Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko nestled herself inside the tree's crown and waited.

'The tutorial said that closing my eyes would progress the time faster...' Aiko yawned. She wouldn't just close eyes, but sleep. It should be safe up here and the carcass wouldn't go anywhere either.

'Let's go~' Aiko chuckled sinisterly as she closed her eyes...

...

The morning was bright. It didn't seem like there was a concept of day and night, well, there was. Exactly, midday and midnight, there was no dusk or twilight or anything like that. Just Midnight and midday.

Blinking would progress the time if: Aiko wanted it or Aiko was tired. She could even make it so that each blink would progress the time, but that hurt her brain so she didn't do that.

'It was a nice night.' Aiko didn't need to sleep, but she worried about her habits, so here and there she would sleep just for the sake of it.

'Now for yum yum~' Aiko wondered if the meat would taste, considering there is a faint sense of smell.

She jumped down, walking towards the river which was gently flowing. Here and there, there was the sound of a river colliding with something, but it was so faint that Aiko had trouble finding it.

'Anyway~' Aiko looked towards where the carcass was supposed to be located, but there was nothing there.

'...' Aiko blinked her eyes a few times, even rubbed them with her hands before admitting that her carcass was gone.

'What in the world happened...' Aiko scratched her head. She was sure that they wouldn't be able to find her and that was obvious since she was still alive, but where did the carcass go?

'I will need food so that I don't get recalled for starvation.' Not needing to eat was fine, but outside the safe area, once you passed a certain distance, you needed food to maintain that expedition.

Aiko had to be careful about her 'food intake' so that she didn't need to make the same journey again.

Sure, she could teleport, but the teleportation cost a lot, so she would need another outfit for that to happen and carrying it everywhere was a bit...

'Let's get another wolf.' Aiko nodded her head seriously. She climbed the tree, nestled herself up there and blinked...

...

It was night, so Aiko jumped down, slowly and inaudibly walking towards the village for another wolf.

'The problem is that I only have two more tries...' Aiko groaned. There were only 2 more wolves of adequate size before the wolves became too large to carry before being spotted.

'I will have to be careful.' The village didn't change at all, it also didn't seem like the uglies were too alerted, so Aiko was able to slip inside without being noticed.

The walk towards the wolf riders campsite was a bit unnerving. Mostly because there were now more uglies walking on the main path for some reason.

'Oh, it's the big chungus.' She remembered that, because it was the first thing that she had trouble fighting against.

However, next to it was a guy that screamed: "Mid-boss."

Well, Aiko wouldn't fight it, she was here just for food!

Sneaking inside the wolf rider camp, she picked another wolf, but this time strangling both of them. That would allow her to gain some time while leaving this place because there would be no scent of blood.

And that was a smart move, because those uglies walking on the main path were actually alert uglies. Not quite patrols, but just uglies that paid attention.

Walking towards the exit, she noticed wolves guarding it. Aiko felt troubled so she picked a different exit, but that one was not guarded.

'Is it a trap?' Aiko tilted her head. Well, at worst she would die, so there was no point in hesitating.

She stepped outside the walls of the village, looking around.

'Nobody?' Aiko tilted her head. Was it because she dropped blood the last time that they placed wolves there to find her quicker? It was possible.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Aiko walked out into the open without worries and soon arrived inside the forest.

The village was still the same, they were not alert or anything, so she was able to cross the river and thus conceal her footprints.

Well, not actually crossing the river. What you have to do is actually walk in the river for a while to make your footsteps 'end' and confuse your pursuers.

With that, Aiko left the wolf inside the river again, but this time climbed the tree and waited with open eyes.

'Don't blink. Don't blink. Don't blink.' Aiko was in the tree crown watching the wolf carcass.

"GOD DAMMIT!" Aiko stomped her feet when she accidentally blinked and advanced in time.

And the carcass was nowhere to be seen either.

'So I can only progress through time by blinking, but if I blink, corpses disappear?' Aiko tilted her head.

That was no good. How was she supposed to do anything about the meat when she couldn't advance the time?

Making fire inside a completely dark forest? Yeah, right. That would attract all kinds of attention, which she didn't want to.

*Coookooo*

"Hm?" Aiko turned towards the strange, but familiar sound.

'Wild chicken.' Aiko blinked a few times. Last time there were no passive mobs, but it seems like Yue brought about another change.

'This is nice.' Aiko slipped the knife out of the holder and threw it at the wild chicken, or rooster, whatever it was.

*Coookooo*

The wild chicken nibbled on something, dodging Aiko's knife with ease.

"...?" Aiko blinked her eyes a few times. She did have some 'accuracy' adjustment thanks to her outfit, but it was minimal so it didn't show in the menu and description.

Aiko took out another knife and threw it.

The wild chicken noticed a fruit and jumped for it, dodging Aiko's knife again.

"..." Aiko's lips twitched. Once it might be an accident, but twice was not. The wild chicken was dodging her knife with seemingly strange behaviour!

Aiko slid another knife out of her holder on her thigh.

She aimed at the wild chicken before-

*Coookooo*

The wild chicken turned around dodging the knife again.

Aiko's whole face was twitching. She wanted to look cool when hunting, and she also worried that the wild chicken would run away from her if she approached it, but did it matter now?

No, Aiko was angry, very angry.

She approached the wild chicken.

*Coookooo*

The wild chicken ignored her.

Aiko pulled out a knife with 3 fingers.

*Coookooo*

The wild chicken looked around, not doing anything.

Aiko stabbed 1/3rd of the blade into the wild chicken, before using her index finger to sink it completely.

The wild chicken froze, but before it could make that disgusting noise again.

*Punch*

Aiko punched its body away, killing it.

Was it the punch that killed it or the knife? It was hard to say, but Aiko was successful in her hunt!

"Yes!" Aiko raised both of her arms high up in the sky, clearly proud about her accomplishment.

Aiko dragged the chicken away to process it for food, before doing anything else. Her stockpile of food was almost empty, so she would have to process this one.

First, she would need to get rid of those feathers.

[Escaping Wild Chicken.]

[Special Traits: Always dodges in the most natural way possible.]

"... Now you are just fucking with me." Aiko's lips twitched again. She would definitely spank the one who was behind the system- this place!

...

The feathers were troublesome to get rid of, maybe if she boiled it, it would be easier, but Aiko wanted to make smoked meat. She also wanted to get rid of the blood, but the feathers blocked most of her attempts at severing the neck.

She had some trouble cleaning the wild chicken carcass, but she succeeded in the end.

A bit of botched work, but it would have to do, for now. Aiko would learn over time, but food couldn't wait any longer.

The cleaned carcass was then drained of blood and its intestines were cleaned, leaving only the meat behind.

Cleaning the intestines was important, since they carried a lot of nasty stuff and Aiko didn't need any more debuffs than she already had.

Nodding her head gently. She was satisfied with this work since it was not botched this time.

Well, cleaning the intestines, innards and organs was not as hard as trying to pull those damned feathers out of it!

Aiko nodded her head, but there was another problem.

Spices.

She completely forgot them which would mean that she would have to either find them or get back to the safe area.

The trouble was that anything outside the safe area was pretty basic, simple. The taste and everything was not there.

Even as Aiko tried to punch on the bark of the tree that she used for caravan, the only thought she had was-

'So tough...'

That was it.

As such, finding any spices in this area, while everything had pretty bland everything, was impossible.

'I wanted to actually eat my first hunt...' Aiko sniffled, but it couldn't be helped.

She prepared a mound. There she built a small meat hanger.

The mound was a bit tall since Aiko wanted to smoke the meat. Smoked meat would last for a long time if smoked properly and dried inside.

She would smoke it for a long time, maybe even make it as tough as she could since she wouldn't touch it away.

Nodding her head gently, Aiko prepared everything before starting a small fire down below. What she was aiming at was not a fire, but smoke.

The meat slices were thin, so it was possible that they would also cook. That would be troublesome, but now that Aiko learned how to hunt those little fuckers, she could botch the work again and then just hunt another one.

Aiko licked her lips as she closed up the mound. She left a few openings for the smoke to actually escape the thing, but not enough that it would burn a lot.

Now she would just have to wait.

'Maybe I should hunt a few more while waiting?' Aiko tilted her head. It would be better to hunt more of them to make sure she stockpiled enough food.

'It might be possible that this place is the only place where the walking food is located.' Aiko considered that part, but then, this place would be very broken if it didn't have any other locations.

Mostly because that would make long expeditions impossible and this place was not exactly against Aiko, so there should be more locations where to hunt.

'Do I have to learn and find those locations?' Aiko groaned slightly. That was definitely possible, but that would require a lot of trial and error...