Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe spent the first month of winter just focusing on her enchanting skill. As the skill levelled, she found it easier and easier to control what exactly happened with the enchantments. Her Archery enchantments made objects fly closer to where she wanted them to, her Frost enchantments made objects get just a little colder. She went through each of her skills one by one to see what kind of effects they would have.

Her favourite was still Archery, but Stealth was fun too. When she enchanted her dagger with it, the bright metal that shone in the sun dimmed as it was covered in shadows.

But the most interesting by far were some of her Vampyric skills. Enchanting something with Vampyric Regeneration made it repair itself with a pulse of mana. Most of the time with her mana capacity she was only able to recover a very small scratch or bend, though. She tried it on a sandwich to see if she could get infinite food, and at first it seemed like she could. The bite she’d taken out of her sandwich grew back right in front of her eyes.

But then she tasted it and decided that spending money on food was still worth it. Good to know for an emergency but even then she might prefer starving over eating the wretched food her enchantment created.

Vampyric Charm made objects seem unnaturally adorable to her, and Vampyric Empathy let her make objects exude a certain emotion. She enchanted one of Emma’s cat toy’s with excitement and Oliver had a field day with it while the enchantment was active.

Meditation was very subtle, but when Zoe really focused on it, she could feel some of the mana swirling around it very slightly, but didn’t seem to stick to it.

Maybe if it was also enchanted with enchanting it could keep itself alive indefinitely just from the ambient mana. But fitting multiple enchantments into an object was something she had no idea about. She’d tried a few times, starting with Enchanting and then repeating the whole process with meditation. But every time she tried, the stick she was enchanting splintered and broke apart.

If she had better materials, maybe they’d be able to hold more enchantments? Or maybe it just wasn’t possible at all? She wasn’t sure and didn’t want to risk it with something more expensive. She could figure it out in time.

Her birthday came and passed, and she was granted with two more stat points to spend along with another level to Vampyric Immortality. She brought up her current stats to figure out a plan.

Name: Zoe Mara

Race: Human

——

Stat Points: 3

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 20

Vitality: 20

Endurance: 20

Intelligence: 50

Wisdom: 50

Health: 200/200

Stamina: 200/200

Mana: 500/500

Since she was planning to class up on her next birthday, she’d get another two stat points to spend for a grand total of five. She didn’t expect fifty-five intelligence or wisdom to be a threshold that was important, fifty seemed significant on its own. And one problem she’d begun to notice was her low vitality.

If she dumped the remainder of her points into vitality she’d be able to bring it up to twenty-five, which might be important for something. An argument was there for Endurance too, which was the only pool she’d actually run completely dry so far. But health was her life, her existence. Getting more of that just seemed like a very good idea. She pumped her three points into Vitality and felt herself become something more.

The feeling wasn’t like Intelligence or Wisdom where they affected some part of her that she’d never known about, some power that was completely new to her. Vitality affected her body in a very real way, and even though she only had three extra points into it, she felt the difference.

She felt more substantial, more realized in existence somehow. Her body changed in a subtle way that made her tougher and stronger. The subtle pressures that bared down on her backed off just the tiniest bit. The wind seemed to brush past her with a little more ease, the cold winter air felt just a little bit less cold.

It was an enjoyable feeling, and made her wonder what the other stats would feel like to level up. Was it worth levelling all of them, or should she just focus on specific ones that helped her the most? She wasn’t really sure, and didn’t expect there would be a way to reset her stats if she ever decided she wanted something different.

Or would it be possible? She could change her classes later, would that reset her level and all the stats she got from them? That was a scary thought, now that she actually wondered about how it would work.

Getting your stats levelled up was an intensely pleasurable experience. But if you got to level three hundred and then replaced your third class and lost all of those levels, that would be devastating.

She got up and wandered around town. Alchemy was something she wanted to get an understanding of before spring started, just in case she did end up needing to spend some time inside. She supposed that was just a repeat of her previous mistakes and it would be best to wait until summer or autumn to try and learn, but habits were hard to break.

Alchemists were fewer and far between when compared to enchanters. Liz was one, and Lorelei as well. But neither of them offered training, and finding an alchemist who did was no easy feat.

Zoe wandered the streets of Flester for almost a full month while she watched the groups of people demolish the snow that covered the city once more, and searched for an alchemist who was willing to train her.

She saw Ash and Lila a few times in her search, but neither of them knew any prominent alchemists either. Zoe stopped by Joe’s inn a few times and asked him if he’d heard of anything but none of his patrons that he talked to knew of any either.

It wasn’t until a few days before the end of winter that she found an alchemist who was offering lessons. A small wooden hut called Bubbling Bruce on Ina’s Road. They had a big sign posted up outside offering an alchemy lesson for one gold. A man was slaving over a large cauldron that spewed colourful smoke around the side of the building. Identify showed him as dark red worker.

Zoe walked up to him. “Hello?" She asked.

The man turned to look at her. His short, messy brown hair was plastered to his face with dirt that covered him head to toe. He took off his brown leather gloves and wiped his hand on his apron and waved to her.

“Hi, how can I help you today?” He asked.

“I hear you’re doing alchemy lessons?” Zoe asked.

“Yes, for one gold coin, I’ll teach you everything you need to know and let you keep your first batch.” He said.

“Okay, I think I’d like to take you up on that then.” Zoe said.

“Sure thing, pull up a seat and let me finish up this work and then we can get right into your lesson.” The man put his glove on again and turned back to the large cast iron cauldron.

Zoe sat down on one of the wooden chairs and then decided to stand up when she felt her clothes sticking to it. She watched the man as he summoned various herbs — klir being the only one she recognized, and dumped them into the cauldron. Sometimes he would pull out some of the burning logs from below the fire, while at other times he would add more wood in and stock the flames so they licked the edges of the cauldron.

When he was done, he pulled over a large crane looking contraption and attached it to the cauldron. The metal hooks latched on to the cauldron and a metal spout lowered down to attach to the cauldron’s lip. He cranked on a lever and the cauldron lifted off the metal beams it was resting on.

He placed a couple massive glass vials on the ground next to the cauldron and placed large funnels into each and then cranked on the lever some more. The cauldron tipped over and the black sludge inside spilled out down the funnels and into the vials.

Then he put the cauldron back down, moved the crane away and pulled the vials of sludge into his storage item. “Alright, now we can start with your lesson. What do you know about alchemy so far?” He asked Zoe and held out a hand.

“Nothing, that was the first time I’ve seen anybody do it. At least I think that’s what you did?” She asked and pulled out a gold coin to hand to the man.

The man laughed. “Yes, that was alchemy. I’m sorry, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Bruce, and you are?”

“Zoe. So alchemy is just magical soup, then?” Zoe asked.

Bruce laughed. “That’s a good way to put it. But imagine the soup can violently explode and kill everybody if you add in lio instead of furni.”

Zoe shivered.

“Doing your research is very important with alchemy, understanding the ingredients you’re using and if you do end up doing any new experiments, doing so in a controlled environment with proper protections is of the utmost importance.” Bruce explained.

“Okay, that makes sense.” Zoe nodded.

“Good. First step is to sanitize your equipment. What you’ll be using today is this cauldron, the stirring stick, and the crane. Do you have any cleaning skills? I guess you don’t, huh?” Bruce asked.

Zoe shook her head.

“Well, you can use these if you like, then.” Bruce summoned a vial of translucent blue liquid and a white cloth. “I won’t make you do it today, but you can keep these for the future. I would recommend getting a cleaning spell, though.” He cast a spell and a familiar blue pulse of magic washed out over his equipment that left everything spotless.

“Next up is a base. Most commonly you’ll be using mana water, which is just water that you saturate with mana.” Bruce said and summoned enough water to almost fill the large iron cauldron. “Have you ever filled something with your mana before?”

Zoe laughed. “Sorry, yeah. I just had a class on enchanting that asked me the same question. I’m quite good at it, I think.”

“Good, now I doubt you have enough mana to fill my cauldron of water but go ahead and give it your best shot just so we can make sure you’re doing it right.” Bruce said and gestured to the cauldron full of water.

Zoe walked up to it and pressed her hands into the surface of the water so she could send her mana into it. She dumped in three hundred mana and it didn’t seem to make the slightest difference.

“Yes, excellent.” Bruce walked up and did the same but rather than the trickle Zoe had, a surge of power flooded out from him and saturated the cauldron of water in an instant. The water seemed to have a faint blue glow.

Bruce summoned a klir leaf and dropped it in the pot. “Another way is to fill it with a mana leaf like Klir, but this is quite expensive. You’re better off saturating the water manually first and then using supplements to manage the mana as you brew the potion. But that’s only really necessary for longer recipes anyway. Send some of your mana into the klir leaf.”

Zoe did as he said, and the leaf dissolved leaving not even the slightest speck in the water.

Bruce summoned a few containers filled with different plants and placed them on a nearby table. “Next up is just making your ‘soup’ according to whatever recipe you’re making. Get a fire going below the cauldron,” he gestured to a pile of logs off to the side.

Zoe grabbed some of them and piled them up below the cauldron and then rummaged in her bag for her fire starter to ignite the logs. They waited in silence for a while until the water started boiling.

“The potion you’re going to make today is a minor healing salve. It doesn’t do much but it helps with scrapes and bruises. The recipe is ten parts mana water to one part each of slikreet and ofsa. I’ve already measured these containers for my cauldron but if you brew anything yourself make sure you get the measurements right.” Bruce pushed a couple containers towards her.

“I just dump all this in and let it boil away?” Zoe asked.

“Yup,” Bruce leaned back on the table.

“How long do I boil it for?” Zoe asked.

“You’ll know. It’s very obvious. Just go ahead and dump these containers into the pot and keep the cauldron boiling without letting it boil over.” Bruce said.

Zoe did as he said and dumped the containers into the cauldron. One was filled with a white branch that she hadn’t seen before and the other had a purple flower that she’d seen plenty of while she was out in the forest the school managed.

When the plants hit the water, the cauldron started to bubble even more violently. Zoe grabbed some of the burning logs and pulled them out from below to let it calm down a little. She kept adding and removing logs from the fire to keep the contents at a steady boil and stirring with the large metal rod to keep all the contents from piling up on the sides or sticking to the bottom of the cauldron.

After almost an hour, the colour started to change. It went from a clear blue liquid filled with random scraps to a dull red almost pasty texture.

“See? Obvious, right?" Bruce said.

Zoe nodded.

“Alright, cut the heat and bring over the crane.” Bruce said.

Zoe pulled out the burning logs and piled them next to the cauldron and then dragged over the crane. Bruce showed her how to attach it to the cauldron and set down a couple large vials on the ground with a funnel in each.

“Now just crank on the lever and make sure the cauldron dumps into the funnel. It shouldn’t be too hard.” Bruce said.

Zoe did as he said and found the lever quite heavy, but she managed it with a bit of effort. The cauldron tipped over and dumped the red paste into the first vial and then she shoved the crane over so it would fill the next one and repeated the process.

*Ding* You have unlocked the Alchemy skill.

“Oh wow I already got the skill. Enchanting took way longer.” Zoe said.

“You brewed a very large batch today with all the right equipment. What were you enchanting?” Bruce asked.

“Uh well a metal rod and then mostly sandwiches and sticks, honestly.” Zoe said.

“Yeah. Do things right and you get rewarded. Anyway, that’s the lesson. Make sure you do your research if you’re going to try this on your own!” He picked up the two vials of red sludge and handed them to Zoe.

“Do I keep these?" She asked.

“Yup. Apply directly to wounds and they’ll heal a little faster.” He said.

“Uh, okay. Thanks for the lesson then.” Zoe took the two large vials and wondered what she should do with them.

“No problem, good luck with your future alchemy endeavours!” He called out as she left.