Chilly stomach gurgled sadly.

>

>

Chilly put a hesitant hand over his belly, and he licked his cracked lips. The brimstone laden air did not help. With every passing moment he felt more like a human husk. Deprived of food, water, sunlight, and company. Well. Not so much the last one.

The physical degen from the ailments was also growing to become truly bothersome. Before it had just shaved a percent or two off his regeneration. Now though, he was taking more than 6% of his maximum life per second as physical damage. His armor mitigated some, but it was still a significant cut into his regeneration.

With a sigh, he picked up the Mantle Gauntlets and stepped away from the lava pool. The boss had not dropped an essence, or it had fallen into the pool of lava.

Needless to say, he didn’t go swimming.

He retraced his steps, getting the penguins to lead him out and back into the Tubes where the wall crawlers dwelt. As soon as he stepped out into the Tubes, the brimstone orange haze in the air disappeared, and the faint burning sensation that had accompanied him throughout his time in the Kiln of the Undying Flame vanished as if it was never there.

Man am I tired, he thought. He pulled off this helmet, only to freeze with a hand on his perfectly smooth scalp and cheeks. He grinned. At least one benefit of his lava bath was that he no longer had to worry about shaving. He would still kill for a bath though. All the oils and sweat had vaporized, but he was covered in a disturbing layer of sticky ash.

A bed would be pretty cool too.

Pretty sure I can take on one more lieutenant before I rest, He thought. He was tired, but considering the combination of his abilities and the difficulty of the previous two bosses, he was confident that at the very least the next zone wouldn't be instantly dangerous. At the very least he should check it out. There was also an implicit time limit in the form of the dungeon reset. Hopefully his progress would be saved, but it wasn’t guaranteed. It would be prudent to defeat the three sub-bosses, open the big doors, then rest before taking on the Hellbringer.

He gestured to the penguins, and they led the way through the dark tunnels. Starfire Aegis cast dancing shadows around him, and Pious Path left a line of consecrated ground where he tread. He looked back and smiled at the glowing path of hope he left in his wake. Maybe he could figure out a way to make it permanent and fill this entire bleak place in consecrated ground.

He popped into Sooty's Hell, and made a beeline for the crafting anvil. Sooty was still dead this reset, and there was no reason to wait on him before crafting the new pair of gloves.

He brought up the blue box for the gloves, as he placed them on the anvil.

Mantle Gauntlets

Normal

Gloves

iLevel: 11

33 fire resistance

He picked a couple choice essences from the pile at his feet and placed them on the anvil.

Should I go big? he thought. For the previous level 11 item that he had crafted, his boots, he had simply slammed an essence of Arcanite into it and gone on with his day. The glut of essences at his feet though, made him consider the other option. If he combined several essences with an Essence Resonator then he could create an item that was more likely to fit his build.

What the hell, he thought, let's just go for it. He pulled a small ceramic bowl out of the pile of essences, then took a Steel, Arcanite, and Jade essences from the pile. The steel essence would guarantee some kind of resistance mod, hopefully fire but armor would also work. The Arcanite would guarantee life or life regeneration of a sort, while the Jade would hopefully grant the most valuable mod of them all; skill effect. He was hoping for Vitality since that was what he had been stacking up until now, but more Starfire Aegis effect would also work wonderfully. More fire resistance was always welcome in this biome.

The maximum number of mods that a piece of gear at the rare level could hold was four. If he only used three essences there was a chance that he would get a useless mod like hinder resistance that wouldn't do anything for him in the immediate future. If he put another Steel or Arcanite into the crucible then there was a chance that he would create an item that would stick with him for many of the adventures to come. He glanced at the pile of essences that he had accrued, then decided to just go for it. It didn't seem difficult to farm them, especially since many of the monsters at his current level seemed to drop the rare essences relatively commonly.

With an Essence of Steel, two Arcanite, and a Jade essence in the resonator, he placed it on the pair of gloves and watched the magic happen. The bowl cracked as usual, combining the essences into a single force that melded with the gloves, giving them a faint yellow glow indicating their rare status.

Mantle Gauntlets

Rare

Gloves

iLevel: 11

33 fire resistance

79 life

32 armor

13.94 life regeneration

26% increased effect of consecrated ground

Nice, he thought.

Chilly slipped on the new gloves and pulled up his character sheet.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

10

5/10

0

Fire

Life

Life Regeneration

Starving, Dehydrated

(24 physical damage taken per second due to ailments after accounting for mitigation)

871/871

299.98

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

129

56.33%

180

64.29%

0

0.00%

24

19.35%

0

0.00%

Incinerate

Helmet:

Iron Barbute

Vitality

Body Armor:

Iron Plate Vest

Pious Path

Pants:

Iron Pants

Starfire Aegis

Boots:

Steel Boots

Flame Dash

Gloves:

Mantle Gauntlets

???

Jewelry:

Iron Ring

???

Mainhand:

Iron Kite Shield

???

Offhand:

Iron Kite Shield

He grinned. Three hundred life regeneration and one hundred and eighty fire resistance with the new gloves. Against fire monsters he was practically immortal, perfect for the current biome.

He was close to level 11. When he got there, he would be offered another skill, which was very exciting. What skills would he be offered? What paths would they lead him down? A faint doubt crept up. If he didn’t get offered a resistance skill, tackling monsters that dealt cold, lightning, or chaos damage would be difficult. Starfire Aegis had single-handedly made taking on the fire biome possible. He hadn't needed to upgrade his gear, or farm anything at all because the skill had brought his fire resistance all the way up to more than 100. In fact, now fire resistance was his highest stat.

The only evidence he had found for other elements was his brief glimpse of the Flooded Depths. He hadn’t seen any monsters, but the name coupled with the wet environment heavily suggested cold damage, though he couldn’t be sure. For now it seemed possible that he would at the very least encounter cold damage in the future, so a skill with such resistances would allow him to continue advancing without having to change his gearset.

Another consideration was that many of the monsters here did physical damage. Even the monsters that dealt elemental damage usually had a physical portion to their attacks. If he got a skill that just gave him armor, it would vastly ease up on overall gear requirements, since he would be able to focus on a single element instead of splitting the mods he acquired between armor and the element type.

What if there is a monster that does all three element types, Chilly shivered. That would be bad. He had barely any elemental resistances, and didn't see how he could reasonably increase them all without sacrificing massive amounts of life or armor.

He shook his head, refocusing on the task. His hunger and thirst were a problem, but with the new stats that his glove offered he was stronger than ever before. He briefly scanned over his augments, and now satisfied, he went back into the Tubes.

Wall crawlers assaulted him on the journey, but they were no obstacle with the penguins acting as vanguard. They led him to another tunnel that looked exactly the same as all the others. Except as he crossed an invisible threshold, a blue box appeared in his vision.

Chilly stopped at the entrance and assessed the situation. There wasn’t a sharp dividing line like there had been with the other two zones. Nor did there seem to be an environmental effect here. He couldn't decide whether that was a good or bad thing. On the one hand it meant he wouldn't be faced with odd challenges like being blind, or constantly taking damage. On the other, it suggested that the enemies would be tougher to compensate.

Whatever it was, he would take it on as it came. He gestured to the penguins, and continued walking into Black Rock Mountain.

The rough rock of the tunnel slowly transformed into dark brickwork that absorbed the light emanating from Chilly’s two abilities. The ceiling lowered until it was just a smidge uncomfortable to walk under. Tapering to perhaps a hand and a half of extra space above his head. Initially it was just plain bricks, but the deeper he went the more intricate the designs carved into the dark rock, mainly featuring what looked like armies of knights taking down various beasts and peoples, though much of the detail was lost to weathering. As he went further, the grooves in between the bricks, where there should have been mortar, became filled with strangely static lava. The molten rock emitted a faint glow that failed spectacularly to light up the tunnel turned hallway.

Chilly paused to get a closer look at one particularly bright vein of lava, when an ethereal beak poked out of the molten liquid.

Chilly stepped back, somehow not all that surprised.

“Heyo,” he said, “what are you doing inside the wall little guy?”

“Even in the light, the Void cannot be escaped.” the penguin chirped, pulling the rest of its body out of the wall.

“You are fairly insistent on that point.” Chilly said

“Join it.” The penguin nodded.

Chilly looked away, “I’ll...consider it. First we need to save Sooty.”

The penguin nodded affably, and scampered ahead to help scout the way. Chilly pursed his lips, but followed after the penguin.

As had become the norm, it was the penguins that first alerted him to the threat. The leading penguin raised its flipper, in a very military style gesture, as its eyes narrowed, and its head seemed to cock, as if listening to a faint sound. Chilly frowned, unable to hear anything, but stopped as well.

The penguin made several quick gestures with its flipper, which had the other penguins fan out with their heads to the walls and the floor. Chilly experimentally put his ear to the wall, mimicking the penguins, but still could not detect any noise. Eventually, he decided to leave it to them, and stepped back to give them space.

A couple seconds later, the lead penguin nodded its head and stepped to Chilly. It made a rapid series of gestures and flicks with Realm Walker before it looked up to Chilly with an expectant glance.

“There are...enemies here?” Chilly made a wild guess. The penguin deflated, literally losing volume until it was barely half the size it had been before.

A tremble in the floor shivered up Chilly’s sole.

He froze. Through the bottoms of his feet he felt a crashing of stone on stone. A rhythmic pulse of an earthquake felt from a great distance. It vibrated against the soles of his new boots at the very edge of his perception. He closed his eyes and placed a bare hand on the hallway’s floor.

Faint vibrations in the rock traveled up into Chilly's hand. Whatever was making the stone shake was either very big, very strong, or very numerous.

“Ah, that's what you were saying.” Chilly said, sending a grin over to the lead penguin's direction. “Is it safe to keep moving?”

The lead penguin, who was now half the size of its brethren, flashed out several sign gestures, which had the rest of the penguins rushing forward to disappear in the gloom. A second later, one returned, and began conversing with the leader in the ineffable manner of the penguins.

The lead penguin turned to Chilly and nodded firmly.

“Right, let’s go then,” Chilly said, continuing his wary journey through the hallway.

The faint vibrations in the ground grew as he progressed, going from barely discernible shudders to hard crashes of the beginnings of an extended earthquake. Soon he was also able to hear the sound with his ears. As the quakes grew louder, Chilly could hear that it wasn't a continuous rumbling, but rather a repetitive crash like drums.

Or marching boots.

Chilly reached a ninety degree elbow in the hallway as the crashing reached a crescendo. The penguins indicated caution, and Chilly peeked around the corner with just the tip of his head, to see a platoon of six knights in ornate black armor with bright lava accents, marching in a two wide formation towards him. They each had a large tower shield in their left hand, and a thick spear in their right. Their visages were blocked by conical helmets that rode above massive pauldrons straight out of a fantasy realm.

They moved in unison, slamming their armored boots into the ground, and causing the shuddering that Chilly had felt from far away. From up close, the sound was painfully loud.

A quick glance back revealed his retreat clear, so Chilly turned around the corner and unleashed Incinerate on the army. Fire arced out to tickle the front row.

Their reaction was instant, the two legionnaires slammed their shields in a row, going to one knee as the two behind them moved their shields above to protect the front row’s heads. A classic shield wall. As soon as the shields were in place, a faint blue haze rose in front of the shield wall, causing Incinerate to get pushed back and splash ineffectually against the blue barrier.

Four sharp spears slotted neatly in between the gaps in the shield wall, pointing threateningly at Chilly, as the platoon advanced towards him.

Chilly frowned, continuing to channel Incinerate as streamers of plasma joined the ray of fire, only for them to also get rebuffed by the blue haze surrounding the legionnaires.

The soldiers approached, getting within spear range and poked at him. Chilly canceled Incinerate, and took a step back out of range as he used the instant cast of flame dash to make another couple of meters of distance. The moment he reappeared he channeled Incinerate once again.

Fire raced out, splashing harmlessly against the blue haze and painting the carvings on the walls in brilliant reds and yellows. The soldiers straightened their shields, bringing their spears back into a resting position and continued towards Chilly. Their step accelerated to a light jog.

Chilly's frown deepened as he continued to channel Incinerate at the group, not entirely sure what he was supposed to do against this. His eyes scanned past the flames, searching for evidence of damage, but failed to find any. The wall of shields and spears seemed just as intact as it had been before being covered in fire. The blue haze similarly didn’t give off any impression that it was weakening from the assault.

He vanished in another flare of bright fire as the legionnaires reached his position. Luckily he had a lot of space to retreat.

This isn't working, Chilly thought. Whatever the group was doing with their shields was preventing him from being able to damage them with Incinerate. Even the addition of Starfire Aegis wasn't able to penetrate the resistances. The shield wall did seem directional however, only existing an inch in front of the group’s shields. Perhaps if he teleported behind it, he would be able to do some damage.

He canceled Incinerate, feeling his limbs loosen as the channeling slow vanished. He lowered his shields and sprinted towards the advancing group. The legionnaires lowered their stance and stopped their advance as they stabilized their shields and spears against the hard stone floor in order to better receive his charge.

Chilly smirked. He had no intention of acting as a battering ram. The moment he got in range, he spun around so that his back was facing the shield wall and Flame Dashed. He burst into a flare of bright fire, and felt his perspective shift, as Flame Dash transported him to the other side of the shield wall.

Because he had turned around beforehand, he appeared facing the soldiers from behind. Instantly he channeled Incinerate while streamers of plasma from his cape already lay into the exposed rear of the soldiers. A trail of burning ground glowed dimly from underneath them.

The soldiers shuffled in confusion, looking down at the burning ground where their foe had disappeared mere moments ago. It certainly helped that Incinerate obscured everything in blinding fire. Eventually, however, they noticed, turning with surprising speed to reform the shield wall facing Chilly once again. A moment later the blue haze sprung into existence, denying entry to both Incinerate and Starfire Aegis.

Chilly instantly dropped Incinerate, vanished in a flare of bright fire, and appeared back where he had started. He instantly unleashed a torrent of superheated fire and plasma that once again lay waste to their exposed backs. The fire slithered into gaps in their armor, heating up the dark metal and inducing stress fractures in the material.

This time the legionnaires switched orientation much faster, wise to Chilly's move, and instantly began to charge him underneath the defense of the blue haze.

Chilly frowned, canceling Incinerate knowing that it wouldn't actually be able to bypass the shield. He jogged backwards as the soldiers charged him, patiently waiting for Flame Dash to come off cooldown. The moment they reached him, he vanished and began blasting their exposed backs with fire.

Once again the group of soldiers spun around, but not before they were inundated by both plasma and fire. They spun around as a unit, only to stumble as one of their members collapsed. From there it was simple. Chilly channeled Incinerate, hopping behind them whenever they managed to form a full phalange. It only took two more iterations to take them all down. They were all at low health, and without some of their members they couldn't form a proper shield wall to withstand Chilly's flames.

He hadn't taken a single point of damage.

Chilly stood over the fallen suits of armor, peering inside of them and noticing two things. The suits were hollow on the inside, and they weren’t actually made of metal, but rather a hard, but brittle rock.

He kicked at the armors, surprised as they crumbled and revealed a dozen essences that glittered faintly in the lava light. Chilly raised his brows.

“They drop two each?” he said, crouching down. He sifted through the remains and collected all of the essences. Twelve essences in total, with three of them being rare. Two Arcanite, and a Steel.

Chilly methodically collected all of the essences and poured them into his plate vest. The little rocks dug painfully into his stomach, but without his essence vault this was the best he could do. At least there was little chance that the essences would fall out in their current position if he suddenly decided to do some acrobatics.

He straightened from his crouch, and turned towards the empty hallway. In the distance the sound of marching boots echoed faintly. Chilly turned to the penguins.

“Lead on my friends.”