Peter continues to watch Jason cultivate for a little longer before he turns his attention to the others. He is after all, supposed to be watching how they handle camping out. Though not much else attracts his attention as the group cycles through a bog standard night. The same sort of setup and schedule as anyone else would use when they only have three people.

Back to Jason, he has just finished taking his turn at watching for danger. After handing off to Rosha, he settles down and logs off.

As Jason wakes up in his capsule though something is different. In the corner of the small screen just above him there is a small alert going off. He pops the lid and stretches. “Welp, guess mom is home.”

When he leaves his room, he can hear the sounds of stuff banging around in the kitchen. Jason can only shake his head before heading over. Inside, he finds her rooting around in the cupboard for something or other. “Mom, you ran out of your hidden snacks last week and haven’t picked up more yet.”

She turns to him with a big smile and goes after him for a bear hug, “What are you talking about? I don’t have a hidden stash of snacks!”

Jason ducks to the side and counters with a normal hug. “And that is exactly why you don’t have any. We both know you have to go and buy the stuff yourself. Can’t have others finding out through the re-order history. Not that anyone cares that you splurge on imported chocolate.”

She crosses her arms, “Local chocolate just tastes like vomit!”

Jason lets her go and shrugs, “I won’t deny that. Why they still use that acid even though they switched to use fresh milk long ago is a mystery to me. Well, I guess not actually. Nostalgia is a powerful force sometimes. The fact that only one company had the process to use rancid milk yet the other local ones copied the flavor anyway shows that. And it was hundreds of years ago. That original company has been dead for ages yet there are people who still mourn for it, nevermind they’ve never personally had their stuff. Cultural icons die hard.”

She nods, “One guy I work with has a collection of vintage souvenirs from the places park. Their mascots were literally just anthropomorphic candy, and the stuff is legit hilarious. He takes it seriously though, and it isn’t like I don’t have a hobby or two myself. Now how about you tell me how you’ve done? It hasn’t been all that long, just a week or so, but with NeoRealm’s five times nonsense, that’s a few months already.”

Jason takes a moment to think while he grabs the last chocolate milk from the fridge, studiously ignoring his mother’s pout. “Just like you’ve always said, I’ve taken the slow and steady approach. Only up to level 12 at the moment. Got the control stat already as well. I actually checked it just before logging out and I’ve increased it to 16 and I even have a 25 stamina.”

His mother nods, “Tracking pretty well there. Too many people try to rush through the early content when that is actually the best time to pick up quests and such. Did you get the weapon you were hoping for?”

Jason nods, “Yeah, I just had to walk far enough to specialize in truly unarmed combat. Though you were wrong on what the System would give me as weapon rewards. It didn’t default to giving armor instead, but rather is upgrading my body. Traded out my skeleton for a soulbound magic item and my lungs now have a ritual in them that will let me breath underwater as well as expel unwanted matter from them for an Energy cost. Oh, and I ended up with Energy instead of Qi, so that’s a thing.”

She sighs and rolls her eyes, “Of course you would choose the rarest of the three. Not that I could have helped much, even if you had gone with Qi. Mana’s my thing. Now that was all interesting and some of it had real long-lasting benefits, but I can tell you left the best to last. What’s got you so smug?”

Jason smiles, “You’re already a high enough level to know so I guess I can tell you. Guess which lucky fool formed his core at level zero?”

She pauses and then gives him that mom look with one eyebrow raised. “You do realize that is impossible, right? You can’t gain anything like that at level zero because you don’t leave the tutorial till level one. Plus as you pointed out, that is sort of a level based thing. Sure if you know about it then you can form it early but it isn’t exactly something anyone in the know can talk about.”

Jason laughs, “It isn’t impossible if forming it takes all your xp and drops your level. Though I will admit that I stumbled upon it completely by accident.”

She shakes her head, “And of course because you formed it early means you have an actual cultivation technique. One of the rarer skills to pick up and a clear divider between the strong and the weak. I guess I can reinvest the gold I have been saving to buy you one in a couple years. Not like both of us together would have been able to buy one like you’ve got now. Truth rarity cultivation techniques just are not on the market.”

Jason raises an eyebrow, “How did you know it was Truth rarity?”

She shrugs, “The only way to get a core early if you aren’t taught a method is to develop a technique of that rarity. Though I guess I should warn you about that. What it refers to when it says truth isn’t necessarily a fact of the world, but rather something that is personally true for you on a deep level. Its like if someone says they are a lesbian. That is a personal truth and doesn’t mean everyone else is also a lesbian. Other people can share that truth and sometimes it is even connected to a broader thing like how it is true that humans can love their own gender, but not always.”

Jason nods along, but something catches his attention. “How would the System in NeoRealm know if something was true for a person on a deep level? It isn’t supposed to be able to read your mind.”