Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

’Castle, huh?’ That was the only place Aiko never visited. Why? It was quite intimidating and also far away from the respawn/recall area.

”Well, I will have to visit it one day...” Aiko nodded her head, but she still didn’t want to walk that far.

Well, her Spirit Slime was still asleep, or something like that, at home, so she could use it for transportation.

That was probably fine?

Aiko walked towards the castle, in her delinquent clothes. They were the most comfortable so far and didn’t cling to her too tightly.

The castle was situated at the back of the safe area. It was still far from the back walls, but this place had its own walls.

’How interesting...’ Aiko smiled. When looking at it from afar, it didn’t seem like this place had walls or anything like that, yet now it looked closer to a fortress.

The walls were tall, not as much as the outer wall, but probably around 10 metres or taller. Those walls were created from thick stones, gradually decreasing in size until the stones were more uniform.

She did not know what held them together, but just by touching it, everything was very sturdy and unmoving, which was a stark difference to the buildings in the real world, which were mostly made out of wood or mud.

Walking around the place, there was also a moat. However, Aiko was able to ’walk’ in the air for some reason, so it didn’t bother her. It kind of felt like under her feet, there was glass, or something like that.

It felt real, not just the sensation of walking on nothing.

However, no matter how much she tapped her feet, nothing happened. There was no ’feedback’ other than ’it was firm and see-through’.

Circling it around, there was only one main gate, with smaller doors on the sides, but Aiko didn’t care about those as much.

The gate had several parts, the large wooden bridge would close, isolating this place, then there was a normal huge gate that you would secure with a large wooden beam to keep it locked. The main material was wood, but there was reinforcement with metal, especially the beam part, to make it harder to break.

Going a bit inside, there was a portcullis. It was a gate that slid from above, securing itself by lodging its spikes into the ground. It was big and sturdy, more reinforced than the previous gate and good luck lifting this sucker, since you had to use chains to manage that thing.

After that, there was a huge metal gate. It kind of reminded her of gates that she saw in pictures, but she had no idea where those pictures in her mind came from.

It was heavy, normally you would have to use several horses or special contraptions just to be able to open it.

The locking mechanism was similar to the front gate, just everything was heavy and made out of metal, so good luck going through that as that thing is going nowhere.

Going further, you finally arrived inside the walls of this castle, but the sight was unlike what Aiko expected.

’I see... this place is bigger on the inside.’ In front of her spread, seemingly, endless garden. There were butterflies and other insects flying around.

The flowers were in full bloom, decorating the garden with beautiful flowers.

Through this place, there was also an aqueduct as there were even flowers and other vegetation on the walls behind her.

This place looked a lot more cheerful and calming on the inside, than the intimidating feeling from the outside.

This garden also included cute tunnels that were shaded and some glass buildings which had the more sensitive flowers inside them.

Walking on the paved path, which was made out of very pretty white stone, she arrived at the boundary of the main building, probably.

It was close to an imposing villa and far behind it was the main castle, or palace, whatever you want to call it.

To the right, there was something that looked like a ginormous cathedral.

Stolen story; please report.

”I’m not religious though...” Aiko tilted her head, but she didn’t question it too much. This place was already too strange, so anything out of place was now expected.

To the left of her, there was another palace, but this one was floating in the clouds. It was a bit imposing, but also familiar. She felt like she saw it before, she just didn’t know where.

’It feels like every corner has something...’ Aiko raised her eyebrows.

To the left was the real world, in front of her, it was hard to say, but the left one also felt familiar.

’How strange...’ Aiko walked into the building in front. She could vaguely feel Yue’s presence there.

Walking through this place. It was closer to a medieval mansion. Everything was decorated by either carpets, flower vases or paintings.

There were even some stone arts and metal armours hanging around.

”It kind of feels like a museum.” Aiko nodded her head seriously. Yue was located in the east wing, so she would just go there to pick her up.

’But the smell...’ This place smelled new. There was the scent of the wood, from the floors, the scent of the fabric from the curtains, even flowers had a gentle, but distinctive scent.

’I like this place.’ Aiko nodded her head seriously.

Walking down the hallway, she stopped in front of larger doors. They were thick, but quite easy to open, like someone was helping her.

It was a huge library, it looked different to what Aiko expected.

”Hm?” Yue was startled, immediately hiding the book that she was just reading.

”...” Aiko just blinked a few times, not even asking why she was reading: My Boyfriend is a cute Slime.

”Do you need anything?” Yue smiled at her, shifting the book so that Aiko wouldn’t find out.

”Yeah, it’s time.” Aiko ignored what she just saw. She couldn’t imagine Yue playing with the Spirit Slime like Aiko did...

”Oh?” Yue had a grin on her face. ”I prepared well for this!” She found clothes that would give her advantage without making her into a slut, which she liked.

They were the most common artist clothes, leather apron like thing, with pockets and stuff. There were even some small pockets to the side and other things, but over all, it was very modest and ’professional’.

”I still think you would look good in ’that’.” Aiko raised her eyebrow.

”No.” Yue immediately denied it.

”You would.” Aiko stared at her for a while before continuing. ”There was a small change though.”

”What happened?” Yue was curious why Aiko came over. Well, she knew that she was here for the final battle, but seeing her in these clothes... was an experience.

”There is just one enemy, but it looks strange.” Aiko nodded her head seriously. She didn’t know how to describe it to Yue, since everything looked like an ugly to her.

”Oh, if it’s just one enemy, then it would be a lot easier.” Yue giggled. She was happy that she finally could put her expertise to work, but this place was also nice.

”If you do well, I will allow you to visit this place more.” Aiko chuckled sinisterly.

”I don’t need this place.” Yue said seriously, as if she was hiding some kind of mortal enemy.

”Say that again when you are not hiding ’that’ book.” Aiko clicked her tongue, but Yue went completely red in the face. ”You saw nothing.”

”And I hope I won’t see anything.” Aiko said seriously. ”Seeing you all over Chen Feet Kink, was enough.”

”H-hey!” Yue wanted to scold Aiko, but they did mess up a bit.

”Anyway, fighto.” Aiko gave her thumbs up, clearly intending to work her to the bone.

...

They returned to the starting area where Aiko picked a few things, making Yue question what she was seeing.

”What is that?” Yue pointed at the heavy armour on Aiko’s back.

”When things go awry.” Aiko smiled.

”What about that?” She pointed at the clothes that Aiko visited her with.

”That’s when I need to dodge around a lot. Or throw things at the enemy.” Aiko explained each outfit with simple words, but Yue had some understanding of what was happening.

”So you don’t expect me to be able to kill that enemy.” Yue nodded her head seriously.

”Well...” Aiko had a bad feeling about it, so she would naturally make sure that she had a backup plan. It would never hurt her and might even help her!

”Fine, fine.” Yue waved her hand. She somewhat understood Aiko’s worry, since those cities were obnoxiously huge and fortified.

”I will teleport us to an open distant area, and we can go from there.” Aiko nodded her head seriously.

”Why not closer?” Yue didn’t think the enemy would be that powerful.

”Because I don’t know if you will die for real or not.” Aiko didn’t want to risk that, so they would throw things at it from a distance.

”Ah... right...” Yue was a Ghost for a long time, so something like death didn’t bother her. However, death before was tied to her chains, so she could never truly die. You could even say that those chains made her immortal.

However, now she didn’t have chains, and she was inside an unknown space that she assumed to be on par with the Immortal World’s Ghost Realm, which would mean that if she died, she would be erased.

”Let’s take it slow, yeah.” Yue agreed with Aiko’s assessment. She would rather take things slow than mess up something.

”Good. I’m glad we are on the same page.” Aiko smiled back at her.

The teleport worked, and they were on clean plains, where the grass was still light in colour. There were no dead bodies around, or any funny subtle scents.

Aiko immediately changed her clothes. It was her first [Mage Set] that reduced the consumption of basic spells.

She wanted to use it with [Flight]. That way they would be far away from the enemy, but could actually see it.

”...” Yue didn’t question her clothes or anything. Her book got exposed, so she couldn’t say anything.

Suddenly, her body lost all weight. This was different to Movement Techniques, or Sword Flight.

It was more raw, unpredictable as her body didn’t know where the ground was and where the sky was.

However, that feeling quickly vanished as her body kept floating higher and higher. Her senses stabilised, and she was able to see far.

With all her senses, she knew that this place was incredibly dangerous. Devoid of any colour, yet there was something that tickled her nose. It was a scent, rare, but prickly.

The scent of blood...