Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe and Emma left Oliver behind at home and went down to John’s bookstore. On the way, Zoe stopped off at a market and bought enough salt to last her a lifetime. Or at least, a lifetime if she wasn’t immortal. She got about ten cups of coarse ground salt for a gold coin and stored it all away in her bracelet.

“You think he’s gonna be there today?” Emma asked as they walked down the street.

“Maybe. It’s pretty unpredictable when he’s open, honestly. I don’t even really need to go, it’s just kinda fun.” Zoe answered.

They walked the rest of the way to John’s books talking about Oliver and whether he deserved a playmate. When they arrived, the eerie darkness that covered the windows was gone and Zoe could see the destruction wrought throughout the store.

The door was smashed in and rested on top of a pile of collapsed bookshelves and crushed books. Torn papers covered the floor, ripped from the books they once belonged in. Zoe and Emma walked inside.

“Is it… always supposed to be so broken?" Emma asked.

“No, I don’t think so. It was never like this before, anyway.” Zoe answered as she looked around at the damage.

There was a quiet pop next to Zoe, and John appeared. Emma yelped and jumped back. Frustration and confusion rampaged through John until his many eyes turned to Zoe and she felt a pleasant calmness wash over him.

“Dude what happened here? Are you alright?” Zoe asked him.

John looked at her for a moment, a quizzical feeling washing through him and then Zoe heard something from next to him. “Arrested, apparently.”

The voice crackled and squeaked in a strange monotonous whisper, but it was speech! He had figured out some solution to his communication. Zoe felt a strange sense of pride well up in her.

“You can talk now! I think I can handle the telepathy now though if that’s easier. Wait, arrested? What do you mean? What happened?" Zoe pestered him.

John sat still for a moment before her mind was blasted with memories. Some child wandered into his store, and John helped the child find their parents. Or so he thought, the two adults who were frantically looking for a lost child ended up being rather nefarious.

Officials discovered the kidnapping and found the last known place to be John’s store. An armoured woman brought John to the courthouse and left him in a barred off room for an hour, so he left to come tend to his store. The woman returned to his store and kicked down his door, John helped them fit the chains onto his many limbs and then he teleported them all back to the courthouse.

John left the group that had accosted him and teleported to the leader in the courthouse, who told him that the small child he had helped was from some welath family, and kidnapped. So he found the child, teleported her back to the courthouse and came back to his store once more.

"Ahhh. So some noble brat ran away and you got screwed by it, eh? That sucks man. But you're good now right? Off the hook?" She asked, pleased when John nodded, "Great! So I’m looking for, I dunno. Some interesting books. You got any books with really cool skills I could learn? Or feats? Maybe both. I just want to collect lots of skills and feats, honestly.“

John waved one of his limbs and all the bookshelves righted themselves. The torn, destroyed books filled in the bookshelves, and dozens of books flooded out from John to fill the empty bookshelf next to his desk.

Zoe looked at Emma who was sat on the floor, mouth agape as she watched the spectacle. “What the hell is happening?” Emma asked.

“I told you it was an interesting bookstore,” Zoe laughed.

“Yeah but I mean it’s one thing to hear about a magical bookstore. Every bookstore is magical, mostly. But this is something else. Wow.” Emma looked around as the last remnants of magic finished filling out the bookshelves.

Zoe walked up to the bookshelf next to John and looked through it. Every book seemed so interesting to her, filled with knowledge she wished she could hoard for herself. She envied John and his seemingly endless wealth of books, and wondered where he got them all from. Had he written them himself? Purchased them over his many years of life?

The two spent a few hours reading through the many books, and picked out one that had a plethora of feats and skills that seemed approachable, along with many more that would be more long term goals. They brought it up to the counter, and Emma spoke up.

“This one please. All you want is a story, right? Is it okay if I pay? I just wanna say I shopped here.” Emma asked both John and Zoe.

John nodded his head and Zoe chuckled. “Sure,” She said.

“Cool. Okay, so when I was a kid one day I went out to the forest with my mum. She really wanted me to be a warrior. Go fast, hit hard. That kinda thing. I wanted to be a mage though, personally. Warriors were so boring and weak, I thought. But she took me out when I was six or seven. We went really far into the forest too.

“Way farther than I’d ever been before. And I was getting kinda scared, but mum kept telling me that it was okay and she was there. I just couldn’t believe her, because she was a warrior and I didn’t think that was very good. Dad was always around with all of his magic, and it was so visible, right?

“But mum was just normal. She didn’t have any magic or anything. She lifted me up easily, and carried all our groceries but even dad could do that! I thought being a warrior meant throwing your life away. Which is dumb, but I was like six, okay.

“And then she picked me up and put me on her shoulder. While we were out in the middle of nowhere. And she just jumped right up into the trees, took me up to the very top where I got to look around at everything. All I saw, for as far as I could see, were trees. Their bright green canopies that fluttered slightly in the wind.

“It was beautiful. And it was something dad couldn’t do. Mum looked at me and told me that magic is fun and visual, but strength gives you freedom. Dad might be fun and spectacular at home. And in his own way, he is. But they both help each other. Mum keeps dad safe, and dad keeps mum going.

“Looking back on it, it’s a little silly. I think she just really wanted to convince me to take a more physical class. But it worked, and I ended up taking my class right then. Got a decent one, but I still want more magic. I think some cool magic archery would be fun.” Emma said.

John nodded his head and wrote ‘Thank you’ in the air between them.

“No, thank you. That felt good.” Emma said.

Zoe grabbed the book from the counter. “Thanks again for all the books John, I’ll see you around!"

“Speaking of my mum,” Emma started when they left through the still empty doorframe. “Are you good sometime next week to meet my mum again?"

“Yeah, I’m good whenever. I’ll probably just spend some time at Kaira library. Might come by and read through this book with you though too. Maybe go see if Ren’s still needing mana. I could probably charge the full quota a lot quicker now with my third class.” Zoe rolled her eyes. “Still stupid.”

Emma laughed. “Whatever, you’ll get used to it. So a week today then?”

Zoe nodded. “Yeah sure. Your place?”

“Sure, sounds fine. I’ll let her know then. You wanna come back to my place or got something else to do?" Emma asked.

“I think I’ll go see if Joe’s got a room available, to be honest. I miss his beds. The ones in Gafoda sucked so bad.” Zoe laughed.

Emma reached out for a hug. “Alright, I’ll see you later then. I’m glad you’re sticking around for a while.”

Zoe hugged her back. “See you next week then. Maybe sooner, I’ve got nothing to do really.”

Joe was in the kitchen when she got there, and Zoe poked her head in. “Hey Joe. Got a room open?”

“Oh hey Zoe. Yeah, I do. You sticking around then?” Joe asked.

“Mhm. I’ll be around for probably a few years, I wanna just work on a bunch of skills. Besides, my first class levels up with time so there’s no real rush anyway I guess. Thanks again, I hadn’t even realized how stressed I was, to be honest.” Zoe said.

“No problem.” Joe summoned some keys and tossed them to her.

Zoe caught them and stored them away in her bracelet. “What happened to the fellow you were helping when I left anyway?”

“Ah, yeah he’s found his footing again. Haven’t seen him since. Y’know, most people don’t stick around as much as you do.” Joe laughed.

“Well I’m sorry then. I’ll just leave and never come back again I guess.” Zoe pouted.

Joe kept laughing. “Sure you will.”

“Oh, actually. Do you wanna help me out with taxes at some point? I think I wanna just suck it up and make a lot of money. I’d like to buy a house here, I think. Actually, do you know if there’s laws about whether you have to live in the house you own or not?” Zoe asked.

“What do you mean by that?” Joe asked.

“Like, if I buy a house and then I just leave for five years to go do something else, do I lose the house? How’s that work? Is there squatter’s rights?” Zoe asked.

“I don’t think there’s a problem with that. Lots of people go on trips. You’d have to ask somebody more knowledgeable though. Maybe you get a house keeper to keep it tidy and controlled while you’re gone?” Joe shrugged.

“Maybe, I guess. But taxes? You think you could help me out?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah, sure. I just did mine a few weeks ago but I could help out when you need it.” Joe said.

“Alright, thanks Joe. I’ll come pester you again later then.” Zoe said and ran up to the room labelled on her keys.

She smiled when she saw the bed and leapt onto it. Hours later, she woke up and stretched with a big smile on her face.

Zoe got up and sat down on the chair and thought about reading the book she got, but decided against it. The book had plenty of information she was interested in, but she wanted to read it with Emma. It was her story that got the book, after all. It was only fair that she got to read through it too.

Plus, she just wasn’t in the mood for reading at the moment anyway, and decided to go check out Ren’s place. On her way over, she thought about what her new mana regeneration would end up being with her doubled total mana and doubled regeneration. Was it multiplicative with her regeneration boost from Seasoned Frost for six times her base regeneration?

Or would it be additive, for only four times her base? Either way it was going to be significant when combined with her total mana being doubled as well. And her meditation levelled, which might be affected by Mana Affinity too now that she thought about it.

Her eyes widened as she realized something she hadn’t noticed before. Her meditation was almost level seventy when Ren helped her calculate her mana regeneration last time. That was well above her level now, let alone back then. And Ren didn’t even blink an eye.

Why did he not react at all to that? Why did he believe her so readily? That should have been impossible without Patient Decider, to Zoe’s knowledge. Did he know about the feat? Did he have the feat?

Her heart raced as she walked up to Ren’s door and knocked. He opened the door a minute later and looked just as she remembered, with not a speck of dust out of place. His black suit almost shone in the light, while his eyes looked at her with a gentle yet piercing gaze.

“Oh it’s you again. I suppose you have returned for more work?” Ren asked.

“Yeah, for a bit at least. I got another class, do you think you could help me calculate my mana regeneration again?” Zoe asked.

Ren rolled his eyes and led Zoe in to the dining table. “I suppose. What’s your wisdom, maximum mana and meditation at? And since I suppose I must mention it, any other effects that might impact your regeneration.”

“Does mana affinity affect meditation?” Zoe asked.

“It does.” Ren answered.

“Eighty wisdom, fifteen hundred mana, eighty-four meditation, the two hundred percent boost from my first class. And then another hundred percent from my third class, with Mana Affinity at twenty-one.” Zoe answered and watched Ren for a reaction to her skill levels.

Ren’s eyes darted back and forth as he calculated her regeneration. “You’ve got right around forty-five thousand mana per hour now. Impressive.”

“Wow. That’s a lot more than I thought.” Zoe said.

“Indeed, you have quite the potent skillset for your level.” Ren said.

“Why do you not seem to care about my skills not having a level cap?” Zoe asked.

Ren raised an eyebrow. “You have other uncapped skills than Meditation?”

Zoe panicked. She hadn’t even thought of individual skills being uncapped and walked right into revealing more than she intended to. “I um. Well, I have a couple others, I guess?”

“How interesting. I would be interested in learning more about how you’ve done so if you’re willing to share?” Ren asked.

“I, maybe. I’d need to think about it.” Zoe answered.

“Well, I won’t pry. Do share if you ever feel up to it though. I’ll grab you some components to charge for today and you can get started, then. I do suspect that’s why you’re here, yes?" Ren asked.

“Yeah, for a bit anyway.” Zoe answered.

“Good, wait here. Make yourself comfortable.” Ren stood up and walked into his workshop, the sound cutting off as the door closed.

Zoe moved over to the more comfortable couch and sat down while she waited for him to return and thought about what he said. It was possible to uncap specific skills? Was this common knowledge? She’d never even heard of that before.