The last two weeks passed by in a bit of a blur for one Vincent Valentine. His days were spent learning how to fight with Isaac and learning how to not be a slovenly pig.

  Leliana's words, not his.

  Honestly, the lessons with Isaac weren't that bad. Sure he was strict but he was also surprisingly patient with him, taking the time to explain how to properly execute a move and what he was doing wrong. He was a bit of a perfectionist, so Vincent wouldn't be allowed to leave unless he got the move down to his standards. Afterwards, they would spar for an hour or so, which greatly improved Vincent's combat abilities.

  But again, that wasn't so bad, and he was learning a lot. The real issue at hand was Leliana and that damnable paddle of hers. She had the accursed thing enchanted to nullify, or at the very least, drastically weaken the regeneration capabilities of anyone who was hit by it.

  And Vincent was hit a lot by it. If he thought Isaac was a perfectionist, he didn't hold a candle to her personal brand of OCD. His poor bottom was sore all night long, which really sucked as the pain transferred to him even when he was in his library.

  That freaking paddle should be banned!

  But even with all that, he was moderately content with his new life, and that was only because Luminous was far too busy to make time for him most days. He understood why, of course, she was the ruler of two entire countries and a religion, but that didn't mean he was happy with her absence.

  He'd just have to make sure to study hard and impress her even more the next time he did manage to spend any time with her. Just thinking of the woman made him bring his hand to his cheek, but he had no idea why.

  But that brings him to his current situation, walking down the hall with a blindfold on. His trainers decided to give him the day off, in respect for how hard he's been working. Or to get away from him for a day, it's a tossup really. But just because he had the day to himself, didn't mean he was going to take it easy. In fact, it was the perfect opportunity to try and learn some new Skills.

  During the night, or technically the day as he was a vampire now, he went into the Library of Alexandria to learn all he could about the world, spending about six hours a day in there. His first project was to make a list of interesting Skills he could try and learn, which is exactly what he was trying to do now.

  The Skill was called Magic Sense, or Mana Perception, and it let him see the world through the lens of magic by sensing the Magicules in the surrounding area and how they interact with sound and light waves to create a 360 field of vision.

  It sounded like an awesome Skill to have, one that would allow him to function without the use of his eyes should it be needed. And Issac proved it would be needed, by using his blood to blind him.

  It was gross, but it did teach Vincent a valuable lesson on combat. You can't always rely on your senses. They can and will fail you. So, that led him to searching for a way to combat having at least one of his senses taken away. Arguably the one he uses most while fighting.

  But learning at was harder than he thought. The book made it sound so easy. Just concentrate on the Magicules in the air and expand your senses to cover it. What a load of crap. He tried that, meditating for days to try and figure it out, and while that was good for learning how his mana moved around in his body, it did not help him figure out how to use Magic Sense.

  So, he decided to take a page from the illustrious worlds of anime. Take One Piece for example. When Luffy was learning how to use Observation Haki, Rayleigh covered his eyes and whacked him with a stick until he got it down. Now, Vincent didn't want to be smacked with a stick, Lelian's paddle was more than enough for him, but he felt the principles were the same.

  In order to see without eyes, he must take away his eyes.

  Speaking of One Piece, there apparently was a Skill called Haki. While not quite the same as in One Piece, it would allow him to use his own aura to dominate an opponent's will. It was also apparently the evolved form of Coercion, which he already had. It wasn't at the top of his list, but he did want to learn it.

  Walking down the hallway, holding his hands out in front of him, he slowly made his way towards what he believed was the parlor, the one he had wine with Luminous in. He didn't really need to go there, but having a destination in mind kept him motivated, especially a destination where a beautiful woman flirted with him. He could have gone to the training grounds, but didn't want to risk running into Isaac or any of the guys who came around to spar with him sometimes.

  They would enjoy his blindness a bit too much in his opinion.

  Once he reached the door leading into the room, he slowly opened it, hearing barely a squeak as he did so. The staff who took care of the temple took great pride in their work, and wouldn't allow a creaky door. They barely allowed a speck of dust.

  Luminous, who just so happened to be taking a small break from her duties, looked up as she heard the door open. A smile lit up her face when she saw who it was, only to tilt her head in confusion as she noticed the blindfold.

  "Ok Vince, you made it. Now if I remember right, the table was somewhere in this direction," he mumbled to himself, stumbling around in his blindness to find what he was looking for.

  That's when she remembered what he was doing. He told her of his plans to learn some new Skills, and this must be his attempt to do so. With a mischievous grin, she silently stood up from her seat, making her way over to him quiet enough to make a ninja jealous.

  She snuck up behind him, watching as he bumbled around. His leg hit one of the extra chairs in the room, making him swear as he hopped up and down, holding his foot. It was likely more of an instinctual reaction than anything else, as his Pain Resistance Skill should have nullified pretty much all of that pain.

  It was like when you bump your head sometimes. Your first instinct is to say, "Ow," even if it didn't hurt.

  Once he was done with his impromptu dance session, he once more started walking around the room. She wasn't sure what Skill he was trying to learn exactly, but his attempts were entertaining if nothing else.

  He eventually managed to stumble his way to the table, letting out an excited, "Aha!" as he did so. She giggled silently at his enthusiasm. His hands swept the table, bumping into her still hot tea.

  "Huh? What's this?" he asked, flinching back as his fingers grasped the hot porcelain cup. "Ow, dang it. Why is this room so dangerous?" he groused. But then his body seemed to go rigid.

  "Hang on, if there's a hot cup in here, then that means… Hello?" he asked, turning around, with Luminous dancing out of the way. She smirked as his entire posture showed how nervous he was. No better time to tease him.

  She floated into the air, due to how tall he was, and blew gently into his ear. He gave a high pitched yelp at the sensation, jumping about a foot in the air, spinning around again, "looking" for whoever was messing with him.

  "I know you're there! Stop hiding!" he demanded, making her quirk an eyebrow. "Did he forget he was blindfolded?" she thought with some amusement. After all, one could hardly call what she was doing hiding.

  But seeing as he hadn't tried to take off the blindfold yet, she blew into his other ear, grinning as she saw him shiver. She wasn't surprised, vampire ears were sensitive.

  "Alright, who's there?" he asked, flipping around once more and lunging towards where he thought the person was, his arms outstretched to capture them. To his slight surprised, he managed to do so, wrapping his arms around the perpetrator

  "Gotcha! Now tell me who you-Lumi?" he asked, his face buried into two soft globes. But that wasn't what tipped him off to her identity. It was his hands, grabbing onto something firm, yet soft and pliable. It was something he was very familiar with, a sensation that haunted his dreams.

  "So, you can recognize me by the feel of my backside alone, can you? Not sure if I should be impressed by that or not," she said, the levity in her tone showing that he wasn't about to have his balls ripped off.

  She reached out and pulled off his blindfold. He blinked the spots out of his eyes from the sudden influx of light. Once he could see properly, he found himself staring directly into the vampire goddesses heterochromatic eyes.

  "What can I say? You have a very memorable ass," he joked, getting a snort of amusement from her. He was confused as to why his face was planted into her breasts, as she was a fairly short woman, until he realized she was floating.

  "Do I? Good to know I suppose," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  "What are you doing here? I thought you were busy with work?" he asked, making her sigh. Running a country really took it out of her. Two countries, technically, and a religion. Sure the system worked pretty well, but it was exhausting to maintain, even with help.

  "Yes, I was merely taking a bit of a break. But then someone came along and interrupted my peace and quiet," she said.

  "Ah… my bad," he said, getting another small chuckle out of her.

  "Not at all. You proved a most entertaining distraction. But tell me, what Skill are you attempting to teach yourself?" she asked, curiously.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  "Oh, it's one called Magic Sense. Thought it sounded useful," he said, making her hum in thought.

  "I see. Yes, it is a very useful Skill to have, but I don't believe this is the best method to learn it. As a vampire, your other senses are far greater than they were as a human, so even if you don't realize it, you're taking in a lot of information to help you get around," she said, making him slump.

  "Aw man… And here I thought I was so clever with my idea," he putted, making her pat him on the head to console him.

  "There, there… It wasn't a bad method, and if you were still human, it would have been perfectly adequate. But as a vampire, you need to limit your other senses as well," she explained, getting his attention.

  "Hm, guess that makes sense. So I just need to plug my ears and nose. Easy enough," he said, face adopting a thinking pose.

  "Yes. If you would be so kind as to put me down, I would be glad to help you learn this Skill of yours. Unless you'd rather keep feeling me up, that is," she said, getting a confused look for him.

  That is, of course, until he realized he was still holding her up by her ass. Once he did, it took every ounce of willpower he had not to squeeze. It was so hard to resist, but he managed to resist, going against every instinct of his body.

  "Right, sorry about that," he said, gently placing her on the ground.

  "So, are you ready?" she asked, taking a few steps back. Vincent's fiery red eyes lit up with eagerness. If she was willing to help, he'd probably get it down within the hour.

  Hopefully.

  "Are you sure? Don't you have to get back to work soon?" he asked. As much as he wanted her aid, and to spend more time with her of course, he didn't want it to come at the expense of her getting her work done. That would just mean she would have to make it up later.

  "Don't worry, I have some time left to spare. Now then, let us begin," she said, stabbing the middle of her palm with one of her claws. A small drop of blood squeezed out, one that she grabbed using her powers and shaped it into a pair of earmuffs. She repeated the process to make a clothespin.

  "Alright, I'm going to place these over your ears and nose, so the only senses you'll have are touch and taste. All you have to do after that is find me. If you can touch me within the next 30 minutes, you win," she said.

  "Really? What do I win?" he asked, joking. But Luminous seemed to think it over, placing one of her dainty fingers to her chin in thought.

  "Let's see. If you win, I'll help you learn another skill. One that requires skin on skin contact," she said in a low, husky tone, giving him a suggestive wink. Vincent gulped, his mind wandering to some rather, risque places.

  "And, uh… what skill might that be?" he asked, feeling his mouth going dry. She smirked at him, reaching up and bringing the blindfold back down.

  "If you want to know that bad, I guess you'll just have to find me," she whispered in his ear, making him shiver from her hot breath.

  After that, she placed the earmuffs on him and pinched his nose closed with the clothespin. Once she was certain that he couldn't see, hear, or smell her, she jumped back.

  "Lumi?" Vincent asked, reaching his hands out once again. But the beautiful vampire woman was nowhere to be found. Hopefully she didn't just bail on him and leave him to stumble around the room looking for her. Be a real dick move if she did.

  He took a step forward which was more difficult than he expected. Turns out having nearly all your senses taken away made simple things like walking a pain in the ass. It was abundantly clear that he wouldn't be getting his hands on that sexy body of hers like this. His only hope was to learn that Skill.

  And this time, he had some real motivation. Whatever skill she was planning on teaching him, he wanted to learn, even if he suspected she was being a bit of a troll. He just really hoped the other skin he would be touching wasn't some hairy dude's.

  He's already experienced that trick in college, thank you very much, he didn't want to do it again.

  With that in mind, he began thinking of Luminous. Her long, silvery hair, her red and blue eyes, her petite, yet powerful frame; he began to visualize everything about her in his mind's eye.

  Too bad his mind was such a pervert, because she was totally naked in there.

  He then started feeling for his own magic, trying to bring it to the forefront. Once he could feel that familiar tingle, he sent a pulse of it outward in all directions, getting a brief flash of what the room looked like.

  He tried to do this before, but as Luminous said, his other senses kicked in, so he was really just listening and smelling everything that was going on around him, rather than feeling it with his magic. But with these senses turned off, more or less, it allowed him to feel his magic on a deeper level.

  Luminous watched as he stood there, gathering the magic within him and releasing it from his body. He had the right idea, merely lacking the control. Perhaps she should give him a little help?

  She released her own aura, just a little bit, in order for his magic to have something to properly latch onto. That should help him get a feel for what that's like. Once he can do that, feeling the Magicules in the surrounding air shouldn't be too difficult. All he really had to do was stop overcomplicating things.

  She felt his magic pulse wash over her and she smirked when he leapt towards her. She gracefully danced out of the way, watching as he crashed into the floor. That was a good start, but she would call what he did Magic Sense. More like, magical echolocation. All he needed to do now was keep the flow constant, rather than simply releasing it in a wave, and he'd have it down.

  This continued for some time. Vincent would release a pulse of magic, find where she was, and charge at her like a bull seeing red. But no matter how fast he moved or how hard he tried, he couldn't get his hands on her.

  Panting, he stopped, thinking about what he was doing wrong. The Skill description said it used the Magicules in the air to send feedback about the light and sound waves around him. But that wasn't what was happening. He was just sending out magical pulses that picked up on Lumi's own magic.

  So, what if he didn't do that? He had been thinking in terms of sonar, like a submarine pinging away, but what he should really be thinking of is making a map. The blip of a sonar scan only lasted a short while, and you had to constantly emit more and more pulses to keep getting an image. But if he thought about it like he was creating a 3d map instead…

  Concentrating once more, he started to release his magic into the air. But rather than sending it out, he imagined it more like a bubble, one that he was slowly filling with air. As this was happening, he could "see" for lack of a better term, the room around him.

  It took him some time, but he was eventually able to expand the bubble across the entire room. Everything looked more or less the same as when he was using his own eyes. The colors were actually more vibrant, making him look around in awe as a voice resounded in his head.

  [Skill Acquisition: Magic Sense]

  [Successful]

  After hearing that, he found, to his surprise, his nose started bleeding, and his head started pounding. Luckily his healing kicked in, so that didn't last long. The description did say it could be overwhelming, and it did not lie.

  Seeing everything in 360 degrees was weird. But with that, he started looking around for Lumi. Seeing that she wasn't exactly trying to hide, finding her was rather easy.

  She was standing near the table, taking a sip of her tea, which was somehow still hot. He took a step back when he saw the amount of power she was leaking, feeling a bead of sweet fall down the side of his face. It was enormous, shooting up towards the sky like a beam of light. He didn't get a very good picture of it when he was sending out waves, but now, with his magic sending a constant stream of data back, he couldn't but stare in awe.

  Seeing this, Luminous quirked an eyebrow. "I take it you succeeded then?" she asked. He was a bit surprised he could hear her, but as the Skill mentioned sound waves as well, maybe he shouldn't be.

  "I think so. That's what the voice in my head said anyway," he stated, staring down at his own hands. He probably looked like a pothead right now, staring at his fingers while high as a kite.

  "I see. In that case, what are you waiting for? Come and get me," she said, curling her index finger in a "come here" fashion. And who was he to deny the invitation of such a beautiful woman?

  He sprinted towards her, but she once more danced out of the way. But this time, he could follow her every movement. But even so, she didn't make it easy for him, jumping and dodging every attempt at laying his hands on her.

  "You better hurry, you're running out of time," she teased, jumping away again. She landed some way away, with barely a sound.

  "I won't let you get away!" he shouted, turning to face her, lunging towards her, his hands making squeezing motions as he did so.

  "Oh my! What are you planning to do to me? Where exactly do you plan to grab?" she asked in a false, frightened tone while laughing internally at the desperate face he was making. He really wanted to touch her that badly, didn't he?

  "You'll see! Just hold still!" he yelled, making her laugh and dance out of the way. Vincent was getting frustrated by how difficult she was being. Looking at the clock on the wall, his heart nearly stopped when he saw he only had a minute left. He could practically feel his chances of learning whatever skill she wanted to teach slipping away.

  "No! I refuse to give up! I'll get my hands on her no matter what!" he thought, an aura of determination surrounding him, making Luminous look at him with intrigue. This time when he leapt toward her, he was much faster than before. Not only that, he was beginning to anticipate the way she would dodge.

  "Thirty seconds. Don't you want to learn that skill? My teaching method is very… hands on," she teased again, making him snort in excitement. He really was too easy to rile up.

  They continued to move about the room, their forms a blur as they did so. But he was getting closer and closer to his goal, nearly grazing her with his clawed hand. Seeing this, Luminous decided it was about time to end this. As he leapt at her one final time, she merely stood there, allowing him to grab her wherever he wanted.

  His arms wrapped around her, right as the big hand hit the 3, and the clock began making its hourly chime noise. He then proceeded to pick her up and spin her around, much to her surprise. She thought for sure he would use the opportunity to grab his favorite part of her, namely her rump.

  "Woo, I did it! You're all mine now Lumi!" he shouted, making the vampire goddess giggle at his enthusiasm.

  "Oh, and what do you intend to do with me?" she asked in a husky tone, making him shiver, his whole body going stiff. She smirked, enjoying how easy it was to get a reaction out of him.

  She then removed the earmuffs and clothespin, returning the blood to her own body, before removing his blindfold. He looked down at her smirking face, noting how close they were.

  Again.

  "I'm never going to let you go," he found himself saying, completely mesmerized by her beautiful eyes. Luminous found herself blushing against her will, eyes gaining a softer, less teasing quality to them. Her left hand rose to cup his left cheek, and Vincent found himself with the blush at the look in her eyes.

  "My, what a silver tongue you have," she said with a coy smile, before planting a soft kiss on his right cheek. Vincent stood rooted to the spot, his entire body going rigid once more.

  She really was too good at this.

  "But I'm afraid you aren't strong enough to say those words to me. At least not yet," she said quietly, snapping him out of his trance. But rather than be offended, he became inspired.

  "In that case, I'll just have to get stronger," he told her, determination overflowing from his body. She smiled, glad that he didn't become discouraged, and found herself resting her head on his shoulder. She was definitely going to keep him.

  "I look forward to it."

  After spending some time in an intimate embrace, Luminous gained a mischievous smirk on her face.

  "You know, I thought for sure you were going to squeeze my backside again," she said, wiggling her hips, laughing silently as she heard his heartbeat quickened and the blood rush to his lower extremity.

  "I do have some self control," he claimed.

  "How much is some?" she asked, wiggling some more. His hands grabbed her tighter as she continued to tease him, her hot breath on his neck and the smell of her perfume driving him to the brink of insanity.

  "Not that much," he growled out.

  "I see. Guess I better stop then," she said. She almost couldn't contain her laughter when she saw his devastated face.

  "Wha-but-I-you," he babbled as she leapt down from his embrace.

  "Sorry, but I have to return to work now," she said, walking past him. He could only stand there, frozen solid, unable to do a thing to ease the tension she left him with.

  "Oh, come to my room tonight if you wish to learn that skill I promised you," she said with a wink before exiting from the room. Watching her go, Vincent wasn't sure if he lost the battle or won the war.