[NR] Fluffy? Sadly Not - Chapter 730

Over the next couple days, Peter would run Rosha ragged in a number of new and exciting ways. Though in the end, she was still digesting his first lesson and so he refrained from burdening her with more.

Peter, “Yep, I’ll probably head out early tomorrow.”

Rosha breathes a sigh of relief.

To which Peter grins and cheekily adds, “Just enough time for another training session!”

Though after a moment, he shakes his head. “More seriously, I’ve been here a day or two more than necessary already. Don’t want the Deep Wilds to get it in its head that I’m living here now. Not that we’re close to that point, but better safe than sorry when it comes to this kind of thing.”

And once Peter was gone the following morning, things settled back down. Rosha was a bit more motivated to keep up her training, but things rolled on. Right up until Jason finally finished his gravel path. Which ended up taking a little longer than planned.

The last stretch ended up being a little too far to haul the cart and still have time to create the path. After all, even if the cart full of gravel wasn’t actually all that heavy for Jason. It was still awkward, had momentum, and would lose gravel if it bounced around too much.

Still, this wasn’t too big of a problem. It simply meant that Jason ended up staying overnight in the settlement more often than planned. Then he was on the final stretch, which was technically after the path was finished. However, Jason decided to extend the path into the clearing and end it with what was basically a covered parking lot. Big enough for three wagons, not that he ever expected to have that many visitors at once, but better safe than sorry.

Though with it finally done, it was once again time for the group to decide on what they’re doing going forward. So that night as they gathered around the campfire for Dinner, they talked about their plans.

Jason, “For the moment? I’m focused on my cultivation irl. Well, that and working on my skills. I feel like I’m close to something after using my two skills so much putting the path together.”

Rosha nods, “And I need to get out in the Deep Wilds again. With the training still fresh in my mind? I should be able to advance by leaps and bounds.”

Courtney, “Though we can’t ignore what Peter brought up. The difference in leveling. You started slower, but have already caught up and exceeded us.”

Jason shrugs, “It makes sense. For the first couple bottlenecks, you only get a single star point a level. Now? Even if you haven’t played with that at all and just take the generic advancement? Well, from 10 to 24, you were gaining seven sp a level and now you’d be gaining 12! As for me? I’m not gaining any of that and so my levels are Cheap! Not only that, but the base cost to level also increases outside of paying for stats and that’s also discounted for me as well.”

Courtney nods, “And I think I have a solution for you.”

Jason laughs, “A solution for leveling too fast! What a world we live in.”

Courtney shakes her head, “You were going to need it anyway if you wanted to keep starring your stats. There would almost certainly come a time where just the experience from training your stats would be too much to fully train them before the bottleneck.

“But it is within those obsessed with starring the stats of their pets, that I found a potential answer. Because stats aren’t the only thing that experience can go towards, and you in particular have a potential sink for it.”

Rosha perks up, “Fluffy?”

Courtney shakes her head, “Sadly not. While there are those who focus on the presentation of their pets. Those aren’t the type of people to try and perfect the stats of their pets. Instead, we’re looking at the battlers who treat the game like it was some kind of pet monster battling sim with their biggest complaint being it’s hard to get a pet storage device so they can’t simply stuff their monsters in their pocket.”

Rosha sticks her tongue out, “Sucks to suck. Like, sure, battling with your pet is fun, but just training them to do all the fighting? Boring!”

Courtney shrugs, “Some people want to fight, but don’t have the mind for it. Anyway, if you’ve ever seen them command their pets, you might have noticed that even outside of the strange attack skills they seem to pull out of nowhere? The monsters they raise also tend to have interesting passive abilities, which they call talents. Stuff like a monster that is mostly immune to electricity suddenly having the ability to attract any lightning spells that go near it.

“Some of that comes from breeding the monsters to have new talents. However, such things can also be taught and will slow down leveling. Their research into the subject seems to point towards such passive talents siphoning off earned experience. The idea being that if the ability grows with the monster, that growth has to come from somewhere.

“And this isn’t skill growth! This is about abilities that passively increase with character level. A thing players rarely gain and often reject because it honestly isn’t a good trade-off for basically anyone. Anyone but you, that is.” And she fixes Jason with a look.

Jason shrugs, “That does sound hopeful. However, it also sounds like you don’t exactly have a way for a person to gain these abilities. Besides, I’m not immune to electricity, so being able to attract it isn’t the best plan.”

Courtney snorts, “You know that was just an example. There are more suitable abilities out there. However, I had an idea. If I remember correctly, you got a draw for a System-provided weapon.

“I bet that if you work towards some passive talents, the System might offer you one or two. If only because they’re easier for it to come up with.”