"Oh! Thank you, that's very helpful."

As they get up, Sky spontaneously goes and gives Laurent a hug, lasting long enough for Coventina to finish putting on her elaborate lewd dress, and then a smile as she looks around for her own equipment and gets dressed.

Maybe if she were better with words she could come up with literally anything to say about it, but... well, waking up in his arms horny again only an hour or two after falling asleep was more nice than not, even if she was still paralyzed. Maybe especially because she was still paralyzed. Coventina (somehow, embarrassingly) figured that out right away, and correctly guessed that Sky didn't feel abandoned. Sky could still talk while paralyzed, she could've spoken up and woken him if she'd actually needed to, which was probably a factor.

Coventina couldn't talk, though, it sounded like. Most people without a resistance can't. So she doesn't think Coventina was wrong to raise the concern. Sky is just kind of vaguely anxious about anything that might make Laurent... hesitant.

He is mildly startled but hugs back, with a small friendly smile.

All right, time to get clothes on and— "at some point we should figure out a reasonable and secure method of storing all our money—" go grab breakfast and update their cards?

"Oh! I got Luna to look this up while I was there yesterday. It turns out that Etheric Wardrobe handles pockets by either marking the pockets or the items in the pockets with a tagging rune. Anything untagged is ignored by the spell, but anything that is tagged gets put in immaterial stasis along with the outfit itself."

Luna is happy to update their cards for them! It is a very simple process that is like getting the cards in the first place but faster and without having to feed any new information into the arcane device.

Laurent is now Level 2. He has 4 stat points and 4 skill points to spend as he pleases.

"Two points of Moxie to qualify for Fulmindash, two points of Sanity because Sanity is the stat I most want more of for its own sake, then Bladework and Fulmindash?" he says to the party at large, and Luna if she's listening. "I would like second opinions on my choices because I'm very new to all this. Also I need to pick two more skills. I didn't realize I was going to level so quickly. Hmm, what other skills synergize well with the first two..."

"Oh, interesting choices. It might benefit you to put two points into Bladework," Luna suggests. "Usually the skill Bladework is gated behind the Rogue skill Improvised Weapons, which provides some foundation you won't have. Doubling up on moves could cover your bases there."

"Oh! Thank you, that's good to know. Then I'd only need one more from there..."

He has some variety to choose from. Including many basic utility spells like Frost and Tinder (great for refrigeration and cooking, respectively), and the several moderately advanced Druid spells he witnessed the other day. He does even have Etheric Wardrobe unlocked too, if he wants it.

Sky goes next, and her eyes bug out a little when she gets a look at her card.

"Level four?" she murmurs in a small voice.

She starts poking at her card.

"I haven't spent my points yet either," Coventina mentions. "But I was thinking Rain of Mercy. It's a summoned cloudburst that rains healing water over a large area. And maybe Etheric Wardrobe for real because wow I'd forgotten how much of a pain manually putting my regalia on and taking it off again is."

"Yes, I think Etheric Wardrobe would be very reasonable for you. Perhaps less so for me. Although if it let me stow away my adventurer card such that I didn't have to worry about dropping it but it was still capable of recording my activities, that would be valuable... hmm, though, I wonder..."

He starts scrolling through skills looking for something he half-remembers seeing one of those Druids get up to.

Of particular interest to Laurent might be this skill:

"Genesic Echo" (Channeled, Area, Line-of-Sight)
Summon a standing stone that causes all magic performed in a 25 yard radius to leave a persistent effect upon the landscape for as long as the standing stone endures.

"Right, that one sounds like fun," he says. "...it's going to turn all our battlefields into crackling hellscapes once I start Fulmindashing around, but they'll be very efficient crackling hellscapes, I think." He reads out the skill description. "Thoughts, anyone?"

Surprisingly, it's Sky who speaks up.

"Um, I could get Stormheart," she says tentatively. "It makes it so that lightning hitting me refills my mana, and protects me from stuff like my heart stopping? It doesn't say anything about burns though..."

"That's potentially very useful... and burns can be dealt with using Coventina's healing, I think, although I don't know how you'd feel about the experience of getting hit by lightning and that seems relevant to the question of whether you should take the skill..."

Luna, who is leaning over the counter to the point that she's nearly spilling out of her top, chimes in. "Oh, if it doesn't specify, that means you're getting generalized lightning resistance, so it reduces all of the resulting harm. As a Shaman, you can expect your enhancement spells to be broadly protective like that."

"Oh, um, thank you."

With a small smile, Sky pokes at her card and buys the skill. She puts the other three points into boosting her existing spells, and then, only hesitating for a moment, puts her stat points into Allure.

(This just barely pushes her Allure into actually-superhuman. She's subtly physically prettier, but the larger effect is that she starts legibly radiating, "I am just a fucktoy that can't say no to you or judge you." At her current Allure she's radiating this very quietly, but still.)

Laurent also uses his stat and skill points as described. +2 Moxie, +2 Sanity, two points of Bladework, one each of Fulmindash and Genesic Echo.

"And now we're a much more effective adventuring party and can start taking those minimum-Level-2 quests!"

LAURENT
Level 2

CLASS: "Adventurer"
Class Bonus: Skill Observation - Witnessing any skill in action will unlock that skill for purchase.

Stat Points: 0

Fitness - 9
Ardor - 8
Grace - 14
Moxie - 14
Sanity - 18
Allure - 11

Skill Points: 0

Greater Bladework (Manual)
Mastery of up to 20 versatile bladed weapon techniques.

"Fulmindash" (Instant, Line-of-Sight)
Become lightning in the space between moments and strike to any point you can see.

"Genesic Echo" (Channeled, Area, Line-of-Sight)
Summon a standing stone that causes all magic performed in a 25 yard radius to leave a persistent effect upon the landscape for as long as the standing stone endures.

ELEMENTS: Storm - 12% Affinity

"Indeed you can," Luna says cheerfully. "It's always nice to see a new party find some success."

Coventina decides she will also put her points in Sanity, and then get Rain of Mercy and Etheric Wardrobe as she planned.

"I figure Rain of Mercy will be good for situations where Nectar of Sin is impractical, and visa versa. Like, I picked this spell because I can cast it for free, but it does have the downside of literal actual pouring rain, so. But Nectar of Sin should cover most situations where it suddenly raining would be inconvenient."

"Yes, that seems very sensible!"

"Glad you think so."

She puts her arm around Sky's shoulders and gestures toward the food bar. "Breakfast?"

"An excellent plan." Breakfast!

As usual, the food is tasty.

The boisterousness of the hall ramps up as other adventurers also stop in for early lunches. They slept in a bit after the night(s) they had, apparently. Actually, there is maybe a bit more activity today than on the previous two days?