Back on the road Jason takes one last look back at the ravaged area and shakes his head. The area it took up was too large for him to do anything much about, but he would pass it on to the next settlement he came across. While it wasn’t his responsibility to take care of, someone would probably care. At least enough to go and check it out if they didn’t already know about it.

Jason shrugged as he let Lily out. The world was full of mysteries and not all of them were meant for him to delve. Instead he focused on allowing Lily to play. She hadn’t been able to get out much as Jason was leery about if the aggression effect might do something to her.

Now clear of that hidden danger, Lily was able to play around with the local animals. Like the friendly group of badgers that ended up dead. The carnivorous deer that stopped by for a bite to eat and ended up dead or the pair of bobcats with ice powers that tried to ambush them and ended up dead. Yeah, she had a bunch of fun.

Though Jason still had to step in when another bear made itself known. Despite being a normal animal, their stats more than made up for it. Jason’s only disappointment with this is that he was hoping to come across a hindbear. A fun species of bear able to stand on its hind legs. It was honestly shocking that he hadn’t seen one with how many bears seemed to be around.

While hind bears weren’t an actual evolution of normal bears, they tend to show up in the same areas. Not that Jason completely believed this. The main difference between the two seemed to be more related to the bone structure of the back legs than anything else. Plus, the two sides went in separate directions with regular bears ending up as Mana users while the hind bear will use Qi.

Then a jackalope attacks. Not Lily of course, but rather Jason and to be honest, he doesn’t really want to fight it. The rabbit seemed like it was defending Lily or some such. Combined with the fact they tend to be heavily influenced by the fae. Not something anyone ever should have to deal with. If only because they liked playing pranks and a lack of understanding that claiming something was a prank would make everything better.

Jason danced around with the poor jackalope for a little but he didn’t feel like dancing to the whims of the fae all day. So once a chance presented itself he struck. A quick hand chop, snuck in right behind the antlers, knocks the rabbit out. Of course NeoRealm follows how stuff like this would work in reality so Jason hightails it out of there, the rabbit waking up moments later.

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Off to the side of the road a small collection of fae laugh and cheer. An unexpected result being worth more than their bets over what would happen. That is, until one of them points out that they had bet on a tie. The others in on the bet all argue back that if anything the jackalope had lost.

Maybe if everyone or even a majority of the group had been in on the bet it would have ended there. Instead those just hanging around to watch fanned the flames. Off to the side the clueless rabbit shook its head and hopped off, hoping those annoying bugs would keep away this time. Its escape didn’t go unnoticed, but the actual owners missed it and of course the best pranks are the ones with maximum chaos but minimum personal effort.

Back with Jason, Lily has decided to get back on his shoulder. While being able to hop around is fun, the area smells of the fae and her bloodline has nothing good to say about those nuisances. A sentiment that Jason agrees with.

So without needing to really think about it, Jason picks up the pace. Of course this doesn’t scale up the speed too much. While the road’s bonus does scale with the user's speed, it is a flat bonus based on an innate speed and not the current speed a person is moving at.

Still, through a combination of that and Jason’s movement skill he makes good time. So good that he decides that the next day should be used to rest up. Until now he had been traveling almost continually, barely sleeping in between cultivating both in game and irl.

Jason also understands that if he spends the day doing just that it wouldn’t be much of a rest day. Instead after a full night's sleep he spends the time lazing around. His time partly spent on his puttering around with his garden and partly hanging out with Lily.

The garden was simple enough. By using the small amount he could extend his Energy, Jason was able to spot any problems beneath the soil. Problems that were both expected and severe. Even after so many days the newly transplanted plants were all still not looking too hot. Jason could tell they were recovering but they required a lot of babying. A thing he had somewhat been provided but for the first time had really focused on.

As for hanging out with Lily? Well, she actually was more into getting out and doing things. Something Jason had basically decided against doing so it was a slight discrepancy between what they both wanted. Still, Lily had some ability to read the room, as it were, and settled down quick enough. After all, while she would very much have enjoyed the chance to fight more. Lily was perfectly fine spending some time just letting Jason pet her as they watched the birds flit around the tree tops.

The sun sets on this with Jason once again settling in for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow the trip could continue but for now? Jason felt a wonderful sense of fulfillment.