Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Chapter 43 – Skills and Victims

'That little brat dared to hide more food from me!' The Queen clicked her tongue. She was very displeased as she worked really hard on her Beast Core, but that little furball just threw her hard work out of the window! 'Just wait when you return. I will take all of that filthy food.' She smiled.

The audience was shivering from the Jade Fox's smile, they wanted to run away from it. It was too scary! But they couldn't! Not when that little one was eating so happily!

They looked at the other projections, the other foxes also didn't have any trouble, but they had a hard time keeping those humans alive.

'Seriously give us back our hard test!' They screamed internally as they found it unfair.

Aiko was sleeping soundly in the projection, while the other foxes gathered even more humans... corpses. They were seriously bad at keeping them alive.

But the audience didn't mind as they cared only about that little Foxie, most of them already lost too much blood and couldn't get another nosebleed, but that didn't stop them from fainting.

...

Aiko woke up refreshed. She needed to hunt only 10 humans a day, which was simple, so she should use this situation to learn new skills or upgrade the old ones.

She looked at [Burrow], she really liked this skill where she could just move under the ground, but its upgrade would cost her 50 Skill Points.

On the other hand, it would become an Ability for some reason, an [Earthen Walk]. She was really happy and confused.

She thought that she needed more skills to reach Abilities and so on, but it seems that some skills were exceptionally close to Abilities and thus they could become one?

She didn't mind this strangeness as it meant she was much more powerful.

[You have improved [Burrow] to [Earth Walk]!]

Next up was [Crushing Bite], this one, unfortunately, didn't change into an Ability, and as such Aiko was hesitating.

'Should I wait or upgrade it now?' She had trouble fighting difficult opponents up close and this Ability wouldn't be able to change that, she should probably purchase some Throwing Skill to make up for her lack of range arsenal.

She searched the shop and found a multitude of ranged skills, from archery to rock throwing. She didn't know if rock throwing would count with her tail, so she didn't immediately buy it.

She browsed the shop for something nice and found something extremely odd.

[Nurture] Skill was for free! She didn't understand what it meant, but free skills wouldn't hurt her, right?

[You have a new Skill [Nurture].]
[####]

It didn't have a description like some other things, but maybe it was just a very complicated way to nurture her body?

She Activated this new and free skill.

[Beast Core(10%): 1,000 -> 999]

Aiko was startled. It took her Beast Core energy, but only a single point? Does that mean it could only take a certain number?

Most Beast Cores gave her between 1-10 Points, so this consumption was not all that bad. She would have to wait and see, it was also only Level 1 so once it increased its Level its effects should also increase.

Elemental Spirit: [Seed of ####; Nurtured 1/100,000]

'Ah! It's that seed!' Aiko almost facepalmed. Only now she could remember her swallowing that Seed. She cursed the stinky Fox and returned to the Elemental Spirit.

[Seed of ####; Nurtured 1/100,000]
[User is required to nurture this seed in order to advance its stage. Each stage will make it stronger and add additional Effect.]

[Seed of ####]
[Effects:
####
]

'But 100,000... isn't that a bit too much?' Aiko thought it was unfair that it cost so much to nurture. 'And I can't use nurture again! This will be a pain in the ass.' Aiko shook her head.

She returned to the throwing skills as no other strange skill was free or maybe she just couldn't find them...

[Throwing Mastery] cost the most at a whopping 25 points! but it seemed like it applied to ANY throwing weapon.

It was pricy and it wasn't even an Ability, but if it helped improve her ranged combat prowess.

'I will throw rocks at them!' Aiko giggled with a sinister 'voice'.

Next up was [Sprint], but she really didn't want to combine it just yet and upgrades to it were very lacklustre.

[Tracking] She didn't need to upgrade, since she did none of that, but [Quick Jump]~ she should definitely improve that since it's such an amazing Skill.

'Passive skill is meh, I really like the active parts since they are much more powerful!' Aiko thought, but unfortunately, she was once again wrong.

While Skills did indeed have more powerful effects when in active form, once she got too many active Skills they would burn through her Stamina really quickly, as such it was better to use passive skills.

[Quick Double Jump]
[User can perform jump mid-air without any footholds.]

[You have improved [Quick Jump] to [Quick Double Jump]!]

Aiko's eyes shined brightly. She really really liked these skills! And it cost her only 10 points~!

'Go, go!' Aiko hummed.

[Climb]... Aiko didn't do any climbing, but she might do it here since it wasn't flat and if she could throw rocks like squirrels throwing nuts~.

Aiko giggled again, but she hesitated.

'Do I want [Climb] to be active or stick with passive?' She didn't know the right answer for this question. She would climb sometimes, but not always, she didn't want to waste her points on something she wouldn't use in the long run...

[Enhanced Climbing]
[Passive Skill]
[Improves your climbing prowess.]

[You have improved [Climb] to [Enhanced Climbing]!]

'Maybe I should evolve into climbing Fox next~' Aiko mused herself.

She spent 5 points on that.

[Enhanced Sight]...

'I'm not sure about this one, should I combine it into [Enhanced Basic Senses] or just upgrade it...' Aiko looked at it.

'[Enhanced Basic Senses] is not that expensive and it would allow me to improve all of my basic senses...'

'Yeeeeah, let's just go for it, it might not be an Ability, but it's still a passive, anything that helps me will be good.' Aiko completely threw her reasoning out. She just wanted to see numbers go up.

[You have combined: [Enhanced Sight: Mastered] + [Enhanced Smell: Mastered] into [Enhanced Basic Senses]!]

This cost her 85 Skill points, but she didn't mind that it would be useful later on.

'[Stamina Recovery], let's just wait for [Health Recovery] and [Vitality Recovery] and combine them.'

'[Prehensile Tail]... [Weaponized Tail]... inflicts a fatal wound upon the enemy. Depends on tail type...' Aiko looked at her soft fluffy tail. 'Yeah right, no way that is gonna work.' She threw that idea out of the window.

'[Temperature Regulation]- Geh! It costs 25 points! And I will only get [Thermal Regulation]...'

[You have improved [Temperature Regulation] to [Thermal Regulation]!]

'I'm so sorry, for I have sinned.' Aiko prayed.

...

Aiko tried using her [Nurture] again.

[Beast Core(10%): 999 -> 998]
[Seed of ####; Nurtured 2/100,000]

This will take forever... She didn't know how much time passed, but it was definitely more than an hour.

She peeked outside. The coast was clear so she jumped out.

Now that she had a new arsenal she wanted to test it out.

She dashed through the Forest without stopping and arrived in front of a group of Human Cultivators.

She already had rocks wrapped around her tail and threw them at them.

*Pop**Pop**Pop*

Aiko was shocked as those rocks deformed their heads, killing them.

'Well shit, now I'm too strong...' She would have to adjust her strength accordingly otherwise this leisure test would turn into a nightmare.

There are still plenty of targets so let's practice.

...

[Throwing Mastery: Lv.1->5]

Number of corpses: 85
Number of Victims: ... 1

'I did it~!' Aiko happily hummed as she managed to obtain her first Victim after that "sudden" power-up.

She happily hummed as she shoved that half-dead human inside the pouch.

...

The Victim woke up in an unfamiliar space. They were suddenly attacked and now they were here.

"Fuck." Cursed youth rubbing his head.

Another body fell and he was startled, looking around there were many bodies.

"What the fuck happened?" He didn't understand at all. Another colleague of his woke up.

"Shit, my head." He groaned, meeting the eye of his fellow sect member. "Shitty 'testing ground'." He groaned again.

The youth nodded, agreeing.

And yet another body fell. At first, they were scared the first time a corpse fell, but now they are used to it...

"40 Corpses..." The youth shivered and sat obediently in the corner with the others, not approaching the corpse pile.

Another corps- No, wait this one is barely alive!

They dragged that unfortunate person to them and treated his injuries, if they have to be in this hellhole, everyone should! So whenever someone tried to take his life, others would take that weapon from him and beat him senselessly.

They wouldn't let them leave if they can't leave!

...

The Audience shivered.

80 corpses... they slowly chanted. They couldn't believe that that little furball would be so vicious. They looked towards the Jade Fox and pitied her.

The Queen's lips twitched, she didn't like this attention, since she found what Aiko was doing completely fine and she didn't mind. It was a bit strange when she was able to hurl so many rocks with her tail, but she got used to it after the 20th corpse.

She stared at Aiko.

'Does she not have any ranged Abilities?' Was her sudden thought and she pinched her nose bridge. 'That would mean that, that Fire Lizard was an unfortunate fight.

She was used to everyone having at least 1 or 2 ranged Abilities, but she didn't think this little resourceful fella wouldn't have. 'That was my mistake.' She sighed. 'I will have to teach her some ranged Abilities later.'

There was a slight issue with the element, but that would be fine, she still had a couple of Earthen Skills so she would teach Aiko those.