Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe spent the rest of autumn trying to enchant random things she found on the ground. Sticks, rocks. Coins. Even her sandwich at one point. She found that just about everything was enchantable, but the effects imbued into them would wear off quite quick with certain materials. Her sandwich only stayed enchanted for fifteen seconds or so before the mana imbued in it broke apart.

Sticks and stones performed a little better than her sandwich, but not by much. The best she had found was imbuing her dagger. That managed to keep an enchantment for days at a time, which meant it might actually be useful to her at some point.

She still hadn’t gotten the enchanting skill, but that was okay. Just being able to imbue skills into objects and play around with them was immensely enjoyable for her. In particular, her favourite enchantment so far was an Archery enchantment that would make the object rocket off from her hand whenever she pulsed mana into it.

Controlling the direction it fired was almost impossible for her, though. After the first few accidents she managed to get it to not launch towards her at least, but hitting a target seemed like a distant dream for her.

Zoe sat in Kaira park on the last autumn night, enchanting her dagger with her Frost skill. All she’d managed to do so far with Frost was make objects a little colder when she pulsed mana into them, but she felt like she was only scraping the surface of what should be possible.

As the sun began to rise, she smiled as the notification she was expecting arrived.

*Ding* For surviving a natural autumn without shelter, you have been awarded with the [Autumn’s Master] feat.

[Autumn’s Master]

You have mastered the windiest season. You stare down the buffeting gales of autumn and stand steadfast in their destructive wake. All classes gain a bonus to wind affinity.

It seemed like autumn was the windy season according to the system, and she didn’t get a resistance again. Which supported her theory of the system not telling her about resistances she already had.

The thought made her wonder what other things the system wasn’t telling her about. Building a conclusive idea of what the system was or how it worked seemed like a nigh impossible challenge and she didn’t envy the work that Eliza had surely put in to her theories.

She already had the winter’s master feat and for a moment she thought about taking the winter to relax again, spend some time in a nice warm bed next to a fire.

But what if there was another feat for spending a whole year without shelter? She’d already done summer and autumn one after the other, and was planning to do spring right after winter. If she spent this one winter inside and missed out on a feat because of it she’d never be able to forgive herself.

So she decided to spend another winter without shelter. Just a few more months and she could stop worrying about it so much. Besides, she already had some comforts back in spring when she messed up. She’d survive. She’d thrive, even.

Joe had mentioned needing to do some errands at the start of winter, and Zoe made her way over to his tavern to tag along with him. It was probably just taxes and maybe picking up some supplies but time spent with friends was always good, in her opinion.

He was already waiting outside when she arrived, and Zoe ran up to greet him. “Good morning Joe, did I make you wait long? Sorry about that."

Joe laughed, “No I just locked the door a minute ago. Don’t worry about it.”

Zoe smiled. “Alright then. So what’s the plan today anyway? You never said it.”

“Dropping off my taxes and picking up some more drinks. I also want to go say hi to Herb again while I’m out, haven’t seen him in a few months. You’re not working on winter’s master again right? No more stuck outside for this winter?" Joe started walking down the street.

Zoe shook her head and followed along. “I just got autumn’s master. Weird thing by the way, it didn’t give a resistance either. I think the system just doesn’t tell us all the details every time. Anyway, I figure I may as well just spend the winter outside as well in case there’s a stupid feat for the whole year.” She shrugged.

“Well whatever makes you happy at least. I’m just glad you’re being a bit smarter with it now than you were last year. Anyway, I was going to say you could come say hi to Herb with me but I’ll probably be there for a while to catch up so I don’t think you’d wanna stick around.” Joe said.

“Yeah, probably not. Say hi for me though. I’ll probably just go keep working on this,” Zoe drew her dagger from her belt and pushed mana into it. The metal blade glowed with a faint blue radiance, and she pressed the edge of it into Joe’s skin.

He recoiled and Zoe laughed.

“That’s damn cold, did you buy an enchanted dagger?” Joe asked.

“No, it’s the same dagger. I made it! I learned how to enchant things.” Zoe said.

“Oh wow, that sounds right up your alley.” Joe said.

“Mhm. It was either that or alchemy for my last skill, and alchemy just seemed really expensive to me. And a lot less fun, too, probably.” Zoe said.

“Well you’ve got the gathering skill right? Might be able to just go get all the ingredients you need for alchemy anyway.” Joe said.

Zoe thought about it for a moment. She had written alchemy off before as just being too expensive for her, but she hadn’t even thought of just gathering her own materials for it. That would help level another skill of hers, too. It wasn’t a horrible idea, all things considered.

“Maybe, actually. I didn’t even think of that.” Zoe said.

Joe smiled. “Happy to help out.”

The pair got to the city hall and waited in the fast moving line. Joe dropped off his envelope of tax information and then they left without hassle.

“Lunch?" Joe asked.

“Yeah. Sandwiches?" Zoe asked.

Joe nodded his head, and the two made their way to the sandwich shop that Zoe was a regular at by now. They both got their spicy sandwiches and sat down at one of the tables to eat.

“Enchanting’s actually really easy, apparently.” Zoe flooded her sandwich with mana. Sandwiches never took long to enchant, whether because they were a bad medium or just didn’t have a lot of mana capacity, she wasn’t sure.

“Is it, now?” Joe raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Just flood something with mana and then solidify it into whatever form you want. I bet with a lot of practice you could even form it into something completely unique, but I have no idea where to even start with that.” Zoe said.

“And the many months of practising twenty-four hours every single day with mana orbs had no effect on how easy you find it, right?” Joe laughed.

“Okay. Maybe, I guess.” Zoe thought back on how many dedicated hours she’d spent just dumping mana into mana orbs.

Two thousand hours? Three? Just the past summer she spent almost two months just dumping mana into orbs with only a short break every day. That was over a thousand hours alone.

“Okay, definitely. But whatever, it’s really easy for me now at least!” Zoe pushed her identify skill into the sandwich, urging it to be named ‘Zoe’s Sandwich’. The mana solidified and she was rewarded with a notification.

*Ding* You have unlocked the Enchanting skill.

“Oh. I just got the enchanting skill finally. That’s sweet.” Zoe said, and brought up the description for enchanting.

[Enchanting]

Imbue objects with the essence of your being.

Joe stared at her for a moment. “Did you just enchant your sandwich?”

“Yeah! Identify it!” Zoe held up her sandwich and grinned.

[Zoe’s Sandwich]

Joe rolled his eyes. “Just eat your damn sandwich.”

Zoe took a big bite. “If you ever need me to enchant something for you just come hit me up. It’s a lot of fun, honestly.”

“I tell you what, if you’re ever good enough to enchant my building, I’ll let you help me name it finally.” Joe said.

“Why haven’t you named it yet anyway?” Zoe asked.

“Enchanting’s expensive and a name without an enchantment just feels pointless to me.” Joe said.

Zoe tilted her head. “It’s just mana right? I enchanted my sandwich for free. With enough time I could probably enchant your inn for free too. Maybe.”

Joe shook his head. “Your sandwich isn’t enchanted anymore. The expensive part of enchanting things is in making it stick. Takes some expensive materials and an experience enchanter.”

“Oh. That makes sense, I guess. Even my dagger only lasts for a few days when I enchant it. Your building might last longer, maybe. I dunno, really. Rocks don’t last long in my experience.” Zoe said.

“See? Expensive.” Joe nodded his head.

They finished up their sandwiches and got up to go to Grandol to restock Joe’s drinks.

“So, you’re picking your class in almost exactly a year now, right?" Joe asked as they wandered down the street.

“Mhm. Little longer, I’m gonna do it on my birthday.” Zoe said.

“Hah, that’ll be a nice birthday present then, huh?” Joe asked.

“Yeah, I think so. I’m really excited, honestly. It’s been so long now, I just want this year to fly by so I can be there already.” Zoe said.

“Well, nothing’s stopping you from taking a class this year still. You’ve probably got some great options already.” Joe said.

Joe led her down an alleyway and Zoe shook her head. “No I’d regret it. I’ve already worked so hard at getting this, if I don’t go all the way I’m gonna be disappointed in myself.”

Joe shrugged. “I think you’d be fine but to each their own I guess.”

“I don’t really know what to do with the rest of my time now, though. I’m gonna try and get the alchemy skill but I’ve got almost a year left to wait and I’ve accomplished all my other goals now. I’ve got all the skills I want, even more resistances than I wanted. Almost all the feats I wanted. Now I just wait? It feels weird.” Zoe said.

“Nothing wrong with some waiting. You’ve worked really hard to get to where you are now.” Joe said.

“That’s the thing though. I did work hard, I struggled and pushed my way through so much while trying to get everything done at once. All because I didn’t wanna waste time. And yet here I am with so much extra time left.” Zoe said.

“You regretting it?” Joe asked.

“No, not regret, really. I guess I’m just realizing that I have a lot more time than I thought. I mean, I knew that I did. But it’s really hitting me now that I already got everything I wanted to do, done, and have almost a whole year to just do whatever I want.” Zoe said.

“Well you could keep gathering more skills and resistances, build up the best start you can.” Joe said.

“I guess. I am gonna try and get the alchemy skill at least, that sounds maybe fun. But am I going to go learn how to mine? Just so I can have seventeen skills instead of sixteen? That sounds so boring. And resistances? I don’t even know how I’d get more of those at this point. What else even would there be? Metal maybe?” Zoe said.

Joe laughed. “It’s not so bad to just be happy with what you’ve got already and spend a year relaxing, either. You’re already going to get a better class than anybody else I’ll probably ever meet.”

“Maybe. I’ve already exceeded what my goals were. I guess it wouldn’t be the worst thing to just spend a year doing whatever I want and not worrying about it too much.” Zoe said.

“There you go, that’s the right attitude. You set yourself some goals and you met them. Be proud of yourself. If you keep moving the goal post you’re never going to be satisfied.” He smiled at Zoe.

“So I’ll just spend the next year getting my alchemy skill and playing around with enchantments. Actually, I wonder what enchanting something with enchanting would do.” Zoe grabbed a copper coin and flooded it with mana.

Joe laughed and shook his head.

Coins were a nice way to experiment with enchanting she had found, they didn’t take too long to flood with mana and they kept an enchantment for long enough to figure out what it did.

By the time they were out of the alley and back onto a main street, Zoe was already trying to force the mana to solidify into her enchanting skill’s form.

“Have you thought about what kind of class you’re going to want yet? You wanted a mage before I think, right?" Joe asked.

“Mhm. A bit. Hold on.” Zoe stuttered out as she focused on twisting the mana to her will. It was much easier than ever before now that she had the skill, but figuring out a new skill was still a little tricky.

A few minutes later the mana settled into its final form, and she pulsed some of her mana into it to trigger the enchantment. Nothing happened, but she found it much easier to push mana into the coin now than it had been before and every time she did, the mana seemed to fill out the bits that were fading from the enchantment.

It seemed like a useful enchantment, if she could manage to fit in another enchantment too so that it would actually do something useful instead, at least.

“Sorry, I was doing something. Anyway yeah I think I want a more jack of all trades kinda class now, to be honest. I like magic a lot. Like, a whole lot. But doing things myself also feels really cool. I got this one Jack class before which I could still see myself taking at this point if nothing else seemed really cool.” Zoe said.

Joe laughed. “After all this work and you just settle in on one of the first classes you found. That would be hilarious.”

Zoe smiled. “Yeah. I think I’ll have some cool stuff available that I’ll like though. Maybe an upgraded jack even.”

Joe stopped outside the door to Grandol. “Hopefully. Let me know what you get when you do pick your class. Anyway, I’m just going to be picking up some drinks and then going to visit Herb. It was nice walking around with you though.”

“Yeah, you too Joe. I’m gonna go play around with my new skill for the next few days and then maybe try and find an alchemist to learn from. You happen to know any, actually?” Zoe asked.

“No, sorry. If I hear of any I’ll let you know next time I see you though.” Joe said.

“Alright thanks Joe. See you around then!” Zoe waved to him and ran off down the road towards Kaira park.