need help making a decision and choco leveling

[Felis]

also the Challenge log only gives credit for enemies at or near your level. That part I'm sure of, otherwise people would just nuke ladybugs to level their choco quickly. That said, I noticed when I was level synch'd at a fate with my chocobo, so effectively at the same level as enemies, I did NOT get credit in my log for companion exp when it seems like I should have- has anyone else noticed this?

At the beginning in 2.2 it was max 5 level lower to get into the challenge log. It got changed with 2.28 to 10 level lower.
FATE level-sync you to ~7 level above the enemies (2 level to high before 2.28)