Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe watched her mana rocket back to full as soon as she checked her vitals, but her stamina filled much slower. She waited for almost two minutes before it even went up by one — meaning stamina would be her limited factor for the dungeon. Health and Mana were fine, she had far more health than anybody else would at her level and enough mana regeneration to sustain herself with Restoration.

But throwing herself at things physically was off the table if she wanted to make it through without spending days waiting for her mana to replenish after every fight. It had been a long time since stamina was the limiting factor for her — not since the first time she went hunting outside Flester in the first year she was here and ended up hurt by a boar.

Even when she was much weaker at the start of Moaning Point with even lower stamina, she didn’t struggle with stamina at all. What was the difference between there and here, then? Why was she using so much more stamina now?

Was it just because she was more physical here, or was there something else involved? Her strength and dexterity were both much higher at the time, did they have an effect on stamina usage? Or was it more of a mental game, since even back when she was first hunting it wasn’t as though the journey itself was all that strenuous, the issue was how on edge she was the whole time.

Was she stressed now, exploring the dungeon? Was the dark cave filled with unknown dangers pushing her to think harder than she would otherwise? She supposed it was, but not to the extent of that intense fear from when her first hunt went sideways. That was an absolute devastation, every sound sending her mind racing with possibilities of death and pain.

Now, she was even almost excited. The dungeon was dangerous and scary, but it was fun too. And she knew she could leave whenever she wanted. Even if something much larger came along, Zoe doubted it would even be capable of killing her if she just let it assault her with all it had if she just focused on pushing all of her mana into Restoration.

So what was the cause of the excessive stamina drain, then? At just under eighty percent full she already felt somewhat tired. Her movements felt a little sore and heavy — not at all helped by the lack of stats she was so used to.

Maybe that was the cause? Rather than just accepting what her body was capable of with the reduced stats, was she just trying to force herself to move as she wanted? Pushing her body beyond its capabilities out of habit?

Zoe wasn’t sure, but shrugged the thought away. Whatever the case was, the result was that Stamina was a limited resource that she needed to conserve. Even if she could just pull back how much force she was using, that wouldn’t mean it was the right decision. Changing her focus to using her powerful magic to stop them before they reached her, and saving her stamina for bursts of power when it was needed would still be the best decision.

She kicked off the wall and continued walking, following the pathway around the wide stone pillar. It curved around to the left back to the open room she was in before, and she continued hugging the wall. Distant chattering and tiny footsteps could be heard around the next corner, and Zoe longed for her Cosmic Mystic class so she could see without being forced to peer around the edge.

Zoe summoned several dozen sharp cones of frost as well as four large earthen slabs about the size of her torso then looked around the corner to the right. The corridor split across several stone pillars that rose to the ceiling, and three groups of five wretched goblins sat around small campfires eating and scraping detritus from their daggers. Bows and brown quivers filled with arrows were scattered around the campsites, along with small pouches full of sharp metal darts that spilled out onto the cavern floor.

The goblins were much more like she expected, dark green creatures with leathery, hairy skin and disgusting mouths with brutal looking teeth that dripped with a faint green slobber. Zoe much preferred the adorable green teddy bears she saw at the Springs of Gir, and turned back around the corner to think of a plan.

Fifteen goblins in total, all in their third tier between levels twenty four and twenty eight. They had a class on her, but Zoe had more than enough skills to take care of them all. Her frost projectiles would be useless for an ambush, not near strong enough to cause any real damage as she found on the rats. But maybe she could take a note from the time she explored the frozen tunnels below her home and create a wall of earth between her and the goblins, then pick them off from safety.

Zoe stepped out from the wall and pushed as much mana as she could into her Earth skill, creating walls behind the goblins to block them from retreating. The goblins looked at the walls of Earth then turned to look at Zoe and screeched. They grabbed their bows and slung them on their backs, then several of them picked up the spilled pouches of darts and tied them off on their waist. The others rushed at Zoe with dagger in hand, hurling stones and rotting food at her as they ran.

Another wall of earth pulled out from the walls to trap the goblins within, but six of the goblins managed to rush past before it finished closing. Zoe pushed mana into her Aura of Elements as the goblins approached, and they stepped back as soon as the violent storm appeared, pacing back and forth just outside the reach of her Aura and snarling at her.

Zoe shot off several of her projectiles at the goblins, but without the powerful enchantments pushing them even faster the goblins were able to step out of the way and let the cones of ice shatter in the ground behind them. She stepped towards them, but with each step she took the goblins leapt back, staying just out of reach of the violent storm that surrounded her. A thumping noise began ringing out from the wall she created — the goblins trying to dig through the rock, Zoe imagined.

She pushed some of her mana into maintaining the earthen wall, repairing the chips and gouges that were carved out by the goblins on the other side. But as she did, her Aura’s power fell and the goblins nearby rushed in. Zoe cut the mana to the wall and pushed as much mana as she could back into her Aura, singing and scraping the goblins that approached her as they jumped back out of range and snarled at her again.

Zoe felt anxiety rising within her again — her mana regeneration was stellar, but the amount of mana she could funnel into something at once was limited by her small pool. Maintaining the Aura at maximum power while also keeping a massive stone wall in tact and fighting off six higher level, intelligent goblins at the same time just wasn’t possible for her at level twenty.

She dropped the Aura and ran back into the previous room as the goblins gave chase. Right as they came around the corner, Zoe dumped a massive crashing wave on them with her Torrents skill, smashing the six goblins into the rocky floor and letting the water seep into their lungs. The goblins coughed and spat out water as they tried to recover on the ground, but Zoe didn’t let up. Another wave crashed down on them, smashing through the two that didn’t manage to get out of the way in time.

The four that did manage to get out of the way charged at her and Zoe ran back again, tearing up the rocky floor as she ran. The goblins stumbled over the uneven terrain and Zoe buffeted them with another torrential wave, smashing their bodies into the sharp outcrops of rocks left behind by Zoe’s Earth skill.

Zoe kicked at the bodies as she passed them, curious why the bodies in this dungeon didn’t seem to get absorbed again. Was that just a Moaning Point thing, then? Would these bodies be piled up here for the next person to come into the dungeon, or did everybody who came get their own instanced dungeon to explore, and the whole thing would be destroyed as soon as Zoe was done?

A loud crash from around the corner broke Zoe out of her thoughts, and she cursed under her breath as she ran up to check. A hole just big enough for a single goblin to crawl through had been dug through her wall, with three goblins already having made it to her side. Zoe pushed as much mana as she could into the wall to seal it back up and turned her attention to the three left on her side.

They drew their bows and fired off arrows that dripped with a thick green ooze. Zoe stepped out of the way, pushing the arrows aside as they flew with her Gales skill. The green ooze sizzled as it touched the wet cavern floor, letting off a dark gray cloud of smoke.

The three goblins drew another arrow, and Zoe summoned spires of Earth beneath them to throw them off balance. Their feet were pierced through by the sharp earth Zoe created and the goblins screeched at Zoe. She summoned another crashing wave on the goblins, but they all leapt to the side, grimacing as they landed on their injured feet.

Two of the goblins drew their bows again, while the last rushed at Zoe. She summoned another wave, but the goblin dashed to the side and threw a metal dart at her as it was hidden behind the water. Zoe noticed a moment too late and it scraped along her right arm as she stepped to the side.

*Ding* You have been poisoned. -50 health/s for 120 seconds. -1 stamina/s for 120 seconds.

Zoe cursed. Of course the poison would eat at her stamina. The health drain would have been devastating if she didn’t have the ability to heal herself, and she wondered how many people died to a stray scratch from one of the goblins poisoned weapons.

The two goblins with their bows fired off arrows, and Zoe pushed as much mana as she could into her Aura of Elements, manifesting a devastating storm that rushed around her. The arrows were thrown aside by the rushing winds, and Zoe rushed at the goblin closest to her. It tried to step back but was pressed up against the wall. Zoe drew her dagger across its neck and it fell to the ground in a clump. She turned her attention to the other two goblins which had retreated as far back as they could to draw their bows once more.

They fired their arrows off again, but they were just as ineffective. Thrown aside by the violent winds around Zoe’s body. She let down her Aura and summoned walls of earth beside the two goblins, trapping them in a long corridor and they clawed at the walls to try and escape. Zoe pushed more mana into her skill, covering the corridor and then flooded it with her Torrents skill, smashing the goblins into the cavern wall behind them.

When the goblins fell limp, Zoe turned her attention back to the massive earth wall between her and the remaining six goblins, if her count was right. Two more holes were almost dug through she noticed, and filled them back in with her Earth skill.

She opened a small hole the size of her finger and looked inside. Nothing was visible from the small view she had of the room, but that was okay. Zoe filled the hole back in then floated up to the top of the wall where she carved out another small hole just big enough for her to see through. She opened it up just large enough for her to poke her head through to the other room to see what was happening.

There were more than six goblins, she found. Sixteen in total by her count, smashing rocks and weapons into the rock wall. Splinters of rock broke off the wall and fell to the ground behind them with each swing of their tools, chipping away at the thick wall of earth Zoe created.

Zoe summoned a downpour of water with her Torrents skill, flooding the room the goblins were trapped in and knocking them off their feet. They were shoved around by the violent waves, thrown against the walls as the waves crashed into the cavern. The room filled with screeches from the goblins as they hurled their daggers and darts up towards where Zoe was. Most scratched against the wall far below her, but a few of the darts made her direct the torrent of water to blast them out of the way.

In minutes the room was filled with limp corpses of goblins that floated through the waves, and Zoe pulled the earthen wall away, dismantling it back to the core mana. The water rushed out from the room and flooded the small streams that drifted in and out of the walls.

Zoe sat and watched the water filter out of the cavern for a few minutes while she waited for the poison to run its course, flooding herself with Restoration. The goblins were a massive step up in difficulty from the owl bear hybrid, an intelligent swarm that planned their approach and worked together. If she didn’t have the wall to block them from reaching her, taking on the twenty some odd goblins at once would have been a challenge.

Not so much that she would have died — even if they all rushed her at once, Zoe was confident she could have at least escaped back to the teleporter. And her Torrents skill combined with her Aura might have even been enough to take out the horde anyway. But it did begin to concern — and even excite her a little, as she wondered what would be next.