Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The first smoked meat turned into disaster as the mound collapsed. However, Aiko was not worried as she prepared another chicken with drained blood.

All that she needed to do was to clean the insides and cut it into pieces.

'How do I reinforce the mound further? Sticks would burn, no?' Aiko tilted her head and thought about it carefully, but what if she surrounded the sticks with the mud and such, wouldn't that prevent it from burning? But then what if it dries, creates cracks and through those cracks it would burn?

'It's still a high temperature even if the fire is not going...' Aiko scrunched her face. There was no clear answer for this, but it should be possible to somehow fireproof it.

'Clay would be nice, but everything is without colour so finding it is a bit...' Aiko had limited options, so she eventually gave up and just went along with her stick plan.

The mound was built quite easily, thanks to all those sticks which held it together and reinforced it.

There was a small hole on the top and bottom, to allow some fresh air to create more smoke and light fire.

'This should be enough.' Aiko didn't need all that much air, as long as the wood would smoke.

With that, the second batch turned out somewhat well. The meat was firm, clearly smoked, but some parts looked cooked, which was not ideal.

'Less wood, and maybe add it over time?' Aiko tilted her head. She was currently experimenting how to create such unique food since it didn't require a clear scorching fire.

'It's kind of fun.' Aiko played around with the 3rd and 4th batch, slowly bringing it to perfection.

However, she had to redo the mound every time as the fire would dry it too much, and then it would collapse on her.

That was still fine though, as long as her meat wouldn't be mixed with soil, everything would be fine.

Aiko hummed as she prepared a whole bag of smoked meat. This would last her for a while, and it was also very light, so she was not burdened.

Finding another place like this would take her a lot of trial and error, so it was better to stockpile more. Especially since she wouldn't visit any more villages.

She couldn't cook the wolves because their carcasses would just go missing, so she had to improvise.

Aiko took the bag and placed it on her back. It was kind of ridiculous seeing a supposedly frail girl walking around with such a big bag, but you would be surprised at how light it was.

Aiko left the forest, but she did remember to blink once to change the time to night.

Some of her meat disappeared, which alarmed her, but that just meant she had to be careful with changing time.

'If I'm tired the time will automatically change, so I have to account for that too.' This would be her last expedition before nuking this place and leaving. There was some worry about leaving Yue behind, so Aiko would make sure that she understood everything.

With that in her mind, she walked during the night where she had the most buffs possible.

The night shrouded her being and even if some uglies looked into her direction, they never looked longer than for a moment, meaning that Aiko was safe.

The stealth was incredible, if she was quiet enough, she could walk past uglies without any issues.

Of course, the bigger uglies were problematic as they seemed like they realised something, but by that point Aiko was far away from them that it didn't matter.

However, it was something she had to keep in mind, just in case a more powerful ugly suddenly showed up.

'Stealth might become meaningless at that point.' Aiko nodded her head seriously.

Passing another village, this one was bigger than before.

Aiko was tempted to go inside and see what was up, but she decided against it.

She would hate to die here and having to walk all the way.

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Although she should definitely consider bringing over the mage set, so that her teleportation distance would increase.

Shaking her head gently, she decided to just get to the main village and recall back at that point.

The plains grew in size, but also in scents. Those faint scents were slowly growing in number and strength, making Aiko feel like she was slowly approaching a strange boss.

'No, I am approaching a boss.' Aiko nodded her head. It was only a matter of time before she arrived at the last village and found out who or what was the boss.

'Should've bought the Spirit Slime.' Aiko grumbled. She was unsure about what the slime would eat on the expedition. Would it be the marbles? Normal food? It was hard to say, so she kept the Spirit Slime with Yue.

'I wonder if that was a mistake...' Aiko pondered for a while, but she just shook her head. There was no way that Yue would be troubled by it.

-----

{Somewhere inside a Castle}

"KYAAAAAAAAAA!" Yue was running away from something. "Please leave me! Someone save me!" She was sobbing like a child, being chased by something small, squishy and jiggly.

That's right, the Spirit Slime was messing with Yue since it found her adorable.

However, Yue didn't share the same feelings.

'W-wait, why am I getting tired?!' Yue suddenly realised that her Ghost body was slowly tiring out, so she would eventually-

"C-can we talk about this?" Yue pleaded with the Spirit Slime, but it only jiggled back.

*Sob*

Yue had to run...

...

Yue no longer ran away. Her body gave up, and she was too tired to even maintain her posture, much less upright walking.

She ended up on the floor, not even sobs leaving her mouth as she was THAT tired.

The Spirit Slime approached her and as Yue felt her impending doom, something unexpected happened.

"H-huh?" Something tickled Yue's soles, and she let out a giggle that quickly turned into a moan.

"W-wait. You can do that?!" Yue was speechless when the Spirit Slime suddenly started to massage her soles.

The tension and pain quickly left her body, leaving only sweet aftertaste and relaxation.

She quietly sobbed. 'I can't believe I feel relaxed around that thing...' Her brain couldn't comprehend why she was suddenly so relaxed, but it was obvious that the Spirit Slime was very skilled at this, like it did so many times it was sick of it.

However, Yue couldn't feel such emotion from it. The Spirit Slime was always happy and if it was not happy it would just roll away until it became happy.

The Spirit Slime didn't have any clear-grounded concept of emotions. Just sporadic bursts of emotions, most of them related to happiness.

Yue gave up thinking about it as more feelers wrapped around her foot. It was working on only one, but the other one was still being held by it, leaving no options of escape.

Her left leg was taken care of, not such soles but ankle, Achilles tendon, and so on. It slowly moved up, kneading her thighs.

Yue panicked once it reached her butt and she covered her behind. She was surprised that she could move, but she quickly set up a boundary.

"Not there." Yue didn't know if it could understand her speech, considering it was chasing her until now.

What she didn't know was that the Spirit Slime liked the chase as it found her easy to tease.

It also liked being stepped on, especially by Princess as it allowed it to correct her posture that way or relieve her fatigue.

The Slime moved on her back, gently pressing it and kneading it.

"Mmm~" Yue stifled a moan since she had not been massaged like this in a long time. It was also not an erotic or harassing massage, which she appreciated even more.

There were countless people that tried to take advantage of her, so things as simple as changing clothes quickly turned about protecting her body from others.

However, it was obvious that this little fella had no such intentions as long as she was quick enough to set up the boundaries.

'If it started from the back first I might've caved in.' Yue bit her lip. She was thinking about something so absurd that she didn't believe herself, but that only spoke of the skill that the Spirit Slime had.

It was incredible that a creature that had an empty mind was able to comprehend extensive speech, but also advanced manoeuvrers.

Yue let the Spirit Slime take care of her until she recovered enough to run away.

Why did she not use her painting skills? Because Aiko was fond of this guy, so she couldn't really hurt it...

-----

"Phew..." Aiko breathed out as she crossed another plains. It was ridiculous that the scale was getting more and more outrageous over time.

'I swear I will wipe them out next time before they can multiply like this!' Aiko swore to not put off anything.

She would just choose the most appropriate weapon for this and execute it as quickly as possible!

The more appropriate weapon would probably be the armour. It not only protected her body, but it also allowed her to hit hard, which was perfect for most situations.

Worrying about Yue, Aiko sped up slightly, but she also rested plenty as she didn't want to die due to exhaustion.

'There are too many things to manage...' Aiko scrunched up her face. She was concerned that she wouldn't be able to find another hunting ground, but there was simply too much to manage that she felt slightly overwhelmed.

'No, even in real life there is just too much to do. I don't know what to do first...' Aiko groaned unhappily. There was no way to lessen the burden because once she finished one work, another would pop out right away...

'Hmmmm...' Aiko found another stream. There were some special rules around spawning the wild chickens, and she didn't find them even now.

'What are the rules though...' Aiko thought that those would be located around the river again, but that was a lie, she couldn't find anything time and time again.

'Each forest looks different, but what if they are the same...?' Aiko thought about something ridiculous, but she quickly shook her head. 'There is no way. If that was the case, how am I supposed to learn where to find them?'

She had to think really carefully about where she found the previous chickens and try to find at least a similar location to it before she died of starvation.

'I know I should've looked around more before, but I didn't expect this to be so difficult...' Aiko groaned more and more over time, feeling some sense of injustice, but this was pretty much caused by her carelessness.

'But being careful about everything is exhausting...' Aiko didn't know how to solve this situation properly.