Ame loves it when a plan comes together. This should also help head off any Ame-as-topic-of-conversation becoming a point of contention between the men and the women of the village, hopefully.

It's not noon yet. Ame supposes she will hang out in the market for a while in case anyone else wants healing.

There are not really that many injuries bad enough enough to pay a silver to heal but not so bad that they've already been dealt with one way or another in a town of a couple thousand. One woman who got kicked by a horse, a man who broke his arm and didn't set it right some years ago.

This guy wants a blowjob, though.

Can normal healing spells fix an incorrectly set bone without rebreaking it? Ame doesn't know, but her healing apparently can!

"In a hurry?" Ame asks blowjob guy wryly.

"Not particularly. I'm just slightly more shameless than average and it's my thing, you know? I'll go away if the rumors are wrong."

"Your thing, huh." Ame stands up. "Two copper. Three if you wanna be rough. And I'm curious what the rumors are actually saying."

He laughs. "What counts as rough? That you're a prostitute. That you're from somewhere everyone fucks each other three times daily. That you have to have sex at least once daily or you'll lose your improved stats. That you fell out of the sky to avenge the Savoi prize pig. That Raz thinks you're gonna get yourself killed."

"The first one and the last one are definitely true. The rest of those are hilarious, though."

She will follow him if he would like more privacy before pulling his pants down.

"Rough is you pulling my hair and fucking my face balls-deep. I have a stubbornly persistent gag reflex so I charge extra for that."

"Rumors are an art form, much like novels or plays. And in that case, rough is not my thing and I'll gladly give you two copper."

He would like a bit more privacy, in fact. Here's a shed.

She doesn't get any other quite as bold clients, but she could probably find one or two more before noon unless she'd rather do something else.

Ame sucks the guy off. For only two copper she doesn't draw it out, and he doesn't seem to expect her to. It doesn't take long.

For the rest of the morning, Ame won't turn anyone away who asks (unless they ask for something that'll take more time than she has) but she doesn't seek anyone out, no.

If no one comes by for healing either, after a while, she will ask around in pursuit of getting her own waterskin-or-equivalent and maybe a snack, portability optional.

The time spent sitting isn't spent idle. She spends all that spare time working her Unique Skill on herself, trying to push its limits and enhance her body further. Like finally getting rid of her gag reflex, maybe. Can it do that, yet?

Canteens, waterskins, and snacks are all things that can be bought with money. (One woman loudly comments to a friend that whores don't actually produce anything of real value in her earshot.)

Her Unique Skill can't do that yet. It kind of seems like it hasn't gotten any stronger or more flexible, she's just gotten better at phasing in and out of the mental space that activates it. Which will be good for the speed of healing at least?

Ame has money now!

Not directly responding to the whorephobic comment, Ame idly makes her own comment, seemingly offhand, about the insanity inherent in the premise of denying the evidence of one's own senses: the clear and obvious fact that anything wanted holds real value, since it is indeed that wanting that gives it 'real' value. To argue that sex work holds no value, to anyone, is to argue that no living person has ever actually wanted sex. Why, that is surely the sign of a deranged and immature mind that never learned to cope with basic differences in preferences or taste!

Ame gets back to meditative practice. Grrr. What does it take to make this thing level up?

Well, she's certainly opinionated, huffs the complainer as if that's a bad thing.

It's maybe a little bit stronger? It feels like fixing that one guy's mishealed bone wouldn't have worked yesterday. She certainly is not nearly as undernourished-looking as yesterday, but it's hard to say if that was repeated 'healing' or the result of a level up.

At any rate, noon quickly approaches.

Ame buckles her crappy sword back on and looks around for Arwen.

Arwen is wearing head-to-toe leather armor, plus a chainmail shirt, and has a metal kite shield and a halberd. He'd look positively Knightly if the amount of metal versus leather were higher.

"Hello again. I thought you'd buy a shield, or a short blade? I suppose you might not have much money..."

"I still could, if there isn't anything I can borrow. I've got some money. And maybe I can trade this sword in? Is that a thing?"

"That's a thing. Some chests give out weapons sometimes. There's not much call for small knives designed for fighting around here, come to think of it, but if you can afford a backup weapon, having a backup weapon is a good idea. I can lend you a small shield, but if it ends up broken you have to pay for mending, alright?"

"Of course."

Then they can go and trade in her crappy sword for something shorter and sharper, maybe a gladius, if there's something like that available.

There's a surprising variety of weapons for a small town. She can get a mediocre instead of terrible gladius-like blade by trading in her terrible sword plus a few more coins, and can get a pair of cheap daggers on credit once it's explained that she's going on a dungeon run.

That'll have to do. It is certainly an improvement. She will also, assuming its not too expensive, get a new, cleaner sheath, and something to strap a dagger to each thigh, with.

She doesn't exactly have a lot of coin left, but those run only a couple copper.

"Just a few small things about dungeon runs," Arwen tells her as they're walking out of town. "They are serious business. You have to be sharp while we're in the dungeon. We have to stay alert and keep joking around and distractions to an absolute minimum. Even when you think you're safe, be alert. Watch for wandering monsters. Sometimes there are traps - this dungeon doesn't seem to use them except on the last level, but it's easy to be caught unawares. If we have to take a break, we can sheathe our weapons, but we don't sit down and we find a room where we can watch all the entrances at once. I want to clear the whole first level, and then leave. I don't want to fight a boss today. Even if you feel confident and it's just a first-level boss."

"This dungeon uses plant and grass type monsters. It has three levels but we're only going through the first. On the first level, there are Grass Sprites, Pineapple Surprises, Walking Sticks, and Looper Vines. Grass Sprites are animate bundles of grass about waist-high. They don't have claws or anything and they're easy to cut apart, but they hit surprisingly hard and they tend to swarm. You just have to avoid getting swarmed. Pineapple Surprises are spiky little fruit things. They throw themselves at you pretty hard, and the spikes hurt. The first time they see an adventurer they always panic, so the best time to kill them is when you surprise them. Walking Sticks are a lot like the Grass Sprites, but sharp twigs can pierce you and do considerable damage. They're the monster most like a human opponent on the first level, so parrying or dodging and then striking should work. Looper Vines..."

He pauses and looks sad. "Looper Vines are the most dangerous. They're why I'm wearing a gorget." He taps the stiff leather at his throat. "So I'll enter new rooms first. They lurk in disguised pockets in the ceiling and especially just inside the entrances to rooms, and reach down to strangle adventurers and suspend them in the air. If you're caught like that and your friends can't help you, and you can't cut the vine with weapon or spell, you will die. That's why you need to have someone with you, and why you have to be alert and especially cautious entering new rooms. And let me just say one last time, this dungeon can kill you. Respect it."

"I will."

Ame does, in fact, have her serious face on.

She thinks over this new information.

She turns to Arwen. "Hold on, I want to test something."

Ame unstraps her sheath, and loops the strap around her neck. 

"Grab this and strangle me, as hard as you think a Looper Vine would. I want to know how long I can stay lucid."

"-I see the idea but I don't think it's a good one."

"It's always a good idea to know something before you need to know it. Just do it. We need to know this, especially if my healing Skill affects it."

"And I think going into things either injured or unnerved by recent pain and suffering might be bad. Fine. It won't even be a perfect facsimile because that's not a vine and I'm not attached to the ceiling, but fine."

He loops the strap around her neck and lifts.

Ame can't help but snort at 'unnerved by recent pain'. What does he think she is?

Ame's been humming along at a high simmer all day and it's surprisingly not unpleasant for the first couple seconds. Then her neck starts to hurt and her lungs start to burn, and it stops being even tangentially sexy.

Good. Pain and fear have always had a chilling effect on her mind, even if she hadn't realized just how extreme that effect was until Raz hit her with that terror Skill. It makes it very easy to sink into her Unique Skill.

Ame tenses, and her hands instinctively go to the strap around her neck, but she maintains her composure and maintains eye contact with Arwen.

She points her Skill not at her neck, she can heal the bruise later, easily. She wants to 'heal' her blood. Specifically her blood. Possibly her lungs and brain and heart too, but it's definitely her blood that should take priority, because if she can keep her blood 'healthy' that should obviate everything else. And she starts counting the seconds.