He admitted to hearing voices...to the voices in his head. Does that mean something?

--Excerpt from Chaeli’s scout report

“As interesting as this discussion is, isn't it time to be moving on?” a penguin said, as it tapped its foot impatiently.

Chilly nodded to the new penguin amicably. “Yup, just need to figure out in what direction.”

Before him lay another circular chamber. It had a single level 4 Mrawll Warden in it which was barely worth mentioning, and two exits. One on the left, and one on the right. Both lead deeper into the Prison and it was impossible to tell which one if any led out.

Chilly stalked into the room and took care of the Mrawll Warden with copious amounts of fire. As the massive creature fell, Chilly sat down on the floor and continued to blast the corpse with Incinerate. Black billowing smoke rose from the remains as Incinerate consumed the grotesque flesh with wild abandon.

Chilly sat underneath the roiling smoke as he watched the creature get vaporized slowly. It reminded him a lot of using an acetylene torch back at home. Fire so hot that even steel couldn’t withstand it for long. Though technically, steel burned for a very different reason compared to a carbon based lifeform like the Mrawll. Ironically certain things like bread were surprisingly capable of surviving under acetylene for an impressive amount of time.

“I have a lightsaber and I’m cleaning up.” Chilly hummed in a sing-song.

“Thanks for the chapter!”

“Thanks for the chapter, Mr. Zevo. How are you on this fine day?” Chilly replied amicably.

“The table progenitor is said to have been the first table, and is not from this universe.”

“Excellent scouting soldier, we will get them yet.” Chilly saluted the little penguin smartly, “Can you find what universe that creature resides in, and we can go over there and give it a good thrashing. Perhaps after I’ve leveled up a bit.”

Lord zevo nodded emphatically before they disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The smoke clogged the upper reaches of the room, but it looked like there was little organic matter left of the Mrawll Warden. Chilly stood up but stayed hunched over to stay beneath the smoke cloud. He collected a single Essence of Azurite from the pile of black ash and quickly escaped from the smoke choked room. Eventually the black miasma would fall, but until then it would be unpleasant to remain.

Chilly rushed to the left hand exit to the room just as a penguin walked out.

It held Realm Walker up as if it was probing the air for something.

“Log Fringe tee-dee-tee number oh-one. Entry one.” The penguin paused and turned to Chilly. “Thanks for the chapter.”

Chilly tipped an imaginary hat to the penguin researcher.

“It seems like this world is drifting...” NM Stormraider trailed off as Realm Walker transformed into a far more alien looking probe. Little pulses of light emanated out of it that disappeared into the cloud of black smoke.

Chilly left the penguin to it. If the penguin was going to be whipping out alien probes, he would come say hi after they were done.

The hallway abruptly ended in another T-intersection. Chilly growled in annoyance and turned left. Left seemed to work, he had no way of telling whether it was an inferior direction to travel.

The hallway twisted and turned but eventually popped out into a large circular mess hall. Nearly identical to the previous mess hall that Chilly had found, it contained four long benches made of stone with manacles embedded deep into their surface.

What tipped him off that it was a different room, and he hadn’t somehow gotten turned around, was that there were three exits to the room. Two on the far side, and one rusty iron door blocking the right.

Like the previous mess hall, several Mrawll paced the room.

It was a fight that was bigger than anything he had taken on up until this point. Theoretically doable, but not with the Warden in the picture. Combined with the Mage’s spike based lockdown, it would be the end of him if he just charged in.

That wasn’t even mentioning the Keeper who had as yet unknown attack patterns.

Chilly looked back down the way he came.

No reason not to use the long winding tunnel for some good old fashioned monster killing.

“Ahem,” a polite penguin coughed behind him.

“Hey! You’re back,” Chilly smiled, and rushed over to give the cuddly creature a hug. “Thanks for the chapter!”

The penguin looked decidedly miffed despite not having been touched by Chilly at all. It cleared its throat and donned a set of wood spectacles. It mimed opening a book and squinted at the invisible pages.

“‘He has invested almost entirely into life regeneration. Likely a symptom of the madness.’” Mr. Hugs said seriously, “An excerpt from Chaeli’s scout report.”

Chilly cocked his head curiously. Chaeli sounded like a girl's name. Potentially even a girl in this dungeon. Exciting! Hey, wait. Wasn’t the rest of that quote a little disparaging? He wasn’t crazy. He would know if he was.

Obviously.

“An interesting future you know? Sadly I can’t see the future-future, and by the time I could talk about the present-future it would already be the past-future.”

Chilly held up several fingers as he tried to compute what had just been said.

“That...makes sense, I suppose,” Chilly said slowly. “I think most people have that trouble, Mr. penguin. Would you like a hug to make it better?”

Mr. Hugs grimaced, but eventually relented, giving Chilly a nice fuzzy hug. It was a little disappointing that Chilly couldn’t run his fingers through the penguin’s fur, but such was life. It was the thought that really counted in these things anyhow. The penguin constantly tried to wrap it’s flippers around him, but they weren’t long enough. How cute.

“Is your name Chaeli?” Chilly asked the penguin after they had concluded the hug.

Suddenly a rock clattered from inside the room. The Mrawll grunted and raised their weapons as their beady little eyes roved the room. It didn’t take them long before they spotted Chilly only mostly hidden deep in the side tunnel.

It seemed impossible that they had spotted him so quickly. He was stealthy. It definitely didn’t have anything to do with the circle of glowing crucifixes lazily floating up from the consecrated ground at his feet. Couldn’t be.

“Ah hell, I guess we’re doing this!” Chilly cried, and enacted his half baked plan.

The penguins scattered to the sidelines as he jumped to his feet and began running back down the tunnel. Several stone spikes erupted from underneath his feet, dealing minor damage but didn’t hinder his pace all that much.

Spoiler :

He rounded a bend just as the earth shook to the tune of the Warden’s feet pounding after him. He shot a look behind him, and nearly tripped as he saw that the Warden had changed drastically. Thick pulsing red veins stood out prominently over the monster's skin. Clearly it buffed the monster, because it was running after him at breakneck speeds. Far faster than any previous Warden had ever moved.

Chilly focused on sprinting, but the moment he reached another bend in the tunnel, he turned around and blasted the rampaging beast with a face full of Incinerate.

Fire roared through the tunnel, lighting up the narrow hallway with copious quantities of light. The Warden roared and raised its club high. Unlike before it didn’t bother to slow down before it slammed it with all its force onto Chilly.

Chilly leapt out of the way, but the timing was off due to the Warden’s faster movement. A wave of force blasted out from the landing position and launched Chilly even farther into the tunnel.

Spoiler :

Chilly rolled back to his feet as he blearily reoriented. He restarted channeling Incinerate at the burning beast, as his prodigious life regeneration patched him up. Harsh shadows played along the wall as the Warden strained against invisible restraints to pull the club back over its head.

“One-mississippi, two-mississipi,” Chilly counted grimly, then shook his head as the Warden recovered from the colossal blow far faster than was usual.

The Warden recovered and lifted its club over its head for round two just as the two Mrawll Keepers burst down the hallway and screeched like cretaceous era raptors.

Chilly winced, but held his ground. He would just have to hope that the keepers didn’t have some obtusely strong blow like the Warden. At least he had his two trusty shields in hand. Hopefully they would help minimize what was coming next.

All three monsters charged him through the roaring flames. Their flesh sizzled and burned, before igniting for even more fire damage. They ignored the flames as red veins pulsed under their skin, charging forwards blindly.

Clearly some kind of berserker serum.

Without any time to consider, Chilly dropped Incinerate and prepared to leap back. Before he could move however, both Keepers dashed forwards frighteningly fast and impaled him on spikes that materialized at the ends of their freakishly long arms.

Spoiler : Forgive me I haven’t gotten around to making icons for this yet

You have been Hindered with 25% increased effect!

You have been Hindered with 50% increased effect!

Chilly grunted at the two blows then preemptively winced and didn’t even try dodging the gigantic slam coming from the Warden.

Spoiler :

Chilly spun through the air and skidded off the far wall. He crashed into the ground and groaned as he rolled to a stop. Before he could even form a coherent thought, two flashes of pain erupted from his back and thigh.

Spoiler :

You have been Hindered with 75% increased effect

You have been Hindered with 100% increased effect

Chilly grunted as he felt his muscles lock up under the powerful hinder. At 100% increased effect it was slowing him by a whopping 60%. That was fast approaching full on stun territory that channeling induced. The pain itself was negligible and his life was already regenerating nicely.

He rolled onto his back and blasted both creatures with a concentrated dose of fire.

The Keepers shielded their eyes under the scorching heat, but then instead of lunging in for a third time, they raised their spindly arms high. Chilly grunted as all four spikes that had become embedded in his body suddenly ripped out with a sickening squelch, and fused with the fan of bone spikes on the Keeper’s back.

Spoiler : Forgive me, I have not made an icon for this either. He is taking the bleeding damage though, so no worries.

You are Bleeding

You take physical damage over time in proportion to the damage of the initial hit

Chilly glanced at his status, and grimaced as he realized that getting the spikes pulled out of him hadn’t cleansed him of the ridiculously powerful hinder effect.

Suddenly ash fell into his mouth and he sputtered, as both Mrawll Keepers collapsed on top of him. He had gotten so used to channeling Incinerate that he hadn’t noticed the insanely hot flames overwhelm the two Keepers.

He shifted Incinerate onto the Mrawll Warden, only to grimace in resignation at the already falling club.

Spoiler :

Chilly went flying but there wasn’t much he could do about it. The combined slow of Hinder and channeling meant that dodging was out of the question. He waited impatiently as the world stopped spinning and then rose shakily to his feet as he tried to figure out what was up and what was down.

Spoiler :

Chilly grunted in annoyance as several stone spikes erupted out of the ground and messed with his balance. He ignored them and turned to the two level 4 Mages that had rounded the corner. With no small amount of vindication he unleashed Incinerate down the hallway.

The two robed Mrawll burst into flames as their clothing caught fire. In response they sent several more spikes Chilly’s way, then raised their staves in unison, causing a circle of spikes to erupt out of the ground and impale Chilly through the abdomen.

Spoiler :

Chilly frowned down at the obstruction, then back up to the Warden who had just finished resetting its club cooldown.

Chilly sighed.

Spoiler :

Chilly closed his eyes and tried to enjoy the flight as he watched his life regenerate in real time. Eventually gravity reasserted itself and Chilly slammed head first into the stone floor. Chilly grimaced as he felt something in his neck pop. A second later it popped right back into position.

Chilly leaned up against the wall, not even bothering to get up. The enhanced Hinder was too strong to allow for comfortable movement. There wasn’t much of a point either. The Mrawll were burnt to the point where it didn’t look like they would last even another second or two under Incinerate’s gaze.

Chilly trained the spell on the Mrawll, as he sat leaning up against the wall and wasn’t disappointed. Both Mages collapsed practically immediately into smoking piles of ash, and the Warden joined them moments later.

Chilly dropped Incinerate, as he stared at the bodies with bemusement.

Several penguins emerged from the corners and began cheering excitedly. A few clumsy members accidentally dropped their swords only to vanish in puffs of black smoke that melded seamlessly with the miasma flowing off of the Mrawll’s bodies.

“Thank you thank you,” Chilly murmured sarcastically. “I do so enjoy playing the football.”

Chilly levered himself to his feet and walked around the bodies into the main chamber. He would loot them later, but for now he just kinda wanted to get out of the smoke. Naturally he avoided the tables and simply sat leaning against one of the walls as he rested.

Chilly turned to face the small penguin who had approached him so shyly.

“What can I do for you?”

“Tell Chaeli, use their name directly for best results, that we are not penguins. We are royal penguins.” Sabbes the penguin said quietly. Then it seemed to gather its courage and gestured emphatically, “Say this out loud a couple of times in different places and they’re sure to get the message.”

“Message?” Chilly parroted. He was too tired to figure out what exactly the penguin was scheming. This was the second penguin who had mentioned Chaeli. Whatever. He would figure it out later.

“Hey Chaeli!” Chilly called out into the empty room. “What’s up? Good, that’s nice. I wanted to tell you that there is a difference between penguins and royal penguins. Royal penguins get insulted when you don’t give them proper respect.”

Chilly leaned forwards towards the fluffy penguin and whispered, “is that good?”

Sabbes nodded happily, then seemed to remember something, “Also say how can you be mad? You haven’t even suffered enough asphyxiation to get whispers or visions of madness.”

The penguin twiddled its little flippers and said in a much softer voice, “Though once you get enough life regen you should experience them at least once, I think.”

Chilly nodded then raised his arm high. Oddly he saw a stone clatter at the edge of his vision. There wasn’t anything there though when he looked closer, though.

“Actually, one more thing. I’m not mad. You would think I would know it if I was. Besides, I haven’t even suffered enough asphyxiation to get whispers or visions of madness yet.”

Chilly waited for a couple seconds. He could almost hear the crickets chirp in the silence. Must be the constant head injuries he had been receiving recently.

“Thanks for the chapter!” Sabbes the penguin smiled at a part of the wall with pure glee in its little eyes.

Chilly glanced that way too, but only saw bare stone. Whatever the penguin was looking at wasn’t something he could see. He nodded at the penguin, resolving to think harder about it after he got some sleep. “Thanks for the chapter to you as well Mr. penguin.”

Sabbes vanished in a puff of smoke, only for the smoke to get rapidly dissipated by an angry looking NickXenix.

“Hug the plushie.” It stated, holding out a wooden plushie at arm's length.

“Huh?” Chilly replied. It had been a long day, it really was hard to follow the rapidly diverging trains of the thoughts of the penguins.

“Hug the plushie!” NickXenix insisted aggressively, shoving the plushie closer.

Chilly was about to acquiesce for no other reason then to satisfy the fuzzy wuzzy, but suddenly another rock clattered from behind somewhere. Chilly glanced up but didn’t see anything in particular. It was super strange that the rocks here moved so much. None of the other rooms had as much noise.

NickXenix however seemed to grow enraged by the sound. Thunderclouds descended over NickXenix’s cuddly face, as it hunched its shoulders into a predatory stance. The penguin rapidly shifted the wooden plushie to a vicious looking dagger and charged towards the far wall.

“HUG THE PLUSHIE!” It screamed, waving its dagger menacingly at the air. Abruptly it veered to the side and took a wide circuit around the room, then sprinted down the far tunnel as if chasing something with all its little might.

Chilly blinked owlishly after the penguin.

“What was that about?” Chilly whispered to a nearby penguin. The penguin simply grinned at him, and puffed into a cloud of smoke.