Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The next village was bigger than Aiko expected. Well, she did already expect that those things would get big, but things were getting out of hand, and she still had 3 more villages to go.

The size was deceiving from the distance, but the closer you got to it, the more outrageous it was.

The walls that were previously about 3 metres in height, now reached around 6 or more. It was so tall that Aiko questioned how they were able to maintain the size without it tipping over.

However, looking closely, the logs were tied together, and the shape was not that of a normal wall.

It kind of had a wavy pattern, a bit soft, but still noticeable. It was interesting how they dealt with the 'tipping' side of things, but that begged the question.

'Does that mean you can dig from below it?' Aiko tilted her head. There was no reason to even try this, but if that was the case, then what would happen?

'Doesn't that also mean it can be washed away?' Aiko smacked her lips. She thought about her [Fire Sea], but quickly shook her head.

'Seems dangerous no matter how I look at it.' Aiko decided not to dwell on it too much, but it would've been a good experiment if she had any mage-type clothing.

Peering inside, it was even more different from before.

The tents were now closer to houses, well, roughly. The top was made out of leather and grass, like an old house would have, minus the leather, but the sides were only made out of leather and nothing else.

Aiko kind of expected wooden houses or something, considering the roof, but that was not the case.

The uglies also didn't have individual housing like before, now there were about 4 that slept under one roof, so the numbers skyrocketed a lot.

The pathways were also made out of rocks and slabs. The slabs were mostly flat rocks and not actual slabs since the only tools she could see were rock tools and wooden tools.

The uglies were more organised and there were more unique/elite monsters. The wolves were also a head bigger than before, making Aiko feel even smaller.

'Wouldn't that mean the last village would be absolutely outrageous?' Aiko groaned. She didn't want to admit this, but it seemed like the last village might be the last of her.

'Anyway.' Aiko sneaked outside before looking for rivers. That was the fastest way to get to the wild chickens and for more food.

The distance between villages increased, but that also meant that distance between the plains and forest also increased.

Aiko started to consume more food, only due to the increase of distance. No matter what else she did, the food that she carried vanished at normal intervals with the same amount.

This was a good thing, because if she also had to eat due to exertion, she wouldn't be able to even stockpile enough food to get to the next point.

'The caravan would be nice.' Aiko nodded her head seriously, but dragging that caravan with her would make the whole process 10 times harder.

She would also have to gather that much more food, so that she wouldn't run out.

'Smoked meat doesn't spoil, but even that "un-spoiling" part has its limit.' Was it a season or something like that? No, maybe it was even less and Aiko just didn't want to admit that fact.

Nodding her head gently, she took in her surroundings to find the bark that would crumble.

She already noticed that the bark would have a lot more wiggly things which disgusted Aiko, but as long as she could find those wild chickens, everything was fine-ish.

The bark was crumbling under her hands, but there were no chickens around. No, it was better to say that this place was weird to begin with.

'Hm...' Aiko pushed against the tree.

*Creak**Crumble*

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And the tree just toppled over like it was nothing.

'How weird.' Aiko never encountered such a thing, so she was not sure what to make of it.

The tree inside was very spiky, like it tore unnaturally, but the only thing Aiko did was to push it a bit.

'I will have to pay more attention.' Aiko nodded her head seriously. She couldn't get other food than those chicks, so she would have to be careful about her reserves.

Exploring this place a bit more, Aiko didn't even dare to use those trees as footholds. The reason was pretty obvious, because everything within a certain range just crumbled.

It was not quite a circular radius as it was missing parts here and there, but if you closed both eyes, it would be a circle.

Aiko found it peculiar, so she tried to find the middle of this place, thinking that there would be something worthwhile.

Finding the centre part was a bit pesky, since this whole area was quite large.

At first Aiko just crossed from one side to the other, hoping she would find the centre, but she quickly gave up on that idea.

She would first circle the whole thing, then calculate the radius and from there she would just take the steps as advised.

It was tedious, Aiko hated it, but it helped her to locate the centre quite quickly, allowing her to save up on her food.

In the middle of this place, there was something missing.

There was a small crater with a pedestal, but that pedestal didn't have anything on top.

Aiko first looked around the pedestal, but there were no tracks, like this thing just vanished.

'Or maybe it crumbled when it was completely used?' Aiko tapped her lip, thinking about it, but that was the only logical conclusion as the soil around was very soft.

Any kind of footsteps would be easily seen, even if you tried to cover your tracks.

The pedestal was also weird, so Aiko tried to topple it over, but couldn't.

It didn't feel like the pedestal itself was heavy, but it was connected to something down below.

'This is getting creepy.' Aiko shrugged before leaving the place. She didn't have time to fool around like this because she needed to stockpile more food first.

Exploring the undamaged forest, she was trying to find any bark that would peel off easily.

There were a few trees that did that, but it kind of felt too natural for it to be the trees Aiko was looking for.

The bark was very smooth, unlike the rough bark that she was used to. There was also nothing wiggling below the bark, making her believe she encountered the wrong type.

Not only would she have to pay attention to the type of the tree, bark and probably other things.

But she would also have to pay attention to not encounter more crumbling trees...

...

Aiko explored until her food almost bottomed up. Fortunately, she was able to find a few wild chicks, which would provide her food for a few days.

Aiko prepared everything before looking around again. She was trying to figure out why there were so few wild chickens around.

The most sensible answer would be the lack of trees that had the wiggly under-bark.

There were only about 5 trees around with the bark that she needed, so that might've reduced the population.

'Okay, the leaves, size and shape.' Aiko slightly stuck out her tongue as she observed the tree, trying to measure everything and burn it into her memory.

All the trees with the crumbling bark were the same, so she didn't need to worry about there being different types.

Well, she should worry about it, but all of those trees around here were at the same time, so some leeway was possible.

She would naturally look for rough barks that would peel easily, but for now it would be quicker just to find the trees she just encountered and see if all of them would have bark that would easily peel.

Aiko ran around, remembering how to get to her temporary camp along the way.

She was not trying to look for all those trees that she measured.

And as expected. The game was found.

The trees inside this forest were sparse, well, the ones that Aiko was looking for. She had to be careful not to miss them, but once she found them, there would be around 4 to 5 chickens present.

This gave her the idea that those trees were clustered together and would only yield a small amount of prey.

That was fine for Aiko, since she knew where to look, but it did get a bit burdensome as she had to gather at least 10 groups like that before she would have enough meat for another trip.

There was a need for even more, due to the strange crumbling forest circle that Aiko wanted to explore...

'So much gathering.' Aiko was tired. She was glad she had this outfit, because without it, she would already be sent back to her safe area.

Aiko crumbled slightly. The distance between the individual tree groups was getting bigger and bigger.

The trips as they got bigger, also started to require food.

'Does this mean that the closer to the main village I get, the more time would be limited?' Aiko found out soon that it was not wise to collect all the food.

After a certain distance, the food consumed versus the food gained would tip to the first category's favour.

This was troubling if this continued with the future villages, since it would make Aiko speed up even further than she already did.

'And thus I might die of exhaustion...' Aiko didn't have any indication for that, so thinking about it closely, she became worried.

No indication, plus food gets consumed when she is tired and advances the time, plus the distance is increasing.

This was a recipe for disaster that Aiko couldn't ignore.

'I need some kind of transportation...' Aiko raised her eyebrow. Wouldn't it be fine if she took a wolf or two, so that her transportation would get better?

She also didn't really need to 'tame' them, since beating them up would ensure they would listen to her for at least until the next village.

'I think that's a good idea.' Aiko nodded her head. With this she would solve the distance issue, but what about the food?

'Do they consume food or can I just ride them without giving them food?' No to begin with. Would those tie up wolves be here if she blinked?

And what if they ambushed her during the sleep? Wouldn't that mean she would be sent all the way back??