Frostbitten Wayfarer

The rest of the students filtered into the class over the next few minutes, and Melania tapped a white stick of chalk on the blackboard behind her while she paced back and forth at the front of the classroom.

“Today, we’re going to talk about the basics of wilderness survival. However; I want to emphasize that this is not a wilderness survival school. This is a hunting school. There is a certain expectation that you do not get lost. If you plan to go exploring the vast lands of this world, then you should do your research ahead of time and make sure you plan properly.

“Which brings me to the first point of wilderness survival. Plan. Properly.” She emphasized. “Almost every case of somebody being lost, stranded in the great unknown is a result of poor planning. They were not teleported from their home and left in a forest they don’t recognize. They did not wander into an undetectable portal and pop out at the top of a mountain they’ve never seen.”

She shook her head. “No, they went out into the forest or hiking up a mountain, and did not understand the risks well enough. They did not do their research, they did not bring enough supplies, they did not map the area well enough. But most importantly, when the time came to make a decision to continue exploring despite not knowing where they were, they continued exploring.”

She pointed her stick of chalk out over the classroom. “The number one rule for all of you is to not go somewhere you don’t know. If you can’t point to it on a map, you need to go back home and figure that out before you continue. We are not training you to be pioneers, discoverers of the new world.”

Melania shook her head again. “We are training you to be hunters. You will learn how to research your prey, how to track your prey, and ultimately, how to claim victory over your prey.”

She stopped her pacing, drawing a diagram on the board behind her. It showed a long wall next to a forested area, with dozens of flags placed throughout the forest. She finished it off by adding a gate and a large rectangle on the other side of the wall.

“This is the school, and the western gate.” She pointed to the rectangle and then the gate. “These are all of the flagpoles in the forest. You will all be given a map to take with you at the end of class, but for now,” She circled the area where the flags were in the forest. “Understand that this is the area that is under our jurisdiction.

“We patrol this area and we have flagpoles available for use by anybody. But this is a small area, at least relative to the forests surrounding Flester. I know it can be difficult to get an understanding of the size when we abstract it down to a diagram like this, but if you walk from the gate.” She tapped on the gate with her stick of chalk.

“Up to way over here,” she tapped at the opposite corner of the area. “It would take the better part of four hours. Large enough for our uses, but when you leave the school, you won’t be hunting here anymore. You’ll spend your time near one of the other gates closer to where you live maybe, or a bit further out down the road where there’s more wildlife and less competition.”

The class continued on as Melania explained other aspects of survival. Most of which were things that she already knew from scouts growing up. How to find water, which way the sun rose — the east here, thankfully. Different strategies for marking trees as you travelled.

Zoe expected more things related to hunting, if she was being honest. She looked at her neighbour, Emma. She was taken completely by the lesson, watching with an intense focus as she took notes in a brown notebook that she had.

But to Zoe, it just seemed so mundane. Respect the wilderness, don’t get lost, stay calm and make sure you have adequate supplies. She chuckled under her breath.

Maybe if she had this lesson when she first arrived here, she wouldn’t have had that run-in with the boar. The intensity with which Melania seemed to respect the forest surprised Zoe.

Wasn’t this an established city, full of powerful mages and warriors capable of taming the dangers the wilderness posed, Zoe wondered? There were so many magical buildings, enchantments and incredible sights were so common that it was unusual when you didn’t see them.

And yet stepping foot outside the walls, it seemed as though you gave it all up. It made some sense, she supposed. Melania already explained how the people inside the walls expect the safety, and leaving the city is an agreement of sorts.

It just seemed to backwards, wouldn’t they want people to be safe while they’re travelling to nearby towns? How could commerce flourish if the merchants were left on their own the moment they stepped outside the city proper?

Zoe had so many questions, so many things she needed to know, and yet none of them seemed within the bounds of this class. It would likely be strange to ask a hunting class how merchants travel from city to city. She should have paid more attention to Isla when she was still at the inn.

The hours passed as Zoe listened to the lesson with half her mind, the other half charging the mana orb and trying to get in what little meditation she could. She felt bad ignoring most of the lesson, but it just didn’t seem all that important. She was here for skills, to accumulate power. Knowing how to properly melt snow for safe consumption just didn’t matter to her when she had so many resistances she could just eat the snow as it was anyway.

She mentally wrote off the spring master feat as the lesson drew on. In particular if she intended to take more of the lessons — dagger-fighting seemed to be taught indoors as well. But that was okay, she needed the skills before she chose her class anyway. Getting all the feats and every skill she needed within a single year might have been a little ambitious to begin with.

Two years would be fine. She’d class up on her twenty-seventh birthday during her third winter here. That would be a nice present to herself. Which meant she could get herself a nice room to stay in through the spring — her first good rest in months. She smiled, thinking about one of the massive beds in Joe’s inn.

The class ended, and Emma stood up, looking over at Zoe. “That was so much fun!”

“Really?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah! We got to learn so much about the outside. I would never have thought to follow the animal trails to water before. That’s so smart!” She smiled.

“Yeah, I guess I just knew a lot of it already. It is pretty cool stuff, though.” Zoe smiled back.

“You already knew it? Have you taken a survival course before?” Emma walked towards the door.

Zoe followed behind, walking back down the corridor. “Something like that I guess, when I was younger I was in a club of sorts that did a lot of camping. We didn’t do much hunting itself but making a campfire, shelter, finding water, all that stuff was covered at least.”

“What club was that? I’ve never heard of that before.” Emma asked.

“It’s not from around here, but it was scouts. I spent a few years in it and we learned a bunch of stuff, mostly just had fun camping or field trips to archery ranges and stuff.” Zoe explained.

“You’re not from Flester? Where are you from?” Emma asked, radiating intrigue.

“No, it’s a long story.” Zoe chuckled, “I guess I was actually teleported from my home into a forest I don’t recognize. I don’t think I’ll ever get back but y’know, such is life.” Zoe shrugged.

It was something Zoe thought about a lot. How would she explain her origin here? Where would she say she was from? Did she want to hide everything about herself and where she was from? The lies just felt difficult to manage, and she ended up settling on just not sharing the whole truth.

This world was magical, full of mystery and intrigue. A random girl getting teleported into the forest from somewhere else in the world? That’s strange, but within reason. She’d just avoid sharing the specifics of where she was teleported from with people, and in particular her vampyric capabilities.

Though she supposed most people would notice her peculiar visage anyway, and nobody seemed to mind. Maybe it wasn’t such a big deal, but it wasn’t difficult to just not offer it up at every opportunity either.

Emma cringed, “I’m so sorry, I had no idea. That super sucks, are you doing okay now? That must be why you’re stuck charging mana orbs too, huh?”

“It’s fine, really. I do have other opportunities, but I enjoy meditating and it helps me work towards some of my goals anyway.” Zoe pointed above her head.

“Okay, I didn’t wanna ask but now that you mention it, what’s with the level eight thing? I mean I know I’m only level fifteen but that’s still a really big difference.” Emma asked.

“I just want the best foundation I can get for myself, I guess.” Zoe walked out to the street and stretched as the afternoon sun beamed down on her.

“You got anything good yet? I guess not, if you haven’t taken it yet, huh?” Emma asked.

“There have been a few good options. A couple cold magic classes if I wait until winter again.” Zoe said and sat at a bench at the side of the road.

“You think you’ll take one this winter then? One of the cold magic classes?” Emma sat next to her.

“No, not this winter. I was going for the spring master feat but already messed it up I think with this lesson today. Maybe even this apple cider job I took recently, but if not that then definitely today.” She laughed.

“You’re going for feats too? Which ones do you have so far?” Emma asked.

“I’ve got Winter’s Master at the moment, I want to get all the seasonal master feats. Just seems like a good start at least, to me.” Zoe replied.

“How do you get those feats anyway? I’ve heard of them before I think but can’t remember what they’re from.” Emma tilted her head as she thought about it.

“Stay outside for an entire season and get the feat for that season, basically.” Zoe said.

“Are you mad?” She shouted. “You stayed outside for the entire winter? How did you even survive?”

“Well I heard one guy say that you could just stay in somebody’s backyard. Get a fire going and it really doesn’t seem that hard. I just spent most of my time at Kaira park or this training facility thing with regenerating straw dummies though.” Zoe said.

“I guess it’s doable if you stayed by a fire all winter, but that would be so uncomfortable. Was it worth it at least?” Emma asked.

“I think so, gave me cold resistance and a bonus to cold affinity at least. Enough about me though, what class do you have?" Zoe asked.

“Oooh that does sound nice, actually. Maybe I’ll try for the summer master feat. Winter is a no go though, I don’t want to freeze to death.” She shivered, a little dramatically. “I just have a warrior apprentice class. I’m hoping to get a lot of bow related classes for my next pick though.”

“Hmm, that sounds interesting. What does the class let you do anyway? I’ve, y’know, never had a class before.” Zoe giggled.

Emma laughed, “Nothing super special, just a bunch of passives that give me some health regeneration, general damage reduction and some bonus strength. They’re helpful but not really life changing.” She paused for a moment.

“I’d like some magic in my next class, if I’m being honest. A magic archer would be super cool.” She said.

“I think I saw somebody like that at the training facility I mentioned, their class made their arrows return to them after they hit the target. I was pretty jealous of it honestly.” Zoe said.

“No, not like that. I mean yeah that’s cool too, but I want magic arrows. I’ve read these books of archers from legend who would fire one arrow that expanded into an entire barrage, raining down on a city. Or somebody else who fired a flaming dragon from their bow, decimating armies. That stuff sounds so cool to me.” Emma explained.

Zoe raised her eyebrows, she hadn’t even thought of magical archers like that. In her mind, there was a clear distinction between the physical classes and the magical classes. Warriors and Mages, at best the warriors would get some quality of life magic abilities, and the mages might get some endurance or something.

But maybe the line was a little less clear than she thought. Archers and warriors raining magic down on their foes, while mages bashed their enemies with their heavy staffs. It opened her eyes to new possibilities for herself.

Magic was interesting, it was exciting. But there was something exhilarating about using her body as well. Maybe she could find something that toed the line between the two.

“I’ve never heard of those before, that does sound pretty cool.” Zoe said.

“Right? My plan right now is to just get the archery skill and then level my intelligence a bunch. Hopefully that qualifies me for my next pick, I’d love to get some cool arrow effects I can show off.” Emma said.

“Well I wish you luck with that, then. From what I’ve seen there’s no reason that shouldn’t work. Try getting the meditation skill too if you haven’t already.” Zoe said.

“Eugh, that’s what my dad keeps telling me to do too but it’s just so boring, I don’t know how you people do it. Speaking of actually, I should get going. Dad worries a bunch if I’m out too late. It was nice meeting you though!” Emma stood up and stretched.

Zoe stood up as well. “Alright, nice meeting you as well. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow!” Emma spread her arms, “Do you do hugs? I do hugs.”

Zoe smiled and hugged her, “Yeah, sure. I can do hugs.”

Emma rushed off down the street, and Zoe made her way back inside the school. It was time for her to finally spend some time in a library.