Next morning Jason wakes up with the oddest combination of being well rested and totally knackered. His trainer had run him ragged after he got the skill. Room after room full of practice dummies reduced to scrap wood until it had reached level six with ten point nine towards the next level. It was all in a dream but darn it; it was like that joke about just getting back from a vacation and now needing another one.

The other notice and Rosha is the first to mention it. She sits next to him and glances over, “so did you sleep?”

Jason rubs the bridge of his nose, “yeah, but my training was intense. Got the skill at least. Though my trainer brought up something. You know how we have not gotten into fights as of late? It is likely because I was learning the skill and we might get some actual action today.”

Courtney nods her head, “that would make some sense. It might be easy to forget sometimes but this is a game. Despite how real it can feel, there are some protections in place. Though I did just remember something. This whole skill thing was some holder over from when you hit level ten. Is that everything? You aren’t forgetting anything else?”

Jason rolls his eyes and waves his hand, “of course I am. I went through all the bottleneck notifications and this was the only actionable thing I needed to deal with.”

Courtney raises her eye, “What about the bottleneck breaker bonus?”

He tilts his head to the side, “the what?”

She sighs and Rosha answers for her, “You get a bonus every time you break a bottleneck after the first. I guess it is safe to assume that if you don’t know what it is you haven’t chosen yours.”

In the background Courtney throws her hands in the air, “why wouldn’t he forget it!”

Sheepishly Jason pulls the options up and looks over them. “Well, only one of these is worth looking at.”

Courtney shakes her head, “it bases every option on what you have done so they won’t be worthless. Tell us what you got and we will be the judge.”

Jason shrugs, “First there is sand step and it provides traction on sand. That came from all my time in the wasteland, but the utility is too limited. Next is the confusingly named rabbit kin. Two words, not one like the race. It makes all rabbit based beings look more favorably upon me. I am sure we all realize why I got that.” And he gestures at Lily who is currently munching on some leafy greens and a couple Energy berries.

“Once again it would have been useful if I had stayed around the rabbit plains. The last one and the one I am considering going with, though I am kicking myself for not having gotten it already, is called roaming loam. It lets the material where I grow my plants to absorb nature based energies from the land as I travel. Oh, and I got that one because at this point it almost feels like I have spent more time farming on the go than I do anything else.”

Courtney keeps a straight face for a moment but then breaks into a giggle, “I guess you do have little choice. Your forgetfulness did hurt you there with how far we have traveled in such a powerful natural area.”

Jason rolls his eyes and sighs before he selects it. “Okay, with that out of the way can we head out? I know my mistakes can be amusing but daylight is burning.”

Rosha shakes her head, “sure we can head out. Though only after Lily finishes her breakfast, most important meal of the day after all!”

Jason has nothing to say to this and so they sit around and wait for Lily. It doesn’t take long for her to finish though she acts a bit shy with everyone watching her.

Breakfast over, the group gathers everything up and Lily goes in her little seat. Thus readied the group heads off into the forest once again. Jason having just chosen the roaming loam decides to pay attention as they travel.

At first nothing much seems to happen, but he knows that can’t be true. What he hits upon is connected to another recent discovery. As his new skill had shown him, his stamina was now aligned with nature and he already knew what that felt like. In fact, it was already cycling through his body because they were currently traveling.

Last night he had only focused on the crossroads of his stamina but now looking at it as a whole the plants influence is more obvious. The area between his lungs is like the trunk of a tree with the stamina branching off like roots and branches. That didn’t matter to him for the moment though and instead he focuses on the feel.

Then with that in mind he turns his sense outward. Now knowing what to look for it becomes obvious. All the plants in the area have threads of power, but it was more than just them. The ground and the air has a palpable glow to it and some of those threads and the glow are being funneled into his pack. Presumably towards his portable planter. It was an interesting thing to witness.

So interesting that it completely slips his mind that they were likely in a lot more danger of being attacked. Courtney didn’t forget, but her wariness was unrewarded. Not a single monster attacked them. She was actually half disappointed at the lack of action. Unlike Jason, she wasn’t used to such a slow leveling speed.

Courtney had actually joined the game after Rosha because of her age. That didn’t hold her back though and to catch up to her friend she had rushed through the early levels. Rosha off to the side noticed her feelings when they stopped for lunch. With a good guess and some intuition the reason became obvious to her so she sat beside her friend. “It’s okay. We will have enough fights in the future. The System probably kept an area around us cleared. Once we pass beyond it things should pass up.”

Rosha’s prediction was proven true later that day.