Frostbitten Wayfarer

The next week flew by as Zoe fell into her familiar routine of charging objects for Ren, with the difference now being how much less time that ended up taking from her day. Before, she’d spend almost the entire day on Ren’s couch filling whatever he gave her. But now she only had to stop by for a few hours, and then she was done.

Neither Ren nor Chloe were interested in sharing anything about uncapped skills unless Zoe shared some of what she knew, and Zoe wasn’t sure she wanted to. It was one thing to share her personal information when she freely offered it — to friends or acquaintances. But Ren wanted it, he wanted to know more. And that made Zoe a little uneasy.

The day came to meet Emma’s mom again, and Zoe felt her nerves growing. Her stomach twisted and churned as she sat in Emma’s dining room and thought about their past meeting.

“You sure you’re okay with this?” Emma paced back and forth.

Zoe nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. I’m fine. This is okay. Just gonna meet your mom. Nothing wrong with that.”

“You don’t sound fine. You sure? I can tell her you weren’t around if you want?” Emma asked.

Zoe took a deep breath. “No, it’s fine. I’m fine. I am nervous, but I’ll be okay.”

“Okay. Thanks again, Zoe. I really appreciate this.” Emma said.

A moment later, there was a knock at the door and Emma went downstairs to answer it. Zoe felt her heart race in anticipation, and stared at the staircase as she waited for them to return. She heard Emma open the door and greet her mom. Emma’s mom asked how Zoe was doing, and then Zoe listened to their footsteps walk up the creaky wooden staircase.

When they got to the top floor, Zoe’s nerves washed away. Emma’s mom seemed to be a bundle of compressed anxiety and fear, though she didn’t show it on her face as she smiled at Zoe.

Emma sat down at the table and gestured to the last empty chair for her mom who also sat down.

Emma’s mom turned to Zoe. “Thank you for agreeing to this. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for you. I’m glad you seem to be doing well.”

Zoe sat in silence, not sure how to respond. Should she be angry? Should she thank her for the niceties?

“I wanted to apologize,” Emma’s mom said. “I treated you horribly when I first met you. There’s no excuse for what I did, nothing I can point to that justifies it. I know that it might be hard to trust me, but I do feel horrible for it.

“Ever since Emma moved out, it’s been eating away at me. I thought that I was protecting her, that I was keeping her safe. But I wasn’t. I was ruining her friendships, pushing away the people who she cared about. I shouldn’t have done that.

“When I was younger, I had a problem with somebody who used a manipulation effect on me. My mom had one. And she used it every time I was misbehaving. If I stepped out of line, she’d blast me with her skill and I’d behave like the good little child she always wanted. I resented her for it in time. I had no agency, I had no ability to be myself, to grow and make mistakes. My childhood was ripped away from me because of her, and when I felt your effect it brought all of that resentment back up.

“Your skill wasn’t strong enough to do anything terrible, it wasn’t powerful enough to coerce people into things they didn’t want to do. It was wrong of you to do that, and I stand by that. But I overreacted.

“There was just no reason for that. You were innocent, maybe a little naïve. You didn’t know better, and I could have taken the chance to do something good. I could have showed the two of you that people are good, and kind. That accidents happen, and people can forgive. But I didn’t do that. I took my own troubles, my own worries and I forced you to bear them. For that, I am deeply sorry.” Emma’s mom bowed her head.

Zoe had no idea what to say. In the first place, is an apology not asking for forgiveness? Was that not the point of an apology? Were you not supposed to say you’re sorry, please forgive me? What’s the point of an apology if not to ask for forgiveness?

Was Zoe supposed to just continue being mad? She didn’t even think she was, not really. From the beginning, Zoe understood it, at least a little. No matter how minor, if you see somebody endangering your child you’re going to be upset. It was more about being afraid of her. But was that something you could forgive?

Did Zoe really worry about her mom doing anything anymore? If she really thought about it, there was no reason to worry about it from the beginning as long as she kept her Charm skill off. Which she tended to do anyway because it made her more than just a little uncomfortable.

“Okay. Thanks.” Zoe said after a minute.

The three sat in silence for a few more minutes before Emma’s mom stood up. “Alright, well I’ll head out then and you two can get back to whatever you were doing. Thank you again, Zoe. I really appreciate having this opportunity.”

Emma stood up and hugged her mom. “Okay, see you later then mum.”

“I wish you the best of luck, Zoe. It was good to see you again.” Emma’s mom went down the stairs, and Zoe heard the door lock shut behind her.

“You alright, Zoe?" Emma sat down at the table again.

“Yeah, I am. I didn’t expect it to be so intense, I guess? That was a lot.” Zoe relaxed.

“So you wanna do anything?” Emma reached down to pet Oliver who came and flopped at her feet.

“Maybe, yeah. I haven’t checked the book that you paid for yet, so we could do that.” Zoe suggested, excited to do anything that wasn’t think about Emma’s mom at the moment.

“You haven’t read it at all yet? Why not! I totally thought you were going to pick out some cool things and share it.” Emma leaned in.

“No, I wanted to go through it with you. You paid for it after all, only felt fair.” Zoe smiled.

“Alright then yeah bring it out, lets see what it’s all about!" Emma moved her chair over next to Zoe.

Zoe pulled the book out of her bracelet and read through it.

————

Richard’s Legacy

Hello, I’m Richard. Many decide to take their classes as soon as they can. They get level four, and that’s it. Grab a class, and continue on. Well, I never did. My parents raised me to believe that I was better than that, as some sick, twisted science experiment.

They died many years ago now, when I was but a young child only seventy-three years of age. Good riddance, I say. There was merit to their aspirations, I see that now. But to force it on their child was nothing short of evil.

But largely, I think this lifestyle is beautiful in its own way. Here I sit, aged in my years and with my vast expanse of time I’ve decided to leave behind a book. Maybe somebody out there will find it, and learn something from it.

In my years, I’ve accumulated a large expanse of skills and feats that I would like to share with whoever finds this book. I will start with perhaps the most interesting feat which really cemented this as something feasible for me.

Patient Decider. It provides a number of benefits, but the most important one is that it lifts all first class restrictions. No longer am I as a mere level four stuck at having level four skills. My highest now is at level two thousand three hundred and forty five. Incredible. It also provides an additional free stat point every year, which if combined with a source of immortality provides ample bonuses in time, if you can live long enough to accumulate them.

I got this feat on the day of my sixtieth birthday without choosing my second class. The specific wording of the feat makes me believe that there are different requirements for different species. My current theory is that it requires you to survive for half of your species expected lifespan without taking a class, but it might also just be a coincidence that sixty was half of my expected lifespan.

The next series of feats that I find particularly interesting are the slayer series of feats. These ones require you to slay elementals, and grant you a matching skill. Kill a Space Elemental, gain the Space skill. These skills are general creation and manipulation skills which are quite versatile. If you find an elemental, I would highly recommend killing a part of it just for these feats.

These skills are of course available without the feats, the system was never created in such a way that it would limit your choice so pointlessly. However; without the feats, they are at the same time much harder and much easier to obtain.

Obviously, killing an elemental is no small feat on its own, hence why the system rewards you with such a useful skill. But it is simple. Kill an elemental. One step, that’s it. It’s a difficult step, but it’s not hard to understand or attempt.

On the other hand, acquiring these general creation and manipulation skills as general skills without the help of a class is much harder, although the risk is much lower. You don’t have to kill an elemental. I have found it easiest in my testing to first gain a relevant manipulation skill, and then evolve it into the combined skill.

I have tested this with fire, space and time. Having the relevant resistance helps coerce the system into giving you help, although you are likely to obtain the resistance in your attempts regardless.

Our world is made up of mana, specks of power that float around us. Invisible to our eyes, but present and powerful regardless. All magic, or at least, almost all magic, is used through these specks of power. As we call on our skills, the system warps the mana to create the effects. To get a fire manipulation skill, you simply have to force the mana to manipulate fire.

It’s challenging, but it gets easier as you get experience with it. I hadn’t the idea until after I had many of the slayer feats, so I wasn’t able to test it well, unfortunately. But my third skill that I got manually was much simpler than the first fire one that I had gotten.

Now, for evolving the skill to a combined creation and manipulation skill, you need to repeat the process over again but rather than urging the mana to move the fire around, you need to urge the mana to create fire itself. To transform the mana directly into fire.

This is much more difficult, but as before it does get easier as you get more experience with the process. Do it just right, and your skill will evolve. They will also combine if you get multiple that work together. Space and Time combine into Cosmos, for example.

I wish I could provide you with more information, but unfortunately I don’t think the way I perceive and interact with mana will help most people who might find use from this book. Do your own research, find your own path, and understand the way mana interacts with the world.

Now, I believe it is worth mentioning at least once a skill that I heard of from a µ̶̗͈̳̖͇̭͖̬̹̖̖͈͓̝̥͇̠̱̤̒̑͆̐́͋̓̓̏̈́̇̕̕͘͠͝╛̵̡̧̬̺͍̼̼̤̻̝̳̙̣̳͖̺̮̎͗̔ͅ that I’m acquainted with. They are apparently given an Immortality skill as an option for their class. It grants true immortality, invulnerability to death. I have tried finding a way to acquire this as a general skill, but to no avail. I don’t believe it is available. But if it were, then it might be the most important discovery made in the history of our universe.

But, in my pursuit of this skill I have found other, less powerful skills. Resistances to damage types of course are helpful, though unfortunately they will never provide true immunity to a damage. A general skill that provides immunity to death is also unfortunately something I’ve never found. However, general skills that help prevent aging do exist, and if you intend to take advantage of Patient Decider and are not already immortal, then I would suggest acquiring them.

Vampyric Immortality is the simplest to acquire, though it comes with some caveats. If you are a race native to Pol, Illujan, or Abyllan then you will be converted to a vampire and lose your sanity. However, if you are not then you can travel to one of these planets and find a vampire to infect you. The system will grant you Vampyric Immortality, among some other useful skills, but will not be able to convert your race.

It is however quite a painful experience, and will make some drastic physical changes to your body. Nothing permanent though, it can all be changed back with a skilled mage. But be warned, it is a simple method but not without its risks.

The other skills that it grants are the Regeneration, Senses, Resistance, Charm and Empathy skills in the Vampyric group. They’re all fairly weak, though useful. The main draw is immortality, which on top of preventing aging also provides an additional stat point per year making it well worth the investment.

The next simplest immortality I’ve found is the time resistance. When it reaches level one thousand, you are given the Eternal feat, which also prevents aging. Combined with Patient Decider’s uncapped skills and experience bonus, getting level one thousand in a resistance is quite simple.

On that note, all resistances and skills give feats at level one thousand. I won’t go into what they all do, that’s quite boring. But they’re usually relevant in some way.

The last source of immortality that I have found is the Cosmos skill I spoke of earlier. I would recommend getting the Space and Time skills then letting them combine, rather than trying to get Cosmos outright.

————

Zoe looked up at Emma. “Guess we need to find you some elementals then, huh?”

Emma laughed. “I know you said John’s books were cool but this is incredible. Why isn’t that bookstore more popular?”

“Maybe cause it’s run by a really scary green monster and is barely ever even open?” Zoe suggested.

“Good point. People are really missing out though, I’ve never even heard of people travelling to other planets. You sure this is all real?” Emma asked.

Zoe shrugged. “So what planet is this anyway?”

“Abyllan, duh. Never even heard of those other ones.” Emma said.