"Thanks. Hopefully we'll be able to do something about it."

Rinse rinse. That everywhere? Looks like. Coventina rises from the water and grabs her towel.

Laurent likewise gets out of the bath.

"Also," he says, "regarding molesting you in your sleep, if it puts your mind at ease I think I can promise that I find myself wanting to do that I won't hold back for fear of awkwardness as long as you seem like you're going to sleep through it. And if you happen to know of any ways to get yourself back into the state of hair-trigger sensory overload you were in when we first showed up, or anything else that similarly interferes with your ability to process intense experiences while still letting you enjoy them, I might be willing to try something while you're still conscious."

Warm smile. "Noted. I'll give it some thought."

Probably blindfolding her wouldn't be sufficient or he would've suggested that himself. That's okay. Solving this seems like a fun challenge actually.

She finishes drying off, sets out her regalia for tomorrow, and then flops naked into the bed, going face-first into the pillows. The sheets are nice and she doesn't even have to remember to make appealing noises about them on purpose.

Laurent puts his underwear back on before getting into bed. He stretches out comfortably, displacing pillows where necessary; when he accidentally kicks one onto the floor, he retrieves it and whimsically sets it down on Coventina's back.

Languid giggle.

In the morning, Coventina resists the temptation to carefully evaluate herself for signs of molestation.

If he molested her in her sleep, he didn't leave any glaringly obvious signs!

"So, priorities for the day: equipment? Looking into available quests to see if any of them involve monsters I wouldn't mind banishing? Getting you another client or two for funding purposes and also because you seemed to be having a lot of fun? Some sort of timer so you don't need me to knock on the door after six hours?"

Coventina laughs at the timer suggestion.

"We have enough money to last us a week or more, so I think today we should focus on getting you as wide a selection of skills to choose from as possible. Once you have some options you're pretty sure you want to spend your first points on, we can get you some suitable equipment since what skills you go for could affect what equipment is optimal. And then if its not too late in the day we can try to find a quest that doesn't look too dangerous. That's what I'd suggest."

"I like your suggestions. Yes, let's do that."

He puts his clothes back on. They're a little the worse for yesterday's hard labour but not actually all that bad; he should figure out laundry soon but he does not need to figure out laundry today. He still, after getting dressed, thinks to mention, "A change of clothes for me might also be a good idea."

"Yeah."

It takes Coventina a minute or two to put her divine regalia back on.

"I saw a flyer for laundry service downstairs, but... I feel like I'm half remembering there being a spell for this? Hold on."

She gets out her adventurer card and starts scrolling through her unpurchased skills. There are a lot, actually. She's pretty sure normal Level 1 Clerics aren't supposed to have this many options. Actually, she's definitely sure. This looks like the entire corpus of Cleric skills and more.

She wishes she'd bothered to design a better organization scheme for these cards, sheesh.

"Ah, here. Etheric Wardrobe. Requires fifteen Sanity. Can store one set of clothes or wearable equipment in immaterial stasis per skill point spent. If I remember right, it stores only the clothes, not any, like, dirt that's on the clothes, so it doubles as a cleaning."

"Oh, interesting! Does immaterial stasis storage imply that you can put them on and take them off instantaneously? That might be very useful for you."

"I know right? I probably shouldn't spend a whole skill point on that until we've got points going spare, but."

She finishes dressing.

"Alright, let's go stare at some folks."

"Let's!"

On their way out of the room, he asks, "So is there such a thing as wearable equipment that has magical effects? It's hard to tell. Though I suppose the fact that none of the adventurers we saw were wearing anything I'd recognize as armour is a clue... except that I can also imagine adventurers find it convenient to be able to get out of their clothes easily... actually, that makes for a good case in favour of Etheric Wardrobe or similar... how does Etheric Wardrobe handle the contents of pockets?"

"...I've honestly got no idea. I guess we'll have to find out. As for enchanted items, yes, they're common, but unfortunately the sort of magic that just directly enhances the wearer is... badly supported by the thaumophysics. There are some items like that but there's usually a better way to use the same resources, so you're not going to see things like Bracers of Plus-Five Grace for sale or anything like that, except as a novelty."

"So no armour with stat bonuses, but enchanted weapons, maybe enchanted utility items? Interesting. I guess we'll have to see what the selection looks like. ...is enchanting items a skill?"

"Yeah. Pretty much everything is, by now."

Once they're outside, her lewdly accentuated and exposed body attracts nearly as much attention as yesterday, but the flavor is subtly different. It seems rumors about her have already started to get around, making her appearance somewhat less surprising.

Spending the morning following adventurers around does yield quite a few skills. They come across at least one sparring ring, where Warriors, Rogues, and Monks are training against each other in friendly bouts. They come across Mages or Warlocks occasionally using their abilities in small, mundane ways. Outside the city wall, there's a small skirmish between ambulatory sunflowers and a pair of Druids, and over there is a Ranger doing target practice.

It's enough that they could avoid asking anyone directly to demonstrate cool skills, but they could get even more if they did.

Oh, what an array of tasty treats to choose from!

He takes particular note of anything that seems plausibly Storm-related; tragically he doesn't have the Fitness to use the elemental weapon attacks he sees in common use by Warriors, but the Rogue's Grace-based equivalent should work fine. He also manages to glimpse some kind of lightning-based short-range teleport-or-something that he really hopes will benefit from his Storm affinity because it looks cool as hell. And he is kind of unreasonably delighted by mundane utility magic, although he probably shouldn't spend any starting skill points on it so he is going to pore over his unlocked skill list and marvel at the possibilities later after he has figured out how to get his hands on some actual combat capabilities.

"I am going to end up feeling so thoroughly oppressed by skill point limitations, aren't I," he says wryly after watching the Ranger loose an arrow that multiplies into a few dozen projectiles over the course of its flight and peppers the target with jagged shards of metal. "I don't even particularly want to do that, I just resent the fact that I'm never going to get the chance because I'm probably going to have access to thirty different skills that are all more useful to me by tomorrow."

"I know what you mean," Coventina agrees. "But, at least being spoiled for choice is a nice problem to have."

It's past noon, by now.

"Wanna keep wandering or do you think you're good to get lunch and look at the quest board?"

"Let's see what the quest board has to offer us today."

Lunch is as good as dinner was yesterday. The restaurant bar inside the guild hall seems to be pretty reliable.

A new quest has been posted on the board since yesterday. A farm owner a mile up the road has posted a bounty: 30,000 Lake for killing at least six "bog worms" around his property. It does not list a minimum level requirement either.

(If you watch Laurent eat, knowing what he said about not eating for pleasure in front of strangers, it's actually pretty visible how little attention he's paying to how things taste. He does notice but he's not dwelling on it.)

"And what, pray tell, is a bog worm?" he wonders.

Luna, who is out from behind her counter, volunteers an answer as she's passing by. "Oh, those are, well, they're a sort of amphibious worm that likes to turn good land into a bog. You have to be careful about them because they're among the monsters with breeding capabilities, so they can spread quite far from their spawn point. Rumor has it that the farm owner who posted this has been having trouble because his daughters keep getting snatched by the bog worms and impregnated, which makes them too incapacitated to work the fields."

"That sounds like a bad time for all concerned!" He glances at Coventina. "Worth checking out, you think?"

"Well, it is the only quest that doesn't say we have to be Level 2 or better."

She turns to Luna. "Anything else you can tell us?"

"I believe so, if you'll be taking on the quest? One thing you may note is that, given the rumors, it seems safe to say this variety of bog worm is gynevorous, and thus likely violent toward male adventurers."