The main roads were safe this close to towns. Not that there weren’t bandits and beasts. Rather, they focused on the larger caravans and to attack small groups would alert their real prey. This made for an uneventful start to the trip and provided Jason enough time to check his wealth and companion pages.

Wealth

Money

6 Silver 42 Copper

Property

N/A

Businesses

N/A

Bank

10 Gold

Pets and Companions

Non-Combat Pets [0/2]

[Open] [Open]

Combat Pets [0/1]

[Open]

Companions

Lily - Female Rabbit Serf - Level 1

Yep, a bit empty. They served more as a summary page than a place to see the information in depth. That depth was what he needed at the moment though so he dug in to the most mysterious bit first. Where in the world did that 10 gold in his bank come from? When he opens that up it leads directly to his bank page. This made the mystery easy enough to solve. His mom had at transferred the gold to him the day he joined NeoRealm. Nice of her but not that generous. He was only so low on money at the moment because of it all being downgraded at level ten. More important than that was the next one to check. The Lily’s companion page.

Basic Info

Name: Lily

Race: Rabbit Serf

Level: 1 - 0.0%

Legal Status: Local Companion

Title: Serf

Normal Stats

Strength 3 ( 3[Base] ) Toughness 2 ( 2[Base] ) Agility 10 ( 10[Base] )

Auxiliary Stats

Defense 1 ( 1[Base] ) HP 5 Energy 1

Organizations

Odd Ones Out - Team Member - Mascot

Experience Split

None

Jason was happy to see that Lily already had the defense stat. Many animals do get the stat because of things like tough skin but it wasn’t assured. With the stat already in place it would experience growth as she leveled. Besides that though Jason was amused to see that they listed the temporary team member position as the mascot. It made him wonder if there were other position titles for it depending on who it was.

More important than all that was the experience split at the bottom because otherwise it was a normal status screen. Part of why it is so hard to get a companion in the game. No one, npc or player, likes to have that all out in the open. Not to get distracted though if he hadn’t looked it up the split option would look boring. That was because it had nothing set up yet. You could turn it into a giant stack of conditionals.

Jason wasn’t going to go that far but he had a couple conditions planned. First, he set it so 100 percent of his experience went to Lily. Simple enough but not the final setting he wanted for it. However to go further he needed to confer with the others. “Hey guys, I am working on my experience split with Lily. I set it to 100 percent to her at the moment. At what levels should I start to lower it?”

You could almost see the question marks above Rosha’s head. Courtney however was on top of it and chimed in. “With animals, level five or ten is generally a breakpoint. If I remember correctly small mammals like rabbits have the first one at ten so you might give her it all till then. On the other hand you do have trouble with gaining experience. You might consider a lower split at five just so you don’t fall too far behind. Once she can join in with combat, it won’t matter as much.”

Jason and Courtney go back and forth on this a while when Rosha interjects, “why don’t we all just give Lily some of our xp?” Record scratch. The two turn to her and ask, “what?” She explains further, “well she isn’t our companion but Lily joined as a temp member and that lets us direct some xp to her. Not a lot, only like five percent from each of us but the System matches it. Jason pops open the Odd Ones Out page and there it is. He shares a look with Courtney and after a few mumbled agreements they all put in five percent. With that Jason can complete the companion split.

Experience Split

95% To Lily IF Lily’s Level = 10 THEN Set 20% To Lily IF Lily’s Level >= Jason’s Level THEN Temp Set 0% to Lily

Good enough for now if a little simple compared to what he had seen online. He was originally going to give 50 percent to Lily after she hit level ten. However, with the team setting she would receive the equivalent of 30 percent from them so he lowered the companion split to 20. She should receive the same amount, just spread out. After she reached level ten, the System would set the new split and remove that second line. The third condition is important and nifty all in one. When Lily matched or exceeded his level the split would be set to zero temporarily. The temp part was very convenient as once the condition is met the System changes the line to read the opposite. In this case it would be if her level was below his it would reset the split to 20%.

Happy with what he has Jason informs the others of it. Both of them agreed that should do for now. With that out of the way there isn’t much else to do. Lily was happy being doted on by Rosha and of course Rosha was happy as well. Courtney seemed content to just walk in silence so it left Jason to his thoughts. The sun passes overhead and starts to set before the group would have to leave the main road. There was actually a nice little nameless inn off to the side at that point. It made sense for it to be here as while the main road continues many smaller roads split off here. The group enters the inn and ask about a room. They should have realized with the size of the place, single rooms were not on the menu. Instead, they each hand over nine silver to stay in the common room overnight. Lily gets to stay for free as a small pet. Jason of course forgot to mention the mistake and how she was a companion.