"That... makes sense, now that you put all the pieces together. Hmm. That's... hmm. I could imagine it making them harder for me to banish, but I'm not sure that's true; does it?"

"B-Banish? On your first quest?" Luna repeats. "Well, that's... you certainly are ambitious."

Luna recovers her smile. "I suppose I'll wish you luck."

"Efficiency!" he says brightly.

This makes Luna giggle somewhat despite herself.

"Well, let's make it official then."

The process of registering the quest involves, again, the arcane device that prints the adventurer cards being feed written info on the quest.

Bog Worms Slain: 0 / 6

gets printed on the back of both of their cards.

"It isn't strictly required to register first, if you'd already slain a bog worm and brought back proof we would count that toward your total, but as with most things, doing it through your adventurer card is far more... efficient," Luna explains.

"Hooray for adventurer cards!"

With their task set, the next thing to do is buy equipment.

"We probably shouldn't overspecialize for this one quest, but, knowing what we're up against, plus what skills you'll be going for with your first level up, means we can make a pretty informed decision now. What do you think?"

"I think... I want some kind of Grace-based weapon skill, and whatever that thing was with the lightning and the apparent short-range teleportation. And I suspect that means I want a sword; I think Rogues with swords were the source of the most useful-looking weapon skills I saw overall on those sparring grounds. Well, useful-looking accounting for the fact that I'm currently hopeless at Fitness."

"That makes sense. Lemme see your card, that was a Monk, right? With the zipping around as lightning. I think that sounds like a Monk skill..."

After getting a look at his card, she finds a skill called Fulmindash in his list which is the only one that fits. "I think this has to be it. Requires fourteen Moxie. Hey yeah, you could get this at Level One. Just barely. And look here, you've got Bladework unlocked, with more than a full point's worth of techniques too. Only requires ten Grace."

"And here I was planning to spend all my stat points on Sanity until my Sanity no longer yielded to stat points, but I suppose it is more efficient to achieve basic combat functionality first. All right."

After shopping around a little, they can find a basic katana for Laurent which has a low level durability enchantment and a firm-grip enchantment, for 7,500 Lake. A basic set of combat leathers to protect his vital organs is about that much again.

Seems reasonable all told. He'll take it.

It's certainly a start.

Coventina buys herself a pair of heavy-duty but unenchanted sap gloves. Clerics don't get any sharp-things skills, but just in case she needs to hit something she wants more than her bare fists.

"Alright, north is... that way. Let's give this a shot."

"Let's!"

As they head north, he muses, "She never did actually say whether banishing monsters not adapted to my anatomy is any harder."

"I mean, it depends on the monster. But probably we should tentatively plan on not getting the opportunity to do any banishing and having to just kill the things. That should still get you to level one and me to level two."

Something else occurs to her.

"Uh, also my Ardor stat is more than twice yours. I think if we do crack a core, even an androvorous monster might ignore you if I'm within fifty yards, to say nothing of a gynevore."

"That sounds like it erases some of your objections to the maiming hack, although I suppose not all of them and also we have better options now. But if I can't banish a monster while you're anywhere near it, I effectively can't banish monsters, at the moment. I guess we could try to capture one somehow..."

"If we can get one by itself we can experiment."

Walk walk walk.

"Actually, you might want to put some points in Ardor even if we solve the first problem some other way. Riding out a banishing, pun intended, can get pretty... intense."

"For previously discussed personal reasons I think I actually prefer my low Ardor for the moment even if it makes things less comfortable than they might otherwise be. By the time I have the points to spare, well—how many stat points per level do I get, actually—" He's sure this was on a pamphlet somewhere but he can't call the number immediately to mind.

"Two. And, of course, it's your call."

"Then by the time I've put two points into Moxie to meet the requirements for Bladework and four into Sanity because maximizing the intelligence stat is the obvious first move if you find yourself in a stat system, I may very well be more open to experiencing Ardor around you. We'll see."

Eventually, they crest a hill an see a trail of soggy earth slithering across the ground. At the head of that trail, out in plain sight, is a massive mottled green worm creature as thick around as a person is tall. It moves slowly, and doesn't yet seem to notice them.

"Problem the third," Coventina realizes. "I have no fucking idea where in their bodies these things keep their mana cores."

"Unfortunate. We may have to experiment."

"Do you want some of my breastmilk or saliva before you charge in?"

He considers this. "Saliva seems more convenient. How long is the effect likely to last?"

He'd rather kiss her than suck on her breasts? Interesting.

"Depends on the dose, I think. Anywhere from half a minute to half an hour, I'd guess based on what I remember."