Chapter 19- End of the Hunt and the Accursed Skill

[Luna POV]

After I finished collecting the proofs of subjugation, we moved on to find more.  I know I leveled up once from this ‘fight’ but I will wait to check my status later.

“If we go a bit west, we’ll find a pack of kobolds, I’m not sure about the exact number, but it should be the amount you need.” I told Velvet.

“OK, then when we get closer hide yourself and watch.” She said a bit competitively.

When we got close enough, I let Velvet know I will be watching from a tree.  After telling her that, I climbed a tree next to me.  She then pulled out her sword.  It looked like a rapier, but something was strange about it.

She got close enough to the kobolds for them to notice her presence.  She then swung her sword and the blade extended to the length of a whip.

“Oh, a sword-whip, how interesting.” I said to myself.  “This is going to be fun to watch.”

{Your inner battle maniac is coming out again.} Tamamo said chuckling.

‘I can’t help it; I’ve always wanted to see someone use one of those.’ I replied back, flustered.

The blade whipped around cutting the head off one kobold and wrapping around the neck of another.  Velvet then tugs back on the handle and that kobold also loses its head.

She creates a large fireball and makes it float in the air making more shadows appear.  She then uses a dark magic spell that produces spikes from shadows and impales the rest of the kobolds.

“And you said the scene I made was horrible.” I said in a teasing tone.

“I got a little too into it, sorry.” She said, drooping her head.

“It’s no problem.  Let’s find you some goblins.” I replied, jumping down from the tree.

I know what I said about not trusting her earlier, but I feel like I’m trusting her a bit too much too quickly.

‘Hey Tamamo, am I just too easy to trust a person or is she doing something to my mind with magic or a skill?’ I asked, worried.

{She’s not doing anything, while I think you trust others a little too easily from what I’ve seen so far, you have good intuition for people.  It’s not at the level of a diviner, but it’s still quite good.  She is also trying to earn your trust, anytime you asked her a question, she has answered with honesty, and she hasn’t given you any false information about herself.} Tamamo explained, easing my worry a bit.

As I was going over the potential problems with myself with Tamamo, we found a group of goblins.  Velvet took them out just as quickly.

“Do you want to keep hunting, or return to the guild?” I asked.

“We should head back; it’ll take a while for us to get out if the forest then even longer to get back to the city.” She said, her opinion sound.

I debated whether to share my space magic; but decided against it for the moment.  It took about three hours to get out of the forest and another hour to get back to the city.  By the time we reached the gate, it was already getting late.

“I didn’t think it would take that long to get back.” I said, exhausted.

“I agree, who would have thought we would run into five more groups of goblins and kobolds.” Velvet said in a similarly exhausted tone.

“I can understand why there are always quests for their extermination, though I wish we could do something about the smell.” I complained.

“I know it’s bad, but is it really ‘that’ bad?” She asked.

“To me it smells like a pile of rotting corpses on an extremely hot summer day.”

“OK, I’m glad I’m not a beastkin.” She said, her face scrunched up at the thought of the smell.

“Don’t vampires also have really good senses of smell?” I asked.

“We do, but it’s still nothing compared to a beastkin’s sense of smell.” She explained, “For example, I can smell what is being cooked at that stall over there, but you can probably smell what ingredients they are using individually.”

“You’re not wrong, and now I’m hungry.” I said, my stomach grumbling.

“Then let’s get some skewers before making it to the guild.” She said, walking over to the stall she mentioned earlier.

She brought back four skewers and handed me two.

“Thanks, how much do I owe you?” I asked, about to bring out some money.

“Nothing, think of it as a bribe of sorts.” She said laughing.

“You really want to join my party that badly?” I asked.

“Yeah, at first it was because of the Goddess’s order, but now I genuinely want to follow you.  It’s weird, normally even I would be more cautious about getting to know people, but I can’t help but be drawn to you.” She explained.

It was after she said that that I realized it was the effect of a skill.

“Damnit.  It was that skill wasn’t it.” I said, feeling a bit down.

“What’s up, why do you look so depressed all of a sudden?” She asked, worried.

“I think you’re being influenced by one of my skills.  Up until now I’ve been surrounded by people who have grown a resistance to it but now; I’m not.” I explained, getting frustrated.

“What skill is it?” She asked.

“It’s the charm skill.  I’ve been trying to avoid leveling it up since I got it, but it’s a passive skill so it levels up the more I interact with people, and with my particular constitution, my skills level up faster than normal.” I explained.  “That’s not even the worst part of it, if I use that skill too much, I’ll get cursed.”

“That does sound bad.” She said as she sunk into thought.  “How about we finish our business at the guild and then I’ll go and ask some subordinates of mine to help me look for a way to seal that skill or something?”

“I think I’ll take you up on that offer.” I said, relieved that a solution to can be found before this becomes a serious problem.

We headed to the guild and reported our finished quests.  After that I parted ways with Velvet and headed back to the inn.  I greeted the proprietress and headed to my room.

When I entered, I sat down on the bed and started talking with Tamamo.

‘What am I going to do, Tamamo, I don’t want to be cursed and I don’t want to charm everyone I interact with.’ I said releasing all my pent-up worry.

{I don’t think you’ll have to worry about being cursed due to your status effect immunity unique skill.  As for the other, I’m not too sure what to do.  Charm skill aren’t my area of expertise after all, and I’ve already exhausted my favor from the God of Statuses.} She said, comforting me.

‘What do you mean by that last part?’

{Don’t worry about it, for now just hope Velvet finds something.  As an oracle vampire, she has access to lots of information, so she should be able to find something relatively quickly.} She said.

{And look on the bright side, tonight is a full moon.} She said, her voice noticeably happier.

‘Wait, already. It feels like the last one was just yesterday.’ I said, shocked.

{That’s probably due to the fact that your natural lifespan is longer than a human’s in this world, not taking into account the inevitable immortality you’ll reach one day.  I’m honestly surprised it took you this long to notice.} She said a bit exasperated.

‘It’s decided!  Tonight, I will brush your tails so thoroughly that I will get a new title tonight.’ I yelled in my head.

{Ufufufu, I’m looking forward to it.} Tamamo said in a very pleasing voice.

Hearing the way she said that made my face go beet red.

I then said in a quieter voice, “I’m expecting the same in return, OK.”

{Naturally. Ufufufufufufufufufu.} Tamamo continued to laugh as dusk turned into night.

Author's Note:

And so the Abyss Fluff and Moon Fluff continue to flirt over their fluffiness.  Will Abyss Fluff fall to the curse of the charm skill or will the future Apostle of Fluff find a solution find out next time on Fluffy Tail Z!  Thanks for reading.