Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe rummaged her hand through her bag, reaching for her coins. Five silver and seventy copper were all she had left. Enough for almost another month, but she needed more. Joe had said this was the harshest month of winter, too, and Zoe wanted to be as prepared as possible.

She laid down on the bench she was sitting on for a while, waiting a few more hours into the night, watching the moon drift through the sky. Zoe got up and went to a nearby tavern to look at the job board. Liz’s klir posting was up again at the same price, and she decided to pay the man another visit.

She arrived early in the morning just as the sun was cresting the horizon. His shop was the same as she remembered, and he sat at his desk scribbling away on papers as though he were Alexander Hamilton writing a historical pamphlet.

“Hey,” Zoe said as she entered.

“Hello, are you here for the klir job again?” He asked, looking up from his papers.

“Yup. But it’s a lot more dangerous out there now with the cold and poor visibility from all the blizzards. Fifty copper per bag isn’t going to be enough, I’d do it for eighty.” She said, getting a read on the man with her vampyric empathy. He seemed annoyed, and a little tired.

“Fifty-five, best I can do.” Liz said, pushing a feeling of worry.

“How many bags do you need this time?” Zoe asked.

“Twenty.” His anxiety rose.

“Sixty-five and you give me more storage so I can make fewer trips.” Zoe said.

“Sixty, and a ten bag item. That’s it.” He said, seeming pleased.

“Deal.” Zoe said.

Liz asked her the same questions again and Zoe answered. He raised an eyebrow at her poison resistance but handed her the papers to sign anyway. Zoe’s mana flooded out from her when she signed, and she watched Liz mix in some powder to a vial and hand it to her.

*Ding* You have been poisoned. -2.5 health/hr for 400 hours.

Liz handed her a golden bracelet. “Here. Ten bags of storage, six silver per. Is that all?”

“How do I use this, actually? I’ve never used a storage bracelet, just the bag you gave me before.” She asked.

Liz sighed, “Put it on, and imagine pulling something you’re touching into it. It should just work.”

Zoe tried it with a copper coin she had in her bag, grabbing it with her hand and imagining the coin getting sucked into the bracelet. To her surprise, it worked. The coin was gone. She tried the same thing she did to pull klir out of the storage bag before, and the coin reappeared in her hand.

“Awesome, thanks. I’ll try and get both loads finished today.” Zoe said.

“Don’t kill yourself over it,” Liz said, returning to his mound of papers.

Zoe left and walked to the northern gate. She felt some anxiety as she approached it but she looked at the walls, seeing numerous guards walking along the top watching the forest. A couple more standing on the ground at the gate, and even more she could only hear faint murmurings of from inside the towers on either side of the gate.

She thought of being attacked by a boar again, rubbing at the hole in her pants where the sharp tusk sliced her thigh open. There wasn’t even a scar left, but the mental anguish she felt would take a lot longer to heal.

Zoe reminded herself that she made a mistake last time. A big mistake. She went too far away from town, and tunnel visioned on a deer. She lost track of her surroundings, and she learned her lesson. The boars don’t show up around town, only the occasional wolf. But even those are spread out and she’d never heard a wolf howling anyway. Wherever they called home wasn’t nearby, and she figured the odd wolf track might be somebody’s pet or maybe even magical familiar, she imagined.

She stepped through the gate, wandering down the road. Visibility was lower now, with the heavy snowfall obscuring her vision. But her hearing was almost entirely unimpeded, and she tried to keep one ear listening to everything around her while she gathered the klir.

Her first step was checking the areas she’d harvested a month ago, just in case it was a very fast growing plant. And it was, she found. All of the bushes she’d picked clean were filled with glowing blue leaves again. She spent the rest of the morning walking from tree to tree picking klir leaves and sucking them up into her bracelet.

It stopped accepting anymore shortly after noon, and she grabbed a handful more leaves that she stuffed in her pocket. When she was done with this job, she wanted to test out the effects of her poison resistance.

She made it back to Liz’s shop an hour later, but this time there was somebody already in the store talking with Liz. An older man with graying hair and an ornate blue scabbard hanging from his waist.

“Yes, twenty of them please.” The older man said.

Liz rummaged through his desk and brought out some papers. He scribbled on the papers for a moment before he looked up at the older man.

“Three gold each.” Liz said.

“Bah, you and I both know they’re barely worth two.” The older man scoffed.

“Three each or you can make them yourself.” Liz said, scowling at the man.

“Fine, fine. You’re never any fun. Three gold each, by next weekend.” The older man said.

“Sure,” Liz said, pulling out some more papers and scribbling on them. “Twenty superior healing potions by next weekend. Sixty gold coins total, paid up front.”

“Up front!?” The man exclaimed, “Are you mad?”

“I need to pay for material costs, and if you die or otherwise disappear I’m left with twenty potions nobody in their right mind would ever pay for. Sixty gold coins up front or find somebody else.” Liz said.

The older man sighed and summoned a pile of coins on Liz’s desk. “Fine, but you best not be late with production.” He turned and left, nodding to Zoe as he passed her.

Liz sighed, pulling all of the coins into his own storage item. “Yes? Have you gathered the first ten bags?” He asked, looking at Zoe.

“Yeah, how do I give them to you though? Do I have to summon them all one by one or something?” She asked.

“Grab my hand,” Liz said, sticking his hand out, “and imagine pulling all of the leaves out of the bracelet into my hand.”

Zoe followed his instructions, grabbing his hand and pushing all of the klir through to him.

*Ding* Trade initiated

Ten bags of [Klir] for one [Silver Star] and one [Silver Coin]

“Mentally accept the trade.” Liz said.

Zoe urged the trade to go through.

*Ding* Trade accepted

“Will you be back with the next load tonight then?” Liz asked her.

“Um, yeah. I might be a little after sundown though if you could stick around a bit longer?” Zoe asked.

Liz shook his head, “No, I close at sundown.”

“Okay, I’ll probably be back tomorrow morning then.” Zoe said.

Liz nodded, and Zoe headed out.

She thought about her plans and decided to stop by Joe’s inn to pick up her orange gem. She thought that while she was out, she might as well try and get the fire and heat resistances. It might be better to do within the walls if she was going to be hurting herself, but she didn’t know what the laws were on making fires in the city and didn’t feel like checking at the moment. As long as she stayed nearby, she was still safe enough, she felt.

She greeted Joe and grabbed her fire gem then made the journey out to the northern gate once more. By the time she got there, it was early into the evening. The sun was falling to the horizon and the moon was just cresting on the other side.

Her next few hours were spent gathering Klir, and stuffing it into her magical bracelet. It was a peaceful time, and every so often she would feel it grow a little easier as her Gathering skill would level up. The blue light from the klir piercing through the snow a little more. The leaves falling away with just a little less force.

When the bracelet was full, she started to clear out an area near a tree, shoving the deep snow away to make something of a pit to start her fire in. The ground was icy, the water soaked into the earth and frozen over. But she thought the orange gem would manage anyway, Henry said it would last through the winter so she had no reason to believe magic wouldn’t solve the problem for her.

Zoe tore bits off some of the trees nearby and picked up some twigs that had fallen into the snow, gathering them into a pile. She pointed the orange gem and channelled her mana through it, blasting the pile of wood with fire. The sticks ignited, smoke billowing out from the wet wood.

She spent a few minutes wandering around the area picking up more sticks and ripping off small branches from trees, dumping them in until it grew to a respectable fire more than capable of hurting her. Then she continued gathering more, making a small pile to the side to keep it going for as long as she needed it to.

Anxiety rose as she watched the fire roar, the smoke rising from the fire stinging her eyes. All she had to do was reach out and grab a stick. It would hurt, but she would get a resistance out of it. The pain would be temporary and she would be stronger for it. It was worth it, she reminded herself, staring at the fire in front of her.

Zoe took a deep breath and gritted her teeth. She reached into the fire with her left hand, the heat radiating out less intense than she expected as her hand hovered in the flickering flames. Her hand dove into the pile of burning sticks and grabbed some of the hot coals.

She winced in pain, trying her best not to cry out. It too wasn’t as bad as she expected it to be, but it was still one of the most painful things she’d ever chosen to do. Her flesh was sizzling as she rummaged her hand around the hot coals, the smell of burnt flesh wafting up to her nose.

Health: 174/200

Her health dropped a lot with the initial grab, but the drain after was painfully slow. She didn’t know how much damage was needed for a resistance, but she wished it would go faster.

She tossed another stick on the fire with her other hand, continuing to push the hot coals around with her left. Zoe found it more manageable if she made a game of it, stacking and sorting the hot coals and burning sticks as they crumpled onto each other.

*Ding* You have unlocked the Fire resistance.

*Ding* You have unlocked the Heat resistance.

Health: 146/200

Zoe cried out in joy, smothering the fire with the surrounding snow. She took a nervous look at her left hand and found it wasn’t too bad. Red and blistered, covered in soot. But it still worked, even if a little painful. She had a moment of fear that it wouldn’t recover and she would be scarred for the rest of her life, but brushed it aside. The gash from the boar didn’t scar, this won’t either, she hoped.

The important thing was she did it. She pushed through the pain, as hard as it was, and got two new resistances. She could handle it, she could do it. She just had to find more controllable sources of damage, and she’d be free to get any class she could hope for. She smiled with glee, the pain pushed aside by the intense excitement flooding her mind.

A part of her wanted to collapse on the ground and sleep. Not that she was tired, it just felt fitting to her. But she forced herself to stand up anyway. She was close to the walls, but still outside of them. There was no reason to take unnecessary risk, she could rest at the park.

Her walk back to the gate didn’t take long, and she rushed to the park to sit at her favourite bench. She smiled, feeling pride well up inside her of her accomplishment. Part of her felt silly for it, she’d just burnt her hand and would normally want to seek medical attention about two hours ago when she’d been so reckless. But she looked at her health again and felt elated.

Health: 148/200

She basked in the feeling of pride and accomplishment for the rest of the night. Every few minutes pulling open her stat window to look at her new resistances, beaming the whole time. It felt as though the doors of possibility had opened to her. Sure, the resistances themselves didn’t do much, yet. But it meant so much more than that to her.

The sun began to rise, and she made her way to Liz’s Festering Feelings once more to hand in another load of klir and get her payment. Liz was sitting at his desk, scribbling away at papers as usual.

Zoe wondered if he ever did anything else, or what he was even writing about. Maybe letters to friends? Some kind of magic? She wasn’t sure.

“I’ve got another ten bags here,” Zoe said, taking off her bracelet and handing it to him.

“Good, thank you.” Liz said, summoning another couple of silver coins as well as a vial of familiar liquid, handing them to her.

“Thanks, when will you be needing more?” Zoe drunk the vial.

*Ding* You have been cured of poison.

“Not until spring,” Liz answered, stacking some papers next to him.

Zoe left and pulled out the klir leaf she had stuffed in her pocket the previous day. The blue light had dimmed slightly, but she chewed on the leaf and swallowed it anyway.

*Ding* You have been poisoned. -2 health/s for 16 seconds. +1 mana/s for 16 seconds.

She ran the numbers in her head. Seven thousandths of twenty seconds didn’t add up to four. And the actual damage didn’t seem affected at all by her resistance. She shrugged. There was no rush, she had all the time in the world to figure things out.