Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko stretched her arms to pull back the slingshot. She readied her hands and adjusted her gaze to aim at the back of its head before letting go of the leather.

The rock shot through the air and smacked right against the back of its head, making a ’thud’ sound as it impacted.

Aiko was briefly surprised that the ugly didn’t keel over immediately, but it did turn around, trying to find what smacked it to the back of its head.

The aim was awkward as was her position, but she should’ve been fine even if she didn’t hit it immediately.

However, it didn’t seem like rocks would work on it, and she didn’t have Spirit Stones in this place to use them as alternatives, which was a shame.

With nothing else to shoot, Aiko picked one golf ball and tried shooting it, but as expected, it only made the ugly angrier.

At this point Aiko was concerned that its defences might be greater than what she anticipated. This was a shame since it seemed like she would have to return to the safe area and get something better for a weapon, or use some marbles for levels which she was not too keen about.

The uglies that came over also dropped a few of them, so in theory, Aiko could get stronger this way.

Shaking her head, she wore her previous clothes and crawled around to gather those marbles before using recall to get back into the safe area.

She could leave the caravan over there, since it would not be found. This way she didn’t need to pull it around all the time, only when she was returning from the finished wave.

Looking around, this time nothing changed inside this place, so Aiko just went for the exchange, gaining 7 levels at once.

She could now use the fireball from a longer distance, which was nice and would definitely be used, but Aiko also thought about some enhancements for her weapons.

She had enough Mana to probably imbue things with elements, so in theory, she would be able to enhance those rocks, making their impact that much more meaningful.

...

However, that was for later, as Aiko was back on the battlefield. She once again sniped one, but this time it didn’t take her nearly as long as before.

[You have killed Goblin.]

[You have gained 130 Soul Points.]

’Nice.’ Aiko made a small fist celebration before diving under her caravan. She once again prepared the Storm Hammer and armour, but this time she would be a bit smarter about it.

Aiko let those uglies approach her and waited for them until they turned around and wanted to leave.

That’s when she jumped at them, not only pulverising one, but finishing the others by spinning her entire body with the Storm Hammer.

[You have killed Goblin.]x7

[You have gained 130 Soul Points.]x7

’Nice~’ Aiko smirked. This was a better plan than before, and she didn’t need to worry about reinforcements.

Aiko then looked at the big ugly. It was unfortunate that the smaller uglies didn’t come over this time, but handling this big guy was hard enough as it was, so she was actually a bit happy about it.

Aiko readied her hammer and waited. The ugly didn’t immediately approach her, but slowly circled her.

’It’s doing that again...’ Aiko narrowed her eyes. She didn’t know why they were doing that, but she matched the side of her body with the side of the ugly’s body.

This ensured that she was not caught off guard or anything...

*Ding*

”Hm?” Aiko tilted her head as a small arrow fell beside her.

’I see...’ Aiko clicked her tongue. It was a highly intelligent thing that made her turn her back against the walls, where archers were probably located now.

Fortunately, she had an armour on her body, making her immune to normal arrows and those uglies were not advanced enough to have any siege weaponry.

’Should I use a fireball?’ Aiko tilted her head. She could use it, and it would be a mess, but a glorious one!

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The large ugly frowned, seeing that the arrows didn’t do anything to her. It stomped towards her to smack her around for a bit, but Aiko slowly retreated.

She wanted to approach it calculatingly. Her reach was shorter, but she barely matched its blunt force. However, what if she had more HP? Would it make her more powerful?

*Clang!*

The answer was yes. This time they both took a step back, but Aiko was not sent flying like before.

She still couldn’t go head-on with it, since it was bigger and thus could use gravity better, but this was enough to tip the scales with her.

Readying her hammer, Aiko approached the ugly.

The ugly was enraged so it swung sideways to blast her closer to the walls, but Aiko barely ducked below it.

She could hear her helmet scraping against that damned bone club, but fortunately, it was not just sitting on her head, but also attached to her armour, so the force spread-out throughout her shoulders and back.

Aiko brandished her hammer, also swinging it sideways, where its side was now exposed.

*Boom*

The force was truly amazing as she sent that ugly flying away, clutching his side.

”Nice~” Aiko jumped happily. It was but a simple change, but that change allowed her to beat this guy.

Thinking about it again, she could use this when she was weaker before too, since the ugly’s arms were quick, but not its legs.

Now... Everyone should brace themselves as Aiko just learned about tactics...

...

[You have killed a Goblin Champion.]

[You have gained 260 Soul Points.]

”That’s... so little.” Aiko was disappointed that this battle only yielded so little, so she would have to finish raiding the villa-

[The Village is without Champion.]

[The Village only has Elite Goblins left and is in disarray.]

Aiko looked at the messages, then looked at her hand.

There, a gentle fire flickered.

*Swish*

Aiko threw that glorious little flame towards the village before raising her hands.

*BOOOM*

Fire ravaged through the village, burning everything in its path as Aiko celebrated the magnificent kindling.

[You have killed a Goblin.]x276

[You have gained 130 Soul Points.]x276

[You have killed an Elite Goblin.]x14

[You have gained 195 Soul Points.]x14

[Soul Points: 22,226 -> 60,836]

”Nice~” Aiko smirked happily. One village down... many more to go... ”Ugh...”

”Who is going to collect all the marbles...?” Aiko suddenly realised the severity of the situation and that she would have to collect them by hand!

...

Aiko pulled the caravan to the next village. This one was slightly bigger than the one before, and it seemed that the further the village was from the safe area, the bigger it would get.

’Now I will definitely need more weapons.’ Aiko nodded her head, but she would hold off on it. In her previous battles, she didn’t use her blessings or anything, meaning she was stronger than this.

The reason she didn’t use anything was to verify a few things and make sure she knew her limit.

Now that she learned that battles were not just about strength, but tactics too, she would try to get as far as she could with what she had.

This village had more watchtowers, making it more dangerous.

First, Aiko would snipe down all the goblins on those watch towers to prevent them from using bows.

Sure, that wouldn’t really help all that much if those goblins were replaced, but it would still whittle down their numbers slightly, which was all that she wanted.

After that, she would wait under her caravan until the uglies got here, before assaulting them again.

This would allow her to surprise attack them and wipe out the small uglies, while leaving the bigger ones behind.

Aiko waited for those uglies to get over to where she was and then turn around to leave.

At that point Aiko jumped out again and smacked the first ugly into a paste, before spinning around.

[You have killed Goblin.]x7

[You have gained 130 Soul Points.]x7

*Clang!*

”Hm?” Aiko blinked her eyes. She was able to wipe out most of them, but then her hammer stopped.

[Encountered new monster: Shield-wielding Elite Goblin.]

’Oh? Explanation?’ Aiko’s eyes sparkled.

[Description: This goblin is slow, but its body is sturdy, making it into a perfect tank. While the materials are crude, it’s more than enough to stop most of the blunt weapons.]

And that was right, Aiko’s hammer was completely stopped by that elite, much less the champion, so she would have to change strategy.

”Run away~” Aiko giggled as she ran away. The goblins left behind used small darts, but those wouldn’t be able to pierce her armour and the rest were too slow to follow.

As such, Aiko successfully escaped and returned to the safe area through the quick recall.

Sitting in her armour, she quickly changed her clothes to what she was used to.

’Maybe I should get different equipment?’ Aiko didn’t like swords, but maybe magic would suffice?

’Let’s visit the library.’ Aiko nodded her head. If she increased her arsenal, it would surely help her!

...

”Fist techniques, no...’ Aiko was going through the library. This library had more Cultivation Manuals than anything else, making finding things really hard.

”Ah, here. The Gate of Capital B.” Aiko nodded her head, but...

[Each cast requires 100 Mana.]

It was a large-scale spell, but she didn’t have Mana to sustain it.

”I should change clothes.” Aiko narrowed her eyes. She played a tank, so she was sturdy against attack. She played a delinquent, so her impact was increased.

Maybe if she played a Mage, she would be able to reduce the Mana cost or increase the scale of the spells, making things easier.

”No, maybe it WANTS me to experiment?” Aiko tilted her head. The system would answer at times, but this time it was silent, so Aiko had to figure out what it actually wanted from her.

”So I will have to test swordsmanship and other things too, huh?” Aiko tilted her head. She was not too keen about that, so how about she tested the magic part first?

She collected a lot of those marbles, so she could increase her Level. However, she was keener on exchanging it for outfits or spells if possible.

There were special outfits that she could only buy for marbles, and while these were not specialised marbles, meaning it would cost her more, it was still better than trying to tackle the whole thing head on!

With that in mind, Aiko looked around the library once again to pick a few books with spells that would help her bots control and wipe out her enemies.

Mages were weak, like glass-cannons that she was used to, so she had to make sure that her enemies wouldn’t be able to get close to her!