As Jason pries open the pulsating organ the contained gloopy black crawls out of the opening. Free of the sack, it snaps onto the three nearest skeletons and bubbles out with a loud crack. The bones of those skeletons turn a couple of shades darker and start to shake viciously. However before anything too serious can happen the goop runs out and the bones settle back onto the pile. The only reaction from the nearby slugs is that the closest one moves over and slurps on one of them.

Jason observes the skeletons for a few minutes before he returns to the group. “We might have been worried for nothing. Now what to do about Lily? Do either you have any idea how long her evolution will take because I definitely don’t.”

Rosha shrugs and Courtney shakes her head. Jason sighs again at this, “I guess we get to settle down here until she finishes. Not the most scenic place, but life happens.”

Rosha chimes in, “at least we don’t have to set up on top of the skeleton pile!”

Courtney laughs, “that pile might be the safest place nearby. As long as we don’t bug the slugs nothing should bother us.”

Jason nods, “they do seem to be at the top of the local food chain, as sparse as it is. And it is a bit too sparse. There aren’t even that many plant monsters, just slugs and skeletons.”

With a sly smile Rosha shrugs, “maybe the next area will have things like tarantulas and tortoise.”

Jason tilts his head to the side, “how would that even make sense?”

Rosha laughs at this point, “well we are fighting the S monsters right now so next should be T monsters!”

Jason just groans and gets to setting up a campsite. He glances at the sky. It isn’t night yet, but in another couple hours it would be. “So I think this might just be our campsite in general. No point in packing up and then only having to set it all out again in an hour or so.”

Rosha stops laughing at this, “dang it, you’re right. We just keep finding the creepiest safe spots, don’t we?”

Courtney shakes her head, “what do you expect in a place rampant with undead and plants? The one tends toward body horror with a hint of the uncanny valley and the other goes the other direction into eerie inhumanness.”

After that, the chatter winds down as everyone settles in to wait. The night passes with the only thing of note being that despite glowing like the sun, Lily doesn’t actually give off any light. Next morning comes around and Lily’s light show finally dims. Once the light is gone, Lily looks mostly the same if a bit bigger. Though once Jason picks her up, it becomes clear that most of that is pure floof.

Courtney off to the side raises an eyebrow, “I thought rabbits got bigger when they evolved?”

This breaks Rosha out of her shock at the new Lily and she squeals. Jason has hardly picked Lily up when Rosha rushes over and grabs her away from him. He stands there for a moment stunned, but eventually shrugs and turns to Courtney. “Well, that’s a thing. Give me a second to check Lily’s new stat line.”

Name: Lily

Race: Free Rabbit

Level: 10 - 0.0%

Legal Status: Local Companion

Title:

Normal Stats

Strength 16 ( 3[Base] + 13[SP] ) [ +5 ] Toughness 15 ( 2[Base] + 13[SP] ) [ +5 ] Agility 36 ( 10[Base] + 26[SP] ) [ +10 ]

Auxiliary Stats

Defense 4 ( 4[Base] ) [ +2 ] HP 30 [ +20 ] Energy 3 [ +2 ]

Jason tilts his head to the side, “well that doesn’t really tell me much. Apparently she is now a free rabbit? Also, her stats got quite a boost. Her health in particular is triple what it was. Still don’t have a clue about any skills or what have you. Even the title she had is gone now. Though I guess dropping a title like serf isn’t the worst thing to have happen.”

Courtney sighs, “I guess we just have to wait for her to be able to share her actual status with us. Though her new species is a hint to what her path is. Going by the context, the free is likely being used in a manner similar to a medieval freeman. It didn’t really happen much in real life but going by fantasy game logic she will probably end up a noble somehow.”

Rosha squeals, “she can be a pretty princess rabbit!”

Jason nods, “that is a possibility. Though whatever she turns into doesn’t seem to be the physical sort. Other rabbits would be cat sized at this stage. I just hope she gained some method to use her Energy now.”

Courtney shrugs, “she should have. Most monsters gain some special ability at level ten or so. It can be a bit boring, mind you. Lily might now have the ability to clad her claws in Energy. Taking rabbits as an example it is well known that a level ten horned rabbit use Qi on their horns and winged rabbits use their magic to fly.”

Rosha looks up, “wouldn’t a rabbit with wings be able to fly in the first place?”

Courtney shakes her head, “you would think. Except of course their wings are nowhere near big enough to support actual flight. This is true for many of the flying monsters. If you look up the dynamics of flight, the size of wings that silly things like gryphons would need is crazy. I looked into it at one point. Apparently the largest flying animal in real life was a Quetzalcoatlus which is theorized to weigh 200 or so kilograms and had a ten meter wingspan. Simulations say it could fly just fine, though some doubt it.”

“A rabbit doesn’t really weigh all that much but they don’t have anywhere big enough wings to fly naturally. Now higher stats can offset this but lower level rabbits definitely don’t have enough. Plus they would look like hummingbirds, which would just be silly. This is actually part of why anti-magic effects are so rare. The devs didn’t want a majestic swoop by a dragon to turn into an uncontrolled nose dive. That and so much of the defenses used in towns and castles rely on magic to work it would be like an emp during the early information age.”