"In that case probably the correct move is to try to maximize the dose and then immediately go into battle and hope that it lasts long enough to protect me from harm. And if it doesn't we have other options."

"If you want to maximize the dose, you're going to have to suck my tits," she points out.

"Yes, I suspected as much but I wasn't sure of the mechanics." He shrugs. He smiles slightly. "Efficiency!" he says, in an echo of the tone he used in the conversation with Luna.

Coventina giggles a little helplessly at that.

Proving the practicality of her regalia, she offers him an already-bare breast.

Her milk is sweet and warm. It tastes like the very concept of vitality and quenched thirst. Nectar of Sin refills her at a biologically impossible speed, to a measured point, making sure she can neither go empty nor leak. When Laurent sucks, the milk comes easily.

He is neither hesitant nor eager, just very focused and practical. Sort of reminiscent of the way he eats food in public, actually.

When he eventually stops drinking, his first comment is, "Does the effect still work if it's not consumed immediately after leaving your body? We could get a couple of bottles to fill, in case we're separated somehow and I find myself in urgent need of healing. Later, though. Presumably a quest with no minimum level requirement is really unlikely to go that badly."

She hardly expected otherwise, but she hopes he was enjoying himself on the inside.

"You'd have to put it in a container that's mana-proof, which is expensive, or it'll just turn into normal body fluid after about an hour, but in theory, yeah, you could strap me to a breast pump and use me like a hucow."

That gives her a thought, actually, but she'll save it for later.

"...that's not a word I've heard before but I think I can derive the meaning from context. Anyways, yes, later. For now, bog worms."

The bog worm doesn't react until he's less than ten feet from it.

It does not appear to have eyes, but without warning it curls towards him. Four thick, hemi-tubular light-purple tentacles spurt out of its front, shooting unerringly toward Laurent's ankles.

That's very startling!

He jumps back, nearly trips, manages to roll instead, slashes wildly at the tentacles with his sword; meanwhile his brain is very unhelpfully coming up with three different plans of attack using skills he doesn't have yet, most prominently the lightning dash but also an ice spell he wasn't even planning on getting, and he realizes immediately that once he actually has any skills at all he should practice really hard with them because otherwise they're going to stay at the same 'it would be cool if I could do that' level of abstraction as any other thing he's ever seen someone in this magic system do, and by the way could his brain please shut up—

His unskilled slash misses one tentacle. Another tentacle nearly hits him but he manages to get out of the way in time.

The worm turns more fully toward him, moving slowly but seeming able to track his footsteps. An additional four tentacles, these smaller and pink, emerge between the large four tentacles, seeming to taste the air.

It swipes at him with one of its larger tentacles again.

He slashes at the incoming tentacle. This time his aim and control are much better.

His sword slides along the flesh, leaving a shallow cut that oozes dark purple goo.

While that's happening the other three tentacles swipe his legs out from under him.

He rolls again, but awkwardly, because while he has done gymnastics he has not done gymnastics with a sword. Also he's lost track of Coventina and he really hopes she's not in trouble. At least she has given every indication that if the monster caught her she'd probably enjoy the results.

The ground he's rolling around on has become soft and muddy during the course of the fight.

The bog worm rears up as though to crush him, then slams its body down with loud muddy splat.

He doesn't quite manage to get out of the way in time but he does manage to brace the sword on the ground so that the worm impales itself when it comes down. Hopefully all that milk will save him from the consequences of his arms also being under there. Also hopefully he will be able to keep hold of the sword long enough to pull it out.

Something goes snap in his wrist, but the sword strikes true. The bog worm makes an eerie noise and flinches back. Thanks to the grip enchantment, the sword stays in his hand as the bog worm flings itself backward. It flails, writhing, purple goo pouring out of the wound.

By the time Laurent stands up, his broken wrist is as good as new.

Ah, now that's more like it!

He approaches the worm and slashes at its flailing body. If they don't know where these things keep their mana cores, well, now's the time to learn.

It fails, hitting him at least once more from sheer chance, but he recovers from that blow as easily as from the broken wrist.

It bleeds out and dies before Laurent can find the mana core, after a lucky stab hits something that might be a vital organ.

Bog Worm Slain: 1 / 6

He takes a moment to catch his breath and look around for his partner/goddess/object.

Here is the lower half of said partner/goddess/object sticking out of the mouth of another bog worm that snuck up on them while they were focused on the first one, sticking out of a muddy hold in the ground. Coventina's legs kick in the air, mostly-restrained and held wide open by the larger purple tentacles while two of the pink tentacles plunge into her holes.

He's turned to see this just in time for her to cum, her legs spasming and then falling limp.

Ah. Yes. Of course.

...it might be strategic to make sure she has a lot of sex right before they go questing, so that if the monsters fuck her she'll take a little longer to orgasm... he should bring it up next time they get a chance to talk. For now, he's starting to really get a sense for this whole sword business, and he is going to test his newfound sword-related skills by attacking this worm. Perhaps depriving it of one of those large purple tentacles will help matters?

While the monster is distracted, he manages a much deeper cut that bleeds copiously, but he still doesn't have the strength or technique to sever a tentacle entirely. The bog worm recoils and then slams its two free purple tentacles into his chest hard enough to break a rib.

This is when the ground over to one side burps upward, a third bog worm rising from underground in a small fountain of mud.

Coventina is probably enjoying this, but she's also able to stay on task.

Somehow, she detects the wound inflicted on her captor. It's bleeding. That's damage over time.

Vital Rush, she thinks, leaning into her Moxie stat since she can't talk.

And then purple blood is spraying out of the second worm's wound like water from a firehose.

Oh good! What a good partner/goddess/object he has. So helpful.

He slashes the second worm again, and tries to maneuver to keep it between him and the third.

This works. Mostly because, as Worm 2 bleeds to death, Worm 3 ignores Laurent in favor of snatching Coventina right out of Worm 2's mouth.

Worm 2, despite the blood loss, isn't quite dead yet, and tries to body-slam Laurent.