All night while Jason mediated an irritated silver horned jackalope can be seen hopping all over the place. Until yesterday Jason had traveled at a relatively sedate pace and the adult rabbits of nearby dens could bring their young over to evolve. With his experiments in movement though he moved beyond what a normal rabbit could cover while carrying a child. Not wanting to be scolded for causing dens to miss out the jackalope had to gather the farther away dens.

Next morning Jason wakes up extra refreshed. While his plants do a good job at absorbing the waste energy from his cultivation, they leave enough around to bother him. However, last night there were more rabbits to use it up. Overall, a much more restful experience. Not knowing the reason he can only shrug his shoulder as he checks his plants. The berryless plant has just kept on growing. For the other plants though things have changed. On all of them the leaves have dimmed while the berries appear fuller. Satisfied with these results Jason checks on the berries he had already harvested. The ones picked with a bit of stem and a few leaves are still plump. Those picked by themselves while still glowing look a bit shrunken. Not really sure what the result will be Jason can only pack them back up and head out for the day.

After a few stretches Jason heads off at a great pace using his movement skill. At first his speed of travel is slower than yesterday. Having to balance thinking about the skill and yet not actively trying to use it is a hard juggling act. Though as the day goes on and any monsters, he comes across avoids him the old axiom of ‘practice makes perfect’ proves itself. Frustrated at nothing wanting to fight him Jason throws his full attention behind improving. Moments of clarity pass through him as he gathers a feel for the terrain.

“The last step slid on the sand a bit too much. Should have used that to slide down the slope instead of trying to kick off.”

“Okay, too much power behind that jump. Going to overshoot the next hill peak and I better prepare for the landing.”

“Too much grass here so I didn’t slide like I wanted. That dumped too much speed so I should use the next slope to build momentum.”

On and on he travels until his speed exceeds yesterday. At this speed he will cut the time to reach the next town down to around a week. Though not everything continues to go his way. As night comes closer he gets smacked out of his movement training.

-5

What had been a graceful leap turns into an out-of-control tumble as a lion seemingly made of vines chases after him. Jason regains control of himself and turns his tumble into a proper roll then jumps to his feet. The vine lion crashes into him while he connects with an elbow to the throat.

-4

Sadly for Jason the vine aesthetic the lion has going on isn’t for show. While it does take damage the vine lion just shakes off what others would find a debilitating blow. The one thing it does do is anger the vine lion who roars. Then from the wasteland 5 vine lionesses come out. Off to the side Jason steadies himself and checks them. The vine lion is the toughest at level 14 while the vine lionesses are quite weak for the area being only level 10 each. Not an impossible fight for him so he takes a small step and is suddenly besides the vine lion. His target not expecting this is completely unprepared for the following uppercut as Jason slams his Blast Punch into the vine lions gut. As the crit notification rings the vine lions screams in pain. It seems something inside there was important as it slumps over, knocked out. At this the formerly ferocious vine lionesses let out a squeak before retreating into the pillars. Jason now with nothing else to fight finishes the vine lion.

As it dies, the vine lion does something different from most other monsters. Instead of disappearing or leaving a corpse the vines that had made up its body unravel and shrink. Soon all that is left behind is a real lion’s claws and teeth, a small cracked spherical gem, and a dead vine.

Then everything disappears as normal and Jason gets the fight notification about receiving claws, teeth, and what the system calls a ‘cracked dryad seed’. Jason takes the seed out and tries to examine it but once again the item is considered too high level for him to check. He can only shake his head and put the seed back into his pack. There is not much else to do, and the sun is setting so Jason turns in for the night. Though as he sets out his plants a few things do flit through his mind.

“I am too close to town now. All the monsters I do see are capable and not just stupid mixes. Anything too weak is culled by adventurers and those that are left end up wary of lone humanoids. After all while I do say this is too close that only applies to those strong enough to get out here and back to town in a decent time frame. Even with my improved movement technique it is still a good few days away. Only that vine lion was brave enough to try me and that might just be because it is new to the area. Though those vine lionesses should be better off now. The vine lion was probably hoarding all the kills.”

As he falls into his cultivation, a certain silver horned jackalope is already hard at work jumping around. A look of clear frustration is painted across its face as it has to spend another night ferrying the farther warrens young.