Chapter 41- The Next Morning

[Luna POV]

{Luna, you should get up soon.  You have some important things to do today, and you won’t have time for your morning routine if you don’t wake up.}

“Hehehe, it’s like Tamamo is whispering in my ear.”

{Do you enjoy that?}

“Only if it’s Tamamo.”

{Noted.  You still have to wake up though.}

“I’m…awake.”

{Say that again when you can hold your head up.}

“Come on, come join me Tamamo, I’ll even brush your tails.”

{Don’t tempt me, Luna.}

“Hehehehehehe.”

{If you keep doing that, you’ll fall off the bed, and there you go.}

“What happened!”

{Finally completely awake?}

“Was I any kind of awake before?”

{Sort of.  It was more like awake but not aware of what you’re doing.}

“I blame the bed, it’s too good.”

{We’ll have a better one.}

“…”

“I’m going to get ready now.”

{You’re so cute when you’re embarrassed.}

I got dressed and brushed my tails like I do every morning.  When I was done, I was going to leave to get breakfast when I remembered that I still had to enchant that necklace Velvet gave me.  I pulled it out of my inventory and looked it over again.

“Let’s get this over with, then.”

I closed my hands around the necklace and started filling it with my mana.  I then started to give the mana the image of the effect I want it to grant to the item.  After about a minute the enchanting was complete.

“Let’s check it out now.”

I used appraisal on the now enchanted necklace and the result was:

Necklace of Secrets: A necklace enchanted by a master of illusions.  It will hide any physical trait the wearer wishes.  Few things can dispel the illusion.

“Not too bad for a first attempt with illusion enchanting.”

I put the necklace on, and my second tail disappeared.

“It’s only been like, a day, if that, of me having a second tail, but it feels weird not being able to see it.”

{I agree, but it’s something you’ll have to get used to for now.}

I walked to the dining room and entered.  I saw Velvet sitting in the chair she was last night staring at her hands.  I remembered her state last night and walked over to her.

“You all right, Velvet?”

“Huh, Luna?  Morning.  Do you think you can tell me what happened last night?  I remember brushing your tails to the point that I moved to your second one, then nothing.”

“You started to lose yourself a bit, or maybe I should say you started to sink?”

“Hmm.  I can still feel the feeling on my hands.”

“Will that effect your daily life?”

“I don’t think so.  I think the feeling will fade as long as I don’t touch your tails for a while.”

“Do you see why I don’t let people do that now?”

“Yeah, but as you are my friend, I want to be able to brush your tails and not sink too deeply.  What if, one day, you are called to the divine realm again, and I have to watch over your body here?”

‘Tamamo, is she still under the effects of the title?’

{A little, give her a few more hours and she’ll be pretty much normal again.}

‘What do you mean ‘pretty much?’’

{The Abyss will always leave a piece of itself in those who have delved into it.  Let someone sink deep enough and they lose themselves, let someone submerge a little at a time, and they get more resistant to it.  They’ll never be immune, but they can get to the point I’m at.}

‘So, it’s a good idea to let Velvet brush my tails every so often?’

{If you want to keep her as a friend for eternity, then you’ll have to let her get accustomed to the Abyss one day.}

‘I’ll think about it.’

{Think of it this way, Luna.  The only thing you let her do is brush your tails.  I’ll get your tails and everything else.}

It felt like my face was boiling.  Velvet noticed this and snapped out of her little rant.

“Luna, what’s wrong?  Why is your face so red?”

“I…IIIII…It’s nothing you need to worry about.  Are you hungry?  I’m hungry.  I’m going to eat now.”

{Ufufufufufufufu.}

“Anyway, tell me when the feeling goes away, and I’ll consider letting you brush my tails again.  I want you to get accustomed to the Abyss so that you don’t, for a lack of a better word, drown in it.  I don’t want my best friend to lose her mind.”

“Truly!?”

“I only said I’d consider it.”

It was then that some of the maids from last night entered carrying breakfast.  They placed the plates down in front of us and left without saying a word.

“Where’s your mother?”

“Asleep.  We’re vampires, remember, we’re mostly nocturnal.”

“You always seem awake during the day so it’s easy to forget that sometimes.”

“I guess that’s fair.”

“So, what is everything we need to do today?”

“Hmm.  We need to go to the guild and meet with the guild master, then we’ll probably take some more requests to raise our ranks if they don’t rise from our achievements from yesterday.”

“Wouldn’t it be a bit too soon?  We reached rank E just before the whole Du-Fis debacle after all.”

“Well, we did take out a curse wolf and the cult leader yesterday.  A curse wolf is considered a D-rank threat, but the one yesterday could have easily been C-rank due to it being part of a horde of undead.”

“Don’t we also have to take a test to rank up to D and beyond?”

“Yeah, but I doubt we’ll have any trouble with it since it’s normally just a test to see if you can kill people like bandits.”

“If it’s just that, then I already handled that.  On my way to the city some bandits stopped us.  The adventurers that were there to guard us let me take one out, so this test will be pretty easy.”

“Changing the subject, how are your stats?  You leveled up a lot so what changed?”

“Let me check.”

Name: Luna

Race: Kitsune

Sex: Female

Level: 21

Class: Quad-mage

HP: <Error>

MP: <Error>

Vit: <Error>

Def: <Error>

Res: <Error>

Str: <Error>

Int: <Error>

Agi: <Error>

Dex: <Error>

Skills: Presence detection, Trap detection, Trap disarming, Trap creation, Dagger LV. 9, Short sword LV. 10, Archery LV.8, Poison crafting, Appraisal LV.10, Mana Regeneration LV.10, Stealth LV.9, Cooking LV.8, Sewing LV.7, Sleep Resistance LV.10, Restraint LV.9, Brushing Technique LV.10, Telepathy LV.5, Intimidation LV.3

Magic Skills: Ice Magic LV.10, Lightning Magic LV.10, Healing Magic LV.10, Space Magic LV.10

Race Skills: Illusion Magic LV.10, Spirit Vision, Fox Fire, Fox Transformation, Enhanced Senses, Night Vision, Enhanced Physical Strength

Unique Skills: Status Effect Immunity, Ice Mist, Language Comprehension, Infinite Inventory, Divine Fluff Technique

Blessings, Divine Protection, and Titles:

Divine Protection of the Moon Goddess, Reincarnated, Fated One of the Moon Goddess, Abyssal Fluff, Master of Ice, Master of Lightning, Master of Illusions, Short sword Master, Magic Swordsman, Master Healer, Master of Space, Sage

“Hmm.  Well, my stats still say error, so I don’t know what changed there, but several of my skill went up.  I finally maxed out healing and space magic and got the titles that comes from that.  My telepathy skill is now level five and intimidation is at level three.  Mana Regeneration hit level 10.  I also got the Sage title.”

“You’re as ridiculous as always.  No one has gotten the Sage title in such a long time that the method to acquire it has thought to have been lost.”

“Hmm.  Well then let me find out how I got it.”

Sage: Title given to one who has mastered several magics to their utmost level.  This title allows one to have an easier time developing new spells as well as making it easier to teach others the newly created spells.

“Well, that’s simple.”

“Luna, that is in no way simple.  You having this title means that you have reached the peak of magic in several areas.”

“Well, all the magic skills I have are now at level 10, so I guess I have.  I’m more looking forward to creating spells.  I have a few ideas to make spells for defense with space magic.”

“This will make it hard for you if you ever want to visit the country of the elves.”

“They do have the biggest magic academy there, don’t they?”

“They do.  If they find out you have the sage title, you’ll probably be asked to become a scholar there for the rest of your life.”

“Well damn.  I wanted to visit there at least once, but I guess that’s a bad idea now.”

“What did you want to do there?”

“I wanted to test my archery skill against their general.  She fought by my dad’s side against the fiends, and he always praised her archery.”

“So, you just wanted to compete against her?”

“Yep.  It sounds fun, right?”

“I guess.  I don’t really see the thrill in it, but I’ll root for your victory.”

{I will as well.}

“Thanks.”

We finished our breakfast and stood up to leave.

“To the guild we go.”

Author's Note:

As of today I'm on spring break.  I will try to push as many chapters as I can so be ready for it.  Thanks for reading.