“Thanks for the chapter!” Kobold Patrol the penguin called from the back.

“Thanks for the chapter,” Chilly nodded amiably. “What do you say I should choose?”

“Choose the chains for maximum pains!” the penguin grinned laconically.

“Sure,” Chilly said, then organized the penguins into three groups that represented which ones preferred which ability. Chains of Subjugation were indeed the most popular choice by a fair margin, although all three skills received a fair portion of the population.

“I worry that I won’t be much help to a party with the chains,” Chilly said. “Chaeli doesn’t do any fire damage, so it's only helping me, and she does five times as much damage as me. It would take, like, oh. Not that long to match her damage. Only a minute or so. Still. It would be nicer if she also dealt fire damage to capitalize on this.”

“A chained foe who is unable to reach you is nothing more than target practice dummy!” the penguin interjected.

Chilly rubbed at the back of his head, “I’m not entirely sure that is how the chains will work but alright. I suppose that statement isn’t wrong. Let’s do it.”

Chilly pulled up the menus and selected Chains of Subjugation.

Chains of Subjugation:

You have challenged an untenable foe in a battle of attrition, where your only desire was to subjugate the beast. You may now crystallize your frustration to better tackle such battles.

Summon an ethereal chain to subdue an enemy

Chained enemies take 7.2% increased fire damage per 10 seconds affected by the chain

5.9m maximum range

1 Maximum chain

0.92s cast time

Choose an Augment for Chains of Subjugation. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 3 Augments.

You have challenged an untenable foe in a battle of attrition, where your only desire was to subjugate the beast. You may now crystalize your frustration to better tackle such battles.

Willbreaker

You have learned how best to break the wills of those you subjugate.

Chained enemies take 6% increased fire damage per tick

Redundant Bindings

The subjugated tend to forget their place. Remind them.

1 added maximum chain count

Fire Forged

Your very spirit recalls what it means to be tempered in fire.

24% increased fire damage

Jailer's Patience

They may run, but nowhere is far enough to escape

50% increased area of effect

Inescapable Grasp

It's only fun when they run.

Chained enemies are Hindered

Cruel Bindings

Why hinder the damned when you can do so much more?

60% increased hinder effect

Chilly scanned through the augments then dismissed the menu. He would have ample time to choose an augment later and there was no reason to use up his skill point only to have to retract the decision with a Regret because he had failed to properly predict the circumstances.

“Aha!” Chaeli crowed, holding up a pair of black metal pants that were still covered in rocky debris. “Found it.”

Chilly stood and made his way over, and scanned the tassets.

Mantle Tassets

Normal

Pants

iLevel: 11

30 fire resistance

Chaeli tossed the pants flippantly to him, “middling roll, but it’ll do for now.”

Chilly fumbled the item and gave it a closer look, but the system didn’t deign to reveal more information about the mods. “How do you know that? Is it a skill?”

“Mhmm hmm,” Chaeli said. “Mantle gear rolls between twenty-five and thirty-eight fire resistance as an implicit by default. Don’t worry. When you get to Teluria we’ll find you a nicer pair.”

Chilly raised a brow but didn’t comment. It seemed like a nice enough item to him. He turned towards the big vault door that the Juggernaut had been defending but paused as he saw that there were molten letters now carved into the surface of the wrought steel. Below which, five empty squares stood aligned and empty.

The molten words wrote:

Five of us we roam this land,

Our freedom gone, our powers grand.

First, there is the one who died,

Eternally the light provides.

Next is he who's half a man,

Bang bang, bang bang.

Some of us we chase our dreams,

Others chase themselves it seems.

The next of us, she flies on high,

Creating chaos in the sky.

The last of us did not like chores,

Now he cleans our filthy shores.

Five of us came to this land,

To quell and conquer for one man.

He lost our trust, his soul did fall,

And now he keeps us in his thrall.

“There are a bunch of those spread throughout the dungeon,” Chaeli said, stepping to stand beside him. “This is one is...grander than the others, I suppose. No idea what it means. You?”

Chilly shook his head. “Those squares below it probably mean something, though. Any idea on what’s behind the door?”

Chaeli shrugged and gestured for him to follow her out of the ruined chamber. He followed and they began to retrace their steps to the Tubes.

“No clue,” Chaeli replied. “I don’t know anyone who has solved them. Mostly we just ignore them since the dungeon itself is rewarding enough. I mean, practically every monster dropping an essence. That’s, like, practically unheard of on the surface.”

“So what now? Want to fight the Hellbringer?”

“Nah, that’s dumb,” Chaeli said. “You are way under-leveled for that.”

“The boss will match level won’t it?” Chilly said, offended.

“Yeah, but if I join you then it’ll be level fourteen. It will cream you in a couple of hits.”

Chilly grunted in agreement. “So what? We level more?”

“Eventually, but first you need a makeover,” Chaeli said, a sunny smile evident behind the narrow grills of her helmet. “All we need is a crafting bench then you will be ready and fashionable. I think the nearest one is in the Desecrator’s Shrine, though I suppose there is another in Teluria we could use.”

Chaeli bit her lip.

Chilly frowned, “Well if all you need is a crafting bench, then we can do the crafting on Sooty’s anvil.”

Chaeli paused, “Sooty...the Ashen Guardian.”

“Yeah, he’s chill. He’ll definitely let us use the anvil if we are just passing through.”

“...chill,” Chaeli said. “Alright, lead the way.”

They entered Sooty’s Hell and after a brief discussion with Sooty that was mediated by the penguins, they had access to the anvil as Sooty banged endlessly on his lumpy bit of iron on the ground.

Chaeli was hesitant at first but quickly fell into the groove of crafting. She very quickly stole all of Chilly’s essences that he had accrued over the past couple of days farming monsters. They all vanished into her Essence Vault, leaving him only with a couple of regrets that were admittedly all he really needed if all he was going to be doing was fighting.

Chaeli’s method of crafting involved a lot of tapping the items with the pommel of her swords, and other ritualistic actions that looked like superstitious mumbo jumbo, but the items were crafted in the end, so Chilly contented himself with just watching.

Living Steel Helmet

Rare

Helmet

iLevel: 11

118 life

91 life

14% increased life

22 fire resistance

7% increased fire resistance

Electrum Kite Shield

Rare

Offhand

iLevel: 11

38 lightning resistance

89 life

7.7% increased life regeneration

33 armor

23 fire resistance

Mantle Tassets

Rare

Pants

iLevel: 11

30 fire resistance

84 life

9% increased life regeneration

30 armor

18 cold resistance

Chilly accepted the three new pieces of gear hesitantly. They seemed like a king's ransom. Well worth the loss of his smattering of essences.

“Go on. Put ‘em on!” Chaeli encouraged, and he obliged. When all the pieces were in place he pulled up his status.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

11

1/11

1

Fire

Life

Life Regeneration

1493/1493

425.59

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

158

61.24%

250

71.43%

18

15.25%

62

38.27%

0

0.00%

Incinerate

Helmet:

Living Steel Helmet

Vitality

Body Armor:

Iron Plate Vest

Pious Path

Pants:

Mantle Tassets

Starfire Aegis

Boots:

Steel Boots

Flame Dash

Gloves:

Mantle Gauntlets

Chains of Subjugation

Jewelry:

Iron Ring

???

Mainhand:

Iron Kite Shield

???

Offhand:

Electrum Kite Shield

Chilly blinked at the numbers in surprise. He closed and reopened the menu, but still, they didn’t change. He had nearly doubled his life and regeneration while also increasing his resistances by a fair amount.

“So?” Chaeli bounced eagerly at his side. “How is it? It’s pretty right?”

“Yeah,” Chilly said, dazed. This was even with his augments not in the proper positions. Right now he was optimized to act as a support, with several skill points geared towards utility augments to increase Chaeli’s regeneration. If he reorganized two or three augments he could probably increase his regeneration by another fifty percent, or more. “The living steel helmet is really something. It is practically giving me three hundred health all on its own.”

“Pff,” Chaeli huffed, “That’s nothing. Just wait until we get back to Teluria and I’ll buy you a proper set of gear. For now, though, we need to level you up another three times, so that we are the same level and then we can take on the Hellbringer.”

Chilly dragged his eyes away from his new character sheet. “Why not go to Teluria now. I’ve got a couple of other pieces of gear that still need upgrading.”

Chaeli hesitated, “Well...How about we just. You know.” She gestured absently to the side. “Just level you up a bit, and...then go back to Teluria.”

Chilly eyed the Warforged. “And prepping in Teluria won’t make the leveling process much faster and, I can’t stress this enough, safer?”

“Hey don’t worry about it. I’m level fourteen, we are going to be targeting low-level trash mobs to quickly level you up. I promise that there will be no danger whatsoever.”

Chilly narrowed his eyes. He looked around the room and saw a bunch of penguins waving brown flags with the word ‘Red’ stitched onto the wooden fabric, then said. “You’re sure?”

“Totally. It will be fine.” Chaeli nodded. “We’ll first go to Avalan Ravine to get you another level, and then we can go fishing in Mirror Lake. Don’t you worry. In no time flat, You’ll be my level and we can take on the Hellbringer.”

Chaeli turned to leave but paused when Chilly didn’t move to follow. She turned to him and tilted her head in confusion. “You coming or what?”

Chilly chewed his lips as he considered. The plan sounded fine. They would go out. Kill a bunch of monsters - that should be easy with Chaeli’s help - then come back here, kill the Hellbringer, and free Sooty.

There was just one thing bothering him.

“Nah,” Chilly said, flopping to the ground beside the Ashen Smith.

“What?” Chaeli sputtered. “Why not? I thought you said you wanted my help to kill the Hellbringer?”

Chilly pointed at her knowingly, “Ah, that. Yes. I do want that, and I would love to go. There is just one intsy, tinsy, tiny, little - but very important - detail that I would like to know before we set out.”

Chaeli crossed her arms, “and what would that be?”

“Why are we being idiots?”

“Excuse me?”

“Ye. Why aren’t we going to Teluria, resting up, farming, upgrading our gear, and then when everything is perfect, head over to the Hellbringer and take him down? I’ve not been there, but it's a town, right? Why not recruit a bunch of other people to help? Why are you afraid of going back to your town?”

“I’m not afraid!” Chaeli retorted.

“Are too!”

“Am not!”

Chilly snorted and gave her a long look. She squirmed for a second then threw up her hands in exasperation.

“Gar-Khan won’t let me fight the Hellbringer!” she turned her back. “There, you happy now?”

Chilly gazed at her back for a long, drawn-out moment. “Gar-Khan, your...mentor, won’t let you?”

“Shut up.”

Chilly glanced at the penguins, then at Sooty. Neither seemed particularly invested in the discussion.

“Welp!” he slapped his thighs loudly and got up. “Let’s go then.”

“Huh?” Chaeli turned to face him.

“Yeah. So you were thinking of going to the cold biome. I would like to point out that I have barely any cold resistance. Have you considered Kellington’s Boughs? It kinda looks like a lightning biome and I have a bunch more of that resistance than cold, though I suppose you mostly have cold. Hmm, a pickle.”

“Wait, you’ll still fight with me?”

“Yes, yes. Keep up Chaeli. We’ve got work to do.”

After recovering from her initial surprise, Chaeli was quick to rush to the front and lead Chilly to the Frozen Gulch. The monsters were at most level nine, so they would only pass through in their search for stronger monsters. That didn’t stop a half dozen Frost Bisons from impaling themselves on Chaeli’s dual blades.

Chaeli explained that Kellington’s Boughs was a bad idea. Neither of them had any significant lightning resistance, and the levels of the monsters in the initial zone were deceptive. She had heard that after climbing the tree for only a little ways, the lightning elementals very quickly skyrocketed in level. Higher than level fourteen. Much higher.

So they were going through the cold biome. Not ideal, but at least Chaeli had a bunch of that resistance.

He barely managed to take note of the cold, barren mounds of snow, before they began to grow into colossal stone ridged walls on either side of them.

The faint blue light prevented the narrow ravine from getting dark, but the limited space did elicit feelings of claustrophobia in Chilly. Chaeli was unbothered, and continued, heedless of the nervousness in her companion. The penguins on her shoulder oohed and ahhed at the towering frozen walls. They pointed their flippers like tourists in a new city, and chittered happily amongst themselves, seemingly amused at their own private joke.

Chilly followed their pointed flippers, then paused as he spotted a partially concealed tunnel entrance halfway up the walls of the ravine.

“There are tunnels up above,” he said, pointing.

Chaeli followed his finger, “Centipede tunnel. They shouldn’t be much of a problem. Some are level eleven, and we might even chance upon a level twelve. Your choice, we can farm here or go a little deeper to mirror lake where we can reliably get you to fourteen.”

“Are there any level tens here?” Chilly asked, squinting upwards.

“Most.” Chaeli replied. “They use an ice barrage attack, then crawl down to try and entomb you. They are weak to fire, and we both have enough life that we will be able to survive them. Long enough for me to kill them, anyway.”

“Let’s continue on then.” Chilly said.

Despite his apparent offhand agreement earlier, Chaeli explanation had put him slightly on edge. If her mentor figure - or even parent, he didn’t know - had forbidden her from taking on a boss, then it was dangerous. Hell, he knew this. The Priest of Purity had been a tough fight, which would only get more complicated as it leveled. There were many reasons why a mentor figure would refuse to let their mentee take on a tough challenge. One was they were overly protective. The other, and far more worrying, was if they genuinely believed the decision premature. Chaeli being a font of knowledge and assuredness in this lower leveled zone did much to ease his nerves in this regard.

They continued through the ravine and it wasn’t long before they were assaulted by centipedes protected by a blue carapace of glittering ice.

After the initial barrage of icy projectiles, the centipedes descended to try and encircle the intrepid pair, only to discover the cruel edge of Chaeli’s blades and Starfire Aegis’ gentle touch. Despite their numbers and relatively high level, compared to Chilly, they fell in mere moments. Chilly’s fire shredded through their cold exoskeleton nearly as easily as Chaeli’s own blades.

In moments the fight was done.

“You stole my kill!” Chilly accused. Chaeli had the decency to look abashed, though he was mostly speaking in jest. It was quite difficult to leave a basic monster alive when your most basic attack practically eviscerated it.

They trudged through the bottom of the ravine, occasionally dealing with another pack of Chittering Crawlers, but managed to handle them just fine. Their health didn’t even decrease significantly and any damage that was done was rapidly recovered under the glowing light of the consecrated ground left in their wake. Chilly used the opportunity to test out the Chains of Subjugation. It was fine. Really not a showstopper, though. The centipedes really didn’t stay alive long enough for the increased damage to become noticeable. He decided to reserve judgment until he came upon a seriously tanky enemy.

They did come upon one Chittering Crawler that was different from the rest.

It did some extra damage, but it was really hard to tell since it fell just as quickly as the rest and was only level ten. Still, it reminded Chilly of the one putrid Ghoul that had nearly killed him in his initial foray into the Bone Pits all that time ago.

All in all, by the time they emerged from the Avalan Ravine, Chilly had accrued ten more points of experience and had leveled up with little fanfare.

Congratulations! You have leveled up!

You are now Level 12

Will your status screen open to allocate your points.

He had two free skill points to spend, but he kept them in reserve for now. In one more level, he would gain another skill, which might have some juicy options that were better than any that Chains of Subjugation offered.

Chilly stepped out of the ravine to behold a beautiful scene right out of a movie. He stood on a pristine, pale, sandy beach before a perfectly flat lake that extended far into the distance. The lake was ringed by imposing snow-capped mountains that were just barely visible through the blue distance haze. One of the mountains was larger than the others. It dominated the landscape and cast a forlorn shadow over the endless expanse of perfectly still water. A hint of green touched the top where all the rest had only snow.

“Teluria.” Chaeli declared, a hint of pride in her tone. “The only hint of green in this entire godsforsaken dungeon.”

Chilly squinted, “I would very much like to visit.”

“Mhmm,” Chaeli smiled, “but first, let’s kill us some Leviathans!”