Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Everyone went to rest for the day.

The next day everyone was quite happy and very healthy, all thanks to the Array and the numerous benefits that Mei brought along.

The Foxes were quick with their hands, packing everything so that everyone would be able to move again. It was better to move together because the Earthen Elephant Clans ground was quite dangerous.

And while Aiko did damage if not destroy the Natural Formation, that didn’t mean there were no other dangers and traps scattered around.

And since the illusion also vanished, there might be Beasts that would approach this place. As such it was important to be quick on the feet, to rob this place and to leave this place.

There was not much to rob, but most of the parts of the Natural Formation could still be reused for Treasures or something similar and that was good enough.

As for the rocks, you could find plenty of them outside this place, so there was no need to take them too.

Witch Aiko went ahead with the Twins to scout the location, while Mei and Danji advised the Foxes and Demonic Foxes respectively to not leave any clues behind.

While it was impossible to conceal all the tracks, it was fine as long as at least most of them were gone. That way only some Beasts would be able to follow them.

You see, due to the fall of the two Clans, the Beasts became more interested in this place and since there was not as big of an opposition as before, they grew more bold over time.

Of course those Beasts might not encounter our Foxes, but there was a danger that they might and that was enough for them to conceal the tracks and leave this place.

The most important part was to resume building the continental flying ship. Unfortunately the Southern Sect disappeared, maybe they predicted the situation or not, but they were nowhere to be seen...

...

Witch Aiko arrived at the ruined place again, but this time used her [Spiritual Insight] and Table Map to find anything they might’ve missed.

Due to the Natural Formation no longer working, any disturbances in space disappeared and thus the Table Map was usable. Normally the Table Map was able to map out pretty much anything, but now it seemed that there are even more places that it would not be able to map out for the time being.

Witch Aiko also didn’t have enough materials nor patience to try to upgrade the Table Map and Moon Aiko was too busy with other projects to do anything about it too. As such it was a bit of a strange stalemate, where they somewhat needed the Table Map to work in such niche situations, but at the same time didn’t have enough time to simply upgrade it.

The Table Map immediately showed a large Natural Formation that was missing many parts, but the general outline was a huge circle with two eyes- Well, it looked like a certain ’Moon’ inside the ’Dream Realm’.

’Very familiar, but let’s not think about it.’ Witch Aiko felt like it would be a waste to think about it, so they would just harvest anything they can before leaving. The other Foxes would go to the border between the Nightmare Owls Clan and Crow Clan. Witch Aiko was just tasked to follow them when they were finished.

The Twins walked over to nearby trees cautiously, this whole place felt... odd, like something was amiss, but neither Aiko’s perception nor the Table Map showed anything.

Since the situation didn’t look too good, the exploration and exploitation slowed down significantly. Fortunately, Witch Aiko had a Communication Talisman that connected to Mei, so they could keep in check if anything happened and Aiko became trapped.

Although everyone would probably be worried about the trap, it was a better idea not to attempt to destroy too many things. The main reason for that was to preserve as many materials as possible, since some of them could be used for the continental flying ship that the Foxes were building under the guidance of pretty much everyone.

Witch Aiko’s objectives were the trees first, since they seemed like the easiest to harvest, but there was a small problem. Those trees were the ones that were giving the creepy vibes, so neither Aiko nor the Twins wanted to approach it.

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”How about we cut it from a distance?” Witch Aiko suggested, but when they tried any kind of long-ranged attack, everything would simply bounce off the thing, making everyone flabbergasted.

”I wonder if we can just break it to pieces?” Mei told Aiko about wood and how to utilise it. Some wood could actually be smelted like a metal and then shaped in the same way, but not every type of wood was possible to use in the same way.

Witch Aiko threw a few things at it, but since she couldn’t use her full power it looked kind of ridiculous.

”Are you feeling alright?” The Twins were concerned about Aiko, since they never saw her so weak.

”Yeah, my body is stabilising, so I can’t use anything too flashy.” Witch Aiko sighed, but fortunately the Twins understood the assignment well.

Witch Aiko guides.

The Twins wreck.

Perfect combination~!

Maybe Danji would have more firepower than the Twins, but Twins had higher modifiers thanks to their Titles, so it was debatable.

Witch Aiko pondered if she should just shove the whole tree into her tails, but then something might happen to the Demonic Foxes inside, which would make Witch Aiko sad.

Nothing could be done about that, so Witch Aiko noted it down for the time being and maybe would ask Mei about this, unless she would get bored and bothered about this place...

They bypassed the forest looking for other materials and there were plenty.

There were many Herbs that were extracted in cubes, making the storage inside Aiko’s tails very easy.

However, the trees seemed to hate that, so their vines and roots started to wiggle around.

This was kind of like a defensive mechanism for the trees, since they needed those Herbs to nurture their trunks to grow bigger than tougher.

Speed was not an issue for the trees, since they had vines, making it specialised in defence, while the vines were offence and utility.

Once things settled down, Witch Aiko collected the scrap that was left behind. It seemed like some of the rules of the Natural Formation still persisted, which was a good thing.

They might be able to decipher this Natural Formation and then build it somewhere else~!

However, there was not enough interest from the Foxes, so that would have to wait...

For now the Twins would keep attacking it until it fell and when it did it released a ton of smoke before quickly hardening.

Witch Aiko was not sure if this was a good thing or not, but since this still could be considered natural hardening, it should be fine... ish.

-----

Mei gathered the Foxes and embarked back. The journey back was a lot scarier than to here, since illusions didn’t work and the state of the path was completely abysmal.

The edges were crumbling, while the middles had the danger of falling rocks. Overall she couldn’t understand how someone would want to live in this place, since even the Natural Formation couldn’t heal stupidity.

The Earthen Elephant Clan might be a warring race, but that didn’t mean that during desperation they should be allowed to give out orders.

Maybe if the Ancestral Earthen Elephant didn’t take the whole thing, this place might be better guarded than, but unfortunately, it never happened that way.

The falling rocks were not an issue, the only thing they had to pay attention to was the crumbling sides. It would be difficult to catch someone if they fell from the side, since it is quite the drop.

Sure, A Fox’s life might be precious, but it’s better to abandon one than to endanger many.

”Once we are out I will leave the construction to you.” Mei delegated the work to someone else, since she had to find Aiko and see what she was up to.

Mei was kind of worried that Aiko would make a complete mess, but in that case it couldn’t be helped, since it’s Aiko...

-----

Witch Aiko collected as many trees as possible, but it still might not be enough. Unfortunately ’felling’ those trees is simply difficult and everyone is starting to slow down, so a bit of rest should top out everyone.

When the Trees and Herbs were finished, Witch Aiko was looking for ores or anything that was not a rock as Mei suggested.

Rocks were too heavy, so unless you had a quarry it was difficult to travel around with, which takes a lot of time...

Unfortunately, this place was pretty much stripped outside those heavy rocks that were not too useful.

”I’m still so bummed that all those Treasures were just burned by them...” Witch Aiko sighed.

”There will be other opportunities to loot things.” The Twins were trying to comfort Aiko since she seemed quite sad.

”I know, it’s just a bummer.” Witch Aiko also couldn’t take too many of these materials since harvesting was a pain in the ass.

...

Soon after, Mei met up with them. ”How is it going?”

”You are here? Everything is fine over there?” Witch Aiko was a bit concerned about the Foxes left alone with Danji.

”It will be fine. Danji is skilled.” Mei didn’t want to admit that part, but since she wanted to spend time with Aiko alone, she could be a bit generous towards her.

”That’s unexpected.” Witch Aiko didn’t expect Mei to say that. ’Are they opening up to each other?’ She hoped that was the case, but that just might be wishful thinking on her part...

”This place is nicely stripped, but you are leaving some resources behind? A diversion or something like that?” Mei was curious why there were still resources scattered around.

”Too hard to gather.” Witch Aiko didn’t conceal anything since she was bothered by it.

”You can’t just blow it up?” Mei was startled that Aiko was holding back.

”My body is stabilising, I can’t do much.” Witch Aiko sighed again. It seemed like everyone expected of her to blow everything up and take it home, but she couldn’t!

”Oh... In that case I will help out.” Mei chuckled before preparing to help out with the gathering to speed everything up.

And once the continental flying ship was finished, she would even have time for some nice private time~!