Chapter 20 – Preparations
"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.