Rahlin stepped out of the meeting hall and let out a low groan. His shoulders ached from sitting in the tiny little chairs that Temma had built for the occasion when the village had first come together. Her fragile ego promised swift retribution should anyone complain so that the tiny, painful, chairs remained. He stretched, feeling joints pop, as another stepped up beside him.

Gar-Khan looked as implacable as always. More a condition of his race than any natural stoicism; the Yawm were one of the less emotional races living on the southwest continent. His mane of purple tendrils waved placidly in the frigid wind buffeting the village.

With Ria dead, the barrier protecting the village from the harsh elements on the outside was gone. It was at most a minor inconvenience, as the dungeon reset would resurrect the guardian and bring back the protection. Unfortunately, the beast that had killed Ria, had failed to kill Tel, and so the frigid wind was worse than normal. Everyone was making doubly sure not to descend from the boughs of the trees.

“Ever wonder if we made a mistake with all this?” Rahlin said, scanning the ice-laden Wastes with pensive eyes.

“Mistakes are a part of living, my dear friend. It would be unnatural not to make mistakes, for without them there is no chance for growth, change, or blooming of fresh ideas.” Gar-Khan replied in his typical manner.

Rahlin snorted. He had forgotten who he was speaking to for a moment. Even after all these years, the Yawm’s platitudes surprised him. Eager to change the subject, he fished the little purple worm from a pocket and passed it over to the purple Yawm. The worm wriggled a little, then fused with Gar-Khan’s skin and became one with the forest of wriggling tendrils.

“You’re spying with your hairs again,” Rahlin said with a cheeky grin. “He must have really impressed you.”

“He is mad.” Gar-Khan stated. Then, as if a thought had just come to him, he turned his massive shoulder eye on the stout Dragonborn at his side. “You sent him out into the Wastes to die.”

A flicker of fire burst out of Rahlin’s nose. “I didn’t bloody well know there was a Named one roaming ‘bout, did I?”

“That changes nothing. Alone, unattended, and unchaperoned, the beast will fall on him while he rests. He will die.”

Rahlin clenched a meaty fist, his skill briefly flaring and turning the surface of his dragon scales as hard as adamant. “Who knows, maybe he will surprise us.”

A ripple of surprise fluttered over the Yawm’s forest of tendrils. “You believe in him.” He asked it almost like a question.

“Aye, I do.” Rahlin said, pulling out a flask, and taking a quick sip. “The bloody squirt went from level one to fourteen in less than a month. That’s faster than Archon did and you know it.”

“Archon is dead.”

“And if Archon was alive, I would be with my wife and the Desecrator would be nothing but a bag of bones by now. Burnt and broken bones.”

“It would.” Gar-Khan agreed, turning to scan the Frozen Wastes with his primary eye. “If the boy returns, do you want me to block his return to the Wastes?”

“You never did learn when to get out of your own damn way.” Rahlin chuckled. “If the boy returns it means that he can survive out there with a Named being chasing his tail. If he returns, then get out of his damn way.”

Gar-Khan grunted, his eye drifting closed. “He’s human.”

“One human.”

“The Accords won’t be happy.”

“Accords ain’t here. If we get out of this hell hole, we can worry about them then.”

Gar-Khan grunted, turning away. “I shall go and bribe Old Man Joe.”

Rahlin nodded, “Tell him free drinks at my tavern for the duration.”

“Every three levels you think?”

“Better go with two.” Rahlin grinned. “I have a good feeling about this.”

“Which one of you bloody baboons thought that this was a good idea!” Chilly roared, sprinting away from a pack of around thirty pistol shrimp, as a frigid wind buffeted him. He had managed to anger them at the behest of the penguins and was now regretting his actions as the flaming projectiles that they launched forced him to retreat. His fire resistance was absurdly high, but even he couldn't withstand the combined assault of thirty, level eleven to fifteen monsters.

“Fire.” Mr. Warmage contemplated the charging crustaceans. “Going to need lots of fire.”

“Working on it,” Chilly grunted, intentionally slowing down, before using Flame Dash to recoup the distance lost, while leaving behind a trail of fire that the crustaceans walked over. They fell in droves, but the pack had several higher leveled shrimp that led the pack in a frothing fervor.

A penguin materialized on a wooden mech at his side. “Speak with the summer spirit!” It hefted a wooden bolter and began unleashing ethereal bullets at the veritable army of charging crustaceans.

“I would, but SOMEONE killed her before I could get a word in edgewise.” Chilly screamed, vanishing in another flare of bright fire as a level fourteen in the pack of shrimp unleashed a charged spurt of fire at him.

Behind him, a trail of consecrated ground ate at the monster’s life pools. The shrimp fell one by one until only a few higher leveled shrimp remained. Unlike the Wendigos, the Pistol Shrimp didn’t eat their dead to regain life, though they compensated for that by being naturally tougher and more resistant to fire damage.

With only a few Pistol Shrimp on his tail, Chilly pivoted into range and unleashed a streamer of plasma and fire at the scalded crustaceans. They clicked their claws angrily, shooting bursts of fire at him—

[pistol shrimp dual fire attack]

—but under the combined assault of Incinerate, Star Fuel, and Smoldering Embers they succumbed and fell lifeless to the cold ground..

Quickly after the death of Ria, he had left the village to farm the Frozen Wastes. He had barely waited to trade some of his essences for Regrets before rushing off. The Named Wendigo had gained another level and more than a thousand life since last he saw it. It had managed to sneak into the village and kill the guardian, who Chilly knew from experience wasn’t a pushover.

If Chilly didn’t go back out there and start gaining levels again, he would be so far behind that he wouldn’t be able to ever catch up.

And so with more determination than he had ever had before, Chilly had gone deep into the Frozen Wastes to actively search and hunt for high-leveled enemies. Instead of following the mountain range, he had embarked directly perpendicular to the mountain range, in the hopes that going deeper into the zone would yield more favorable results. He had been only slightly correct. There was more level fourteen monsters, and even a couple of level fifteen monsters but the most drastic difference was that the distribution of monsters changed. Near the mountains and the Wyrm Tunnels, Wendigos ruled. Here out in the middle of the Wastes, the quantity and size of the red crystals increased until three of every four monsters were crustaceans. Hordes of enemies fell before him as he dodged around them, and let his Smoldering Embers chew up their life pools.

He made some effort to not cull too many of one species as he rampaged through the zone. Low-level chaff fell like wheat to the scythe around him, but it would be bad if he accidentally drew the bosses out of their slumber. The shrimp were fairly easy to kill as long as he kept his distance and dodged their fiery projectiles, while the Wendigos often required a more personal touch as just letting them eat their friends to grow stronger was no longer an option.

Just then the sound of the Jaws theme began to play. Chilly’s head snapped up until he spotted a distant hunched Wendigo watching him from the distance.

“Murder is always an option you should consider.”

Chilly growled, “It’s been on my mind, yes.”

“We fight living and dead, Ghost Division!”

Chilly smiled at the penguins, then set out to retrace his steps and burn all the bodies he had left in his wake to ash. As he walked, he reviewed his notifications.

This was one of the big benefits of getting to level fifteen. Now with four possible augments per skill, he would be able to specialize even more in a given playstyle. He was severely lacking in skill points, but that would come as he leveled more.

He dismissed the notification and then reviewed the next one.

Choose from one of the following paths to proceed:

Physical

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

Well then. Chilly smiled. This was what all the villagers had been harping on about. Reaching adulthood was a real, system-recognized, event in this world. An event that wasn't just a meaningless title.

He remembered this specific notification box from the early days. Before he had even gotten his first skill the system had asked him to choose a specialization. He had chosen fire back then, primarily because he had been stuck in a pitch-black cave, and it had affected every skill option he had received since. Since then he had vastly improved, and no longer was limited by the dark. If he would have to redo the choice he likely would have chosen chaos. But that was just hindsight talking. Without light, there was no telling how he would have fared against the skeletons and ghouls of those early zones. It would have been rough, even if the enemies had very low resistances to his damage type.

Now though, that he had leveled significantly, and was no longer limited by light, the choice was obvious. Physical damage was super common, but so was armor. Cold and Lightning were like Fire. They were less common than Physical but getting high resistance in those elements was possible. He had yet to encounter a lightning-based enemy, but he saw no reason why it would be special. Or, more special than chaos.

Chaos on the other hand was the superior element by far. It was no surprise that the leader of Teluria dealt primarily chaos damage. From Chilly’s experience, it was practically impossible to gain resistance against the element. In all his adventures he had only found a single piece of gear that implicitly provided chaos resistance, and the amount was pathetic in the grand scheme of things. Even worse, he had never encountered an item modifier that provided chaos resistance. While he wasn’t constantly crafting, he would have expected at least a couple of instances of chaos resistance by now. All that meant that dealing chaos damage was a massive benefit as it practically bypassed resistances.

“The worms shall be your guide.”

Chilly nodded to the penguin. That clinched it. Gar-Khan was covered in worms, so that likely meant that the penguins’ agreed with his choice. Chaos damage was the way to go.

Chilly shivered as a profound change washed over him. His insides suddenly felt like they were shifting. Moving inside him like they couldn’t stand staying still. His cape dimmed, then instead of the bright orange and yellow plasma, a dark purple-black miasma clouded the supple material.

He flickered Incinerate on and noticed that the skill had also changed from the racial evolution. Sinister, purple-black flames erupted in a column from his outstretched palm, quickly eating through the corpses at his feet at a significantly faster clip than his fire had ever done beforehand. Instead of leaving ash, however, the fire consumed the corpses entirely, even eating into the ground beneath and leaving not a trace behind.

Chilly quickly pulled up the Incinerate’s tooltip and smiled as he saw the changes reflected.

Incinerate

Unleash a beam of fire that burns enemies that it touches. The beam dissipates after 6.4m

Deals 476.9 Fire damage per second

Deals 47.9 Chaos damage per second

Channeling

It didn’t look like much, but it granted 10% more damage to all of his abilities straight up. In addition, it was chaos damage which meant that in reality it would be more than 10% increased damage. If the enemy had 100 fire resistance and 0 chaos then his ability would deal roughly 250 fire damage, but 50 chaos damage. A 20% boost in actual damage.

That wasn’t even mentioning the corpse destruction effect. He hadn’t met many monsters that did something on death, but at the very least this would help prevent the Putrid Ghouls from leaving the desecrated ground at their feet upon their death.

An idea popped into his mind, and he quickly rushed to the side and engaged a couple of low-level Wendigos. They fell quickly and to his delight, their corpses burned to nothing the moment they died. Essences fell out of the air and bounced on the rugged, frozen ground. Not only would Baelfire prevent the Wendigo from benefiting from the corpses he left in his wake, but it would also make collecting essences from bodies infinitely easier.

Chilly quickly confirmed that the new racial ability applied to Smoldering Embers, which dealt damage based on his maximum health.

Smoldering Embers :

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

Ground effects you leave behind deal 13.7%(327.4) of your maximum life per second to enemies as fire damage

Ground effects you leave behind deal 1.37%(32.7) of your maximum life per second to enemies as chaos damage

79% increased duration of ground effects

79% increased area of ground effects

It looked like all fire damage he dealt, regardless of how the damage was calculated, would gain the boost after all his increased stats applied. That meant that getting 10% increased fire damage would actually apply to the chaos damage provided by his race. He was essentially double-dipping into the stat.

Elated, Chilly pulled up his next notification.

Mutagenic Engine:

You have embraced the endless, ever-changing void, becoming an agent of chaos as you spread mutagens into the ground and your foes.

While moving or stationary, create Irradiated Earth beneath your feet.

[Irradiated Earth reduces all resistances of enemies by 10%, and increases all ally resistances by 10%]

2m radius

30s duration

Another ground effect spreading ability. This was excellent. It looked like it worked precisely like Pious Path, which meant that not only did he have a good idea of what augments the ability would have, but it would also work with Smoldering Embers beautifully. Even if the skill provided no immediate effect, it would still grant him another 8% of his maximum life as fire damage to enemies within his domain.

It did have an effect, however. Irradiated Earth reduced enemy resistances and increased ally resistances. That was an incredible offensive and defensive boost that would help him take out hyper-tough enemies like the Wendigo and the other bosses.

In addition, it increased his own resistances slightly across the board. Considering that he was already low on cold resistances, this would be a welcome addition. Since the ability was generic, it would also help him later down the road when he fought lightning or chaos creatures. He had just thought about the benefits of getting chaos resistance, and this skill provided it.

The best part was that this skill also applied to any allies he gained along the way. True, he hadn’t actually made a party yet, but if he managed to pass Rahlin’s test, then he was sure that he would be drowning in allies. At the very least he was sure that he would be able to convince Rahlin to join up.

Augments for this skill likely included a way for the ground to spread, increasing the amount of resistances increased, and reducing enemy resistances further. Something that could perhaps slow enemies down, or make them deal less damage were also possibilities here.

A strong start, but Chilly moved on to the next skill.

Wildfire Source:

Sinking deeper into the grasp of immolation, your very presence scorches the ground beneath your feet.

While moving or stationary, create Scorched Earth beneath your feet.

[Scorched Earth applies the Scorched status ailment to enemies, increasing fire damage taken by 20%]

2m radius

30s duration

Chilly raised an eyebrow in surprise. When he had asked the penguins to help him focus his build down, he hadn’t really expected it to work, but now he was being offered two ground effect skills at the same time.

Once again, Wildfire Source looked identical to Pious Path, which he already knew fit in well with his build. The consideration here then was did he prefer 20% increased damage dealt to enemies, or did he prefer 10% increased damage, and 10% reduced damage taken. Unfortunately, the increase in damage would likely not apply to his racial chaos damage because the Scorched status effect made enemies take 20% more fire damage. It didn’t increase his fire damage by 20%. A shame, but it would still be very good.

He was already very tanky and had been running up against a damage wall ever since the Juggernaut in the fire domain, so there was a good argument for focusing on damage for this skill upgrade.

On the other hand, Smoldering Embers would be getting a massive boost in damage from his acquisition of this skill. He would be fighting really tough enemies in the future, and every little bit of defense would be worthwhile. There was always a huge danger of getting one shot, and scorched earth did nothing to prevent that. On the other hand, if this skill had an augment that increased area of effect then he could really specialize and increase his area to thirty or more meters than he could simply kill anything that got near him before it managed to hit him.

He was still tanky, so it wasn’t like he was turning into a glass cannon with this skill, but it was still wise to consider all the options.

Aberrant Cadence:

Your passage burns the very fabric of the time-space continuum, distorting it to your will.

While moving or stationary, create Timewarped Terrain beneath your feet.

[Timewarped Terrain reduces the action speed of enemies by 10%, and increases the action speed of allies by 10%]

2m radius

30s duration

Chilly let out an amused chuckle. The penguins had really gone all out with the skills this time. It looked like he had three ground effect skills. All of them spread a ground effect at his feet, the only choice he had was what ground effect would be best.

Irradiated Earth and Scorched Earth were both powerful, but Timewarped Terrain was interesting. It didn’t directly increase his damage or resistances, but it would make it far easier to dodge abilities and chase after enemies. It tangentially synergized with Chains of Subjugation because he was sure that the slow would stack with the hinder applied by Inescapable Grasp. With the right augments and supporting skills he would be able to slow enemies down to a crawl, and dance around them with Flame Dash while he slowly whittled them down with Smoldering Embers and Starfire Aegis.

He ran the risk of running into an enemy he could damage at all; like the Juggernaut in the fire biome. It was possible, but again, Smoldering Embers would become vastly empowered with this skill anyway. Was that enough damage? Or did monsters grow so powerful in higher levels that he would need all the damage he could get or else he would hit a soft cap?

He didn’t know, so with an expectant smile, he turned to the penguins and showed them the system boxes.