Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko exchanged a few words with her group before resuming her research and repairs.

It was impossible for her to recover her Moonlight Essence, so it was required that Moon Aiko wanted to go forward.

That way, Aiko would be able to minimise the consumption, allowing her to use Moon Aiko for longer.

Moon Aiko was pretty much essential when it came to repairs since Nightmare Aiko would not be able to work around day and night...

...

’There are four tables connected. One is for man-made objects. Another is for man-made buildings. The next one is for Herbs. The last one I was unable to recover, for the time being...’ Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes.

The connection was quite simple, you connect two tables together and where their Inscriptions join, you have to place a special Inscription Marble.

That Inscription Marble allows the Inscriptions to connect together, allowing those tables to merge and add functions.

[Herb Seeking Function is operating at 30% capacity.]

Aiko paused as her system notified her how efficient the different systems were.

What was most troublesome for Aiko... she had to test all the Inscription Marbles and Table Maps, so she could figure out which combination would give her the best benefit.

Mixing and matching was quite exhausting since it contained a lot of variables.

There were also only 3 Table Maps that were in perfect conditions. The others were either mildly damaged or bricked.

The bricked ones could not be repaired by Aiko, since she would have to create the concealing part of the Inscription, which was impossible at her current level.

At best, she would be able to patch those holes, but even those patchworks would not last forever.

Aiko groaned unhappily as she realised that the Table Maps were few and far between.

Now don’t get her wrong, there were around 30 Table Maps present, but from those only 3 were perfect and 12 serviceable. She was still missing the Inscription Marbles and other parts, but fortunately the rest 15 unusable Table Maps and could be scrapped for parts.

Aiko nodded gently as the Herb Table Map lit up.

[Herb Seeking Function is operating at 89% capacity.]

[Fourth Table Map, fully functioning at 15% capacity.]

[You are able to use the Lifeform Seeking Function.]

Building Seeking Function. Treasure Seeking Function. Herb Seeking Function. Lifeform Seeking Function. General Seeking Function.

These tables combined would allow Aiko to see and perceive the world through the main table. Of course, the other 4 tables were extensions of the main table, but the accuracy would depend on their capacity.

Aiko had a limited number of Inscription Marbles with high-capacity transfer. She had to choose which one she should perfect.

’I will ask the Demonic Saintess about this since it feels like she is looking forward to this...’ Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes and turned around.

She almost jumped out of her skin when she saw a pile of Foxes looking over her, completely shocked and flabbergasted.

’Since when...?!’ Aiko was completely unaware of their presence.

How long were they watching her? Could it be long? But that would be boring, right?

Aiko was quite tired, so she didn’t want to deal with the incoming tsunami of Foxes and just called out the Demonic Saintess directly.

”I can only increase the accuracy of one table and the others will have their efficiency lowered, you should pick which one I should do.” Aiko didn’t want to add more tables, since they were already a big headache.

With more tables would come more calculations, and even Moon Aiko didn’t want to deal with that!

Aiko explained the tables and what they did to the Demonic Saintess.

Naturally, all Demonic Foxes had incredibly sparkling eyes, like they just met a goddess.

”Sheesh, Saintess! You should’ve given her that Technique!”

”Right, right? She is too pretty. We need to hide her!”

”Why are you hogging her all to yourself?!”

”We want to spend time with her too!”

The Demonic Foxes pushed each other around in order to get closer to Aiko.

The Demonic Saintess was speechless at their antics, this had not happened in centuries, yet they were now adamant in sharing her?!

”Enough!” The Demonic Saintess pushed all the Foxes back.

”You all know that if we can get a fully functional Table Map, our enemies will be hopeless, yet you want to indulge yourself with our guests?!” The Demonic Saintess was incredibly angry with them.

”But we didn’t have any new stories in centuries!”

”We want to rest, too!”

”Stories, stories!”

The Demonic Foxes whined like they were normal casual Foxes.

Aiko didn’t really think about it deeply, but this Sacred Realm was very special.

The Demonic Foxes were not affected by the voices, but that begged the question.

What were the voices?

”Enough!” The Demonic Foxes tied up everyone with her Divine Sense and shoved them into a corner of the room.

”Saintess is a bully!”

”Saint is a lot gentler with us!”

”We want a new Saintess!”

”Petition for the cute guest to become the new Saintess!”

”I agree!”

”Likewise.”

”Gosh...” The Demonic Saintess was shocked at how big of a tantrum they were throwing. She believed that it would pass after watching Aiko work, but that was not the case.

Not only did their fever increase, but it was now close to obsession.

Moreover, the silver-haired Aiko’s gentle nature really played on their heartstrings, making them more likely to indulge Aiko...

”You get to spend time with her once the war is over!” The Demonic Saintess declared, and everyone suddenly settled down with a serious expression.

”We should do this quickly.”

”We definitely should.”

”Let’s bring out the big weapons.”

”The BFW, right?”

The Demonic Foxes smiled as their eyes shone in red colour.

Moon Aiko didn’t know what to do since she was too tired to deal with anything like that.

She simply chose to sneak out while the Demonic Saintess kept dealing with them...

...

The next day, there was a suspicious rise in Demonic Foxes surrounding her.

They didn’t really affect her day-to-day life, but it was quite burdensome how they gazed at her with sparkling eyes.

Aiko dressed up and arrived at the main hall.

”Slept well...” The Demonic Saintess pouted slightly, but it was not like she could reprimand Aiko.

It was her fault that her group went out of the line, which caused this whole mess to begin with.

There were now around 500 Demonic Foxes, not including those that came with Aiko.

”En...” Aiko didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. There was just too much attention on her.

”Can we discuss our deal?” The Demonic Saintess smiled.

”En.” Aiko yawned slightly. She didn’t think that deal would be that interesting.

Moreover, neither her [Demonic Linguistics] nor [Arts Mastery] progressed, so she didn’t really want to keep servicing the Table Maps.

”We will support you to the best of our abilities for the 5 years that you will spend here.” The Demonic Saintess started with something natural and then kept going and going.

Spirit Stones, Treasures, entertainment, you name it, and she said it.

These didn’t appeal too much to Aiko. Spirit Stones could be earned from her business. Treasures- Well, fine... that one was captivating, but entertainment, and others really weren’t...

”Are there any interesting locations in this Sacred Realm?” Aiko proposed a counteroffer.

She would have to spend a lot of time, even with her Table Map, to map everything, but they lived here, so they should be able to tell her where some of the interesting locations were.

”There are plenty of interesting locations, but most are forbidden...” The Demonic Saintess paused as her Demonic Foxes were looking at her.

Pretty much all of their eyes were screaming at her, ”We will guide her! We will guide her!”...

The Demonic Saintess was concerned since the last time they were this enthusiastic was when they escaped into this place...

”Ah, and also, if there was a Blood Fox or...” Aiko described her team and a certain Black Panther so that they wouldn’t be captured or accidentally killed.

Aiko already understood how powerful these Demonic Foxes were, so it would be difficult to help her team survive without doing this.

”That is fine. Should we actively look for them?” The Demonic Saintess was very interested in Aiko’s immediate team. All of them sounded abnormal, which piqued her interest.

’Just how abnormal would they be compared to Aiko...?’ The Demonic Saintess was really curious.

”Okay, let’s do it like this. I will teach you a few techniques found in this Sacred Realm. They will help you hide and allow you to survive here better. Meanwhile, you will service the Table Maps and help operate them until we understand them enough that we won’t need you.” The Demonic Saintess kept going. ”Afterwards, we would create a squad who would help you explore the forbidden regions and other parts of this place.”

That was a losing deal for Aiko, but since she was not really interested in things that the Demonic Saintess proposed, it couldn’t be helped...

”That sounds somewhat fine to me, but I want to have plenty of rest. I constantly feel tired after working on Inscriptions so much...” Aiko yawned once again.

”That is fine by us. We still need to create squads and other things, so you can go for now and rest well.” The Demonic Saintess smiled as Aiko left the room.

”Can we keep her?”

”We definitely should keep her?”

”But does she want to keep us...?”

”””Hmmmmmmmmmm...”””

The Demonic Saintess’s lips twitched. Her own group completely ignored her presence, and they happily chatted between them.

”I’m still here, you lot...” The Demonic Saintess was speechless. She became less than air to them!

”””Yes, we know.”””

The Demonic Foxes were a shameless bunch since they learned from their leader.

”And you should stop nodding too or we will go for another round of pegging!” The Demonic Saintess threatened her overenthusiastic hubby.

”Just not that!” The Demonic Saint cried out as he crawled away from the demon called wifey...