"Alright, so, same strategy as before. Stay behind me, keep an eye out, point anything dangerous out to me, have Chomper defend you if I can't immediately deal with everything, and if that fails, hit anything that attacks you with your stick." Miria said, giving Claire one last look over, the dryad wearing the best armor they could manage, albeit nothing more than thick clothing, and wielding the detached handle of a long broom from a maintenance closet.

"Yes Miss. And I'll heal you if necessary. But try not to get chewed on anyway, yeah?" Claire replies.

Miria grins and adjusts her own improvised armor. "You got it! My 'chewed on by monsters' days are over, promise."

Claire pouts at her. "Uh-huh. Sure. Well, shall we get to it then?"

Claire grit her teeth and beat furiously at the saproling trying to approach her as she sheltered behind a bush she'd grown into a dense thicket. "No! Bad! Chomper!" She shouted, as Chomper finished tearing apart another Saproling and rounded on the first one, quickly slithering over and pouncing on it. It fought bravely, but Chomper proved the more capable, especially with Claire channeling her magic into him, and he quickly triumphed, hissing his victory as his opponent fell still. Turning, Claire peeked out from under her thicket and watched Miria finish her careful darting approach from covered position to covered position so that she could dash into the cluster of level 2 razorleaf seedlings and cut them all down. She took a few razored leaves in the process, which she sheepishly tried to play off as she returned to Claire. "How many HP did you lose?" Claire demanded, which pulled a smile from Miria.

"Only 2. That still leaves me at 24, now, though. And I'm getting close to being able to buy another level, too, if I want to. Though I might save that essence for levelling my abilities instead... Oh, and of course Instinct and Dominance both leveled without me even spending Essence on them."

Claire smirks and narrows her eyes. "Hmmmm."

Miria lets out a small laugh. "Yeah yeah, whatever. No backtalk, slut. Now, what about you? You get some levelling in?"

Claire nods. "Yeah. Got a class level, and a level in spirit and both my magical abilities. I'm up to 54 MP a day now..."

Miria whistled. "Wheeew! Well, glad to hear it, that sounds like just what we need. Now, I hate to say it, but it might be time to turn back - it's going to start getting dark soon, and we're still miles away from the grocery. So, lets grind some more essence on our way back and then we can prepare to make a proper push for the grocery tomorrow, yeah?"

Claire nodded. "Yeah, makes sense. I think we can make it there, with decent resource pools, proper preparation, and the whole day to work with..."

--------------

"Heeeeeeeey, I got it!" Claire said, sitting back and grinning as a small fire caught amongst her pile of kindling.

"Nice! Now you gotta make sure it doesn't go out." Miria commented, watching as Claire huffed and set to work building her fire.

"I know, I know! Shhhh, I'm working on it." Claire replied, feeding progressively larger pieces of wood into the fire. "You got the food ready?"

Miria nodded. "Yeah. I'll go get it, be right back."

--------------

Miria pulled open a bag and passed it around. "Marshmallow? I've got chocolate and graham crackers too, so we can make s'mores."

"Oh, nice! Lemme finish eating first though." Claire replied, while Miria lined up some pointy sticks and started laying out crackers and chocolate. "Have you thought about trying to start butchering the monsters? We're going to run out of fresh food eventually, and while I think I can get us fruits and vegetables, I'd like a bit more in my diet than that."

Miria pursed her lips. "...I have no idea how to do butchery... I'll look over our books though, see if I can figure something out. We can see if there's anyone at the grocery who knows something, or failing that, any books on the subject."

Claire nodded, taking one of the sticks and prepping a marshmallow to toast over the fire. "Good, thank you! Now, pass the plate, my marshmallow is ready."

----------------

"So what's your character sheet at?" Miria asked, bringing hers up.

*Name*:
- Miria Castlin

*Classes*:
- Tyrvexi Hive Princess, Level 2 [46%]

*Resources*:
- 24/43 HP, 58 Regen per week.
- 8/13 FP, 13 Regen per day.
- 16/17 CP, 17 Regen per day.
- 4/4 MP, 4 Regen per day.
- 1/1 Eggs, 0.2 Regen per day.
- 22 Essence.

*Stats*:
- Strength 3 [21%]
- Constitution 3 [22%]
- Vitality 3 [13%]
- Intelligence 2 [22%]
- Instinct 2 [12%]
- Dominance 2 [24%]
- Empathy 2 [34%]

*Abilities*:
- Tyrvexi Princess Physiology 3 [7%]
- Protective Chitin 3 [12%]
- Antennae 3 [18%]
- Extra Limbs 3 [11%]
- Pheromones 2 [3%]
- Increased Stature 3 [13%]
- Sexual Anatomy 1 [2%]
- Tyrvexi Princess Mentality 1 [32%]
- Servitor Eggs 1 [1%]

*Skills*:
- Melee Combat 2 [26%]

"Looking good, though I'm gonna want to heal you some more before we call it a night. Here's mine." Claire replied.

*Name*:
- Claire Baker-Smith

*Classes*:
- Flower Dryad, Level 2 [11%]

*Resources*:
- 14/14 HP, 14 Regen per week.
- 8/8 FP, 8 Regen per day.
- 10/10 CP, 10 Regen per day.
- 24/54 MP, 55 Regen per day.
- 32 Essence.

*Stats*:
- Dexterity 2 [24%]
- Constitution 2 [12%]
- Wisdom 2 [79%]
- Awareness 2 [13%]
- Empathy 2 [8%]
- Spirit 3 [13%]
- Harmony 1 [71%]

*Abilities*:
- Dryad Physiology 1 [26%]
- Dryad Mentality 1 [34%]
- Plant Growth 2 [5%]
- Nature Magic 3 [3%]

*Skills*:
- Bind Familiar 2 [4%]
- Basic Meditation 2 [28%]

*Spells*:
- Shape Earth
- Lesser Healing

"Very nice. Not leveling Harmony?" Miria asked, and Claire shrugged.

"It's weird, and expensive, and doesn't do much, and I don't know how I feel about it anyway... So, no, not right now." She said, eyeing her sheet. "Oh, I should check out my physiology abilities, though."

Dryad Physiology
- Common Ability (1 Star)
- Sub-Abilities:
- Plant Metabolism
- Hibernation
- Dryad Physique
- Flower Growth

Dryad Physiology - Plant Metabolism
- +30% increased need for water.
- +10% increased need for sunlight.
- +20% decreased need for food, doubled if receiving sunlight.
- Immunity to mundane plant toxins.
- +0.5% reduced need for water per level, multiplicative.
- +1% Increased effect of sunlight per level.

Dryad Physiology - Hibernation
- Able to hibernate, sleeping for up to six months, and reducing physical needs by 99.99%, multiplicative.
- +100% cold resistance, +300% if hibernating.
- Grows bark shell when hibernating, giving camouflage and damage reduction.

Dryad Physiology - Dryad Physique
- -10% physical speed.
- +20% increased motor control.
- +10% increased durability.
- +1% increased motor control per level.
- +1% increased durability per level.

Dryad Physiology - Flower Growth
- Grows flowers in hair.
- Flowers will be of whatever flower species the dryad comes in contact with. Can be controlled with training.
- They can be fertilized and create seeds as normal.
- +2% Flower Growth per level.

"...Nope, that was a mistake! Aaaaargh, why. Those are all terrible, and one of them is even weirder...!" She groaned. "You got all the cool physiological abilities, no fair!"

Miria laughed. "Hah, sorry, I guess it's just like that sometimes. Have you thought any about your build in the long run? We're eventually going to start getting 'milestones', or something. I had the dialog for it earlier, and I think I know how to find more like it..."

Stats
- Stats provide a number of benefits to a users basal reality and other system mechanics, scaling with their level.
- Use will gain them experience, expressed as a percentage increase towards the next level, and when they reach 100%, they will increase in level.
- They can also be levelled up with essence, costing an amount depending on their rarity and their level, discounted by the percentage experience they have.
- Like all traits, raising stats that are above your class level takes 5 times as much experience / essence.
- At every tenth level, the user can choose a milestone to modify the stat with.

Abilities
- Abilities provide a number of benefits to a users basal reality and other system mechanics, scaling with their level.
- Use will gain them experience, expressed as a percentage increase towards the next level, and when they reach 100%, they will increase in level.
- They can also be levelled up with essence, costing an amount depending on their rarity and their level, discounted by the percentage experience they have.
- Like all traits, raising abilities that are above your class level takes 5 times as much experience / essence.
- At every fifth level, the user can choose a milestone to modify the ability with.

Sub-Abilities
- Sub-Abilities provide a number of benefits to a users basal reality and other system mechanics, usually relating to their parent ability, scaling with their level.
- Use will gain them experience, expressed as a percentage increase towards the next level, and when they reach 100%, they will increase in level.
- They can also be levelled up with essence, costing an amount depending on their rarity and their level, discounted by the percentage experience they have.
- Like all traits, raising Sub-Abilities that are above your class level takes 5 times as much experience / essence, and the same rule also applies to their parent ability, with these penalties being cumulative.
- At every tenth level, the user can choose a milestone to modify the sub-ability with.

Classes
- Classes provide base resource pools, a container for system traits, and serve to limit the advancement of their respective traits.
- Use will gain them experience, expressed as a percentage increase towards the next level, and when they reach 100%, they will increase in level.
- They can also be levelled up with essence, costing an amount depending on their rarity and their level, discounted by the percentage experience they have.
- At every fifth level, the user can choose a milestone to modify the class with, including a new stat, ability, or skill.

"Huuuuuh, okay, so starting at level 5 - that's sooner than I thought. Might be worth trying to rush... Oh, but my class is so damn expensive. Hmmm. Well, I know a way to address that..." She says, and Claire swats at her.

"Heyyyy...! Well, it's good to know. We can probably rush our classes to level 5 in a day or two? We'll have to see what these 'milestones' actually look like... For now - bedtime?" She says, and Miria grins evilly and pulls her in for a kiss on the cheek.

"Sounds good to me."

-----------

"So are you ready to be a good girl and edge for me?" Miria whispered as she spooned Claire.

"Mnnn... You could take out that ovipositor and fuck me." whined the dryad, already rubbing away at her pussy.

Miria squirmed. "Uhhh... I don't actually know where it is...?" She admitted shyly. "I mean I haven't looked, but uh... You know..."

Claire paused and rolled over. "You haven't looked? Hmmmmm."

"...Hey, this is new to me, okay? I've had a lot on my mind. And it hasn't come up, sooo. I'll try and find it tomorrow maybe?" She offered, blushing and biting her lip.

"Hey, it's cool if you're not comfortable, I don't want to be too pushy! Sorry, I wasn't really thinking about how you might have reservations with all this." Claire replied, cuddling up against Miria.

"It's fine... I dunno, it's weird, I'm just not sure what to make of it all yet." Miria said, cuddling back...