Zoe looked at the orange gem in her hand. It didn’t hurt when she fired it at herself, she thought.

She spun the gem to face towards herself. Just blast herself with fire. It would be easy, didn’t even burn off her eyebrows. This would be fine.

She took a deep breath. It was still scary, but it didn’t hurt. It was fine, she could do it.

She channelled mana through the gem, the puff of flame bursting out towards her face again. She jumped in surprise, patting her head down.

Zoe repeated the process around a dozen times, blasting her face with fire. After the first couple of blasts the fear wore off and she found it fun watching the flame blast out and wash over her. But despite her pyromania, she didn’t get a single resistance.

Poison resistance took a while too, but she was blasting herself with fire. Was it just because it didn’t hurt? Poison didn’t hurt either, though. She wondered if she was even losing health from this at all.

She blasted her face with flame again, watching her health at the top of her vision.

Health: 200/200

No damage, so no resistance, she imagined. She looked at the growing campfire in front of her. She had been burnt before, it’s not that bad. Just a little pain and it’s over. She takes some damage, and gets a resistance.

She reached into the fire, trying to grab some of the burning wood but recoiled at the pain and smashed her hand into the snow. It might just be a bit of pain, but she wasn’t a fan of pain, she thought, piling up snow on the fire and stomping it out.

If she happened upon the resistance, then great. But she didn’t care how good the class was, she wouldn’t torture herself for it. Instead, she turned her focus to her bow, wanting to practice some archery.

She drew an arrow and nocked it on the bowstring, aiming at a pile of snow a couple dozen feet to her side. The arrow flew wide, driving itself into the snow a couple feet off.

Zoe drew another arrow and tried again. The bowstring snapped into her arm as she released it and she winced as the stinging feeling wore off. For a moment she wondered if she should put on her dress with longer sleeves, but didn’t think it would do much, and if it did then she’d probably have her accuracy affected.

The next few hours were spent with Zoe firing her arrows at random targets she found in the snow. Piles, dips, leaves that poked through from bushes below. She’d fire her arrows off, collect the bunch and pick a new target.

Her forearm stung, the red mark from the bowstring smashing past growing with each shot. But she pushed through, enjoying the process all the same. Every so often, she’d take a rest and let her arm sit in the cold snow for a bit before she carried on.

*Ding* You have unlocked the Archery skill.

*Ding* You have unlocked the Pain resistance.

She sat down by a tree, almost vanishing beneath the snow as she did. Her arm resting next to her, the cold snow providing relief from the throbbing, stinging pain she felt.

Health: 182/200

That was a lot of fun, Zoe thought. It was a little painful, but it felt good seeing her progress. With her last shot she almost hit the klir leaf she was aiming for, even without the skill.

She laid down in the snow, relishing in the feeling of two new skills to her repertoire. Evening dragged on, and Zoe’s stomach began to growl, begging her for supper. She almost thought to go hunting, but had no way to prepare the food even if she was successful.

Zoe got up and walked back to town, waving to the guards as she passed the gate. She sniffed the air, looking to smell a restaurant or pop up shop, but all she got was the same horse manure and sweat.

She took a different path through town, towards the north eastern section where she’d not spent much time at. The sights were much the same, varying degrees of wealth on display with each street. There were a bunch of bakeries she passed, and a handful of restaurants but she wanted something specific.

Where were all the greasy street food stalls, she wondered to herself. Burgers dripping with fat and crispy fries doused in melted cheese. A hotdog slathered in mustard and ketchup. Hell, even a taco would have been nice, and she didn’t even like tacos.

Zoe wandered for a while longer before she found something that interested her. A large open square with tented carts set up around it. In the centre were several stone tables and chairs, most of which being used by people eating their meals.

There wasn’t a huge selection, most of the carts were selling bread with different fillings, some were selling simple pasta dishes and a couple sold what could only be described as burgers.

Zoe grabbed a burger from one of the carts, and a ryz egg stuffed brul from another, costing her thirty copper in total. The burger was bland, and a little too salty but oozing with grease. The ryz egg stuffed brul was a soft boiled egg baked into a bun. Zoe was confused how it remained soft boiled but didn’t question it much.

She devoured the remains of her food, tossing the paper wrappers in one of the bins set up around the food court.

Zoe pulled out her book and sat down at one of the stone tables, looking for something of interest. There was a large hill not far north east from Flester and a river that ran through it. It was as good a bet as any for somewhere to stay, and Zoe made her way back to the forest north of the city.

It took her until a few hours past sundown before she found her bearings. A lake marked in her book, fed by the same river she was heading to. The lake wasn’t frozen, and there wasn’t even any snow within a few feet surrounding it. A few deer were drinking from it at the other side, a couple others munching on the green grass that surrounded it.

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Zoe knelt down and put her hand in the lake. The water was warm to the touch. Strange, considering how frozen everything else was around here. But not the weirdest thing she’d seen either.

The river carried on towards the east and Zoe followed along after it. The deer darted off into the forest as she approached, leaping through the snow.

She watched them, trying to ooze as much calm and serenity as she could with her vampyric charm, but they continued darting off into the forest.

Zoe looked through the grass, seeing a plethora of different animal tracks. Many different rodents frequented the lake, along with deer, boars, wolves, rabbits, and even some bird tracks as they landed to drink from the lake.

Boars were new to her. She’d seen them mentioned in her book, but this was the first time she’d seen their tracks. They could be quick, but a little clumsy. She could handle herself if she needed to.

She continued following the river to the east. The river left a trail of green grass and warmth that cut through the frozen landscape like a hose through an ice sculpture.

Not long after, Zoe found herself at the base of a hill, the river pouring out from a large opening at the bottom. She wondered if the fifteen paces deep requirement meant that she couldn’t go more than that deep, or that the cave couldn’t be more than that deep. Better safe than sorry though, so she continued searching.

She kept looking to the ground, getting an idea of the animals that were around her. All she saw around here were deer and rabbit tracks, the wolves and boars not coming up this far north she supposed. Maybe they already have enough food where they were? Maybe they’d see an explosion in boar population soon then.

She tried to stay at least within ear shot of the river as she wandered around the hill. Her tracks shined through the snow like a blazing trail leading her back home but having the always present sounds of the river comforted her. If all else failed, she would be able to follow the river back to the lake and make her way south from there.

There were a plethora of caves in the hill as she walked, many of them large openings in cliffs, but some of them gaping holes where the hill met the ground. One such cliff opening fit the bill, Zoe thought. It was only a little taller than she was, rather narrow and only cut into the hill by about ten feet. Large enough for her to rest in it with a degree of comfort but not so large that it should count as a shelter.

It seemed like a good spot to her. No predators in the area, at least from what she could see. The cave kept the wind and snow off of her and there was fresh running water just a short walk away. She could call this home for a few months, she thought.

Zoe made a note of where she found the cave and then set off back to the city. It would be near morning by the time she arrived and she may as well get some more supplies. A small stove or a pot at least for cooking.

The journey back to town was peaceful, the quiet serenity of the forest broken by the crunching of her footsteps through the snow and the occasional owl hooting. The stars in the sky were bright and plentiful without any of the light pollution, though she didn’t recognize any of the constellations. Not that she would have recognized them on earth anyway, and these were probably different stars.

The sun was cresting the horizon, bringing the forest to life with noise and activity just as she arrived at the northern gate to town. She made her way through town to Joe’s inn to say hello.

He was slaving away in the kitchen as he always did at this time, and Zoe smiled as she approached the kitchen door.

“Good morning Joe!” She said, opening the door.

“Oh Zoe, good morning. I didn’t expect to see you this morning.” Joe responded.

“Yeah I won’t be around for long, gotta stay outside and all that. But I found this really nice little cave to the northeast that I think I’ll set up at for a while.” She said.

“I really think you should just stick around in town, it’s a lot safer you know?” Joe asked.

“I’ve been camping before Joe. Don’t store the food at my camp, keep a fire going and stay away from the scary animals. It’s fine, Joe. I’ve got a weapon now to defend myself too.” She patted her hand on the leather sheath at her waist.

Joe shook his head, “Well thanks for stopping in Zoe. Stay safe out there, I haven’t known you long but I’d miss you if anything happened.”

“Nothing’s gonna happen, Joe. I got by this long without even being level eight, I think I’ll be fine. I’ll come by and say hi whenever I’m in town. Which I think will be pretty often, honestly.”

“You’re always welcome here. I can’t guarantee a room every time but the kitchen floor’s always open.” He smiled at her.

“Thanks, Joe. I’m going to go shopping. Think I want to get a small camping stove or something to cook with while I’m out there.” Zoe waved as she left.

“Good luck!" He called out.

Zoe made her way back to Paul’s Goods, Henry manning the counter to the back.

“Oh hello again!” He called out when he saw her.

“Hi Henry, I think I want like a stove or something to cook on while I’m out?” She asked.

“Yes of course, we have some tripods that might interest you.” He said, coming around the counter to one of the shelves.

Henry grabbed a trio of short metal rods that were tied together at one end and placed them on the ground. They stood on their own, leaning against each other at the top and formed an open pyramid.

“Just place this over your fire, and you can add attachments either here or here,” he pointed to a hook at the tip and some small notches closer to the bottom of the rods.

“Generally you would either hang a pot, or use one of, ahh where is the dang thing now,” he rummaged through some of the blankets and bags on the shelf, placing things back on their proper hooks.

“Ah, yes here we go. One of these grills, they fit right into the notches at the bottom so you could grill something over the fire too.” He picked out a thin metal grate and placed it onto the notches on the bars.

“Do you have a pot too? Something light, preferably.” Zoe asked.

“I would really recommend cast iron usually, but we should have a good selection right over here.” He walked to the other side of the shelf.

The shelf was filled with cookware, pots and pans of all shapes and sizes. Some heavy cast iron, some made of what looked like pressed sheet metal. Zoe picked up one of the medium sized lighter pots.

“I think this would be fine. I don’t need the best food, just gotta get by sometimes.” She said.

“Up to you, I think the weight is well worth the extra benefits personally, but my strength might not be as low as yours. Is that all you’ll be needing today then?" He asked.

“Yeah, I think that should be fine for me today.” She said.

“Lovely, that’ll be three silver and a copper square then.” Henry said.

Zoe paid the man. “Thanks very much, I might be back again soon with something else at this rate.”

“Feel free to come back as often as you need! We’re always happy to help.” He said, returning to the counter with a wide smile.

Zoe packed her new toy into her bag, the metal rods poked out and she had to hold them in place as she walked. She wanted to try out her new toys, and so set off to her cave in the hill to start hunting dinner.