[NeoRealm] Chapter 42 - Nubbed, Fledgling, and Spiky (Patreon)

Jason wakes up from his meditation, though, stays still. It seems he forgot a very important step before starting. He opens one eye just a slit. All around him many rabbits are also waking up from their own meditation. A quick inspection shows that none of them are normal rabbits. In fact, most of them are the either Nub rabbits or Fledgling rabbits, the rank just before Horned and Winged rabbits, respectively. Though amongst them a handful of them are different. Instead of a horn or wings these few rabbits are exceptionally fluffy. If it wasn’t for the fact their fur had a glint to it and the system calling them Spiky rabbits, no one could resist petting them.

Keeping still and forcing his face to not show his dismay Jason’s mind races. “I could take them? There aren’t that many and all of them are below level 5. However there is a good reason you don’t see these type of rabbits just hopping around. Their parents might be nearby and to have so many energy-based rabbits means they should to be at least above the normal adult rank. I might be able to take on normal Horned and Winged rabbits but anything above that is beyond me. Either an Ace Wing or Spiral Horned rabbit would kill me ten times over. Hell, even a Middle Aged rabbit could take me, what with them being the size of a wolf. Though speaking of energy-based rabbits those Spiky rabbits must be the Energy version.”

Taking another look at this point and Jason can’t help but let out a sigh of relief. It seems they were there for the Energy rich environment his cultivation caused. A single Spiky rabbit remains, frozen in place. Jason actually caught it going for a bite of his Energy Herb. Noticing his attention the rabbit puffs up its fur then turns tail and hops off.

Though it was faint Jason could see small sparkles when the rabbit had puffed itself up. The closest thing it reminded him of was how static electricity looks in the darkness. “It seems trying to pet one might be a shocking experience. Anyway, that comes as close to proving my thoughts as anything. If I had to guess there are several warrens in the area about to get a big uptick in the number of special rabbits. My meditation provided them with enough energy to rank up. Most of them had already experienced Mana or Qi but those Spiky ones probably came from places without a Horned or Winged rabbit.”

Shrugging he checks on his pot of plants. They aren’t grown yet, but they grew faster.  All five plants had already advanced to having multiple leaves. In fact they seem, oddly enough, too far along. While his meditation had upped the ambient Energy, it wasn’t by much. When he force matured them with his own Energy, they comparatively didn’t grow as much. “My Energy is purer than not yet it wasn’t as effective. What is special about my mediation that would cause the Energy Herb to grow so well? Now that I think about it, how well did my meditation help me anyway” and so with that in mind he queries the System, “System Show Cultivation Skill With Growth Since Last Checked”

Energetic Body Reinforcement

Through a special training method you have infused your very Energy into your cardiovascular system. You have stepped down the path of perfecting your body. As you train further in it, your body will toughen. Most important though is that your body will start to become like an enchanted item allowing you to damage that which is resistant to normal physical damage. Because of your filtering cycle you will gain less Energy but the Energy will be extremely pure.

Apprentice Level 1 - 16.5% [+.3%]

Rank: Unique

Type: Passive, Cultivation

Effects:

• Filtering Cycle - Gain only 10% of absorbed energies but they are extremely pure
• Purity of energy - Because of the purity of your energy higher levels have a lower scaling on what is needed to level it and it does more
• Blood is Life and the Heart it’s throne - Passive regeneration .083hp/second
• Body/Mind Unification - Despite any stat limitations your ability to fully control your body strengthens
• Energized Flesh - Can hit incorporeal things for 1% of normal damage with body
• Material Body - With time your body can become like living metal or hard like a diamond

“Okay, the only thing that changed was I gained .3% towards the next level. Honestly, that is decent progress for three hours of cultivation. Though of course it will go down with time. Same old story there, doing it the safe way is slow as all get out. Not like I have hundreds of hours to work on it. Mom is currently fine with me bumming a room for the moment but even at 5 times speed I won’t be able to meditate my way to greatness. Anyway, there isn’t much more I can discover at the moment. After my next mediation I will check the surrounding space after finishing to find out what is different. If I can improve my use of Energy when growing the Herbs it will probably help me in other ways.”

Standing up and stretching Jason looks around. All the rabbits are gone. Though the thought of them causes a small twinge in his mind, “Right I created those Spiky rabbits. Now I haven’t heard of that type of rabbit before. Though Energy is rare someone will have had to used it on rabbits before. I would love to assume that it is just hard for them to pass that onto the next generation. However, I may have just shifted the entire biome by adding a fourth rabbit type to the area. Not that I can help it at this point and it won't stop me from meditating here.” Shrugging to himself he dismisses his worries. A couple of low level rabbits, even with their proclivity to increase in numbers won’t be able to change the entire plains for quite a while. It might be callus of him but by the time things change around here he should be long gone.