Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

He dodged casually, not even kicking those who were attacking him. They would crash into each other or each other's Abilities.

He would always glance in the Queen's direction trying to attract her attention. He was a complete show-off...

Which didn't work at all... The Queen continued licking the little ones fur, not paying any attention at all.

'Show-off.' The girl clicked her tongue annoyed, but noticing that the powerful Fox didn't pay any attention to him, she felt much better.

"Even if you are her mate there won't be any exceptions." The girl said slowly.

"That is fine." The Queen answered her. 'It will be better if she goes through it and experiences a bit of the wider world.'

The Cat Mask liked this Fox, she was smart and beautiful.

'Maybe I have a chance with her?' She thought, but she couldn't approach her. 'If I mess my timing with her I will end up like him...' She didn't want that so she would take her time.

She smiled towards the Queen, but only got a nod in response.

"So, did you pick?" The Cat Mask asked the Fox-Demon Mask.

"Yeah." The guy frowned seeing no reaction from the Fox. 'She probably doesn't know about the suppressive nature of this form.' He clicked his tongue. 'Damn it! I should have shown off once I hinted at the suppression somehow, it would have had a better effect!'

"You, you, you-" He pointed at the Fire Fox, Ice Fox, Bag Fox and Queen. The others would have to take their challenges.

"You are coming with me, the rest will have to take the normal way."

'Be careful and don't trust anyone, okay?' The Queen warned her through telepathy.

Aiko nodded towards her, while the Fox was stinky she would help her and cook her a good meal, so she would listen to her at least a little bit.

Aiko looked over the curious Foxes that were staring at her, but since nobody approached she didn't move from her place.

'She is just a dumb Beast, she won't make it.' She sighed, but she couldn't bend the rules, she would lose too many points if she did or maybe even get kicked out of the Village.

"Follow me." She immediately ran into the swamp.

The Foxes took a while to understand her words, but Aiko was already right behind her back.

'S-she is so quick?!' The girl was stunned as she was running at quite a nice pace, yet this little one already caught up to her.

'W-wait is that [Lightness Technique]?! So early?!' She was shocked but continued running.

The other Foxes were now catching up to her, especially the Blood Fox. It was angry that that little worm stared at her, she wanted to kill every Fox in there.

'This is troublesome and we can't even fail her because of her brother.' The girl sighed glancing at the Blood Fox. 'This is no good, all the promising Foxes will get corrupted by her Aura...' She shook her head, another asshole that was abusing his power, making others suffer.

'This won't end well.' She remembered Queen that beautiful Fox, while she was tempted to be the one to tell her about the death of her mate, at the same time she didn't want to, she had her morals, unlike others.

She picked up pace and other Foxes started to fight back.

First to be targeted by the Blood Fox was the boom-boom Fox, but because there was no dust in this swamp she was almost eaten if it wasn't for the shadow Fox saving her and running away from the Blood Fox.

The Blood Fox was enraged and tried to attack the Yellow Fox, only to get blasted by a light-beam. The Blood Fox staggered while the Yellow Fox proudly ran forward ignoring her.

The Blood Fox was wary of this Yellow Fox so she picked another target. The purple Fox.

The Blood Fox dashed towards the Purple Fox. The Purple Fox wasn't startled it looked like she completely disregarded the Blood Fox, making her even more upset.

The Purple Fox was running forward, while the Blood Fox 'sneaked' behind her to attack her, only for the Blood Fox to crash into the tree! The Purple Fox was nowhere to be found!

She howled madly rushing towards the ground of Foxes that were trying to outrun her, but unfortunately, only those with powerful affinity were able to escape the Blood Fox.

The girl sighed. 'What am I going to do.' She was conflicted... if she didn't help that little cub her chances of survival were close to nil.

'But if I intervene it would spell doom for me.' She didn't know what to do as she started to like this little cub herself, especially her fur, it looked so shiny and soft.

'And we are close to another stage...' The girl sped up again.

The Foxes were confused as the swamp was suddenly much more damp. Most of the Foxes here were heavy and their paws would burrow into the swamp slowing them down. If they were too heavy it would drown them.

As for Aiko... she was too light to even be considered a burden. She simply ran like nothing happened.

'Right... I was too worried.' The girl breathed a sigh of relief. 'But the next stage...' She shook her head. 'I can only console that powerful Fox later...'

They continued to run. The least affected by this sudden change were the Shadow Fox and Yellow Fox. The Purple Fox wasn't all that heavy but didn't have any technique that would make her lighter, unlike the Yellow or Shadow Fox.

The Blood Fox was using her explosive technique to bypass this change with brute force. The water splashed every time she stomped on it.

She ignored her goal and hunted the other Foxes.

Aiko noticed a new Fox appeared. It looked like an Ice Fox again but felt much weaker.

The Ice Fox was freezing everything around her, but it was only about half a meter. That half meter was still enough to make the swamp viscous enough that would allow her to run upon it without any movement penalty.

Aiko was amazed by the different Abilities and was curious about them. She didn't pay much attention to the girl up front. She didn't feel any warnings or anything and wished to observe the other Foxes.

'She should pay more attention...' The girl thought. 'We are almost at another part...'

The girl sped up once again. This time it was difficult for even Aiko to follow, but that was only if she didn't try hard enough.

*Roar*

Crocodiles, Crows, Owls and other beasts appeared before them. The silent and peaceful swamp soon turned into a battlefield.

The girl was about to pick Aiko up to make it easier for her only to be taken aback.

Aiko's fur turned black and her presence almost completely vanished. She sped up and easily caught up with the girl.

'W-what?! S-so cute!' The girl was obsessed with black coloured furs, so Aiko was the best target after that Shadow Fox, but now that she saw the new Aiko she switched targets.

Aiko was using all her hiding Skills. She calculated the distance of each stage and her stamina. It would be enough only for part of this course if she ran with everything.

Aiko dashed under the girl's skirt startling her. The girl furiously blushed but didn't try to do anything to Aiko. She didn't want to upset the other Fox.

Aiko disabled her stealth Abilities since it was safe here. She didn't pay any attention to the blushing girl since she had to predict the terrain in front of her, but what was worse was that she only had about 20cm in front of her!

She would need to predict with so little information, fortunately, her newly boosted stats were enough to compensate for her terrible predictions and she was able to somehow manage to go through this stage.

'There are still two more.' The girl thought, speeding up again.

Aiko was startled as instead of the swamp below her was sand. They were in a desert and it was a scorching one.

'Fuck! I need to be careful!' Aiko sweated. If she lost the girl and the sun shined on her she would lose all of her Shadow-related buffs, she still had the Agility buff, but the Shadow one was still bigger and better as it boosted everything.

Aiko was now much more careful and panicky, burning through more Stamina than was necessary.

'She is managing well.' She observed Aiko with her weak Divine Sense. She then looked around and only the Ice Fox was doing poorly, but still good enough that she was able to dodge the onslaught of the Blood Fox.

The Blood Fox pretty much killed every other Fox, but those with special properties. This greatly upset the girl as many of them had very pure Beast Cores and a bright future ahead.

'I swear if he wasn't so much stronger I would have already chopped his head off.' She cursed the Blood Fox's brother. 'And he dares to even try to be my mate.' She spat on the ground, but it actually stuck to her mask. 'Fuck! I'm so angry I'm becoming stupid!'

The Desert was rough on everyone, but the boom-boom Fox. She was an Earth-Fire based Fox so she was fine, but her mate the Shadow Fox wasn't doing all that good and she had to be carried by the smaller boom-boom Fox.

The Purple Fox was similar but didn't have her mate to carry her so she was using her pure willpower to get through this.

The Yellow Fox had it slightly better than the Purple Fox, but she was still quite miserable. Sweat dripped from her fur. She almost looked like a wet cat.

The Desert ended after another incense stick of time and they arrived at the meadow.

There was supposed to be another part, but one old fossil didn't like the wait and cut it shorter. There are more challenges later, but at least it was cut short a bit.

'I want to pet that little one...' The Old Fogey thought. 'But that will all depend if she can make it through the other parts.' While he did want to pet her, he wasn't obsessed and that was only because he didn't see Aiko in person.

"That little one is also apparently the mate of our new rising star..." The Old Fogey thought. "If I could charm the small one I would get one as a bonus." He laughed out loud disturbing the other Elder.

"Shut up you goddamn pervert!" One of them yelled at him. "Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself!" They glared at him.

The Old Fogey was stunned, he was sure that he only thought about it...

"Stop reading my mind, you bastard." He shouted back.

"Who are you calling bastard, you senile fool!"

"Who are you calling a fool you-" This conversation was a daily occurrence and was ignored by most Elders. They had better things to do than bicker like children.

"What do you think?" One of the Elders asked.

"We should punish her for allowing the little one to take such a shortcut." One of them said.

"That's only jealousy speaking! Your fur is not as beautiful as those little ones so you are picking a fight!"

"Who is picking a fight you bastard!" He shouted back.

This was one of the reasons this wasn't the main Village. They couldn't make anything work as they would bicker 90% of the time and the rest would be spent on Cultivation...