Ariadne

You wanted to avoid going to horny jail early, so going with Joylanda was out of the question. The same went for any kind of shopping, where you'd imagine one of your party members changing. That left only Ariadne.

This had the added bonus, that if she found a way to allow you to see outside of Schlch's armor and skin-imitation, She could apply it right away.

First you actually go behind the alchemistry shop. Part of the dynamic world meant, that due to the alchemist frequently throwing out things like broken vials and expired ingredients, there was a chance that unusual magical plants grew there. While they had extremely low value, when selling to normal merchants (you picked them out of the trash after all), they could have powerful alchemical properties and some were simply so rare, that they had good value when trading with heroes.

Than you entered the shop. She asked the shop keeper, if he knew something, that would allow a fish to see outside of the bucket it was carried in, but he only recommended putting it in a glass bowl instead. At least he had two intelligence potions. Then she noticed sulfur, which would allow her to cast flaming coat, firewall, engulf in flame and several other complex fire spells for the cost of the normal fire-ball of the same level. There were two spells, which could greatly help them out: if the jewelry store had an agate, she could cast 'awaken' which in theory would turn Schlch permanently into an intelligent creature. Alternatively there was a relatively expensive (in terms of MP) spell that boosted intelligence, which only required a feather. However she had a hard time finding out, how long it lasted, since people normally only used it to pass the odd ultra hard check.

Her solution was as easy as it was obscure: The spell 'imbue creature' was a griefers wet dream and allowed a hero to imbue a creature with a magical effect, that lasted, depending on level up to multiple days (for the level 12 Ariadne it would be 'only' 12 hours). While the more popular were invisibility, immunity to what would normally the monsters weakness and elemental damage of a type that was uncommon in the area (like frost damage in a lava chamber).

However one of the effects that could be imbued was 'see through' which allowed the target to see through everything they touched.

She excitedly pulled Schlch out of the store and into a back alley without telling either of you, what she was up to. She simply reached into him until she got a hold of you and cast the spells.

And suddenly you could see.

You swam around Schlch with giddy abandon until you exclaimed: “Let's go shopping!”

First you went into the jewelry store. Many of the various objects, that enhanced spells were rarely bought, because the players that could afford them could usually just cast stronger spells and didn't consider enhancing those worth the effort. For example one of the cheapest stones, that could be used to enhance a spell was amber. All it did was turn 'lightning-bolt' into 'chain-lightning'. The latter could be learned two levels later and then cost about twice as much MP at the same level, so essentially amber had at most the potential to half the MP consumption of a dedicated stormmage.

Amber ran at 250 gp. Sulfur, if bought from the alchemist, would cost 600 gp. A sapphire on the other side was almost useless (aside from crafting jewelry) and sold for 150 gp despite contrary to the other two not spawning reliably in the world. You still encouraged Ariadne to put all the goods she could use on the shopping list. Next you had the idea to get equipment for you; while most weapons were wasted on you, it was definitely possible you could find something, that'd boost your grappling in some way. While you browsed the various shops, you got to talking: “How did you guys meet my new best friend?”

“Oh my god, that story is so embarrassing!”

“Joylanda will gladly tell me embarrassing or you were stupid and didn't know better embarrassing?”

“Definitely more of the latter, though we were glad to have him on the team even before we meet you.”

“Oh, come on! You gotta tell me!”

“Fine, but don't you dare laugh, or back to the cave you go! So it started with a misunderstanding of how intelligence works.”

“There's a reason why base attributes only show in the detail overview. You only need them for passive checks.”

“I know that now, too”, Ariadne said indignantly, “Sadly, or I guess luckily that's not what I thought back then, or I wouldn't have had those intelligence potions on me...”

“Hey, don't skip the interesting part: What did you think intelligence did?”

“I thought it would determine the effectiveness of spells, okay?”

“That's not unreasonable to think, there's plenty of RPGs where spellcasting is directly tied to intelligence...”

“Yeah, I would've used that excuse, if I had played any of those. Looking back I have no idea how I got that idea.”

“I'm guessing you wanted to try your theory and somehow spilled it on him instead?”

“Something like that... I was only level 10 and didn't yet know, that you used potions from the inventory, or that the cork was only decoration and so instead of drinking the potion I instead broke the bottle. I got scared and jumped back, because I thought I was being attacked. Well I was, by our moist friend here, but I thought I was attacked by something else.”

“And he followed after you and absorbed the rest of the potion? How did you realize he gained sentience before killing him, if you were already level 10?”

“I didn't. Helga did. She had just received 'sight of affection' and kept it on all the time.”

You were taken aback. 'Sight of affection' was a novelty spell, that allowed the user to see positive relationships. Its best use was to use it to locate a party member, since the spell would visualize the 'camaraderie' between the them as a glowing band. The reason it was a novelty spell was, that the only way to gain access to it before much more generally applicable spells like 'heat-vision' or 'detect life', was by fast-tracking it while building an eromancer. Or if it was gifted by your god when playing as a priest or cleric. Helia or Anari usually didn't bother gifting special spells to their individual followers.

“Wait a second! Did you just say, you didn't know how to use potions at level 10? How?”

“We kinda never used them, because logically you wouldn't take something out of your backpack while fighting or drink while you had to wave your arms around and after a fight we just used spells...”

“Wow! How often did you die?”

“All of us or just me? Because Joylanda didn't think she'd take damage from falls once right after she made her character and once again later, when she confused 'light footed' with 'soft impact'. The rest of us hasn't died so far.”

“I'm starting to believe again you guys are just meta-gaming. I mean you're the closest anyone got to god tie-”, you stopped yourself, remembering, that maybe saying these words out loud might attract unwanted attention, “my dagger!”

“Wait! Is your dagger unique? Can you give me the details?”

“I'll consider it, but not out here. How about you tell me, what kind of build you're using?”

Ariadne's face turned sour and you expected her not to answer, but: “Please don't talk about the meta, only in-game role-playing, okay?”

“Okay, so what did you learn? What did you specialize in?”

“For now I'm an elemental wizard. I'm kind of weak on the defense, but as long as I'm with the others Helga can protect me and with Joylanda and Athariel enemies usually don't focus on attacking me. I think I've overspecialized quite a bit, though. All of the space in my spell-list is usually taken up by offensive AoEs and the utilities and buffs cost me so much MP, I need like a minute to cast them.”

“Don't worry about it. Right now you're the only one in the party, who can deal with mass mobs. If you could maybe freeze, slow or stagger enemies you could also do crowd control, but otherwise I don't think there's anything more you could do in combat.”

“I just don't like being dependent on the others for protection. I wish I could watch after myself. That's why we came looking for your dagger.”

“Hey! I told you: Don't worry about it! One: You're not a member of a mercenary group, where you only stay together as long as it turns a profit, you're here with your friends.

Second: Even if you were, you do important work, that the others can't do! You're not just the gal that throws fireballs at monsters, you're the scholar of the group.”

“Don't call me that. I'm barely past level ten and...”

“I'm not talking about your class, I'm talking about what you do. Different people have different skills. Helga is your mum-friend. She choose to be a cleric because she wants to be between you and danger and to care for you, not the other way around. Joylanda enjoys to go against the rules so she chose to be a rogue. Athariel … okay I'm not sure why Athariel went for the ranger/beastmaster route, but I hope you get my point.”

Ariadne understood and nodded: “I'm what I am, because of who I am. If I try to be something I am not, I won't be as good at it and I won't enjoy it as much.”

“I'd hug you now, but...” before you could finish that sentence Schlch bent down and did just that. Ariadne seemed to appreciate it. However the contact meant, that your 'see through'-enchantment now also applied to her robe. You tried your best not to look, but her boobs were right there, pressed up against Schlch's armor. You could still see them when turning around, for crying out loud. Though it may be due to their gravity making it impossible for you to turn a full 180°. You were thankful, that you were trapped inside a slime wearing armor, or you would have had a hard time keeping your tentacles from molesting Ariadne.

Instead you started picturing it: Your tentacles would start out by massaging these mounds, that looked huge on the tiny woman. Then you would use your suckers to hold onto them and knead them. Ariadne would start moaning lewdly as you would place start pulling her nipples better than a humanoid ever could. As both of you got hotter and hotter two of your limbs would drift lower and...

The hug ended and you managed to clear your head. You hastily withdrew your limbs from the inside of Schlch's armor. At least you couldn't blush. On the other hand it wasn't like anybody could see right now.

“Thank you. I needed that. Both the words and the hug”, Ariadne smilled.

Sadly you didn't find anything to useful for yourself, so you checked the list again, in case you missed or forgot something and made your way back to meet up with the others.