Chilly went back to Rahlin’s tavern and collected a bag of supplies that the cheerful tavern keeper had so graciously prepared for him. It consisted of a rather unassuming bag, bursting at the seams with various dried meats, crackers, and lumps of stinky cheese that Chilly would have balked at before he had experienced starvation. A waterskin made out of some unidentifiable thick brown leather still smelling strongly of heavy animal musk was strapped to the side and a quick taste test revealed the water inside had absorbed some of the musty odor. On the other side of the pack, a thin rolled-up bedroll bulged ominously around a suspiciously thin string.

Chilly wasn’t complaining though. It was precisely what he needed if he was to stay in the Frozen Wastes and the Spires for an extended period of time. He briefly considered going to the Wyrm Tunnels but if the level of the Wyrms was any indication, it was likely better to farm the Spires for levels.

After collecting the pack, he wandered around the village for a bit, spending his time appreciating the scenery and smelling the roses as it were. He allowed himself this brief moment of respite before he had to once again embark deep into the Frozen Wastes.

The walkways sloped downwards along elegant catenary curves, and the subtle manner the housing melded with the spring environment evoked a sense of tranquility that soothed Chilly’s battle-scarred soul.

He didn’t stay long, however, and after a brief goodbye to Rahlin and the patrons of his bar, Chilly was off.

The Frozen Wastes were just as he remembered them. Full of roving bands of Wendigos and Pistol Shrimp protecting their red crystal monoliths with a frightful devotion. In a strange twisted way, returning to the war-torn tundra left Chilly feeling calm and confident. It was as if, despite the constant conflict, he felt more at home here than in the peaceful treetop paradise atop Mount Teluria.

Chilly chuckled wryly to himself as he blitzed his way across the Wastes.

The first band of Wendigos entered his domain and practically immolated in an instant. They barely had a second to recognize the supremely vicious purple and black embers spawned by the ground effects before they were engulfed in pillars of hungry fire. Screeches filled the tundra, as green miasma trickled up the soles of the hapless undead, further accentuating their plight.

In seconds, the entire pack vanished as the balefire consumed every last hair.

Chilly looked on in shock. He had known that his new gear was strong, but he hadn’t really appreciated just how much stronger it made him. He was nearly fifteen meters away from the spot where the Wendigos had immolated, and he had felt the heat all the way from here. Even the frozen wind couldn’t quell the raging bonfire. So hot and bright that despite knowing that it was his own skill, it brought with it a touch of fear.

Then the feeling passed and was replaced by a growing sense of pride.

He had done this. He had collected the skills, and the armor and now he not only could stand toe to toe with packs of monsters, but he could completely wipe them out before they could even approach. It was a delicious, freeing sensation that raised goosebumps all over Chilly’s armored forearms.

With a wide grin, he resumed his journey. Frozen tundra flickered by, as he jogged along. He took some care in choosing his path to avoid as many monsters as he could, but whenever avoiding conflict was impossible, or the detour to do so was too long, he obliterated all that stood in his way.

When Mount Teluria was beginning to fog with the distance behind him, the sound of the Jaws theme played mournfully across the Wastes. Chilly grinned savagely and continued his direction of travel as he searched the horizon for the telltale sign of the Wendigo taunting him from afar.

He spotted the beast and swerved his path to meet it directly.

A faint inkling of fear rose in him as he saw that the beast had gained another level and even more life. Despite his massive gains due to his recently upgraded gear, the monster still vastly outstripped him in the life department. It would be horrifying if the monster got a skill like Smoldering Embers on its next level up.

Still, Chilly was no slouch. A level and updated gear from Old Man Joe - which he was now realizing was a veteran and collector of high-quality armor - had more than doubled his life, and therefore his damage. If before he had only slightly struggled against packs of Wendigos then now he ripped through them like a hot knife through butter. The Named was tougher. It had more life, more damage, more levels, but at the end of the day, it was still just a Wendigo.

Chilly let out an excited yip as he Flame Dashed into the range of the Named. Consecrated Ground collided with Desecrated Ground in a hiss of pops and crackles. Irradiated Earth rushed past the zone of contention and slithered underneath the monster, spreading the Smoldering Embers and cloaking the undead deer in a mantle of purple flames. It hissed and lobbed two rocks in rapid succession at him.

Spoiler :

Chily grinned as they barely stung and sprinted forwards, intent on getting into range of Starfire Aegis to practically double his damage output.

A vice-like grip clamped down on his ankle and he careened forwards to smash face-first into the hard tundra.

Spoiler :

Shocked, Chilly tried to roll, but several more grasping Wendigos sunk their claws into him and shoved him forcefully into the cold dirt. He shot a glance back and saw a half dozen hands bursting out of the soil, like zombies from a movie, and strangling him in their grasp.

Ahead, the Named Wendigo bounded forwards with great big strides and lowered its head to point its wide horns directly at Chilly’s prone form.

His eyes widened, and he vanished in a flare of bright fire. Still using his traveling augments, Flame Dash was on an obscenely low cooldown. It created a path of burning fire behind him, which caused the grasping hands to burst into flames, as he was suddenly freed from the zombies' grasp. He appeared on his stomach and scrambled to his knees, just as several more rotted claws burst from the packed soil and clamped down on his limbs once more.

Spoiler :

He grimaced, more at the feeling and smell of putrid hands on him than any feelings of pain. His eyes snapped up, only to see the Named only a meter away with its horns glinting in the pale cerulean light.

Chilly had the presence of mind to notice and lurid red glow surrounding the antlers and faint wisps of silver around the Named cloven hooves before he was struck.

Spoiler :

The world spun oddly as he felt himself fly weightlessly through the air. The sky blurred with the ground as he felt an eruption of fluids from his throat. His head flew through the air and bounced twice on the hard ground, unnaturally propelled by a seemingly endless stream of blood.

The odd weightlessness faded as he felt his shoulders emerge from his neck in a burst of arterial effluvia. Arms burst out next, followed by his chest, stomach, pelvis, and legs.

In the time it took him to blink twice, his head catapulted off the ground as his entire body regenerated completely and he landed in a crouch.

Spoiler :

Over a dozen meters away he saw the remains of his old, decapitated body, slump and collapse as black fire vaporized it and the claws pinning it down.

I lived? Chilly thought, blinking rapidly, struggling to process what had just happened.

A huge grin spread across his face.

I lived!

He let out an exultant roar and raged to his feet.

“Is that the best you can do?” Chilly roared, his arms spread wide. “That barely tickled!”

The Named paced to the edge of Chilly’s domain, its beady eyes glinting.

“What? Can’t stand a little heat?” Chilly sneered, pacing towards the retreating figure. “Your little trap failed, and all your minions are dead! What are you going to do now, huh? Run?”

The Named opened its little mouth, a heartless chuckle escaping past its bloodstained teeth.

“Your little mind games don’t scare me,” Chilly said, Flame Dashing twice in rapid succession to close the distance completely. A ghostly chain materialized in front of him and wrapped tightly around the monster’s skeleton. Star Fuel ripped out and joined the Smoldering Embers eating at the Wendigo’s undead fur.

It snarled, finally taking visible damage, and lashed it in a lightning-quick twist of its broad horns.

Spoiler :

Chilly stumbled back in horror as a pillar of arterial blood erupted from where his left arm should have been. His life plummeted as his heart pulsed and flesh reformed before his eyes

Chilly ducked back, vanishing in a flare of bright fire and spreading burning ground at his feet.

.

Spoiler :

The chain connecting him to the Named shivered at the distance but stayed connected as it pulsed in a gleam of brilliant red.

The Named snarled again, letting out an animalistic bleat, as it spun, and blurred towards him. Before he could even properly materialize, the Wendigo’s glowing horns sliced right through his midsection.

Spoiler :

Chilly grunted and fell back, his life force leaking out from his waist as he vanished in another flare of bright fire to escape the Wendigo’s lightning-fast follow-up.

Spoiler :

Chilly rolled to his feet, and immediately rolled to the side, as his instincts blared. Stone and ice shattered behind him as the Wendigo slammed its horns into the ground at precisely the place where he had just been.

The ethereal chain between them pulsed a bright red.

Chilly glanced at his life and grinned wide when he saw that it was at full. He vanished in another flare of bright fire and turned to the Wendigo. It was in bad shape. Black fire licked up its emaciated frame, barely any visible flesh remaining over its yellowed skeleton. Cracks visibly crisscrossed over its bones, and the bright gleam that had been so visible in its eyes up until now was starting to fade.

“I’m two levels below you and still you can’t kill me.” Chilly taunted.

The Wendigo slowly stood, turning to face him.

“And while you fight me, you burn for every second you spend in my domain,” Chilly growled. “I only grow stronger the longer this lasts. This is over.”

The Named glanced down at the chain around it, watching with curiosity as it pulsed a bright crimson. Then with almost childlike curiosity, it took a leap backward, the chain snapping as the distance between them grew too great.

Chilly’s eyes narrowed. Pious Path was struggling against the Desecrated Ground around the Wendigo but Mutagenic Engine was still going strong. Even with only one ground effect beneath the monster, and without Chains of Subjugation the beast was still not able to heal its various wounds.

He took a step forwards, then burst into a sprint as he narrowed the distance with Flame Dash. Burning ground spread beneath him, only bolstering him further as sickly green smoke slithered up the Wendigo's toes, making it more vulnerable to the continuous burn that had surrounded it ever since it had entered Chilly’s domain.

A flash of silver coated its cloven hooves and it practically vanished in a blur of motion. Chilly blinked, struggling to follow its motion with his eyes, as it blurred out of his domain and onto the desolate expanse.

Chilly took several steps after it but paused. He wasn’t fast enough.

It paused when it was just a silhouette in the distance, turning back to him and staring for almost a full minute, then it turned and vanished amidst the battling groups.

Chilly huffed out a held breath, and let the grin he had been holding in, grow wide.

He had done it. Somehow, despite being several levels below the Named, he had managed to not only survive a direct encounter but also drive it hard enough that it was near death. He was still not fast enough to keep up with it, nor did he have any skill to lock it down but it was still a massive victory.

With a whoop of joy, Chilly continued his journey.

The wall turned out to be a massive bait. The last time he had stood before it, it had risen relatively high above his head, and had an army of creatures manning it. Now, it still had an army of creatures, but the wall itself was barely at chest height.

It took Chilly a couple of minutes to figure it out, but then it came to him. The dungeon reset. Of course! Every cycle, all the hard work that the monsters had done would be erased.

The thought had Chilly chuckling as he approached.

Fire rained from above, but it barely tickled as he casually jogged closer. With his augments still set for maximum coverage, his ground effects nearly spread for thirty meters in every direction. It was a third of the size of a soccer field and provided such a large buffer between Chilly and his enemies that most monsters were dead before they could even get within range.

The Pistol Shrimp manning the wall managed to squeak in more damage, mostly because of their ranged attacks, but in the end, they couldn’t hold a candle to his new life total. Each attack did roughly three hundred damage on average, and with fourteen hundred life recovered per second, he barely had to dodge in order to keep ahead of the swarm of projectiles.

Within the hour, every single monster manning the coast had been obliterated by Chilly’s merciless black flames. Not a single experience notification popped up, but there was still a sense of righteous satisfaction in dismantling what the Named had built.

Chilly stepped up to the edge of the cliff between the Frozen Wastes and the Spires. He looked down with trepidation. It was a sheer drop, slightly above the range of his domain, that led to a frothing surf. Ocean waves crashed mightily against the slate walls, pounding the side of the cliff face with monstrous levels of force. Further out, titanic waves rose to intimidating heights before crashing down and spawning floods of sea foam to hide the surface.

All it took was a glance for Chilly to identify several giant tentacles thrashing in the unsettled currents.

Chilly frowned. More Leviathans. This time, however, he didn’t have a smooth calm lake and Chaeli to draw them out and tackle them on dry land. If he recalled correctly they mostly just wailed blindly with their tentacles while being unbeatable while their main body remained undamaged. They were also above level fifteen, so they were technically adults. Which meant that they could be intelligent. Which meant that their behavior could change.

He would have to be cautious entering this zone.

Chilly narrowed his eyes, pondering the issue as he looked farther. The tall crystal spires rose from the raging surf, literal islands of peace in a storm. There were many crystal pillars scattered about, and most were close enough together that it would only take a couple of minutes of solid swimming plus Flame Dashing to get to the next one.

A quick glance revealed many alcoves tucked away in the base of the crystal pillars. Perfect locations that he would be able to teleport into and rest after each little burst of swimming. It was awfully convenient and triggered Chilly’s paranoia until he lifted his gaze to the very top of the crystal spire and saw a huge crab crouched on the red crystal.

The giant crab sported a modified shell with various flat walkways carved into it as if it was a monster initially designed to move troops around. Dozens of spikes jutted from its back with little pinpricks of brilliant fire burning at the tips. The two large pincers at its front were mammoth-sized and had several grotesque tentacles spilling out from the internal joint.

From its positioning, and what literally looked like gun emplacements along its back, the Hyperion Walker was likely the air support for the Leviathans below. Depending on the range, it was likely that at least three - and in some places up to seven - Walkers would be able to fire upon him as he swam between Spires.

Unlike the Pistol Shrimp who could only unleash a single burst of fire at a time, these walkers looked capable of proper bombardment, and with their high level, it was less likely that he could easily withstand a focused attack. Especially if multiple Walkers attacked him at once, while he was unable to actually dodge properly because he was swimming and being hurt by the Leviathans.

Climbing the spires and dealing with the Walkers was a possibility, but didn’t seem possible the more he examined the protruding pillars of crystal. The alcoves in the spires did extend up the towers but weren’t big, or well-positioned enough to allow for climbing the monstrous tower. It was enough for a short break, but from what he saw, he wouldn’t be able to Flame Dash from some of the alcoves which would leave him effectively trapped halfway up the spire.

Perhaps he could bring the Spires down somehow?

A question for tomorrow. For now, he would rest, eat, and recuperate. The dungeon reset should occur soon, and he wanted to be in his best condition for the tests he needed to conduct against the monsters in the Spires.

With a soft-ish bedroll beneath him, Chilly was soon out cold.

Chilly awoke, feeling refreshed, to the distant sound of a Pistol Shrimp immolating and the distant heat of a fire warming his back.

The Named hadn’t woken him during the night.

Chilly grinned, packing up his belongings, and turned with anticipation towards the sheer drop leading to the raging sea beneath the Spires.