Catria was observing the end of the battle between the shadow creature and the guy underdressed for the weather.
The power station had been a neat trick, she thought. She’d arrived just in time for the finale. He’d left the loot it dropped behind. The power station was dangerous now that the active lines were hanging around everywhere. She scanned the building for a way to shut it down.
A locked panel on the western side of the station. She cut around the padlock with a small torch in her inventory. Catria pulled the levers for the station into the off position, effectively cutting power to the city. That didn’t matter. The damage done here had taken out most of it already.
She retrieved two items from the death area of the Shadow Moose. One was a magical knife and the other was a shadowy cloak.
Void Knife, magic knife, uncommon
A knife made of Void-steel. Deals 2 - 6 piercing or slashing damage plus 4 - 7 void damage on hit.
Shadow Cloak
A magically enhanced cloak that provides additional protection against attacks. While equipped, you receive -2 damage from non-magical blunt, piercing, and slashing damage.
Neither of these items were as good as what she currently had. Her cloak provided magical resistances and she didn’t have a knife skill. This humanoid, whatever he was, seemed to be worth scouting. Taking down a creature with a threat level of 3 was no small feat for a first level magic user in any system.
Catria followed his trail. It wasn’t hard. He had made no effort to conceal his tracks, though she did notice he went out of his way to avoid nearby creatures. At least he’s sensible, she thought. She cut through the lock on the door and entered the market. Empty. She set the briefcase down on the counter and did a scan. Only one biosignature in the building.
Perfect, she thought. Or as perfect as it could be in these conditions.
He never saw her coming. Grant nearly fell out of his chair when she dropped the cloak and knife on the break room table.
“Holy what the,” Grant fell backwards, preparing to vacate. “Oh, shit. You’re a human. Wow. You couldn’t announce yourself? Really?”
“I am Catria,”
“Grant. So uh, you survived this weather huh? Did you by chance talk to a dragon and wake up to this frozen hellscape?”
“No. I have been sent by the Grand Circuit to ask for your cooperation in defending your planet from a destructive force known as the Frost Maiden.” Catria said in her official duty voice.
“Oh, I see. You’re from a different Earth then? Which one? You have magic like I do?”
“I originate from Earth 102. My powers run on a different magic system than yours, but it's similar enough.”
“Nice, that’s cool. So what kind of magic do you have?”
“Dodging and firearm magic primarily. What are you? Something that doesn’t need temperature protection. It’s -70 out there and you’re in shorts and a t-shirt.”
“Oh, right, yeah. I have a trait called Void Resistance that makes me immune to changes in temperature.”
“Void magic?” Catria stiffened a little. “That’s not a common type of magic.”
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“It’s not? My other options were fire and celestial.”
“Celestial is also rare. Fire is common. I didn’t get a choice. On Earth 102 classes are inherited. My mother was a Ranger and my father was a War Leader. I started as a scout, but got a Leader-type subclass at level 5.”
“Your class can change like that?”
“Yours might not. I know nothing of your system dynamics.”
“Right. The dragon had said we were running Polygon 20 if that means anything to you.”
Catria had heard of that system before. It was one of the more common systems on the Earth she'd visited in the past. “A probability based system that used polyhedrals ranging from 4 sides to 100,” she said, remembering it in a memo she’d been sent. “I only have experience with Polygon 4 and 5. I heard 3.5 is popular along the Grand Circuit.”
The two of them sat in silence for a moment. Grant’s mind was racing. All this talk of the Grand Circuit and other Earths had him excited. He was feeling a lot of emotions, actually. “Do you know if anyone else around here made it?”
Catria opened her scanner and turned it on. They were staring at a detailed map of the surrounding town. With each ripple the map expanded. There were only two dots. Grant and Catria.
“Are you joining my Party to help defeat this anomaly or whatever?”
Catria’s eyes lit up as if she were reading a prompt. She was. A party invite had appeared for her.
Grant Guston has invited you to join his Party.
Confirm / Deny
Catria accepted the party invite. She could now see Grant’s status on the left side of her peripheral vision. He was a level 3 Voidwalker, a class that could traverse and interact with the void and its residents. She could also see his health, mana, and stamina.
“Level 7? Damn!” Grant whistled. A prompt appeared for him.
You have completed the quest: Frostmaiden I. You have received 100 experience!
“Any chance you know the coordinates of the thing. The anomaly. Frost Maiden thing?” Grant asked.
“I haven’t scanned for it yet,” Catria admitted. “I’ve been here only long enough to locate you.”
“Locate me? You were looking for me?”
Catria sighed, taking a seat at the plastic table. “To be honest, at this point I’m just looking for survivors. Anyone strong enough to survive this might be strong enough to fight back. We had a small team that was wiped out trying to contain this thing. It’s a long shot, I’ll be honest. If you prove useful and we survive this, you could join the Grand Circuit. Your Earth might not survive this.”
“Thanks for your honesty,” Grant said. He popped open another bag of chips and shoved a handful into his mouth. “This isn’t how I envisioned my adventure. I was thinking less dark fantasy nightmare and more epic fantasy fun.”
Catria was silent for a moment before sliding the cloak and knife towards Grant. “You should equip these. I retrieved the loot from that creature you slew earlier.”
“You know about that?”
“I saw the last of it and was able to retrieve it. My equipment is better, so you should use it.”
“You didn’t help? You watched?”
“I saw the end of it. The creature was stuck and done for by the time I’d arrived. I followed your trail to this building.”
“Makes sense.” Grant put on the cloak and returned the Void Knife to his inventory. The cloak looked out of place with his shirt and shorts. It’s for the stats, Grant told himself.
The scanner beeped.
“A reading?” Catria asked. “It’s heading right for us. It’s fast.”
“An enemy?”
“Hard to say. Wait. There’s an overlapping magical signature.” Catria flipped the scanner setting to scan for magic. Sure enough there was a huge magical signature overlapping the humanoid signature. She flipped the settings back to thermal. “It’s hot, whatever it is.”
Catria felt it, but Grant was completely unaware. The temperature in the building was increasing. The ice began to melt from the walls. Grant didn’t notice until drops from the ceiling began to fall down upon him.
“What the hell is this?” Grant held a bag of chips over his head to catch the rain.
“I just said it’s hot. The thing is approaching. We should move. Now.”