“Right, y’all can’t decide.” Chilly said, hands on his hips. Before him the penguins gathered in heated clumps, each arguing vehemently for the skill they wanted to choose. “I’m going to vote then because I need this skill to continue.

Chilly pulled up the menu and after a moment's hesitation, selected Mutagenic Engine.

A distortion erupted from his feet, tinting the ground uranium-green. Without Ember Proliferation, the new ground effect didn’t spread and only covered a relatively small area around him.

He chuckled. At nearly six meters in every direction, the area beneath his feet was anything but small. Compared to Pious Path, however, it was practically minuscule.

He pulled up the list of augments.

Choose an Augment for Mutagenic Engine. Costs 1 skill point.

Maximum 4 Augments.

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%]

Artificial Selection

Choose the mutations induced until the perfect organism is created

Irradiated Earth you create grants an additional 5% increased resistances

Fragile Bonds

Destabilize elements with your will, spreading your contagion even further.

50% increased effect of Irradiated Earth

Accelerated Half-Life

Force change on the unwilling

Irradiated Earth reduces the duration of hostile spells and ground effects by 35%

Irradiated Earth increases the duration of allied spells and ground effects by 35%

Entropic Reversal

Entropy is neither good nor evil. It is the steady, inevitable loss of energy until no more remains.

Enemies gain 1 stack of Irradiated per 10 seconds standing on Irradiated Earth

[Irradiated: 2.5% less life regeneration per stack. 1m duration or until another stack is gained. Max 40 stacks.]

Volatile Transmission

Your plague spreads through air, water, and stone. All shall it corrupt

Irradiated Earth you create spreads at a rate of 1 m/s for 4 seconds upon creation

Quantum Connection

You've taken the first step in becoming the master of your domain.

You are aware of presences standing on Irradiated Earth you create

A quick scan revealed that the augments were surprisingly similar to what Pious Path offered though there were some notable exceptions. Quantum Connection was very interesting in its utility. An instinctive understanding of where enemies were was not directly powerful but would help him massively in situations where he was blind, or against stealthed enemies that could somehow survive his constant degen.

The second and perhaps more interesting augment was Entropic Reversal. It drew deep parallels with Chains of Subjugation in that it would allow him to challenge even hyper tanks if he fought them long enough.

A bit of quick math revealed that the augment would reach maximum potency after roughly six and a half minutes. A long time in the context of a fight, but most foes would be greatly hindered after they lost more than half of their regeneration as it stood.

The augment was strictly worse than Chains of Subjugation in that it only prevented regeneration and not flat recovery of life from skills or abilities. That meant that it would be ok against the Wendigos, but not amazing. He was fairly confident that when they ate a corpse, the recovery they received was a direct healing effect and not a regeneration effect. They still had some life regeneration, however, so it wouldn’t be completely useless against them. Just not massively powerful. Depending on how common direct healing effects were in the future, this augment could become a staple aspect of his build.

For now, he allocated Fragile Bonds for the 50% increased effect. It was the most immediately useful augment that he could spend his free skill point on, if not the most interesting. He was curious about Quantum Connection, but in the wide-open tundra of the Frozen Wastes, there was no real need for skill-empowered perception.

He pulled up his character sheet and considered his resistances.

Gregory “Chilly” Morhuil

Level

Exp

Skill Points

Spec

15

0/15

0

Baelfire

Life

Life Regeneration

2390/2390

745.2

Armor

Fire

Cold

Lightning

Chaos

234

70.06%

339

77.22%

61

37.89%

71

41.52%

0

0.00%

Incinerate

Helmet:

Living Steel Helmet

Vitality

Body Armor:

Aredrite Plate Vest

Pious Path

Pants:

Steel Tassets

Starfire Aegis

Boots:

Steel Boots

Flame Dash

Gloves:

Mantle Gauntlets

Chains of Subjugation

Jewelry:

Iron Ring

Smoldering Embers

Mainhand:

Living Steel Kite Shield

Mutagenic Engine

Offhand:

Electrum Kite Shield

His resistances had increased. A small but significant improvement. Every little bit helped, but there was another aspect of his new skill that was far more viscerally exciting.

Chilly approached a nearby group of Pistol Shrimp and couldn’t help but laugh when the moment they entered his domain, a venomous green miasma rose from the ground and visibly put cracks in their tough shells. A second later the entire pack of low leveled crustaceans burst into purple and black flame that was twice as intense as it used to be.

In seconds, the black embers eradicated the small cluster of shrimp. Corpses vanished to nothing as the dual ground effects powered the Smoldering Embers in the air to cleanse the entire area of anything hostile. Even the red crystal slowly sprouting from the water soon vanished as the purple flames consumed it completely.

Chilly grinned wide and cracked his neck. He turned in the direction that the Wendigo had disappeared in.

It was time to really start farming experience.

Chilly leaned down and fished out the essence of Steel the Pistol Shrimp had dropped into the pool of steaming water around the red crystal. The hot water was actually rather pleasant and he stayed there for a bit longer than was strictly necessary.

Behind him lay a zig-zag path of consecrated ground and irradiated earth that was steadily vanishing. He had worked hard to dodge as many low-leveled groups as he could in order to prevent the bosses from waking, but he had only partially succeeded. His radius was small enough that he could sneak past most groups, but the fact that the ground remained active for more than a minute after his passing meant that many roving bands of Wendigos accidentally walked over it and were subsequently annihilated by the baelfire.

As such Chilly spent most of his efforts culling the strongholds of red crystal in order to equalize the number of kills from either side as much as possible. Waking the bosses and having them rampage through the Wastes was not part of his plan.

There had been scant few level fifteen monsters to kill, so he had been forced to delve deeper and deeper into the Frozen Wastes. The farther he went the more high-leveled enemies there seemed to be, but still, the number of level fifteens was frustratingly low. For every ten monsters, only one of them was high enough to give him experience if that.

He took a brief drink of the boiling water and grimaced at the metallic taste. It wasn’t exactly spring water, but it did assuage his thirst.

Unfortunately, due to the complete lack of corpses, the first pangs of hunger had snuck up on him.

>

The damage over time was minimal, but it would eventually stack up and he would be forced to return to Teluria and pack food for future excursions. Until then, he would continue farming experience.

With a sigh, he sat down and rolled his shoulder. He had been fighting and traveling all day and the reset was nigh. It would be best to be well-rested for that.

“Warn if anything sneaks up on me, please.” Chilly asked the penguins, rolling over and closing his eyes.

The Jaws theme played loud and harsh in his ear. Blearily, he scrambled to his feet, then at the sound of rapidly approaching hooves, vanished in a flare of bright fire to give himself a little more space.

He spun to face the Named Wendigo and crouched low in preparation, but the monster had other ideas.

It slowed its charge and let out a sadistic chuckle, before loping slowly out of Chilly’s domain.

Chilly huffed, his heart pounding as he watched the monster retreat with wild eyes.

“What the hell, man.” he grumbled, turning to the penguins. “Thanks for the warning. Keep it up.”

The penguins nodded cheerfully, and he settled back down to sleep.

The Jaws theme shattered the quiet of the night, and Chilly vanished in a flare of bright fire to face the Wendigo.

The Wendigo paused its charge and with a gruesome smile, turned away.

“Coward!” Chilly shouted after it, struggling to rub the sleep from his eyes.

Reluctantly he settled back down to rest. It was a long time before he managed to calm his racing heart.

Chilly was on his feet in a second, knees bent and eyes wide before he even recognized the Jaws theme playing in his ear.

He screamed his rage and frustration, as Incinerate lit up the night in a plume of purple and black baelfire.

“Come on!” Chilly roared, his voice hoarse. “Fight me!”

The Wendigo showed its sharp teeth and retreated. Its beady little eyes, calculating.

Chilly snarled and sprinted after the beast. There was no way he was going to let it taunt him like this. Right now it was alone, and he would take it out while he had the chance.

A Flame Dash closed the distance greatly, as his domain rushed out before him. The Wendigo saw him and chuckled. Its strides lengthened, and a distinctive glimmer of a skill in action blurred its cloven hooves. In seconds it had doubled its pace. Chilly fell behind with every step, but with a snarl, he vanished in a flare of bright fire and closed the distance once more.

Purple Smoldering Embers lit up the Wendigo’s back as it once more doubled, then tripled its pace. Its digitigrade feet blurred over the frozen wasteland, shattering the thin ice as each step crashed through to gain purchase on the harder stone underneath.

Chilly slowed to a jog, then a walk, then a standstill as the Wendigo vanished into the night.

He slumped as dozens of different low-leveled Wendigo and Pistol Shrimp swarmed his position from his thoughtless flight. They all fell in seconds. None even managed to land a hit.

The Jaws theme woke Chilly for what felt like the millionth time.

He rolled over with a groan.

>

Chilly rubbed his tired eyes as he watched the Wendigo disappear into the night.

A wave of barely discernable distortion in the air passed over him as the dungeon reset. Monsters materialized all around and immediately combusted as they landed within Chilly’s domain.

He ignored them, casually dodging around an industrious level 11 Pistol Shrimp, as it quickly succumbed to his mish-mash of abilities.

>

He sighed, “Right, let’s get some more experience.”

The Jaws theme began to play like a klaxon horn in his ear. He sighed and straightened up.

This was the fourth engagement with the Named Wendigo and every time the creature had changed its strategy with hit and run tactics, ambushes, or straight up charges. Regardless of the overarching strategy the Named refused to engage in direct combat and always retreated with its forces before Chilly could inflict too great a toll. He had tried chasing, but whatever skill the Wendigo had used to escape him during the night, apparently applied to any minions under its control. On the press of a button, the Named could have its entire force vanish into the tundra, with Chilly floundering in its wake.

Once again he spotted the Named Wendigo silhouetted against the horizon. Its various minions arrayed around it.

Chilly cursed, then froze as a frighteningly familiar wave of purple miasma spread out from underneath the Wendigo’s feet. The wave spread forwards like a plague, consuming the intervening space and tinting the land a sickly hue. The moment the purple miasma touched Chilly’s outer domain a horrific clash of energies sparked. The holy glow over the land faded as crucifixes shattered. Purple miasma was consumed in a never-ending, silent battle as the two abilities fought each other for control over the ground.

Desecrated ground, Chilly’s eyes widened, and he gulped.

It made sense. The Wendigo had reached level seventeen. An odd level. Why wouldn’t it receive a skill?