CH24 (388), Toeds-Research, First Phase Complete

It was unbelievable how fast time could pass if one was busy with something. Before I knew it four months had passed and I was once more at the start of another vacation. Actually, yesterday had been the last day of the 29th month, and today with the arrival of Kyoday/the weekend, my month-long vacation had officially begun.

Truly, unlike the times I had to go to the academy for lessons, the "second term" this year slipped by without my notice. The last four months had been quite productive. We managed to finish the first phase of our Toeds-project, which encompassed all possible short-term subjects, leaving only the long-term ones.

Toedscruel was especially happy about that since only one of those involved him, at least for now, which meant he now had much more free time to do as he pleased, which he spent watching over his other kids.

The rest of the long-term projects, including the sustenance one that Toedscruel was participating in, were being carried out with Toedscool. By now Toedscool's little harem could no longer be called as such since the number of females in it had exceeded 60.

My guy could be considered a full-fledged harem king now, and I even overheard yesterday, that there would be some Alolan Exeggutor joining in as well once they arrived from Alola. Apparently, Professor Oak's cousin Samson Oak was sending them over, but I did not hear why he was doing it.

My best guess was that he wanted some of the resulting Toedscool in return. Probably to do some research of his own, or to propagate them throughout Alola. Maybe both, but I did not mind it either way since me and Professor Oak had already settled the issue regarding the eggs produced through my Toedscool.

I decided to be more demanding during the negotiations and we ended up agreeing that I would receive two-thirds of the eggs that took after the mother's species, and a third of the eggs that took after Toedscool.

However, Professor Oak added a stipulation that the second part would only commence after the first 12 successful Toedscool eggs emerged and were taken in by the lab.

This was to ensure that the lab could amass a minimum amount of Toedscool in the shortest amount of time before I started receiving my share, so whatever deal they had struck with Samson Oak did not influence my share.

It was worth mentioning that the first batch of eggs was on its way since some of Toedscool's harem members were showing signs of pregnancy. The lab team responsible for the breeding issue noted that some of the females had begun developing eggs inside their bodies.

The estimate at the lab was that the first eggs would be laid in around a month, so I would most likely see some eggs after returning from my vacation. I was assuming, that we would know whether an egg was a Toedscool one or rather one of the mother's species just a few moments after it was laid due to the patterns on the egg.

The patterns on the mother's species were known, so as long as the pattern on the Toedscool egg did not look too similar to one of the others, it would directly stand out.

Another interesting tidbit was that the news of our research had leaked yesterday, and I heard that quite a few professors had called Professor Oak to ask to either cooperate with us on some of our long-term research topics or for access to some Toedscool once our breeding project succeeded.

I had no idea whether Professor Oak would accept the requests or not, but that had nothing to do with me. My participation in this research project had come to an end with the completion of the first phase/the short-term subjects.

I was allowed to move between each research team, which let me take part in all research subjects during these 4 months whether they be short-term or long-term. Nonetheless, the professor informed me that there was no need for me to keep working on the long-term ones after I returned from my vacation since I already took part in all of them for some time.

He announced that I would be joining a new research project instead, but that I was free to check up on the Toeds-project from time to time since it involved my Pokemon. As for what that new project of mine would be, I had no idea.

The professor told me that he would inform me once I was back. What I inferred from that was that he had not decided which research project he should assign me to, but I could be wrong as well.

Regardless of what my next project was going to be, once I handed in a copy of all the notes I made during the last four months, my first research project could be deemed as successfully completed. The notes were only requested as supplements for the official reports I made during the ongoing research.

On a more personal note, I had kept up my personal training, including my ground elemental training, and had advanced to Tier 1 Second-Class. This unlocked the Minor Seismic Sense, which allowed me to detect objects or tunnels below the ground, provided the ground was made up of earth, and that it was within the range of my new seismic sense.

It was also possible to detect things that were on the ground, but that was not nearly as clear as the mental image the seismic sense gave me for things detected underground. Since I had managed to reach the Second Class, my new goal was obviously to reach Tier 1 First Class.

Doing so would allow me to unlock the Minor Earth Generation ability, which would make it possible for me to turn ground energy into tangible/solid earth.

I had to admit that Minor Geokinesis and Minor Earth Generation complemented each other perfectly since one allowed the Elementalist to generate earth while the other allowed him or her to manipulate earth.

While I had made some progress as an Elementalist, sadly the same was not true for my previous paths. I was still stuck at the peak of Tier 2 as both a Psychic and an Aura User, but that had a lot to do with the amount of time I allocated to those two, or rather the lack of sufficient time I reserved for them.

Due to the same reason, I failed to keep up with my physical training. The most I did was jog from my dorm to the places I had to reach, so I saw no real improvement in that aspect. I had to admit that I visited the gym open to all employees only once, but I blame it entirely on being too busy.

Unlike me, my Pokemon were free to train as they wanted, so they kept working on becoming stronger even if I could not go out for some training/battle trips. The most they got battle-wise was the occasional battle I squeezed in during my trips to Pallet City/Jessie.

Who would have thought, but the PokeCenter proved to be a place where one could find trainers to battle with. In fact, most felt more at ease with going all out on the battlefields behind the PokeCenter since any injuries could be handled on-site.

No one was worried about losing their partner due to an accident with Nurse Joy close by, which showed the trust everyone had in that family. Well, that, and the fact that they had functioning brains.

If anyone was afraid of a proper battle even under such circumstances, they were simply not fit for Pokemon battles and should rather focus on other avenues instead, such as performances.

It was during one such visit that I met a pair of siblings that proved to be decent battle partners. I was a bit suspicious at first since they turned up nearly every time I showed up at the PokeCenter to visit Jessie, but after confirming that they had no ill intent toward me or Jessie, I chose to ignore it since they were aboveboard with their intent to approach me.

I was after all someone that became famous for a brief time due to winning the global student competition, so it made sense that the odd person remembered me and felt like getting to know me was a good idea.

I saw nothing wrong with that, as long as they were sincere in their approach, which I could confirm thanks to being an Aura User and Psychic, so I let James and Layla hang out with us on occasion.

Anyway, back to my Pokemon. Most of them had made good progress during these 4 months, but there were a few notable ones. Mienfoo managed to reach the (high) bronze stage.

Buneary, Gible, as well as all four Eevee, reached the (high) iron stage, and Togepi was not too far off either. I was guessing that she would reach that point in another two or so months.

Tyrogue had succeeded in simultaneously raising all 4 of his "physical" parameters to S. Not only that, but his energy parameters had reached the S-value as well. His perfect balance talent was seriously helping him speed things up.

Honestly, the way things were going I wouldn't be surprised if his "physical" parameters simultaneously rose to SS before the end of this year, so within the next 6 or so months. Heck, he probably could raise all his parameters to SS by that time.

I would even believe it possible for him to complete his limit-breaking and break through to the bronze stage within the next 14 to 16 months, which meant that he would have 8 to 10 months to raise his parameters from SS to SSS.

Yet, I felt like he could do it even if it meant that he would have broken through from the iron stage to the bronze stage in less than a year, a bit more than half a year actually, despite completing his limit breaking. I could probably speed that up by putting him through some real battles, but I had no idea if I would have the time for that or not.

Eggy/Salandit was only a few more months away from reaching the (mid) iron stage, while Bruce/Zubat had already done so. In fact, I was pretty sure that, by the time Eggy reached the (mid) iron stage, Bruce would not be far off from reaching the (high) iron stage. Thankfully, it appeared that Eggy did not mind being overtaken like this, at least for now.

The nature of the male Salandit line might have been helping him with this, but I would still have to make sure that he overcame that same nature at some point in the future since I was of the belief that doing so was one of the requirements for a male Salandit to evolve.

As for the other baby/youngling of our family, Charmander's maturity had reached nearly 40%. Yet, he was still a bit clingy, but in my opinion, that was understandable since he was less than 10 months old by this point. So, I saw nothing wrong with that and just enjoyed it while it lasted since he would stop being so cuddly in a few more months.

Then there was Saphira/Swablu, who was really close to completing her limit-breaking, she only needed to raise three more parameters to SSS before she could break through to the silver stage. Once she did that I would let her evolve, we had delayed that long enough, and I was looking forward to the addition of my third dragon.

Manami/Lapras was in the same position as Saphira, but for her, the breakthrough would let her reach the gold stage instead. The other five members of the Slythering Six were also not too far off from being ready to break through to the gold stage.

I was confident that all my Gyarados would be at the gold stage within half a year at the latest.

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