Frostbitten Wayfarer

The first thing Zoe noticed as she approached Foizo was the buildings. No longer were the people stuffed into shabby wooden shacks, crammed into a small area like sardines packed in a tin. Tall buildings stood, threatening to tower over the trees that surrounded the town. Beautiful flats made of the dark gray stone that was so plentiful in the area were littered throughout the town. Smoke rose from forges and restaurants in dark plumes, and the roads were pleasant to walk on and large enough for two horse drawn carriages to pass comfortably.

Foizo was, for all intents and purposes, a proper town. People who Zoe had never met before walked through the town, many in leather armour with weapons at their side but many comfortable enough to wander the streets in casual clothes. Dresses and shorts as people basked in the afternoon soon.

The clothes were nothing like the insanity of Korna of course, very little ever would come close to that in Zoe’s mind. But there was a comfort in Foizo that Zoe hadn’t expected, a confidence that she found so pleasant after the devastation of what happened to Flester. The people were happy, and hopeful. The emotions were excited and infected Zoe through her Vampyric Empathy.

Zoe made her way to her cave, just a brief walk from the edge of town. The buildings crept closer and closer to the mountain, but it seemed she still had at least a modicum of privacy from the rest of Foizo at her home. Maybe she’d move her entrance somewhere else to stop the problem someday, but maybe she was just being weird and it didn’t really matter anyway. It probably didn’t, nobody was going to invade her home. And even if they did, everything she cared about was in her storage items anyway so it wouldn’t be a big deal regardless.

When she summoned the brown gem she used as a key for her home and opened the stone façade at the front of her cave, a small black cat rushed out the door. Zoe grabbed Fennel with a tendril of Earth that rose from the ground, and brought him up to hold in her arms. He had a lot to say after she’d been gone for so long, and Emma came running down the hallway a moment later.

Emma visibly relaxed when she saw Zoe and leaned on her knees. “Oh it’s just you. Welcome back Zoe.”

“Hello to you too,” Zoe smirked and walked inside before the door closed. She put Fennel back down and followed Emma to her kitchen.

Emma had done some redecorating, Zoe noticed. There was a lot more furniture in the little cave she called home, paintings that hung from the walls and even the little stone lanterns Zoe had made were upgraded to much nicer lights that cast a more even light through the space. The kitchen table Zoe made was gone and replaced by a much nicer wooden table with scratches covering the lower legs.

“Sorry, sorry. I heard the door open and I knew Fennel was sitting there so I got worried. I’m glad you’re back.” Emma hugged Zoe.

“Joe doesn’t stop by?” Zoe sat down on one of the cushioned chairs Emma had acquired for the kitchen.

“No, not really. I mean we get along well enough and spend some time together every so often, but he doesn’t really just let himself in even though you gave him a key. Usually waits outside or I’d show up at his inn.” Emma said.

“How’s he doing, anyway? I was going to stop at his inn first and see if he wanted to come over but honestly, the town — Foizo? Looks so different, I have no idea which building is his anymore.” Zoe laughed.

Emma had an odd grin on her face as Zoe mentioned the town. “Yeah, a lot’s changed. He’s doing very well. Everybody is, really. Things have gone great here, I can go grab him if you wanna watch the cats for a bit?” She asked.

“Yeah, that’d be awesome if you could. Where’s Ollie at?” Zoe asked.

Emma shrugged. “No clue. Somewhere, probably upstairs in a corner or something. You can’t find him with all your skills? I usually don’t have trouble with it when I wanna find him.”

Zoe shrugged. "Just feels disrespectful to the little guy, y’know? If he wants to be hidden, I’m not gonna try and find him unless I need him. Long as he’s safe, that’s fine.“

Emma smiled and shook her head. “Right, well I’ll go grab Joe then. Be back in a few minutes!” She threw on a gray coat and walked out the front door.

Fennel stayed behind in the kitchen with Zoe to talk about something that seemed awfully important, and Zoe enjoyed the comfort of being back in her own home alone for a few minutes. It was different, and definitely lived in. Plus there were two cats, with all the smells and sounds that came along with them filling her cave.

But it was still nice. She felt like it would be fun to stick around for a while and expand her home a little bit before she went off on another adventure.

Emma and Joe returned not long after she left and sat down at the table with Zoe.

“Hey Zoe,” Joe said when he walked in, not looking a day older than he did when she left. His hair was the same thin brown with speckles of gray throughout, with the same wrinkles she’d gotten so used to before. He hadn’t aged a day it seemed.

“Hey Joe!” Zoe said. “You look… the same.”

Joe smiled as he sat down and Fennel hopped up on his lap. “Yeah I forgot to tell you before you left, but my most recent class gave me immortality. Guess you’ll be stuck with me for the next little while, huh?"

“What!?” Zoe exclaimed. “I thought you didn’t want immortality? What class did you get? Why did you take it? What? Explain!”

Joe chuckled, his belly rumbling with laughter. “Yeah, I got it just the day before Flester’s fall and with everything that happened it slipped my mind to tell you about it. I really like what I do now, Zoe. And one of my classes gave me the option to keep doing it for a while longer. Maybe someday I’ll replace it and come to my peaceful end, but at least for now I’m glad I took it. There’s too many people in the world who need help, and too few to lend a helping hand.”

“Well that’s very noble of you, Joe. I’m glad you’re not going to die anymore. That’s an odd problem and an odd thing to be happy about, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here now. But I’m glad you’re happy with your decision.” Zoe eyed Emma.

Emma raised her hands in defence. “Hey! I told you forever ago that I’ll be immortal if I happen upon it. Just haven’t, yet.”

“I know, I know. One day. Maybe your next class has it too anyway.” Zoe said.

“On that note, actually… I’ve been ready to take my next class for a while now actually. Thought I’d wait until you were back and we could have a little class up party again. That was fun when you did it.” Emma said.

“Well I’m back now, when do you think you’ll do it?" Zoe asked.

“I guess now? Now’s fine with me. Good with you two?" Emma asked.

Joe and Zoe both nodded.

“Alright, alright. I guess I class up now. It feels kinda weird, I’ve been stuck at this level for so long. I this how you normally feel? What if after all this time the options suck still?" Emma laughed anxiously.

Zoe shrugged. “It’s not your first class, you can always replace it if it sucks.”

“Don’t worry about it too much, just take a look and see what you’ve got. It’ll be fun.” Joe said.

“Okay, okay.” Emma said, and her eyes glazed over as she looked through her class selections.

A few minutes passed, and she started filling Zoe and Joe in on her class selections. Most were boring, as most tended to be at such a high level. Zoe found it odd that the lower level classes were never removed from the selections — who would want to take apprentice mage when they had expert mage available as well, for instance? What was the purpose of that?

The first class that interested her was a Mystic Hunter class, it promised powerful magics that bolstered her bow and tracking abilities. And the requirements were rather simple by Zoe’s books. Tracking and Stealth both to level fifty, with over two hundred intelligence and a magical general skill over level fifty. The fire skill for Emma, apparently.

The next class that interested Emma was the Expeditious class — most of her stat points had gone into Dexterity and she’d even on her latest levels managed to get the Expeditious feat for herself. It didn’t fit her idea of a perfect class, but it was at least powerful enough to be worth considering.

There were a couple of classes related to the space magic her third class had access to — a handful of different flavours of space mages. Apprentice Space Mage, Adept Space Mage, and so on. As well as an improved version of her Magic Archer class called Spacial Hunter. It required her to have taken and maxed two of the space aligned skills in the Magic Archer class — her returning arrows skill and a weapon storage skill in Emma’s case. As well as a handful of stat requirements, and to have garnered favour from a master of space. Emma wasn’t sure who that was, but the system believed she’d done it.

One class Emma was quite offended by, called An Immortal’s Caretaker. Apparently caring for Zoe’s home for a year qualified Emma to be a full time maid to the system, and while it didn’t directly state that it would grant immortality the three agreed it likely would.

And the final class that interested Emma was an odd one called A Traveler’s Friend, requiring Emma to have befriended at least five people who came from different planets. Emma knew Zoe of course, but she had no clue who the other four were.

“I say the immortal one, personally.” Zoe said.

“Of course you do,” Joe and Emma said in unison.

“No hear me out, alright. I’m serious. When you take a class, you unlock it. Right, that’s what the system says, you unlocked the class. If you take the immortal one now, you can take it again later, for any of your other class tiers.” Zoe explained.

“But I really don’t wanna just be a maid, Zoe. Immortal maid or not, it’s just not what I wanna be.” Emma said.

“No I know, I know. I’m not saying you keep the class right now, but take it so you have it unlocked. And then later, in another ten years or something if you don’t have immortality, you could replace your second class with it and loop as much as you want without worrying about old age. I think Spacial Hunter is the best option for you right now, but I think you should take An Immortal’s Caretaker just to have it unlocked before you commit to a different one.” Zoe said.

“Well how badly do you want to be immortal, Emma?” Joe asked.

“Like, a little. I guess. I don’t have the same fascination of dying of old age you do. But like, a maid?” Emma answered.

“She’s got a point then. If you want immortality, this gets you there. And like Zoe said, you can just unlock it and then take it later if you can’t find a better solution. But what if Zoe moves back in and you’re no longer a caretaker, and then you never get another opportunity before you die? Would you regret it?” Joe asked.

“I guess… maybe. Probably. Fine, I’ll take it. But I’m not even looking at the bonuses cause screw you, that’s so dumb.” Emma said, and her level jumped up to one forty five. “Dammit, I even wasted three levels. Do you know how long three levels take to get at this point for us normal people?”

Zoe laughed. “Come to Moaning Point with me for a bit after and we’ll get you those levels in no time. Joe can watch the cats.”

Joe shrugged. “Fine with me. I think Peter and Lauren might be interested in taking you up on that offer too, actually, Zoe.”

“Oh really?” Zoe asked.

“Mhm. They had a little boy recently and want to be strong enough to make sure he has a safe, happy life. Been talking about maybe replacing their classes with stronger ones.” Joe said.

“Huh. Alright, yeah I’m totally down to do that. You could come too, Emma.” Zoe said.

“Yeah whatever, but my class? Remember?” Emma said.

Joe and Zoe laughed.

“I agree, I think Spacial Hunter is probably your best bet. You like your current class right?” Joe asked.

Emma nodded. “Yeah, it’s a lot of fun.”

Joe shrugged. “Take an upgraded version, then.”

“Oh, you could totally take the upgraded version then replace the original with it after you unlocked it too, if you’re gonna come to Moaning Point.” Zoe said.

“Does that work?” Emma asked.

Zoe shrugged. “Probably? I’ve taken classes I don’t have the requirements for. I think as long as you’ve had the class once, it’s going to be fine. Except for ones that can only be in specific class tiers, maybe. But those seem rare, to me.”

“Not a bad idea, I guess. I’m probably never getting to the next class anyway, so that might be an easy way to get a little extra power.” Emma said.

“I might do the same with my recent class too, if we’re all going to start looping.” Joe said.

Zoe grinned. “There we go, that’s what I like to hear. Why leave all this power on the table when you can reach out and grab it!”

“Okay, okay. So Spacial Hunter sounds fine to you two?” Emma asked.

Joe and Zoe both nodded.

“Alright, I’m gonna take it then.” Emma’s eyes glazed over again, and then her level dropped back down to one forty two. But more than that, she had a faint presence about herself that wasn’t there a moment prior. A pressure that wafted off of her, defining herself in reality just that little bit more.

“Woah. This is weird. Everything looks so different and yet the same, somehow.” She waved her hand in front of her face. “You’re so far away now, but so close? Weird. This is gonna take a lot to get used to.”