Space unfolded bit by bit, revealing parts of the building Zoe was teleported to as her Cosmic Vision peered through the layers of space and dense mana. She was standing just inside the front door of her new home, the wooden patio extending along the outside. The wooden walls were painted with a light stain, making even the bit of light that seeped in from the windows illuminate everything in a warm glow.

  In front of her was a small, rudimentary kitchen. A simple wood fire stove, adequate counterspace and cupboards for storage, and even a functional sink. At the far end were two doors leading to other rooms, one slightly larger than the. And to her right was an empty room with windows on the far right wall looking out over an alleyway next to her home.

  Zoe walked the few steps through the kitchen to the two doors at the back. Thedoor closest to her was her bedroom, a square room about fifteen feet wide. Some furniture was provided, but none of it looked exceptional in any regard. The bed was a simple wooden frame with a thin mattress, and the dresser was made of some flimsy wood that seemed like it would crumple under its own weight, let alone whatever she’d put in it.

  The bathroom was just as plain, with a simple metal toilet and wooden sink. A window behind the toilet looked out to a brightly lit alley with a few people walking down chatting about different alchemical ingredients. Zoe shut the dark cloth curtains — windows in ground floor bathrooms were always something that gave Zoe more than a little discomfort. Nudity was one thing, but what she did on the toilet? That was for her, and her alone to be a participant of.

  She Cosmic Stepped into her room and laid down on the bed. The wooden frames under the mattress dug into her back a little as she did, not enough to be unbearable but she decided a new bed would be high on her todo list. Sleeping wasn’t something she did often, but when she did want to sleep, she wanted to sleep comfortably.

  What else was on her todo list though, she wondered. What did she want to accomplish here, in the capital? She had a book, of course. Going through that would be quick enough, maybe she’d do that after she greeted the neighbours. But then what?

  There was the castle. She hadn’t managed to make her way over there just yet to see if it had anything to offer her. Maybe they had tours? That would be interesting. Almost anything she’d want to do, she could find in the capital it seemed. If she wanted to learn how to paint, she could probably find somebody who would be willing to teach her, for a fee perhaps.

  She lay in bed for a bit, wondering, thinking about her goals. After a few minutes, she realized she didn’t have any that she cared about, not in a meaningful way anyway. Her sixth class was something she wanted, but somehow the excitement for that had fallen away with just how long it was taking to get there.

  Exploring the world was of course something interesting to do, but sitting around in a capital for years at a time wouldn’t do that for her either. When she first learned she could go to space, finding a way to do that safely was one of the most exciting things she’d ever had. She needed it, more than anything else.

  And then she got to the moon, and the sheer scale of space truly hit her. If she wanted to go to nearby planets, or explore far enough to find something interesting, she could be spending decades. Maybe even centuries, just to get to somewhere. Let alone back afterwards. Leaving her friends for a few years was one thing, but leaving her friends for centuries? Zoe wasn’t sure she could handle it. Wasn’t sure she wanted to be able to handle it in the first place.

  She sat up on the edge of the bed and formed a crude wooden table next to her, then summoned a notebook to scribble down her thoughts. There were many things she was interested in, but they all had something that got in the way of her accomplishing them.

  Exploring space was exciting and fun, but she needed a faster way back. Or at least, some way of communicating with her friends while she was gone still. Maybe something like the illusion the royal delegate used so she could speak with the king back in Foizo? Something like what Lila had would be fine, if Zoe could also get her friends to have a similar skill.

  Getting her sixth class required a lot of delving into dungeons, or facing other monsters that wandered the wilderness. And the capital was a great place to do that at, as long as her next cap wasn’t too high. And if she was lucky, her sixth class might even give her some means of solving her first problem too.

  Exploring the world was fascinating, but the capital was a part of the world and diverse in its own way. It wouldn’t be so bad to wander around, but maybe she could think about moving every year instead of renewing the same contract.

  She scribbled down some notes in her notebook. Everything came down to her getting her sixth class before she did much of anything else, so what would that actually look like? Assuming her cap was reachable with the highest level dungeon in the capital, it would involve spending some time at more level appropriate dungeons as she slowly crept up in levels. And if her cap wasn’t reachable, then she’d just have to reset and try again until she got it.

  In the meantime, she’d be able to spend some spare time wandering around the city, meeting new people and maybe even take the time to actually get some experience with alchemy. She’d learned it at the same time as Enchanting, and it was still only at level thirty eight. Somehow, it just didn’t seem to spark the same passion that Enchanting did. But if she was going to be living in an alchemy district anyway, then there was little reason to not dip her toes in it a little bit.

  She slammed her notebook shut and stored it away in her Storage skill, pulling out the sheet of paper Herbert had given her on her new home. Prominently, at the top of the page was a drawing of the exterior of her home, and below it was everything she’d need to know about it. At the very bottom was a crude map of the nearby streets.

  Her home was to the southeast of town in the Stute district on Excited Avenue, a small side street a short walk from a main road. The building on the other side of the alley behind her home was an open market that sold mostly food. A short walk away was a shared library and alchemical reagent store, if Zoe was reading the map right. The map listed everything else she might need — a water supply, nearby districts for entertainment or food, but nothing else stood out to her as being all that interesting.

  Zoe put away the sheet and walked over to her neighbour’s home to the right of her house. The building looked almost the same, but with a second floor added on to the top of it that jutted out over the front patio. She walked up to the front door and rapped on the metal rabbit shaped knocker.

  After a brief moment of some rushed footsteps, a younger man opened the door. His brown hair fell around his shoulders, and he smiled, lighting up his dark brown eyes. “Hello?" He asked.

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  “Hi.” Zoe said. “I’m Zoe, I just moved in next door. I, uh. I dunno. I thought I should come say hello. I should have brought something though, sorry.”

  “Oh, no, no. That’s okay. Nice to meet you, Zoe. I’m Bruce. Sorry, it’s a bit of a bad time right now? It’s dinner time for my buns and they get antsy when I’m late.” He chuckled.

  “You have bunnies?" Zoe asked.

  “Yeah!” He smiled. “You wanna meet them? They’re a bit nervous but you can look at them from afar, just don’t make any sudden movements.”

  “I’d love to.” Zoe said.

  Bruce walked in and Zoe followed him through the house upstairs and to a single large room with a glorified baby gate right behind the door. The room smelled of hay and a hint of urine, with two very fluffy puffballs hopping around in bits of grass scattered around the floor. One was white with splotches of gray, and the other was almost pure white with a dark mark on its back. When the door opened, they both looked over and ran up to the gate, with hints of anxiety when they noticed Zoe.

  “Hey, hey. I’ll give you your food just be patient.” Bruce clambered over the gate into the room with both of the bunnies hopping against his leg, begging for food. He walked over to a corner of the room and opened a cupboard, pulling out a small leather sack and a flood of excitement washed over the bunnies as he did.

  Bruce knelt down and scooped out some brown pellets from the leather sack, placing them in small bowls that sat at his feet and both of the bunnies started gorging themselves on the pellets. Bruce smiled and summoned two small green slices of some kind of fruit, placing one on each of the piles of pellets then sat down next to the buns.

  “Aren’t they cute?" He asked.

  “They’re so cute.” Zoe agreed.

  “You have any pets?" Bruce asked.

  “Kinda. I live with a friend back in Foizo and she has two cats. Oliver and Fennel.” Zoe knelt down, leaving her head just above the wooden gate as she watched the bunnies eat.

  “Cats are nice. I used to have a cat, when I was younger.” Bruce said.

  “What happened?” Zoe asked.

  “Oh, I moved out. Didn’t get to take her with me. It’s alright though, I go back and visit sometimes. Haven’t for a while though cause somebody’s gotta take care of these little guys now.” Bruce answered.

  Zoe nodded. “What are their names?"

  “This one,” Bruce pointed at the one with a dark patch of fur on its back. “Is Spot, and the other is Bugs.”

  “Bugs?" Zoe asked.

  “Yup. He was covered in fleas when I got him, so I decided he’d be called bugs.” Bruce laughed.

  “And lemme guess, the other one’s called Spot cause of the spot?" Zoe asked.

  “Yup.” Bruce said. “People try too hard with names sometimes, I think. They don’t really care what they’re called, they’ll just eventually learn the sound.”

  “Fair enough.” Zoe said. “You grow up in the capital?”

  Bruce nodded, petting the back of Bugs’ head behind his ears. Bugs’ ears twitched and his head shook before he continued stuffing his face with the juice covered pellets. “I did,” Bruce said. “Parents live up in the north. In the Prulo district if you’ve heard of it?" He asked.

  Zoe shook her head. “I’m new in town, just got here a month ago and been exploring a bit.”

  “Ah. How you liking it so far?" Bruce asked.

  “It’s nice. It’s different from what I’m used to, but it’s nice. I like being able to see so many different cultures so easily, but sometimes it’s kind of overwhelming, too.” Zoe said.

  Bruce chuckled. “I’ve never left the city before, personally. I think I’d like to go on a trip somewhere someday, but I’ve already made a commitment with these guys so guess I’m stuck here.”

  “Can’t get a babysitter?" Zoe asked.

  “If you trust them, sure. If. But nobody’s going to love my buns as much as I do, you know?" Bruce smiled as Spot looked up at him. ”They’re so precious to me.“

  “I get that. That’s kinda why I don’t have any pets of my own. I’m sure if I got a bunny or a rat or something that Emma would watch it, but then it wouldn’t really be my pet anymore, really. So I’d feel like I have to stick around and watch it. Maybe one day, but then how do you decide to leave it? I don’t think I could, really. I like pets though. When they’re friendly.” Zoe laughed.

  “When they’re friendly is right. My parents’ neighbour has a dog that barks all day long and it drives them mad.” Bruce laughed. “Here’s quiet, at least. It’s nice.”

  “Is it? That was one of the things I cared about when I was looking for a place. Not too much noise, not too much smell.” Zoe said.

  Bruce shrugged. “More or less, yeah. It’s not bad here.”

  “Good. I’m glad.” Zoe said.

  The bunnies finished eating, with bits of green juice left on the fur around their mouths and ran off around the room. Bruce and Zoe sat and watched them run around for a bit, jumping on the wooden furniture and crawling through the hides Bruce had set up around. They hopped over to a big pile of hay and munched on it for a bit, and then Spot flopped on his side in the corner while Bugs hopped up on Bruce’s lap.

  A few minutes later, Bruce nudged Bugs away and stood up. “Well, I won’t keep you any longer. It was nice to meet you, Zoe.”

  “Yeah, you too Bruce.” Zoe said.

  “Feel free to stop by sometime if you wanna come see the bunnies again.” Bruce showed Zoe out the door.

  “I will, thanks.” Zoe said, and made her way over to the other neighbour on the other side. Their building was very different to Zoe’s and Bruce’s, made instead of a dark stone and standing three stories tall, casting shade over Zoe’s tiny hut in comparison.

  She walked up to the front door and rapped her knuckles against the hard wooden door, then waited for a response. A minute later with no response, Zoe shrugged and turned to walk towards the open market behind her home.

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