Frostbitten Wayfarer

The first decision Zoe had to make was which class to take. Everlasting Enchanter was an excellent choice and she quite enjoyed the bonuses it gave. Plus, she already had it and had made it to level one thirty seven in the almost a year she spent slaving away over her general skills. But she took a look at her options anyway, just to see if there was something new and exciting.

There were several new classes that she hadn’t seen before — most related to her recent foray into the cosmos. But there were a few that tied in to her new elemental skill and even one that seemed to be referencing her adventures up Moaning Point called Moaning Enchantress that Zoe laughed at.

None of the new ones excited her more than Everlasting Enchanter did though, and Zoe checked her stat sheet to see her progress over the last year, ignoring the annoyingly long list of skills and resistances she didn’t need to see.

Name: Zoe Mara

Race: Human

——

Stat Points: 0

Strength: 200

Dexterity: 200

Vitality: 588

Endurance: 150

Intelligence: 1446

Wisdom: 1014

Health: 29400/29400

Stamina: 7500/7500

Mana: 289200/289200

——

Class 1: Earthian (137)

- Identify (128)

Class 2: Seasoned Persistence

- Elemental Affinity (153)

- Time Affinity (167)

- Elemental Arsenal (148)

- Restoration (112)

- Adaptive Elements (123)

- Elemental Echo (32)

- Alacrity (147)

Class 3: Cosmic Mystic

- Cosmos Affinity (78)

- Cosmic Armour (32)

- Cosmic Rift (24)

- Cosmic Step (69)

- Cosmic Familiar (9)

Class 4: Everlasting Enchanter

- Mana Affinity (57)

- Mana Manipulation (68)

- Enchanted Mirror (34)

- Enchantment Amplifier (21)

- Enchantment Bestowal (23)

Her mana was at a staggering number, and her regeneration was no less impressive. She couldn’t even measure how fast it regenerated anymore. One day she would discover the exact formula and know how ridiculous she was getting, but until then it was just good enough.

Even if she dumped all of her mana, in seconds it would be back to full once more. Which got Zoe wondering what she really needed. Regeneration just wasn’t an important stat for her anymore as much as it was annoying for the first month before she got her enchanting class again.

Capacity was what she needed. The more mana she could dump into Cosmic Step at a time, the further she could go with it. At just about three hundred thousand mana, she could teleport a little under two kilometers at a time.

She’d done some testing on just how much of a mana drain her teleportation was and had narrowed it down to some rough numbers. It seemed there was a base cost to teleportation, the mana that was used to actually turn herself into matter that could be transported great distances in a moment. To Zoe’s best estimation, that was about three thousand mana give or take a thousand.

Measuring how much mana something cost was extraordinarily difficult when she recovered so much of it so quickly. Did it cost five thousand and she just recovered two thousand by the time she saw a number in her peripheral vision? Or even more, perhaps?

At least with the base cost of the teleport, it was possible after several attempts to see her mana flicker down to a few thousand below her maximum for a moment if she stared at her mana display. But even then was it three thousand two hundred, three thousand four hundred? She couldn’t tell.

And without having an exact number for the base cost, she could do little more than very rough estimates of how much it cost to move distances. At the very least, she suspected that it was a linear increase. Each unit of distance cost a specific quantity of mana — and each unit of time cost a specific quantity of mana.

As far as Zoe could tell, the cost of teleporting across great distances was rather cheap. Somewhere around fifty mana for every foot she travelled, which was supported by her maximum teleport being a little under two kilometers.

At a little over three thousand feet to a kilometer, that would make two kilometers just over six thousand feet. With three hundred thousand mana and fifty mana for every foot travelled, that left her with a maximum distance of six thousand feet.

But she also had to remove the base cost of the teleport, and wasn’t quite at three hundred thousand mana yet anyway. Altogether that meant if the cost for every foot really was fifty mana, then she should be able to teleport just under two kilometers. It was good enough for Zoe’s estimations, anyway.

Maybe the cost was fifty five mana per foot, or forty five mana per foot. Or maybe it wasn’t really linear and she just couldn’t figure out the nuances to it, but until something broke she’d accept it as close enough. A nice round number seemed like something whoever made the system would do anyway.

The cost of teleporting through time on the other hand was much simpler to figure out, due to it being far more expensive. For every second that Zoe travelled to the future, the skill drained another just about two thousand mana from her.

It was a neat party trick, but Zoe had yet to see any real use for it. If she could go backwards then that would be incredible, but it only ever let her travel forwards through time which was something she was already rather good at anyway. Almost every single day since she was born, she travelled through time at a rate of about one day per day.

Zoe got up from the cold dark stone floor she’d been lying on and stretched. The cavern was still just a cavern a year later, none of her grand plans of building out more rooms ever amounted to anything. And Zoe wasn’t sure if they would any time soon, either.

She’d begun to get an itch. A growing desire creeping into the back of her mind. Zoe could teleport now, very far and very quick at that. And that was only going to get even more impressive as soon as she took another enchanting class with even more mana.

Exploring the world — truly exploring the world, wandering the wilderness and stumbling into towns was more possible than ever. Did she want to stick around at home for another decade building more rooms she didn’t need? Even if she were thousands of kilometers away, with another Everlasting Enchanter class that might only be minutes to her.

Zoe teleported into the kitchen next to Emma as she sat on the floor petting Fennel’s belly.

“What’s up?" Emma asked.

“I think I wanna leave.” Zoe said.

“Where?” Emma asked.

“I dunno. You ever just feel like spending some time teleporting through the forest and seeing what you find?" Zoe asked.

Emma nodded. “I do that all the time. I’m a hunter.”

“No I mean keep going. Not just the forests around here but keep going to the west, what’s over there? I heard there was a hot spring dungeon a few decades ago, maybe it’s still there.” Zoe said.

Emma shrugged. “Never really thought about it. Sounds exciting just roaming around for a bit. A little scary though.”

“I think it’d be fun. I think I wanna. I can teleport! Wherever I want. Feels like I’m not taking advantage of that if I just stick around here more.” Zoe said.

“Don’t let me keep you around. I’ll just be here. Come visit sometimes though.” Emma said.

Zoe nodded. “Alright. I think I will then. I’m gonna go talk to Joe I think.”

“Sure, come say bye before you leave though. If I find out you just left before you even actually said goodbye I’m going to strangle you when you get back.” Emma laughed.

Zoe smiled and vanished, teleporting to a glimpse she saw of Joe’s inn through her Cosmic Vision.

“Oh hey Zoe,” Joe said from behind the bar. Peter was sitting at the other side drinking water from one of Joe’s engraved wooden mugs. He’d named his new inn recently with Zoe’s help and had some dishware made with The Risen Cask carved into them.

“Hi Zoe,” Peter looked over.

“Hey. I think I’m gonna leave soon. Go wander around for a while and see what I find. Any suggestions?" Zoe asked.

“Don’t get manipulated again.” Peter laughed.

Zoe rolled her eyes. “That wasn’t on purpose anyway.”

“You haven’t been to the dungeon spring west of here, right?” Joe asked. “That could be a good start.”

“That’s what I was thinking. Never seen a productive dungeon before.” Zoe said.

“You could go visit the capital if you’ve never been there.” Peter suggested.

“Yeah that’s not a bad idea either, actually.” Zoe walked over and leaned in to whisper to Joe. “How’s travel between kingdoms here, by the way? If I wanted to go visit the Ijun Empire would that be like, a problem?”

Joe shook his head. “Not unless you’re important.”

“And I’m not important?" Zoe feigned offense.

Joe chuckled. “Not to the Injellar kingdom you’re not.”

“Right. Alright, so I can travel wherever I want then. Cool.” Zoe said.

“Just do your research first. The Ijun Empire wouldn’t be a huge fan of you I don’t think.” Peter added.

“Why’s that?” Zoe asked.

“You’re a pale woman.” Peter shrugged. “Not a great place.”

“You ever been?” Zoe asked.

Peter shook his head. “No, just heard stories.”

“Alright, well thanks then. I think I’m just gonna start by heading to that dungeon spring then. I’ll be back soon probably. See you two later then. Say hi to Lauren for me Peter.” Zoe said.

Joe nodded. “Good luck then, Zoe. Stay safe out there.”

“Safe travels, I’ll let Lauren know you said hi.” Peter sipped from his mug.

Zoe vanished and appeared back in her kitchen next to Emma.

“Yeah, I’m gonna go I think. Peter suggested I check out the capital too, but I think I’m gonna start with the dungeon spring. I might even be able to get there today.” Zoe laughed.

Emma gestured to the cat purring on her lap and then spread her arms for a hug. Zoe leaned down, hugged her friend and pet Fennel. “Bye Zoe, we’ll miss you. Have fun and stay safe.”

“I’ll miss y’all too. Make sure you give the cats extra pets for me every day.” Zoe said.

“Of course! They deserve all of the pets. They're the best little kittens.” Emma grinned.

Zoe looked off to the distance and teleported to a glimpse of the forest to the west through her Cosmic Vision. Goodbyes were much easier for her now than they were when she first left for Gafoda, Zoe found.

Part of that was that she was much safer now. Her friends didn’t worry about her as much as they did when she was a naïve girl with nothing but a somewhat powerful first class. Part of it of course was that she didn’t worry about them as much, Joe was already immortal and Emma was in her own way at the cusp of immortality.

But the biggest part of it for Zoe was the trust that had developed between her friends over the years. She didn’t worry about their relationship falling apart because she was gone for five years anymore. When she got back, Emma would be there with arms wide open excited to see her. And Joe would be in his inn helping people out and as open to chatting as he always was.

Her anxieties around leaving just felt so unimportant now. There was always the risk that another devastating fire elemental destroys Foizo, but it’s not productive to worry about things so outside her control. Diana was there in case something did happen and as much as Zoe didn’t like her, the woman was likely far more powerful than Zoe if the Royal Guard title truly meant anything.

Zoe wrapped herself in Earth and floated up above the trees — as useful as Cosmic Vision was for teleporting great distances through forests and buildings, it was far easier to just teleport to a spot in the air far away. She pushed herself forward to the south west, and every few seconds when her mana regenerated warped forward another nearly two kilometers.

In seconds she found the road leading out to the west from Flester’s ruins, worn and damaged from a lack of maintenance. A darkness covering the land that the Okiu had spread corruption to so long ago.

And the next moment, the darkness was left far behind her. The view below her replaced with a vibrant forest as she teleported further down the road. Zoe spun in the air with her earthen suit, laughing with glee.

She was free, and it felt incredible. Just a minute earlier she was what would have been hours or even maybe a day of travel back in her cave in Foizo. And now she was all the way out in the middle of nowhere, floating in the sky far above the trees.

Zoe dismissed the earthen suit, reclaiming the mana stored within it and let herself free fall down towards the trees. Just before she hit the tree tops she teleported further west and far above in the sky, catching herself in another suit of earthen armour and laughing.

She kept travelling to the west down the road and just over a half hour later saw what she assumed to be the dungeon spring. A gathering of lakes with thick plumes of steam rising off of them far to the north of the road Zoe was following. A winding dirt path coiled through the forest, and Zoe fell down to it to finish the rest of the journey off on foot as excitement rose within her.

The Pit was a ruin, Moaning Point was a Lodestone dungeon. But this would be her first time stepping into a Productive dungeon. How would the mana behave? Would there be minions created by mana to help run the hot spring, or would people have moved in to keep things organized? Was there some way to clear it, a challenge that could be overcome for some reward even though it was just for utility?

Zoe found herself bouncing with each step she took down the winding dirt road towards the dungeon spring. She didn’t even know if the place had a name yet. Everything would be so new, and to think that just an hour earlier she was laying on her cavern floor weeks of travel to the east to most normal folk.

Teleportation was the greatest gift Zoe could have ever asked for.