There were many ways she could go about her plan. But if there was one thing she believed in, it was balance. Fairness, equality, and the idea that when you take, you give. So while it wouldn't be hard at all to find less reputable places to enact her plan, that wouldn't coincide with her ideals.
No, while it would be slower, the places Steliana chose had to be more personal, those that she could give a special touch to and thus be able to help out the people she'd be taking from. A couple having 'issues', a young lady needing a confidence boost, a man needing a push, or someone being haunted. Something that she could help with in one way or another, while also getting what she wanted. At least for now. She had other, grander ideas, of course. But that would take more power, even more than what she'd get after using one of her rare candies.
On silent bat wings, she flew through the air, her thoughts churning even while her senses supernatural or otherwise stretched wide. She knew what to look for, would have known what to look for even before becoming basically a lust-eating spirit. She had grown up in a supernatural boarding school, one chock-full of teenagers. Shit got weird there at times, needless to say.
With one last flap of her wings, Steliana glided downwards, her claws clacking along the edge of the roof that she landed on. Strange. Can I smell lust? Even in bat form? You learned something new everyday apparently. From an open window came a breathy moan. "Nobu-kun~ yessssssss." Yup, definently smelling lust. From across the street, the curtains at another house fluttered as, for a brief moment, a young man was visible before the curtains obscured him once more. Well, at least she knew she was at the right place. Doing a small hop, she got off the ledge and onto the roof proper. Let's see here, where should I—ah, of course. Have to love Japanese architecture. They do like their little triangle thingies on top of their roofs, don't they?
Doing a mix of a hop and a hobble, she moved over to where the shade was going to hit what she was about to do just right to hide it as much as possible, and began to carve with her little bat claws. After my rare candy, I'll be able to do this part with pure Youki, but it would be too much of a waste of energy right now. Which also meant a couple-second process was going to take far, far longer.
It also meant, "Oh fuck yes! Right there Nobu-kun!!!" She had to keep hearing that. The next five minutes were perhaps the longest five minutes of either of her lives, but eventually she finished drawing out the specific mix of summoning and teleportation circle she needed. Not one meant for something physical, but the ethereal and spiritual. One that would 'summon' lust and then teleport it.
Looking over the circle another time, her fluffy head nodded content with what she saw. It was a near-perfect match for the one she had carved right underneath the window where her only 'door' currently was. Which left only one thing. "OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH! NOBU-KUNNNNN!"
What horribly perfect timing. With careful precision, her Youki gently flowed into the just-made circle. Mind, emotions, and intent were focused. The image of lust flowing into the circle in mighty streams, before disappearing into its counterpart sigil, was firmly imprinted into her mind.
Her Youki, the energy that was what 'leaked' from a Youkai's soul—and such a leakage is what made her and other Youkai have a natural talent for Senjutsu—trickled into the circle, tainted by her vampiric side. More and more poured in, until mere specks of energy remained inside of her, the last week's worth of training saving her from this entire plan being a failure.
The circle briefly flashed a strange mix of pink and black light before it dimmed, leaving the circle only to faintly hum in a tune only those supernaturally aware could hear.
Steliana sagged, her bat body lying prone on the rooftop. That took… just about everything I had. She certainly couldn't keep doing that today; she'd need time to recover and needed to save some energy to train as well.
Taking a few blissfully quiet moments to recover, she pushed herself up and hesitantly flew down and peered through the window. She's sleeping, good. Even better, the young woman had a blanket over her, so Steliana didn't even have to see anything! Now then, how can I repay you for all the lust you're going to be giving me? Glancing around, she twitched at seeing the object on the table. Oh. I… she let out a little bat sigh. Nobu, meaning stretch. I see.
Looking around the room more, she did notice pictures, but they were always either old family photos or the woman by herself. Nudging open the closet, for all the screaming and the open window, the clothes were quite plain and businesslike. Proper businesslike too, not even the 'I'm willing to flash some leg and boob to make a deal' type of clothes. It was… actually kind of cute, considering even some of the most prudish of people in her world would have something more risque than what was in this closet, and yet certainly wouldn't have that behemoth that was suctioned to the nightstand.
Well then. Quietly landing on the bed, she'd tilt her head. You really are decently pretty, and I didn't feel a revolting amount of negativity from you. So… based on the evidence, is it social shyness, mixed with body shame, and not understanding how to conduct yourself? Steliana would certainly do her best to fix that as repayment for such a long-term 'fuel source'. But even with any help she was about to give, the rest was going to have to come from within.
Still, this is going to be a bit difficult considering I have no experience doing this with my current powers. In her old world, her greatest pride and joy was basically being the pioneer in the field of illusions for witchcraft, that field having historically been reduced to the innate talents of vampires.
Of course, she had then combined that brand of magic she had basically invented with her own innate vampiric talents, and well… First and only time I saw a 120 out of 100 for a test, that was a good day. Sadly, the vampires in this world didn't have that type of innate power, and neither did Nekoshou.
But Steliana had lived and breathed illusions before she had been forced to get into battle after battle, and knew how to affect people and their minds, especially humans. That didn't change. It was just about figuring out how to make her Youki or Vampire magic properly tune itself. Flexing her power, Steliana focused on the softly breathing woman, focused on her face that had rosy cheeks and a sheen of sweat. Carefully…
The first try failed, so did the second. But on the third? Aha! The combined mixture of Youkai and Vampire powers made a connection, coiling into the woman's mind. Now then, your payment. Concentrating hard, she thought about social etiquette, about light flirting, and dancing. About the pounding heart, stretched lips, and flushed cheeks of a gentle moonlit dinner. The rush of adrenaline as your graceful movement entranced eyes, and the joy of a simple motion causing your love to hold back a gasp.
A minute later, Steliana sagged, looking much like a drowned rat with how much she was sweating. Alright, I did my best. Hopefully, this helps you out a little bit in exchange for the help you'll be giving me. If not… just taking it as a very, very strange dream. After a few seconds of taking a breath, she flapped her wings and soared out of the bedroom, taking one last look at the nightstand. You really are crazy, though. That thing is huge.
The psychology degree she was imbued with tugged at her, and all the various reasons why a person would want something THAT large, but she batted it away. People could be people, and she didn't always need to delve into the reasons.
Especially when she just so grossly invaded that poor woman's privacy. Carefully flying toward a nearby tree, it cracked open. A second later, she was back inside her apartment, standing upright on two legs once more. I need a shower after that, geesh. Shaking her head, a shudder ran down her spine as actual sweat flung off her hair like a wet cat post bath. Yup. Shower ASAP.
She practically sprinted toward the bathroom.
.
.
Sipping some blood from her flask, she looked down at her notebook with a frown. I suppose this would be more efficient, but to do so would be… The idea laid out to make her training more efficient was theoretically possible, yes. But in reality, to consistently do so in a short time frame would be quite hard. But I don't need to, do I? After all, once I set everything up, I'll be getting a free six months of dedicated focus training. So I just need to start it.
Idea solidified in her mind, Steliana stood up and grabbed her sword, before opening her apartment door and hopping out. Landing in the warehouse, she looked around, smiling at the changes she had made in the last week.
It was cleaner to start with, and also held some basic equipment. Weights, a treadmill, a training dummy, and, of course, a target to throw low-powered spells at. Let's start with a run and some weight training, before moving on to this new idea. Resting her sword against the wall, she started up the treadmill and began her 'warmup'.
An hour later, with running and weights over with, Steliana picked her sword back up. The new training idea was an interesting one, based on her clan trait. Of course—she didn't dare to actually use her clan trait in the warehouse—but the principles did stem from it. Demonic Brilliance of Evil Light, a clan trait that angels, gods, and all holy beings were weak to. In principle, it seemed like a trait that focused on corrupted light.
From her week of occasionally investigating while inside her apartment? It wasn't just that simple. What could twist the purest and brightest light in all of Heaven? What could corrupt him so that even gods would shy away from his splendor? The answer was clear. If the God of the Bible were the equivalent of the primordial light, the only thing that could cause such a thing would be a thread of primordial darkness.
So, inspiration surged. Just because she didn't dare to use it in the outside world, couldn't she practice using similar principles? It had come to her then, a way to practice not just with her Youki, but also her Vampiric Magic.
Through Youki, she could coat her sword with light magic. And through Vampirism, darkness magic. It was a four-pronged approach to training. Five-pronged, if she could somehow add some form of weight to it as well. The first prong was the obvious practice of her sword play, the second prong was the exercising and growth of her Youki, the third prong was the exercising and growth of her Vampirism, and the fourth prong was the enhanced magical control and knowledge this would give.
Was it a perfect exercise? No, in fact, Steliana had dozens of ways she figured that she could improve it with. Learning gravity magic, sealing away her physical strength, using Senjutsu, wind magic to the air make the harder to breathe, and so much more!
But as it was, the current exercise was enough for her growth and fine-tuning, not to mention she couldn't even use any of the ideas she had to improve the training method. It would take time to learn all that magic, time she didn't have. Yet.
A smile crawled it's way onto her face. Even though I'll be so much stronger after my rare candy and my training should naturally show less results, it might actually be the opposite. Six months was a long time for dedicated training. Especially when going into it, she already knew what spells she needed to create, and would be using the following period of time to verify all of her ideas before popping her first candy.
Gripping her sword tightly with one hand, she breathed deeply. On one side of the sword, shadows erupted, twisting and writhing. On the other side, a bright light flickered along its edge. Then, almost as if attracted to each other and ignoring her efforts to control them, they touched.
It felt like time froze for just a brief moment before there was an explosion, and she rocketed into a warehouse wall. Owwwww. I think I can say the first attempt was a failure. Rubbing the back of her head as she stood up, she gingerly walked back over and picked her sword up again. Alright, try number two. She failed again. At least I'm training my explosion taking skills? Then a third, and a fourth. She was certainly training something alright…
Sometime later, she was resting, sipping on blood once more, when her eyes narrowed. The circle was activating. Holy shit, lady. I mean, good for me. But still. As it flared to life, she felt a tugging, and she opened the door, allowing the lust to flow in and be trapped inside her apartment to be absorbed later. Although I felt something there.
When the circle had activated, she felt something akin to a burden, a weight pressing down on her chest. So there are limitations to this method, too, huh? Something that would grow in time assuredly, but it made sense that there was a limit to how many circles she could link for her little remote 'lust stealing' plan. Four more? No, five. That… was actually fine.
That would give her six places she could somewhat regularly absorb lust and gain a bit of power from without doing any extra work after setting it up. Not to mention, that's six places that will be boosting my training throughout the rare candy. If it were unlimited, she would have likely kept pushing back the usage of that rare candy. Steliana knew herself enough to realize that, especially when she wasn't in any emergency time crunch. This limitation might be a bit of a blessing.
Of course, why there was a limitation was interesting. It felt like a strain on her magic, but also almost like a strain on her soul too… Curious. Well, we'll see what happens after the rare candy. Still, that gave her a timeframe. Six more days of training, and five more locations to pick out and set up. Six more days of finding places with delicious deep-fried pastry~
Okay, so her obsession was clearly a problem. But it was a delicious one, so who cared!
.
.
Biting her lip as she absorbed the remaining gathered lust with burgeoning experience, she ignored the tingles it sent up her spine and the pounding in her heart. It was just minor after effects, considering the sheer scale of lust she was absorbing versus her relative power. It was the end of her second week in this world, and everything had gone perfectly to plan. Her training had gone well, her sadly voyeuristic summoning/teleportation circles setup had gone off without a hitch, and she had even managed to tentatively stop her light and darkness from trying to creepily merge into an eldritch exploding horror! Well, most of the time. Eh, more like some of the time. Opposites really did attract after all. Although it's usually more of in the explosive hate fuck way, not literally explosive.
But that wasn't all there was to her training. I've managed to confirm that absorbing that root 'energy' does in fact bolster my training. From her first weeks 23% gain, this week she managed to boost it up to a grand total of a 34% gain compared to her original combined magical levels. Of course, that was only a 28% gain compared to her week one magical levels, but still! It was a clear improvement. Everything went to plan, which is surprising. Usually, my plans end up getting ruined by some outside source.
Still, she knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. At least when the gift horse was her own studying, planning, detailed training, and blood drinking regime. I guess that means it's time. Walking over to the counter where there was a draw-string bag, she gently loosened it and picked out one of the blue candies. Six months. Twenty-six weeks. If I somehow don't get any increase to my gains for the pure focus and dedication to training? I'd still get an 884% increase to my original amount of magic, more than putting me into proper Low-Class and enabling me to do my plans.
Not to mention any further spells I'd create, control over my magic, physical growth, and training ideas I would have naturally created in that time. That was only if her training rate didn't increase through the strict wording and effect of the rare candy. If it did increase? Well, she certainly wasn't going to complain. Without a drop of hesitation, she popped the candy into her mouth.
The world went black as her muscles spasmed, her mind was bombarded with information, her Youki exploded in power, and her Vampiric Magic majestically surged inside of her.