Jason sighs, “So suffice to say I have a lot of work to do.”

Peter laughs, “Don’t worry too much. Since you’re on the same break as the others but still at a lower level you will get a boosted amount of experience for your work.”

Jason just shakes his head at this. “I’ll still probably have to wander off on my own whenever we reach a bottleneck.”

Peter shrugs, “The next one you reach isn’t all that hard to get through. You just have to beat a dungeon which you can do with a team as long as they are all below the third bottleneck as well. Oh, you can also reach Apprentice in a production skill if that’s your jam.”

Jason is about to say something else when a shocked look flashes across his face. “So uh, what happens if you happened to have a skill of the right rank but don’t want to break the bottleneck that way? Oh, and does a farming skill count as production?”

Peter levels a piercing gaze at Jason. “Well, you produce produce when farming, don’t you? Of course it counts, though the fact that you have a production skill and a farming one at that shocks me. The kicker of it apparently being already at apprentice is just icing.”

He pauses and shakes his head. “You know I promised myself that I wouldn’t be so easily surprised by your nonsense? Why do you, a melee fighter, have a production skill famous for being sedentary already have it at apprentice? Now of course farming based skills aren’t rare among fighters. Too many people start their lives as farmers to not have it.”

“But you, you’re only just past the second bottleneck! By the time you get to the third, you’re supposed to just begin getting your most used skills up to apprentice. Most crafters and harvesters still end up having to wait awhile once they hit the bottleneck. Farming isn’t even your primary focus and you’re that good already?”

With a sigh, he throws his hands up. “You know what? Don’t tell me. But yeah, you can choose to go for the other method to breakthrough. While the third bottleneck doesn’t have too many specialized rewards, there is a difference between beating it by combat or skill. Though just so you know, most people go about it the opposite way. They end up beating dungeons with their group of friends but want to wait for their skill. Oh, and while it won’t matter much for you, I should note that once you decide to delay, you can’t take it back. Now what were we doing again?”

Jason thinks about it. But he had also lost what had started the discussion. Off to the side Rosha laughs while Courtney shakes her head and tells them. “Peter was going over the last battle. You both got sidetracked from talking about pets and then stats. We should probably continue on to the next swarm or we won’t ever get through here.”

Jason and Peter both look away while whistling.

Courtney rolls her eyes, “I don’t think there is much more interesting combat today. We have a fighting style figured out and now it is just a matter of refining it.”

Courtney wasn’t wrong either. Throughout the rest of the day the group would come across swarm after swarm. Courtney would stand back to buff and throw the occasional illusion. Rosha and Jason continue to flank the swarms. While Lily would get up and close with the swarm cats. Lily even received her first stat boost from experience, upping her base toughness by one. Not a lot, but when the enemies she is fighting aren’t high level you can’t expect much.

No day can go on forever though, and soon the night is upon them. As the three look around for a campsite, they do notice that at some point Peter had left. He had promised he would, but it is still creepy to not know when he did so. Especially with how chatty he could be.

Jason just shakes his head at it. In all the experience he has had both now and in the past, stealth types just can’t help but do disappearing acts. After a certain point in skill he hasn’t seen a single one of them just walk out of a room normally, always with either the sudden disappearance or the mysterious vanishing.

Of course what none of them had considered was the other classic stealth move, hiding in plain sight. Peter was still there right next to them. The group just couldn’t spot him. What better place to observe how they dealt with the night? And maybe, just maybe, answer some of his questions.

For instance, Jason’s farming skill. That got answered right quick when the boy pulled out one of the better entry level portable planters. Not only was he growing stuff on the road but it was all interesting things though the presence of glowy weed was a bit confusing.

Another question was answered when Rosha finished her chores. Peter had felt some negative vibes from his accidental trainee, and now he knew why. The second she was free, Rosha rushed over to Lily and started to snuggle with her. Peter can only shake his head, ‘Yep, not going to be dissing the bunny anymore.’ He hadn’t been planning on doing it much since he learned of her origins.

Other than that, not much happens until it comes time to set up watch. Courtney is up first but that isn’t what draws his attention. Instead of sleeping, Jason was meditating, no, cultivating next to his planter. Though Peter wasn’t the best at sensing the atmospheric power but even he could tell that from all around Energy was being drawn. The area around the boy was filling up with Mana and Qi.

Now normally that would put a limit on how efficiency the boy could cultivate. Instead, Peter finds the reason for his garden. All that built up power was being sucked into the waiting plants. This likely also explained why the skill was already so advanced. Unorthodox uses can boost skill growth something fierce if it is particularly clever, and Peter has to admit that using farming to increase your cultivation speed is new to him.