Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The next day Aiko was confused about what happened. For some reason, the Fox had 2 tails. They were both fluffy and soft, felt real and everything.

'2 Tails.' Aiko was looking at her strangely.

The Queen smiled, she had a breakthrough during the night. She could've had it sooner since she consumed so many souls, but was worried that Aiko wouldn't be able to remember her with such a drastic change since she knew that Aiko liked to sleep on her.

She prepared a small surprise for her and surprise it was.

Aiko was cautiously touching those tails, sometimes slapping them. She was like a kitten who found a new toy to play around with.

"You will get more tails too." The Queen smiled gently. "The maximum amount of tails is 9, each tail gives you a strength boost, some Cultivation techniques can also weaponize those tails like [Fox-Fire] or illusion Techniques."

Aiko stared at the strange Fox. Still confused about how she got another tail overnight and how both of them became even softer.

The Queen picked Aiko and they left their temporary den. They have no time to spare as they already spent too much time here and it would still take them some more time before they arrive at the true border of the 'Fox Village'.

The Forest had much less Qi than what they were used to, so the Queen slowed down so that Aiko could readjust. While it wouldn't hurt her if she continued to run, it might cause nausea and vomiting, which would be a pain to clean since she should conserve her energy.

She might be already in the Spirit Beast Rank, but it's not good to waste your Qi like that. Especially when you are in a territory that is ruled by a 'neutral' faction.

"We are not their ally until we join them, so don't believe those vixens alright?" The Queen spoke gently towards Aiko.

'Aren't you one of them?' Aiko asked in her mind, it was a good thing that she couldn't speak otherwise she would get an earful from this Fox.

As they walked forward Aiko spotted other Foxes. There were different colours and sizes. It was quite a sight to behold, but they didn't look all that appealing to Aiko.

'Short tail... dirty fur... too small...' Aiko was appraising anyone and everyone that got in her line of sight. Naturally, the Queen didn't stop her since she was doing similar things.

Nobody approached them, they could feel the Queen's energy, which was vastly out of their league so they didn't try anything funny, but that didn't stop them when they glared at Aiko.

Aiko didn't feel all that good, while she wasn't weak when it came to speed, she didn't have as much power behind her claws, unless she would be able to ambush them she wouldn't deal much damage to them as most of them were around the middle stages of Magical Beast Rank, while Aiko sat at Peak of Beast Rank.

They walked at a steady pace and throughout the night Aiko slept. Around the half point of the day she already gotten used to those unsavoury sights, but there were also some strange sights.

A fox that was walking on two legs and had a large bag on his back. He was glancing at Aiko here and there.

...

The next morning Aiko woke up and that strange bag carrying Fox was close to them, her own stinky Fox didn't mind him so Aiko was curious about him.

"Good morning, Miss." The Bag Fox bowed towards her and Aiko blinked at him strangely, that bag was just too out of place.

"You have beautiful eyes, Miss. Your eyes are like the ocean; I could swim in them all day." He spoke gently towards Aiko, making the Queen frown.

The reason she kept him close was because he was considerably strong and if he wasn't picked at the beginning he could protect Aiko, but now she didn't really like that plan.

Aiko stared at her mean Fox since she was glaring at the Bag Fox. She did understand it was a pickup line, but she was never on the receiving end so it felt too strange to react to in any way.

On the other hand, Queen was way too hostile for some simple and nice words. Aiko didn't understand why.

*Boom*

A Fox blasted past them, being chased by blood-coloured fur. The boom-boom Fox had a flat tail that would cause dust particles to gather and then she would ignite them with the upper part of the tail, which would-

*Boom*

She blasted forward still being chased by that blood-coloured fur Fox, but Aiko noticed another one with black fur chasing the blood-coloured fur Fox.

'What a strange combination.' Aiko thought.

She saw them running in a strange circle and then noticed that there was plenty of dust gathered around them. The black-coloured Fox withdrew as the boom-boom Fox ignited her tail.

*BOOOOOM*

The Forest shook and the earth was gouged out from the force of the explosion. She noticed that a shadow Fox was near her, staring at her and soon something fell from the sky.

It was the boom-boom Fox, she looked exhausted.

The blood-coloured Fox was almost unscathed, some parts of her body were slightly burnt, but considering the size and force of the explosion it was surprising that the Fox survived unscathed.

Aiko was amazed by the blood-coloured Fox and admired her.

"That Fox is a Demonic Beast." The Queen told Aiko as a warning. "It will attack anyone that would upset it."

Aiko nodded at Queen, not noticing she was observed by the boom-boom Fox, the shadow Fox and Bag Fox.

They all had high intelligence since they were almost at the Peak of Magical Beast Rank, but they couldn't feel that same energy from Aiko. Either she was hiding too well or she wasn't Magical Beast like them.

They didn't have much knowledge about Beast Ranks, so their curiosity was purely because she was being carried by such a powerful Fox and the fact that Aiko dared to meet the eye of the Blood Fox.

The Shadow Fox was a bit wary and apprehensive of Aiko. She would always try to suppress her peers with her shadow Abilities, but she found out that Aiko had the same Elemental Affinity as her. Aiko's was just much stronger.

"We will soon be entering the inner part of Fox territory.' The Queen spoke towards Aiko gently.

The Bag Fox looked disheartened, like someone stole something from him, while the other duo were much more at ease.

They walked together, soon it felt like more and more trees were blocking their path. The Queen easily navigated and the others followed behind them.

Most less intelligent Foxes would get lost in here and eventually die, but this mere trick wouldn't work on this Queen. This low-grade Array couldn't even hide from her and she already made a backdoor for herself just in case they tried to weaponize this Array.

She gave the same key to Aiko, which Aiko was unaware of. The Queen did it so flawlessly that only a few old fools in the 'Fox Village' would be able to see through, unfortunately for those old fools, they didn't like watching these tests so they rarely attended.

They easily managed to get through that Array arriving at the grass opening. It wasn't all that vast, just a little bit and further on there was a swamp. It smelled really bad and Aiko wanted to leave, but Queen wouldn't allow that and Aiko was dragged into the grassy opening.

Other Foxes were already there and Aiko soon forgot about the smell.

There was a Fox that completely burned the ground under her, and another that froze everything within 10 meters. Surprisingly they sat next to each other, as if fighting over who had a more powerful aura.

"So... how are you popsicle." The Fire Fox asked. It was quite a gentle, but still male voice.

"Did you say something? Even our bonfire is hotter than you are." It was a female voice, not as gentle.

Aiko could see that both of them were sweating buckets. The Fire Fox from being wet and the Ice Fox from her increased temperature.

Aiko was really curious if it was that hot, but was stopped by the mean Fox.

"They are about 3x hotter than the Fire Lizard you fought." The Queen told her with a smirk.

That doused any curiosity of getting closer to those Foxes. She still had sometimes nightmares about her fur burning and the Lizard chuckling with glee.

She didn't really want to re-enact her burned tail so she looked around, not realizing that those two competitive Foxes were looking at Aiko.

"Curious." The Fire Fox said.

"Indeed." For once the Ice Fox agreed.

Aiko spotted a Yellow Fox, but whenever she would look at her. It felt... oppressive. She didn't feel all that good staring at her and she felt like she would take damage any moment if she stared just a bit longer.

There was another Fox which was even stranger than the yellow one. It was a Purple Fox and whenever Aiko would look at her she would feel dizzy. So dizzy in fact that the Queen laughed at her attracting everyone's attention.

"That is an illusionist. She excels at fooling your senses." The Queen gently explained wrapping Aiko in her energy, using [Clean] and licking her.

Aiko due to that energy could see the Fox clearly now. She was much smaller than what she previously saw, but still as beautiful. Aiko was curious about how she was able to enlarge herself since she didn't know about illusions.

2 Humans already entered and watched the strange scene where a small cub was looking around curiously at other Foxes, being licked by a powerful Fox.

Other Foxes were also staring at the cub in curiosity since its energy was much smaller, maybe because all of them were already at Magical Beast Rank and some already at Peak Magical Beast Rank.

They couldn't feel her energy, it might be because of that powerful Fox, but even so that tiny cub still didn't feel intimidating in the slightest.

'Isn't that?' The girl with the Cat mask sends a telepathic message to her co-worker.

'It's Beast Rank.' The guy said, with a gentle smile behind his Fox-Demon mask.

'Should we kick her out?' The girl asked, uncertain.

'Do you want to anger that?' He laughed through telepathy. 'That Fox is already at Spirit Beast Rank.'

'Huh!?' The girl almost stumbled when she heard that. 'Someone that powerful is after someone so weak?' She couldn't believe that.

'That little one is intelligent and has slightly suppressive feelings towards that shadow Fox, so it shouldn't be that simple.' He answered her in his own way.

'Intelligent? I call bullshit on that one!' She glared at him through her mask.

'With such a bad attitude you won't find a mate.' The guy teased her.

'As if I would want those bimbos.' The girl snorted back and that snort alerted the Foxes on the grassy field.

"You have all managed to get here, good job." He said gently, while a few Foxes immediately rushed at him trying to kill him for looking like a 'Human'.

He disappeared from that place and reappeared in the middle of the grassy field. He was looking through all the Foxes, some more intelligent didn't attack him. Only those with low intelligence were blinded by their pride.

Aiko was looking at his strange ears and tail that were swaying behind him. It didn't look as fluffy as the mean Fox's tail, but it was still good material for sleeping.

7/10