a joyful smile, then pointed at the ashen Guardian and said one word.

“Sooty.”

“Sooty?” Chilly repeated dumbly. “Is that his name?”

At that the ashen Guardian jerked in surprise and turned towards Chilly. He rapidly began to sign something.

[You can understand me! A marvel. Despite your tendency to speak to the air, I hazard you may not be mad after all.]

Chilly grinned and turned towards the penguin gaggle. They huddled again, and this time Poidude stepped out. Before the penguin could say anything, an exultant chaos child stepped out of the gaggle and raised Realm Walker high, before bringing it down onto Poidude’s head. Midway through the motion, Realm Walker transformed into a massive wooden mallet that flattened Poidude into a thin disk of white and blue penguin stuff.

Chilly blinked in horror, as Poidude slowly unflattened and shot chaos child a venomous glare. The squish hadn’t harmed the resilient penguin whatsoever. Penguins being made of sterner stuff than that.

“I...take it whatever Sooty said was not that important?”

Chaos child nodded amicably, while Poidude huffed and shrugged it's shoulders as if saying that the importance of the message was still up for debate.

Sooty began to sign something looking mildly offended though it was difficult to tell without a head. Before he could complete the message however he paused and shook his head.

“Well, anyway, nice to meet you Sooty. I have so many questions. You don’t mind, do you?”

Sooty shook his upper body, and gestured for Chilly to continue. Chilly grinned and opened the floodgates.

“What is up with the iron collar around your neck? Do your kind normally not have heads, or is that just a you thing? Oh right. It's so nice to meet you. I’ve been alone here...Oi, don’t give me that look. You penguins are basically ghosts. Anyway, right. You're a smith right? Could you make me gear? I’ve been crafting myself for a bit, but I’m going to be honest I don’t really know what I’m doing”

Sooty raised a hand, then mimed laughing. He began to sign at Chilly rapidly.

[Haha! Slow down there young one. No, my kind normally have heads, I simply had an unfortunate encounter with the Hellbringer, and am currently missing mine. I do miss it dearly. If you do happen to defeat the Hellbringer, I would greatly appreciate it if you could return my head back to me.]

Chilly eagerly awaited for Sooty to finish then he turned to the penguins.

Poidude glared angrily at chaos child then stepped forwards, making sure to place Peregrine in between him and the hammer wielding penguin. Chaos child looked eager to employ the weapon.

“Headless, strange.” Poidude pointed at Sooty.

“Return head.” Noomplet added.

“Gratitude.” Nobody finished off.

“Ah,” Chilly smiled at Sooty, then frowned as something occurred to him. “Wait, how can you hear me without ears...nevermind. Not important. Where is your head? It’s not one of the ones swinging from the chains over there is it?”

Sooty shook his upper body sadly, his hands already blurring in an intricate dance.

[No. It is not. My head resides within the Hellbringer’s inner sanctum, beyond the great gate over yonder. Should you brave its fiery depths and manage to restore my skull I would be more than willing to assist your crafting endeavors.]

Chilly turned to the penguins.

“Hellbringer boss.” Peregrine stepped forwards and pointed to the large chain and head covered door.

“Head with boss.” Nobody added.

“Help craft.” Noomplet finished, gesturing to Sooty with Realm Walker.

Chaos child squashed Noomplet into a flat disk. All the penguins hopped back in surprise and raised their flippers in indignation as if to ask what was that for. Chaos child just shrugged, seemingly immensely pleased with itself.

“Let me see if I got this right.” Chilly said, “Your head is behind those doors which just so happens to be where this zone’s boss is, whose name is Hellbringer?”

Sooty nodded cheerfully. He seemed to be greatly enjoying having a conversation with someone who understood him.

“Alright cool. I just fought the Priest of Purity so I don’t think I am up for taking on another boss just yet. But if I do go in right now it should be level seven, right?”

Despite the lack of a head, Sooty quickly oriented his body as if he was looking above Chilly’s head, then turned back to face Chilly once more.

[Seven? Indeed you are correct. However there is an assumption that you are making which precludes your battle with the great Hellbringer. In order to open the gate, you must defeat the demon’s three Lieutenants. Even I am not powerful enough to overcome the might of the Hellbringers great gate, without their defeat first unlocking it. To face a challenge such as that, your level is woefully insufficient. I do apologize for setting you this impossible task, young one.]

The penguins looked among themselves then Nobody stepped forwards. Behind him Chaos Child raised its mallet up high, but before he could bring it down, Nobody spun around and raised Realm Walker in sword form threateningly.

Chaos Child meeped and spun around, racing away, as Nobody chased after the other penguin with righteous indignation.

The rest of them stared in bemusement at the two, then Poidude stepped forwards.

“Seven, now, yes.” Poidude said.

“Door locked.” Peregrine pointed out.

Noomplet stepped forwards, then clapped his flippers three times. “Sub-bosses unlock. Hard.”

Chilly considered the penguins' words. “So, the door is locked, and there are three sub bosses, which are presumably hard, that I have to beat in order to open the door. This is sounding more like a side-quest the more I think about it.”

Sooty signed something.

[Side quest?]

Peregrine stepped forwards. With no hesitation, chaos child immediately brought its hammer down on Peregrine with child-like glee. Peregrine reacted instantly. It’s sword flashed silver, as it parried the oversized mallet with ease. The penguin stepped underneath the out of control mallet and slashed the other penguin with a mighty blow of its sword.

“Weeennnkkkkkkk!” Chaos child screamed as the penguin went flying back and disappeared into the largest lava geyser in the room. Mallet and all.

Peregrine straightened with dignity, then turned to Chilly and shook its head, gesturing with an open flipper that what Sooty had said was not of great import.

“I see...” Chilly murmured. Sooty was looking slightly confused. Likely due to it wondering why such a simple phrase took so long to translate.

“Nevermind. Could you tell me about the sub bosses?”

[The Hellbringer is a boss, but his lieutenants are not. I would be wary of conflating the terms. The lieutenants for example will not match your level when you challenge them. They are not linked to the Desecrator as intimately.]

The penguins considered, but this time it was Nobody who stepped forwards.

“Sub bosses don’t level match.” Nobody said after some deliberation.

“I see, could you tell me more about all four enemies I will have to face?” Chilly asked Sooty.

Just then, a slightly singed penguin burst out of the top of the lava geyser. Chaos child giggled madly as he flew through the air, shedding bits of lava before he slammed into the ceiling and fell limply to the floor.

Sooty nodded, oblivious to the happenings of the penguins, then burst into a rapid fire set of gestures that Chilly didn't even bother to try following.

[The Void’s Last Embrace is a voidling hybrid residing deep within the Abyss. You may recognize it by the numerous tendrils of black essence that its kind uses to support their inelegant frames. I suggest avoiding the grasp of its tendrils should you choose to challenge it.]

Chaos child hopped to its feet as if its journey to the center of the earth hadn’t affected it in the slightest and called out. “Black hentai monster in the Abyss!”

Chilly frowned skeptically, then whispered to Peregrine. “Is that the translation?”

Peregrine sighed, but nodded reluctantly.

“Alright,” Chilly shook his head in disbelief. At least he knew which zone he was going to explore last. “What about the rest?”

[The second lieutenant resides within the Tenebris Vault. It is a magma golem variant and should prove especially resilient to fire based attacks. I advise caution, or the expedient assistance of a non fire based skill for tackling it.]

“Lava golem, Vault.” Nobody translated curtly.

“Resistant to fire.” Poidude pointed out smartly.

“Fire resistance might be a problem.” Chilly murmured. “And the last one?”

[The Chrain resides within the Kiln of the Undying Flame. It wields powerful magics and has a penchant for flooding the arena in waves of fire. Beware of the beast's powerful area of effect attacks. They are unavoidable without significant preparation.]

Chilly turned to the penguins.

“Fire thing. Kiln.” Noomplet translated.

“Area attacks.” Peregrine added.

“I feel enlightened. Alright. Would you happen to know their levels by any chance?” Chilly asked the ashen blacksmith. The penguin’s translation, while useful, left something to be desired.

[All the lieutenants are of level eleven. Too great a barrier for you to overcome on your own. I apologize for setting you this task.]

Nobody stepped forwards, but Noomplet put a flipper on its shoulder. They shared a glance, then grinned before turning to chaos child. Chaos child blinked in confusion, as both of the other two penguin’s swords morphed into identical wooden mallets. Understanding dawned on Mr. Chaos as the two penguins squashed him in unison.

After each blow, Chaos child bounced up giggling, his indestructible penguin body clearly unharmed by the powerful blows of its fellows.

Chilly winced at each blow, but counted them diligently.

“Are you saying that the sub bosses are level eleven?” Chilly confirmed. Peregrine turned away from the carnage regretfully before nodding affably to Chilly’s question.

“Sorry,” Peregrine added as an afterthought, pointing at Sooty.

“Hey, man it's all good.” Chilly told the ashen Guardian. “I’ve already declared war on all tables, taking on a few overgrown beasts shouldn’t be all that difficult.”

Sooty signed something quickly.

[I am afraid I do not follow.]

Peregrine shrugged, and made a continue motion with its flipper.

“Don’t worry about it pal,” Chilly told Sooty. “It’s a pact I have with the penguins. What about the Hellbringer? What can you tell me about him?”

[Before I do that, would you mind disabling your fiery cape of the stars? While mesmerizing, it does provide a rather unpleasant subtext to the conversation.]

Chilly turned towards the penguins, half of which started giggling. Chilly frowned as Nobody struggled to get words out.

“Cape hurts him.” Nobody choked out between intermittent giggles.

Chilly blinked twice at his cape, then at the thin stream of plasma that was wrapped around Sooty’s lower body. The ash clogged air had reduced visibility enough that he hadn’t noticed his cape attacking the guy.

“Oh shit!” Chilly frantically backed away until he was out of range of the ashen guardian. His exhaustion almost caused him to trip. He had completely forgotten his new skill would burn his new friend. Honestly he was impressed that Sooty was able to survive so long while getting burned by the skill. Level twelves must have truly monstrous vitality.

“Sorry Sooty!” Chilly called across the uncomfortably far distance. “I just got this skill, forgot it burns people.”

Sooty bobbed his upper body in understanding, then his fingers flashed in a quick sentence.

[That is quite alright young one.]

Chilly looked at the penguins, but it appeared that a minor war had been initiated while he wasn’t paying attention. All five penguins were wielding massive warhammers and were in the process of squashing each other into flat disks with as much exuberance as their little bodies could muster. It would appear that he had lost their attention.

“Hey guys, was what Sooty just said important?” Chilly called out to them. There was a flash of silver light, as four of the five penguins went flying to separate corners of the room. Nobody, the last penguin who hadn’t been launched, stood calmly in the center and simply shook his head towards Chilly.

“Okay, thanks.” Chilly called to them. “Hey Sooty, do you know how to disable a skill?”

Sooty flashed out a set of instructions.

[An Essence of Regret is the most common method I am aware of, young one. Are your translator’s having trouble?]

Chilly threw a rock at the rowdy penguins who had reconvened and now seemed to have organized a tournament to see who the victor would be. Poidude noticed the rock, and turned to Chilly.

“Regret,” Poidude said, pointing at Chilly’s ring.

“Really? Use an Essence of Regret just to have a conversation? That seems wildly inefficient.” Chilly complained. Poidude just shrugged, and returned to cheering on chaos child, who was tickling Noomplet using a wooden feather with mad fervor.

“Right, well, my penguins are getting a little restless, so I think I’m going to go back to the Shrine to rest.”

[You cannot return now. The dungeon will reset soon. Unless you have a powerful movement skill you will not be able to make it past the Holy Sanctum before the Priest of Purity’s physical vessel regenerates.]

“What’d he say?” Chilly asked the penguins. They had stopped their fight and were looking worried. Nobody was looking vaguely nauseous, while Noomplet was staring up from his prone position at Chilly with pity.

“Reset soon.” Nobody murmured.

“Can’t go back.” Peregrine added.

“Have to fight Priest.” Poidude stepped forwards. The penguin gave Chilly a conciliatory pat on the leg.

“Bosses reset too?” Chilly confirmed with a sense of dread welling up within his tired bones. There was no way he was up for another intense battle with the cursed priest.

Poidude nodded grimly.

“Damn.” Chilly muttered. He glanced around the room, struggling to suppress the spark of panic that the penguin's words had induced in him. He had been safe in the Shrine since he had come to this place. Every other place that he had gone to was either infested with undead that wouldn’t hesitate to kill him at a moment's notice or were full of literal rivers of lava. The ghostly guardian of the Shrine had also become a comforting presence over the previous days. It had never attacked, and had even provided him light and warmth when he needed it most. Not to mention his, admittedly disgusting source of food was back at the shrine.

It seemed silly. He had slain countless horrendous undead and had suffered innumerable lethal wounds over the last few days. None of that had phased him. His incredible regeneration made taking life threatening wounds a triviality, and the dulled pain made dwelling on injuries that didn’t last pointless. If he was honest though, his calm over the last few days was mostly due to the constant soothing presence of the penguins. They had stayed with him through the entire duration, silently encouraging him to continue and giving him hope despite the bleak prospects.

Despite all that, he was far from home. About as far as one can be from home, and against his will to boot. He hadn’t signed up for an isekai. If he had, he would have negotiated for some cheat hero powers to ease the transition. No, he was stuck in a foreign world, away from everything that he had ever known, forced to fight constantly just for the privilege of surviving to see the next day. He was literally starving. Soon to be dehydrated. On top of it all, he hadn't seen a smidgen of natural light in what felt like years.

It was all barely manageable. Meeting Sooty had been a wonderful distraction, but the very thought of not returning to the Shrine, to guaranteed safety, even for a single night, hit him like a truck.

“Ok, ok, ok,” Chilly muttered, grasping the back of his head as he tried to calm down and think about the situation rationally. “It's not all bad, Greg, You got this. You can sleep here. Probably nothing will eat you during the night. The penguins will watch over you. They’ll wake you up if something comes. Right guys?”

Dozens of penguins materialized in the room, they all nodded in unison.

“Right, see. Everything’s ok. You’ve got bodyguards. Sooty is also here and he’s a level twelve. Even higher level than the sub bosses. There is no way anything can come to eat you. Oh god!”

Chilly squatted down wrapping his arms around his knees as he rocked back and forth.

Several penguins rushed over but of course they could not comfort Chilly for they could neither speak nor lend their fuzzy bodies for a hug.

>

“What do I do?” Chilly whispered into the crook of his elbow, despair threatening to overwhelm him.

Suddenly the sound of penguin feet slapping against the hard stone caught Chilly’s attention. On instinct he looked up to behold the blurry figure of a penguin with stars in its eyes staring at him with uncharacteristic sanity.

“Hi, hick, there Mr. Xenix. What can I do for you?” Chilly managed to get out, wiping at his eyes to clear the moisture that had gathered there.

Mr. Xenix cocked its head to the side, seemingly confused.

“Hello there.” It replied, then turned around and confidently walked towards the large gate with the hanging skulls. It paused briefly as it beheld the gruesome display, but then shrugged indifferently as if a half dozen hanging skulls weren’t worthy of note. Without hesitation, Mr. Xenix stepped right through the door as if it didn’t exist, and vanished.

A wave of incredulous laughter burst out of Chilly. He fell back onto his butt, and wiped the tears from his eyes with both hands.

“Of course.” Chilly giggled. He couldn’t tell if it was madness, or simple relief that made him laugh.

The solution was obvious. The penguins had been trying to convey this to him since the beginning. Leveling up and getting stronger would grant him security. Becoming so tanky that even the concerted effort of a dozen bosses couldn’t reduce his health pool significantly would grant him the confidence to go to sleep without the fear of death. Gaining power would allow him to fully explore the depths of this tomb. It would allow him to gather all the soul fragments and use them to defeat the desecrator. Perhaps. Perhaps it would even allow him to return home.

Chilly eyed the two tunnels in the rear of the room with an appraising eye. He could rush down them. Find the first level seven monster and kill it for experience. That would satisfy his itch to level. To drown out the feelings of insecurity.

He...couldn’t do that, though. He had learned his lesson in the Undead Parish.

“Never go full retard.” Chilly whispered to himself. The old movie quote from home brought a strained smile to his lips.

He could do better.

Cautiously he scanned the room for some activity that would put him ahead. Some activity that would drown the feelings of panic that had slowly grown within him since he had been so rudely brought to this dungeon. His eyes settled on Sooty, the level 12 ashen blacksmith. A faint flicker of hope igniting deep within his wellspring of apprehension.

“Hey Sooty. Don’t take this the wrong way, but...uh. You wouldn’t happen to respawn during the dungeon reset would you?”