Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The goblins smelled something sweet in the air, that smell drew them towards a certain place.

As if they were hypnotised, they slowly walked towards a certain direction.

The shamans tried their best to make them stop, but it was useless, not just the normal goblins, but elite, champions, chiefs, everyone went in the same direction.

Nobody could stop them, slowly, from small ground to a bigger one, then to a bigger one and so on. Their numbers grew. When one stopped or stumbled, the others would trample it, not leaving anything behind as they were like a herd of unstoppable rhinos.

The other villages fell under their senseless stomping. Fires grew large, only for those shamans to put them out, but that also slowed them.

It was impossible to catch up with the wave once that happened as they were the weakest when it came to stamina.

Not enough stamina for them to reach the destination? Well, too bad, then you just might die due to exhaustion.

As such, the furthest villages died out even before reaching the goal.

The efficiency was simply incredible. Not allowing them to rest or anything like that, just mindlessly walk towards their goal.

The numbers gathered, slowly growing in size, once one touched the ball, it strengthened the effects temporarily many fold, making them more agitated.

Then what about the big ball? It was hard to say since there were simply too many small balls, and it was hard to get to the big ball that was supposed to cause senseless killing.

At this point, some of those goblins reached the area around the home. They didn't die immediately, but it caused the last goblin to walk out.

It was not actually a goblin, but Hobgoblin, and powerful at that.

He was not ugly, but had a perfectly fine human body, minus the colour.

He seemed strong, scratching his belly.

The Hobgoblin wiped out those that approached his home, no matter who they were and that's when it happened.

The goblins close to those that just died grew even more agitated as they slowly walked towards where the blood formed.

They slurped it up, eating those bits like it was their most delicious meal in life.

The Hobgoblin grew disgusted, so he tried to kill more of them, but this only caused more and more of them to come over, as the smell of blood thickened.

The Hobgoblin was confused. He didn't understand why this happened. Sure, he killed one intruder recently, but until now he killed many of them, and none of those times did anything happen.

He was perfectly fine, so why did this happen? Was it because of those strange clothes? That seemed unlikely.

As his confusion grew, more and more goblins flooded in. It was hard to kill them all as they seemed endless. He could no longer just wipe them out as even he had limited stamina. Moreover, since he used his abilities a few times, he grew hungry.

Yet he couldn't just go inside his home to cook, as it was only a matter of time before this mindless mob swarmed his home.

The Hobgoblin panicked. He never encountered such a situation and since force didn't work, he was at the end of his rope.

Eat, just eat it. It was as if some strange voices whispered to him.

The Hobgoblin slowly disposed of a few, before eating them, new power surged inside his body, but it also seemed to degrade him.

As if losing his mind, he killed as many as he could, before eating some of them to recover his strength.

It was slow and arduous, but he was able to manage.

Yet even as he kept killing them, piles of bodies forming around him, rivers of blood flowing freely, they still didn't stop pouring in.

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It was an endless, hopeless wave of lure goblins, each one more deranged the more time passed by.

The Hobgoblin's body increased in size, slowly building up muscles from his questionable diet.

His mind degraded, he was no longer as smart, but he was still somewhat smart. He still had a sense of self and sense for tactics, but those were now limited to a more primitive kind, not that he ever used it.

The goblins didn't stop. No matter how many he killed, how many he devoured. Slowly the bodies started to rot.

The stench was overwhelming, causing them to suddenly attack each other. The end goal of this senseless killing? Total annihilation...

The Hobgoblin ate and ate some more, until his stomach could bear it and even then he would just vomit it and eat again.

It was a disgusting sight, but he was growing stronger. There would no longer be armies to fight, but a single powerful opponent, hungry for victory...

The Hobgoblin's body changed. Not just being bigger, but he even grew horns on his head and shoulders. It was a strange sight, but they were pointy and good weapons to use when his mouth and hands were occupied.

Piercing, slashing, those horns could be used in many ways, but at the same time, they did limit him by weight.

He would have to be careful about that, but his brain was steadily regressing, making him dumber and dumber.

That's when the second realisation hit him. There were no more goblins pouring in. The weakest group just arrived, from this point on, it was just about cleaning.

And clean he did, with his mouth. He devoured anything and everything in sight, growing even more horns around his body. A lot of them were around his joints, making the joints stronger, but also deadlier.

His body was reinforced several times, by the blood of the goblins, making him savour that newfound strength.

He was driven mad, not because of those lures, but because he kept eating.

While their race was different, they were still from the same family, and eating one's family, there would always be consequences.

The Hobgoblin groaned. It seemed like most of its intelligence was finally lost, but his skin was boiling.

Steam slowly rose from his body as it kept shrinking, more and more.

"Hm?" The strange Hobgoblin caressed his chin. This was certainly his body, but it was hard to control. He was stumbling around, but each punch was of the same force as an artillery gun. It was powerful, but hard to control.

The Hobgoblin eventually cleaned this place, but it turned into a wasteland. There were bodies everywhere, with shiny marbles inside their bodies, but the strange Hobgoblin didn't care about those.

He was wondering about those huge walls in the distance. Would he be able to destroy them? And what was behind them?

It felt like the same voice talked about it. The place was supposedly a paradise of colours, but what was colour?

The Hobgoblin shook his head, he would just wait here for another challenger to meet him.

He also regained most of his intelligence, allowing him to use all the tools at his disposal.

The calamity passed... somewhat, but what was Aiko doing...?

-----

*Nom*

Aiko was munching inside her mouth as the week passed by, and a second one was imminent.

She was happy as those snacks varied greatly, some were thinly sliced roasted potatoes. Some was preserved in a jar, while most of the food was, or at least looked, like it was freshly cooked.

Aiko happily munched on. She didn't check on those lures yet, but they still should be fine. She would check them at the end of the second week.

She was lazily lying around, waiting for something to happen, but nothing was happening.

Yue was doing whatever she did before, while the Spirit Slime was on the floor, enjoying Aiko's soles.

It was a strange carefree sight, compared to what was happening on the other side of this place...

"Maybe I should check on them?" Aiko thought that was a good idea, but she didn't really want to move.

Maybe she could convince Yue to check it? But she still had to teleport her, meaning she had to get that set and use it.

She... was not enthusiastic about it. Aiko would rather wait for the lures to expire and then come over to see what she could find.

Those uglies should be weakened, but she was cautious. She didn't want to get there while they might still be in full strength.

A few days later, Aiko finally finished her rest. Or rather, she was bored.

She no longer wanted to lie around, so she walked out. Looking around, not much changed. Her home didn't move, nothing obvious suddenly appeared out of nowhere, even the signs stayed the same.

'Let's check it.' Since nothing changed, maybe it was really time to visit those lures.

Aiko dressed up in her teleportation set and teleported over...

...

"What happened here?" Aiko saw those mountains of corpses, with intact marbles and questioned her sight.

Sure, this was close to the last house, but that didn't mean that whatever was inside, would be able to kill all of them.

Aiko cautiously stepped around. The ground was soaked with blood, long enough that most grass decayed or changed 'colours'.

It was subtle, but an obvious change as their shade was now darker.

The liquid on the ground? Probably blood, but would the blood be able to stay the same? Shouldn't it clog or something? Or at least harden so that she didn't need to wet her soles!

The last house was mostly intact, minus the rivers of blood that poured inside, but it didn't seem whoever was inside was too bothered by it.

Aiko didn't approach it. She had a terrible feeling, so it was better to come over with Yue, who would level this place.

Aiko recalled before she could die, breathing sight of relief.

'But now I'm worried about Yue.' While it was true that Aiko was recalled every time she 'died'. That same situation might not happen to others.

It greatly bothered Aiko, but maybe they could throw it from a distance and see how it goes?

It was not a perfect plan, but it should be easy to execute without endangering Yue.

Aiko walked back to her house, to see if Yue was around, but she couldn't find her there.

She went around the whole safe area, but she couldn't see or find her.

Confused, she sat down to look around a bit more. However, there was one place she didn't visit yet...