Chapter 40 – Is that really a Fox? Isn’t that a Mole?
Aiko was using her [Burrow] with [Intention Perception] to its fullest to find spots where there was no danger.
She spent more time under the ground than above and because inside the ground she was technically in shadow she also had boosted stats, making her much faster.
She bypassed the whole grassy field and arrived in front of rocky ground leading to a river.
The Purple Fox and Boom-boom Fox with Shadow Fox were already there staring at the water.
Aiko came near the water, it felt chilling. So much so that she didn't want to approach it.
The others stared in curiosity at the tiny cub and what it would do. They could talk already but found it too bothersome to do so currently.
Aiko lay down licking her paws. Many of those who were currently watching her either fainted or had nosebleeds as Aiko was playing cute.
Aiko was recovering stamina since she spent most of it on that grassy field. Once she recovered... heh.
...
The Elders were looking like dumb chickens at the projections.
"Say... isn't that against the rules?" One elder said. He spends so much time Cultivating that grassy field as one of the protections of the 'Fox Village'.
He felt betrayed when that little furball just bypassed it altogether not giving him enough face.
The other Elders didn't say anything. That was not against the rules, but now they wouldn't be able to gauge her survivability skills if she just straight-up took the shortcut door.
"That's not the right question gentlemen and ladies." Another Elder said. "What if she makes it as first?" He gestured towards the Aiko who was now bypassing another challenge by simply [Burrow]ing under it.
The Elders had a pained expression as this challenge was supposed to demonstrate your thinking.
"M-my river." The Elder almost coughed up blood.
The Elders stopped to think. That prize was for someone exceptional, but they couldn't really say that little one was. She completely bypassed everything...
...
Aiko jumped out of the ground at the opposite side of the river. The traversal this time was much easier since she just had to avoid the place with the wettest surroundings. Like that, she was able to [Burrow] under the river and make it to the opposite side, with only little damage taken.
Why did she take damage? That river had special Ice Qi in it which pierced much deeper than the water, so Aiko was a bit frozen during her burrowing, but nothing too serious, it would be recovered in a few days, like the grassy field damage.
Aiko looked forward, the mountain looked unimposing, ordinary. Her [Intention Perception] also didn't tell her anything.
'Forward, forward.''The goal is near, run!'
Aiko listened to the Darkness and dashed forward with her [Sprint], sometimes even using her [Quick Jump] to bypass some of the obstacles.
She felt some coldness in front of her and a strange sensation behind her.
'Don't look back.''Trust your instincts.'
Aiko was confused as her instincts were telling her that she should look back, but thinking about it again her [Intention Perception] was dormant. She would again listen to the voices, ignoring that strange sensation.
She ran for a while and met with another Fox. It was the Ice Fox, she was much slower than Aiko and had many injuries, but it seemed like the river didn't slow this Ice Fox by much as she looked like she was full of energy.
Aiko was not full of energy but was much faster than this Ice Fox startling her as she passed by her.
The Ice Fox didn't cast any Abilities, since she realized her opponent was much faster and she would just waste her energy.
That didn't mean she didn't feel upset about her loss, since she wouldn't be able to arrive first.
The Ice Fox made an internal memo about this furball to pay her back later.
Soon the Ice Fox was passed by something zipping past her. It was the Lightning Fox that was hiding around and because of his incredible speed, he was able to bypass most obstacles by simply jumping over them.
The river was also around 20m wide, but since his speed was too much he simply blasted over the river.
Now he was catching up to the furball. He smirked. 'I will be able to gain first place~' He hummed to himself already imagining the various beauties that would wait on him.
Aiko was aware of him but didn't do anything. While he was much faster than Aiko on paper, he couldn't control his speed properly, while Aiko controlled her body very well and with her [Prehensile Tail] she was able to sometimes do the impossible, but she didn't want to use her tail now since it was injured.
A drop of blood landed on the Lightning Fox. He was startled. 'Is she injured?' He wondered, but soon noticed that the tip of her tail was completely red and it was not natural red.
'If I heal her would she become my first spouse?' He thought. 'Possible, but I must make a good impression.' He nodded to himself and sped up.
He arrived next to Aiko ready to speak, but he didn't focus on where he was running and slammed his body into a tree.
Aiko was looking at this ridiculous guy but continued running. It was not her work to help these Foxes, especially when they observed her so much.
She felt like a lab rat sometimes.
She was completely unaware that hundreds of Foxes were currently watching her, laughing or cursing.
*Boom*
The boom-boom Fox passed by the Lightning Fox and right behind her was the Shadow Fox. They couldn't catch up to Aiko and they saw her in new light.
They thought that she was too weak, but she surprised them again and again. The feeling of apprehension was also gone as they saw her passive nature.
The boom-boom Fox liked Aiko a lot since she had a soft spot for Shadow Beasts.
She would love to cuddle with that little furball, but couldn't. Not to mention Queen, even her mate was very possessive of her. So she couldn't just go and make more mates.
...
On the projection, Aiko was running along when the Lightning Fox caught up again.
"Damn bastard stay away from her!""I WILL FUCKING BURN YOU!""I'm going to drown you!"
The audience was already livid each time someone got close to Aiko. There were currently 3 camps.
1st one was the Harem camp. Where everyone wanted Aiko as Mate.2nd were worshippers, they wanted to worship her cuteness and softness.3rd Neutral Camp. They wanted to worship her and be her mate at the same time as such they couldn't pick one or the other.
Hm? There were more camps? I suppose there were a few more who worshipped the Queen and the 2 strange Foxes, but nobody was all that vocal about it since they were next to them.
Aiko on the other hand was unaware of their words so they could-
"I will let you ram my ####"
"Let me #### #### #### and #### #### ####"
There was another strange camp, but those were soon beaten up by the 2nd camp for staining their pure furball...
...
Elders: "..."
One Elder shook his head. "And here I thought that the Lightning Fox would be able to take the lead, but that fool..." He sighed.
Another Elder laughed. "Ah, those young ones are funny."
They all looked at this pervert who liked the young meat but would frown if they had more than 1,000 years.
"What do we do with her Elders?" The Sect Leader spoke gently.
They were silent. They all wanted that beautiful Fox(Queen), for themselves, but were aware that that little furball was her mate, which meant she wouldn't join as Direct Disciple.
"We can't bend the rules and allow her to join the other Inner Disciples." One of the Elders shook his head.
"We also can't make her Direct Disciple since she is not strong enough." Another Elder sighed, she really liked that ever-changing fur and wanted that furball for herself.
"Do you think that she won't join the Direct Disciples if that little one wouldn't be there?" The Sect leader asked while glaring at certain elders. She was already aware that they tried to poach her(Queen) behind everyone else back.
"Let's observe for now, if she passes the Heart Array with at least 5 minutes we can bend the rules slightly." One Elder proposed, but others also thought it to be more than a good achievement, to admit her into Inner Disciple Ranks.
"Is it settled then?" She asked the Elders.
"Yes, Sect Leader." The Elders bowed with respect.
The Sect Leader was a busy person who needed to leave soon for the mainland, in a few years they would arrive back with an envoy from the main Sect to gather all the talented Foxes and reward them for their work.
The mainland was a very competitive place with an incredibly high mortality rate, which meant that they burned through talent faster than they could foster and that's where their Sect came into play.
They would gather all the talent from this continent and send them to the main Sect.
The Sect Leader sighed. Each time she would leave some kind of catastrophe happened, she hoped that this time it would be different...
...
"WOHOOOOOOO!""GOGOGO""YAAAAY"
They were cheering for the little Furball that was near the finish line.
"DON'T YOU DARE YOU BASTARD OR I WILL MAKE YOU BALD!"
Or cursed those who tried to overtake her. They were surprisingly unified in this and only a few weren't with the small furball, but those were beaten by the majority, so they chose to be quiet for the time being.
...
Aiko crossed the finish line without much difficulty as the Lightning Fox crashed into another tree just before the finish line, ending up 4th.
The Blood Fox was the last one as she was not very smart and had to brute force everything. Thus was supposed to be injured everywhere on her body.
Surprisingly she was not injured at all. She had a lot of blood on her, but none of that blood was hers but of the other Foxes.
Aiko was observing that Fox, there was a strange feeling towards that Fox and she couldn't quite put her finger on it. The Darkness was telling Aiko about her, but she couldn't understand a thing they were saying.
Why was she supposed to beat this Fox senseless?
The Darkness was always right, Aiko already got used to this, but she just couldn't grasp the idea behind such an action.
Sure that Blood Fox was a pain in the ass, but it's not like she was powerful enough to cause problems for her.
She didn't care about the other Foxes that the Blood Fox slaughtered. She didn't know them so why should she care?
And how was she supposed to beat her senseless when her only real weapon was [Lacerate] and [Crushing Bite]...
[#### #### ####][New Mission!][Beat the Blood Fox senseless][Reward: - ]
'Great, now the system is acting up.' Aiko was really bothered by this and couldn't understand why that happened since the system was silent for now.
Little did she know that it was not the system...