Frostbitten Wayfarer

Kaira library was a breath of fresh air, as it always tended to be. She walked onto the floating platform and wandered through the roots of the trees as it took her to her destination. A floating bookshelf filled with information on monster bits.

Lots of monster bits were useful, according to the books Zoe was finding. In particular, those made by dungeons tended to be useful but lots of normal animals that wandered the world were plenty useful. Bears with super sharp claws, elk with hide tougher than most metals without losing the flexibility of leather.

Zoe thought back to Moaning Point and the black bones that were absorbed back into the ground. Was the reason nobody harvested them really because they just weren’t useful materials? Or, maybe more logically, were the people capable of harvesting them just further up the mountain? She was excited to give it another try when she got back to the dungeon.

No longer was she the weak brand new third class with no idea of what she was doing or capable of. She had an arsenal — and not just her Frozen Arsenal, of skills and ideas to throw at the dungeon now. Maybe the mana that dragged the bones back into the ground could be interrupted or dismantled with her new understanding of how mana worked and flowed, her experience of piecing apart the structures that made up her magic.

She pushed the thought aside. There would be plenty of time to experiment with different ideas when she was actually back at the dungeon. For now, she had an entire night to waste away in her favourite library.

Building something like Kaira library was an incredible idea to her. The floating platform expanded through the room through some mechanism Zoe couldn’t even see, the floating bookshelves hovered in place with not even the slightest disturbance in the mana. It was an incredible sight before when she had almost no understanding of enchanting.

But now it was awe inspiring. She hoped that one day she could make something similar, her own magical library filled with all the knowledge she could ever want. Maybe she’d try something different with her own library, inspired by John’s bookstore. It might be fun to have a comfortable room to sit in and command the books to float to you, rather than the other way around.

Zoe kept reading through some of the books and was fascinated by all the different materials people had found and documented. Scales from rare lizards that empowered or dismantled magic, furs and hairs strong enough to act as weapons, or sturdy ropes on their own power.

After a few hours, she turned her attention to the jagged ball of Frost that she had, and walked along the walkway as it led her deep into the roots over to another tree, and then all the way back up to a bookshelf at the very top.

The books didn’t seem very useful to her at first glance. It seemed to be a gathering of elemental skills. Frost, Earth, Cinders and the like. The books talked about the different uses for them — with a large focus on creation for building purposes. Earth helped erect towers, Cinders created ash and warmth to stave off the bite of colder environments.

They talked about elementals, and their different capabilities. Though Zoe wasn’t all that interested after she read through the first one. Frost elementals were cold and froze everything around them. Zoe feigned surprise as she read through the details.

Zoe didn’t end up finding anything on the Frost that she found, but she did find another book that mentioned something similar. The Earth book mentioned a jagged star of Earth that the author had found that weighed far more than anything they’d ever seen before. Anything they touched it with turned to stone almost immediately, but even large slabs of rock that they tried to wedge underneath it wouldn’t make the star budge the slightest bit.

In the end, they left the star in its place and felt a little disappointed they weren’t able to experiment with it more. But it just wasn’t possible to move, and the author didn’t want to take the risk of touching it themselves.

Zoe felt a tinge of shame as she read through it. Touching the ball with something that wasn’t her hand first would have been a good idea. But on the other hand, if she had done that she wasn’t sure that she would have tried to grab it herself after. Maybe it would still be left at the bottom of the cavern instead of tucked away in her storage bracelet.

Maybe somebody somewhere has found more of them, and discovered what they’re capable of. But if they have, it wasn’t documented in Kaira library. John might have something though, Zoe thought and startedd towards his store. His books always seemed so much more outlandish than the ones she found at Kaira.

The library might be plentiful, but John’s were noticeably more otherworldly. Maybe the library would have more interesting books if she paid them or got a membership or something? It was worth asking next time she visited anyway. They might have some secrets hidden in the depths that the platform never took her to, or maybe she had walked right past bookshelves with information far beyond what she was permitted to view.

Or maybe the library was filled with duplicate books and looked far more impressive than it was. Or, perhaps most likely, Zoe just plain sucked at directing the platform to the best bookshelf for what she wanted.

John’s bookstore was closed when she arrived, the eerie blackness covered the windows again and Zoe pressed into it with her mana. It felt like a dense wall of emptiness. Her mana didn’t disappear, it just didn’t seem to move, though pulling it back took just as long before it came back through.

Was it just extra space? Was the inside of John’s building just so physically far away that Zoe wasn’t able to see inside it? How would that even happen?

Zoe shrugged and left. The sun was just beginning to rise and she made her way down to The Needle. The store was closed when she got there, so she sat down on a nearby bench and waited for a couple hours before some employees showed up.

She gave them another twenty minutes to get setup and then walked inside. The same woman was standing behind the counter, and Zoe walked up to talk to her.

“Hey, I spoke to you yesterday about a bulk order of clothes?” Zoe asked.

“Oh yes, hello. I can help you with that. I believe you said you wanted to fill out your wardrobe?” The woman asked.

“Yeah, I do. I don’t have an awful lot right now so I’d like to just have a lot of variety I guess.” Zoe said.

“Sure thing. How much are you actually wanting, and what kinds of clothes do you like?” The woman asked.

“Well a full wardrobe, I guess. Whatever’s reasonable for that. Two bags of clothes, I guess? And I like all kinds of different clothes. Dresses, suits, skirts, t shirts. Some jackets and camisoles? Just everything, really. A good mix of outfits for all seasons. I’m not super picky about my clothes as long as they don’t look too outlandish.” Zoe answered.

“What would you consider too outlandish?" The woman asked.

“I dunno really. Like a coloured t shirt is fine but I’d rather it not be covered in metal spikes, y’know?” Zoe laughed.

“Okay, so two bags of clothes. Do you need any enchantments or special effects?" The woman asked.

“No, not really. I just want normal clothes.” Zoe asked.

“Okay, when will you be needing this order done by?" The woman asked.

“The sooner the better really. When’s the earliest I could have it by without making you work overtime?” Zoe asked.

The woman paused in thought for a moment. “Hmm, tomorrow evening. Tonight if you wanted to pay extra.”

“How much extra?" Zoe asked.

“One gold, on top of the one gold for the clothes themselves.” The woman answered.

Zoe summoned two gold coins. “Tonight’s fine with me then.”

The woman grabbed the two gold coins and gestured to a door behind her. “Come with me and I’ll get your measurements then.”

Zoe followed her into the room behind. It was more of an office space than a changing room that she expected. A desk was set up at one side, and on the other was a small raised platform surrounded by mirrors. The woman walked up to the platform and pointed at it.

“You can stand here, and I’ll take your measurements. You don’t have to take off your clothes, but I’ll be able to take more accurate measurements if you do. Just leave your undergarments on, please.” The woman said.

Zoe walked up on the platform and stripped down to her underwear. There was a certain confidence that came from having the Immaculate Enchantments skill. She never had to worry about her underwear being dirty from blood or wear, didn’t need to worry about when she last bathed. She could just pulse Immaculate Enchantments over herself and know that she was as presentable as she could be, and it made her a lot more comfortable than she expected to be.

The woman summoned a black flexible tape measure and started stretching and twisting it around Zoe’s body as she wrote numbers down in a notepad. After a few minutes, she stepped back and told Zoe that she could put her clothes back on and come back later in the evening to pick up her order.

Zoe left and made her way over to Emma’s place. It was still quite early in the morning, so Zoe was hoping that Emma would be home.

When she approached Emma’s tower, she heard some faint chatter from the yard outside. Emma and her mom were walking through the garden. Zoe walked up to them and said hello.

“Oh hey Zoe!” Emma smiled and hugged her.

“Hi! I stopped by yesterday but you weren’t home. Glad I caught you today.” Zoe hugged her back.

“Yeah I was at work all day yesterday. We caught a lot of game and it took us a while to get it all dealt with.” Emma said.

“Well that’s good at least.” Zoe smiled.

“Mhm! Busy days are good days.” Emma said.

“Hello Zoe, it’s nice to see you again. I’m glad you seem to be doing well.” Emma’s mom said.

Zoe smiled at her. “Nice to see you too. What are you two up to today?”

“Well Emma was just doing her morning gardening and then I think she wanted to go bowling?” Emma’s mom asked her.

“Yeah! I’ve never done it but everybody’s been talking about it so I wanna try it. You should come Zoe, if you have time?" Emma asked.

“Bowling? Like with the heavy balls and the pins that you knock down?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah! Have you done it before?” Emma asked.

“I did a lot when I was younger. I didn’t know they had it here. It’s really fun.” Zoe said.

“It’s pretty new, I think it opened four months ago? Five maybe?" Emma looked at her mom.

“Yeah that sounds right. I hadn’t heard of it before then.” Emma’s mom said. “I’m sorry, I never introduced myself. I’m Nora.”

“Oh, right. I guess you didn’t huh? I always just thought of you as Emma’s mom.” Zoe said.

Nora laughed. “Well that’s fine if that’s what you’re comfortable with. Would you like to come bowling?"

“Yeah! I love bowling, it’ll be fun.” Zoe said.

The three finished up with Emma’s gardening, and then led Zoe towards the bowling alley. It was a large building called Smashing Balls on Mystic lane, not far from the Auspicious Trinkets shop Zoe had asked for directions from years ago. She was surprised to see the golden store still open, but supposed that the richer buildings likely didn’t have much trouble with keeping their shop running anyway.

Inside it looked somewhat reminiscent of a bowling alley. Seven lanes with white cylindrical posts standing on the other side — the pins Zoe supposed, a counter with some snacks and shoes on display. And on the opposite side from where they entered was a small restaurant with a few tables set up.

It was one silver per hour, per lane and the shoes were free to use. Zoe paid for their lane for two hours after a bit of friendly argument, and they went and sat down on the couch by their lane to put on their bowling shoes.

The bowling ball dispenser was interesting to Zoe. It was a floating pedestal with a couple of dials on it and a button. The instructions given were to tune the dials to change the weight and size of the ball, and then push the button to summon a ball to the pedestal.

After their shoes were on, Emma ran up to the pedestal and played with the dials and then pressed the button. A colourful, shiny ball appeared on the floating pedestal and Emma picked it up then hurled it down the lane towards the pins.

It bounced around on the floor and ended up in the gutters on the side, then evaporated once it hit the wall at the end of the lane. Emma cursed, and then sat back down on the couch with a frown.

The game worked a bit different to how Zoe remembered. Each time you threw the ball down the lane, any of the pins that were knocked over vanished in a puff of smoke and new ones were extruded from some mechanism in the floor.

There were no bonuses for strikes, and getting a split was impossible since the pins were reset with each throw. Points were tallied manually and were just the total of the number of pins you hit, and there was no time limit other than how long you rented the lane for. But despite it not quite being the bowling she remembered, Zoe had a blast knocking down pins with the magical balls.

Zoe won by almost a full hundred points when their time was up, and Emma whined about how unfair it was that Zoe had played it before. Nora paid for a meal at the restaurant — greasy burgers and cheesy fried potatoes, and then Zoe said her goodbyes and left. The day was dragging on and Zoe hoped The Needle would have her clothes ready soon.