With the mornings first light Daniel rushed about his room rapidly shelling through clothes before putting a t-shirt and a pair of cargo pants, rushing through his house he turned on his glasses looking through his screen door to see that at least ten rabbits had respawned since yesterday. Grinning with glee Daniel ran outside to the garage moving past his moms' car and the piles of junk shed stuffed in there before coming across the old lawnmower she bought all those years ago. Save for a layer of dust the graced its exterior it was brand new with an apple red body and charcoal black grass bag Daniel gladly began putting his plan into action.

Climbing his tree once again he saw that his neighbor two houses down had a fairly unkempt backyard, Weeds populated the mid-ground with dandelion and crabgrass sprouting proudly while large unkempt bushes hid near the edges in the shaded overgrowth of the trees, and among the almost jungle-like foliage that was his neighbors' yard, he saw an abundance of sky hoppers.

 Riled with excitement Daniel rolled the lawnmower from the garages maw and pushed it to the edge of his neighbor's doorstep before giving the door a hearty knock. Half an hour later after haggling a price Daniel began tending to the neighbor’s back yard yanking weeds, mowing grass and trimming bushes all for $15.45. Daniel couldn't help but admire himself for his genius plan it was so simple yet so clever that he smirked the entire time while he pushed his mower

Genius grinding plan 

1. Mow neighbor’s backyard for money
2. After mowing rest
3. Hunt rabbits in the neighbor's yard
4. Collect money
5. Find a new neighbor
6. Repeat

For a moment Daniel felt like he should be twirling a mustache mischievously while he petted a white cat, it was perfect. This way Daniel could improve his physical strength, while also gaining money for mowing the lawn, and XP from killing the rabbits it was an all-around win. Happily mowing along he noticed that the rabbits had barely moved since he’d got there, aside from hopping around a bit and scratching themselves with their legs they didn't even acknowledge him. Taking note of this Daniel wondered if it was because he hadn't aggroed the rabbits yet, keeping that mental note Daniel finished the rest of the yard trimming the bushes with a pair of shears he found in his neighbors shed.

Afternoon had set in and the sky had begun to change hues, but Daniel was determined to try his new spells, now knowing how the rabbits moved Daniel positioned himself just behind the trees with his back almost flat against the fence. Getting an idea Daniel’s eyes lit with excitement as he prepared the spell, hoping dearly that it would work like he thought. Casting desecrated dome Daniel saw the faint red outline of a circle appear before him, stretching his arm forward he watched as the circle moved forward before stopping in the middle of rabbit swarm. He’d already confirmed his spell range to be 12 feet but to see that he could cast his shield in that spell range was more than incredible but now was the moment of truth.

Whispering under his breath he cast desecrated dome and watched as a thick blue dome surrounded a small colony of rabbits immediately alerting them, yet while the other rabbits fled for the trees and roof the rabbits in the dome were trapped despite their best efforts. 'It worked. It really worked!' Daniel jumped for joy as his idea was proven since the desecrated dome is mainly a defensive spell then that'd mean that unless the dome is dismissed or broken no one besides the caster can move through it. It wasn't entirely his idea though he pieced it together from the many rage-filled posts on the community board of groups getting trapped within their teammate's shield, using electro web and crimson cocoon on a pair of rabbits perched above him before approaching the dome holding the rabbits. Counting his haul he found he got 6 sky hoppers all of whom were huddled in a ball in the center of the dome, approaching carefully Daniel put a single finger through the barrier seeing he could still pass through it.

 Letting out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding Daniel murmured under his breath “charge burst” and watched as a small ball of orange energy began to form in his hand. Suddenly the ball expanded in a spikey explosion only to go back to shape as if it was contained in an elastic casing, but after 5 minutes of waiting for the ball was the size of a baseball and shaking violently.

Pointing his palm at the rabbits Daniel held his arm steady seeing as it was shaking on its own before shouting “Explosion!” causing the ball of energy to burst with a vile intensity filling the entire interior of the dome with ricocheting sparks and crackling flames burning the very bodies of the rabbits to small piles of ash and embers. Surprised by the result Daniel moved through the barrier inspecting each mound, soon the ash disappeared and among three of the piles were three small tufts of silky white fluff all highlighted by a golden light.

 Tapping one of the white bundles of fur a small menu popped up asking “[Loot albino sky hopper?] (yes) (no)” without hesitation Daniel tapped the yes button and watched as a small list popped into his peripheral vision. 

• Gained sky hopper fur
• Gained sky hopper claw
• Gained sky hopper tooth

Confused Daniel wondered what he could even do with these materials but that thought got quickly bushed to the back of his mind as he turned to see aa new group of rabbits emerging from the trees. He was ready to turn around and attack when he noticed something rather someone, a little kid maybe no older than seven was staring at him from behind a screen door and her face was awestruck and filled with wonder as she stared at him. Daniel was confused for a moment as to why she was staring at him that way but then realized why desperately resisting to facepalm himself he says the thick gray glasses propped on her face meaning she had just watched him dispose of a group of bunnies in almost an instant. Giving a small mirthful wave Daniel watched the little girl run back into her house with a gleaming smile while he sighed and began his grind session.

 It took around half an hour with the desecrated dome and palm flash to whittle the rabbits to nearly half their original numbers but even then Daniels Sp couldn't recover fast enough to compensate and he knew that his neighbors would probably grow suspicious if he stayed in their backyard any longer so he cleaned the garden of all the leftover leaves, branches and trimmed foliage from his gardening endeavors. Yet right as he was taking the trash bags out to the curb did the child, he saw earlier run out with her parents in tow a slim prim and proper woman wearing a sleek blouse and jeans and a fairly muscular man wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts.

Daniel was slightly stunned by their apparel winter may just be ending but they were dressed as if summer was right around the corner, as Daniel stood before his neighbors, he desperately hoped the little girl didn't say something weird about him.

Waiting anxiously for their words Daniel braced himself deeply until a gruff manly voice asked “so what level are you?” for a second Daniel thought he heard something wrong but decided to answer the question honestly “I-I'm level 1 sir bordering on level two” the man seemed to mull this over until his wife gave him a playful slap on the chest “honey, stop it with that serious face you're scaring the poor kid”.

The man looked over to Daniel before giving a warm apologetic smile “sorry kid I'm just new to this whole new fan fangled technology shit didn't mean to scare ya” relief washing over him Daniel watched the man’s wife slap him again “Arnold, language”.

For a moment Daniel wondered if he accidentally walked onto the set of a sitcom but after the parent had their little bant they turned to Daniel with calm relaxed smiles “basically kid our daughter Aya told us that you play that world of sorcery game and we were hoping you could help her out a bit”. Daniel almost letting out a sigh of relief happily agreed to see as it gave him more time to grind and more reason to stay in their backyard yet when Aya came out she was too distracted by the cuteness of the sky hoppers to focus on grinding them instead she’d get opportunity attacks from the rabbit's claws.

 Eventually Daniel found the problem Aya hadn't even selected her spells yet, so after looting a few more rabbits Daniel began helping her out telling her to get desecrated dome, palm flash, and crimson cocoon slowly tutoring Aya on how to play and how to use the spells eventually Aya had masters her few spells and was raking in XP until she was right on the brink of becoming level one. Daniel captured the last few rabbits in his dome and right as he was about to finish them off he shrugged to himself and offered them to Aya, with a sense of lee in her eye Aya Daniel dispelled the dome as Aya quickly trapped them and eliminated them one by one with palm flash until finally a trumpet sound rang from her parents phone showing that she’d reached level one.

Daniel congratulated her and was about to take his leave seeing how late it was until Aya stopped him, confused Daniel watched as she quickly looted the remaining rabbits rapidly asking Daniel how to trade and exchange items. Though he was flattered Daniel decided to let Aya keep the items as the first sign of her progress before packing up his mower and heading home. It wasn't until later that night as Daniel was getting ready to charge his glasses and go to bed that he got a mail notification. Tapping his phone Daniel opened the email seeing the only line filled in was the subject line simply saying “thank you” in all caps.

Scrolling down Daniel found a small sparkling box that had the word “Gift” on it, tapping the box his phone began to light up until a small present began to rise from his phone and hover before him. Tapping the box the present opened up revealing a rabbits foot its pale hair mixed with twinges of gold and held by a single silver chain slowly a card floated towards him and as he read it he couldn't help but cringe even though it was a child who wrote it.

“Thank you neighbor-Sama I've learned a lot from you but I didn't catch you name so I hope when I see you again you can let me call you nii-san as well. I hope you enjoy the gift it’s the coolest of the cool items I got from the rabbits, and sorry if it seems weird but I took a look at your name bar to find you please don’t be mad onii-san. Thanks again ; 3  -Kuwaii neko nii-san”.

Daniel was at a loss for words after reading the letter he knew she was just a kid, he knew she was just eight years old but he didn't even know how much of a weeb she could be before now, setting that aside Daniel tapped the rabbit's foot to see what it was.

[The lucky foot]

Item/ common

(effects) 

• + 10% chance of receiving an uncommon item

Staring at the item description Daniel’s heart leaped with joy at the prospect of finding more special items. Thanking the Aya internally Daniel wondered if he would be able to find an item to give to Jessica.