Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko approached the ugly. It was clearly panicking, but it never looked at her directly.

It seemed like it was only vaguely aware of her presence and not her direct location. Probably cast the rain to make it easier to spot her too, but it backfired since it rained too much and created puddles.

’No, maybe the puddles were part of its plans, but since I don’t make splashes...’ Aiko nodded her head seriously. It was impressive that it was able to come up with such a tactic, but her set rendered it meaningless.

Aiko looked around, the other uglies were surrounding it, but they were weak as most of the special uglies were still sleeping.

The special uglies also ignored this ugly, for some reason.

’Is it perhaps because it’s small?’ Aiko felt offended, but it also made sense.

The more powerful this ’race’ became the larger they would look. Elite was smaller than Champion and Champion was smaller than Chieftain. It was an iron rule that wouldn’t change, probably.

Aiko looked around once more. There were no special uglies, so she approached the small ugly.

It noticed her.

Aiko was about 5 metres away from it and their eyes met.

’Hmmmm...’ Aiko pondered on how that was possible, but it might have to do something with that gentle shine?

Aiko noticed that the other uglies also noticed her, but they had to be 2 metres from her.

She sliced their necks immediately and finished the ugly that was able to spot her.

[You have killed a Goblin.]x7

[You have gained 130 Soul Points.]x7

[You have killed a Goblin Shaman.]

[You have gained 1,200 Soul Points.]

”Hm?” Aiko blinked her eyes. How much did that guy give her?! How was that possible?

’Maybe it’s because it uses magic? I never saw these things use magic...’ Aiko nodded her head slowly. It was possible that it was because of magic, since these guys were purely physical oriented.

’Anyway...’ Aiko narrowed her eyes as she quickly left the village.

It seemed like the ugly would spot her the moment she entered the village, and it took some time to cast the rain over the village. This way they would be able to quickly find her and dispose of her.

’But what if there were multiple of them?’ Aiko was not sure how that would work. Would everything shorten? It was possible.

Arriving at the place where she came from, she picked up her stuff before recalling.

She could stay for one day without food easily, but there was no need to stick around since the village would be on high alert.

’Do other villages also have one, or does the number increase with distance? How about with the number of uglies?’ Aiko had several questions, but for now she would just sleep at her home for a few days to clear the stars above her hea- Wait, wrong system- the eye-icon above her head.

It seemed like when she killed that ugly, it left some mark on her and Aiko didn’t want to stick around to figure out what it was...

...

”Mmm...” Aiko murmured from her sleep as she slowly woke up.

This time she was not wrapped by that Spirit Slime, but it still was inside her room sprawled on the ground.

Aiko observed it for a while, poking it gently with her finger while kicking her legs high above her body.

The Spirit Slime squirmed back before nudging softly back at her finger.

Aiko played with it for a while before sitting on the edge of the bed, placing her feet onto that cool slime.

’It’s not as bad as before...’ Aiko narrowed her eyes. It seemed like her Spirit Slime was hungry again, or was it?

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’How can I tell if it’s hungry or not?’ Aiko didn’t see any kind of system while looking at the Spirit Slime. Moreover, it also couldn’t talk, so it was a bit weird trying to assume things.

’Anyway.’ Aiko stood up, dressing up as the [Spatial Mage Set].

She departed immediately since she didn’t need to wait around.

The Spirit Slime seemed a bit sad, but it stuck around her room to enjoy the pleasant scent...

...

Aiko arrived at her destination. The familiar forest. The mark above her was cleared, probably from her sleep or waiting.

’It did appear after I killed the ugly, but what if I do it from a distance?’ It was time for Aiko to find another ugly!’

Changing her set to the [Barbaric Nightingale Set]. She blinked her eyes to change the time of the day.

It was night, so she could sneak into the village.

’Now, let’s wait if it will rain...’ Aiko would wait and if it rained, there would be another ugly that she could kill.

She loaded the small crossbow on her forearm. It was quite the cute contraption, but setting it up took some time.

Or rather, it was supposed to be preloaded and then Aiko would pull a small string, making it shoot, but she never bothered loading anything before.

*splatter**splatter*

Soon, droplets fell on her and around her.

’There is another~’ Aiko hummed happily. If she could kill just those shamans, then everything would be a lot easier!

However, finding that fucker was harder than she expected.

Aiko tried to take a vantage point on one of those towers, but then things were a bit blurry for some reason, and she was unable to identify anyone.

’Is that another magic?’ Aiko seemed interested in this, but not enough to browse the library.

Jumping down from the lookout tower, she quickly ran between the fragile houses, trying to tire out the guy who was able to find her. It worked previously, so she hoped it would work this time.

However, no matter how much she ran, there was no sight of it.

’So it was luck after all, huh?’ Aiko shook her head. However, then she heard strange noises.

*tak tak tak tak tak*

It was a strange noise of several individuals running through the rain.

Aiko jumped on a nearby roof to see if she could spot it and she was able to.

It was a familiar ugly, but this time it was riding a throne and the normal uglies were carrying it.

Whenever an ugly fell down due to exhaustion, another quickly replaced it.

’How fascinating...’ Aiko didn’t think that ugly would be so smart, but she was proven incorrect!

Aiko extended her arm, trying to aim to shoot the ugly with her small crossbow. It should have enough range to hit it, but she might have to adjust her aim later.

*Click*

An audible click from the mechanism could be heard to her ears, and something shot out of her forearm ’guard’.

*Gack*

[You have killed a Goblin.]

[You have gained 130 Soul Points.]

A strange noise as an ugly fell over. As this was unexpected, the whole moving throne tilted and crashed.

’It aims lower than I think...’ Aiko reloaded her shot, not hurrying at all. The distance was about 20 metres away and the crossbow was powerful enough to be able to hit it.

’Okay.’ Aiko nodded her head slowly as she aimed again. This time is higher than before.

*Click*

*Gack*

[You have killed a Goblin.]

[You have gained 130 Soul Points.]

Another audible click, another normal goblin dead.

’Is it the wind?’ Aiko didn’t think so, maybe the mechanism was supposed to be used on much shorter ranges which threw Aiko off.

’I should’ve brought a bow...’ Aiko clicked her tongue before reloading and aiming again.

*Click*

*Gack*

[You have killed a Goblin Shaman.]

[You have gained 1,200 Soul Points.]

’Finally.’ Aiko breathed a sigh of relief, but it was really hard to aim this thing over long distances.

However, this also proved her theory.

’There is no eye above me.’ Aiko nodded her head. As long as it was over 20 metres away, she would be able to get away with this, but...

’I need to bring more weapons.’ This would weigh her down, but it was better than aiming several times and trying to kill it with something that was not as accurate as she expected.

With that, Aiko left the village once again. However, this time, the rain cleared up faster than before.

’Is it because I was not discovered?’ It was a plausible assumption, so Aiko would test it once again before just quickly grinding the necessary money.

...

[You have killed a Goblin Shaman.]

[You have gained 1,200 Soul Points.]

The rain cleared even quicker than before.

’The greater distance, the greater the effect.’ Aiko assumed that since she was so far away, the ugly didn’t expect it, so the magic was interrupted that much quickly.

’This is nice to know.’ Aiko smiled. Her tests were over, and it was time to grind it out~!

...

[Soul Points: 195 -> 4,055 -> 50,855]

’This took a while, I should’ve killed the normal goblins too...’ Aiko didn’t like how much time it took, but it couldn’t be helped.

She thought that it would be quicker just to kill those shaman uglies, but that was not the case. While shamans were more precious when it came to Soul Points, they were also that much harder to find.

It would be a lot easier if she just farmed normally, but she was greedy. She didn’t want to farm over 200+ normal uglies and wanted to get it done quickly, but that quickness was the thing that slowed her down.

’Well, I will do better next time.’ Aiko nodded her head gently as she left the village, it was time to buy the thing and test the limits next~!

...

Arriving at the library, she quickly picked the [Transportation Magic]. It was supporting magic, but also standalone magic.

The supporting part was for teleportation, which allowed her to transport items over long distances, but it also had a standalone effect. That effect being similar to levitation. It allowed her to move the items without touching them over short distances!

This was a great boon, since those boxes were different in size and Aiko was not sure how she was supposed to mark them for ’transportation’. However, now everything made sense!

She was supposed to first levitate those things and then use teleport to make it work, and her quick test proved it~!

’But gosh, 500 Mana...’ Aiko scrunched her face, it was good that she could move things around now, but the cost was pretty severe...