Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

It was an iron fence-like gate, but with metal flowers and all the fancy stuff on it. It kind of didn't feel like an actual gate, but a work of art.

Witch Aiko carefully observed the gate, just in case there was something wrong with it.

"This would normally lead to the 'centre' but it seems like the Earthen Elephant wasn't too stupid and changed the way to get in." The Nightmare Owl carefully observed it. He was sure that the 'door' moved, but where did it go? And where does the door right in front of them lead to?

"Could it be possible to kick us out permanently?" Mei suddenly asked, since she felt like the space was strangely distorted. However, as she was not powerful enough she was not able to investigate in detail.

"In theory, no, but maybe he has done something?" The bird lady tilted her head, while the Earthen Elephant would often act stupid, that didn't mean he didn't use his brain when it meant something.

"I think it's possible." The Nightmare Owl nodded his head seriously.

"But how are we going to find the entrance?" Dai Lu was not really versed with this and would just come and go, not to mention she had this strange feeling like she wanted to cut this place and be done with it!

The group was uncertain where to go, so they returned to the Foxes for the time being.

"Do you have time?" Dai Lu was slightly fed up with carrying the piggy, so she wanted to dump it on Aiko.

"Not yet, but soon." Witch Aiko felt like she should go to sleep, even her tails were nudging her, so she was wondering what was up.

"Wanna sleep?" Mei chuckled as she patted Aiko's head. "Keep in mind that you should eat outside."

"En, en." Witch Aiko rolled her eyes. For some reason her room was prepared by the Demonic Foxes, as if they knew that something like this would happen.

'How scary.' Foxes intuition was too scary for Witch Aiko, so she had the urge to turn around and leave.

However, those Demonic Foxes made this place quite cosy and Witch Aiko didn't want to be ungrateful.

"Next time ask me if I want something like this." Witch Aiko talked to the Demonic Foxes about this, but they just kept giggling.

"..." Witch Aiko eventually gave up nagging them, which made them smile even more.

"Ugh..." Witch Aiko just groaned and went to sleep.

-----

Danji nudged the Demonic Foxes to prepare a nice cosy room for Aiko. Once she was slightly more relaxed, Danji would enter the room and surprise her!

It was a perfect plan, Danji could smoothly enter the room and everything was beautifully decorated. From the curtains to the soft and warm fur pelts. Even the special 'Spiritual' Furniture was placed around here to make this place more comfortable.

However, when she touched Aiko, she noticed that she was already out cold, making her quite upset.

"Aiko..." Danji nudged her gently, before drowsiness overtook her.

...

Danji woke up in a... familiar dream.

"Not again!" Danji cried out, almost sobbing. Why didn't Aiko wait for her?! Danji wanted to cuddle with her too!

-----

"Gosh..." Witch Aiko jumped, hearing Danji behind her. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean what I'm doing here, didn't you drag me into this place?" Danji rolled her eyes. She was really annoyed, but she shouldn't take it out on Aiko...

"..." Witch Aiko pursed her lips. What was going on?

"Hm?" Danji noticed Aiko's odd expression and couldn't help but ask. "If you didn't drag me in here then who did?"

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*Yawn*

A cute girl floated around Aiko, startling both of them.

"Oh, you are the girl from the pond~" Witch Aiko immediately knew who this was.

"Mhm." The girl nodded her head weakly.

"Why didn't you act like Grandpa Flame, is something wrong?" Witch Aiko was concerned that this girl was not doing too well. Was she hungry or maybe lonely? It felt like this girl was avoiding her!

"How am I supposed to do that when someone keeps draining me!" The girl huffed in annoyance.

"..." Witch Aiko pursed her lips. She chose to not voice her thoughts since it might make their relationship suffer. 'How was I supposed to know that I can't use Spiritual Water as a wash...' She gently let go of those thoughts since she didn't want to be scolded.

*Yawn*

"What is it this time?" A familiar voice startled Witch Aiko.

"Oooooo~" Witch Aiko hummed at Grandpa Flame. He finally had a child-ish body! Well it mostly looked like an adult that got compressed into a small form, but that was beside the point! He was very cute!

"What is it?" Grandpa Flame tilted his head, not understanding what was the big deal about this.

"I didn't know that you have a normal body~" Witch Aiko observed him and carefully appraised his new form.

'Yup, very cute, very lovable, very bullyable~' Witch Aiko hummed, and Grandpa Flame shuddered.

"When you get a certain control over the element I notice that I can make a new body. It's very limited, but as you can see, it's much better than a talking flame." Grandpa Flame explained proudly, while feeling sense of superiority for being able to acc-

"What is that?" Grandpa Flame's face hardened. He believed he was the first one to accomplish this, but he was not?! How could that happen?

"This is Spiritual Water. I found her where Danji was captured. Don't you remember it?" Witch Aiko tilted her head.

Grandpa Flame looked away. 'I can't tell her that I focused more on training than on anything else...' He was feeling quite guilty about this.

"Well, anyway." Witch Aiko coughed, clearing the strange atmosphere.

"I wonder if I can leave this place?" Danji was not interested in being embarrassed by this place, so she just wanted to leave.

"It doesn't seem like we can, do you think this place caused it?" Witch Aiko still wondered about the palace and garden, but it was difficult to come to a conclusion.

Danji's face hardened. That meant she would have to spend time with Aiko while being embarrassed by her.

While that sounded nice, it was very concerning for Danji, since she didn't want to be bullied today.

"I'm not sure. I have never experienced something this bizarre." Danji shook her head gently. She has never heard about this, since most Foxes could very easily resist these kinds of dreams.

"Do you still control this place?" Danji looked around, but she couldn't find the scenery that Aiko liked. Everything was very flat and lifeless.

"Don't look at me like that." Witch Aiko looked around. "I'm only preventing it from changing abruptly, but I have almost zero control over this."

"Are you sure blocking is a good idea?" Danji was trying to figure out the rules of this place, but there were no clues at all!

"I don't want to know what would happen if I didn't..." Witch Aiko trailed her words, but it was obvious what she was thinking about.

"Right, that would certainly be difficult, yeah." Danji nodded her head. She couldn't imagine what would happen if Aiko didn't control this place.

Would they be harmed if Aiko did that, or were her worries unfounded? It was hard to say, but Danji would definitely not try it herself!

"Any ideas?" Witch Aiko just wanted to sleep, so it was not strange that Aiko kept yawning.

"None, how about you try controlling this whole place?" Danji suggested, since they were trapped for the time being.

"I'm not sure, this place is huge and I can't cover all of it. I can only affect the general vicinity, that includes perverts too, so if they are bothering you, we can just kick them away." Witch Aiko said seriously, but this place was... strange.

[Worry not, this place can't hurt you.]

'I wonder if it can mimic the system." Witch Aiko was curious, but since she had no idea how it actually worked, she was unable to respond properly.

It was difficult to trust something that was not even here.

[It's impossible.]

'That's what a fake system would say.' Witch Aiko didn't believe it for a moment and the familiars that were behind the system were sulking quite a bit.

[Explore the Dream Realm]

[Special Mission]

[Explore the Dream Realm created by a Natural Formation that was taken over.]

[Requirement: At least 20% exploration done.]

[Reward: Depends on total exploration.]

Witch Aiko paused. She didn't believe in this system yet, but a mission for juicy rewards was always welcome~!

Witch Aiko giggled. "Let's explore~" She hummed, but... 'Where am I supposed to start...?'

"Seriously?" Danji was taken aback that Aiko actually wanted to explore this place! 'Is she not the real Aiko...? She was starting to doubt the Aiko in front of her!

"Nothing will be done if we don't move and it's better if we understand this place better." Witch Aiko's words were plausible, but Danji thought that Aiko was hiding something.

She was just hiding a mission behind her belt, but well, Danji didn't ask about anything, so Witch Aiko wouldn't talk~!

"What do you wish to accomplish by doing this?" Danji was curious what Aiko was up to.

"The main reason would be our dreams." Witch Aiko nodded her head seriously.

"What do you mean by that? Do you want to strengthen your Illusions and Dreams?" Danji was startled that Dark Aiko would walk this far! Didn't she dislike training too often?!

"Yes, I was thinking about that too, but the main reason would be that this place was alive!" Witch Aiko believed that this place would show her some nice illusions, but she was also worried that someone might attack them.

"..." Danji was more cautious than Aiko right now. This place seemed inherently wrong, but they were unable to guess what it was.

"I think we should camp for the time being, make this place our temporary base before we venture outside." Witch Aiko looked around, and this place had nice, but strange grass.

"Well, this place should suffice." Witch Aiko nodded her head seriously.