The rest of Zoe's chores were quite simple. The cats had enough food to last for quite some time, and Sally was more than capable of getting more if they happened to run out somehow. Filling the main house enchantment was just a few minutes gripping a raised black stone pillar in any of her workshops and then all she had left was writing letters to Joe and Emma then picking her gear for the journey.

  Zoe decided to start with the letters, sitting at a simple desk in her bedroom. She pulled out a sheet of paper from one of the drawers, and a pen from another.

  Hey Emma, I'm going on an adventure. Met a couple cool guys? and we're going to go explore the valley together. I'll introduce you to my new dragon friend after I befriend it. Got Sally to watch the cats, apparently she's having a rest year anyway. Not that I think she'd say no to catsitting anyway. I think I might try to optimize my seventh class finally. It's probably been long enough. Hope you're having a good time getting your seventh class, I'm sure it's just around the corner!

  A pulse of mana raced over the letter, ripping it out of Zoe's hand and taking it to Emma. Zoe felt a wave of relief wash over her. Her friends were smart, and powerful enough to handle themselves. On a normal day, she didn't worry about them at all.

  But sending friends she hadn't seen in a while a letter? At first, it was fun and exciting. Messages sent over thousands of kilometers, across planets and space itself. Until the first time Zoe wrote a letter and pushed mana through her skill, only for the letter to still be left in her hand.

  Every time she sent a letter, she was verifying whether the recipient was alive or not. Whether she wanted to, or not. It was difficult to push that anxiety down, to suppress that subtle fear that crept up as she wrote.

  The letter to Joe was much the same, though Zoe took extra care in making sure she put Joe's name instead. It sent with no issue, and Zoe clapped her hands.

  "Alright fat boys!" She called out. She didn't know where the cats were, but they were still fat boys after all. "It's time to pick the gear. Wanna help?"

  Zoe turned to her closet, and listened for the pitter patter of tiny claws tapping on the wooden floors. But neither of the boys seemed interested in helping.

  Over her years, she'd accumulated quite a vast amount of wealth. Clothes, gear, supplies. Enchanted rings and various storage items. At first, most of it ended up dumped into enchanted crates.

  About a hundred years back, Zoe took the initiative to organize at least some of her wealth. Most of her belongings were just sorted into groups. A storage box full of dresses, another of shoes and another of cookware.

  But some were sorted into elaborate go-bags, or go-rings. Go-storage items? Not all of them were rings, but it didn't have the same feel. Zoe settled on go-bags for the time being.

  Her actual Storage skill was used for the most part as a dumping ground. If she found something interesting she wanted to keep, she'd dump it in there. But it was also used for the things she considered staples. Enchantments and other tools she wouldn't want to be stranded without.

  Her Identify obfuscation enchantment was one of them, along with a small handful of clothes. A couple different dresses, some shoes and jackets. Nothing much, but enough that she'd always at least have something to wear. A few thousand gold worth of varying denominations and enough well preserved food to last her a few weeks.

  Zoe stripped out of her gear, putting her dress back in its storage bracelet and hung all of her jewellery on their dedicated hooks then thought about what she'd need.

  First was her basic gear. She had several rings full of simple adventuring gear. Ropes, tents, sleeping bags and pillows. Any tools she may need on the adventure, saws, hatchets and hammers, along with some smaller ones. Needles and pencils.

  Zoe took two of the rings. One for herself, and one she could give Tom and Jeff if they needed it when they parted.

  Next was food. They'd be able to find food while they were out, but it didn't hurt to come extra prepared, either. Zoe settled on one of her vegetarian rings, full of different salads and soups enough to last her for a few years if she didn't mind not having meat. And she didn't. The vegetables of Abyllan were delightful, though the meat she often found somewhat gamey. If she had a craving for meat, there was never a lack of meat to be found in the forests.

  And then came her selection of clothes. Several bracelets of different designs hung from hooks screwed into a pale soft wood panel she'd made. Each bracelet full of outfits that fit a specific theme. Above each bracelet was a single word she'd chosen to describe the theme.

  Colourful, edgy, spring, goth, basic, beach.

  Zoe settled on one labelled 'Vampiric.' A bit of a mixture between victorian era fashion and goth. Lots of bright reds and blacks, with poofy dresses and suits with far more buckles, bands and flourishes than would ever be practical.

  It was made more as a joke. Her mind had wandered and she let herself fall into a bit of a fantasy bordering on cringe, so she'd never found the time to wear the bracelet. But if she was going to be exploring and putting her full might on display, then she may as well embrace her vampiric side a little, too. Really, she just wanted an excuse to embrace her edgy side for once.

  She pulled out a black, poofy scrunchy and tied her hair back in a messy bun then grabbed her first outfit. Black boots appeared around her feet, saving her the time of having to undo and then redo the dozens of buckles tying them shut. A bright red dress came next reaching just below her knees with black lace patterned throughout. The sleeves were made from some stretchy translucent mesh that clung to her skin and made the streaks of black lace along them almost settle in like tattoos.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Zoe looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. She liked the outfit. The dark black lace against her pale white skin was striking, with the red a few shades brighter than her eyes working to dampen the intensity they sometimes had.

  Mana flared through her Protector of Foizo skill — rewarded from a feat of the same name for saving the 'country' from disaster so many times along with a few other simpler requirements. Trusted by the leaders, has lived in Foizo for at least five years and a few others that seemed to just ensure only those who actually cared about Foizo would get the feat.

  The skill was quite powerful, though incredibly mana intensive. Even for as small as Foizo's main city was, searching for a specific person took several seconds of Zoe pushing all of her mana into it at first. As it levelled, it did get quite a bit more efficient but it still wasn't viable for Zoe to watch everything in all of Foizo, all at once, forever.

  Manufacturing some disasters so some other trusted members could get the feat wasn't too much of a complication, but it did raise some questions for Zoe. If Foizo expanded to the same scale as the Injellar kingdom, what would count as a disaster? Would it even be possible to manufacture something that could be considered a disaster? And would that be solvable by the same person reliably enough to get them the feat?

  It almost seemed tailor made to smaller countries like Foizo, letting them get past the initial growing pains as they expanded. Though, maybe there would be other feats as they expanded. More secrets the larger kingdoms held that they didn't know about yet.

  The feat did raise the question of whether or not it should be used the way they were using it, though. If they could scale to the point where obtaining the feat was no longer simple, and they were too large for the people with it to continue their job as they had then they'd have to make a difficult decision. Stop expanding, or continue to expand but accept that crime will skyrocket in the further expansions.

  Zoe found Tom and Jeff sitting at a table together in a tavern, a bowl full of crispy fried skin from various animals sitting in between the two. Jeff sipped from his mug of mead, while Tom talked about some of their plans for their valley expedition.

  She pulled out a pencil and a notebook and scribbled a quick letter, giggling to herself at the silly idea she'd just had.

  *Ding* You have received a message from Zoe Mara.

  Jeff blinked at the message, placing his emptied mug of mead back on the table. "Zoe just sent me a message."

  "What's it say?" Tom lifted an eyebrow.

  Jeff pressed the system to show him the message.

  Hey, you two ready to go? All packed up? I'm good whenever I'll be over once you're ready.

  "She's asking if we're ready to go?" Jeff questioned.

  "I mean, we are, but she knows we can't answer, right?" Tom asked.

  "I could-" Jeff started to say, knowing he'd never get to finish.

  "No." Tom said.

  *Ding* You have received a message from Zoe Mara.

  "She sent me another message," Jeff said. He urged the system to show him

  Oh, also, have you paid your tab at the tavern? Like are you ready to go right now?

  "She's asking if we paid our tab at the tavern. If we're ready to leave right now." Jeff repeated for Tom.

  "Again, she knows we can't answer her right? And don't you even start." Tom lifted a finger before Jeff got a chance to speak.

  *Ding* You have received a message from Zoe Mara.

  Just say it out loud, dorks

  "I think she's listening?" Jeff said.

  Tom looked around the inn, none of the other patrons looked like Zoe. He got up and looked out the door down the street then shook his head as he came back. "How?"

  "I dunno. We are ready to go though, right?" Jeff said.

  "Yeah. We still have to pay the tab but she's not even here yet. We can just pay when she gets here." Tom said.

  Jeff blinked as a gold coin appeared on the table with a clank. Then another, and another.

  "Okay, woah woah. That's enough!" Jeff waved his hands as the pile of coins continued to grow.

  "Okay. So she is listening. Somehow. How?" Tom asked.

  A moment later, their vision shifted. The chair fell away from under them, the dingy rank smell of old oil and burnt meat that filled the stagnant air was replaced with gusting, fresh winds as they appeared on an earthen platform somewhere far above the ground.

  Jeff looked around, he couldn't even see Foizo anymore. The towering trees that made up the boss arena for Flester's Might not even visible on the horizon. Just trees and rocks as far as his eyes could see with a massive gaping hole in the world below them.

  A woman stood in front of them in a fluttering red dress, her white hair tied behind her head with dark red eyes that seemed to shine with excitement and a matching grin. Pale green numbers floated above her head marking her as level 513 with her seventh class. Seventh. Class.

  Jeff felt pale enough to almost match the woman's skin at the sight.

  "Hey," she said.

  Tom fell to the earthen platform, howling with laughter. "You're the verdant watcher, aren't you? We ran a dungeon with the verdant watcher, thinking you were some frail little girl we had to protect."

  "Not quite. The verdant watcher is an idea, a myth. I'm a part of it. We've got a lot to talk about before we get started on this adventure." Zoe. The verdant watcher herself, said.

  "Why us?" Jeff asked. "Why do you want to adventure with us? Why did you come to the dungeon with us?"

  Zoe shrugged. "I've been bored, I guess. You seemed interesting, screaming out sinkholes all the time. I kind of half wonder if I'll ever see an actual sinkhole from you."

  Jeff couldn't even bring himself to refute her. The verdant watcher was here, with them. On a simple adventure to the valleys.

  Tom continued laughing, crying out about sinkholes and the verdant watcher and the stupidity of it all.

  "I'm sorry," Zoe said. "I wasn't planning to lie to you. I just thought you were interesting and then things kept going. I thought the dungeon would be the last I saw of you, since I was planning on an adventure of my own. But then you invited me somewhere interesting, so I thought it could be fun. I didn't want to mislead you or anything, I just didn't think we'd be together for very long and I-" She rambled on, trying to justify her actions as though she'd committed some terrible wrong to them.

  Jeff wasn't offended, and he knew Tom wouldn't be. They'd do the same thing in her position. If anything, he thought it was admirable she trusted them enough to reveal it so early, let alone offended she took too long.

  "It's fine," Tom stopped his laughter to interrupt her babbling, looking up at her. "Just please, please. Don't listen to this guy. I swear to the gods, if the verdant watcher starts screaming out sinkholes I am going to make it my sworn duty to destroy every single rock I can find."

  Zoe giggled. "Alright, then we should lay a few ground rules before we get down there so we don't step on each others toes. First off, I want to see the dragon. If I see an opportunity to go see the dragon, I'm going to do that. Second, I want to try talking to the wanderers. So I'll probably leave at night to try to talk to them."

  Jeff blinked. She wanted to see the dragon?

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