Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko spends the second day practising her Skills and levelling them up. She didn’t get any Levels from those 80 dead Cultivators, so it seemed she would have to fight more powerful opponents.

She suddenly missed that binge levelling through eating, right now eating gives her next to nothing and she has to rely on Beast Cores to fill her tank.

’There is also this annoying thing.’ Aiko frowned.

Elemental Spirit: [Seed of ####; Nurtured 23/100,000]

’I can only give it one energy per hour, but fortunately, my [Nurture] increased to 2nd Level and I was able to spend 2 energy from my Beast Core to nurture it.’ Aiko was still not satisfied as that number was simply too big to be quickly filled.

Aiko slept in her den. She wouldn’t be able to fill the Beast Core through the night, slowing the process.

The next day she left her small Den and walked around. It was funny to see those Cultivators running from her just by the mere sight of her, because of this her [Intimidation] was levelling fast, she also used [Weakness Detection] on them.

The red zone was getting smaller at each level, but it also depended on the person she was up against.

There was a chubby guy that was running from her and when she used [Weakness Detection], she was able to spot his weakness, heart.

It was nice to see that if the level increased enough she would be able to pinpoint their weak points, but some of them made no sense.

She stumbled upon the Yellow Fox, she was currently killing the Cultivators. When Aiko used her [Weakness Detection] for some reason it highlighted their thighs, shoulder blades, above stomach, etc. She was confused since there were no important organs, like a heart and such.

She tailed the Yellow Fox. The Yellow Fox knew about Aiko since Aiko didn’t hide, but didn’t attack her since she was very passive.

’She didn’t attack the Demonic Fox when she had the chance.’ The Yellow Fox thought.

That didn’t mean she was not wary of her, if Aiko tried something funny she would use her Light Element to blast her to pieces.

But Aiko only followed and observed, and soon she was upset at that.

”Why are you following me?!” The Yellow Fox finally couldn’t endure it and asked Aiko.

Aiko cutely sat down and tilted her head, looking at her like ’Are you stupid?’

”Ugh.” The Yellow Fox had a headache since she never met such an intelligent beast that could not talk. ”Forget it...” The Yellow Fox shook her head and let Aiko follow her.

’It’s nice that her tail can’t get dusty. That gets a bonus point.’ Aiko thought. ’Maybe I should get that strange Element myself so that I don’t have to rely on that stinky Fox’s [Clean].’

But that would not be easy since that element was completely opposite to what Aiko had, she didn’t know that so that small hope that bloomed in her heart stayed like that until someone told her that was impossible.

[Intimidation: Mastered]

[Weakness Detection: Mastered]

’Nice!’ Aiko realized that she could level up faster certain Skills if she was mentally focusing on them. Observing her targets longer and more thoroughly meant she found more weaknesses causing her Skill to level up faster.

She soon waved at the Yellow Fox and left, while she was tempted to saddle that Fox’s tail for herself, it was still long before there would be night and following her the whole time without doing anything productive was against Aiko’s wishes.

’I’m a bit sleepy, but I will be able to last for some time still.’ Aiko checked her Stamina and it was okay.

She dashed around the forest, using [Camouflage] and [Stealth] often. She would then rely on her [Hunting Mastery] to guide her towards other Human Cultivators.

She was quick on her feet and would then tail those Cultivators until they got her Level in those skills and if it looked like the other Foxes were approaching she would hurl rocks and stuff them inside her pouch.

She didn’t like those fat guys, since it was difficult to stuff them inside, but really liked the anorexic ones. They were so light and easy to bend. It was no problem stuffing them.

As such Aiko avoided groups with fat humans since she didn’t want to help other Foxes with their hunt. She would pick and choose as she did with her food, which still granted her another 40 Humans, giving her a total of 56 Human Cultivators... plus a few corpses.

’Some of them look strong, while being completely weak...’ Aiko shook her head.

She returned to her Den after another successful day of hunting and resting.

...

The audience wasn’t even concealing their displeasure at how this test was so easy, some prodigies even went towards the Elder to complain, but that Elder would ignore them as he had a hard time already maintaining the projection.

Of course, he wouldn’t show that on his face and keep his stoic and dignified expression, but on the inside, he was cursing other Elders for slipping this job on him. He was not suited for this kind of job since his focus was too low.

He would get easily distracted by some bouncy mountain peaks or deep valleys.

’It was a good idea to convince other Elders to change the dressing code.’ The Elder discreetly licked his lips. ’Especially that Perverted Elder, who would have thought he would have such a great idea as making the assassin wear body suits!’ He was delighted he almost died of blood loss when he saw those young ones wearing them.

’And his reasoning was also very sound as we were able to put more concealing inscriptions on them and since they were so close to their bodies their Innate Abilities also worked on them.’ He laughed in his mind, enjoying a particular group of young foxes.

The Queen was watching the screen clicking her tongue. ’This isn’t a challenge for her, neither were the previous ones!’ She cursed these useless fools. ’Why didn’t you set up Restraining Earth Arrays so that they can’t just dive under the soil and Restraining Sky Arrays so that they can’t fly over them.’

The Queen was questioning her decisions as it seemed this ’Village’ had degraded greatly. ’What am I supposed to do if it turns out they can’t feed my little sweetie.’ She shivered remembering how she was able to consume all those Beast Cores in a few days, which would take her weeks.

’It’s honestly baffling she can consume so much... there must be some kind of secret on her body, which means I will have to protect her from these old fogeys too...’ She then paused. ’Wouldn’t that make me her Master?’ She thought about that quite a bit smiling.

’That is not a bad idea, but too many Elders in the Upper Realm didn’t like the idea of a Master, having mates as their disciples.’ She clicked her tongue, she would have to find a different way.

She looked at the projection where Aiko stole all the feathers from one bird and a lot of dry grass, making herself a small nest inside the Den.

’I wonder if she misses my bod- No, wait that’s wrong.’ The Queen shook her head and recited her sutra, calming down.

...

Aiko woke up on the third day and moved outside. She hunted some victims and stuffed them inside her pouch.

’It’s getting really boring...’

Aiko looked around for more groups, but she already had 80 Victims. She was so bored that she started to play games with the Human Cultivators.

She would act all innocent to attract those Cultivators with her creamy fur and then change it to a black one, letting the voices scare them shitless.

In another instance, she would attract some with strange noises, only for her to then play catapult with what looked like big coconuts.

Hours later her boredom got even worse. Now whenever she would hunt, she would hurl rocks at them and when they were falling she tried to stuff them in with their own natural inertia.

This was fun until she became too proficient in it, not to mention her mischief also spread far and wide causing others to avoid her.

Later she would play with the Human Cultivators another game.

She would find a group of Cultivators and tail them, once they gathered in an open space she would slowly walk out with a mischievous smile.

At first, they didn’t react much, but later once more people knew about her it would play like this:

Aiko appeared near the cultivation group with a mischievous smile.

”Oh no, it’s the Fox!” One Cultivator would scream.

”Please don’t hurt us!” Another yelled.

Aiko smiled like a Demon, nodding ’You will get inside the bag’ and those Cultivators scattered while screaming for their dear lives. Aiko would follow them around scaring them even more with the mischievous smile and then would throw rocks at them while gaggling.

The groups that were not yet captured by Aiko had nightmares about a Fox with Devilish smiles and ruby eyes, slowly hunting them with pebbles that were faster than birds diving. They would hurt like crazy and make you unconscious.

It was so bad that some groups banded together, but that wouldn’t help them against Aiko.

At the end of the 3rd day she already had more than 140 Victims and about 100 corpses since some of them were lunatics and sliced their own throats.

...

The Elders surrounding the projection with the Sect leader had strange smiles on their faces.

”I really like this little one.” One Elder said.

”Likewise, I believe we can bend some rules for her.

”Sect Leader?” They all looked towards their sect leader. They knew that it would depend on her decision.

”Why are you thinking about that now?” She smiled.

”Because she would fit quite well with the-” The Elder was cut off short.

”The real reason.” The Sect leader said sternly.

”We will get a lot of rewards and treasures if she moves to the mainland.” The Elder said politely, not hiding anything. He might’ve been a pervert, but an honest one.

”I agree with Elder, we need more resources.” Another Elder chimed in.

The Sect Leader didn’t say anything and waited.

...

”Poor girl...” The audience sympathized with Aiko as they were bored too, it was still nice to see her sleep or eat, but not fight, those fights were too boring and they just didn’t like them.

...

Aiko finished eating her food and licked her mouth. This was the first time she would use [Earthen Walk] and she was completely overwhelmed.

She was able to see the underground! There were so many strange things under the ground, but it drained her Stamina like crazy!

She was especially curious about one place where it shined with strange rocks. Those looked valuable and would be able to fill the other quota. She was looking forward to exploring that strange cave, but first, she would sleep.

She had done enough hunting since those humans were completely useless, not to mention she already had her human quota so she didn’t need to bother with Humans any more.

Strangely she didn’t meet any females, she wondered if they were as pretty as that first female Cultivator or that Princess, but she couldn’t judge because there weren’t any!

She was slightly upset, but those thoughts were washed away with good food and a chill down her spine.