Reaper's Resurgence: A System Reset

I hug her back with a smile on my face as I ask, "Did you have fun hunting on your own?"

She nods her head, her face buried in my chest as she does so. And then she immediately begins gushing about the place she was hunting in. A Tier 4 dungeon of her own in the form of a vast array of lava-filled caverns, each with furry monsters despite the hot temperatures of the caverns, along with a lot of portals connecting the caverns. The caverns themselves not having a single tunnel connecting them.

At some point as she\'s talking, she takes a step back and stretches her hands out upwards with a bright and incredibly innocent smile on her face while staring directly into my eyes. But all she says is a simple, "Up!"

Luna\'s appearance right now looks to be about twelve or thirteen years old. A bit younger than when the Quantum Architect took her form. But I\'m pretty sure she can adjust her physical age a little bit just like how she can adjust her size in her regular bat form. Although not older than a teenager still.

She just likes taking on this younger form for whatever reason. At least, that\'s what she\'s told me through our bond. We haven\'t had much chance to talk since she got this form in the first place.

I indulge in the little one as I pick her up and hold her in my arms, the girl wrapping her own arms around my neck as she giggles and continues gushing about her fun little activities in the dungeons. Like how she was draining the life out of some of those kalla things while playing and skipping through the caverns of magma. Just casually draining away their life force and ignoring them otherwise as the things withered away chasing after her.

A rather, uh, strange hobby for a child. But she said she was playing with them to get me EXP. So it\'s fine.

I rub my face against hers with a faint smile as I tell her, "You did great, little Luna!"

She giggles happily and tightens her hold on me while saying, "Yay!"

Anyways, now that she\'s done talking, I pull my face back a little go get a good look at her own face before asking, "So how do you feel about hunting with me? There are a lot of creatures in this dungeon that would make great prey for you."

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Luna pumps her fists into the air and exclaims, "Yes! A hunt with Mommy! I\'ve always wanted to do this!" Showing me just how excited she is.

I lean down a little while gently lowering her to the ground, placing her on her feet. Then I straighten up again and cross my arms as I state, "Then listen up. These fellas are tough, so you need to know how to deal with them, alright?"

She repeatedly nods her head over and over again in an adorable display.

Such an adorable child.

It\'s interesting. I\'ve never particularly shown much interest or emotion towards others unless they were Astrid or Mom.

Everyone else was meh. They existed. Cool.

Not much more than that.

But Luna reminds me of both me and Astrid when we were younger. And part of me wants to treat her like she really is my daughter.

Although I\'m not entirely sure why.

Even Astrid noticed how I care for Luna over the times I\'ve visited The Retreat, leading to her mentioning this to me before. With her displaying rather clear surprise about it. Pleasant surprise, but surprise.

Makes me wonder how Mom will react when she sees me interacting with Luna more.

Anyways, I go ahead and run Luna through all of the different types of parasites. I tell her about their strengths, their weaknesses, immunities, resistances, and just everything that she needs to know to fight them. Then I tell her about the heart and the black liquid that leaks out of it and forms more parasites.

And overall, she seems rather pleased. Exactly as I expected her to be.

After all, Luna\'s combat often focuses more on the masses. One against many. Like how she was playing around with an army of monsters chasing her in the other dungeon while just draining away their life force.

She goes for the slower battle. The slower win.

A similar route to victory that a lot of vampires take in general. Since vampires often love draining stuff away from their targets in their fights. Although in different ways depending on their species.

Luna\'s favorite method of fighting is to just drain away their life energy. Which is basically just their health.

She drains it away at a very slow pace while fueling herself up with said life energy as soul instead. Just that it\'s soul that\'s only usable to attack instead of as health as well.

After I finish explaining everything to her, she gives me a little salute with a smile on her face as she says, "Let\'s hunt! And maybe we can bring one back to Father too!"

I blink at that before staring at her rather blankly.

Eventually I bring myself to ask, "Uh, who is this \'father\' person you\'re referring to?"

Luna blinks as if confused, only to tilt her head and ask, "Can aunts not be fathers too?"

I stare at her for a few seconds before it fully registers in my head what she just said. Then I start laughing out loud. Laughing so hard it almost hurts. To the point that some tears leak out.

Which, in all honesty, might be the first time I\'ve laughed this hard in years.

I eventually just pat her on the head and say, "How about you call Astrid that later and see what she thinks, alright?"

Lune firmly nods her head and says, "Yeah!"

I have to hold myself back from smirking in amusement at that as I face the entrance to the Safe Zone and say, "Then let\'s head out."