"Takei... Taikei!" Miko yelled as she screamed herself awake. Ryo was sitting beside her and glanced at her worriedly. Was she really dreaming about him?! However, Ryo obviously did not say this and went to comfort her instead.
"Y'kay?"
"Yea."
The two sat awkardly for awhile, before Ryo decided to break the awkard silence and asked her, "So... What would you like to do tommorrow?"
"Tommorrow?"
"Yea. Its already almost midnight. Obviously it would be tommorrow." Ryo joked, trying to lighten the heavy mood. .
"Alright then. I would maybe like to visit the human world." Miko replied. This was also her best chance of finding Takei's reincarnation. Given the amount of time passed, he was probably already in his twenties. That meant he had quite a long time, in human perspective, to spend with Miko. Ryo agreed and was ready to leave. However, Miko reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him back.
"Stay for the night? I-I'm s-scared..." Miko muttered, her face red. Now that she couldn't cultivate, and was extremely weak, it was only natural for her to be afraid. Only power was sovereign in this world. Ryo felt his cheeks burn hot, and nodded his head silently. Then, he shapeshifted to a fox so he had more room. Miko offered him her cotton bed nest, as it was quite rude to let a guest sleep on the hard floor. However, Ryo rejected her kind gesture and nudged her to stay. And just like that, the two slept soundly, one on the bed while the other a little further, on the floor. Miko didn't have anymore nightmares that night. She slept soundly, without a care in the world.
The next morning, Miko and Ryo woke up to the merry chirping of birds as usual. The flowers didn't ring this time, but the rune activated so the morning sunlight could still shine in. Miko quickly got ready, asking Ryo to turn behind so she could shapeshift into a half human and put on some garments. Then, she waited for Ryo outside. Soon, he too hoped out and they headed towards the hills again. Miko still hoped to cultivate at least her innate magic. Even if she only had a few hundred years left to live, she wanted to live them waiting for Takei, and spending at least one human lifetime with him. Even if she could not attain immortality with him, just one life would be more than enough for a few hundred years. However then, she needed at least some strength to protect him, so he didn't die any earlier. For him, even if it was just a minute, it was worth it.
They began their morning cultivation as usual, sitting meditatively on the top of the hill, absorbing the sun's comfortable morning rays, and the purple qi in the air. Miko directed all the qi into her ear apparature again. With enough innate power, her senses could be honed better. Innate magic could never fully be taken away if someone was born with it. She just needed to start from scratch again. First would be her ear apparature, then her nose, eyes lungs and then finally the heart, for her to break through the mortal stage. Then, she would slowly cultivate through to the second stage, foundation building, then core formation and reach the forth stage, getting to elemental stage. This is where the journey starts, where you can start choosing you affinities. Then, you repeat the process for your affinated elements. When everything is stabalised at the fourth stage, you can ascend to fifth stage, luminecent and the sixth stage, nascent. Then at the seventh, you reach immortal stage, at eighth, saint realm, nineth, demi god and at tenth, a full proper god. Of course, every stage one ascends will bring forth a lightning tribulation. They are dangerous and if one is unprepared, it could prove to be fatal. There are also many obstacles along the way, some including facing of other cultivators in a life or death match. Not everyone likes to play fair.
The morning sun had now reached full blast. Miko and Ryo got up and starting heading to the forest edge. It would take about half an hour to get there in full fox form at sixth stage. They both shapeshifted into fox forms and headed off. However, with Miko's body tempering also gone, she was struggling to keep up with Ryo dashing across the forest floor. Sensing Miko was tired, he slowed down.
"Don't stop for me," Miko seemed to say. However, how could Ryo just let her be that slow? Stopping, he transformed into human form with an illusion of clothes to cover himself, since he didn't have time nor space to retrieve his clothes from his space spell and wear them. Miko eyed him carefully, before she was swiftly picked up and carried by him.
"You'll take too long at your current speed. You used to only be slightly slower than me. Now your lagging all the way behind."
He jumped onto the branches, using them as leverage to bounce off of. Soon, they had reached the outskirts of the village. Miko jumped out and headed into the forest again to change. She waited for Ryo before they headed in. On the streets, many humans walked up and down the lanes, chatting merrily. It has been quite long since Miko last saw this scene. She also wanted to explore the village. They came to a jewelry shop which had caught Miko's eye. Foxes do like shiny things after all. Inside on display was a anklet, made of gold with pearls dangling of it at certain intervals. In between, rubbies were studed in between.
"You have good eyes, miss. This is our latest design, and it seems to suit your looks. It matches with your hair." The sales woman smiled. Miko gingerly picked up the anklet, admiring it. It was so sparkly! Light bounced off it from all angles, illuminating her face. Ryo stood in the corner. Cute...
Foxes, especially females, were attracted to sparkly things. As such, it was a common sight to see their homes decorated with them. Ryo stepped forward to look at it, when he saw the price, his jaw dropped. One thousand gold?! He gulped, hoping something cheaper would catch her eye. Although he could cast an illusion spell on the coins he could use to pay to make them seem of higher value, it will eventually wear off and they would have realised they had been scammed. How would they come back then?
"If you are interested, please pay here! You also get coupons off for your next purchase!" The lady chimed. Damn this stupid marketing trick! Miko was completely mesmerised she just silently nodded. It was having an effect on her! Ryo immediately dragged her away, snatching the piece of jewelry from her and placing it back onto its display case.
"Woww its so pretty but maybe we will come back and buy it later!" Ryo quickly explained and dragged Miko out the door.
"Really?! We will buy it later?!" Miko squealed, her eyes shining in delight.
"No. That's so we don't sound bad," Ryo replied. She really had alot to learn about human interactions and social skills.
"Does it matter if we sound bad?" Miko asked. Ryo looked at her perplexed. She did seem to be genuienly asking this out of her own curiosity.
Ryo sighed a deep sigh before explaining," You- I'll teach you about this some other time."
Humans and beasts experience the same emotions, but express them differently. As such, most beasts find it difficult to fully intergrate into human society. This prevents them from earning currency. As such, beasts who managed to somewhat integrate into society will give large amounts of currency at the price of a good amount of spirit stones. However, the demand for spirit stones among beasts is not really that high as beasts have no need for most human contraptions or inventions that require spirit stones. For food, they can simply hunt the non sentient beasts, or those that have yet to aquire intelligence, such as the poultry and fish. For vegetables, the forest provided fertile land for their growth, which could be sped up with earth magic, so they were not really reliant on humans. As such, they mostly trade with humans under disguise as only humans can use spirit stones to cultivate, yet are unable to enter the forest. The only humans that do are the nobles and royals, which have either cultivation or bodyguards that have cultivation to defend them, or ignorant individuals. About only a quarter of humans possess the ability to cultivate, and this bloodline usually only pops out once every few generations to some families, or are passed down by a legacy. For royals, their ancestors were blessed such that whatever decendants they have, they will have this ability. Cultivation is important to humans as much as beasts. Although they can almost never be immortal, with no individuals ever since that last one, magic can boost their social status to that off a mage, lifting them from poverty to middle class at least. High class were only used for nobles, wealthy businessmen and high ranking cultivators.
It was almost lunchtime, the noon sun shining brightly in the sky. Ryo directed Miko to the small restaurant him and Miru were working at, under a boss which was a Yatargasu, or a three-legged crow. The boss, oddly, seemed to be in today. What a coincidence! She was usually flying about the mountains, as that was just a simple hobby of hers. The mountain ranges were another area that beasts roamed, but it is a difficult terrain to scale, so it is perfectly safe there from humans. Occassionally, she would pick rarer herbs and sell it to the forest-dwelling beasts. Today, she was off from her break and came to attend the shop she set up, where she hired only beasts looking for jobs. Today, Miko had the fortune to meet her. Or maybe misfortune?