Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Munching on the cookies she lost all will to play with more toys. It seemed like most of them wouldn’t fit her ’needs’ and she was not really willing to explore this more.

What was the most important part was the fact that she already more or less knew what she liked and disliked, meaning that her next outing with her partners would be a more ’proper’ one.

She also saw that this place had more than just one section, but it kind of felt like she shouldn’t explore it for the time being.

The enjoyment was already more or less a success, so it was better to quit while she was still enjoying this.

She also wanted to figure out what she could do with the Soul Points.

Clicking through her system, she noticed that there were two things she could do.

The Soul Points were similar both to Cultivation Points and her Soul Essence which she used to acquire more tails.

As such, she could use both the [Primordial Shop] and tails growth with this resource.

The [Primordial Shop] only included Soul-related Techniques and Manuals, making its uses a bit awkward.

The main reason being that Beasts were limited by how much they were allowed to grow their Souls.

The main way to grow Beasts’ Soul was through Bloodlines and Species, neither of which were easy to acquire or nurture as some required rather expensive materials.

That’s also why you would always find a Beast guarding a Treasure, since they needed it themselves to advance on this damned path.

Aiko studied it a bit more, but she figured out that she should just gather the Soul Points for her tails. It was not like those Techniques and Manuals couldn’t be bought by normal Cultivation Points.

This way her growth would be immediate and not restricted by rules.

She could still make sure that her Soul was guarded through the techniques, but considering she was a Fox... yeah, it was not really necessary for the time being.

However, with more tails would come more power, and she might even earn some nice traits, all of which were very useful to her.

Aiko nodded her head, she would just grow her tails for the time being.

Leaving the strange unhinged shop, she arrived at the armoury to check her equipment once again. She had limited slots in which she could equip things, so it was better to pick the best stuff when nobody was watching her.

Her survival might be based on what she can do with these items, so it was important to know what was her limit.

The very next step would be going to the library once again and learning more abilities that could be useful to her.

She didn’t quite know on what basis they worked, but it mostly seemed that they worked on the basis of thought.

As long as Aiko thought about the fireball, it would manifest as a ball of fire that would explode given enough time.

The same could be said about hurling it and those kinds of things, as long as it was ’magic’ she was allowed to just think about it, and it would be used.

Of course this consumed her MP, fireball cost 10 points, and she had infinite points while inside this place, but what if she was outside?

The lowest cost of the fireball was 10, but she could increase it further, up to 100 in which she would then need to choose a more powerful spell to use.

The problem with fireball was that it cost exactly 10 MP, but that didn’t include the ’movement’ cost, so the fireball would always blow up in her face.

To prevent that, she needed at least 20 MP to make sure she can also hurl it away, at least some distance.

”I wonder who created this place.” Aiko was not talking about her [Soul Domain]. She was talking about what was inside the safe zone and the sludges that crawled around trying to get her.

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It felt too sinister, like the flowers to be done naturally.

[That is indeed the case.]

”Long time not see, what did I miss?” Aiko was quite happy that her system actually replied to her once again.

[It’s been a short time. The time inside here is different from the outside.]

[As for your question, Princess. This place was created by the one who contracted those Beasts.]

”Isn’t that kind of bad?” Aiko pursed her lips. She knew that ’they’ could deal with him, but that didn’t mean she didn’t worry.

[It’s a matter of course. He can’t control this place and in return he gets more Providence than it would be naturally possible.]

”Wait.” Aiko blinked her eyes before smirking. ”Does that mean I’m robbing him without him being able to strike me back~?” She hummed happily, completely forgetting about the dangers of this place.

[While necessarily not wrong, it’s advised that you are careful Princess. We did make this place easier, since it’s your ability, but we don’t have the same sway about the ’outside’.]

”Is that why the sludges crawl outside? But what about the Moon, Sun and so on?” Aiko was slightly confused.

[The Bloodlines are the safeguards of one Soul, the more powerful the Bloodline, the more powerful the manifestation. There are some things the Bloodlines can’t do, and they might turn into your weakness, but as far as Princess goes, that’s unlikely to happen.]

[One would need a mediocre Bloodline to be taken advantage of, which is simply nearly impossible in your case, Princess.]

”So it’s good that I have powerful Bloodlines, but it doesn’t seem like they are helping against them.” Aiko tilted her head. She didn’t understand this place fully, so it was better to listen and question the system until she was satisfied.

[The Bloodlines are safeguards against more powerful enemies and not the common vermin. How else would you be able to gather ’experience’ in order to grow stronger?]

”So I’m tasked to kill the vermin and wait for stronger ones to show up?” Aiko nodded her head slowly. It would make sense since these were easy to kill, but...

”I have to be outside for these kills to count, right?” Aiko groaned, she liked camping them from the safety and was unwilling to go outside and be touched by that sludge.

[Not necessarily, Princess. While stronger monsters will come out over time, you can pass this ’adversity’ by killing them from safety. But of course you won’t be able to earn many resources, since that would bring the ire of the folk.]

”You are talking about other Dao, right?” Aiko felt like they had too much time on their hand and messed with everyone just because.

[Not just them, but the Heavenly Formation itself.]

”Let’s skip that, since I won’t be able to understand even if you explain it. So I just have to kill as many of these monsters while outside as possible?” Aiko wanted to know if that was the goal of this place.

She would then decide if she wanted to take it easy or not.

[Indeed. Each ’wave’ has different numbers, but you can count on the fact that each wave will have greater enemies.]

[Each 10th wave, there will be a field boss, which can reward more equipment you can store inside your safe area.]

[Every 100th wave, there will be a boss monster. They are a dangerous bunch, so it’s better to prepare.]

”I see...” Aiko nodded her head. ”Is there a rule that I can’t almost kill the enemies, step outside, kill it and then back inside?”

[... Not really?]

”Does that mean I can beat up the bosses without having to leave the safe area and then just poke them once while outside to earn all the rewards?” Aiko smirked again. She was quite looking forward to it if that was the case!

[...]

[*sigh*]

[... Yes...]

”Whoa, you are not too enthusiastic about this.” Aiko was not surprised, because this was quite cheesy, but why should she risk her life if she could simply dispose of them safely, while also earning great rewards!?

[It’s not wrong, but wrong at the same time. While you will be able to grow in theory, your actual experience and combat experience will not grow and be stagnant forever.]

[The waves are very lax, so if you wish to repeat them you can. You won’t be able to earn any bonuses, but you will be able to get used to fighting those things.]

[There is also emergency ’teleport’ for if you lose all your ’HP’, so we encourage you to fight outside and not hide inside.]

”What is HP?” Aiko wanted to ask this, since it felt different to her normal system’s stats.

[It’s a barrier that safeguards your Soul, once broken you will be immediately moved to the safe area, and you will be banned from leaving until you healed up.]

”That’s very convenient.” Aiko nodded her head. If she didn’t need to risk anything and just play around, then she didn’t need to snipe them from inside.

She didn’t have any other questions for the time being. She was more curious about the outside world for now, so she would ask anything else later.

[We wish you a safe journey, Princess.]

The system went silent for a bit. It seemed like she couldn’t contact them too often, but it was more likely to happen inside the safe area, or at least that’s what Aiko thought.

For now, she would just pick her weapons and head for the wall. It was now larger than before. It even felt like the wall was thicker.

The- Her place was constantly growing, but she could see there was already some stagnation settling in. The most noticeable was usually around colours, since the colours wouldn’t spread or stay bleak instead of vibrant like the main palace.

Well, she checked the wall and nothing was wrong with it. It didn’t feel like it would fall any time soon, but she should still be on guard, just in case the boss monster was able to break it.

But well... her system didn’t warn her about that, and it even agreed she could use the sniping technique she used before, so there was no way that a boss monster would be able to break this wall.

And if the wall kept growing that was even less likely.

”First library and then I should check if colours make things more durable.” Aiko nodded her head. Her clothing was monochrome, making her a bit sad. She wanted more colours, but she also knew that might be a stretch for the time being.

”Of right, I didn’t ask what I can use the Soul Points on.” Aiko thought that the system would be able to clearly tell her and even give her some recommendations, which would be nice~!