Frostbitten Wayfarer

“You’re sure it wasn’t an option for you?” Eliza asked her.

Zoe nodded. “Yeah it definitely wasn’t there. I had the autumn version instead.”

“But you still took it? You don’t have the autumn version?” Eliza asked.

Zoe checked her stat sheet again just to be sure, and saw Seasoned Cinders listed as her fourth class. “Yeah, it’s definitely the summer variant still.”

Eliza stood in silence for a minute as her mind raced. “Hmm.. Did you have any other class that you don’t have the requirements for anymore?”

Zoe thought about it for a moment. There were some other seasonal classes — the cold mages, heat mages. Even the initial Temporal Anomaly that required her to not have a second class.

“I had a few, why?” Zoe asked.

“Try taking one of them now. Just do what you did for this class but with one of the others.” Eliza said.

Zoe focused on her fourth class and urged it to switch to Apprentice Cold Mage, the first one she could remember, but nothing happened.

She shook her head. “Didn’t do anything.”

“Okay, one of my classes is Runemaster. Can you try taking that? Just do the same thing again but focus on Runemaster.” Eliza asked.

Zoe tried again, and nothing happened. She shook her head. “Nothing. I think it’s probably just you can take classes you’ve already had before, even if you don’t have the requirements.”

Eliza nodded. “Maybe, I want to test one more thing though. Try taking the winter variant. Maybe all you were doing was resetting the class but not really taking a new one?"

Zoe nodded and tried. Her class switched out for Seasoned Frost, with all the same bonuses she’d come to love from her fourth tier Seasoned Cinders.

“Fascinating. So it is just that you can take a class you’ve had before, even if you no longer have the requirements for it.” Eliza said.

Zoe nodded. “Seems like it. Do you think that would help anything, though? I can’t imagine ever wanting to have a class that I already had the requirements for, but not being able to have those requirements. At least not off the top of my head.”

Eliza hummed in thought for a moment. “The only thing that jumps to my mind at the moment is maybe unlocking a strong magic class early that synergizes well with your physical build. Then you could swap it out for a physical class and much later on grab a magic class at a high tier without needing to worry about getting all the requirements again.”

“Ah. Or the other way around, I guess too.” Zoe said.

“Yea, exactly. I imagine there must be other benefits to it but I can’t think of them right now. An interesting discovery though. Thank you for the help, Zoe.” Eliza said.

“Oh, actually. If a class requires, I don’t know. Stupid numbers, but ten thousand intelligence for instance. You’re not getting that for your second class, right? But if you got it for your sixth class or something, and it didn’t have a specific requirement for being a sixth class, then in theory you could take it, and replace your second class with it?" Zoe asked.

“I suppose. Maybe it’s more nuanced than we think, but that seems possible now. Just another reason I’m envious of your immortality. Hopefully I can figure out how to combine Space and Time soon.” Eliza sighed.

“Maybe you just like, tell the system to do it?” Zoe suggested.

“Tried that. Tried using them both at the same time, tried to force them to cast as one thing. Not sure what’s missing. I think there’s just another requirement I don’t have yet.” Eliza said.

“Maybe you have to have travelled through the cosmos to get the cosmos skill unlocked?" Zoe said.

Eliza shrugged. “Maybe. Gonna be a while before I do that though. You get any progress with your Space skill yet?" She asked, swirling the mass of space around in front of her still.

“No, not really. It’s so different to what I’m used to.” Zoe answered.

She had gotten a bit distracted with the conversation about her class and the new possibilities, but even still the mana that made up Eliza’s Space skill was almost impossible to follow. And even if she managed to piece it together, making the mana actually follow the pattern would be impossible for her. She just had no way of moving mana from one point to another instantly like that.

“I think I’m going to take Seasoned Gales and see if I can get Gales. What’s the different between Gales and Wind, anyway?” Zoe asked.

“No clue. You tell me.” Eliza said.

Zoe focused on her class selections and pushed the system to give her the Seasoned Gales class.

*Ding* You have unlocked the Seasoned Gales class. Your body and soul will be adjusted to accommodate the change.

Effects:

- Seasoned Gales: Gain thirty stat points for each level in this class.

- Aura of Gales: You radiate wind energy.

- Temporal Continuance: You gain experience through the passage of time.

- Regenerator: All regeneration effects boosted by 350%.

- Tempestuous Tempo: All wind and time aligned effects are boosted by 250%.

Available Skills:

- Wind Affinity: Increased Wind affinity.

- Time Affinity: Increased Time affinity.

- Gale Manipulation: Manipulate the gales with your will.

- Tempestuous Arsenal: Command the gales to clad you in armour and weapons.

- Tempestuous Echo: Create an echo of gales that copies your movements.

- Adaptive Gales: Your gales will infect all it can reach with a destabilizing effect.

- Restoration: Apply a regenerative effect that mends recent damage.

- Haste: Apply a buff that increases quickness.

- Alacrity: Permanently increases quickness.

- Eternal Elegance: Remove dirt and grime from objects.

She set up her skills the same as she was used to with her Seasoned Cinders — both the affinities, Tempestuous Echo, Adaptive Gales and Tempestuous Arsenal. But first she grabbed Gale Manipulation and used it to get the Gale skill for herself.

*DING* You have unlocked the Gales general skill.

Gales was very different to Wind. While wind was simply a re-flavoured Air in her mind, Gales was the very essence of a storm. Hurricanes and twisters at the tips of her fingers. Small ones at the moment, but powerful none the less. They ripped through the grass and leaves around them and lifted up detritus from the ground, pulling it along with the tempest.

It smashed into trees, cut into the ground. While Wind was peaceful and serene, Gales was raw, destructive power. She supposed it made sense, considering how the class was obtained. You fought off the dangers of the season and were in turn rewarded with mastery of those dangers. Wind wasn’t dangerous, deadly storms that lifted people’s homes and hurled them across the city were.

Zoe didn’t have a particular need to deal with such dangers when she obtained the feat, but at its core level she supposed that was the intention behind it. A feat to reward those who face down the destructive power of nature.

And now Zoe was given power over that destructive energy. Mastery of the seasons themselves.

It made her wonder what Ice would be for her. Frost was exactly what she imagined from an Ice skill, but perhaps she was misunderstanding what Frost was. Or maybe what Ice would be. Would Ice just be a weaker Frost? Cinders was so different to Fire, and Gales was so much more destructive than Wind.

What would be the defining feature of Frost compared to Ice, Zoe wondered. Was it just that Frost could also create snow? How much control it had over its temperature? She wasn’t sure, but wanted to see Ice.

“You haven’t got the spring one yet right?” Eliza asked.

Zoe shook her head. “No, not yet. I think I’ll check it out next spring though.”

“That’s too bad. I would’ve loved to see whatever spring gives. What did the feat say?” Eliza asked.

“Something about torrential downpours. I bet it’ll be a destructive water skill.” Zoe suggested.

“Makes sense. I know in a lot of places spring is considered the most dangerous season. Down in the south, mostly. They have to prepare for flooding every year. Even have their houses built up on stilts in some places for the annual floods.” Eliza shook her head. “Glad we just have to deal with a bit of snow up here.”

“I’m sure they say the same thing about floods.” Zoe laughed. “Oh good thing we only have to deal with our entire city flooding every year. Can you imagine how bad it would be if we had to deal with snow!”

Eliza smiled. “I still prefer the snow. When do you think you’ll go back to Moaning Point? I’m only around for another week or so, but I’m back in town every so often.”

“I haven’t thought about that, really. Time has become a lot less important to me now. What’s another three or four years of waiting, really? Probably soon, though. I just need some more levels first.” Zoe said.

“Way to brag about your immortality.” Eliza laughed.

“You’ll get it someday. I could bite you if you want?" Zoe suggested.

“Hmm. Tempting. Tempting. I don’t think it would work, but even if it worked I don’t think the system would break for me though since I’m from Abyllan.” Eliza said.

Zoe shrugged. “Lets see time. I’m sick of studying this space magic.”

Eliza obliged and the warping space in front of her stopped, then was replaced with some strange flowing mana. The wisps moved slow in some parts and extremely fast in other places. At some points they seemed to reverse or even stop moving completely.

“That’s super weird.” Zoe said.

Eliza nodded. “What’s it look like?”

Zoe described the mana.

“Huh. That’s neat. For me it’s a basin of water that drips from the bottom, but the water flows back up into the basin after it falls for a bit.” Eliza explained.

They continued chatting for a while longer about the different patterns of mana they saw with different skills, and then when the sun began to set Eliza offered Zoe a ride back to the library. Zoe declined it, wanting to head back to her cave and see if it was still there.

Eliza stepped on her earthen platform and Zoe watched it rocket off towards town. She didn’t see many people flying over Flester, but it did happen from time to time. She wondered what the legality of it was, maybe next time she saw Eliza she’d ask.

Zoe formed a small platform of earth in front of her and crouched onto it. Tendrils of earth rose from the platform and wrapped around her, pressing into her body from behind. The platform rose and Zoe pushed it north towards the hill she set up in.

The earth flew through the trees, and Zoe was pushed along with it. The new strategy was much more comfortable to fly on, though she couldn’t make any sharp turns without being shunted off the platform as it rotated below her. She sped up to as fast as she could manage comfortably, and flew over the trees towards the distant hill she called her home.

Outside, her home looked normal. The door she made still blended in with the surroundings. Even more than when she left it now as the vegetation outside had crept up the cliff face she made. Vines flowers reached up the rock face as they searched for sunlight.

Zoe pushed mana into her door and it squished off to the side to reveal her wooden foyer inside. The vegetation growing up the door fell to the ground when she did, leaving a cut out door shape free of plantlife on the outside of the cliff. Something she’d have to deal with at some point in the future, she supposed.

Inside her home looked almost just as she left it. The wooden construction survived, the ceiling and walls stood strong. There was a faint breeze that brought Zoe back to her years of building up her house, as air was created and gently nudged out of the chimney.

But everything was covered in scratches, and the floor was coated in small dark rat droppings. Zoe sighed and walked in. The rat poop was simple enough to fix as blue light washed out from her and removed all the stains. Frost was summoned and scraped along the floor to lift off any bits too large for her Eternal Elegance to outright destroy, and tossed into the forest outside.

The real problem were the scratches. She could sand everything down to remove them, but some of the grooves were far too deep for that to work. Restoration worked on some of the more recent scratches, but many were too old for her healing skill.

If she wanted her home back to its pristine state, she’d need to tear down all the planks and replace them with new ones. She summoned her bed to her room and sat down in it.

Someday, she’d do that. This was her home, for who knows how long. A place for her to return to after her adventures. In another ten years, she’d like to still be able to come back here. Maybe even in another hundred years, she’d like having a place to return to.

But for now, some scratches weren’t the end of the world. Next time she replaced the planks, she’d make sure to enchant them all with some kind of defensive skills. Shield-fighting, maybe one of her arsenal effects. Something to keep simple animals from being able to cut into her home.

If something larger than some random animal invaded her home she had bigger problems than her wood being scratched anyway.

Zoe laid down in her bed and fell asleep in the comfort of her own home for the first time in quite a while. She had dreams of flying through the sky on a platform of shifting elements, the wind parting before her as she raced through the wilderness in search of a mythical object rumoured to have been lost.

She woke to the dark cave she lived in and realized that if she ever invited somebody over, she might need to make something for lighting. Her Fire skill could likely help her there, but wondered if maybe she could get a Light skill that would be superior at some point.