Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe looked up and saw Rizick looking at her with a curious expression. “Good information in there for you?” He asked.

“I think so,” Zoe said, continuing on with the broad strokes of what she learned from it.

“Kill a cold elemental! Before your first class? My god this author is insane.” Rizick laughed.

“Well, I’m probably not going to end up doing that. Unless you know of any new born cold elementals around here by chance?” Zoe laughed with him.

“No, I sure don’t. Never even met somebody who’s seen an elemental at all, let alone a low level one.” He responded.

“Figures. Still good information though, gives me a better understanding of how classes work at least.”

“So what are ya thinking? Cold Wizard, maybe? Seems pretty good and approachable, at least.”

“Mmm, maybe. It just feels underwhelming to go with Cold Wizard when I know that Frost Incarnate exists.”

“I don’t think it’s a safe option, really. Maybe if you were some kind of arch wizard’s daughter and they could take you through it all safely. But alone, without any help? That’s not even on the table if you’re being realistic.”

“Yeah. I’ve gone this long without having my first class, I can go a little longer. Maybe I just try and get as many resistances and skills as I can safely and go from there. Doesn’t seem like it hurts my chances anyway.”

“Have you gotten a resistance before?” Rizick said, looking more serious than he had moments prior.

“I have one, I guess?” Zoe asked.

“Good. Think about how you got that one and if it’s something you’d want to repeat for a bunch of other types of damage. It can get you a good class but it won’t be fun.” Rizick said.

Zoe shuddered thinking back to her first meeting with John. “That’s a good point, actually. I didn’t think about that. Still, better in a controlled environment than when I run into a cold elemental or something. Is there a pain resistance skill?”

Rizick shuddered this time, “There is, but it doesn’t do much at lower levels and getting it up is a horrible experience.”

“Well I still think it’s worth a shot. If I can’t handle it, I can settle for something else. Just really don’t want to lock myself into a sub par class.”

“Cold Wizard is already better than any first class I’ve seen somebody have. Someday in the future when you’ve got a bunch of resistances naturally you can swap out your second for Master of Frost or something, but don’t throw your life away just for your first class.” Rizick stood up and grabbed his book off the table.

“Wait, you can switch your classes later?” Zoe asked.

Rizick sighed, “Not your first one, but the others. Or so I’ve heard anyway, never needed to do it myself. It’s getting late though, I’m going to go get to sleep.” Rizick turned to the stairs, “I’ll leave the door open. Don’t be too long.”

“Alright, I’ll go grab my stuff then.”

Zoe headed to the kitchen to grab her bundle of belongings before she went up the creaky wooden stairs. She’d never paid much attention to the upstairs hallway before, only coming up here on occasion for the uncomfortable toilet.

But it was a reasonably clean, albeit dimly lit corridor with doors lining both walls. Towards the opposite end of the stairs was the one window overlooking the street out front. The moon shone through, lighting the hallway just enough for somebody even without her vampyric eyes to see where they were going. To the back of the hallway was a door left ajar with flickering orange-yellow light peeking through the crack.

She walked up and peered inside, seeing Rizick sitting on the bed. He waved her in.

“Joe gave us a couple of blankets and the bed is more than big enough.” Rizick said.

And he was right, Zoe found. The bed was a lot larger than she expected. She had expected to see a standard bed size she recognized but this was just a large square mattress about as tall as her hand raised a few inches off the ground pushed into the corner of the room. It would easily fit both her and Rizick, and possibly even a third if Joe happened upon some other unfortunate soul.

“That’s awesome, I’m so excited for something that’s not the literal floor.” Zoe said, dropping her belongings on the floor and closing the door. It had a strange locking mechanism she didn’t recognize but was fairly simple to figure out and drained a few mana from her pool.

Rizick laughed. “Yeah, we’re gonna feel like royalty.” He tossed the extra blanket to the other side of the bed and pulled his own over him as he laid down.

Zoe hopped in bed next to him and pulled her own blanket over her. The mattress was soft but poked her a little in certain areas as she tossed and turned trying to find the most comfortable position. Her thoughts wandered as she lay in bed.

Rizick and Joe weren’t immortal. She liked them, but thinking about outliving them made her feel strange. Or were immortals a thing here? Were they going to live forever? What happens if ten, twenty, even fifty years pass and she looks the exact same? Would she be shunned from town? Would Rizick and Joe even live long enough to talk at that point?

She tried not to think too much about it. People could get into a horrible carriage accident the next day, worrying about them dying in sixty years of old age wasn’t healthy.

Zoe soon fell asleep, embraced by the warm comforts of a bed and heavy blanket.

When she rose in the morning, Rizick was still sleeping on the other side of the bed. The morning sun shone through the cracks in the shutters, casting streaks of light on the walls.

Standing up, she stretched her body and enjoyed the lack of aches from sleeping on the hard kitchen floor. She relished the feeling of sleep, it wasn’t necessary, but waking up and stretching was an important part of the day for her.

She picked up her belongings from the floor and moved them to a more sane spot — on the chair next to the bed, and then looked at the messy blankets on the bed. For a moment she wondered if she should make her side of the bed, but brushed it aside after seeing Rizick still sleeping.

Zoe left the room, closing the door behind her with the finesse of a half vampire trying to be quiet — which was a lot more successful than she thought it would be. And then went back down the dim hallway to get to her strange job tending the bar in another world.

“Good morning Zoe,” Joe called out as she came down the stairs. “Sleep well?”

“I did! You weren’t kidding when you said it was a big bed, my god.” Zoe said, looking around.

The inn was almost empty. The merchant woman that Rizick had been hitting it off with, Isla, was sitting at a table reading some book Zoe didn’t recognize. And another man Zoe had seen a few times but never spoken with was sitting at another.

“Well, people are there to sleep so I figured may as well make it as easy as possible. Besides we get some large folk in every now and then too.” Joe replied, wiping down the counter and putting freshly cleaned glasses away.

Zoe took over the glassware duty from Joe as he went back into the kitchen to prepare whatever meal was going to be served today. She watched the inn for a short while before Rizick came down and sat with Isla. Zoe didn’t mind, she had left them alone for an entire day on accident and it was only reasonable she would repay the favour.

The day passed with Zoe keeping the area clean and helping people get whatever drinks they wanted. Joe had served some kind of meat stew for food which Zoe found to be quite delicious. Rizick had left with Isla early on in the day to do something together and Zoe enjoyed her quiet routine.

As the evening drew on, and the sun began to set, a strange group came up to the bar. Two men and a woman, all wearing light leather armour that looked well maintained but quite well used. The men both had crossbows and daggers while the woman walked with a short sword hanging by her waist.

“’Ello, we’re a bunch ‘a odd jobbers from outta town. Y’ be needing any work done?” The woman asked Zoe.

“Oh uh, let me go grab Joe for you actually. I just work here.” Zoe said, stepping back from the armed group to the kitchen.

“Hey Joe, there’s a trio of people calling themselves odd jobbers?”

“Oh good, let them know I’ll be right out.” Joe called out, adding more ingredients to the large pot of bubbling stew on the stove.

Zoe ducked out of the kitchen again, “He’s just cooking something right now but he’ll be right out. You can take a seat I guess if you want?”

“A’right, thanks there.” The woman said, walking over to a table nearby.

She wondered what odd jobbers were? Were they the adventurers of this world, or were they just a step below adventurers? Or something else entirely, maybe.

Zoe’s thoughts were interrupted by Joe coming out of the kitchen, “Where are the odd jobbers?” He asked, looking around. “Ah, they must be them. Thanks.” He walked over to their table and pulled up one of the chairs.

“I hear you lot are odd jobbers?” Joe asked, as he sat down.

“Right y’ are. Lookin’ for some work if’n y’ be needing it.” The woman responded.

“Great. My old supplier’s run off on me with the whole vampire scare so I’m in need of some meat if you’re up for hunting.”

“Vampire? Ain’t no vampires ‘round here no more, what I heard.” The woman said.

“Apparently there was a sighting a few weeks back, harassed some people travelling in and out of town.”

“Nah nah, ain’t no more’s what I’m sayin’.” The woman said.

“Oh really? Somebody finally got the bastard?”

“Least by what I heard, been killed ‘bout a week ago.” The woman replied, looking a little confused.

“Seriously?”

“Yup.”

Zoe felt a twinge of excitement bubble within her.

“Well thanks for that, I’m gonna have to have a few choice words with Herb then. In the meantime, job offers still on if you’re up for hunting.” Joe said.

“Sure are, what’re y’ be needin?” The woman asked, grabbing some paper and pencil from a pouch tied to her waist.

“Just about anything’s fine. No rabbits though, and keep it reasonably normal, please. Last time I hired some odd jobbers they found some real strange stuff. Stick with the common animals, some fowl maybe. Do you have a storage item?” Joe asked.

“Yup.” The woman said, scribbling onto her paper.

“Capacity?”

“Four bags.”

“Great. Two loads, a silver circle each sound good?” Joe asked.

“Good by us,” The woman replied, sticking her hand out.

Joe shook her hand and they all stood up. Joe walked back to the bar and the odd jobbers headed out the door.

“Who were they?” Zoe asked.

“Bunch of odd jobbers looking for work. Good timing too, we’re running low on our meat since Herb’s apparently scared of a vampire that he should know damn well doesn’t exist anymore.” Joe shook his head.

“Okay hold on, what’s an odd jobber and who is Herb anyway?” Zoe asked.

“People that do odd jobs, random work you might need. Usually nice folk looking to help out and make some coin along the way. Herb’s my meat supplier but he apparently hasn’t gone hunting in a couple weeks because of that damn vampire.”

“Are they like… licensed or just random people?”

“No they’re not licensed, just people looking for whatever work they can. Normally they’d go check out a job board but sometimes they wander around advertising themselves like that.”

“A job board?" Zoe asked, ”People post jobs they need done somewhere?“

“Yeah sure, most popular taverns put up a board and let people use it. Brings a lot of business but I never cared for it. I don’t want my customers bothered by a bunch of people coming in and posting up jobs or arguing about pay. Some towns have whole buildings dedicated to managing jobs, though those are mostly in frontier towns, or newer towns with a lot of work to be done.” Joe said, walking back to the kitchen.

“Frontier towns?” Zoe followed him in.

“We’ve got work to do Zoe, I can’t just be your encyclopedia constantly.” Joe shooed her back to the front.

“Fine, fine. One more question though, do we have an odd jobber building in town? I’d like to see if there’s any jobs I might be able to do. Also, two questions I guess, why no rabbits?”

“Hmmm. That might not be a bad idea for you. To my knowledge we don’t, but you might wander around closer to the center of town and check out some taverns. And I don’t do rabbits. Not enough meat on them and they’re just too cute in the first place. But back to work with you now, people need their drinks and clean glassware.”

“Alright, thanks Joe!”

Zoe had a plan now. Find some odd jobs, become a weird adventurer, pick strange berries for alchemists, poison herself horribly and get a bunch of resistances. Nothing could possibly go wrong.