Frostbitten Wayfarer

That went well, Zoe thought. She wondered if she should tell Rizick as well, but decided against it. She liked Rizick but he had his own thing and was leaving soon anyway. She did wonder if it was even necessary to keep it a secret at all again, though. Would anybody be upset? Joe didn’t seem to mind at all, would other people?

She made her way to the northern gate and left the town, following the trail through the snow to where she gathered her first bag of klir. She wandered in a circle, gathering klir as she went and staying a little closer to the road than the first time.

The next few hours were spent in quiet contemplation, gathering the magical leaves and stuffing them in her bag.

Winter was next week. She thought about whether she should get the winter’s master feat. It seemed easy enough if she could just stay in town on the streets. With her new vampyric body, sleep wasn’t necessary anyway so she could just wander around. Maybe find a cave to call home for the winter and work on some resistances.

*Ding* You have unlocked the Gathering skill.

As soon as the notification popped up, she felt the process become a little easier. Each leaf being a little bit more visible, the stems holding them on a little easier to snap. It was nothing groundbreaking, but she enjoyed the feeling of improvement for a while.

She filled her bag and trudged through the snow back to town. As she strolled down the road to Liz’s Festering Feelings she looked around at the people, looking for homeless people again. She figured if there were homeless people, she might be able to join them for a few months and get the winter’s master feat. She wondered how many homeless people already had plenty of feats just for living a harder life.

All she saw, though, were some people walking down alleyways and roads, people that looked poorer but the roads she saw were all clean. There weren’t tents sent up on the outskirts, bedrolls and foodstuffs cluttering the alleyways.

She made a note to ask Joe about it later. Maybe she was just in wealthier areas, but the only homeless people she’d ever seen were herself and Rizick. Zoe walked up to Liz’s shop and opened the door.

“Hey, I’ve got the first four bags.” She said, walking up to the counter and dropping the heavy bag on it.

“Ah yes, you,” Liz said, reaching in his pockets for a couple silver coins and handing them to her.

Zoe took them, and watched as he gripped the bag with his hand for a moment then pushed it over to her.

“One more load and the offers done now, remember.” He said, scribbling on his papers.

“Yup! Thank you very much." Zoe said with a cheerful grin, grabbing the bag and leaving his store.

The process repeated itself as Zoe left town and gathered some more klir, thinking to herself about the winter’s master feat again.

It would be better to wait until next year. Get some money and supplies to make it easier. But if anything happened, she could just go back in town anyway. It’s not as though getting the feat would force her to stay outside, she would just be disqualified. There wasn’t much risk to trying, she thought.

Just go outside for a few months, get a cool feat and find a new class. And if it didn’t work out, she could try again next year. She still had that book on local geography she hadn’t looked through much. Maybe she could find a small cave on it, some rivers. She could wait until next year but why would she? Being immortal didn’t mean she had to waste time, it was still worth a shot she decided, stuffing the last of the klir in her bag and heading back to Liz’s shop as the evening dragged on.

She opened the familiar door and dropped the bag on Liz’s desk.

“Last one!” She said, holding her hand out.

Liz sighed and placed two silver coins in her hand. “Here you go, thanks for your efforts.”

He reached under the desk and brought out a vial of liquid, handing it to her. “Here’s the antidote. Should work fine but let me know if there are any problems.”

Zoe nodded and drank the vial of yellow liquid. It was thick and viscous, clinging to her mouth and throat as she swallowed. It tasted bitter, and the taste lingered long after she finished.

*Ding* You have been cured of poison.

“Uh, says my poison was cured so think I’m all good now. Actually, do you sell that poison?” She asked.

The man looked up from his papers at her for a moment. “For what purpose? Poison sales are heavily regulated.”

“Oh, that’s no problem. I just thought it was a convenient way to train my poison resistance is all.” She answered.

“No, I will not poison you for your pleasure. Should you take another job and borrow something of mine we may make a deal for collateral again.” He returned to rummaging through his papers.

“Do you have any other jobs I could do?” She asked.

Liz looked above her head for a moment, “Not for you, no. Come back in a week and I’ll probably be needing some more klir.”

“Gotcha. Okay, thanks then.” Zoe said, and turned to leave.

“Pleasure doing business with you.” Liz said, as Zoe opened the door and left.

Zoe fidgeted with the four silver coins she had earned, feeling the metal scratching and enjoying the sound of the quiet clanking from her pockets.

She had another hour of sunlight before the sun would set and decided she’d spend the night at Joe’s inn planning her day out.

If she wanted to survive for the winter, she needed some supplies. A bedroll was probably okay, the book would have mentioned that. Something to start fires with for the time she did spend outside of the city. Maybe a knife, a bow and some arrows to go hunting.

There was probably an archery skill she could get, maybe a hunting skill too. She wondered if she should spend more time out of the city training her skills. If anything happened she could always just come back to the city after all.

She found herself at Joe’s inn sooner than she expected, finding a near empty dining area and the fresh scent of Joe’s cleaning spells in the kitchen. She looked around at the patrons, a few people sat at a table talking, and a couple others sat alone at tables.

The group was talking about a dungeon nearby, something she had often heard people talking about. They planned to tackle the dungeon in a few days, now that they could afford enough potions to feel comfortable about it.

Zoe let them be. A dungeon excited her, but it was out of her reach, and would continue to be for a long time, she thought. One day though, maybe.

Joe came out of the kitchen, his clothes looking as though they had just been picked up from the dry cleaner — a nice benefit to being an innkeeper, she thought.

“Oh, hey Zoe. You got your klir job done?” He asked, grabbing a mug and filing it with some water.

“Mhm. Four silver for the day.” Zoe responded, showing him the silver.

“Decent pay for a day’s work.” He said, sitting down on a barstool.

“Yeah, it was a nice job. I’m thinking I’ll try to find something similar maybe tomorrow. Actually, I had a question for you Joe.”

“Oh? The girly’s got a question does she now? What a shocking surprise.” He laughed.

“Very funny. Are there homeless people in Flester?” She asked, sitting at a barstool next to him.

“Oh sure there are, but they end up being arrested pretty quickly.”

“Arrested? Really?”

“Yup. Usually taken to jail, given some job to do. Nothing special though, but gets them out of the cold and keeps them fed.” He leaned on the bar.

“Ah. There’s this winter’s master feat from surviving a winter without shelter that I’m thinking about trying to get.”

“And you were thinking about living on the streets to get it?” He asked.

“Yeah. I mean I’d like to stay within the walls at least, I think. I’m not sure, really. I might be able to get a lot more done if I find somewhere to stay outside and tackle a few things at once. But I’d like the option anyway. Guess not, though.” She said.

“Not really. People don’t live for very long on the streets in this cold. Giving them shelter and a job helps keep the town running and makes less work for everybody.” Joe sipped from his glass.

“On a similar note, do you know how much weapons cost? I’m thinking if I’m going to survive in the wild I should at least have a bow and a knife or something.” Zoe got up to grab herself some water.

“Well, I don’t deal in weapons but I don’t think simple weapons are too much. Should be able to afford that with another days work at this rate.” He responded.

Zoe grabbed a mug of her own and filled it with water. “Anything else you think I might want if I’m out in the wilds? I’m thinking a bedroll and some kind of fire starter maybe.”

“Hmm… I’d suggest a tent, normally. But that might count as shelter?” He asked.

“I think so, the book said a lean-to does anyway. Tent probably does too.”

“If you can afford some armour, it might be a good idea. Just some leather wrappings helps keep the scratches from the odd dog or boar away. Maybe some potions if you can land a very fruitful job but they’re usually at least a gold coin each.”

“I’m gonna check out a few job boards tomorrow if I can find some, hopefully there’s something good available.” Zoe said, drinking from her mug.

“Best of luck to you Zoe. I’m going to turn in for the night though.” He groaned as he stood from the stool. “See you when I see you and stay safe out there.”

“Thanks Joe, you too.” She said, grabbing a chair at a table and sitting down.

Potions were a good idea. Zoe kept forgetting that magic was just a normal thing here, her identify and empathy begging for more use. Habits were never a thing Zoe was good at building though, and getting used to all of the new tools she had was proving to be difficult.

She wondered whether there were magical weapons. Would there be a magic bow she could get? It would probably be too expensive, anyway. For a moment she thought of waiting a year again but pushed the thought aside. It was fine, the worst she’d seen was wolf tracks and they don’t really attack humans. If something happened she could just come back and try again next year, waiting didn’t really make sense.

She leaned back in her chair, pressing her leg into the table legs to balance herself. Maybe she already had a great class and wouldn’t even need to worry about all this work anyway. She focused inwards and brought up her class choices.

A couple new ones popped up.

[Jack] A versatile worker, ready to tackle the odd jobs people might have to offer. Gain increased experience while working a new job and learn new skills quicker.

Requirements: All stats at 20 or higher, five or more general skills, has been contracted for temporary work and learned a new skill from it.

[Gatherer] A master of foraging for natural resources. Find plants hidden beneath the earth easier and gain an intuition for safe harvesting methods.

Requirements: Has the [Gathering] skilll

Notes: The [Gathering] skill will be removed and merged with the class.

Jack seemed interesting to her, learning new skills quicker seemed like a really nice benefit. Gatherer wasn’t even worth mentioning, Zoe had no intention of spending the rest of eternity picking leaves off bushes. Even if they were really cool leaves.

Zoe leaned on the table, resting her head in her elbow, trying to get her plan together.

First off, she needed more money. She needed weapons and some camping supplies. But there was no rush on it either. Even if homeless were arrested here, she didn’t have to sleep. She could just stay awake and walk around town, probably. Step one was getting money, she could worry about supplies sometime later.

Actually, scratch that, she thought. Step one would be enjoying the comforts of a proper bed before she spent months without one.

She woke in the morning as the sun crept in through the wooden shutters, illuminating her room. She relished the feeling of waking from a decent bed, knowing she wouldn’t have it again for months to come. Winter wasn’t supposed to start for another few days but she wasn’t sure how the system measured it and didn’t want to take the risk of being off by a day.

Her plan for the day was clear in her mind. Find as many job boards as she could and see what was available to her. She wanted something that paid well, didn’t have too much risk associated with it, and if possible had the potential for her to get another new skill.