Zoe and Emma arrived at the gates right around sunrise, and saw a crowd that was forming just outside of them. At the front was Rolf who was speaking to a man next to him about the Okiu. Zoe walked up to him.

“Excuse me?” Zoe asked.

Rofl turned around and looked at her. “Yes?”

“The Okiu is dead, now.” Zoe said.

“I’m sorry, what?” Rolf asked.

“Yeah, it died. There’s still a bunch of the corruption out there though, but I think even that’s probably mostly dead?” Zoe said.

Rolf rubbed his eyes. “That’s good, then. That’s good. How did it die?”

“I’m not really sure. It was injured when we first encountered it so it might have bled out or something, maybe?” Zoe said.

“Did you at any point confront the creature?” Rolf said.

“I guess. I sat down with it and comforted it as it passed. It was lonely.” Zoe said.

“Okay. The creature seemed intelligent, then?" Rolf asked, and gestured to the man he was speaking to.

The man disappeared.

“Yeah, I think it was.” Zoe said.

“And where did it come from?” Rolf asked.

“From the west.” Zoe answered.

“Mhm.” Rolf thought to himself for a moment. “What abilities did the creature display?”

Emma spoke up to answer. “It spewed this weird gloopy darkness that stuck on everything.”

“Yeah, and the sheer power of it at first was unbearable to stand near too. But I don’t think it really did anything, it just existed.” Zoe said.

The man who vanished earlier reappeared next to Rolf. “I can confirm the creature is gone. There’s a large chunk of the forest missing and a shadow appears to be cast over it.”

“Is that the corruption you mentioned?" Rolf asked.

Zoe nodded her head.

“Okay, thank you for the information.” Rolf said to Zoe and Emma, and then turned back to the man next to him. “How close were you able to get to the corruption?"

“It didn’t seem dangerous, but I didn’t touch it.” The man answered.

Zoe and Emma left them to handle the rest of the situation. Whatever was going on with the corruption was far outside their pay-grade.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get any practice with your new skills today.” Emma said to Zoe as they walked back into town.

“No, it’s not your fault. And actually, I got a notification earlier when the Okiu died. Did you get anything?” Zoe asked.

Emma shook her head, and Zoe pulled up the notification that she dismissed earlier.

*Ding* For being blessed by an Okiu, you have been awarded the [Okiu’s Blessing] feat.

“Oh, it’s a new feat.” Zoe said.

“What’s it do?" Emma asked.

[Okiu’s Blessing]

You have befriended an Okiu and it has chosen to reward your trust with its might.

“It’s Okiu’s Blessing. I’ve been rewarded with its might, whatever that means.” Zoe shrugged.

“Do you feel any different?” Emma asked.

Zoe took a moment to focus on herself, on her movements and her magical power. But nothing seemed out of place or unusual. She checked her stat window and nothing stood out to her there either. She wasn’t sure what the Okiu’s might really meant, but it wasn’t an obvious effect if it made any difference at all.

“No, I seem normal.” Zoe shook her head.

“Hmm. Well a new feat’s probably not bad.” Emma said.

“Mhm.” Zoe hummed.

“Are you okay? That was terrifying.” Emma asked Zoe.

“Yeah. I think so. Are you?” Zoe asked.

Emma nodded her head. “I think so. It really was just a dying animal, huh?”

“Yeah. It was kind of sad, honestly.” Zoe said.

“Kind of, towards the end. I’m going to head home for the day, check on Oliver. Did you wanna come over? Maybe cook some dinner for us?" Emma asked.

“No, I think I’m gonna go talk to Joe for a bit and then maybe go over to Ren’s place for work. This made me realize that I really want to go explore the world. There’s so much to see, so many things to do, y’know?” Zoe said.

“Yeah, there’s a lot out there. Mum would always talk about her stories when she travelled but they always seemed so far away. Maybe I’ll come along with you one day.” Emma said.

“Well, you could come along when I go to climb Moaning Point if you want?” Zoe asked.

“Maybe. I don’t know what I’d do about Oliver though. Can’t just leave him at home for that long.” Emma said.

“Right, that makes sense. Well I’ll share lots of stories with you whenever I’m in town then.” Zoe smiled at her.

“That’d be nice.” Emma hugged Zoe. “Alright, I’m gonna head home. Say hi to Joe for me.”

“Sure thing, see you around then.” Zoe said and watched Emma jog down the street towards her home.

Zoe kept walking towards Joe’s inn and found him slaving away in the kitchen.

“Hey Joe,” She said.

“Oh, hey Zoe. How’s it going?” He put down the spoon he was using to stir the pot of stew that bubbled away on the stove.

“Pretty good. I went out hunting with Emma and we ran into something. Did you know that there’s another level past bright red?” Zoe said.

Joe shook his head in surprise. “No? Bright red’s the highest, I thought.”

“Yeah apparently there’s bright green.” Zoe said.

“And how did you discover this?” Joe asked.

“We found a high level Okiu while we were hunting. It’s a whole thing, you’ll probably hear about it soon I imagine.” Zoe said.

“Are you okay? What’s an Okiu?” Joe asked.

“Yeah I’m fine. Emma is too. She says hi, by the way. It’s like a black goat thing? Or maybe the black was just the corruption, now that I think about it. It’s just a weird goat thing, I guess.” Zoe leaned against the door frame.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Corruption? Zoe, what the hell happened?” Joe hissed.

“Well like I said we found an Okiu. Well, a Corrupted Okiu. It spewed darkness everywhere, but it was injured, or dying at least and I helped it go comfortably. I hope.” Zoe answered.

Joe shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “Okay, I don’t even know where to start.”

Zoe laughed. “Start nowhere. I’m fine, the town’s fine. Everybody’s fine. The forest is corrupted or something though. Maybe that ends up being a problem but I think it’s pacified too at least without a good enough host. I just wanted to come say hi and tell you I’m fine. I know you worry.”

Joe sighed. “Well thanks for that then. I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Me too. It was a good experience I think. Anyway I wanna go get to work at Ren’s so I’ll see you around Joe!” Zoe said.

Joe stammered for a moment and then sighed. “Alright. See you later Zoe, stay safe out there.”

“Will do Joe. You too!" Zoe said and left.

She knocked on Ren’s door and he let her in. Zoe went over to the couch that she sat at and saw all the limbs were gone, only the black sphere remained. Before Ren locked himself in his workshop, she grabbed his attention.

“Hey Ren, do you mind questions?” Zoe asked.

Ren stopped and looked back at her. “That depends on the question.”

“You’re an enchanter, right? Of some kind, at least?” Zoe asked.

“I thought that was fairly obvious from our interactions, but yes, I am.” Ren answered.

“Yeah. Okay. I got the enchanting skill a while back and I really like it, but I’ve been kinda stuck. I feel like you should be able to enchant multiple skills into an object, but every time I try to do that I just break the item when I’m trying to form the second skill.” Zoe said.

“And the question?” Ren asked.

“Is it possible to enchant multiple skills into one thing?” Zoe asked.

“Yes.” Ren answered.

“How?” Zoe asked.

“How have you tried, so far?" Ren asked.

“Well I tried enchanting sticks and even some copper coins with the enchanting skill, and then tried to repeat the process with the meditation skill. But whenever I try to form the meditation skill it fails horribly.” Zoe explained.

“It’s one step.” Ren said.

“What do you mean?” Zoe asked.

“The two skills. Do them at the same time, not separately.” Ren said.

“Oh.” Zoe said. She had never tried to do both at the same time, but it made so much more sense than oversaturating a stick with her mana.

“Is that all?” Ren asked her.

“How do I tell how full this sphere is?” Zoe grabbed the black sphere she’d be charging for the day.

“Keep track of how much you’ve spent.” Ren said.

“That’s it? There’s no cool magic tool that tells me or some skill I could get?” Zoe asked.

“Not that you can use, no.” Ren said.

“So there IS a cool magic tool!” Zoe said.

Ren sighed. “Will that be all?”

“Yeah, that’s all. Thanks.” Zoe nodded.

Ren went into his workshop and closed the door while Zoe started dumping her mana into the black sphere. She was sure now that she could feel something inside the orb but it was so much more vast than anything she’d ever experienced. It felt like a few drops of water at the bottom of a dried out ocean.

The hours passed as she fell into her meditative trance, something she really ended up enjoying for herself. She never would have thought she would, back on earth. But there was something so satisfying for her about feeling all the energies around her and through her. Time flew by as she felt the energies swirl within her and vanish into the vast emptiness that she held in her hands.

Chloe showed up around lunchtime and gave Zoe some savoury bread that she picked up at her favourite bakery.

“How much do you do every day anyway?” Chloe asked her.

“One fifty.” Zoe answered.

“Wow. It’s gonna take you a while to finish that then.” Chloe laughed.

“How much mana does it need anyway? I must have put in almost seventy thousand at this point and it still feels so empty.” Zoe said.

“Not sure exactly. Even when Ren made me fill them it took a few days and I can do a lot more than that.” Chloe said.

“How fast does your mana regenerate anyway?" Zoe asked.

Chloe smiled. “It’s a secret!”

“Fine, whatever.” Zoe rolled her eyes.

Chloe laughed. “Just imagine getting another seventy levels and another couple classes. It makes a really big difference even if you don’t spend forever getting the best classes possible.”

“Yeah, yeah. Hey, do you have an enchanting class?” Zoe asked.

“Why do you ask?” Chloe asked back.

“Well I’ve been wondering about enchanting classes a bit. Are they worth it? I really like enchanting but I feel like I can just enchant stuff without the class anyway.” Zoe asked.

“It depends on a number of things, really. If enchanting is what you wanna do then they’re definitely worth it. Just think about what your class does for whatever it’s for and how hard it would be to replicate that without your class bonuses and skills.” Chloe answered.

Zoe thought about her Frozen Arsenal, and what it would be like making that work with just her Frost skill. Even with all of the bonuses that her class gave, she wasn’t sure that she would be able to make a functional bow out of it.

“I see. So what kinds of things does an enchanting class do then?” Zoe asked.

“Well there’s a lot of different specializations. The baseline is usually mana capacity and regeneration though. I’ve seen a few that make enchantments last longer, some that make it easier to apply enchantments. It’s varied.” Chloe explained.

“Right. Okay, cool. Thanks.” Zoe said.

Chloe smiled at her. “No problem.” She left Zoe to her mana charging and went to Ren’s workshop to help out with whatever they were workign on.

Zoe kept charging the black sphere and thought about her goals. She thought that if she encountered the Okiu a few years earlier, it might have been too much for her. But at this point it just excited her. There was such a vast world — or maybe even worlds, just waiting out there for her to explore. Cultures and societies for her to discover and learn about.

Maybe even ancient civilizations to uncover, full of history and knowledge lost to time.

Flester was a great place to be, and she loved it. She did. But that well of excitement that she had for Moaning Point just kept growing. She couldn’t wait to get there and see what it was all about. It was supposed to be an undead dungeon, but what did that mean. Zombies groaning and stumbling around? Ancient liches raining magic down on the masses?

It was adventure, real adventure. And it called to her. She daydreamed for a while as she charged the black sphere. She saw herself travelling through the forests, plowing through the snow and diving into the frozen lakes. Climbing mountains and witnessing the breathtaking scenery from their peaks.

She saw herself climbing sand dunes in a vast desert, surrounded by a deep burgundy sand as far as she could see, and then stumbling into a bright cave filled with lush greenery.

Zoe had no idea what the world had to offer, but that was the beauty of it. She would be able to discover it. Maybe there would be more insane creatures that just wanted company, maybe she would have to fight for her life as she fled from a horde of boars. Maybe she’d find incredible views, majestic trees and sprawling fields filled with beautiful flowers.

It all excited her, and she wished she could get past her preparations sooner. Once she was out she could make money as she went. Maybe she could practice her enchanting some more and come back to sell off some of her creations whenever she needed funds. Maybe she would find riches in some dungeon and be set for life.

Ren shook her out of her trance and she looked up at him. “I think you’re done for the day,” He said.

“Oh.” Zoe shook herself off. She had laid down on the couch at some point, and clutched the black orb to her chest as she flooded it with mana. It seemed noticeably more full, maybe five percent of the way. Though she had no idea how much mana that ended up being since she lost track of time.

“Payment’s on the table.” Ren said and went up the stairs that Zoe was still not totally sure really existed.

Zoe stood up and grabbed her twenty five silver and left. She started toward Kaira park to visit the library and see what she could learn about the dungeon.