Chapter 535 – Exploring the Nightmare Forest
Moon Aiko shook her head. She will probably have to make her own filtration system to slowly break the different Qi inside their body before allowing the new Qi to enter it.
That would probably be her first prototype for the time being.
Leaving the cave, Aiko masked it with some green branches with leaves.
Both Human Cultivators and Beasts relied too much on their sensing of Qi, which meant that simple masking would have a higher chance of going unnoticed.
This would allow Aiko to use this place as her base of operation before finding the old fossils and robbing them.
Or maybe a new base somewhere deeper, but that would only happen if she were able to deal with the Beasts.
Shaking her head gently, she left her base and scouted the surroundings.
The cave was located on a small hill. It was not much, but it was hidden well enough that it shouldn't trouble her.
Around her was a sea of trees, making it difficult to advance through without proper preparations. Above the sea of trees were predators that hunted anyone who dared to fly through their territories.
There was no real ban on flying, but most were too weak to contend with the flying Beasts.
Moon Aiko didn't really need to fly, since her memory worked great.
The roles were quite simple. Moon Aiko was the brain of the operation and the planner for the future.
Sun Aiko was the tasty fruit that attracted all the pesky flies, while Witch Aiko was that poisonous worm inside the apple, killing anyone who tried to take a bite out of it.
It was a well-balanced team that would work for a while.
This was the peripheral of the Nightmare Forest. That's also where the village was located, but Aiko didn't want to visit them just yet.
Aiko was able to deal with the Beasts as long as they were not too quick or immune to poison.
The latter part was rarer since there were no locations with thick poison, so most Beasts didn't develop it.
From her understanding, the peripheral part of the forest was supposed to be the biggest, but Aiko was not sure if that was really true.
It was certainly big, and she wouldn't be able to easily find the old fossils if they didn't cause any ruckus- Is what they might think, but Aiko had some tricks up her sleeves.
The Table Map!
She couldn't refine it since it didn't have any 'core', but once she properly fixed it, it should be possible.
For now, she didn't need that since-
"It's looting time, motherfuckers~!" Witch Aiko smiled sinisterly as she looked at the Table Map.
She already explored for a bit, so it showed quite a few points of interest!
-----
There was a strange rumour that spread throughout the Nightmare Forest.
About a shadowy being who harvested anything valuable in a given location. That included but was not limited to: Spirit Stones, Herbs, precious materials and even the dirt!
Everyone knew where it appeared, since there would be cubes of missing dirt!
Even some more powerful Beasts were more cautious about their Treasures, since nobody was able to see the being who robbed anything that wasn't protected or well hidden!
-----
It has been about a month so far since Aiko went into this forest. The peripheral part was now easy for her as she adjusted to the fast Beasts.
She also looted a shit ton of things, bringing her wealth to a staggering 234,877 Spirit Stones! And that was when she just casually collected them!
At this point, Witch Aiko was very dirty, and she was also running out of space, so it was time to groom her tails soon and read those books.
But she wouldn't do it until she made her way into the outer part of the Nightmare Forest.
The resources at the peripheral part were too low in quality, but plentiful, so Aiko was quite sick of them.
By getting to the outer part, she would be able to get higher-grade materials and Herbs, allowing her to gain wealth quicker.
Nodding her head gently, she went deeper into the forest...
...
At first, Aiko didn't know where she would see the separator between outer and peripheral, but that was needless worry.
'I never knew there was such a huge chasm...' Aiko's eyes widened greatly, and she also realised another thing.
'There is a ban on flying...' She could test her Spirit Boat, but there were quite a few humans sitting near the chasm, waiting for each other to cross.
However, there were no bridges. Once someone tried to get to the other side, they would be stopped by others, since nobody was willing to share what was inside, even if nobody owned it.
It was truly a foolish thought on their part, since they would be able to earn more if they stuck together, but for some reason, greed was a powerful separator.
Greed and Lust were the main driving points of Human Cultivators in this place.
If it was a beautiful woman, they were invited into large groups for 'benefits', if it was a wealthy individual, the same would happen for 'protection'.
In theory, Aiko could come over in her Sun 'Human' Aiko Form, but that might have blown her cover.
Moreover, Sun Aiko was too energetic, so there was a risk she would mess something up.
Neither Moon Aiko nor Witch Aiko wanted to risk that.
'I wonder if I should jump it...' Witch Aiko narrowed her eyes. It should be possible since she was not a human, and her legs were pretty powerful.
Staying in Fox Form allowed her to go unnoticed since she was tiny, but pseudo-Human Form had the benefit of dexterity, especially her fingers.
Moon Aiko gently shook her head. She would first try to throw some rocks to the other side for the time being.
...
The rocks flew all the way across without any resistance, so the next step was living creatures.
Moon Aiko brought back some living animals and threw them to the opposite side.
If it were a larger animal, it would be 'dragged' down the chasm, without any option of escape.
Moon Aiko concluded that it was 'alive' and 'sorting' what 'flew' over it.
Her next step would be to subdue some Beasts and throw them to the other side, too.
...
This test ended up concerning, since the chasm consumed anything that had a certain amount of Qi, and naturally, Aiko was way over that limit.
That left either trying to jump over it and pray or descend.
Well, there was a third option, which Moon Aiko wanted to try.
Moon Aiko jumped over the chasm, but before she felt any kind of pulling motion, she steeled herself.
[Moon's Crust] - Full output
A small Moon wrapped around Aiko as it was dragged down.
The Moon was chomped down by something. That Monster, Beast or whatever it was, choked on it and spat her out.
Moon Aiko was blasted high up in the air, but with a small wiggle, she made it to the other side safely.
*BOOOM*
The Moon crashed, attracting a lot of attention, but it was not like those Human Cultivators would be able to easily make it to the other side.
Moon Aiko rolled out of the Moon as it was quite a rocky flight.
'Not bad.' Moon Aiko marvelled at the durability of her [Moon's Crust]. Maybe when that evolved one day into an actual Moon, she would be able to flatten anything!
Moon Aiko looked around. Just one glance, and she knew that this place was very different from the peripheral part.
The Herbs were more scarce, but they were of much higher quality and grade.
What was more, these Herbs were not guarded, which meant there were even more precious Herbs inside!
Moon Aiko nodded her head gently as she swiped them all.
During this time, she also upgraded her [Soil Excavation] as she had time and resources now.
It turned into [Excavator]!
[Excavator][Active Skill][Allows you to excavate anything within a given radius.]
Not just soil, but wood, rock, anything that she wished she could take. She no longer needed to rip those trees apart and could store them directly in her tails.
Now her main mission was to find a safe place to establish her base.
For the time being, Aiko ignored Human Cultivators. They would definitely be loaded, but since she was running out of space, it would not be wise for the time being.
There were many hills and even mountains around, but most caves were occupied by powerful Beasts guarding their Treasures.
Witch Aiko struggled to find anything usable and had to give up for the time being, but once again. The Table Map came in clutch!
'There are 2,148 caves, but only 4 are unoccupied. From those 4, only 2 are usable, and 1 of them had some kind of water inside.' Moon Aiko concluded before switching to Witch Aiko and disappearing into the shadows.
The last cave was the most interesting, since even water could be a Treasure, but the main reason was that Aiko could use that water to wash herself.
Sun Aiko would heat up the water, and Witch Aiko would take care of bathing.
The cave was quite far away, so it took Aiko quite a long time to arrive.
However, that cave was supposed to be unoccupied.
"Why is there subtle pressure coming out from within?" Aiko was cautiously observing it, since it might be possible that the Beast hid from her map.
Going inside cautiously, she found a dead Beast at the peak of Sacred Beast Rank!
She immediately stashed that oversized cat into her Tails before making this her home, but she then decided against it.
She placed the corpse into a hidden location, but still used its aura to keep this place free from weak pests.
That way, she would be able to take a bath uninterrupted and clean her tails!
Going deeper inside, Aiko found a small tree that was not on the map and a small pond, maybe a lake, in the middle of the opening.
There was no grass around the tree, nor soil. The tree was partially submerged in the water, and it was hard to see the bottom of it.
It was not like it was murky, but Moon Aiko was simply unable to see it.
She used her special abilities to see what was wrong with it.
"Ewwwwwwwwwww." Moon Aiko recoiled. The tree was not an actual Tree, but a tentacle Beast that masqueraded as one.
The pond was not a pond, but blood flowing freely from its prey.
It had many eyes and tentacles freely flowing all around, making Moon Aiko disgusted!