His current set of augments were still geared for Leviathan hunting which made traveling surprisingly safe. With Pious Path spreading consecrated ground at roughly the same speed as a slow jog, he was able to keep the outer boundary about twenty meters ahead and above him. Any monsters waiting in ambush within rocky crevasses or deep snow drifts were rudely expunged in a flare of bright embers.

It generally didn’t kill the hidden beasties, but twenty meters was quite a distance. Four times the outer range of Incinerate, and the extra distance provided more than enough time to deal with the aggressive monsters. In some cases, he tackled them head-on and reveled in being able to absorb the hits, while in others he simply jogged back and laughed as the centipedes slowly burned themselves to death as they chased him through a trail of scorched earth.

After only a few engagements he grew bored of the low-level enemies and brought up each of his skills to see where he could improve, shift his augments around, and generally prepare for the battle with the Hellbringer.

Incinerate

Unleash a beam of fire that burns enemies that it touches. The beam dissipates after 6.3m

Deals 285.7 Fire damage per second

Channeling

Incinerate was steadily getting stronger but it was still much weaker than Chaeli’s attack. To be fair, none of the augments were allocated, but still. Either way, the range was steadily increasing, though range had never been a real problem for the skill.

Choose an Augment for Incinerate. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 3 Augments.

Channel a beam of fire that burns enemies that it touches.

Empowered Flames

Your flames burn ever hotter.

30% more Incinerate damage

Ignition

Enemies burnt by Incinerate catch fire dealing 35% additional fire damage over 4 seconds

Embered Heart

Ashes resonate with the power of Incinerate.

100% more ash effect

Chaotic Flames

Incinerate bolsters the flames within you.

12% more damage over time

Massive

Incinerate gains an additional 3m of range

Scorching Ray

The flames of Incinerate leave lasting scars.

Incinerate inflicts scorch

Potential augments to consider for the Hellbringer fight were Chaotic Flames or Scorching Ray. Chaotic Flames would increase his damage wholesale since he only dealt damage over time, while Scorching Ray would allow him to inflict Scorch which made the enemy take 20% more fire damage. Due to his current build, it was far better to buff his other skills than it was to upgrade the current skill.

Vitality (46% increased effect)

Your body thrums with a powerful vitality increasing both your life and life regeneration.

Regenerate 10.4% of maximum life as life per second

34.2% more life

35% more life regeneration

Ahh, Vitality. His second skill, but it felt like the first real skill that he had chosen. It had made such a difference back then and was still carrying him with its huge bonuses to life and regeneration.

Choose an Augment for Vitality. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 3 Augments.

Your body thrums with a powerful vitality increasing both your life and life regeneration.

Heart of the Warrior

Your heart thrums with the might of the warrior.

Regenerate 3% of maximum life as life per second

Troll’s Blood

Your blood pulses with life.

24% more life regeneration

Titanic Vigor

Your flesh toughens, mimicking the endurance of Titans.

12% more life

Stalwart Bulwark

You stand firm against the powers that would see you fall.

Regenerate 3% of maximum life as life per second while stationary

Unity of Purpose

Those who have allied with you share a fraction of your indomitable vigor.

Vitality affects nearby allies with 50% less effect

Indomitable

To resist is to live.

150 added sap resistance

He had returned the augments to what they were before for the Leviathan hunt. Theoretically, he could switch back to Unity of Purpose for the big fight with the Hellbringer, but that depended a lot on the fight. If there was a lot of incidental damage that Chaeli couldn’t dodge, then it would make sense, but otherwise, he would be face to face with the Hellbringer and any extra bit of regeneration would go a long way to keeping him hale and healthy.

Pious Path (76% increased effect)

Walk along the path of the holy. If the path does not exist, create it yourself. While moving or stationary, consecrate the ground beneath your feet granting life regeneration to you and allies.

4.3m radius

Spreads at 1.76 m/s for four seconds on creation

71.4s duration

His second regeneration skill. Pious Path was the skill that summoned consecrated ground at his feet wherever he walked. The consecrated ground provided more regeneration than Vitality and had become a staple aspect of his build once he had met Chaeli and begun work in a party.

Choose an Augment for Pious Path. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 3 Augments.

Walk along the path of the holy. If the path does not exist, create it yourself.

While moving or stationary, consecrate the ground beneath your feet granting life regeneration to you and allies.

Militant Faith

Your faith burns every brighter, unchallenged by both blasphemers and undead alike.

Consecrated Ground grants you an additional 2.5% of maximum life as life per second

Radiant Faith

Your faith radiates with the power of your will, further enhancing any consecrated ground that you spread.

50% increased effect of Consecrated Ground

Inevitable Judgment

You find those who are lacking, and bring them to justice. Regardless of their might.

Consecrated Ground causes undead to take 15% more damage

Divine Aegis

To walk the path of the holy is to be protected from the unholy.

Consecrated Ground grants 8% less damage taken from undead

Ceaseless Crusade

The path of the holy never truly ends.

Consecrated Ground spreads at a rate of 1 m/s for 4 seconds upon creation

Righteous Providence

To believe is to take one step closer to the divine.

Consecrated Ground grants 100 curse resistance

Currently, he was rocking Militant and Radiant Faith as well as Ceaseless Crusade. The first two augments enhanced the skill far beyond its basic abilities, while Ceaseless Crusade made the skill spread far into the distance which was important for properly synergizing with Smoldering Embers. The only reason why he would change the augments up would be if the Hellbringer was an undead. Then you would be able to get either Divine Aegis, Inevitable Judgment, or both. They would provide tankiness, and damage respectively and would even apply to Chaeli since she would be standing on the consecrated ground herself.

Starfire Aegis

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

124.8 fire resistance

Deal 94.7 fire damage to melee attackers

Deal 499.5 fire damage per second to enemies within 4m while at full life

25% increased fire resistance

Starfire Aegis was his cape. It both reflected damage towards attackers when he got hit and massively increased his fire resistance. It was the sole reason that he had been able to challenge the fire biome while both underleveled and undergeared.

After augmenting it with Star Fuel, it had become his primary source of damage as well. Since Star fuel scaled off of his life regeneration it was synergized immensely well with his previous regeneration skills and allowed him to keep up with his damage. The only downside was that he had to be on full life for the damage to activate which made the high number not nearly as impressive in practice.

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

Maximum 3 Augments.

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

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

He had three skill points here as well. The first, and most important, was Star Fuel. Easily half his damage if not more, it was a staple in his build. The other two were valuable additions that increased his fire resistance.

He had briefly tried using Gravitational Center for some knockback resistance during the Leviathan hunt but had since reverted the change. Juggling Asphyxiation stacks was difficult but possible in short fights, and allowed him to abuse Rock Solid to gain 450 knockback resistance, at the cost of a small amount of health. Hellbringer would likely take longer, and depending on how powerful its blows where any additional knockback resistance might have been worthwhile.

Solar Flare and Coronal Mass Ejection were considerations if the Hellbringer had many ranged attacks, but the reflected damage was minimal at best, and the increased fire resistance was likely better.

Flame Dash :

Dissolve your very essence into flames, allowing you to blink to a location within line of sight while leaving behind a trail of fire that burns enemies who walk over it

4.9m maximum travel distance

2.6s cooldown

0.8s cast time

Burning ground does 93.4 fire damage per second

His first movement skill was Flame Dash. It allowed him to teleport to a nearby location after a short cast time. It had a long cooldown but had an Augment that could bypass the cooldown under specific circumstances.

It also left behind a trail of fire that technically counted as a ground effect. That meant that although he hadn’t used it liberally up until now, he should practice with the ability in the future and test out the limits of the interaction between it and Smoldering Embers.

Choose an Augment for Flame Dash. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 3 Augments.

Dissolve your very essence into flames, allowing you to blink to a location within line of sight while leaving behind a trail of fire that burns enemies who walk over it

Primal Familiarity

You become familiar with the process of transforming into a living spark.

Reduce the cast time of Flame Dash by 50%

Incendiary Resurgence

You grow resilient to the fatigue inherent to transforming your form.

Reduce the cooldown of Flame Dash by 50%

Arsonist

You are not satisfied by mere ignition. To be one with fire is to burn all

40% increased area of effect of fire skills

40% increased duration of fire skills

Fire Walker

Gain strength from standing among the flames

24% increased fire damage while standing on burning ground

You are unaffected by burning ground

Second Wind

If you have not used a movement skill in the last 4 seconds you may bypass the cast time and cooldown of Flash Dash.

Unchained Fire

Your flame resists containment.

150 slow resistance

He currently had allocated two augments, but that was simply because he had run out of Augments. During the Leviathan hunt, he had Primal Familiarity equipped for maximum speed. Incendiary resurgence was allocated for a similar reason. The only mandatory augment here was Second Wind which allowed him to get out of a sticky situation and was too valuable to give up.

Fire Walker was an option if he needed extra damage, and Unchained Fire would be good if the Hellbringer’s domain was a bog. Arsonist wasn’t great. Sure it would increase the range of Incinerate and Star Fuel, but both were large enough that he didn’t need additional coverage.

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 7.8% increased fire damage per 10 seconds affected by the chain

6.3m maximum range

1 Maximum chain

0.89s cast time

His second to last skill, was actually his least used one. It essentially allowed him to scale infinitely against tough opponents if he was able to stick close to them. He hadn’t found any hyper tough monsters yet, and even though the Leviathans were tough, most of the damage was done by Chaeli and he didn’t have the time to ramp the ability to its true potential.

Hopefully, the Hellbringer was slow and allowed Chilly to remain nearby so that he could find the true power of this skill.

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

He hadn’t chosen any augments yet, and hadn’t tested out the skill’s limits properly yet. Could he have two chains on a single enemy? Did that double the tick rate, or have no effect? All questions that he hadn’t figured out organically because he had used the skill a grand total of one time.

That didn’t mean that it wasn’t good. Inescapable Grasp and Cruel Bindings were a combination that could give him the edge in speed against the Hellbringer. Alternatively, Jailer’s patience in conjunction with Arsonist from before could double the range of the chain. If the Hellbringer’s domain was small, he might have enough range that the Hellbringer physically won’t be able to break the chain.

Either way bears testing.

Smoldering Embers:

The fire you wield changes the very nature of spells you leave behind.

Ground effects you leave behind deal 7.8%(127.5) of your maximum life per second to enemies as fire damage

138% increased duration of ground effects

138% increased area of ground effects

Ground effects spread at a rate of 1 m/s for 4 seconds upon creation

Ground effects can be applied to air and water

His newest skill fused with his ground effects and buffed them to deal damage as well as increasing their range and duration. With this skill, the duration of consecrated and burning ground was more than doubled with the augments.

It gave him another damaging aura that was relatively weak but at least it was on all the time. Either way, it was around a 20% increase in damage to Star Fuel as is, without even mentioning its other benefits. By increasing the range and spread rate of Pious Path, he was able to use the - purely healing - skill as an early detection system for stealth-based monsters. In a low-level zone like Avalan Ravine it wasn’t super useful, but once he began exploring new zones it would be an invaluable early warning system. The Wall Crawlers in the Tubes, for example, were able to ambush him outside of the range of Star Fuel, but there was no way that they could dash nearly twenty meters and assassinate him before Smoldering Embers broke their cover.

Choose an Augment for Smoldering Embers. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 3 Augments.

The fire you wield changes the very nature of spells you leave behind.

Fan the Flames

Embers inherent to your magic grow vigorous and smolder brighter.

Ground effects you leave behind deal an additional 6% of your maximum life per second to enemies

Thermal Accumulator

Embers in the ground empower other ground effects with their strength.

24% increased effect of ground effects

Incendiary Expansion

Your embers guide your magic outwards and increase its tenacity

60% increased duration of ground effects

60% increased area of ground effects

Ember Proliferation

The nature of the flame is to spread

Ground effects spread at a rate of 1 m/s for 4 seconds upon creation

Adaptable Embers

Now your magic is no longer limited by the bounds of the earth.

Ground effects can be applied to air and water

Aura of Rekindling

In every ember lies the potential of a phoenix.

Ground effects grant 10% increased life to allies

He currently had three augments allocated from the Leviathan hunt. All of them were focused on spreading the range of Consecrated ground as much as possible, which may not be the best choice for an actual bossfight. If the arena was small, it would be far better to take any of the other augments.

Fan the Flames was a solid choice for more damage, while both Thermal Accumulator and Aura of Rekindling were very powerful defensive augments. By increasing the power of Pious Path, Thermal Accumulator, indirectly acted as both a defensive and offensive augment. Since it simply granted generic increased effect, that meant that it also increased the spread rate of Pious Path and was a happy medium between damage, defense and utility.

Whatever he chose, it was evident that he was still new to using this skill and experimentation was in order to figure out its limits. For example, did Smoldering Embers count as a ground effect skill? Chilly suspected that it didn’t but if it did than Thermal Accumulator would be even better than expected.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

14

0/14

0

Fire

Life

Life Regeneration

1634/1634

587.64

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

158

61.24%

268

72.83%

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

Smoldering Embers

Mainhand:

Iron Kite Shield

???

Offhand:

Electrum Kite Shield

Chilly looked over his complete character sheet, and noted down the changes. His life and regeneration were as high as they had ever been, mostly due to the joint interaction of Vitality and Pious Path. His fire resistance was likewise naturally increasing, due to Starfire Aegis.

Hopefully he would get more armor before the Hellbringer fight, though it would be better to know the actual distribution of damage the boss dealt before rushing the gear choices. For all he knew it dealt cold damage.

Chilly chuckled idly and put away his sheet. He had made progress, but once again his level was outpacing his gear. It was annoying in a way, and actually kind of embarrassing that he was still wearing level five gear in some slots. Luckily, three sub-bosses needed killing.

Chilly grinned, and after saying hello to Sooty, set off into the Tubes.

The sub-bosses were laughably easy. He had nearly doubled his life and regeneration since last time, and his fire resistance had increased respectably. The Void’s Last Embrace had ripped itself apart on Starfire Aegis while barely being able to cause his life to flicker, while the Chrain simply fell over as its Living Embers fell moments after spawning.

The Juggernaut was more interesting, but likewise trivial. Chilly was pretty sure that he had enough damage now to kill it straight out, but used the time to play with Chains of Subjugation. It turns out that having two chains on a single enemy was both viable and ideal, as it doubled the tick rate of the skill. Or, more accurately, each chain applied a separate version of the debuff. Additional chains after the second would have less and less of an impact but as it stood, increasing the number of chains was a viable method of empowering the skill.

As a joke, he unallocated Star Fuel during the Juggernaut fight, and ran around the crazed golem until even the minuscule damage from Smoldering Embers was enough to cause cracks to appear in its armor. It fell soon after and revealed the bewildering poem carved into the vault door. Chilly spent a couple of minutes banging at it, burning it, and otherwise trying to open it, but nothing worked. He wasn’t even able to mark the bright steel in any meaningful way.

He did learn that touching the inside of the burning squares would leave behind a line of burning fire in the steel that would fade after a couple of minutes. It was as if someone had installed Photoshop on the bright steel and left the settings permanently stuck on the spray brush.

He played around with random images, but when nothing happened he returned to Sooty’s Hell to wait for Chaeli. When he arrived, he spoke briefly with Sooty, but didn’t talk for long. It was hard to speak through the penguins, and they seemed reluctant with their words regardless. Instead, Chilly lounged around but eventually went to take a walk through the Tubes when Sooty complained that Smoldering Embers was hurting him. Chilly tried to add Sooty to his party, but all it said was that Sooty was already part of a party and couldn’t join his own.

Chilly took a walk through the Tubes. Played around with some wall crawlers and tried to see how far he could lead them from their start position before they turned around and ran back.

He waited for hours, and still, Chaeli didn’t come. Eventually, a barely perceptible wave flashed by.

The dungeon had reset.

Chaeli was late.