Chapter 060

It had been 10 days since the three of them set off from Vermillion City. Alex, Hugh and Luna had no luck yet finding the mysterious Frog King's Village. They instead spent a good amount of time training their young Pokemon. Budew was on the verge of evolving into Roselia. The Tyrouge too improved by leaps and bounds. As for Charmander, it officially surpassed the Baby Stage and entered the Novice Stage.

Baby Pokemon were newborn or weak Pokemon, below level 10. Such Pokemon posed no threat to humans unless the human was really unlucky, bar a few exceptions. Pokemon in this stage, if they have a good potential or nutritious food they reach level 10 very quickly. Level 10 is a bottleneck. The Pokemonwould be stuck at level 9 for a while, before eventually breaking into level 10. Then there would be no bottleneck, with some accumulation they coudl rise a stage. After surpassing level 10 the Pokemon would be a Novice Pokemon. Pokemon in the Novice Stage had a slower growth rate than Baby Pokemon. Even for Pokemon with fast growth like Bug type Pokemon, the Novice Stage would take some time. For the Kanto Imperial Starter, which had a medium growth rate, the novice stage would take a few months to cross. The Novie Stage included Pokemon from level 11 to level 30. Pokemon would have a minor bottleneck at level 20 and level 30. After they cross level 31, Pokemon are of Veteran Stage. Pokemon's growth rate slows down very considerably during this stage. It may take a couple of years for even the Imperial Starters to cross this level. Most Bug type Pokemon do not even have the potential to cross this level. The Veteran Stage includes Pokemon from level 31 to Level 50, the limit of the scanning system as Alex found out. Again, bottlenecks existed at levels 40 and 50. Above level 51 were Pokemon of the Elite Stage. Pokemon of this stage were insanely powerful, but also extremely slow to grow. They also they require a tremendous amount of food and energy to grow. Elite Stage Pokemon have a bottleneck every 5 levels, till level 70, which is a major bottleneck to becoming a Heavenly Stage Pokemon. Heavenly stage Pokemon needed years to advance, and would have bottlenecks at every level. Level 90 is the ultimate bottleneck, surpassing which they would be Champion Stage Pokemon.

Alex's Charmander had just reached level 12.

"Aren't you going to catch any more Pokemon, Alex? We saw a few good Pokemon along the way. You only seem to have one Pokmon, so I thought you would catch one by now" asked Luna.

"I won't catch a Pokemon for now as my Charmander still needs all my attention. After it evolved, maybe I will catch a second Pokemon" replied Alex, while secretly complaining that this was due to all the Pokemon they spotted having low potential.

"That's a shame" muttered Luna.

As they were walking forward, Alex saw something in the corner of his eye

"Stop!" he said. Both of them looked at him questioningly, and he pointed at a Poliwag jumping around in the shade of the trees nearby.

"Think it's connected to the village?" asked Luna.

"We will have to see. Let's scare it to have it run back home. Let's see, maybe we should let a Flying Pokemon...." Alex was suggesting, but Hugh stepped forward and opened a Pokeball.

A purple inverted triangle with a scary face and two ghostly claws came out.

Alex checked the Haunter's stats

Haunter

Gender - Female

Lvl - 39

Type - Ghost/Poison

Held item - Oran Berry

Ability - Levitate

Moves - Shadow Punch, Scary Face, Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, Lick, Mean Look, Payback, Spite, Curse, Night Shade, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Sucker Punch

Nature - Naugty

Training - 80%

Potential - Blue

"Haunter, scare the Poliwag in the front without harming it, and then hide in its shadow" commanded Hugh.

The Haunter gave a creepy laugh along with a nod, and dashed towards the unsuspecting Poilwag.

Haunter then made a Scary Face right in the face of the poor Poliwag. The Poliwag shrieked in fright and took off. Haunter merged into its shadow. Alex, Hugh and Luna trailed from a distance.

"The blue tree with red crosses, the brown plants with a whitish sap, the total lack of other Pokemon except for the Frog King's subjects" murdered Alex as they were walking.

"What?" asked Luna.

"It's nothing. But I spotted multiple landmarks from the journal. I think we are close" said Alex.

The Poliwag eventually approached a clear stream and jumped in. From the distance, they could see many Poliwag and Poliwhirl frolicking in the stream.

They slowly approached the stream, and looked around. In the distance, they saw what appeared to be human buildings.

"Here we are. The Frog King's Village" muttered Alex.