"Oh?" The Queen smiled as Aiko finally got the basics of [Lightness Technique]. 'This is quite good, not as good as those prodigy folks, but good enough that she might be able to reach #### and that means she could serve me for at least a few hundred thousand years.'

She licked her lips and Aiko shivered as if the great enemy was just approaching her, but it was just that stupid and mean Fox. 'I will get back at you for this injustice!' She cried in her mind, but was really happy to acquire [Lightness Technique] naturally rather than having to spend a whopping 10,000 Skill Points! This also meant that if she could find the technique name she could get a more detailed description and then decide if it was worth it to learn or not.

But what surprised Aiko was...
[You have learned your first Auxiliary technique! You have gained 10 Insight!]

Queen nodded again. "Let's get back, you will be hunting tomorrow with this technique." She walked towards their cave slowly so it wouldn't burden Aiko too much. She was glad that she didn't pick anything too dumb and untalented and while Aiko couldn't be called prodigy she can be called talented... if you bribe her with enough meat.

Queen shook her head in her mind and sighed. 'I have spoiled her too much and her Core will definitely be in bad shape, but I will teach her how to extract Energy from Beast Cores and that should offset her indulging... I hope.' Even though she was not sure if it could offset it, but she couldn't really bring herself to stop her from eating the meat. Aiko was always too happy and cute whenever she ate meat.

'I will need to eat plenty and upgrade my skills, this way I will be able to train in those skills while training to hunt with that strange technique...'

Queen didn't know that Aiko had utterly clogged Beast Core and that was the reason why she learned so slowly. It was like pushing clogged sewage water down the tunnels only for them to get caught on every single little piece of debris. This also caused her some discomfort when using the [Lightness Technique], but because this dumb Fox didn't listen to her she couldn't explain it to her and was forced to work hard, otherwise her meat would be taken away! She wouldn't let that happen! It's not like it was painful, just mild discomfort!

'I will... do something to her later!' She swore revenge on this Fox that liked to torture her with all kinds of strange obstacle courses. 'She even burned some of my fur!'

...

They returned to their Den and Aiko lay near the fire waiting for a few pieces of meat while expressionlessly browsing her Skills. Queen already confronted her, saying that 'She had a strange expression.', but fortunately she was able to play it off by playing the 'cute' card. This didn't mean she shouldn't be careful! Quite the opposite since she didn't know what might happen to her if others realised she could just buy every single Cultivation Technique under the Heaven! It would still cost her, sure, but that wouldn't stop those Cultivators from experimenting on her especially when she saw this Fox so interested in her strange attitude!

Aiko ate her meat silently while looking over her skills.

She clicked on individual skills and looked over their upgrades when she accidentally clicked 2 skills at the same time and...

[Stealth: Lv.1] + [Camouflage: Lv.1] = [Shadowy Presence]

She was shocked that she could combine and upgrade multiple skills. It was just... the cost...

[Costs: 100 Skill Points]

That was all she had! And she still wanted to purchase the portable stove! But even that stove Cost 1,000 points!

She combined a few and got some interesting results.

[Danger Sense: Mastered] + [Predator Sense: Mastered] + [Killing Intent Perception: Lv.1] = [Intention Perception]
[Costs: 35 Skill Points]

[Enhanced Sight: Mastered] + [Enhanced Smell: Mastered] = [Enhanced Basic Senses]
[Costs: 85 Skill Points]

[Tracking: Mastered] + [Weakness Detection: Lv.1] + [Hunting Mastery: Lv.1] = [Assassin Mastery]
[Costs: 230 Skill Points]

[Enhanced Speed: Mastered] + [Enhanced Manoeuvrability: Mastered] + [Enhanced Flexibility: Mastered] + [Enhanced Agility: Mastered] = [Agility Mastery]
[Costs: 20 Skill Points]

[Camouflage: Lv.1] + [Sprint: Mastered] = [Shadow Sprint]
[Costs: 30 Skill Points]

'It seems like there is not just one combination...' Aiko would have to carefully think about what to pick, but. 'I will definitely get the [Agility Mastery] since it's cheap, I should probably get [Intention Perception] too since it is also cheap. There is also the [Shadow Sprint], but I like [Shadowy Presence], but it just costs too much... like the [Assassination Mastery]...

[Linguistics]
[Costs: 1,000 Skill Points]

'... Let's just go for [Agility Mastery] and [Intention Perception]...' Aiko purchased them, only to get stunned. 'Whoa! Are they actually abilities?! So they can be upgraded like that!?' She was extremely happy as now she had a possible way to obtain more Divine Abilities. 'This will make the hunting easier! I also have plenty of Stat Points and since it seems I'm going the Assassination route I should spend a lot of them on Agility, but let's do that if we can't catch our prey~' Aiko hummed happily.

'Nice! So many things changed~! I will have to upgrade the rest, but now that I know I can combine them I would rather hold onto them so I can create something much more powerful! This place is somewhat safe. I have not encountered anything that I couldn't kill so there is no real rush to upgrade skills by themselves.' Aiko thought the Archer was the only unfortunate part of this life, but that one disappeared when she was in pain. 'But why the hell does linguistics cost so much?!' Aiko frowned, looking at the system that was silent as if taunting her.

She noticed the Fox already lying in the nest staring outside. Aiko moved almost by instinct and wanted to settle on her, only to stop abruptly and settle near her.

Queen stared at this 'shy' Aiko. "Are you not gonna sleep on me today~?" She teased, only to make Aiko uncomfortable.

She indeed wanted to sleep on that nice and soft Fox, but in the morning she wouldn't feed her! Telling that sleeping on her should sate her hunger!

Aiko angrily slapped the nest, making Queen giggle. "Sure, sure~" She had some grasp on what Aiko was thinking about, but it was too much trouble to try to understand her completely. Aiko would have to wait till she reached the Magical Beast stage before she would be able to properly talk with this Queen and scold her.

...

Morning came and Aiko was nestled on Queen. The Queen narrowed her eyes but didn't kick Aiko down. She had already done that once and had to watch the crestfallen expression of Aiko throughout the day and that was honestly unbearable.

She waited till Aiko yawned and told her. "Let's go, your hunt is upon us."

Aiko nodded and followed the Fox, it seemed she wouldn't get her meat again since for some reason her body lay on the Fox, but Aiko couldn't remember moving herself on top of the Fox's body...

Aiko sighed disappointed that she wouldn't be able to eat nice meat, but followed with her [Lightness Technique] after the Fox.

'She has improved quite a bit, I'm surprised she can keep up...' Queen smiled in her mind.

'Whoa! That [Agility Mastery] makes me much faster!' Aiko thought happily. Soon she would be able to punish this Fox!

The journey was uneventful as Queen leaked a tiny bit of her bloodlust scaring all of the animals and beasts away.

"We are here." Queen said and pointed to a very familiar yet unfamiliar place.

'... that's the desert...' Aiko frowned. 'I will be in trouble if I fight there.'

"You are to fight the beast that is guarding the shard." Queen told Aiko flatly.

'I will what?' Aiko thought that her ears had already rotted from sleeping on that comfortable cushion named Mean Fox.

"Don't look at me like that, you will fight the beast." Queen repeated it and saw Aiko's shocked expression.

'Do you want to kill me?!' Aiko threw a tantrum in front of her, slapping her paws on the ground. 'I will lose all of my boosts because there is no shade! Can't we at least wait for the night!?'

But Queen couldn't be bothered by Aiko's antics. She picked Aiko and threw her with her Divine Sense into the middle of the desert.

'Curse you, you stinky Fox!' Aiko cursed before disappearing in the sand, unaware that the stinky Fox was nearby watching her, but shrouded in illusions so that she couldn't be spotted.

Aiko stopped after a few rolls. The desert heat didn't bother her as her race and [Desert adaptation: Lv.2] were doing all the hard work for her, but she still felt uneasy. There were no shadows, no one to talk to her, no one to guide her. She was restless.

She moved around the rocky desert, the heat was scorching.

She always found this desert strange. Desert in the middle of a lush forest. It was like a completely different place altogether.

She stepped forward. That stinky mean Fox pointed at the middle of the desert and that's where she would find her prey. Why she didn't decline? She wanted to eat more delicious food and get revenge on the stinky mean Fox. She wouldn't be able to do that if she didn't stick with her!

Aiko walked and walked... the desert was much larger than she imagined as it took her till midday to arrive anywhere close to the centre.

There lay a Lizard wrapped in flames. Each time he would breathe out his flames would intensify.

She felt strange... looking at it, reminding her of Char. Just smaller and much less intimidating- and more dignified, let's not forget that!

She didn't have any way to attack from range. She would have to time her attacks or attack where the flames were not.

She tried to sneak near him to make a first surprise attack on the softer side of its leg, but the Lizard abruptly opened his eyes, staring straight at Aiko.

*ROAR*

Ezy

The poll is moving nicely, it seems like a lot of you would like to have the backstories, but not all of you, depending on how it progresses further we might make some compromises, but for now we will wait. The first backstory is still a few chapters away as we will have... different things to attend to.

On another note, we have apparently hit 500 readers! And almost 1,000 hearts! I have no idea where did those come from, but thank you, so so much~! <3 ^-^