The morning sun could be seen rising on the horizon. Magical torches on the walls are still illuminating the dim surroundings. In the courtyard of the inn, Luna desperately struck the invincible Scarecrow-kun while breathing heavily. She was trying to release a thrust that was capable of registering a critical strike and spent the whole night practicing it. However, normal adventurers would require multiple years to master one slash. Even for Luna, she was challenging the impossible in mastering the thrust in a single night. She was trying her hardest, and I support her fully. As expected, it feels like it could be impossible.
At that moment, the atmosphere around Luna changed. Her stance became extremely refined. She rushed forward with a smooth movement as the muscles in her entire body was activated. The force generated from her body was consolidated into her dagger and she thrust her dagger forward. It was a beautiful thrust with zero wasted movement. Luna’s dagger pierced Scarecrow-kun, producing a sound completely different from earlier. It was a ringing sound that reverberated throughout the courtyard. Luna’s face shone brightly listening to the ringing.
Watching Luna’s bright smile while the sun was rising in the background was a beautiful sight that I won’t forget.
[That was amazing! Together with Youya! Were you watching?] (Luna)
[Congratulations. I was surprised that you managed to perform a perfect thrust in just one night. You passed the requirement.] (Youya)
[Hurray! Now Luna won’t be dragging Youya down. Luna can properly battle and be together with Youya!] (Luna)
At that moment, Luna became to sway and collapsed. I was right next to Luna as I was carrying out special training alongside her throughout the night, Luna had overworked herself and collapsed due to fatigue. I hurriedly grabbed Luna to prevent her from falling. It could be due to that last thrust that caused Luna to use more stamina than expected, causing her to exceed her physical limits.
I stopped my training and headed back to the inn. I had to bring Luna back to our room to recover. It would be reckless to enter a dungeon with her current state. Luna is definitely talented, but her enthusiasm was more than I expected to the point that she passed out.
[You did great. Well done, Luna.] (Youya)
I stroked Luna’s head. Although she is asleep, it looked like she was smiling slightly. She is definitely a cute girl. That is what has been bothering me.
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The afternoon passed by in a flash.
I was reading a book while sitting next to Luna’s bed. The author of the book is one of my favourite authors. While I was enjoying the book, Luna’s eyelids started to move.
[Good morning.] (Youya)
I smiled at Luna as I greeted her. Then she rubbed her eyes and her fox ears began to twitch.
[*Yawn* Good morning Youya.] (Luna)
Luna’s stomach began to grumble and her face started to turn red. Although she is pretty daring, she is surprisingly shy when it comes to her stomach.
[Eat this for now. In addition, remember to drink this potion to recover your stamina.] (Youya)
[Thank you.. It’s delicious.] (Luna)
The fruit I passed over to Luna was a banana. In this world, it was a fruit that grew primarily in the south. It is easy to consume and digest and our body converts it to energy quickly, making it a good stamina food. It is fairly expensive but it is still the best fruit to eat when you are tired. After eating the banana and drinking the potion, colour started to return to Luna’s face. Luna looked outside the window and her fox ears began to fidget.
[Youya, it is not nighttime yet. Can we go to the dungeon?] (Luna)
[I think you should rest for the day.] (Youya)
[I don’t wanna. It felt great when I performed the thrust. If I don’t try it once more I may forget how to do it] (Luna)
I understand how Luna feels. When you master a new technique or learn something new, until you master it you would want to practice it until it is perfected. Sigh it can’t be helped.
[I understand. We’ll leave in an hour, be prepared to leave by then.] (Youya)
[Uhn. I will prepare myself asap.] (Luna)
I quickly averted my eyes as Luna took off her clothes while finishing her sentence.
[I have thought this from the start, but aren’t you a little too brazen?] (Youya)
Luna proceeded to change her clothes without any restraint. Although I don’t feel any attraction towards Luna who is about 13 or 14, I still feel guilty looking at her naked body.
[But it’s Youya. It’s fine even if you look at Luna.] (Luna)
When I heard that Luna was done changing, I turned my head and saw her wearing the adventurer clothes that I bought for her with Bazerato hanging on her waist.
[Youya, let’s head out immediately!] (Luna)
Luna grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room. Although the hour was supposed to be a break for her to rest, if she feels that she’s up to it then we could leave immediately.
[I understand. Lets go. It’s time for you to learn Assassinate. You can go ahead and place all your skill points and level it to 5.] (Youya)
Since it was decided that she was going to learn Assassinate, that would be the only attacking skill she’ll ever have as a Thief so it should be leveled to the maximum.
Ideally, a Thief’s skillset should consist of exploration skills, relying only on Assassinate for battles. There were many exploration skills that were useful besides Presence Detection such as Treasure Hunt, Stealing Art and Shadow Walk. These skills gave the user the ability to detect treasures, increase the drop rate of items and hide the party’s presence respectively. However, such a skill set would only be possible if the user was capable of utilizing Assassinate effectively. Otherwise, regular thieves would have to put more points into combat skills to raise their fighting capabilities while having minimum exploration skills. They were required to take multiple debuff skills such as Poison,Sleep and Paralysis. There were also other debuffs that can be learnt.
I am glad that Luna was capable of utilizing critical hits as this allowed her to learn more exploration skills.
[Skill obtained! Now Luna can use Assassinate and defeat monsters with the thrust Youya taught!. I will assassin all of them.] (Luna)
Note: This was intentional.
Luna was very energetic in utilizing her new skill. Her motivation even affected her tail as the fur on her tail were standing, causing her tail to look larger and softer, making her tail look even cuter. Unable to resist the urge, I grabbed her tail in my hand.
[Hiikk.] (Luna)
Luna let out a strange voice before jumping a distance away, looking at me with face full of disdain.
[Uhm. Sorry that was my bad.] (Youya)
[Youya perverted. You can’t just suddenly grab a girl’s tail.] (Luna)
I really don’t understand what Luna is saying.
She casually changes her clothes in front of me and embraces me during our sleep while snuggling herself onto my chest in bed, so why does grabbing the tail make me perverted?
[I didn’t mean it that way. Humans don’t have a tail so we don’t know the importance of a tail. That’s it. Is it similar to stroking a person’s head? If it’s bad then I’ll never touch it again.] (Youya)
[I’ll forgive you for now. But next time, you will have to take responsibility for it! Only the person’s lover can touch the tail.] (Luna)
How does she remember such a thing when she has amnesia.
I had no energy to continue this conversation, so I just nodded back at her reply.
Although.. Her tail felt really nice to touch, it was smooth and fluffy.
Eh? Does it mean that if I become her husband, I’ll get to touch her tail?
Ugh. Calm down Youya. She is just a girl, what on earth are you thinking.
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We dived into the another dungeon from the entrance at the guild.
There were several dungeons meant for beginners. This time, we entered a jungle-type dungeon. The reason why we entered a different dungeon was because of the difficulty in the monsters’ weak spots. It is difficult to land a critical hit on the monsters in the rocky mountain dungeon. However, there were many monsters in this dungeon with weak points that were easy to target.
At the distance, I saw the figure of a monster hiding in the shadow of the tree.
The monster was a goblin.
[Luna, it’s your turn now. You should have no problem with a goblin at your current level. Ideally, Thieves battle by utilising their speed, quickly rushing their targets and defeating the monsters with a single blow.] (Youya)
[Got it. I’ll try it!] (Luna)
When I took a look at her status, her stats weren’t as bad as mine before the level reset. At her level, she shouldn’t have any problem dealing with the goblin. On the contrary, her Attack and Speed on average increased by 3 every level.
I don’t believe that this was based on luck. I have a feeling that her status increase was fixed from the start. She was a fox-beastman that didn’t exist in this world who was trapped in a crystal inside a hidden room. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the only one in the world who had a fixed status increase from the start.
[Kikiki]
The goblin came out of his hiding spot holding a stick. It was a green monster smaller than Luna, with a bulging stomach.
Goblins have low offensive capabilities and low-speed, making them easy prey.
If you approach cautiously, the chance of defeat is low.
Note: Anyone having Goblin-slayer deja vus here?
Luna rushed the goblin the instant it appeared. She was fast. Much faster than her status had implied. As expected of a beastman. She had mastered her body much more than an average person could.
However, the situation was bad. She is rushing too much into the battle. Even though the goblin was right in front of her, she showed no signs of slowing down. If it was me, I would had already slowed down to prepare my stance before throwing out a thrust against the goblin.
Luna continued to prepare her thrust while maintaining her speed, barely achieving the form required for the critical to register.
It is impossible for her to transit into the stance for her thrust with that kind of momentum.
However, she did not show any intention of slowing down her momentum.
Even if she fails here, it will come back to her as a lesson and experience to reflect upon.
As Luna rapidly approaches the goblin, her stride was further increased on her last step directly in front of the goblin.
Surprisingly, instead of slowing down her momentum and transiting into a stance, Luna had transitted directly into her thrust while increasing her speed.
The goblin did not expect to be rushed at such a high-speed and stiffened at Luna’s rush. Taking this opportunity, Luna aimed at the goblin’s heart which is it’s weak point.
[Assassinate.] (Luna)
Luna threw out her thrust towards the goblin. It was a perfect thrust with the entire body working together with its momentum, concentrating it’s power into the dagger. The skill with the highest power multiplier among all the classes was activated, and a distinct ringing sound resonated.
The goblin whose breast was gouged out by the thrust turned into blue particles with a single blow.
[What talent.. It doesn’t seem balanced for someone to be this talented] (Youya)
Despite just learning the basic thrust this morning, she applied the thrust in addition to a rushing technique. This combination was a powerful combination, be able to perform this meant that her offensive power much higher.
[Youya, I did it!] (Luna)
[I have no words. That was a perfect thrust if I’ve seen one. Be sure to master that thrust by practicing it.] (Youya)
Luna continued searching for enemies with Presence Detection while humming happily.
Despite her looks, she is a frightening girl.
[Luna. Let me teach you how to utilize Presence Detection offensively. Use it to find moving enemies nearby and approach them from the back. Surprise them with a surprise attack. This is the safest way to ensure you land your attack.] (Youya)
[Got it!] (Luna)
This was another one of Luna’s amazing traits.
Flexibility only possible to a Beastman that allows them to run in a way different from humans. She was capable of running without making a single sound as well as hide her presence.
Initially i wanted her to obtain skills to help her stealth movements, however it seems that it wasn’t necessary.
Once again, Luna defeated another goblin.
She followed my instructions and rushed the goblin with a surprise attack. It didn’t realise Luna had approached it up untill it died. I doubt even an average adventurer would notice Luna approaching him. She had a talent befitting of the world’s best assassin.
[Youya, were you watching me!?] (Luna)
[Yeah I was watching. It’s a good move, do not forget that feeling.] (Youya)
[Uhn! I will work even harder!] (Luna)
While I was watching Luna’s movements, I was thinking about how I could learn from her movements. Just how much more could this girl grow? I can’t wait to watch her growth from now on.
However, I can’t let myself be defeated by her.
Her training is sufficient for now. It’s about time for me to start my training. I still have much room to grow. We both, can grow much stronger from now on.