Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”This skirt is so damn short!” Aiko was currently sitting in a library, but she was so used to her buttock being covered when sitting down that this was a whole new experience... and it was not really a pleasant one for her.

”It’s so cold...” Aiko shook her head. Sure, she had that long skirt, but that thing was quite cumbersome, so she removed it for the time being.

That was unfortunately a mistake since she was currently freezing thanks to it.

”I thought that temperature was not a thing here!” Aiko complained, but even her system didn’t want to humour her.

”Tsk.” Aiko clicked her tongue as she read the last book.

[You have learned: [Elemental Needles] ]

[You have learned: [Hexagonal Barrier] ]

Aiko breathed out. This was a lot more to remember than simple cultivation technique.

That was pretty much because she omitted the whole chant and everything associated with it, but since she was now a mage with limited Mana, she had to be careful.

Each Needle would take 1 Mana to conjure and another 1 Mana to send flying. That was the bare minimum which would be enhanced by her outfit as this was simple anti-personal magic.

She currently learned the: Fire Needle, Ice Needle, and Earth Needle.

There were others, but those were more advanced since you needed more than just conjure something and throw it away.

The weakest of these was the Fire Needle, since it relied on the fact that something had to be burnable to take effect.

However, that was fine since the fields were slightly dry and most of their villages were made out of wood and not the one that Aiko used, so everything would burn nicely.

That’s right, the only reason why she learned the Fire Needle, even though it was the weakest Needle, was because she could set things ablaze from further distances.

The Hexagonal Barrier was also simple magic, which was obvious considering the severe flaw that it came with.

Each barrier was about 20 cm wide and tall, while only a few centimetres thick. That would’ve been fine since you could also combine them together to make bigger barriers, but that’s also where the flaw came in.

The barriers acted like magnets, to make sure nothing slipped between each other, but as you might expect, if you placed the barriers too close together, they would just snap like magnets, making things difficult for Aiko.

She would rather use more advanced magic that dealt with this issue, but she couldn’t as it would require a different dress.

”You know...” Aiko huffed. ”That’s not a bad idea.” Her upper thigh was freezing, and she felt like she would turn into an ice-cube soon, so it was quite serious.

”I have around...” Aiko exchanged more of those marbles for Levels.

[MP: 150/150->200/200]

”100 shots.” Aiko nodded her head seriously. She couldn’t see her regeneration yet, but if it was at least somewhat good, she should be able to make things work.

”With that being said. Let’s try it.” Aiko wanted to learn some crowd control magic, but those were advanced and above and cost quite a bit of Mana, so she gave up on it.

Instead, she picked only a few highly useful spells and would reduce their cast time as much as possible.

That’s right, she wanted to turn Needles into rapid-fire projectiles!

Nodding her head gently, Aiko picked her wand and left the safe area.

She shot a few Needles just to see her Mana regeneration.

Her estimation was around 1 Mana per minute, which was not too bad, but that also meant she would have to wait some time before she could replenish all of her Mana, especially if she decided to increase her capacity.

For now, Aiko slowly walked towards the hidden caravan. She kept it in front of the next village because her enemies were completely oblivious to it, and it would be bothersome pulling it all the way here again.

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”It’s convenient that you can recall, but why can’t I teleport?” Aiko grumbled as she walked for a while.

”I mean, it’s not like teleport is an extreme magic, just an expert, so it should be possible to learn it!” Aiko huffed in annoyance, but what she forgot to mention was that the teleport consumed, at minimum, over 1,000 Mana...

...

Aiko eventually managed to get over to the village where she left the caravan.

”Let’s sleep first.” Aiko didn’t need to sleep, if not for her hidden stamina stat, so she had to be careful about it.

Sleeping right now was the best idea as it would allow her to replenish it and even if the battle dragged on, she would be able to endure for a bit.

”I hope my stamina doesn’t change with clothes.” Aiko looked at her ridiculous outfit before undressing herself.

If that was the truth, then she might actually die from her stamina, so she would have to snipe everything before it got to her.

That was the safest way to go about this thing, and she would do her best!

...

Aiko slept for a while, her Mana was topped up, but her enthusiasm was not.

”Ugh.” Aiko groaned when she looked at the ridiculous outfit that she actually bought with her.

”Can’t I take the armour instead...?” Aiko didn’t really want to wear it because that skirt would go everywhere.

”Well, whatever...” Aiko gave up her resistance, since it was useless anyway and dressed up.

It was hard to see that as anything other than a bedroom outfit, but what can you do...

[Mage Set]

[Effect: Amplifies the effect of your Mana 2 times.]

[Effect: Amplifies the effect of your Mana Regeneration 1.5 times.]

Aiko clicked her tongue seeing that effect again and as she was enraged, she stepped out to snipe some uglies from the lookout towers.

Aiko tried aiming with her wand before gripping her grimoire at the Earth Needle part.

This would be the cheapest when you consider the mileage. Since it was hard to defend against and there was plenty of earth around her, Aiko would be able to deal higher damage.

First Earth Needle swished past one ugly, but it didn’t notice, so Aiko had plenty of time to adjust her aim.

She immediately noticed some differences, mainly the natural drop of the magic. It was a lot higher than arrows or anything she used before, so she had to aim just slightly above her prey to hit headshot.

This was important, since the amount of aiming she had to actually do was reduced.

She didn’t need to estimate too many, so~

*Swish* *crack*

An ugly was sniped!

”Yes~” Aiko celebrated, but then she heard a horn, which didn’t happen before.

A large squad of uglies suddenly opened the gates and rushed towards her.

”W-whoa!” Aiko didn’t expect that, was that because she used magic?

’So different occupations would also get different treatments?’ Aiko nodded her head. The armoured outfit had mostly fewer, but more powerful enemies, while mage had too many enemies, but they didn’t seem too strong.

Aiko decided to not use her needles immediately, but to cause destruction immediately.

She sacrificed 100 of her Mana and cast [Fireball].

While most of her amplifiers wouldn’t work on it, some did, which meant-

*BOOOM*

[You have killed Goblin.]x89

[You have gained 130 Soul Points.]x89

A glorious explosion that wiped about 2/5th of the assault at once.

Aiko whistled, impressed, before running backwards. She would try to put some distance while also preparing more spells.

Mostly Fire Needles, since those uglies should be easy to light up.

The reason she used the Earth Needle in the beginning was a simple distance issue.

The Fire Needle would vanish too quickly, so it didn’t have much distance and Ice Needle would soften at that distance, making it less lethal than she would like to.

This left her with the Earth Needle, which was hard and maintained its form even when Aiko let it lie around.

However, as the distance was shortened now, Fire Needle became the best thing.

Aiko prepared 10 of them at once before shooting them.

Her aim was a bit off, so only 8 hit and from those only 1 was immediately lethal. Unfortunately, not being lethal was not an issue, since it was the element of fire, meaning they would start burning.

”DoTs are great~” Aiko hummed as she just loved damage over time effects. They wouldn’t last as long as poison, but it should be enough to weaken the uglies and stop them from pursuing her.

However, Aiko grossly underestimated their numbers.

”They are not decreasing...” Aiko frowned. She used 150 Mana already and only regenerated 10. The Fireball was costly, but it was actually a spell that wiped a lot of them.

She also had to repay the 50k Soul Points for the outfit, weapons and magic, especially the grimoire, so she couldn’t die here so soon!’

”I need another 40k to break even.” Aiko groaned even more, at this rate, exhaustion would get her first.

Aiko adjusted and used Ice Needles this time. She hoped that those would create obstacles for the other uglies, preventing them from chasing after her so quickly.

It was fortunate that they didn’t use cavalry, otherwise Aiko would be in bigger trouble.

’But for some reason they only had a few wolves.

The previous village didn’t have any wolves and this one had only a few.

It was a bit strange, but Aiko just kept thinking about throwing more and more ice at them and calling it a day.

And she was quite successful with this, since she was able to whittle down some of their numbers.

’It does feel like even this is an overkill.’ For Aiko it felt like her magic was able to wipe them out and that was probably because of the set buff she currently had.

’Doesn’t that mean I should’ve picked bigger magic...?’ Aiko clicked her tongue as she hurled a few last Ice Needles before circling towards her caravan.

She wiped about 90 of them, which was really nice, but the problem was her Mana. She now had no Mana, so she didn’t have any way of attacking.

’I swear I will pick a different job next time!’ Aiko promised since this was getting ridiculous.

She dived right below the caravan and waited until those uglies left completely.

”...” Aiko sighed. It seemed like she would have to go to sleep to regenerate her Mana, since she didn’t want to wait around.

’Wait... Do I have to do that every time...?’ Aiko didn’t like that idea...