Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe continued lying on the floor, watching her friends look at her with worried expressions on their faces. She couldn’t see herself, which was odd to her. Everything else was clear as day, each bug crawling through the rotting wood and every piece of dust that clung to the tables. But where she was, there was a void. Nothing.

“I’m okay.” She said.

“What happened?" Emma asked.

“I got a new class.” Zoe answered.

Both of her friends groaned. “Oh thank goodness.” Joe said.

“How long was I out?" Zoe asked.

“Little under a day?” Joe looked at Emma.

She nodded. “About that I think, yeah. I wasn’t around when you collapsed but I think it was yesterday. The days all blend together up here.”

Zoe laid in silence for a moment before she spoke. “I was out for an entire day?"

Her friends both nodded.

Zoe let out an annoyed sigh. “New rule then. No taking new classes without being somewhere safe then.”

“I’ve never seen somebody get knocked out for that long other than when they take their first class.” Joe said. “What was it?"

“Cosmic Mystic.” Zoe answered.

“Is it good?” Emma asked.

Zoe tried to nod her head but her neck struggled to move. “Yeah, I think I’m gonna sleep a bit longer. Is that okay?"

“Of course.” Joe said.

Zoe drifted off to sleep moments later and dreamt of her hometown. Of sitting on the awful red couch her mother inherited, with her pet bunny flopping next to her begging for pets on his head. The television was on, playing some movie that Zoe felt like she hated, but was little more than frantic scribbles and static. The screen grew as she stared at it, filling the room with the awful static and Zoe with a sense of underlying dread.

And then she woke up on her bed in Joe’s inn. They weren’t the greatest beds, but it was much more comfortable than the rotting wood floors with cushions stuffed full of straw and furs.

Zoe stretched out on the bed and yawned. Her muscles felt sluggish, and as she stretched her foot out at the end of the bed, her calf cramped. She groaned and tried to wave her foot around in whichever way hurt the less until her muscles let up, and then got out of bed.

Her eyelids were heavy, her chin felt a little sore and her back felt like it had tiny little pins pricking into it everywhere that the straw was pinching. She stretched again as she stood up and rubbed the back of her neck before she rubbed all the crusty rheum out of her eyes.

She tried opening her eyes for a moment, but was overwhelmed with what she could see and closed them again. Her perception ability was enough for now.

Joe was just outside her room, sitting at the one remaining table that had survived the dungeon’s rotting grasp. Emma was nowhere to be seen to Zoe’s new vision, either off hunting on her own or perhaps just beyond the what seemed to be about two and a half meter reach of her new class’s effect.

Zoe walked out of her room and Joe looked over as soon as the door opened. “Hey, you good?"

“Yeah. Where’s Emma at? I bet she’s gonna wanna know what’s up with my new class too.” Zoe asked.

“She’s luring over some more zombies for me right now. She reached her cap three days ago and has been a big help for me since.” Joe said.

Zoe identified her friend — glad it worked through her new sense, level one fifty three. It wouldn’t be long before he reached the maximum his next cap even could be, and then their little Moaning Point adventure would be over. She felt a little sad at the thought, but excited at what it meant. All of the responsibility that it came with would be off her shoulders at last, and she’d be free to do whatever she wanted for a while. And she intended to take quite a bit of time to herself.

“Right. How long did I sleep this time?" Zoe asked.

“A week, almost to the hour actually. I think it’s early afternoon right now.” Joe looked out one of the holes in his walls. “So almost exactly a week.”

Zoe nodded and sat down next to him to wait for Emma to show up, and it didn’t take long. A few minutes later, Emma appeared inside Joe’s inn and her face lit up with a bright smile when she saw Zoe.

“You’re awake!” Emma hugged Zoe.

“Yup.” Zoe hugged her back. “Wanna learn about my new class?”

“Yeah! I so do! But after Joe handles this swarm.” Emma said.

Moments later, the first zombie entered Zoe’s vision — or rather the magic from the first zombie. A fibrous ball of grass and dirt launched at Joe’s inn splattered against the walls and blue energy rocketed out to return. Dozens of zombies followed shortly after with sticks and stones covered in various magical effects and pounded on the walls, each swing causing another bolt of blue energy to fly out of Joe’s inn and smash into their bodies.

In minutes, the swarm was quieted. Zoe had no idea how many zombies were taken out at range since her perception didn’t reach that far, but of the ones she could see there were already too many to count.

“You two were doing this while I was passed out?” Zoe raised an eyebrow.

Joe shrugged. “My class can handle it as long as you’re inside, and you weren’t leaving in that state anyway.”

“Worst case I could just take my immortal class again too.” Emma said.

“Fine, fine. It would have been a waste of time anyway, just seems so out of character for you two.” Zoe said.

Joe chuckled. “I’ve enjoyed this more than I thought I would, honestly. Thanks, Zoe.”

“I enjoyed this just as much as I thought I would. Which is a lot. I’m gonna have to do something for Peter and Lauren when we get back.” Emma said.

“Well I’m glad, then. Think you’ll go exploring more dungeons, Joe?" Zoe asked.

“Maybe.” He said.

“Really?" Zoe asked.

“Not like you though. It could be nice to travel around someday with a portable inn and set up inside dungeons so people could have a place to rest. Maybe. I think after this I’m gonna be happy to get back to the slow life in Foizo though.” Joe explained.

Zoe nodded.

“Enough of that, what’s the new class that knocked you out for a week and why aren’t you opening your eyes?” Emma pestered Zoe.

“Cosmic Mystic, and it gives me a new thing called Cosmic Vision which is.” Zoe paused. “A lot.”

“A lot?” Emma asked.

Zoe explained everything she knew about her class so far. The strange blurry vision she had through her eyes, her new vision that surrounded her and all the skill options she had.

“How many skill slots do you get?" Joe asked.

“Five,” Zoe said after she checked.

“That’s too bad. There’s six you’re going to end up wanting.” Joe said.

“Six?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah. Well you’re going to get Cosmos as a general skill at some point if I know you, so Cosmos Manipulation isn’t a real choice. Spell Creation you can get in other classes so it’s a bit of a waste to get it here. The class doesn’t even say you’re better at learning Cosmos spells so there’s really no point at all. And then radiance is worthless to you now. That leaves six.” Joe explained.

“Why are you counting Storage as one that I would want? I could just take another class and get that, too.” Zoe said.

“It’s probably a lot stronger in this class.” Joe answered.

“Then wouldn’t that apply to Spell Creation?” Zoe asked.

“Ah. Good point.” Joe responded.

“Who caaaares,” Emma groaned. “Try them all! Come on!”

Zoe laughed. The first skill she tried was Storage, which was only slightly better than the one she had in her Apprentice Space Mage class. Perhaps a good thing since it made her skill selection much simpler than it could have been if it was far better. Though, Zoe wondered what it would take to get a Storage skill that was large enough to be worth caring about.

Next, Zoe tried her Cosmic Familiar skill which excited her a little. A minion she could control sounded like just the kind of thing for a lazy immortal wasting their years away, if she ever wanted to play that role. Which now that she thought about it, she probably already was.

She pushed mana into the skill and was shocked at how much it pulled. With the Cosmic Mystic’s massive bonus to her mana capacity, she had just over one hundred thousand mana with several thousand regenerated every second. And even still, using the skill took just over two minutes with mana rushing form her body and coalescing in front of her into a dense blob of mana.

When the skill was finished, the mana shuddered, and a twisting purple shape was left in its place. It was a circle but also a triangle, but used to be a square and will soon be a pentagon. And yet, all at the same time and in the same space.

“Woah, that’s freaky.” Emma said. “It’s so many things, and I feel like I remember seeing it be something else in the future?”

“Yeah that is very odd to look at. What can it do?" Joe asked.

Zoe focused on the skill, she felt a connection to the shape in her soul, but there were no levers to pull on. No buttons or switches to interact with it, just an open connection reaching into her being. She pushed the thought of opening the inn door to it and the shape drifted through the air, passing through the tables and chairs on the route to it and then opened the door.

“Anything I tell it to do, I think?" Zoe wondered aloud.

“Can it fight? If I go get a zombie, could it kill it?” Emma asked.

Zoe shrugged. “Go try.”

Emma vanished and returned a minute later. “Okay, zombie coming from that way.” She pointed off to Zoe’s right.

Zoe waited for the zombie to enter her vision and then commanded the shape to kill it. The shape drifted across Joe’s inn and passed through the walls and then tried to attack the zombie, but was rather ineffective in its attempts. It was capable of shoving the zombie around and even blocking some of its attacks, but the mana that made up its body dissipated with each hit and the shape fell apart soon after.

“Doesn’t seem viable.” Zoe said. “But, this is a good opportunity to try the rift skill.”

Zoe focused on the zombie outside swinging its flaming blade at Joe’s inn and pushed mana into the skill. Thirty thousand mana drained from Zoe as reality warped, slicing the zombie in half and then returned to normal. Its bisected body fell to the ground and the dungeon claimed back what belonged to it.

“Rift seems good. Very mana hungry, but good. I could have killed the zombie with like probably a thousand mana using other skills, and that took about thirty thousand. But it worked.” Zoe said.

“Thirty thousand! Jeeeez. I wish I could throw that much around like its nothing.” Emma said.

Joe laughed. “Get better classes, then.”

“I’m gonna as soon as you reach your cap old man.” Emma shot back.

Joe rolled his eyes. “You’re not so young yourself you know?”

“Bah. I’m young in spirit. Not even fifty yet.” Emma laughed. “What next?" She asked Zoe.

Cosmic Armour was Zoe’s next test, which was an interesting skill. It covered her in the same purple strangeness that made up her familiar, twisting shapes that didn’t seem to belong in time. Neither of her friends wanted to try touching it, but when Emma fired an arrow at it the arrow just vanished. It didn’t pass through her to the other side, it didn’t get shot out at some strange angle. It just vanished, along with five thousand of Zoe’s mana.

Until a few minutes later when the arrow appeared on the floor behind Zoe like it had been sitting there all along.

“Okay. Weird skill. Suuuuper weird skill.” Emma said, and Zoe shut the skill off.

Next was Cosmos Manipulation which Zoe struggled to understand. She could create and move the strange purple shapes around but at least to her initial understanding, they seemed about as useful as her familiar but without the automation. It would take some practice and a lot of learning to understand what the cosmos were capable of.

And last was Cosmic Step, which Zoe was most excited for. She took the skill and was taken aback at the amount of information it fed her when she focused on it. Zoe focused on a spot just outside Joe’s inn and in a moment arrived right where she was looking. She looked back inside at her somewhat confused looking friends and teleported back inside.

“Okay, that’s super cool.” Zoe laughed.

“Isn’t it though!” Emma shouted back. “Teleporting is the best!”

“I’m sure it is,” Joe rolled his eyes. “But why teleport when you can stay inside forever?"

“Is it just teleporting, though?" Emma asked. ”Or is it weird timey wimey stuff too?"

“I’m not sure.” Zoe focused on her skill and tried to push it to the past, but nothing happened. She tried again but pushing it to the future and another sixty thousand mana was ripped from her, and her friends moved around. Emma was standing at the door while Joe was looking out a hole in the back of the inn.

“What’s up?” Zoe asked.

Her two friends looked back at her. “Where’d you go?" Emma asked.

“The future? How long was I gone?" Zoe asked.

“Twenty seconds? Maybe thirty?" Joe said.

“Huh. That’s really bad on mana, but I guess I can travel to the future. Can’t come back though, I don’t think.” Zoe laughed.

“Can you do both? Could you teleport outside and also a few seconds into the future?" Emma asked.

Zoe focused on a spot just outside the door, right behind Emma as she looked back inside and pushed mana into the skill. She teleported outside with Emma staring right at her with a wide grin on her face.

“Hah!” Emma laughed. “Knew it!"

Zoe rolled her eyes behind her eyelids. “Alright, lets get you two your new classes and head home. I’ll need to get used to my new vision too, I guess. Or I could keep my eyes closed forever.” She laughed.

“We wanna clear the mountain before we leave, we decided.” Emma said.

Joe nodded.