Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Moon Aiko finished the tea with Danji.

There were no more questions asked, but the atmosphere was far from awkward, Moon Aiko quite enjoyed it.

With her tea time finished, she now could look over the continental flying ship again. Sure, Mei permitted her to cause some trouble here and there, but Moon Aiko was not yet ready for it, rather she was more curious about the ship than anything else.

”We have adjusted the rooms. They might be smaller than usual, but there should be enough room even if the ejection function fails.” Danji showed Aiko a few types of rooms that the Foxes would be using.

All of them had bunk beds, but there were some experimental versions here and there.

One experimental version had individual beds and the drawers and dressers were above the bed. This, however, left less room to sit down and do other things.

”We couldn’t figure out which design to go with, so we set up small rooms outside this place to test everything. What you are seeing right now is the experimental versions so that we can see how well it will mash with the other Inscriptions and Arrays.” Danji explained as Moon Aiko looked through them.

The most common room was the bunk bed one.

When you entered the room, there would be drawers on each site. Those were used by both the lower and upper bed as it was facing towards the bed instead towards the room.

Then you had the bunk bed or beds. There were usually 2 of them, but few of them had 4.

Those with just two, had a nicely decorated dresser after the bed and then there would be a large ’window’ showing the outside.

During the sea journey, it won’t be used as much, not just to not disturb the space, but also because the endless ocean can be quite boring.

”We have made a few ’windows’. This one could not compare to the ’windows’ commonly used on continental flying ships. Not only is the upkeep cheaper, but since it’s directly made into the wall, it doesn’t require any maintenance as long as the Foxes inside don’t damage it.” Danji explained things where White Aiko lingered the most. She was pretty predictable, so Danji didn’t have any trouble following her.

The room with 4 bunk beds were like this:

You had the drawers facing the bed, then the bunk bed. Then you had the dresser and dresser and- You get the idea.

It was much deeper, usually used in the middle of the ship where room was more spacious than what they could in theory use.

They also couldn’t use it as storage, since it would require more support beams, which would reduce the space too much and thus making it not worth the time or effort.

With expanded rooms like this, the Foxes that were still rehabilitating could pick rooms with their friends, making them less anxious overall. That was another reason why these were made.

Moon Aiko listened intently. The furniture had to be limited, just in case the rooms had to be mushed without the expansion Array. There would still be enough room for one person to walk out, so if the Foxes lined up one after another, there would be no issues.

”I noticed quite a few defensive Arrays and Inscriptions outside.” Moon Aiko nudged the conversation where she saw fit. She wanted to learn more about this place.

”En. Due to the sheer size of this thing, it would be impossible to dodge the ocean torrents, and thus it was decided to use more of it for defences.” Danji gestured at some of the inner side of the outer shell. Even the inner side was reinforced to be able to bear the brunt of the attack.

”You mean space?” Moon Aiko nodded her head. With a bigger hull, you could do more things, but most of them would then be limited to more defences, since you painted a bigger target on your back.

”I wonder if someone can even shoot this thing down.” Moon Aiko didn’t believe it. This thing was huge and carried so many Inscriptions and Arrays that it even made her dizzy!

”The ocean should not be underestimated.” Danji sternly warned Aiko, since she heard some stories from her parents.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

”I know.” Moon Aiko didn’t know, but at the same time it wouldn’t make sense that they would reinforce it so much if the ocean was weak, so she somewhat understood.

Moon Aiko was able to decipher all of the Inscriptions and some of the Arrays. How much would she be able to recreate? About 30%.

’The sheer scale of things makes it very difficult.’ Moon Aiko was not used to making things on this scale. She was much more minimalistic, for example, the dildos.

As such, she had very little to no experience in this and couldn’t recreate this all that much.

However, if she was tasked to only recreate small parts, then she would have about an 80% chance to do it.

Why not 100%? There were some Inscriptions that didn’t make sense to her, so her brain was unable to process them.

’Let’s ask him later.’ Moon Aiko would later ask the Chicken Feet- *Cough* Chen Shi for these, but it seems like they would require a lot more Qi than she could muster.

”This is the Levitation Stone room. It’s mostly used to secure the Levitation Stone so that it can be later used for flight.” Danji didn’t know much about how it was used, so she would later have to learn more about it.

The Levitation Room was mostly empty, but there were many Arrays and Inscriptions.

The Arrays were mostly used for protection against vibration and impact from the outside, while Inscriptions were used to reinforce the room and attach it to the chains that would hold the Floating Stone from... well, you know, from floating away.

The attachment was kind of like ring between rings, it was to ensure you could tilt the Floating Stone into any direction you wished without being impeded.

Those rings would then be attached to the chains, which would be attached to the floor, ceiling and walls.

This was pretty much an overkill in Aiko’s eyes, but she also understood that if something went wrong, there were many fail saves protecting it from complete failure.

”We have used the standard way to attach the Floating Stones, but we had to get more creative when it came to the flights.” Danji explained while trying to gesture what would happen, but pretty much:

The Floating Stones would be connected by Inscription Array so that they would move at the same time into the same direction. This was pretty much a new job for the ’captain’. One person would tilt the main Floating Stone, making the other Floating Stones also tilt, and the others would only apply the repulsive force, making the continental flying ship move towards the desired direction.

It had some issues that they were trying to fix, but so far everything was progressing smoothly.

”This is the steering room. It tilts and twists the continental flying ship into a direction that is appropriate for flight. This is adjusted by the second captain and others that would follow them. We don’t require as many of them as for flight, but we still need quite a few Elders to take these jobs.” Danji sighed.

”Do we even have enough Elders?” Moon Aiko raised her eyebrow.

”Obviously not. We are barely scraping by with what we have currently.” Danji shook her head. ”And to make matters worse, we can’t use the normal Foxes, because they don’t have any experience- And before you ask, no, we can’t teach them this. It would require years just to synchronise with others and even more years to learn how to apply everything properly.” She denied any questions about teaching others this since it was simply not realistic with their schedule.

”Will you be alright then? Isn’t the ocean dangerous?” Moon Aiko believed that in this case, speed would be essential, but as she didn’t know much about this, it was just her belief.

”That’s why we have reinforced the continental flying ship as much as we could. At worst, we should only lose the cargo that we would carry, but no lives would be lost.” Danji chuckled. Everyone made sure that the rooms were far away from the hull and well protected, so nothing to the Foxes that would ’live’ inside those rooms would happen.

”The scale is enormous.” Moon Aiko sighed.

”It’s kind of hard to understand, right?” Danji had also issues- No, pretty much everyone had issues and there were many revisions just to make the outer hull work.

The supporting beams and skeleton was also difficult, so much so that they had to use actual metal for it and not just wood.

”I think this will turn into a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.” Danji smiled.

”I think this will only turn into a prototype that we will expand upon later.” Moon Aiko was a bit pessimistic, perhaps because she couldn’t understand some Arrays.

”Rune Saint said the same thing.” Danji tilted her head. She found it fascinating, the geniuses.

”Ugh.” Moon Aiko groaned. It didn’t feel good to be on the same side as Chen Shi. Well, she didn’t have anything against him... probably?

’Am I still upset that they didn’t lock the doors?’ Moon Aiko thought that might be a possibility, since she was always checking her own doors if they were locked.

’Was I really that scarred?’ Moon Aiko was speechless.

”He also made the same expression.” Danji only teased Aiko, since she was trying to lighten the mood.

”That makes it even worse.” Moon Aiko groaned, but she also understood that Danji was not talking the whole truth, so it was possible she was just teasing her.

”So, what about the mesh?” Moon Aiko turned towards the inner part of the outer shell.

”It’s currently being made, but since we lost a few Forging Foxes, we are pretty slow on this part.” Danji shook her head.

”The other Beasts?” Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes. There was no way that they didn’t try to help.

”As this is our personal and confidential creation, we can’t ask others for help.” Danji shook her head. It was simply impossible to invite them since it could introduce weak points or even sabotaged places.

”Huge builds are a pain in the ass.” Moon Aiko shook her head. She was reconsidering building anything too big. This scale was still on the smaller side, yet it overwhelmed Aiko.

And the amount of things you had to keep track of and adjust.

’Madman, all of them.’ Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously. Maybe it was time to leave for the last Clan and stop thinking about this place...?