Frostbitten Wayfarer

Grakthur sat in his throne room, his clawed fingers rapping against the shattered skulls in his armrest. Brigor would have to come fix it when he was finished with the spring maintenance later.

The new girl was interesting. Just this morning, she was hundreds of kilometers away in a small town called Foizo. A shame what had happened to Flester, though they were never much for the Springs of Gir anyway. Perhaps it was an upside of the travesty that the ones who resided in it now feel more open to travelling the wilds — or perhaps the event merely gave them the power to try their hands at it for themselves.

And to boot, the girl was immortal. Perhaps she was no girl then, Grakthur thought. Was she some ancient immortal prowling the lands in boredom, feeding information to the denizens of the dungeon for fun? Or was she some new immortal looking to expand their narrow worldview, unaware she was even being spied on?

Grakthur couldn’t tell, the woman’s motivations were a mystery to him. If nothing else, Grakthur was confident that she wasn’t here for a fight. Those were the most annoying customers, he thought. Ones who arrived, insistent that the dungeon must be evil because it is a dungeon. Thinking that they must be up to some nefarious deed, and then slaughtering the peons for some shallow belief of good and evil.

Even the peons didn’t deserve that, Grakthur thought. A meaningless death. He shook his head. Zoe wasn’t one of them. Tendrils of shadow rose from the ground around Grakthur, splattering ink onto a parchment he held in his hands.

When Peter was done with his silly game, he could finish the tour and return to his normal duties. The woman was no threat. He handed the parchment to Klihur and pushed him out of the throne room, slamming the doors closed with his tendrils of shadows.

—————

Zoe and Peter both stood in front of their floating black spheres, looking at each other with a spark in their eyes.

“You ready?" Peter asked.

Zoe nodded. The rules were simple, when the countdown finished all she had to do was flood the black sphere with as much mana as she could. It would fill the clear canister a few feet ahead of them and the first one who’s lid popped off was the winner.

The game had already been adjusted to accommodate the much larger than normal mana pools that both Peter and Zoe had with an assortment of levers next to the canisters. At Zoe’s nod, peter pushed a button next to his foot on the ground, and then Zoe heard a voice echoing in her head.

3…

2…

1…

Go!

Zoe slammed the sphere with mana, keeping her pool topped up but shoving all of her excess regeneration into the sphere. Tens of thousands of mana flooded into the sphere, a glowing blue stream of some kind of liquid rushing from the sphere into the canister and beginning to fill it.

Though, very little mana was contained in the blue stream or the canister as it filled. The mana Zoe shoved into the sphere seemed to vanish as soon as she did — maybe to power the visual effects of the game? She wasn’t sure.

Peter’s canister was neck and neck, the blue liquid filling the canister wobbling around at just the same height’s as Zoe’s as he shoved mana into his sphere. Zoe focused inwards on her Meditation and pushed even more mana into the sphere.

The blue liquid continued filling the two canisters, and Peter’s mana crept ahead of Zoe’s bit by bit. After a minute, the lid on Peter’s canister exploded off, flying into the ceiling and bouncing around as it landed back on top of the canister and was shoved around by the blue liquid overflowing. The liquid turned to smoke that rose up and vanished after a few feet as it touched the ground.

Peter looked over at Zoe with a smirk, then picked up the two silver coins. “Guess I won.”

Zoe looked at her canister, just inches from the top. If she started with meditation, it might have even made it. If she was willing to dump her entire well of mana instead of just her excess, she might have made it. But she didn’t do that, and Peter bested her fair and square.

“Guess you did. That’s an interesting game, I’ve never heard of it before.” Zoe said.

“Yes, it’s one of my favourites.” Peter said as he walked up to the levers on the wall and adjusted them back down to a more normal level. “Though I so rarely get to compete against somebody who’s so close. You almost had me there!” He laughed.

Zoe laughed. “Yeah, we were very close, huh? I’m pretty surprised, honestly.”

Klihur ran up and handed Peter another paper. Zoe wasn’t even sure when the little guy had left, but Peter took it and read through it. “More spring maintenance stuff?" Zoe asked.

Peter nodded. “Mhm. There’s a bit of a problem that needs my attention, I’m afraid. I would recommend the slime jelly and drake omelette if you stop by the restaurant though. It was lovely meeting you!”

“You too!” Zoe said as Peter ran off.

“First time?" A woman nearby asked Zoe after a few quiet seconds.

“What?” Zoe looked at her. She was tall, almost a foot taller than Zoe with a bald head covered in black tattoos.

“Your first time at the Springs of Gir?" She asked.

“Oh. Yeah. Why?” Zoe asked.

The woman laughed, the tattoos on her head shaking with each breath. “Everybody gets a tour on their first visit. I had Klihur, personally.”

“Oh. Huh. Why’s that?” Zoe asked.

The woman shrugged. "Probably spying on us, I’d say.“

“Spying on us? For what?" Zoe asked.

“No clue. The springs are wonderful, though. Wanna come join me? Can come back to my room after.” The woman smirked at Zoe.

“Oh. Sorry, no. I think I’m going to go try that restaurant he recommended.” Zoe said.

The woman nodded and left, leaving Zoe to herself next to the Mana Rush game. Another group had walked up and adjusted the levers for themselves, and seemed to be getting ready to play. The younger of the two seemed to have some preparation as he scribbled on the ground around him with chalk while the older was clearly falling into meditation.

Zoe wasn’t sure what to do now that her tour guide had suddenly left — food sounded nice, but she wasn’t sure that’s really what she wanted to do right this moment anyway. It was just a convenient excuse at the time.

It wasn’t that Zoe had no interest in a relationship, she just wasn’t one to have a quick fling with somebody in the middle of a possibly dangerous dungeon. Maybe one day she’d settle down somewhere, but there were so many more things to do that were so exciting in the moment. So many other activities she could enjoy instead.

Part of her wanted to teleport into the tunnels below the springs and see what was going on down below, but it felt like such a professional operation. Would she teleport into the tunnels below a nice grocery store or a comfortable inn? Was this place being a dungeon justification enough for her to break the rules and invade their spaces?

To Zoe it almost was, but she’d refrain for now. Maybe when she left, she’d ask one of the goblins about the tunnels and see if she could maybe check them out for herself. Regardless of whether they were good or bad, the dungeon was clearly harvesting mana from its patrons. Was it harvesting enough to keep everything running and then power whatever they needed to do?

Maybe not. The mana that flooded into the springs was immense, the mana that covered the food and goods was like a thick blanket of light to Zoe’s Mana Sight. Maybe that was what the tunnels were for, Zoe thought.

If they served slime and drakes, then they needed some way of acquiring those ingredients. Maybe below the productive dungeon was a normal dungeon used by the denizens of the productive dungeon to acquire ingredients. If Zoe offered, would she be allowed to help out with the work?

Zoe walked over to the restaurant and headed inside. The décor of the restaurant was made with a clear hot spring theme, small pools of water bubbling away as steam rose and filled the rafters up above. Several tables were set in the pools, planks of wood that floated around in the warm water with colourful flowers set on display.

At the entrance was a short pedestal with another goblin behind it, looking up at Zoe. “Party for one?" The goblin asked in a squeaky voice.

“Yes, please.” Zoe said.

“Dry or wet?” The goblin asked.

“What’s that mean?” Zoe asked.

“Would you like to be seated in dry seating,” The goblin gestured over to some tables set up on the wooden floors. “Or in wet seating,” the goblin gestured over to the tables floating in the springs.

“Oh. Wet, I guess. When in Rome, right?" Zoe laughed.

The goblin nodded, not quite understanding what Zoe was meaning and led her to an empty table in one of the bubbling pools of water. She placed a menu down on the table and gestured to it for Zoe. “Urgo will be out to see you shortly.”

Zoe thanked the goblin as she left and got into the spring, changing her clothes to a bathing suit she purchased in Korna in a flash from her bracelet. A dark purple one piece with an open back and shorts. Several of the other customers were nude as they sat in the springs, but while Zoe was comfortable with it out in far reaches of the dungeon where very few others were, she wanted at least some covering while she sat and ate dinner.

The menu was interesting, most of the dishes contained some manner of drake or slime which indicated that if there was a dungeon below the springs that it had very little variety. But the chefs worked with what they had and the menu was impressive.

Drake steaks, decadent chocolate slime desserts, pasta dishes made from drake eggs and slime noodles. Zoe decided to just go with Peter’s recommendation and when Urgo showed up ordered slime jelly and drake omelette. For a drink, Zoe settled on a mint slimeshake.

Sitting in the spring for so long was an odd experience. There was no seat, just the rocky floor and the floating table which wasn’t tethered to anything. Zoe found herself crawling around chasing the table and floating in the warm water whenever her back got a little sore from sitting.

The water came up to about her armpits if she sat upright which made the table rather uncomfortable to use unless she sat on her knees for a bit of extra height — but then the rocky bottom cut into her knees which also wasn’t very comfortable.

Urgo returned about fifteen minutes later with a plate full of food and placed it down on the floating table along with a counterweight on the opposite end of the table. “Enjoy,” he said as he crawled out of the bubbling spring.

Zoe looked at the plate, and it looked interesting. The omelette wasn’t yellow like Zoe had expected, but a dark gray that almost approached black when the light didn’t shine on it just right. The slime jelly Zoe had thought would be blue — or maybe green, but it was a vibrant red colour. A couple pieces of brul were laid next to the small pool of red slime, along with two dark gray sausages with black sear marks only visible when Zoe tilted her head just the right way.

It looked, in a word, carcinogenic. Was cancer something Zoe needed to worry about anymore though? She thought she’d wondered about that before but wasn’t sure. Would Restoration deal with cancerous growths, or would it accelerate the cancer?

She shrugged. If nothing else, at this point in her life Zoe could just cut off whatever part had cancer and heal herself back up with potions. It would suck, but so would dying.

Zoe picked up one of the spoons on the table — the smaller one, and scooped up some of the red jelly. She spread it onto the piece of brul with the back of spoon and bit in. The strawberry jam appearance of the red slime jelly was deceptive, she found. There wasn’t even a hint of sweetness to the slime, but rather an intense savouryness like she’d bitten into the essence of dried mushrooms.

The sausages were nice, though. A crispy casing that popped as she bit into it, blowing hot grease into Zoe’s mouth and burning the roof of her mouth. The filling was somewhat sweet and sticky, with a bit of a chew to it and paired nicely with the savoury jelly covered brul.

As was the omelette, Zoe found. It tasted much like a normal omelette — a little overcooked for Zoe’s taste, she much preferred a gooey interior to the solid omelette she was served. But it was tasty and well seasoned, and each bite she took seemed to explode in small bursts of flames that scratched at her cheeks and tongue.

Zoe finished her meal and paid Urgo the seventy five copper it cost and then got out, swapping her bathing suit for her normal clothes again. She pulsed Restoration through herself to clear up the pruning in her skin and walked out. There wasn’t much more to explore to the Springs of Gir — a few inns she could stay at, and the tunnels below that might be interesting if she could find a way into them that wasn’t too invasive.

She decided to start with the inn and made her way over to one of the nearby buildings to get a room. The inside was nice, and run by a few dozen of the small green goblins that Zoe continued to find adorable. She paid the two silver up front for a two day stay, and was led to a room near the back.

The room she was given had its own private, indoor hot spring with a few levers that managed the temperature as well as a nice wooden bed with a thin mattress resting on top. To the side was an open closet just big enough for Zoe to stand in, and a few counters that Zoe supposed she could cook some food on if she found a heat source somewhere.

Zoe played with the levers until the temperature was just right, then stored her clothes away in her bracelet and hopped in. Her own private spring was well worth the money she thought, as she relaxed in the warm water without the anxieties that came from being outdoors.