27 Fox

A week had passed, Jim had advanced through Late Foundation, Peak Foundation, Early Qi Refinement, Middle Qi Refinement, and Late Qi Foundation. The past day hadn't let him advance to Peak Qi Foundation, 'Isn't this a bit slow?', if another cultivator had heard his thoughts though would have attacked him out of rage.

Months or Years pass between breakthroughs for most, complaining about not breaking through in a single day is pure insanity. Jim recalled his puppets and got up to stretch, he had already dismantled all the animal corpses in his inventory by now, the boar from before had a strange jewel inside it.

[Spirit Beast Core]

[Yuan Qi + 250 Primal Qi + 700]

He wasn't really sure how to use it, and didn't want to swallow it in case something went wrong, so it got thrown in the Inventory. Jim decided to go for a stroll through the woods, an hour later he found an eye-catching white flower growing inbetween some tree roots.

[Heavenly Ling Flower - Quality: Good]

[Converts Yuan Qi To Ling Qi, Useful In Pill Refinement]

'Hmm, what's Ling Qi?'

[Host, Ling Qi Is A Rare Gentle Form Of Qi, Improves Brain Function Of Those Who Absorb It]

'Hmm, sounds pretty good.' Jim bought a trowel and carefully extracted the plant from the soil, root and all.

[Herbalist Job Unlocked]

[Herbalism Skill Obtained]

'Oh, nice bonus!' *Screams* 'What was that?'

Some distance away, a woman and child were in a panic while running through the woods. Dirty and covered in scratches and bruises, they were both sweating and exhausted, looking like they would fall over at any moment. A swift black shadow was trailing behind them, seemingly playing with the weak creatures.

The creature leapt forward and left a light scratch on the woman, she tripped and urged the child to continue going. Standing up, she turned around and faced the shadow, it revealed itself to be a panther. Different from a normal earth panther, this creature had hulking muscles, three tails, and its entire face was covered in a myriad of eyes, making it absolutely grotesque.

The woman was resolute while standing there, she wanted to buy time for the child to escape, even if it was just a few seconds. The panther slashed forward *Shlick*, the woman's lower right leg fell off, she fell to the ground and cried out in pain. The child was stunned and couldn't move, both of them accepted their inevitable deaths at this vicious creature.

*Bam!* Suddenly, a man appeared with white light shrouding his fist, in an instant the panther was seperated into two in a gory display. The corpse suddenly vanished as though the creature had never existed at all, the man turned around and looked at the two, they began shivering in fear, the woman passed out and the child started crying.

'Huh? Did I do something wrong?' Jim grabbed the woman and child and brought them to his cabin in the span of a few seconds, he laid the woman on his bed and began studying her wounds.

[Name: Astril]

[Species: Immortal Silver Fox]

[Qi: 12/138]

[Strength: 2]

[Dexterity: 3]

[Vitality: 1]

[Agility: 2]

[Magic: 0]

[Spirit: 3]

[Status Effects: Missing Limb, Exhaustion, Heavy Blood Loss, Starving, Malnutrition, Taba Fungal Infection]

'Whoa, a lot to cover here, let's stop the bleeding first?' Jim brought out some bed sheets and tore them, he wrapped up the wound while chanelling Reiki.

[Medic Job Unlocked]

[Medicine Skill Obtained]

'That's not going to be enough...' Jim activated Skill Share and gave the woman Bleeding Resistance, Blood Generation, Automatic Recovery, and Disease Resistance.

The woman's breathing began to calm down, Jim tossed some boar meat and vegetables in the cooking assist, a minute later some soup was in a bowl, he started carefully spoon feeding the woman and rubbing her throat to provoke a swallowing response.

The child had been sitting at the woman's side in worry, once the soup suddenly appeared in his hands the child's eyes lit up, but it didn't say anything and just kept staring. Jim poured out another bowl and handed it to the child, after a few seconds of hesitation it began scarfing down the food greedily, as if it feared he would take the bowl back.

*Cough, Cough*, the child had eaten too fast, he patted its back and gave it a cup of water, then began talking. "Hi, I'm Jim, what's your name?"

The child stared at him blankly without saying anything, it turned away and resumed staring at the woman. Jim sighed and kept looking after her condition. Taking a closer look, he found both the woman and child had animal ears growing out of the top of their heads, with ragged grey tails growing out of their backs. 'They'd look like anime characters if they weren't covered in filth and injuries...'

Two days passed, the child still hadn't talked to him. The woman's complexion had improved considerably but she hadn't woken up yet. Several more hours of trying to coax a word out of the child, Jim started cooking again, the woman's eyes started fluttering. "Oh, you're awake?" Waking up, the woman saw an unfamiliar roof and an unfamiliar face, she started shivering in fear and grabbed the child, hugging it close.

Astril: "Please, please don't hurt us!"

Jim: "Calm down, i'm not going to do anything to you. Look, i've been treating your wound."

Looking down, the woman found her bandaged stump of a leg.

Astril: "W-why would a dual horn help us?"

Jim: "Huh? I...i've never seen your race before"

Staring at him in distrust, the woman shut her mouth and just sat there. An uncomfortable silence and tension formed, Jim decided to break the atmosphere by serving more soup.

With each of the foxes holding bowls, the woman was staring daggers at him, but seeing the child eagerly downing the contents she gave it a try. Her eyebrows shot up and her ears started twitching, 'Seems she approves.'

After they were finished, Jim attempted to introduct himself again.

Jim: "Hi, i'm Jim."

Astril: "Astril."

'Seems it's going to take more than that for her to open up...'

Astril: "Where are we?"

Jim: "My cabin, in the middle of the woods, you're safe here."

Astril: "You live here alone?"

Jim: "Huh? Uh...yeah, I guess."

His strange response seemed to increase her suspicion, noticing this he decided to give her some time alone. Heading outside, he got to work on something he wanted to do for a while, purchasing a Hoe, he started tilling the ground near the cabin.

[Farmer Job Unlocked]

[Farming Skill Obtained]

Jim had heard before that Radishes grow quickly, so he purchased some seeds and planted them, then began tilling more land.

[Farmer Job Has Reached Level 23]

[Farming Level Max]

[Farming Derivation Skill - Growth Technique Obtained]

[Farming Assist Unlocked]

5 days had passed, the radishes were fully grown and Jim harvested them. 'Did it really grow that fast? Let's try something.' Jim used dug up an area nearby and used Create Soil to fill it. He planted Radish Seeds in the normal soil, the magically created soil, and the farming assist mental space.

The result was 4 days in the natural soil, 2 in the magic soil, and a mere 10 minutes in the farming assist. Testing out Growth Technique an Emerald Green colored aura came out of his hands, he directed it towards the natural soil, the result was a single day to grow the radishes. The speed it sapped his mana was frightening.

[Farmer Job Level Max]

[Growth Technique Level Max]

[Growth Technique Derivation Skill - Divine Farmer Obtained]

Jim began a large project where he dug up a large area and filled it with magic soil, then used Growth Technique to quickly grow crops. He diversified the variety, carrots, beans, wheat, potatoes, his Inventory now had a mountain of harvested crops inside.

Divine Farmer was already at max level, it seemed to increase the speed of plant growth around him automatically. Now that he had reached the highest the skills could go, he stopped bothering with digging, tilling, and so on, the assist function was very fast and would suffice for anything he wanted to grow.