Frostbitten Wayfarer

The days turned to weeks, and the weeks bled to months as Zoe sat in her dark cavern just behind her cave, experimenting with all of the new skills she’d unlocked. Her level skyrocketed thanks to both of her classes and after the first month capped out at level fifty nine. Zoe took Everlasting Enchanter again as soon as she reached her cap, pushing the decision for her fourth tier to another day in the future. Her progress slowed down as soon as she did, lending more credence to her theory of how the experience bonuses worked.

For her stats from Cosmic Mystic, Zoe put a hundred points each into her strength, dexterity and vitality. Six hundred to intelligence, and the remaining two hundred ten into her wisdom. The main issue Zoe faced was with her mana, which was an odd experience for her. After so long of mana being an afterthought, it once again reared its ugly head as the limited resource it could be.

The problem was that while Cosmic Mystic gave her a sizable boost to her capacities, it did nothing for her regeneration. And without any other classes giving her more massive multipliers, without the enormous multipliers from the higher tier classes, Zoe’s mana was sat at a mere thirty thousand — and with only a few hundred mana every second.

Decades prior, Zoe would have danced and celebrated the endless well of mana that meant for her. But now, with her Cosmic Mystic class demanding such massive quantities from her it felt like a pittance. Up at the top of Moaning Point she had thousands more stat points, and far larger multipliers. Over a hundred thousand mana at her disposal with tens of thousands recovered every second.

Hopping around from tree to tree was effortless, dancing through time and space came as easily as breathing. But with just her Cosmic Mystic class, she was left with a fraction of that power, and she felt weak. Once she took Everlasting Enchanter again, her mana problems were solved. But the month she spent without it put into perspective just how demanding her new class truly was.

Toying with her laundry list of general skills was a good pastime though, and Zoe found her Cosmic Vision even helped her follow the intricacies of how her Time Manipulation skill worked. She watched as the mana twisted through time, the smears across her sight skipping like a pebble on a lake as the mana was thrust moments into the future.

Even without her Cosmic Vision, Zoe was confident she would have figured it out eventually. Time Manipulation was powerful and Zoe found herself drawn to it. Watching a paper fall and surrounding it with her mana, winding it throughout time and accelerating the paper’s descent.

But with her new class — at least after she’d taken the time to understand how it worked, Time Manipulation was as simple as any other skill she’d found. She broke the mana apart to its components, and fit it into the system she was already used to and it worked flawlessly. The mana from time’s definition twisted and warped the mana she was used to using, but as long as Zoe just did what she was used to the rest fell into place.

*Ding* You have unlocked the Time general skill.

Elemental Manipulation on the other hand was truly complicated, it didn’t just require a better understanding of the world. It was filled with patterns Zoe had never seen before, dense clusters of mana wound in tight formations that swirled through the air in front of her as she cast the skill.

With months of practice and study, Zoe managed to piece the skill apart as well though. Each cluster seemed to be its own element, with bits of the superfluous mana the system corrupted everything with seeping into its formation. She went through each cluster one by one, scribbling notes about each component as she did until the whole skill was dismantled and put on display in one of her many crumpled notebooks.

*Ding* You have unlocked the Elemental general skill.

The skill confused Zoe, not in how she was supposed to use it. That much was simple, the skill was more or less a watered down combination of her already existing elemental general skills — likely because of its much lower level, with the addition of being able to combine them all into something more than the sum of their parts much like her Seasoned Persistence’s aura.

No, the confusing part was in what it meant. What would happen if Zoe found another class with an Elemental skill that differed in which elements qualified? Would she have two Elemental general skills, or would they combine into one even more versatile skill? If the opportunity ever presented itself, Zoe thought it might be interesting to try it for herself.

Her current theory was that they would combine into one more versatile skill — and if she really wanted to, Zoe felt that she’d even be able to add more elements into the skill manually. Each of the clusters of mana that made up the skill were intertwined with each other, but with enough effort Zoe thought she might be able to design her own clusters for different elements. Maybe she could add in Time, or Wood if she found some way to connect them to each other.

Would the system do that automatically for her, if she found another Elemental general skill? Or would she be forced to merge them together herself? Or would it just replace her skill with the new one until she managed to force all of the components together?

Cosmos Manipulation was incredible, Zoe found. The odd purple shapes warped through space and time and Zoe could push them into forms, slicing through reality or squishing space together so it seemed smaller than it was. She created a small box from wood and with the cosmos managed to fill it with far more coins than it should have been able to hold.

The space within was expanded, but the cosmos commanded more than just space. The coins flickered in and out of existence as they leap frogged through time. One moment the copper coins were visible, the next only the silver coins and the next moment the gold coins popped back in for a moment. When Zoe stopped dumping her mana into the effect, the coins exploded out of the box and shattered the flimsy wood she summoned to hold them in.

Cosmos Manipulation was a mess to Zoe’s mana sight too. The mana was hectic and unpredictable, even as she followed it skipping through time and passing through the fabric of space, finding patterns in it was a challenge. Months flew by and notebooks piled up next to Zoe as she threw herself at the skill, trying to find the slightest hint of a pattern. Anything that seemed to repeat itself.

But nothing did. Not once did Zoe see the mana move in a way that truly seemed like a repetition — sometimes she’d see clumps of mana rushing across in a way that reminded her of something she’d seen before but it would split moments later in yet another new movement she didn’t recognize.

It didn’t make any sense to Zoe. Everything she knew about the system was that it worked on patterns, all of her skills followed patterns. Mana itself flowed in predictable ways. But her Cosmos Manipulation skill did not, at least not that Zoe could see. Maybe there was some other fundamental thing she was missing, another sense she needed to truly understand for the mana to make sense.

But as she was, it may as well have been impossible and she decided to leave it for later. She never liked being beaten, being forced to admit she wasn’t good enough. And yet the system did it to her time and time again, threw challenges she couldn’t even comprehend at her like they were common baubles.

Zoe took breaks most days, and tried to make sure she visited with her friends at least every week. Joe and Emma were both doing great, and enjoyed their new classes and feats they’d unlocked a great deal. Joe’s inn was back up and running with patrons returning once more as Foizo continued to grow. Emma’s mana regeneration put Zoe to shame at first and she took every opportunity to flaunt that.

Warping in to visit Zoe for a moment before heading back out for a cup she forgot, and then the tea she forgot, and then the cookie she forgot, and then the chair she forgot. Laughing the whole while, but after Zoe got her enchanting class back again the two seemed quite close with Zoe pulling a little further ahead as she put each level’s points into both Intelligence and Wisdom.

Jeffrey was never very close with Zoe, but he seemed to be doing well. He’d opened an alchemy store in Foizo and seemed to be thriving. Peter and Lauren had adopted a kitten of their own. A brown furball Sally named Idu.

Foizo itself had grown a lot, the walls surrounding the town had expanded all the way to the mountain Zoe dwelled within, and Zoe’s little cave was even brought in to the town proper. Though she was excluded from needing to pay any taxes for her dwelling on some legacy agreement Joe promised was fine.

The royal guard stationed in Foizo was named Diana, and she was an annoying pest in Zoe’s opinion. She was a dark blue marked mage who claimed to be level two hundred thirty seven but Zoe’s Identify was too low to confirm.

“I still find it hard to believe you’ve never even tried for your sixth tier, honestly.” Diana sipped from her cup of tea as she sat across from Zoe at a rugged table in the dark cavern Zoe’d been spending her time in.

Zoe blinked her eyes at the royal guard who suddenly appeared in front of her. “I find it hard to believe that a royal guard of the ingrateful kingdom would just pop into my home like this.”

“Injellar,” Diana corrected.

“Same thing.” Zoe groaned. “What do you want?"

“I just wanted to talk. Just talk. Everybody here is so boring, getting up and going about their normal daily lives like it’s just some regular old city. You know I was told that this was a big frontier city full of adventure and danger?" Diana finished her tea then stored her cup away in whatever storage item she used. Or maybe skill, Zoe thought.

“And how’s that my problem?" Zoe asked.

“Because you’re not boring. We don’t know anything about you, you know? Your little friend Emma there was born in Flester, raised by two parents who we know. But you?” Diana shook her head. “You’re nobody.”

“Yes I was teleported here against my will a couple decades ago, we’ve been over this.” Zoe rolled her eyes.

“But come on, you can share a little more can’t you? How were you teleported. Where from?” Diana pestered her.

“Just go break into that bookstore I keep telling you about in Flester’s ruins and see what’s in it instead.” Zoe said.

“God I tried, Zo. I really did. But it may as well not exist.” Diana shook her head. “Impossible to get in.”

Zoe wasn’t surprised, as powerful as Diana was John was in a league of his own. The more she learned about the system, the more true that became. How effortlessly he wielded powers far beyond what even the most powerful classes Zoe had found were capable of. Warping space like one would fold a piece of paper, or smashing space together to form a simple mockery of speech.

“Zoe. Not Zo, Zoe.” Zoe said.

“Fine, fine.” Diana sighed.

“And stop showing up randomly. I’m not going to fight you.” Zoe said.

“Ah!” Diana gasped and grasped her chest in a dramatic gesture. “I can’t believe you’d imply I came here for such nefarious purposes.”

“Didn’t you?" Zoe asked.

“Yeah, I did.” Diana shrugged. “It’d be really fun, come on. Lets go have a spar.”

“No. I’m never fighting you, Diana. I’ve told you this already.” Zoe groaned.

“Oh come on, it’d be so much fun. Just you and me, thrashing around in Flester’s ruins for a bit without holding anything back. Limbs flying, craters left in our wake. It would be beautiful, Zoe. Lets go have some fun, come on.” Diana pleaded.

“Look I appreciate what you do for the city, and I even don’t think you’re all that bad of a person when you’re not doing this. But I’m not fighting you.” Zoe said.

“But-” Diana started to talk.

“No. Get out.” Zoe scowled.

Diana vanished a moment later and Zoe let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. The royal guard was helpful to Foizo, if not for any practical reason yet then at least for the confidence she gave the townsfolk. Having a royal guard around made people feel safe, it let them walk the streets confident that no disaster would strike them.

But she was annoying. Ed was the only other royal guard Zoe had interacted with, and Zoe would trade the two in a heartbeat. The woman wasn’t all bad, and when they met in more normal circumstances she was even a bit of a sweetheart. Kind and caring, always looking out for the townsfolk.

This was the fourth time Diana had showed up, interrupting what Zoe was doing just to push her for a fight. Even if Zoe wasn’t about a quarter of her level she wouldn’t be interested. Fighting people, as necessary as it might be sometimes wasn’t something Zoe thought would ever be a pastime for her.

Though, she had a good point at least. Both times Zoe got to her fifth tier, she threw it away almost as soon as she did. The first combined to her Seasoned Persistence and the second was her Cosmic Mystic class that now sat at her third tier.

Zoe thought it would be fun to try for her sixth tier this time, and see what kind of rewards she could reap. The power she’d wield with all of those stats alone just from getting to that high of a level would be incredible. Let alone the bonuses from a class in the sixth tier.

It just left her with the question of what path would she take to get there? She could focus on something else she was bad at and try to flesh out her options. Or she could focus on what she was good at and get something even better. Maybe an upgraded Cosmic Mystic class would be possible even, if she got all the way to the sixth tier.

Zoe thought on it for a while before she decided on a goal. Her first classes were both ones that she was very happy with, but she’d never found an enchanting class that she truly loved. That would be her next goal, she decided. An enchanting class to rival her Seasoned Persistence and Cosmic Mystic classes.