Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko stared around, this place felt filthy rich. She was wondering how many Beast Cores they have, but unfortunately for her, she wouldn't be able to know that since all the Beast Cores are kept in their respective rings and once one buys them they would be transferred inside this building.

There were quite a few that would try to steal those things and that's why they arranged Arrays that were wider than this place multiple times.

It was also independently powered by the ambient Qi, but once someone attacked it harder it would switch and burn Spirit Stones to power it.

Aiko was curious about the writings on the walls and tiles.

The Queen smiled quietly watching Aiko be interested in something.

"Grandmaster." A Guard of this place spoke gently towards us holding his position.

"How are you doing?" The Grandmaster made a small talk and they waited. Aiko was very curious about everything so she didn't mind and the Queen was patient only because it would allow her to get the Beast Cores that her little one might need.

She chuckled seeing the flustered employees of this place.

"Grandmaster." They cupped their fists towards us and guided us inside.

The place was humongous, it felt like they were in a historic site, digging for treasures.

But those employees weren't grave plunderers, but polite Elders that watched over us.

"We would like to see your Beast Cores." The Grandmaster spoke gently and gestured towards Aiko and the Queen.

They understood and one quietly left for the jade slip with their inventory.

Soon he returned and placed it on the well-decorated table. The room was decorated in a similar fashion, but still, everything was densely Inscribed with countless Inscriptions.

[Linguistics: Lv.2->3]

Aiko tilted her head, not understanding what was happening, but the mean Fox spoke almost immediately clicking her tongue. "They are too low grade, their purity is awful too."

The Grandmaster browsed the jade slip. "I didn't know this place degraded so much." The Grandmaster shook her head, leaving the others embarrassed.

"That's not all we have!" One employee defended their Pavilion.

"Well, we will be leaving, it seems like we will have to hunt ourselves." The Queen said she was furious for what they did. 'How dare they show us only lowest grade stock.'

Aiko didn't know about this mental gymnastics and nodded with the stinky Fox. While she didn't want to fight, she didn't mind hunting. As long as she was allowed to choose her prey, that was a very important part.

The Grandmaster smiled apologetically towards the Jade Fox. The Jade Fox shook her head. "It's not your fault Grandmaster, you are not running this place."

They stood up leaving.

The Grandmaster sighed. "I never expected them to do something like that in front of me." She was one of the richest people in this Sect so bringing only the lowest goods felt like they were trying to slap her face.

"It will take time to hunt the needed Beast Cores." The Queen clicked her tongue, but she didn't even think about returning.

She was always like that, once a shop or group tried to embarrass or insult her there would be no mercy from her. She would stop associating with them and if given enough time, slowly ruin them from bad reputation.

She licked her lips, and while she didn't have time to ruin them she had enough fanatics that she could act around with and that would allow her to spread the words that the Treasure Pavilion was rude and arrogant in front of her.

She giggled about that and was delighted, as she already saw some fanatics trailing her.

She would make a show in front of them.

...

Aiko was still looking through the shop, she still had some time left and there were a few more mastered Skills that she could upgrade, but yet again they were underwhelming.

She suddenly noticed that she could have duplicates. She already had [Enhanced Basic Senses], but she could still buy [Enhanced taste], [Enhanced hearing], etc...

'Would it be possible to use the stealth abilities to upgrade some other Skills and then buy them again and repeat?' Aiko thought, some combined Skills/Abilities were really good, but it would be too bad if she couldn't get even more powerful combinations because she spent those Skills on something more mediocre, but now she knew she could purchase them so she was only limited by how fast she could level them up.

'I could get [Basic Presence Concealment] if I combine a few that I didn't want to lose, then I just have to buy them again and repeat with different Skills.' Aiko thought. 'I will also have to test if those effects stack.'

For example if her [Agility Mastery] would stack with [Enhanced Agility].

'It would be nice~' Aiko hummed.

...

They arrived at their Den, of course, the Grandmaster didn't mind what the Jade Fox was doing as it would recover some of her face.

"I do have a few Beast Cores around so we can trade it for something later." The Grandmaster said.

"That would be highly appreciated as I won't have enough time to hunt and this little cutie doesn't know how to distinguish prey with high-quality Beast Core over low-quality." The Queen sighed. "It would be nice if you could teach her that when I'm preparing those Pills for you, I will also have to draw quite a few Arrays now that she wants to advance, so I will bother you with the Array Chalk." The Queen stared at the Grandmaster.

"No problem I still have quite a bit of Chalk from when I borrowed it from the Array Peak." She readily nodded.

"Good, while it might not be the highest it should be good enough until I create my own Chalk." The Queen nodded and then asked. "Any good place for violent advancements?"

She asked the Grandmaster with a wide smile, startling her. "So you will let her Evolve?" The Grandmaster sighed. "There are plenty of places where you can Evolve."

"Violent advancements." The Queen smiled, emphasising that part.

"Hmmmm." The Grandmaster thought. "Maybe the wasteland?"

"That is a no." The Queen immediately rejected it. "It would be difficult to keep her Beast Core clean when she would just suck up all the filth."

The Grandmaster nodded understanding only some, but the Queen spoke again. "While it doesn't need to be a rich place in Qi, you need to keep in mind that her dormant Bloodline that she just earned might awaken and cause a ruckus. That's why I rejected the wasteland since it would turn into a complete desert."

The Grandmaster was deep in thought. "I will ask around my friends if they can't spare some space. For a price of course."

"Naturally." The Queen readily nodded, she wouldn't want to get attached to someone's karma just like that as it might affect her future. She would rather find that place by herself if they didn't want anything in exchange. She would not be tied that easily.

She looked at Aiko and sighed.

...

They walked towards the gathering. Aiko was in her Humanoid form, she now could last around 94 minutes, which was not enough for the whole class, but enough to participate through most of it.

They sat down at their usual place and murmurs spread through the gathering. Which was only natural as Aiko was in human form with inhuman 104,661 Beauty!

They couldn't look away once they caught a glimpse of Aiko and she was embarrassed because she didn't like so much attention.

Fortunately soon 'Martial Senior' entered the gathering and everyone went quiet. Nobody wanted to be punished after experiencing that dreadful place, but that didn't mean they wouldn't steal glances at Aiko.

Aiko didn't want to be here, but she really wanted to learn Inscriptions as for some reason they levelled up her [Linguistics].

While today wouldn't be about Inscriptions, they would still handle pens made out of feathers. They were the cheapest and most readily available so that even if someone broke it, nothing much would happen as they simply had plenty of feathers lying around.

The 'Martial Senior' distributed the feather with his Divine Sense. A gasps of admiration drifted from here and there, but Jade Fox's group and even that little one were uninterested.

The Martial Senior's lips twitched, he didn't believe they weren't interested, just playing coy.

"Today we will learn about fingers and how to use-" He stared dumbfounded at the Jade Fox who casually copied the parchment in front of her.

Likewise, Aiko was able to somewhat write, but she didn't stay in her Fox form long enough to remember the pain of her wrists whenever she had to write essays. She didn't understand what kind of essay, but she understood that she should do it at the last moment.

They were happily writing and while the others struggled, in the Jade Fox's group they were much much better than anyone in this gathering.

The 'Martial Senior' was left speechless for a good while, he could only hear the snapping of feathers from the front row, while the back row was more or less self-sufficient.

[You have earned [Calligraphy]!]
[Calligraphy]
[Passive Skill]
[Improves your writing skills.]

Aiko had her own little cheat that allowed her to write more carelessly without breaking the feather, so while others struggled she watched her skill slowly advancing.

[Calligraphy: Lv.1->5]

Aiko smiled happily, but she felt tired.

*Poof*

She exhausted her Stamina and turned back into Fox. The Queen was currently away giving the teacher her and her Mate's parchment.

Aiko was tired, but couldn't find her favourite pillow Dreamy.

Her senses tingled, nudging her into a certain distance. She sneaked around as everyone was occupied with their assignment.

"Kya!"

A surprised yelp spread throughout the gathering and they looked towards that direction.

The Blood Fox was embarrassed as she was surprised by someone touching her tail, but when she turned around she stiffened.

'W-w-w-what is she d-doing here?!' She was scared witless from seeing Aiko wrapped around her tail happily snoozing.

[Congratulations! You have earned a new Title: [Tail Hunter]]
[Tail Hunter]
[You are more likely to find a tail of your liking! Decreases the chances of the prey shaking you off!]

Aiko was happily snoozing, while the Blood Fox was furiously blushing.

The Queen's lips twitched. 'That little rascal found another prey.'

The Queen already knew that Aiko was looking towards the Grandmaster's tails, but since the Grandmaster would always dodge, she was unable to get them.

'This was the perfect place for her mischief.' The Queen shook her head, feeling pity towards that scared Fox.

She handed those papers and walked towards the Blood Fox.

The Blood Fox was screaming in her mind that she would be killed by the Jade Fox.

The Queen arrived near her tail.

'S-she won't rip my t-tail off, right?' She was quivering.

The Queen placed her tail near her fluffball, the fluffball's ears twitched, but she didn't move.

The Queen's brows twitched. She placed another tail near that little rascal and in the blink of an eye Aiko was already sleeping on her tails.

The Queen sighed, moving back to her place, with Aiko sleeping on her.

She was concerned that she would molest other Foxes, but it seemed that she was only interested in the high-quality ones.

The Queen then clicked her tongue. 'I will have to groom my tails or she might run away from me once she finds a better tail.'

She sighed shaking her head. This will be a lot more troublesome keeping her little servant with her than she expected.