Magic missile can't handle having tons of mana dumped into it, but when it hits it appears to do damage to the entire skin at once, burning and weakening it and even doing some strange sort of damage to the gooey interior. A magic missile won't kill a big slime by itself, but it'll soften them up a bunch. And two or three hits will kill one.

In that case, Ame's vote is that she spends the rest of the day using her Mysterious Viric Comprehension Ability to figure out a version of Magic Missile that she can fire repeatedly off of one casting.

"Well, if you think you can do that. We'll need to find an actual, paid inn though. And you're becoming quite the powerhouse. We'd better do some training too. Could find someone to spar with?"

"All of those things. Inn first? This is probably going to be complicated enough that I'll need to sit down and work it out on paper."

"Yeah. I have something I can do to help against spying. It's a bit... Obvious if someone is actually spying, but it works."

They go looking for an inn. Preferably an inn that's optimized for just one night stays, since tomorrow, barring catastrophe, they'll be able to earn free housing in the dungeon. Also probably worth looking further if the first option doesn't come with a decent writing desk. Ame is already turning the problem over in her head and it is not going to fit on one sheet of paper.

Housing seems to be at kind of a premium here, probably because of the gold rush thing. There are various bar and shop attics at decently low prices. There's a place that is probably actually a brothel but not paying that much effort into hiding it. There's nicer 'real' inns with good furnishing but the prices are rather inflated.

Ame is inclined toward the brothel for sentimental reasons but will defer to her party if they want to spring for a 'real' inn. Also probably a 'real' inn would provide a quieter study environment.

"I would rather avoid the brothel," Abyssia opines with a faint hint of tiredness in her voice. "But not, like, that strongly. I'm worried they might not like us much since I don't think Elizabeth or I will partake, I guess."

Bys knows her too well. Heh.

"Fair. It's only one night. We can splurge on the nice inn."

And so they do.

Once they've secured a room, Ame takes off her pack and weapons and goes to sit down at the table with her quest journal. She flips to the back and tears out a couple of blank sheets of paper, arranges them in front of her, then starts muttering incantation-words under her breath.

Abyssia tells Elizabeth to go down ahead of her, does her blood-sacrifice to call up the inky blackness in her ritual bowl, and flicks speckles of darkness around all the edges of the rooms while asking for the shelter of the abyss. The room grows noticeably colder.

"It's a pretty stupid privacy ward but it's a privacy ward. Good luck, I'm gonna go find someone to practice melee with."

Then she's gone.

"Have fun," Ame bids her as she departs.

On paper, it becomes possible to lay out all the pieces discretely, see the syntax as it actually is. Certain gestures become symbols. Others indentations or line-breaks. The first hour is spent just deriving a schema which she can then spend the next two hours filling with a lexicon. Written down, her ability to understand the language snaps into focus.

let hand = self.body.extremity.distal[2, 1]
let eye = self.body.sensory.optical[1]

offer(viric(5), self.core, destruction(path(eye, hand) + self.ventral() * 6))

It begins with recursion, as many things do. The standard magic missile defines a vector, and then spends mana to exert destruction along that vector. It takes ten seconds to recite because the syntax cannot leave room for ambiguity but reading it, it is actually extraordinarily simple. What she needs to do is make the vector part self-referential, so that it can be used as a frame of reference.

Ame scribbles, and scribbles some more. Scratches things out. Scribbles anew.

She's still at it when Abyssia and Elizabeth return.

Abyssia comes back first, nursing a bit of a limp and wincing.

"How's it going? Can, uh, I get healed up, sorry-"

Ame was in the middle of a third-proofread and is interruptable. She drops her pen down and rubs her eyes as she reaches for Abyssia's hand, healing her as she leans her head against Bys' arm. The healing is a little sluggish. Ame's brain is tired.

"I think I know how to anchor the magic missiles in a stable configuration, but I still need to figure out the syntax for a conditional trigger. I can build the weapon and load the weapon, but I can't fire the weapon, to put it in gun terms."

"Thank you." She stretches the previously injured leg. "I think I got a level or two in melee stuff, so that's nice. I'll need new tattoos soon... I don't understand magic, but make sure this thing can't go off in your face, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Ame nuzzles Bys' arm.

"I need a break. Working with the logic is pretty interesting but deriving new syntax and vocabulary is so tedious."

Bys pats her shoulder. "Mm. That's kind of a scary ability... Say. Do you like sex in itself, or for pleasing others? Because if I'm just - not much in the mood - though I'm sure you could change that if you tried- Would it bug you to not, I guess?"

Ame smiles wryly.

"My soul craves a world where no one ever has to go horny, a world where all the empty spaces in everyone's life are instead saturated with the joyful fulfilment of their lusts. But my body just feels pleasure like a normal slut's and is easy to please."

Ame lets go of Bys' arm to get up and stretch, then turns and flops backward onto the bed.

"I just need a minute to let my brain recharge. But if you want to come sit on my face and pet me while I rest..."

"Sex isn't everything good in life." She says it sort of fondly, though. Her eyes track up and down Ame. "...Still not that horny right now but I'll pet you, at least."

Bys doesn't take off her own clothes, but she will unhurriedly apply her hands (fingering and kneading a breast) and mouth (on the back of her neck and shoulders) to Ame, cuddling next to her. For a few minutes.

Then she gets out paper of her own and thoughtfully stares at it without actually writing anything.

Mmm.

Once cuddling has concluded, Ame pauses to shoot Bys and her blank paper an inquisitive face in case she wants to share or just think out loud.

"...I need new tattoos. It's a Fischer thing, the ink is my story. And it's been a while since I updated it. Around... Two years, I think. But I'm way outside the traditional symbology here. I can extend the sailors' chains anyway, there's a different style for if you're wandering on land instead, and there's like, filigrees you can add to the gun tattoo to reflect increased Skill Level... But I need something else, something about the - journey here, following the whispers to you. But I'm not coming up with anything that feels meaningful instead of, uh, lewd."

"Are you coming up with anything that's both?"

Ame gives Bys' shoulder a kiss on her way off the bed, then settles back at the desk to give her partial spell another look over.

She finds four additional mistakes in as many seconds. Wow, she did need that break.

"Well, I'm kind of switchy but in a low-key way and that gave me ideas about the whole journey, but faith is not exactly a subby or dommy thing... I don't want something that's just, like, obviously lewd. Maybe I will after a year of exposure to you but I don't right now. So all the images I'm having about suggestive silhouettes aren't getting sketched. There's a thing with orchids, maybe a visual play on one with a more phallic flower too, but, obviously lewd. I'm stepping more into melee just because of, like, party balance? And considering buying proper heavy-ish armor if we make enough. But a generic armored fist or sword or serpent or cutlass feels completely wrong too."

Ame puts down the sheet she's reading and turns around, eyes roaming over Abyssia's body thoughtfully. In the time they've spent together, Ame has become intimately acquainted with every inch of the Fischer girl's skin.

The anchor at the top of her shoulder with a chain leading down it, nine links long for nine years of sailing. A line of squares and diamonds between her shoulder blades with half-filled-in geometric patterns and a small flourish each, for her two parents, younger brother, and younger sister.

On the right arm a cornucopia-shaped powder horn crossed with a pistol, for her preferred weapon. A triangle-within-circle symbol, for hearing the whispers.

On the left arm, a small mailed fist and set of fangs for some triumph in combat, and a single-sailed boat that represented her not-quite-exile from her home village.

On her collarbone, the small crescent moon symbol that, according to Abyssia, is Fischer for 'lesbian'.

A small skull on the back of her right shoulder that she didn't want to talk about, and a stylized eye framed by two lines and a shorter middle line, iron sights, that Abyssia hasn't explained either but is probably about shooting too.

"Hmm."

Ame props her elbow on the back of her chair, putting her chin in her hand as she continues to look at Abyssia thoughtfully.

"Your life kind of took a turn, huh. But a turn that aimed you more at your ultimate destination. Like at a crossroads. Huh, is there a crossroads symbol? Maybe a crossroads that curves up on itself so it looks kind of like a heart or a cup and by itself it's not lewd but you could put it in a lewd place," Ame suggests playfully.

"A - heart? I can't picture that. Though come to think of it it's been two years since I got inked last and I have had other adventures since..."