Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Well, even if these clothes were overkill when it came to her fashion, the effects spoke to themselves.

With this, she would be able to easily hunt anything she wanted as long as she didn't overdo it.

Aiko walked out of the shop, picking just a few basic weapons that didn't cost anything. There was a throwing dagger, a dagger, hidden blade and that was about it.

Anything else was either cumbersome or expensive and Aiko didn't want to use more of her wealth to deal with this.

With everything prepared and Aiko done with her things, she looked around, trying to find Yue.

However, she was nowhere to be found. Was she hiding somewhere or already outside this safe area? It was hard to say, since last time Aiko saw her running towards the castle in the distance.

'She will be fine.' Aiko believed that Yue was smart enough to not get killed like Aiko always did, so there shouldn't be any problems with Yue experiencing this place alone.

'I wonder if she will join the hunt later...' Aiko was curious, but not curious enough to try and look for her.

With a single step, she left the safe area and embarked on her journey. Her current mission was to get to the last ugly's village and then use that lure to gather everything in one place.

The situation outside didn't change much. The wrecked villages didn't suddenly rebuild themselves or the ground didn't patch itself with Aiko not around.

'The teleportation is shorter now?' Aiko tilted her head. Maybe she should've bought the mage set with her, but she didn't want to recall and teleport again.

She wouldn't need to teleport any more and her other magic could be adjusted. While that magic would be weak due to her lack of 'instrument' that would allow her to more easily channel it, it was fine as that was not her source of damage right now.

'I wonder just how fast I will become during the night.' Aiko would stack buffs like Pill Candies, but how effective would those things be?

'I can just test it on each village I pass, no?' Aiko smirked.

Now you might ask: What will she hunt when there are no animals around?

The answer was simple. Wolves. The villages had a few wolves each, so if Aiko just nabbed one and then cooked it, and voilà, food!

'Quite the ingenious plan if I say so myself.' Aiko chuckled to herself.

The plan was quite good, since otherwise she would have to carry a bag with herself. That would not only slow her down, but only give her limited food which would run out eventually.

However, hunting the wolves was a limitless source of food, or at least that's how it seemed.

The wolves were big, about the size of an adult, so they had around as much meat as a horse or deer. While that meat would not be of the highest quality, what mattered was that she got some food. She didn't actually need to eat it.

She just had to carry some around with her to make everything easier.

The sense of smell was faint, but it was obvious that that wouldn't affect her 'detection radius' in any way. The area outside the safe area was very undeveloped when it came to sensations.

Hell, when that water mountain fell on her, Aiko didn't feel any pain, but the immense sense of discomfort that made her grumble.

'In a way, it's a good thing.' Aiko believed that she didn't need to feel pain to learn something, just a sense of discomfort was enough for her to be cautious.

'...' Aiko stared into the distance. It seemed like the villages would be further apart than she estimated, but this was still within her food means.

The caravan was left behind, since dragging it behind her would be both a pain, but it could also reveal her location which was unfavourable.

'Until now, all monsters didn't detect it, but what if later villages could?' Aiko would lose not only the caravan, but all things that were stored inside, which would be a bummer.

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Well, she could stockpile those things, but losing the caravan itself might actually upset her.

... Just being upset was, of course, an understatement...

...

Finally, after many days, Aiko arrived near another village. The village seemed to be doing well, the uglies were moving around and doing their normal things as would humans do, but just more cruel and such.

However, Aiko didn't dare to get inside during the day. She wanted to test her capabilities during the night.

That was because she didn't want to walk this distance again. It was quite far, and she had to carry a bag with food, which slowed her down.

It would be better if she was able to do this mission in one journey, but that might be impossible.

'I have enough Mana for at least the caravan distance, but anything further would also drain my HP...' Aiko would have to be careful about it.

It didn't seem like she got any harmful debuffs during low HP, but she would rather not die and have to redo it, so she would be careful.

One might say that Aiko was being overly cautious, but the distance was that significant for her!

Aiko waited until it was dark outside.

'...' Aiko finally realised something. 'Wait, why is it dark outside?'

Did something change when Yue came over? What else changed? Were those things more intelligent? Were there more of them? What about their weapons? Behaviour?

Aiko was greatly troubled with this realisation. She never considered the lack of night, or now the excess of night.

'Mulling over it will get me nowhere, let's just see how this set holds up...' Aiko ruffled her hair slowly. She was frustrated that she completely forgot that this place lacked the essential common sense. This wouldn't be the first time she did something like this, but it was really hard to get used to.

When you see night coming every day, it's strange when there is suddenly only sun outside.

Moreover, the only time she experienced an endless day would be the Sacred Realm that she nuked.

'Well...' Aiko got to the front gate of the village. It was discreetly opened to allow guards to go out and in without having to open it every time.

Under the ruse of the night, she was able to get inside without any problems. The uglies were ignoring her, and she could even get very close to them.

As long as they weren't looking at them, Aiko was able to breathe on their necks without them noticing!

'This is kind of fun~' Aiko was considering that she should create something like this in real life, but she quickly discarded that motion.

'I already have too much work to do, nothing good will come from giving myself even more work.' At one time, Aiko even considered dropping everything and just working on her ideas, but that was not feasible with so much bullshit going on around her.

'I wonder if the Beast Sect is suitable for us...' Aiko was both curious and intrigued. It seemed like Beasts mingled with Human Sects here and there, but it was truly puzzling.

The humans loved to enslave Beasts, but Beasts still mingled with Human Sects? Something was not adding up.

'Unless they have some kind of hostage or there is no way to ignore them?' Aiko thought that politics were very bothersome. If it was up to her, she would just unify everyone which would reduce the amount of shit she would have to do.

'But then again, there are probably powerful individuals that are maintaining this status quo.' Aiko nodded her head slowly.

The inside of the village was pretty ordinary.

The 'houses', well, tents. Those were made out of bones and leather. The bones were mostly carcasses of wolves big enough to form a nice and cosy tent, which was then covered by cured furs.

They cured them with some fat and wax.

Aiko didn't understand those things, so she just walked around the village to get a feel on how they did things.

The village had a well, so poisoning that would be easy, but each tent also had a bucket or two, meaning if some would fall ill, the others wouldn't drink from the well.

And going around and poisoning everything sounded quite tiring...

The tents were situated in a circular fashion. The main circle was around the whole perimeter of the walls. Those guys were mostly the archers and guards.

Then there were inner circles, with each assigned to different things.

The main one was for the chief and elites. All of them were in the same place.

Then you had the food circle. Those guys would gather berries, meat or nurture wolves for food.

Then there were the riders. That's what Aiko needed, and they were also part of the main road, which was useful. The main road led from the gate all the way towards the main circle with elites and from that main road there were many side roads. The main side road being on that led to the wolf riders.

Their tents were slightly bigger and open, so that the wolves could bond with the uglies and allow them to ride them.

Aiko was curious about the taming process, but she wouldn't be able to see it as she couldn't hide as well during the day.

Aiko slit the throat of one wolf and its rider. It was a smaller wolf, for the sole purpose of easier transportation.

This way she wouldn't alert the others, but the scent of smell would soon overwhelm this place.

Aiko picked up the wolf before running outside. She avoided the guards skilfully, since most of them had torches on them to be able to walk around.

'As this place gets bigger, things change a lot...' Aiko nodded her head slowly. It seemed like once she was able to invite others, more changes would occur internally, making things either easier or harder on her.

'That is fine.' Aiko didn't mind the challenge as long as it was not too burdensome.

She was able to leave the village without being spotted. At this point more torches were lit up, probably because of the scent of blood.

However, since Aiko was outside, she didn't need to care about them too much.

'Let's stash the wolf into the water and only cook it during the day.' Aiko nodded her head slowly. By keeping it inside the water, she could not only clear the blood, but also keep it cool and fresh.

The scent would also vanish with the water, so if she had any pursuers, they wouldn't be able to find her as easily.

As for why she wanted to light it up during the day. That was because a campfire during the night would definitely attract their attention, which would be troublesome...