Rocky had never thought of getting a soul familiar before.
The tower's historic lore suggested that having a strong familiar greatly increased one's chances of becoming a successful climber, which was why, no climber ever made the choice of choosing a familiar haphazardly.
Rocky too wanted to someday choose a strong soul familiar like the nine tailed fox, or a mighty dragon, however, he had never thought about it too seriously.
A transforming ice bunny, while not a bad species to form a soul-contract with, was not the first choice of most climbers either as except for their insanely high attack power, their defense was considerably weaker when compared to other species.
They were like the phoenix, however, weaker as while the phoenix held superior control over fire, one of the basic elements, the transforming ice bunny had complete control over ice which was a modified element derived from the basic element of water.
However, the reason behind why Rocky wanted to make a soul contract with Chun despite knowing how it wasn't the strongest species around was because he was desperate to somehow survive the Origin Realm and return home.
He was forced to choose the most difficult trail by the Gemini Gods despite his own reservations against making such a choice and the deeper he walked down that trail, the more obvious it became to him that he was not strong enough to make it all the way through.
He had no doubt in his mind that had he encountered Chun's mom before he encountered Chun, he would not have ended up with receiving two gentle bunny slaps on his face and would have ended up dead instead.
Your story source m_v lem|p-yr
Hence, under such circumstances, his decision to con Chun into signing a soul contract with him was to save his own skin and not because he genuinely wanted the cute toothed bunny as his pet.
"Why do you have that ugly smile on your face, human? I don't think you're up to anything good" Chun said, noticing the stupid grin on Rocky's as it awaited Rocky's conditions to let it lick his entire body.
"Huh? My smile is not ugly.... It's just not as cute as yours" Rocky said, chuckling out loud as he began tickling Chun's head with a single finger.
'Ooohhhh so soft...'
The moment Rocky's finger touched Chun's white fur, Rocky felt shivers run down his spine as the fur on Chun's head felt incredibly soft to touch.
'Ohhhh, it feels so good, almost like my fingers between a cushion of velvet.... This little bunny.... Its coat is pristine,' Rocky thought as he enjoyed the process of tickling Chun's head and somehow Chun thoroughly enjoyed it too as it kicked its small bunny legs in satisfaction when Rocky tickled its head.
"What are you doing, human? What type of attack is this? Why does it feel so ticklish yet good? Chun likes this.... Keep doing it human.... A little to the left....
"There's no need to oogle, Erin, it's creepy and I find it distracting" Sophia said after a while as she felt palpable discomfort from Erin staring at her while she trained.
"Nobody's ogling at you Sophia, I'm assessing how trash your swordsmanship is compared to Sir Rocky's" Erin said candidly as he did not hold back with his choice of words when talking to Sophia at all.
"Shut-up, what do you know about swordsmanship, Support Mage... you're not even a proper fighter.... You're just a glorified backpack carrier for real climbers, however, you're too weak to even perform that role properly" Sophia said snapping back at Erin as she seemed to have enough of people bossing her around like she was a nobody.
Having just returned from her home on floor21 where she was forced to sign a soul path with her brother, Sophia was in a worse mood than usual and had no patience for Erin's usual banter.
Enraged, she tried to put Erin in his place by reminding him that he was just a support mage, however, never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that feeling insulted by her words Erin would actually dare challenge her to a duel.
"Instructor Mae..... instructor Mae" Erin said, waving his hands as he tried to catch the attention of the professor who slowly walked over to him after seeing him wave.
"What do you need from me, student? I don't believe you're someone I teach" Instructor Mae said as Erin nodded his head in agreement.
"Indeed Instructor Mae, I'm not someone you teach..... I'm Erin from the curses and support magic class and I'm here today to challenge Sophia to a duel.
If you can please authorize this fight and officiate it, I would be extremely grateful" Erin said as he politely bowed before instructor Mae.
"What? Have you absolutely lost your mind blondie? You fighting me? You have no chance of winning.... And don't think I won't break your bones if we fight and go easy on you just because you're an acquaintance, because I will break them" Sophia warned as she tried to discourage Erin from making this challenge, however, Erin seemed to have firmly made up his mind.
"Let me worry about my own bones and you worry about yours..." Erin said coldly as he did not even spare Sophia a glance but continued to look into Instructor Mae's eyes, waiting for her to make a decision.
At this point, everyone else in the swordsmanship training hall also paused their training and began looking towards Erin, Instructor Mae and Sophia, as for them, this was peak drama under development.
"The final exams are nearby... so I must warn you that if you go ahead with this challenge and then become too injured to take the final evaluation test, there will be no special concessions given to you–" Instructor Mae warned both Erin and Sophia, as Erin still nodded his head with confidence.
"I appreciate your concern, Instructor Mae, I really do, however, it's precisely because the semester end is so near that I need to do this today.
Ever since I've joined this university, since the very first day she's been looking down on me as if I'm a second rate student while she's the princess of this campus and I just can't stand it anymore.
Someone needs to put her in her place someday, and I feel confident enough in beating her today if I face her.
So please allow me to battle her..." Erin requested, as Instructor Mae let out a deep sigh before saying "Alright"