Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe convulsed with pain as the system tore through her body and soul, restructuring everything she was to better suit the picture of what her class should represent. Some time later when the pain was done she woke up, collapsed in a puddle of sweat on the inn’s bed and feeling weaker than she’d ever been before.

She laid there for a few minutes longer, letting the intense emotions wash over her. This whole time, she was worried about so many things. Would she need to find some feat or skill that let the classes combine? Would they even combine at all? Had she wasted so much time on something so fruitless?

But it was over, it was done. She’d accomplished something, after so long in this world. Something that was hers. How many other people on the planet could boast having any of the Seasoned classes, let alone the combined version? How many people could say their first class gave them twenty stat points per level?

Being the strongest was never her goal, and it still wasn’t. Power came as an effect of exploring the system and the world it governed, but quadrupling all regeneration effects in her first class? Whatever the hell Temporal Continuance II was? Class effects could have multiple tiers! How many people even knew about that!

And Time Manipulation was right there, at the tips of her fingers! Which was a double edged sword, as the Seasoned classes were already struggling with skill slots as it was. Zoe sat up and looked through her skill selection.

Both of the affinities were necessary, of course. Joe and Emma said as much when she took her first class, and the testing she did seemed to reflect that. They amplified every other ability by so much that not having them was just leaving so much power on the table. Which left three skills.

Time Manipulation would be one of them, at least until she managed to get the Time Manipulation general skill, or perhaps even the Time general skill. With the ability to manipulate Time, the mana pattern might be easier to follow at least. Or if nothing else, hopefully easier to understand.

But that was a temporary pick, which still left her with three skill slots. Elemental Arsenal was a must, being the strongest class skill she’d seen yet — barring perhaps Enchanted Mirror because of its incredible synergy with a great number of skills.

Restoration was a must take, not having some way to heal herself and her belongings after decades of having it ready at a moment’s notice would be stupid. She’d gotten so used to not worrying about her clothes tearing on branches or rocks that not being able to fix it would be tedious. Not to mention the obvious benefit of being able to bring herself or others back from death’s cold grasp.

And that left her one more slot, but three skills she wanted. The Adaptive skills had been instrumental to her power when she lost Enchanted Mirror — and even with it were quite potent. On the other hand, the Echo skills were a simple boost to her power. Very nice in combat, and a very fun enchantment. But they didn’t add anything new to her playbook, just a marked increase in her destructive power.

She wrote Elemental Echo off. They were fun skills, but at this point she needed her skills to do something new rather than enhance what she already had.

Her final choice was Alacrity. The skill had grown on her quite a lot in her years with it, and she loved having the additional speed that it offered. Even just running back to Foizo without the skill levelled up would take far longer than she’d want, but was simply going faster worth more than having perhaps all of the Adaptive skills combined together?

Zoe shook her head, finalized her skill choices and then brought her stat sheet up.

Name: Zoe Mara

Race: Human

——

Stat Points: 20

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 20

Vitality: 35

Endurance: 25

Intelligence: 96

Wisdom: 54

Health: 700/700

Stamina: 500/500

Mana: 1920/1920

——

Class 1: Earthian (9)

- Identify (104)

Class 2: Seasoned Persistence

- Elemental Affinity (1)

- Time Affinity (1)

- Elemental Arsenal (1)

- Restoration (1)

- Adaptive Elements (1)

-

-

——

General Skills:

- Vampyric Regeneration (44)

- Vampyric Senses (145)

- Vampyric Resistance (34)

- Vampyric Immortality (18)

- Vampyric Charm (96)

- Vampyric Empathy (91)

- Gathering (135)

- Archery (132)

­- Meditation (187)

- Cooking (89)

- Dagger-fighting (77)

- Tracking (98)

- Stealth (103)

- Frost (174)

- Alchemy (16)

- Spear-fighting (36)

- Sword-fighting (41)

- Shield-fighting (75)

- Wind (146)

- Earth (151)

- Carpentry (102)

- Pottery (21)

- Fishing (18)

- Smithing (7)

- Mining (25)

- Water (111)

- Fire (143)

- Cinders (105)

- Gales (104)

- Torrents (93)

- Wood (131)

- Enchanting (113)

Resistances:

- Mental (23)

- Poison (34)

­- Pain (23)

- Heat (18)

- Fire (26)

- Cold (41)

­- Disintegration (2)

- Time (15)

- Space (16)

- Gravity (17)

- Ice (24)

- Wind (21)

- Lightning (7)

- Sound (16)

- Bone (9)

- Flora (1)

Feats:

- Patient Decider

- Master of Seasons

- Slayer of Frost

- Skilled

- Proficient

- Okiu’s blessing

- Healer

- Transcendent

- Slayer of Fire

Zoe hadn’t checked her full stat sheet in quite a while, years perhaps even. Her resistances and skills just didn’t matter to her anymore. What was the difference between level ten and level twenty, or even level one hundred, that she couldn’t notice by just feeling the difference as she used them?

But looking at her sheet, there were a couple of things that stood out to her. The first of course was her level. She was level eight — or nine she watched it pop up to, again. Not twenty two like she expected to be. She’d get to fix up her first class stat allocation as she hoped, after all.

The second glaring issue that stood out were the two empty skill slots in her Seasoned Persistence class, and her face lit up with a bright grin as soon as she noticed them.

But the last issue was her Mental resistance being at level twenty three. She hadn’t noticed any mental attacks while she delved into The Pit or into Obai’s dungeon either, nor just walking around town for that matter. But last she remembered, it was only at level seven. Where had all of the levels come from?

Zoe shrugged, she must have just forgotten. She probably always had level twenty three Mental resistance now that she thought about it. It wouldn’t make much sense for it to have suddenly levelled up like that. It was probably…

Instead she focused on the simple problem of which two skills she wanted to fill out her class with, which would be the two skills she wanted earlier. Alacrity and Elemental Echo. She finalized her skill choices once more, and then laid back in the cold and somewhat damp bed.

With everything she’d set out to do finally done, she felt a little lost. Time Manipulation would come later, she’d swap out one of her skills for it and see if she could figure out how the mana was supposed to work with it. But for now, she wanted to take some time to relax. Temporal Continuance II was going to get her all the levels she needed to feel comfortable running back to Foizo in time — and all the stat points she got from her new first class would go straight into Vitality she decided.

Which meant all she had to do was level her skills up and wait until she was strong enough to make the run back home.

Zoe got up and left the inn to walk down the street. There were a few groups wearing the newest fashion trend — brown armoured suits with green hats and swords by their waist. Some even chose to add various coloured patches to their shoulders. A curious style, but in recent weeks more and more had taken to the fashion it seemed. Zoe wasn’t particularly interested herself, it just looked too… something, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it but it somehow just didn’t seem like her style.

Eliza had told her of a bridge north of Korna that was supposed to be interesting, and Zoe started making her way through town. The gate was closed, as all the gates tended to be most of the time, with a short line leading through the checkpoint out of town.

When Zoe got to the gate, she chatted with the guard for a few minutes and then headed out of town down the road. Korna’s roads were quite nice, and they extended a while out of Korna itself too, she’d discovered. Within the walls, the roads were a dark, rough stone and outside a well trodden dirt road that never seemed to get muddy no matter how much it rained.

Zoe followed the road north for a few minutes before she saw a sign for a Ikleci Suspension Bridge park just before a gravel road that cut into the forest. She followed along it, past a few more signs that helped her feel confident she was going the right way before she arrived at the park.

A tall wooden arch hung above the road, suspended across two massive old trees that towered over the rest nearby. Ikleci was written on the arch in dark, burnt in lettering. Carved into the tree on the right was a desk with a couple of people behind it, and Zoe walked up to the desk.

A younger man sat behind the desk smiled at her when she approached. “Hello, do you have an annual pass?"

“Annual pass?” Zoe asked.

“I’ll take that as a no then. Are you a Korna resident?" The man asked.

Zoe shook her head. “No.”

“Just coming to visit our beautiful park then?" He smiled.

“I came to visit Korna, but I heard there was a bridge out here that was interesting.” Zoe answered.

“I see, where do you come from then?” He asked.

“Flester. Foizo now, I guess.” Zoe answered.

“Ah, I’m sorry to hear that. Well, Korna residents get a discount here, and we’ve been giving it to Flester refugees who stop by too as our way of paying it back. Are you aware of our packages?” He asked.

Zoe shook her head. “No, I thought it was just a bridge, honestly.”

He laughed. “Yeah, the bridge is the main thing. But there’s a lot more going on too. We have an annual pass, only available to Korna residents for three gold. It grants you unlimited access to the park for a full year — only while we’re open though, mind you. As well as half off regular price for anybody who comes with you, and twenty percent off the gift shop, restaurant and any other attractions we may have in our park. As a refugee from Flester, you’re welcome to take advantage of this if you like as well.

“A day pass costs sixty silver, and gets you no discounts on anybody else with you nor any of the other attractions in our park. I say the annual pass is well worth it if you plan to stop buy more than two or three times, and especially if you want to have a bite to eat while you’re walking through the park. But those are our packages, if you’re interested in seeing our beautiful park.” He explained.

Zoe thought about it for a moment, then summoned three gold coins and handed it to the man. “I’ll get an annual pass, I guess.”

“Sure thing, miss.” He took the three gold coins and rummaged around below the desk for a moment before he brought out a wooden card with a large burnt in star on one side and the current date burnt in to the back side. “Here you are. Enjoy the park!”

“Thanks!” Zoe took the card and walked through the front gate. Behind were several buildings that looked like log cabins surrounding a well packed in dirt and gravel central square type area with several round wooden tables strewn haphazardly about. Each table had four wooden stools surrounding it, and on one of the raised wooden platforms that surrounded the buildings an older woman with graying hair was playing a whimsical tune on a purple violin.

On the other side of the central square was the bridge, spanning an enormous gap in the ground that was at least two hundred feet deep, and just as wide across to the forest on the other side. At the bottom of the ravine was a raging river that crashed across the rocks with white foam splashing against the rock walls.

The bridge itself was made of rope, stretching from two wooden pillars on the side Zoe stood, to two matching wooden pillars on the other side. Wooden planks about a meter long were tied to the rope, with a finger width of space between each.

To Zoe’s surprise, the bridge was quite stable to her eyes. Only a very slight sway near the edge of the cliff, and towards the middle of the bridge it was only waving a few feet back and forth as the wind pushed it around. Nervewracking — if she couldn’t fly, but definitely walkable.

Zoe stepped onto the bridge and started walking across. With each step, the wooden planks below her shifted on the rope supports and the bridge swayed to and fro as her weight shifted around.

It was an odd experience for her, something that drew her back to her normal life before she was dragged to Abyllan, and felt like it should inspire such a visceral fear in her. The depths far below, threatening to throw her ragged body against the rocks like a ragdoll in a car crash simulation if she missed a step felt like such a normal fear to her.

And yet, she could fly. There was no danger, not really. Realistically, even if she couldn’t fly there wouldn’t likely be any danger — the bridge probably had some kind of enchantment to keep you from falling off of it. Maybe a barrier just below it that would catch you, maybe they just had people waiting to rescue those who did fall before they hit the bottom.

But still, the unsure footing and crashing waves below her drew up such a familiar anxiety that she hadn’t had in so long. It was pleasant, to just be normal once more. To fear heights, to fear the devastating power of rushing water.

She made it across after a few minutes and took a deep breath as she stepped onto proper solid ground once more, with a big smile on her face. Sometimes it was important to just enjoy the little things in life. No amount of magic could ever replace the beauty of nature. Zoe tearing through the earth and carving a home for herself was fun and exciting. But a ravine so deep, carved through by nothing but water rushing through to wherever it wanted to get was awe inspiring.

It was a reminder that the world carries on despite us all, that as mighty as we get, nature always comes out on top eventually. Or, perhaps it wouldn’t here. Maybe the ravine was carved by some powerful wizard, and some poor sod sat at the other side spewing water down the river to keep it running. But whatever the case, Zoe enjoyed the spectacle.