Swords, Survival, and Spells

Kevin

Kevin is heading out for sword training after one more leveling session. Caoimhe did not get a bunch of fancy features with her Level 3. Second level spells are useful, as she got a spell to temporarily increase several people’s HP maximum, a spell to cure conditions, a spell to heal a bunch of people at once, and a spell to hit people with a magic weapon at a distance. That is it, outside of a boost to her HP and SP.

Kevin’s male form got a whole lot more, as his oath is now on-line. He got a decent chunk of HP, a single SP, immunity to disease, the paladin version of channel divinity (either a source of athletics advantage or healing on a smite), and the paladin versions of domain spells (right now, Guiding Bolt and Heroism). He took Guiding Bolt for his female form, but a ranged spell that will grant the next ally hitting advantage would be helpful. Heroism is a continuous source of temporary HP. His SP limitation is the big thing for his male form. Which of his spells is truly worth more than another smite?

He sees Tessa at the combat training grounds, conversing with presumably another staff member. It seems like Tyalangan is too busy to teach him today. Considering how much her hits hurt, he is fine with that.

“Greetings, good hu-cow Kevin. I am Lady Aelenetheria. I will be your instructor.”

“Oh, you’re Lyra’s mom?” Kevin asks. This Aelenetheria looks similar to the high elf that was at his shield training last night. She is wearing bikini armor like her too.

The woman snarls a little, “Please do not insult Lady Salmalinda like that.”

Tessa puts a hand on Aelenetheria’s shoulder, “Forgive the boy; he does not have enough experience with elven culture.”

“Of course, Lady Alyayavan. I understand that people from your world are too informal. It is bad enough that Tari Tyalangan is still too casual, despite my etiquette lessons. It is a shame to say my queen is a bad influence on the children.”

Kevin looks at Tessa as Aelenetheria starts to unlock cases. The former teacher shrugs. She provides a kite shield and a longsword for Kevin and a pair of scimitars for Tessa. Kevin and Tessa go through some warm-up exercises. Yesterday, Kevin only used one at a time; now he feels it. The imbalance is interesting. The shield is heavier than the sword, but the weight is distributed along the whole of his forearm. He needs to adjust his stance slightly.

Tessa’s form surprises even her. I suppose that’s the difference between going though these lessons and having the information beamed directly into one’s head. She moves almost like a dervish as she dances in and out of the way.

Aelenetheria smiles slightly. “Not bad for beginners, you two. Shall you spar now? I’m going to turn off the arousal field and will call the spar once it looks like one of you would get hurt to continue. You both have Heroism. Give it a cast. That would give you some practice dealing with concentration checks. No magic otherwise.”

Tessa shrugs, sticks one of her scimitars in the ground, and seems to use the other to conduct her poetic oration. Kevin sheathes his sword and removes his shield from his arm, then prays his spell. He feels invigorated, brave. They both rearm themselves and Aelenetheria shouts, “Begin!”

Tessa is fast, the first strike somewhat blunted by his shield and the other clangs against it hard. Kevin raises his shield just enough to allow his slash along Tessa’s midsection to hit. She grunts in pain, grits her teeth, and focuses again.

Kevin meets the first slash of Tessa’s combo with his shield, but the sea elf found an opening. He hisses in pain as she slices through his right nipple. His Heroism spell wavers for a moment. He focuses his efforts, steels his mind. Then, he strikes again, an angled overhead slash that cuts into her collarbone.

The fear in her eyes settles as she tries again. He bats the first slash away and somewhat blunts the second blow with his sword. The former teacher ends up retreating far enough that he barely hits her. The next clash is basically the same routine: his shield defense is too strong and her evasion not quite enough.

“Stop!”

The two then practice some magical triage. Kevin spend all of his “Lay on Hands” HP pool to get Tessa back to full health (with 1 point to spare for himself). A single Healing Word from Tessa, and Kevin is restored as well. Aelenetheria talks through what she saw. The tips are helpful to both of them, moreso for Tessa (as Aelenetheria learned scimitars instead of longswords), but slashing swords are similar enough.

“Well, I’m going to go rest in the pool, Kevin. Thanks for the spar.”

“Thanks for the spar.”

Kevin: +1 XP (Defeated 1 Level 3 player, x0.5 penalty [spar], rounded down)

Kevin: Success – Longsword proficiency training (7 XP / 5 XP)

Kevin: +4 XP, Longsword proficiency (Training Session)

Craig

This is bullshit.

The cat and the twig have dragged Craig out into the wilderness and they are practicing foraging for food. And it is such bullshit. Couldn’t we have just killed those giant pigs? I bet they would have tasted much better than these stupid roots and berries.

The twig looks happy, at least. She’s in her element; digging around in the dirt, talking excitedly about a neat root she found. She also hasn’t bothered to put on her clothes again. She does look pretty good, despite the cow bits.

She flops down beside him, offering some small, sour berries, “Hungry?”

“Yeah,” Craig answers, “hungry for a big, juicy porkchop.”

“Hey, those poor, innocent pigs were nice. Stop thinking about them as food. They’re members of nature that needs to be left alone.”

The twig eats the berries she foraged. The cat has another small pile, which she hands off to Craig. “Eat. No complaints.”

“What about you, friend Nyadia?” the twig asks.

“Obligate carnivore. I can wait.”

The cat keeps lecturing. The twig eats it up. Craig is barely paying attention. What’s the point in knowing how to orient a map or use a compass or how to find magnetic north or whatever?That’s what a cell phone GPS is for. It’s not like the phones here need charging either. In fact, Craig has not see a single electrical plug since he was kidnapped.

“Alright, you two, time to put these lessons to the test. Return to the castle. Don’t make me chase after you. Bye!”

With that, the cat merges into a tree and is gone. Fuck.

“C’mon Craig! We got this!” the twig declares as she hops up. Her ass is pretty nice.

Gaia: +1 XP (Present Naked Butt to Another Contestant [Craig])

The twig instantly pulls out the map and compass the cat gave her. She plots a course through the forest and starts walking. “C’mon Craig!”

Craig follows, enjoying the view of the twig’s ass. They walk for a while, the twig sniffing the air.

“Sooo, Craig,” the twig asks, “As much as I like to eat pussy, I do prefer a good cock, you know? So, if we can smooth things over, maybe you’d be interested in a threesome next week? I just need to know what went wrong during your date? I mean, the kid was actually quite pleasant, once she got over her nerves.”

Craig answers simply enough, “She didn’t cum when she was supposed to.”

The twig turns around, a look of disgust on her face, “SHE didn’t cum when she was supposed to? Really? She was perfectly capable of cumming when I worked on her last night. Sure it wasn’t something YOU did wrong?”

Craig is rightly annoyed. He snarls, “I fucked her right and proper. Not my fault she was a little bitch.”

The twig turns back, starts walking faster. “So, you are just a shit lover. Gotcha.” She pulls out her phone, starts texting.

Craig catches up and growls, “What are you doing, twig?”

“Asking a question. And, before you ask, it’s none of your business.”

The twig is pissed. She navigates the forest and all Craig has to do is follow. He picks up some tips regardless. By the time his stomach growls for dinner, they reach the wall.

Craig: Partial Success – Survival skill training (4 XP / 5 XP)

Craig: +4 XP (Skill Training)

Gaia: Success – Survival Skill training (5 XP / 5 XP)

Gaia: +5 XP, Survival skill (Skill Training)

Gaia: +2 BP (Weekly Quest)

“I was about to go fetch the two of you. Good job,” the cat announces.

The twig gives Craig one last glare before turning to smile at the cat. “Thanks, Nyadia. I learned a lot. Thank you for your wisdom. Thank Nyadia for her time, Craig.”

Craig puts on a fake smile. “Thank you.” Really need to learn how to break a bitch or two.

Andromeda

Andromeda approaches The Anne Oakley Women’s Empowerment (Through Shootin’ Stuff!) Center with a bit of apprehension. She is not a fan of firearms and this is a firing range. Still, with Daphne and Tyalangan indisposed, this Mattie seems to be the most competent combat magic trainer available. “Man with a Harmonica” by Morricone (from Once Upon a Time in the West) plays upon her entrance. Between that and the choice of targets at the range, Andromeda decides that this Mattie character has a sense of humor.

The arcanist android rings the large dinner bell and a leather clad elf stumbles out, covered in pink sap. She winks, then apologizes, “Sorry, I got wrapped up in some weeding today after what happened on Mona’s date last night. Mattie, the world’s sexiest artificer, reporting for duty. Please tell me you are here for some kind of sex lesson, Almach?”

Wow. That is the most unique nickname I’ve ever been hit with. Deep cut. Still... “One, it’s Andromeda. Two, combat magic.”

“BOO! On both counts! Fine,” the sap covered elf pouts. She thereupon pulls out a revolver, generates a bullet, loads it into the gun, shoots the patio ceiling, and a torrent of water falls down on her, followed by loaves of bread. The pink sap washes away. She then generates another bullet, loads it into the gun, and shoots herself. The fuck?

Mattie takes Andromeda’s stunned state with amusement, smirking, “Well, I was just going to ride out the aphrodisiac sap, but someone wants me to be productive. Create Food and Water, then Lesser Restoration. You’re welcome.” The elf then takes a bow.

“Uhm... okay?”

“Did you want all this temporary food? It’s bland, but filling.”

“No thank you. I don’t need to eat.”

The elf shrugs. “Eh, I’ll have someone pick it up for the temple to distribute. So, what exactly were you wanting to learn?”

“I want to practice some combat magic. I was hoping that Daphne would be available, but...”

“...she’s on cross-promotion duty right now. I know. C’mon inside. We’ll call this arcana expertise training.”

Cross-promotion duty? What is she on about? Inside the sheriff’s office like facade is an armory. A room more comfortable for Tegan or even Kevin. The elf helpfully holsters her revolver, opting for a screwdriver instead? Odd.

“So,” Mattie begins, “Given the magic you have prepared and your general squishiness, we shall honor battle with Ray of Frost. I’ll go light on you by not using my baby. Your job is mostly just to survive the onslaught, but try and hurt me if you can. Don’t worry too much about being one-shot; the training ground turns ouchies into arousal. You’ll just cream yourself if you take lethal damage; the field will also let you ignore the whole ‘if you cum, you lose your SP’ thing. If you’re ready, I just need my fee?”

Andromeda: -20 BP

The elf smirks, lazily points the screwdriver at Andromeda, and fires a blue beam of cold. It feels so weird to cum from a freezing blast, but it happens. When Andromeda shudders from returning from the edge, she looks at Mattie in confusion.

“That was a grazing hit. First lesson: being the quicker draw gives better results. If you can drop the baddie before the baddie can hit you, that’s less damage you take. Your turn. Fire away!”

Andromeda grabs a wand from the arsenal, shunts her outfit into her inventory, and cast her Ray of Frost. Her ray is much thinner. Mattie makes a flourish with her screwdriver and she temporarily turns blue? She laughs off the hit, then fires her blast again, this time straight at Andromeda’s pussy. Taking the hint, the arcanist android cast Absorb Elements, but it’s not enough. She cums again. Hard.

“Second lesson, which I am glad you picked up quickly: if you know the elemental damage type coming in, Absorb Elements cuts the damage in half. That, plus your armor, will dramatically reduce your ouchie. Doesn’t help when my crit hit naturally deals 4 times your max health right now, but, if you were fighting something reasonably close to you, it could save your life. Your turn again.”

Andromeda hits true, and the damage is all basically nullified by Mattie’s Absorb Elements. The next Mattie volley goes exactly the same as the previous one (except Andromeda didn’t bother with Absorb Elements). Andromeda is having a little difficulty focusing, so her next ray is a little off. Mattie casts a different spell; a shimmering field appears before her for a moment. By the time the ray would have hit the elf, it thinned to the point where it grazed across her leather catsuit.

“Third lesson: Shield give you some bonus armor, which reduces damage from all sources for a moment. I’m gonna hit you in the left boob now. Try it!”

Hearing where Mattie is aiming, Andromeda shifts herself a bit out of the way and tries the Shield spell. She still gets hit; Mattie’s ray is much larger and more potent. Andromeda finds herself on the edge of cumming, but not quite there. Then, she’s shoved over the edge as the shield dissipates. When she recovers from the fourth orgasm in this lesson, the arcanist android fires off her own ray. Mattie just tanks the hit, laughing.

“Good job. That’s enough. Let’s go outside and practice hitting some smaller targets.”

The revolver is back out and Andromeda lets Mattie fire off another one of her special bullets. She feels much better. Then, the gamer girl starts shooting at the whimsical targets at the range proper. Being told to spank Mattie on her butt tattoo, visible under the translucent latex portion of her catsuit, before she was told to summarize what she learned was odd, but she did it. Somehow, her thoughts coalesced better after that.

Andromeda: Success – Arcana expertise training (4 XP / 10 XP)

Andromeda: +4 XP (Skill Training)

“Thank you for the practice. That was more helpful than I expected. You know when Daphne will be done? I want to get a level in.”

“Teeth should be back by dinner.”

Andromeda muses as she wanders back to the Hotel. Teeth? To be fair, Daphne’s teeth are very... striking. I should hit the books while I wait.