Frostbitten Wayfarer

“So we’re going to Moaning Point finally, huh?” Joe asked Zoe as they stood outside her cave.

“Finally! I’ve wanted to go for so long! Thanks so much, you two.” Emma said to Peter and Lauren who were going to look after the two cats.

“Don’t worry about it, Sally loves cats. She couldn’t be more excited, could you honey?” Peter looked at his daughter.

“Kitty!” She said, hiding behind Peter’s leg.

“They’ll be fine, we’ve been thinking about getting a cat so this will be a good experience. It should be us thanking you, really.” Lauren smiled.

“Right, well I made you two another key. I only made one though, I should’ve made two I guess. But here you go,” Zoe summoned a brown gem from her bracelet and handed it to Lauren. Her time spent on Moaning Point wasn’t the most productive she’d ever been, but it was nice having another stockpile of enchantable gems again at least.

“That’s fine, we’re rarely apart these days anyway.” Peter said.

Zoe nodded.

“Alright well here’s the cat food, it should last long enough.” Emma handed over a bright red ring to Lauren.

“Two scoops twice a day, with wet at dinner time right?” Peter asked.

Emma nodded. “Thanks again you two, I really appreciate it. I’ll be back as often as I can be, but I don’t know how often that will really be.”

Peter and Lauren both nodded. “They’ll be fine. We’ll take good care of them.”

“I know, I just worry. They’re my babies, you know?” Emma said.

“We’ll make sure they’re happy and play with them lots, alright?" Lauren said.

“Mhm. Make sure you tell them I love them every day okay?" Emma asked.

“Absolutely.” Peter said. “Every day.”

“Thanks, you two. Okay, lets get going before I decide I don’t want to anymore.” Emma said to Joe and Zoe.

“You don’t have to, you know? It’s okay to just be content with your life. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Joe said.

“But I’m not, really. I wanna go to a dungeon at some point in my life. It sounds fun.” Emma started walking off towards the south.

Joe looked at Emma and the two shrugged. “Alright, lets get going then.” Joe said.

The walk was a little somber at first as they made their way into Flester’s ruins and through it to the other side. John’s bookstore was still standing, the last remnant of what Flester once was. Not a chip out of place on the stone walls, like nothing had ever even happened.

But as they made their way out of Flester and into the forests to the south, the mood brightened up and the three started chatting as they ran down the road.

“So it’s just all zombies all the way up? What are zombies even like anyway?" Emma asked.

“Gross. Really gross, honestly. They smell bad, they look ugly and if they touch you they feel murky and wet and gross. Just gross. All gross.” Zoe said.

“So why did you spend so long there?" Joe laughed.

“Cause it’s nearby and I’d rather kill mindless zombies than like, I dunno. Goblins or something. They’re gross, but killing stuff is never not gross. Cleaning a boar is gross, too.” Zoe answered.

“I guess. But what are they actually like? Like, to fight?" Emma asked.

“Simple, I guess. At least at first. They don’t do much, and even when they group up they’re not really organized, there’s just a lot of them.” Zoe said.

“Hmm. Think we’ll get attacked by bandits?” Emma asked.

“Hopefully not.” Joe laughed.

“Why do they even do that anyway?” Emma asked.

Zoe shrugged. “Assholes, I guess?”

“I’ve had a few come by my inn before. Assholes is about right.” Joe said.

“I kinda understood it before. You fall into a bad life, not allowed in the cities anymore because you’re a criminal. You need to survive, and you fall to raiding people far away from the cities.” Zoe said.

“But?” Joe asked.

“But it doesn’t make any sense! Money isn’t going to do them any good if they can’t get into a city anyway, except maybe underground black markets somewhere maybe?" Zoe said.

“I’ve heard people talk about something like that before, but no clue where. Maybe some basement in Gafoda?” Joe suggested.

“But even still, they could just hunt for food or travel somewhere else that they’re not known. Why do they bother robbing people on the road? Just seems foolish, honestly. At some point, somebody’s gonna get mad and track them down.” Zoe said.

Joe shrugged. “The way I see it is they like robbing people in the same way that I like being an innkeeper, or you like acting like you’re exploring the world when you barely go anywhere.” He smirked.

“Hey! I explore…” Zoe said.

“Oh really? The furthest you’ve been is Korna.” Emma laughed.

“Fine, fine. I don’t really get out much I guess.” Zoe smiled.

The three continued their chatting as they ran to Gafoda, losing her Seasoned Gales class hurt a little bit since she no longer had Haste but Joe and Emma were both quick enough on their own. Her Seasoned Persistence class could get it as well, but there weren’t any skills in it that Zoe was comfortable switching out if she was responsible for two other lives as well.

It was a shame, because it meant that both her new manipulation skills that she wanted to play around with were left on the back burner the past two years. But what was two years in the bigger picture anyway? Once Joe and Emma were satisfied with their classes, Zoe would have all the time in the world to experiment with her new skills.

No bandits interrupted their journey and after almost a week of running — and needing to stop for both Joe and Emma to rest and sleep, they arrived in Gafoda. The shanty town looked much the same as always with a handful of new buildings thrown up around the outskirts and several of the larger buildings in the centre being torn down to make space for new shops and businesses.

“It looks… worse than I imagined.” Emma said as they stepped into the town proper.

“Nobody takes care of the roads?” Joe asked.

“Everybody here is killing zombies, Joe. Some dirt on your shoes is the least of your worries.” Zoe answered.

“Alright, lets find an inn and loop!" Emma grinned.

Zoe led them to the inn that she’d been using on her trips to Gafoda, and into a room the three would share. It wasn’t quite large enough for a comfortable stay, but they had no plans of spending much time at the inn.

“Alright you two. Loop. It’s gonna feel really bad and you’re going to hate it at first. But then you’ll get better classes, promise.” Zoe said.

Emma and Joe both sat down on the small bed while Zoe sat down on the single wooden chair next to a small table.

“Which one are you doing?” Emma asked Joe.

“I’m taking the same class I already have.” Joe answered.

“No but like, which tier? Are you going all the way back?” Emma asked.

“Yeah, may as well I figure. I’ll lose some nice skills, but that’s just part of looping, right?" Joe asked.

Emma nodded. “A lot of stats, too.”

“A lot of stats.” Joe agreed.

Zoe watched for a few minutes and then smiled as both of her friends grimaced at the pain of the system ripping their stats out. It was never fun, even after she’d done it so many times. But it opened so many doors to have a powerful class earlier on and build off of that.

Maybe one day they could even find some way to upgrade their first class. Joe’s was Innkeeper’s Apprentice and Emma never shared hers specifically, but it was some warrior equivalent. If there were any classes that would have known upgrades, apprentice classes would be on that list. Someday, somebody would know, and Zoe would bring back a delightful gift for them.

But for now, she was proud of them both for taking the dive. It was a big step for most people, Zoe found. Even the most eager folk she helped out struggled with the feelings after, and Zoe did too the first time she supposed. It’s terrifying seeing your health so low and feeling so sluggish when you’ve grown so accustomed to the power you once had.

And for most people it was much worse than it was for Zoe. Zoe lost her stats, she lost all of her classes that she replaced, and the skills those classes had. And it sucked, but unlike Zoe the rest of the people she helped didn’t have Patient Decider. On top of everything else, they lost levels in all of their skills. Months if not years of progress working on their general skills, lost to their ambitions.

It was something Zoe hadn’t even realized in her time looping until somebody brought it up. Her general skills helped her so much, each one a powerful enchantment for her to use not even counting the benefits the skills themselves brought to the table.

If each time she looped she had to watch as her Meditation was brought back down to level twenty? Her powerful elemental skills ripped apart and left as a mere reminder of what they once were? Would she still so readily accept it? What about her Vampyric Immortality, when she managed to get all the way to level eight again. What would have happened to it if she didn’t have Patient Decider removing the level cap?

Would it have broken through regardless, or would she have had even more stats ripped away from her? But hearing the people talk about their general skills feeling so weakened was an eye opener for her. She never understood why people tended to be so against looping until then. You lose some stats, you lose a couple classes. Oh well, you can get them back so easily because of all the power you have.

But most didn’t keep any power. Most were right back where they started with a handful of new achievements. Most had to struggle through over and over until their power started snowballing, and getting that started was a massive hurdle that very few people wanted to even think about.

After another hour of her friends shivering from the system’s restructuring of their essence, they started to come to their senses again.

“Eugh, this is awful. Everything’s so heavy. Why is everything so damn heavy.” Emma complained.

Joe blinked his eyes a few times. “You do this for fun, Zoe?"

“Yeah, kinda. It is fun, after a while. Get to try out lots of new things.” Zoe said.

“And she even took a super weak class this time. Psycopath.” Emma added.

“You sure we’re gonna be safe here?” Emma asked. “I feel so weak.”

Zoe laughed. “Yeah, you’ll be fine. There’s nothing on Moaning Point that I can’t handle even with this terrible apprentice class. Well, other than the boss. And maybe the Abomination.”

“What if we get attacked by people though?" Emma asked.

Zoe shrugged. “Can’t worry about that. Could get attacked by people in Foizo too, you know? If you let that fear run your life, you’re never get anywhere.”

“She’s right you know?” Joe said. “We’ll be fine, people send their children here at lower levels than we are now.”

“I know, I just… Eugh. It’s so not fair that you get to keep your skill levels, Zoe. That’s cheating.” Emma sighed.

“You could’ve got it if you were more patient.” Zoe grinned.

Emma rolled her eyes. “You weren’t patient either. You took less time to get your first class than I did you just learned about them really late.”

Zoe shrugged. “You got me there, I guess.”

“I want my mana back, I can barely even see outside the inn like this. This is so gross.” Emma groaned.

Joe laughed. “Well lets go get started building it back up, huh? No point waiting around complaining when we’ve got a perfectly fine excuse to explore the mountain.”

The three left the inn and headed up Moaning Point and started fighting the zombies on the lower level. Even with their power ripped from them, both were more than capable of handling the mindless corpses that populated the lowest level with the help of their powerful classes.

At the next level, the tool wielding zombies gave them a bit of pause at first but with a bit of practice they were both handling them comfortable. Zoe started wondering which stage would be best to get their levels up as quick as possible.

It was a fine balancing act that Zoe had grown quite used to over the last two years, finding the highest level zone that the people could handle without too far that she couldn’t save them if something went wrong. For Joe and Emma, the best place for them to get experience would likely be the groups of tool wielding zombies in the fifth stage of the dungeon. They were quite a bit higher level, but the lack of magic made them much easier to defend against for Zoe.

But if her friends were capable of handling the mages on the third level without a fuss, then she’d try the sixth stage earlier than normal. She didn’t think they would, both of them had classes much more suited to physical combat than the spewing of magic, but it was worth a try.

Going to the sixth stage earlier was a little risky since a group of mages could turn the tides of battle rather quick if she didn’t pay attention, but the payoff was immense. The groups of mages were over level one hundred and people levelled very quick even with Zoe helping when they could manage.

“This next stage uses magic.” Zoe told them as they stood at the threshold of the next zone. “What magic exactly depends on the zombie. Some of them will have enchanted tools, some of them will hurl magical effects at you. Many will do both.

“We’re not going to stay here long since the next stage is higher level and frankly, easier if you’re careful. But if you’re comfortable fighting these then we’ll give the sixth stage a try a little earlier than normal.” Zoe explained.

Joe and Emma both nodded, and they continued up the mountain towards the next stage.