Jason wakes up the next morning, half sad and half happy. Sad because he won’t see his trainer again anytime soon. Happy though as when war stomp ranked up it gained an additional effect called “Free Form”. The skill was useful, but the free form effect raised its usability to the level of his blast punch. Before he could only use it with a stomp attack.

Now Jason was able to use it just like his blast punch. Even just standing around idly, he can tear up the ground below him at a moment's notice. He still can’t use the skill with his fists like the trainer said would be possible. Then again, she said it would take more control so he can only shrug and move. It isn’t like he has used blast punch with anything other than his fists yet either.

Breakfast is had, the group packs up, and Lily is in the harness. The only thing left to do is take care of the harvested Energy herb bushes. Jason had left them strung up over night and while they might be safer in his pack, the berries would take longer to dry out. Rosha laughs at the situation, but helps him tie them to the back of his pack. The roots get tied to the top and small loops of string hold it to the pack at the bottom.

Courtney stands to the side and shakes her head, “why didn’t you just tie them onto the pack before you put it on?”

Jason shrugs, “Lily would have been at them so I wanted to get her into the harness first. Just look at her now. Normally she would be looking forward but she can’t help but stare towards the berries.”

Lily flicks her ears at him and hops a couple of times to face forward again. This doesn’t last long though as it tests her willpower and soon she is gazing over her shoulder longingly at the berries.

Rosha covers her mouth with both her hands and squees. “Oh, look at her! She’s so cute!”

Jason has a toothy smile, “I know, right? Though I have a bit of a troublesome problem relating to her. Lily is now at the level nine bottleneck. Do either of you know how to help her breakthrough?”

Rosha turns to Courtney. She shrugs, “Lily is important to you so of course I looked it up. A normal beast will generally have different requirements than the sapient races. With rabbits the second bottleneck isn’t strictly at level ten, but rather just experiencing enough of one type of power. If they do manage to hit level ten, then they just evolve from an adolescent rabbit into a teen rabbit.”

“Lily however is a companion. Besides that, she is a type of rabbit that I have found no information on. My guess is it has to do with Jason being an Energy user. Though even that doesn’t quite line up. My research suggests that the energy evolutionary line still has the adolescent stage and instead become a spiky rabbit when introduced to enough Energy. Jason, you have more experience with the rabbits, any clue about this?”

Jason nods, “from what I saw that should be right. While I was cultivating in the rabbit plains, a few around me ended up as spiky rabbits.”

Courtney raises an eyebrow, “not even going to ask how you had adolescent rabbits around you. But since that seems to be the case, this is likely a rabbit line similar to the jackalopes.”

Rosha frowns, “wait, jackalopes are real? I thought they were just as much myth here as they are irl.”

Courtney waves her hand dismissively, “While the world is real to a point, they still made it to be a game. Myths from our world are more likely to be real here than not. Jackalopes are just rare because they are a fae variant of the horned rabbit and so spend most of their time in the fae realms.”

“Anyway, that is all besides the point. That sort of thing is only for regular beasts, after all the devs couldn’t expect them to know to go look for a boss to fight on their own. Lily however is a companion and for that to be the case requires one special little detail to be true. She needed to be sapient to initiate the connection. That is honestly the biggest difference between a pet and a companion.”

“Since she is sapient as evidence by being a companion, she also has to follow the rules of the System. In this case that means to break through her second bottleneck she has to beat a boss on her own.”

Rosha gasps, “but she’s just a cute little rabbit! How can she fight a boss, let alone defend against one?”

Courtney rolls her eyes, but Rosha pouts at her and her ears droop down. Courtney holds her stare for a few moments but eventually gives in. She collects Rosha into a hug and boops her on the nose. “Sigh, you don’t have to worry. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but she is level nine. Plus the System isn’t cruel. What we need to look for isn’t just any boss but rather a boss for her.”

“No matter how strong she is, Lily is still a rabbit. We aren’t going to go out and find some level ten wolf boss for her to fight. What we need to find likely won’t even count as a boss for the rest of us. While for us players a boss is a boss is a boss that isn’t really true to the natives. After all, take that hypothetical wolf boss. For Lily it might actually count as a raid boss, if not something worse. To a bear though even with the rest of the wolves pack the encounter might not count as a boss fight.”

“The way the System decides on what counts as a boss for locals has to do with the difference in stats and any affinities. For instance, a wolf will have many more points of strength than a rabbit, even if they are the same level. Combine that with a wolf naturally preying upon rabbits tends to make even a lone half starved wolf a boss encounter for any normal rabbit. If however the rabbit has some levels on that wolf and enough stat points, well it isn’t a boss anymore.”