Chaeli followed behind the strange man at a sedate pace. He led the way through the Tubes with the confidence of a scout despite not having a single perception skill to his name. A shallow pool of light surrounded him; invigorating her as she stepped over the consecrated ground left in his wake. Even if he was entirely useless in a fight, this skill alone would make him a valuable member of any team. He had another skill that could further increase ally regeneration. One that worked in a wide area and that didn’t require allies to walk in his footsteps. Vitality, was it? It was almost better than having an active healer on the team.

Almost.

That didn’t explain his infallible confidence. She had no trouble with the low light, but the mad human definitely couldn’t pierce the gloom. His eyes roved blindly across the rough walls, only to flash back to the ground near his feet. With such low visibility, it was likely that he couldn’t see more than a couple paces in front of him. How then were his steps so sure? He walked past dozens of offshoot tunnels that curved off the main path without hesitation only to smoothly step off the main path as if he had lived in these tunnels his entire life.

Chaeli reached into her pack and surreptitiously pulled out a faded old map. Perusing it, she realized that the mad human - Chilly was his name - was leading them directly towards the Abyss along the shortest route.

How?

Just then, Chilly paused once again right before the detection radius of a low-level Wall-Crawler. It was not much of a threat; being only level 7.

Despite its devastating physical and fire-based ambush attack, it wouldn’t be able to one-shot her or her companion. This wasn’t the first Wall Crawler that they had come across, and it wouldn’t be the last. Still, Chilly’s behavior each time intrigued her to no end.

She stopped behind him and furrowed her brow as he began the strange ritual. First, he paused precisely outside the Wall Crawler’s detection radius. How he knew the exact range, she didn’t know. As far as she was aware, the monster should be invisible to any without enhanced senses. He then pulled an essence out of his breastplate - an extremely odd location to store them - and tossed it forwards. The essence clattered on the stone floor to land somewhere beneath the Wall-Crawler. The monster didn’t react - as expected - completely ignoring the essence as it trained its beady little eyes on Chilly. Waiting for him to take a single step further so that it could use its ability to close the distance.

Then despite being completely unable to detect the monster, Chilly raised an arm and unleashed his staple ability unerringly towards the monster, thereby destroying its stealth and preventing it from using its movement skill. The monster fell screeching like all its brethren from before and awkwardly skittered through the flames only to collapse before even managing to halve the distance between them.

Chaeli shook her head, as Chilly cheerfully looted the corpse, collected his thrown essence, and continued leading the way.

They made their way to the Abyss proper where visibility dropped even further. Even with her enhanced perception, she struggled to see very far. Chilly, on the other hand, continued as if there was no difference in lighting conditions. Walking forwards with his eyes looking down and around as he joked and laughed with the...penguins that he insisted were everywhere.

Chilly shot her a glance to make sure she was still following, then his eyes flickered up. Chaeli suppressed the irrational urge to duck her head and swipe at whatever he was seeing above her head. Every time she had followed his gaze she had found nothing. And yet. And yet, his eyes focused so convincingly.

The human casually killed the voidlings in the tunnel, then paused at the entrance of a large chamber. An unnerving dark prevented her from seeing all the enemies hiding within.

The human turned to her and began describing how they would do this. Somehow including the general positions of various enemies in the pitch-black chamber. The plan itself was...passable. She would be tasked with hunting down any stray voidlings and eliminating them while he took on the lieutenant himself. At the very least this would allow her to see how he fought.

Plus, she would be able to confirm if he really did know where the enemies were hiding in the dark.

He...didn’t fight. Chaeli scrutinized Chilly as he let the sub-boss wrap its tentacles around him. She analyzed his life and saw that his life was flickering down before rapidly refilling as his regeneration restored him. Every hit that landed made the human’s cape flared brighter, engulfing the enhanced voidling and causing it to writhe and screech as it desperately tried to grind him to dust.

She turned her attention to the Void’s Last Embrace, and curiously watched its life tick down. It was slow but consistent, the damage just barely above what its natural regeneration could recover. Before too long the monster was on its last legs and attempted to retreat. Chaeli followed at a sedate pace, but refrained from helping out. It wouldn’t do to take the experience and deny Chilly his level up.

The boss dropped a Living Steel Helmet.

Living Steel Helmet

Normal

Helmet

iLevel: 11

118 life

Chaeli looked closer at the implicit.

A low roll. What a shame.

The human however was elated at finding the ugly piece of gear. She had to admit that it was...marginally better than what he currently had on.

She shook her head and hurried him along.

The next zone was the Kiln of the Undying Flame. The brimstone in the air seeped into the cracks in her armor and irritated her leaflets. She winced, but the damage wasn’t able to bypass her natural regeneration. If only barely. Luckily, while walking in the wake of the mad human she more than quadrupled her life regeneration.

They took care of the little embers and the braziers as they approached. Chilly happily explained what he had discovered and how he planned on taking on the main room. She nodded along but remained silent.

A glance at the braziers was all she needed to figure out everything that Chilly had painstakingly discovered.

And the little embers.

She tuned out the human’s ramblings as she considered what had happened in Sooty’s Hell. It seemed...impossible. A friendly monster? Gar-Khan had said there were no such things. Especially in dungeons. Her notes on the various zones did say that the Ashen Guardian was neutral until provoked. But it also said that the door to the Hellbringer would stay locked until after the Ashen Guardian was defeated. The mad human, on the other hand, insisted otherwise.

Her eye trailed over to the rough iron bracelet locked cruelly around the mad human’s wrist. A gift from the Ashen Guardian. It had to be. Cursed items were rare. Practically unheard of, but no less debilitating for their scarcity. Especially given its low level. Without being able to upgrade that piece of gear in the future it would be impossible for him to progress far. The dungeon was already hard enough as is. Gar-Khan’s words about the dangers of the dungeon rang in her mind.

She sheepishly glanced away from the bracelet. Should she give him some sort of scarf to cover it? He was very brave for flaunting it so blatantly.

They made it to the main room and she blanched as she identified the sub-boss for the first time.

That was a lot of damage. More than she could handle. Only the Wall Crawlers came close, and they could only inflict such an attack once before resorting to far weaker strikes. Not to mention more than half of their damage was physical, which was by far the easiest type to resist. Cruel Sun was a pure fire spell, on the other hand, and could likely be used on cooldown. Not something she could recover through. Especially since she couldn’t rely on the consecrated ground to heal her as she would likely not be walking in Chilly’s wake during an actual battle.

She glanced at her character sheet.

Chaeli of the Iron Steps

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

14

3/14

0

Physical

Life

Life Regeneration

1137/1137

41

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

281

73.75%

42

29.58%

235

70.15%

0

0.00%

0

0.00%

That was more than her life. But...accounting for her fire resistance it shouldn’t one-shot her. It was close. Disturbingly close. All because she only had a single piece of gear focused on fire resistance. Regardless, she couldn’t go in there. The risk was too high.

It rankled, but she told the human, suggesting she run back to Teluria real quick and get gear that was more focused on fire resistance. She really had hoped that her level advantage would be enough, but apparently not. Chilly nodded, but told her to wait for a second as he tried something. He cracked open two Regrets, and fiddled clumsily with his system. A second later, a wave of vitality shot through her like a bolt of lightning.

She gasped as her new stats glowed in her vision.

Chaeli of the Iron Steps

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

14

3/14

0

Physical

Life

Life Regeneration

1324/1324

294

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

281

73.75%

42

29.58%

235

70.15%

0

0.00%

0

0.00%

At the corner of her vision she noticed the consecrated ground at her feet begin to creep forwards. Spreading over the ground like a plague hellbent on bringing light into the world. Chilly grinned at her from above the glowing ground.

Well.

That changed things.

Chilly smiled in satisfaction as he watched Chaeli whizz around the Phoenix wannabe. Her blades flashed through the brimstone-laden air, slashing through the semi-corporeal bird in great swinging arcs that scattered huge chunks of the bird's plumage. It struggled and whistled at her, but couldn’t move fast enough to touch her. It unleashed wave after wave of fire, only for Chaeli to dodge over and around them with the ease of a lifelong acrobat. Idly, Chilly dislodged bits of igneous rock that had frozen over his gauntlet, as he watched the fight. It was certainly cool to see another form of tanking. He did it the brain-dead way, taking every hit and stacking regeneration and resistances so that he would survive, but Chaeli chose a different path. Dodge tanking.

The image was ruined, however, by the two penguins riding on each of Chaeli’s shoulders. No matter how majestically she twirled, Chilly couldn’t take her seriously when two penguins laughed like maniacs at her every tumble and turn. They cheered at every successful dodge, but some attacks couldn’t be dodged, the three suns that enveloped the entire room as an example. Each time the Phoenix unleashed one, Chaeli stumbled as billows of acrid smoke spewed out of the cracks in her armor from her wooden skin being charred. Each time however, she regained her footing in a second, while alligator-like bark peeled off to reveal fresh oak that shone under the golden light of the consecrated ground at her feet.

He had allocated Unity of Purpose and Ceaseless Crusade to best help Chaeli survive the room. Unity of Purpose made it so that Chaeli received 50% of the effect of his Vitality skill, while Ceaseless Crusade spread the consecrated ground formed from Pious Path throughout the room. The result was that the entire chamber was faintly glowing with golden crucifixes, which allowed Cheali to zip around anywhere in the room without the worry of losing the bonus regeneration.

He had sacrificed Scorching Ray and Heart of the Warrior so both his own regeneration and damage suffered, but it wasn’t like he was really necessary in the damage department. He hadn’t done any math as to how much he was helping Chaeli since he didn’t know how much life she had, but it seemed to him like she would have at the very least 75% of his bonus regeneration. So about 20% of her maximum life per second, which was probably more then his own life regeneration since she likely had a higher total life pool, from levels and optimized gear.

Another wave of fiery light blinded him, as the Chrain let out a pitiful whistle. Chaeli disengaged in a blur of motion and halted at his side in an act that seemed to defy the laws of momentum. Smoke rose from her helmet’s eye-holes like she was some sort of avenging reaper of hellfire as she glanced towards him.

“You’re up,” she said, gesturing.

Chilly nodded, and casually summoned a stream of fire to join the continuous stream of plasma that coiled hatefully around the bird. Star Fuel was a little weaker because of his reduced regeneration, and Incinerate was as weak as it could be, with no augments strengthening it, but together they were enough to defeat the drastically weakened boss.

“Oh, can’t have that.” Chaeli murmured at his side, bursting forwards in a blur as her feet slapped against the lava to catch a glinting light that fell from the center of the Phoenix’s corpse. A second later she was standing on the other side of the central lava pool examining a handful of essences in her left hand and a shield made of tinted yellow metal in her right.

She ran over the lava, Chilly observed idly, then grinned. People in this world were so cool.

“Electrum Shield. High roll too.” Chaeli called, returning to him. The essences vanished into her ring a second later. “You would make one hell of a support if you focused on getting more support skills you know. I don’t think I’ve ever had as much life regeneration as I do now. It's invigorating being practically immune to pain.”

Chilly took the shield from her.

Electrum Kite Shield

Normal

Offhand

iLevel: 11

38 lightning resistance

“It’s an idea. Depends a lot on whether we stick together.” Chilly said, studying the shield and considering what essence he would use to craft it. “It seems like I would need at least some offensive capabilities to get experience, but I’m not averse to playing the support if that’s what it takes to get out of this dungeon.”

“Duck!” a penguin screamed.

Chilly dropped to the floor, his eyes wide as he covered his head with his hands. He rolled to a crouch and scanned the room with analytical eyes.

“Are you—”

Chilly raised a finger, silencing her. “You see anything?”

Chaeli carefully descended into a crouch beside him, glancing around the room. “No, nothing’s here.”

“Hmm,” Chilly said, “almost died there. Invisible enemies are the worst.”

Chaeli’s eyes widened fractionally as she looked around the room once more. “Are you...sure that you didn’t just imagine it?”

Chilly glowered at her, standing up. “I told you, I’m not crazy. The penguins are real, and there are two of them on your shoulders right now.”

“You're crazy unless you mention Realm Walker,” the penguin taunted from Chaeli’s left shoulder. Realm Walker had transformed into a pair of wooden horns that erupted from either side of the penguin’s feathery head.

“Hush! Secrets aren't meant to be shared with mortals freely.” the second penguin berated the first, a wooden halo floating demurely above its head.

Chaeli twitched violently but purposefully didn’t glance at either shoulder.

“Whatever,” she said, turning. “Let’s just go, this air is going to stain my armor.”

Chilly shrugged and followed her out of the cavern. This time she led the way to Blackrock Mountain, using a worn map as she navigated through the dark tunnels. They made it there fairly quickly, and Chilly had to admit that her method of taking care of the Wall Crawlers was certainly more efficient than his. Not that he could basically teleport to them and impale them on a sword but whatever.

After an initial encounter with a platoon of legionnaires, they managed to hammer out a good strategy for taking them out. Really it was embarrassingly easy. Chilly just teleported behind and taunted them, as Chaeli eviscerated their backline while they were focused on him.

Chaeli’s mood seemed to improve as she absorbed all the dropped essences into her essence vault, and they continued on. Chilly didn’t mind. He didn’t have an essence vault at the moment, and Chaeli seemed nice enough. Two more groups of legionnaires fell just as quickly as the first, leaving them standing before the oddly cuboid room of the Blackrock Juggernaut once more.

“Up to 1145 physical and 424 fire damage.” Chaeli murmured from the side. “I can take a couple of hits.”

“That’s probably its charge skill. It does less damage than I thought it would.” Chilly remarked cheerfully, still kind of in awe at simply being able to know how much damage a monster was able to inflict. Some quick math revealed that the Juggernaut wouldn’t be able to one-shot him with a single charge even if it rolled high on its damage.

Chaeli gave him an odd look.

“What?”

“Nothing. How do you want to do this?”

“We get rid of the legionnaires the usual way then take care of the Juggernaut. The ash in the air is slowing us, so let me take aggro. I can teleport out of the way regardless of how slow I am. Then you can knife it while it's stuck in the walls.”

Chaeli nodded and they entered the room. They first baited the legionnaires into the tunnel and handled them easily. They then returned to the room and engaged the Juggernaut.