Jason pauses for a second. “Huh, you’re right. I guess I’ve just gotten so used to her not being a part of the fight I just jump right in without thinking about it. Going to have to work on that. I don’t want to reduce her to just a shoulder accessory or something. Anyway, I’m going to check my gains from the fight.”

Peter laughs, “Unless you were right at the edge of gaining a level I don’t see how it could have given you anything.”

Jason shrugs, “Well lets just see about that then. The fight wrap up seems to have a few gains on it. Now what do we have on it. Hmm, a point of control! That’s a tasty little treat. Ooh, and a couple points of toughness doesn’t hurt either. Though what is really tasty is the five extra hit points. Probably going to come out with a decent amount because of the swarms. Haven’t really been gaining in that because my fighting style is so focused on avoidance.”

Peter throws both his hands up. “What is with that gain! And Control? Where did that come from? Seriously, what is up with you?”

Courtney and Rosha laugh at this while Jason shakes his head. Once the other two calm down Jason explains, “I’m actually quite behind because I don’t gain stat points on level up. As for control? The skill I keep using is only a variant of blast punch meant to be used with Energy. It just happens that I always knew how to use it anywhere on my body. Now that I’ve codified it as a punch skill the use of it for non-punch attacks is stretching it and my ability to control the Energy.”

Peter scrunches his face up, “You what? Everyone gets stat points at level up!”

Jason shrugs again, “Not me.”

Peter is practically shaking at this point. “That isn’t how that works! I could accept that you had a core already. While a bit rare for a traveller to get one this early it is common enough in royal families and such. But not getting skill points? Who would do that? HOW, would you do that?”

“Sure you can gain points naturally but that is so slow! You shouldn’t be even half as effective as you are if that is the truth. In the name of the fox goddess, how do you even have enough Energy to make it through a fight? How did you keep using that burst skill when you shouldn’t have more than, like, ten Energy?”

Jason laughs, “I’m almost there. Got eight Energy at the moment. Hopefully with all the use I am making of it during these fights it will go up again!”

Peter shakes his head, “You did this on purpose, didn’t you? This doesn’t seem like a thing you would fall into. You’re a traveller and while rare I know you types can on occasion reincarnate into a new body. If this was a curse, I am certain you would have done so already. With such a low level you couldn’t have here for all that long.”

With a smirk, Jason drops another bomb on Peter. “Yeah, I haven’t been here long, only a few months I think? Haven’t really kept track of it now that I think about it. Still took me a while to get to this level. I only receive a tenth of the experience from stuff.”

Peter’s eye twitches, “Are you. Why would? GARARA heeeeh, WHY?! HOW?! You’re already past the second bottleneck! At a tenth the experience point, just ignoring how in the world you did that, you shouldn’t even be at the bottleneck, let alone past it!”

Jason shrugs, “I just had to go exploring along the edge of that wasteland with the spires in it. Fighting monsters above your level provides a good boost in xp. That’s actually how I met Lily here.”

Peter freezes in place. A few moments pass before his eye twitches again. Then a look of realization crosses his face. “Wait, hold up. That rabbit, the one on your shoulder. It. No, She, is from the rabbit plains? You made a pet out of a rabbit from There?”

Jason shakes his head, “No, that would be stupid. She’s my companion.”

All the muscles in Peter’s face go slack. “She’s a companion. Of course she would be a companion! Of all the things about you, why does that make the most sense? Of course the rabbit from the rabbit plains isn’t a pet. You’d be dead a thousand times over if you had a pet rabbit from there. No, it would have to be a companion.”

Peter’s breath is ragged at this point and there is a crazed look in his eye. “Why? Just Why?” He turns to Courtney, “Do you have secrets to drop like a supercharged fireball on me? Rosha already has one of those odd weapons, and Jason there kicked it up a notch too far with all that nonsense. Please tell me you’re normal! You just want the kitsune’s illusion magic, right? You aren’t trying to collect some set of variants or something, right?”

Courtney laughs, “I guess not being as intimately familiar with the world as you are let how odd he is slipped by me. It doesn’t help that from what I’ve heard, all the other locals who found out about this stuff have been rather lax about it. We should probably keep it under wraps in the future. Anyway, no, I am not going after other variants. I just want to improve my illusions, and this was the best way within any reasonable distance from where we started.”

Peter closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose. “Thank all the gods and goddesses! I don’t think I could have taken anymore of this. And yes, don’t tell anyone else. Now I need to rest for a bit. I don’t think my heart can take much more of this.”