Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko boarded the ship with the others. She looked at the strangely grinning Elders and tilted her head, she couldn’t understand them. It would be better if they didn’t look so creepy.

Aiko moved to their abode inside the ship, but she was bored and soon there would be night, yet they were forbidden to cook with fire for the duration of the flight, Aiko didn’t understand why since on the way here they could.

”What are you thinking about?” Mei asked with a small smile.

”I’m bored...” Aiko commented weakly.

”Why not go outside and enjoy the moons?” Mei giggled.

”Eh... might as well.” Aiko agreed that that was better than doing nothing. ’I can also try the new Abilities.’ Aiko smiled and left the abode.

She walked onto the deck and stared around, most Foxes were already in their places doing... things. So it was peaceful on the deck... somewhat.

”It’s getting colder, heat up.” The Glacial Fox smirked at the Blazing Fox.

”Fuck!” The Blazing Fox was freezing because it was night and he didn’t have the help of the sun to keep the temperature going as high.

The Glacial Fox giggled. ”What’s wrong~?” She was teasing the Blazing Fox.

Then they noticed a stare and turned towards it.

”Hey~” The Glacial Fox was always in a good mood during the night since she could torture the Blazing Fox.

”Hello.” Aiko walked towards them. ”What are you doing?” Aiko asked curiously, she always saw them ’fight’ like this, but she never understood why.

”We are training.” The Glacial Fox said cheerfully.

”Ugh... speak for yourself.” The Blazing Fox looked tired and almost half-dead.

Aiko stared at them curiously, wondering if they would do this the whole time until they arrived at the Village.

Aiko sat next to them, looking blankly forward. She was looking through her Abilities and [Moon’s Eyes] attracted most of her attention.

She activated it, but she passed out almost immediately.

’My head hurts, it’s so much information...’ The [Moon’s Eyes] is an Auxiliary Ability that allows the User to observe his surroundings in great detail while slowing down the perceived time.

’It’s too much and it cost 1 Moonlight Qi each second...’ Aiko had it activated for 3 seconds.

’Let’s not use the [Moon’s Crust] on the ship, I do not know if it would gauge the ship to protect me or if it would simply create a barrier.’ Aiko nodded. ’[Lunar Bath] is the safest option so let’s go with that~.’

Aiko stared at it, understanding what she had to do, it was similar to [Meditation].

Aiko relaxed, closed her eyes and used the [Lunar Bath].

...

The surroundings dimmed, startling the Blazing Fox and Glacial Fox. They looked around anxiously only to spot Aiko who was hogging all the moonlight for herself. It was not enough to make it pitch black, but it visibly dimmed.

Like this an hour passed. Those two Foxes no longer fought as they were curious about what was happening with the Vicious Cub.

Aiko opened her eyes and checked her system.

[Beast Cores(50%): 1,100 -> 1,101 (33,131)]

[Moonlight Qi: 1,000 -> 997 -> 998]

’One...’ Aiko wanted to cry, all that meditation gave her just a single piece of Moonlight Qi and Beast Core Energy.

’What am I going to do...’ It took her 3 seconds to fully activate the [Moon’s Eyes], but it would take 3 hours to recover all that energy!

Aiko felt a headache incoming, but maybe once she levelled up the [Lunar Bath] it would improve? Aiko hoped for that and went to meditate again.

...

Like this 2 weeks passed by.

[Lunar Bath: Lv.1 -> Lv.4]

She recovered... a bit.

[Beast Cores(50%): 1,101 -> 1,423 (33,453)]

[Moonlight Qi: 998 -> 1,320]

But what was more important was...

[Happy Birthday!]

[You are now 1 year old!]

[Please choose a gift:]

[1. Meat - 100]

[2. Skill - Sleeping]

[3. Stat and Skill Points - 100]

[4. Surprise - Surprise]

Aiko stared at the system, thinking about what she should pick. Meat was great for levelling up, that Skill seemed...

[Sleeping]

[You can enter a pseudo-sleeping state, you can still meditate or have your Abilities activated at a moment’s notice.]

Pretty good. Very good!

The stat points with the skill points were too little to matter currently and the Surprise was... questionable knowing the system. It had terrible naming and titling scheme and timings, no way that the last one would be any good.

Aiko took her hand ready to click on the [Sleeping] skill after checking that it can’t be purchased from the stores.

*Rumble*

*Shuffle*

*Crash*

Something crashed into the ship and Aiko’s hand slipped on the 4th option, enraging her, but she didn’t have time to think about it as there was danger coming from her left.

*Poof*

She immediately turned into a Fox and [Quick Double Jump]ed away from there.

A... fish? Crashed into the place where Aiko was. It was a very long and sharp nose and it drilled into the ship.

The Elders and fighters rushed onto the deck as Aiko was using her [Lacerate] and [Crushing Bite] on the fish.

The Elders didn’t join the fight and let the other combatants deal with the flying fish, they had much more important things to attend to and that was finding what was happening or why it was happening.

Aiko kept jumping, this was a nice fight for her as her Skills and Abilities rose sharply from the dangerous combat.

Her senses screamed at her whenever she would look at the flying fish and that meant that they were dangerous and could penetrate her defences, which was obvious since those fishes could easily drill into the flying ship that was densely Inscribed with Runes.

”Found it!” Lightbulb Elder yelled at the others attracting their attention.

It was a nearby lake that produced a whirlpool that launched fish high into the sky.

”I don’t know the source so let’s steer clear of it for the time being and let the combatants gain experience.” Inky Head Elder said slowly. They would protect the most important parts of the ship while letting the youngsters experience the world, it was definitely not because they were too lazy, definitely not!

Aiko spends two hours weaving between the fish and biting/slicing them to death.

What was more, she was able to gain a bit of experience when killing them for some reason. Were they considered special or...?

Aiko shook those pointless thoughts and finished the fight cleanly.

Everyone was looking at her strangely and Aiko tilted her head.

”What?” She spat at them and noticed that all of them were in Human form, while she was the only one in her Fox form.

”We are supposed to fight them in our Human form to get used to it.” One girl murmured, she didn’t really want to say that, but she also saw that nobody wanted to answer the Vicious Cub.

What if they anger her? Death with a stick! So she took it upon herself to tell the Vicious Cub gently.

”Tell too bad, since I’m not gonna do that. You might enjoy the feeling of misery and pain, but I don’t.” Aiko spat at them again.

She stared at the haggard and injured Foxes and called them names in her mind. ’Seriously how fucking stupid do you have to be to like pain and suffering?!’ Aiko shook her head.

She switched her forms and gathered all the sliced and bitten fish. It was easy to find as she had the smallest mouth and everyone else didn’t use their mouths.

’I don’t understand, why can’t they just bite them.’ Aiko frowned, Fox’s jaws might not be the most powerful, but they can easily crush some useless fish.

Aiko snorted disdainfully at them for not using their teeth.

The Foxes exchanged looks but didn’t say anything. They already were aware that the Passion Fox stuck to the Vicious Cub. If they anger the Vicious Cub, not only would the Jade Fox move, but also the Passion Fox. This would be deadly to anyone as their crushes would not be after their bodies but after their lives.

Aiko collected all the fish that were bitten by the tiniest teeth and moved to the abode.

Mei was still Refining Pills, completely oblivious to her surroundings.

Aiko frowned towards the defenceless mean Fox but didn’t do anything. She checked her system for her harvest...

[Level: 80 -> 95]

[Lunar Enhancement: Lv.1->2]

[Agility Mastery: Lv.4->6]

[Universal Recovery: Lv.1->2]

[Lacerate: Lv.3->8]

[Quick Double Jump: Lv.5->Mastered]

[Enhanced Mind: Lv.3->4]

[Assassin Mastery: Lv.1->3]

Aiko liked this loot and waited for Mei to finish. They would cook meat and she doesn’t care about others’ opinions!

...

Mei finished and bottled additional Pills into the special bottles and breathed out tiredly.

She turned around only to spot Aiko staring at her.

”What’s wrong?” She gently petted Aiko’s hair.

”I want to eat meat, I got there from the fight earlier.” Aiko pulls out the strange fish.

”Sword Fishes, huh...” Mei blinked several times, those were rare and very beneficial for Sword Cultivators in order for them to sharpen their inner blades.

She stared at the little glutton speechlessly. ”Fight?”

”Yeah, they were flying in the air and now I’m hungry!” Aiko patted her stomach.

*Growl*

”See? It agrees with me.” Aiko shamelessly ignored Mei’s strange stare, when Mei heard her stomach rumble.

”We can’t cook here.” Mei said gently.

”Now we can.” Aiko crossed her arms. ”And we will.”

Mei laughed. ”Fine, since you did well and were not injured I will cook up something for you.

...

*Knock*

Aiko opened the door and the smell of roasted meat escaped.

”What is it?” She stared at the Sect Leader who visited them.

”Cooking is prohibited and someone told you weren’t fighting in your Human form.” The Sect Elder narrowed her eyes.

Aiko let her inside. It would be better to kick this nuisance onto Mei for her to deal with. She wouldn’t do anything, but eat currently. She is too hungry to think or bicker with useless people.

The Sect Leader followed Aiko inside. She was puzzled why she was let in, but noticing that the little Vicious Cub pushed her onto the Jade Fox she giggled.

”Jade Fox.” The Sect Leader smiled.

”Sect Leader.” Mei nodded.

”Cooking is banned for the flight.” The Sect Leader planned to reprimand them and then take Jade Fox for some ’education’, but...

”I heard you were trying to force Aiko to fight in human form when she is still a Cub.” Mei narrowed her eyes and let out some of her pressure.

”W-well.” The Sect Leader was intimidated, while she would be able to subdue the Jade Fox, she would also lose the ability to get Pills from her, which she couldn’t afford.

”But clean it soon, the other Foxes are being a nuisance.” The Sect Leader lamented, staring at the Jade Fox.

”We will finish soon.” Mei nodded, but the Sect Leader didn’t move.

”What?” The Sect Leader said innocently. ”I’m already here so I might as well eat some meat~” She hummed shamelessly while gulping down her saliva.

”You can’t! That’s is my meat!” Aiko growled at the Sect Leader surprising both of them.

”But I’m the Sect Le-” The Sect Leader tried to use her position, but...

”I don’t care! My meat!” Aiko stood her ground.