Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

With a bit of wrestling, Yue was able to escape that dreadful place.

'Tsk.' Aiko clicked her tongue that her plan didn't work, but there was no need to worry. She would be able to dress up Yue one day, and she just had to wait for that day to come!

'Anyway...' Aiko rustled with her overly long clothes. They were a bit strange, since they were colourless, but also full of colours, quite fitting for something that improved her teleportation ability.

With this outfit, she would be able to teleport while consuming a lot less Mana and since she could bring her [Barbaric Nightingale Set], then everything would be fine.

'I swear I will make her wear that apron!' Aiko cackled sinisterly as she somehow left the clothing store.

She didn't need to transport any items yet, since she would just go for a test drive, teleporting towards her caravan and then back. She would be able to calculate how much Mana she consumed and how much further Mana it would cost her to reach her furthest location.

'With that in mind, let's leave this place.' Aiko slammed the huge branch-like staff into the floor, and with a 'whoosh' she teleported out of this place.

Appearing near her caravan, it cost her 100 Mana. The minimal consumption of her teleport. With further distance this number should increase, but Aiko would do these tests slowly.

First, recalling back to the safe area and then teleporting further until it consumed more than 100 Mana!

This process was slightly tedious, but at least she didn't need to chant anything.

When she was about 80% of the way to her furthest place, that's when the Mana increased to 110.

Going all the way to her furthest place, the Mana consumption jumped to staggering 540 Mana.

Aiko didn't like that fact, so she had an idea.

First, teleport to the half-way point, wait a bit and then teleport to the end point.

As she expected. This consumed only 200 Mana, but there was a small pause between her jumps. She could also feel her body weakening, as if it didn't like multiple consecutive jumps.

'That's fine.' Aiko wouldn't be fighting immediately and the lower the consumption, the better for her.

Nodding her head gently, Aiko looked around. She was in front of the familiar village and-

"Recall!" Aiko shouted as arrows rained on her.

Back in the safe area, Aiko collapsed on her knees and her hat glided off of her head.

"Phew..." Aiko breathed a sigh of relief. She should only teleport to places devoid of enemies, otherwise she might end up like a porcupine!

But now that she knew the distance and everything, it was time to see how much it would cost to transport others, of course her target was the Spirit Slime, since Yue would run away from her whenever Aiko would appear.

"Let's go." Aiko slammed the staff into the ground again and teleported to her caravan.

It consumed 200 Mana this time. Did the Mana double for the whole party or per person? It was hard to say as Yue was not cooperating and her other 'companions' were still growing.

'Anyway...' Aiko scrunched her face. Next she would like to test items, but she didn't want to use it prematurely. 'Fine, just one.' One wouldn't change much to her, and she could always teleport it back, but what if teleporting one cost 200 Mana and teleporting two would cost 300 Mana?

'No wait, I can just teleport boxes!' Aiko would just take a few boxes with her and then transport them back.

But going back Aiko realised something bothersome. 'Ah, I don't have money...' She needed money to buy the magic that would allow her to move objects longer distances.

'Time to test the [Barbaric Nightingale Set].' She would try to assassinate a few of those fuckers from the previous village and see if she could be detected by the special uglies.

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Aiko teleported into the forest with her other set. Dressing up inside the forest was a bit hard since she always sat down in order to wear anything, and it was also easier when she didn't need to balance her body.

However, she eventually managed to dress up in her [Barbaric Nightingale Set]. The [Spatial Mage Set] was hidden by her nearby, so that she wouldn't lose it.

With everything done, Aiko blinked and made it a night. She slowly made her way out of the forest and towards the village.

'The walls are as huge as ever...' Aiko marvelled at the size, but it was still smaller than her walls.

She walked into the village from the side-passage, shrouded by the darkness.

Normal uglies didn't even notice her and the special uglies were sleeping, so there was nothing that could stop her, probably.

Aiko walked throughout the village. This village was more elaborate than she remembered. There were fewer uglies and more special uglies, the strange houses had normal walls now and so on.

It felt like this place evolved once she cleared the weaker wolves.

'I didn't think this would happen.' Aiko nodded her head slowly as she observed her surroundings. Everything felt more concrete, better, sturdier and so on. The uglies also had better weapons, making them more impressive than Aiko remembered.

'Now, what to do...' Aiko approached the special uglies. Champions, Elites and so on. They didn't react to her approaching their homes, but there were a lot of torches around.

The special uglies were not in a circle like the weaker uglies, but were placed like checkers. There were roads, empty spots and houses.

It usually went like this: The main road. If you walked forward a bit, then there would be two roads leading left and right. Walking further than there would be a house left and right. Walking further, further, then you would encounter an empty spot, then a road, then a house and repeat forever.

Aiko didn't understand why there were empty spots around, and it was not like she could stick around until it was a day to figure that out.

Walking inside the home, Aiko spotted the ugly. This was probably the Goblin Elite, since it was not as big as the one she saw before.

Walking next to its bed, Aiko was still not discovered.

She sank a knife into its neck. The ugly struggled for a while until it died.

[You have killed an Elite Goblin.]

[You have gained 195 Soul Points.]

Aiko smacked her lips. She needed around 50,000 for the transportation of various items. Fortunately, sets were not included in the items' category, but either a clothing category or weapon category, both of which were part of the normal teleport.

The lures were items, so they needed that special supporting spell to make it work.

'Now I need to do this over 250 times...' Aiko was not too happy about it, were there even enough uglies to make it work?

'They will have to.' Aiko nodded her head seriously. There was no need to directly confront them!

Walking outside the house, Aiko was almost spotted. There were more uglies guarding and scouting around her, making her confused.

'How were they able to discover me?' Aiko was confused. It didn't feel like they found her yet, but it felt like they were aware of her presence.

'How strange...' Aiko licked her lips. There was someone that was able to discover her, so it was better to find that ugly before doing anything.

"Hm?" Suddenly, a few drops landed on her hood. 'It's raining?' Aiko blinked her eyes, staring at the sky. Nothing was visible, and it was completely black, more and more drops landed on her face and outfit.

'At least this will test how waterproof this really is...' Aiko didn't like coldness and since senses were slowly returning it was a bit concerning.

However, what made her truly speechless was something else-

'The set doesn't make a sound even if water hits it directly.' Normally, there would be some kind of sound when the water droplets hit your clothes. It was usually either very loud 'smack' or very dull 'thud' sound, but her current set had neither of those.

It was kind of like they were hitting nothing? Like the sound of nothing? It was not silent, but it was not loud either?

'It kind of confuses my brain...' Aiko's head hurt from it, but she was glad she didn't have her Fox ears, since it might drive her crazy.

'That's why I like human ears.' She also liked to have both sets, since she could just ignore her Fox ears in favour of human ears when the noise got too jarring for her Fox ears.

Looking around, Aiko scouted this place, trying to figure out who found her.

Her steps were silent, even touching things didn't produce sounds, but there were footprints behind her, albeit faint.

However, that was still a problem since those uglies would be able to discover her at this rate.

Aiko climbed a nearby roof and tried to jump from one to another, but yet another problem arose.

'That damned empty spot...!' Aiko cursed as that empty spot made it impossible to jump over directly. And even if she did, at this distance the impact would be too great for a straw-based rooftop.

Aiko could only quickly find out who was the one who discovered her and off it!

...

Aiko scouted the village, she was trying to find out the individual that was able to sense her. However, that proved unfruitful.

She was unable to find that being, but the being was also unable to find her. The only thing they were able to spot were the footsteps.

The rain was too local, so the puddles would accumulate, and once they did, Aiko would be concealed again.

The mud would mix with the water, creating murky puddles, those murky puddles would be able to conceal her footsteps and thanks to her set-

'There is not even a splash.' Aiko licked her lips. She liked this set more and more!

'Now, let's explore a bit more.' It was important to see who was able to discover her!

...

It took a while, but Aiko eventually encountered a very exhausted ugly. It was much shorter than even the weakest ugly, by about a head, but what it was carrying interested her more.

'That's a staff!' Aiko knew immediately what that was, and while the design was different, it was obvious from the faint shine around its body.

'Finally, now I know who is able to find me~!' Aiko chuckled, ready to remove this threat and then test the range of detection on other villages...