30 Chapter 030

Though the others couldn't teleport freely between Floors like Leon could, everyone but Miu could move directly to the Second Floor from the entrance. The caveat was that if they entered the Second Floor, the portal that would ordinarily take them back to the First would send them back to the entrance.

"I'll take Kisara, Shino, and Miu with me," said Mordred. "I want to see for myself whether Miu has what it takes to climb the Tower with us, so we'll take her around to our usual hunting grounds."

"Then Al and I are going to head to Gemstone Cavern," appended Ed. "After seeing how strong Kisara, Shino, and Gakuto became after their upgrades, we're gonna try to gather enough fragments to increase our own to at least Yellow."

"Guess that leaves the three of us...?" asked Gakuto, referring to himself, Leon, and Presea.

"Actually, since the Second Floor is a bad matchup for Presea, why don't the two of you go hunting at the Toize Valley Mine?" suggested Leon. "As for me, I'll keep scouting the Second Floor and work on creating a wall to protect the teleportal."

Blinking in surprise, Gakuto suddenly became nervous as he pointed to himself and asked, "Wait, wait, wait...you want me and Presea-chan to go hunting alone? Just the two of us...!?"

Narrowing his nonexistent eyes, Leon replied, "Disregarding her height, Presea's a big girl. She can take care of herself. But if you try something and I find out about it, Yamato will be the least of your concerns..."

Holding up his hands, Gakuto stammered, "I...I would never...!" with a flustered look. However, as everyone knew he was a pervert, including Presea, they all looked at him with half-lidded, judgmental expressions...

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Recalling Wil's remark about observing water sources to get a feel for the local flora and fauna, Leon decided to follow the river he had discovered earlier that morning. Most of the fish swimming in the river were perfectly ordinary breeds like salmon, trout, or bass, but every now and then, there would be an aquatic Pokemon like Magikarp or Poliwag swimming around, making easy meals out of the more mundane creatures.

*bzzt* *bzzt* *high-pitched sound similar to thousands of birds chirping*

Noticing a bright, bluish-white light and hearing a high-pitched sound that his brain correlated with electricity, Leon followed the phenomena around a bend obscured by trees. There, he discovered a bipedal, roughly 100cm tall, vaguely cat-like creature with yellow fur covered in zig-zagging black patches resembling lightning bolts. It also had a cat-like tail that looked out of place on its stout body, two distinct ahoge sticking out of its head, and two appendages Leon could best describe as antennae with bulbous tips.

Watching as the Pokemon, called an Electabuzz, killed dozens of fish by sending an electrical current through the water, Leon briefly considered whether he should try capturing or killing it. Electricity was an important resource, and electric attacks should be effective against anything with a nervous system. However, based on what Leon could recall, Electabuzzes weren't exactly 'docile.'

Deciding that he could always fight and then kill it if it refused to submit, Leon stepped forward, startling the Electabuzz by asking, "Having fun...?" while equipping a leather tunic and materializing a spear from his Storage.

Exhibiting its aggressive nature, the Electabuzz turned around, raised its popeye-like arms over its head, and roared, "Electa...BUZZZZZZ!" before flexing and unleashing a powerful surge of electricity directly at Leon. The presumed Thunderbolt was much slower than genuine lightning, but it was still too fast for Leon to evade. Fortunately, he didn't have to.

Since Leon didn't have a physical body and his tunic wasn't conductive, the Electabuzz's Thunderbolt was attracted to the spear he stabbed into the ground. Noticing this, the Electabuzz began gathering electricity in its right fist while charging forward with astonishing speed. However, while it was certainly fast, Leon had picked up quite a few tricks since his days of floundering about on the beach. The moment the Electabuzz tried hitting him with its Thunder Punch, he made his body as immaterial as possible, permitting the yellow-furred creature to strike his tunic but pass through him. Then, before it could understand what happened, Leon was the one in control of its body.

'Sorry about this...' said Leon, causing the Electabuzz to feel confused and then panicked as its body started to move on its own, causing it to run head-first into a tree. Then, taking advantage of the fact he could see the Electabuzz's Stamina and available Mana, Leon forced it to flail about and discharge all the electricity it had stored, continuing until it collapsed in a heap, completely exhausted.

As Shino's Pidgey and several other Pokemon he had encountered had demonstrated the capacity to understand human speech, Leon waited for the Electabuzz to catch its breath before saying, 'I imagine you loathe me quite a bit right now, but I would like it if you joined my group. So long as you don't go on a rampage or cause trouble, we'll ensure you're well-fed and provide the means to become much stronger...'

Catching Leon a little off guard, the Electabuzz replied, 'Who are you...?' in perfect, telepathic English.

'I am Leon Asheford, Lord of the Asheford Domain and future King of the Asheford Kingdom,' answered Leon.

'You are a King...?' asked the Electabuzz.

'Not yet, but I will be in the future,' replied Leon.

'Will you...kill me...?' asked the Electabuzz.

'If you promise not to attack and attempt to kill the people who enter this place after me, I will let you go,' assured Leon. 'However, if you desire the strength to avoid situations similar to this one, you should join our ranks. I promise you will become much stronger.'

Though there was a long, staticky silence, the Electabuzz gave a curt nod and replied, 'I will serve...'

Separating from the Electabuzz's body, Leon produced a Pokeball from his Storage, asking, "Do you know what this is...? Nod your head for yes, shake it for no."

Seeing the Electabuzz nod, several more questions appeared in Leon's mind, but he decided to save them for the next Pokemon he encountered. As for the Electabuzz, he pressed the front of the Pokeball to its head, causing it to be enveloped in red light before disappearing. Unlike the last time, however, there was no shaking or suspense. The Electabuzz knew it had been bested, so it offered no additional resistance.

"Now, here's the real question..." muttered Leon, attempting to place the Pokeball in his Storage. Fortunately, it entered without issue. At the same time, a new tab appeared in his Storage, one specifically for Pokemon.

"Nice..." muttered Leon, experiencing a range of emotions but mostly excited by his first successful capture. The method he used was less than honorable, and he would probably need to get Wil to make the Electabuzz some pants, but there was still a living, breathing Pokemon in his Storage. How fucking cool was that?

Feeling upbeat, Leon moved over to the river, intending to collect all the fish the Electabuzz had fried with its electricity. There were quite literally dozens of them floating belly up, but as Leon entered the water to begin his collection, something he initially thought was a large fish rose from the river, snatching one of the charred fish in its mouth. However, as the 'fish' was over a meter long and had dark blue ridges along its back, ending in two bright blue flippers, Leon quickly realized its true identity, causing his nonexistent pupils to contract.

Proving Leon's suspicions correct, the fish thief emerged from the water on the opposite side of the lake, revealing a vaguely feline body covered in watery-blue hide adorned with dark-blue ridges down its spine, ending in a thick, split-fin tail. It also had a white fine encircling its neck like a mane, three dark-blue fins with cream-colored webbing protruding from the sides and top of its head, large and angular purple eyes, a distinctly feline mouth, and dark blue paw pads on the base of its feet. And, likely because it was female, it had an unnecessarily wide and toned ass...

Recognizing the fish-like cat as a Vaporeon, Leon reached up to massage his nonexistent face and forehead. Eevee and its evolutions were among his favorite Pokemon, but while he was the only person in Purgatoria who knew of the copy+pasta associated with Vaporeons, Leon felt as though he would be put on some kind of list if he actually captured one.

'I could always just give it to someone else to care for...' Leon concluded, following after the Vaporeon as it tromped away with its catch, struggling to hold the near-30 cm-long salmon as it walked along the river. He felt it would be easier for the Vaporeon to swim, but since he didn't even notice it until it snatched the fish and emerged, Leon supposed there was some kind of limiting factor preventing it from doing so. At least, that's what he assumed before the Vaporeon suddenly dipped into the water, its body appearing to completely disappear as the fish it was carrying was pulled into the root system of a tree that was gradually being worn away by the river's flow.

'It must have a nest or burrow under the tree...' guessed Leon, entering the water and crouching down to get a better look. As he suspected, a fairly large subsurface hole, roughly 35cm across, could be seen beneath the tree, extending an unknown distance as the water was murky due to the Vaporeon's recent entry.

'Hmmm...'

Reducing the 'resistance' of his body, Leon gradually sank into the ground until his face was level with the hole before slowly willing himself forward. It wasn't easy moving through near-solid matter, but he had gotten used to it while investigating possible mining locations to ensure he wouldn't be digging into any aqueducts or natural gas pockets.

While following the surprisingly long tunnel, Leon uncovered quite a few 'false' passages before finding a tunnel connecting to a hot and humid air pocket filled with algae-covered grass and twigs. The place was clearly a nest, as lying atop it was the Vaporeon, its fishy feline body curled around a brown and beige egg that was larger than its head.

'Ouch...that must have hurt coming out...' thought Leon, slowly and 'very' carefully approaching the Vaporeon's nest to get a closer look. Not many creatures were able to sense him if he wanted to remain hidden, so Leon was able to get within petting distance of the duo as he considered what to do next. The fact the Vaporeon was brooding an egg suggested it had a mate, but as monogamous breeding pairs were fairly uncommon in the animal kingdom outside of birds, it was far more likely she was caring for it alone. If not, she wouldn't be out catching fish for herself.

After a moment of deliberation, Leon moved forward and possessed the Vaporeon, causing it to sit up and raise its head in confusion. Then, in a gentle tone, he said, 'Please, be at ease. I do not intend your or your child any harm...'

Tilting its head sideways, the Vaporeon asked, 'Who are you? How are you speaking directly into my head...?' in a surprisingly deep yet feminine tone, contrasting the cutesy, high-pitched voice Leon anticipated.

'My name is Leon, Leon Asheford,' replied Leon, quickly adding, 'Do you have a name...?' out of curiosity.

'I have not been given a name,' replied the Vaporeon, gradually settling back down as it asked, 'What do you want, Leon?' in a slightly standoffish tone, clearly not enthused about having the location of her nest exposed.

'I just wanted to ask you some questions,' replied Leon. 'But, before that, I have something you might enjoy. Don't be startled, okay?'

Narrowing its eyes, the Vaporeon tensed but didn't startle as Leon pulled out a plate of sashimi specially prepared by Erina.

'It smells like fish...but different...' noted the Vaporeon, inching its nose closer to the plate.

'Consider this an offering of friendship or, if you don't want to be friends, think of it as payment for borrowing your time,' said Leon.

Though it was still on high alert, the Vaporeon eventually picked up a piece of the sashimi in its mouth, its distinctly angular eyes immediately becoming nearly as round as saucers. Then, nearly knocking its egg into the water, it jumped up and began devouring the remainder of the sashimi as if it had never eaten in its entire life...

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