Chapter 25: Mission Accomplished

Flamel woke up late today and was in a hurry when she left the house. On her way to work at the palace, she passed by the park named after the arcane scientist Nikola, where Andrew was setting up his breakfast stall.

Seeing the long line of people and smelling the delicious aroma in the air, Flamel was curious about what was being sold there.

However, since she was running late for work, she could only take a quick glance before hurrying off.

"Good morning, Princess," Flamel greeted Princess Kimia, who was engrossed in looking at a wall when she arrived at the palace.

"You're a bit late today," Kimia teased with a smile.

Flamel, known for her serious demeanor and punctuality, was rarely ever late. Today, being unusually tardy, Kimia couldn't resist making a lighthearted comment.

"Ahem…" Flamel cleared her throat awkwardly, quickly shifting the topic. "Princess, you're looking at that painting again."

Princess Kimia sighed deeply. "Yes, my father assigned me the task of investigating the theft of Prince Andrew's tomb, but I still have no leads."

The painting Kimia was observing depicted Andrew and Anna holding hands while sitting together.

"Don't worry, Princess. There will be clues. Since the thief stole the Prince's body, they will eventually make a move. As soon as they show any sign, we'll catch them."

"Let's hope so," Kimia replied, concerned about what the thief might want with the Prince's remains. What if they weren't planning to sell it but wanted to keep it?

Seeing Kimia's downcast mood, Flamel decided to change the subject.

"Princess, on my way here, I noticed a popular stall in Nikola Park. I'll bring something from there for you to try tomorrow."

Kimia's face lit up with a smile. "Really? What do they sell?"

As Kimia's boss and close friend, she knew that despite Flamel's serious nature, she had a real fondness for food.

"To be honest, I'm not sure," Flamel admitted seriously.

"Huh?" Kimia was surprised. "How do you know it's good then?"

"Because there was a long line."

"Hahaha, you're something else!"

The two laughed and chatted as they went about their day.

---

By noon, Andrew decided it was time to close up shop.

"Alright, we're done for today. Everyone can go now," he said, stretching his back and wiping sweat off his brow, while calling out to the remaining customers.

"Aw, that's it? I've been waiting in line for so long!"

"Boss, will you be back tomorrow?"

…

The disappointed customers left reluctantly.

Once the crowd had dispersed, Andrew began packing up, loading the tables and chairs onto his truck.

After everything was packed, he closed the truck door, set up a table inside, and placed Komala on a chair.

"Komala, you did great today! Thanks for all your help!"

He placed a bowl of steamed buns in front of Komala.

"Eat up! You must be starving."

Komala, already hungry, eagerly grabbed a bun and devoured it.

"Take your time, no need to rush," Andrew said as he poured water for Komala.

Andrew then started calculating the day's earnings.

He had sold 503 steamed buns, totaling 5,030 Pokédollars.

He sold 1,052 dumplings, totaling 21,040 Pokédollars.

Additionally, he had earned 5,600 happiness points from Pokémon that enjoyed the buns.

After tallying everything, Andrew checked the task panel on his system interface:

- [Daily Task 1]: Train in the Culinary Training Room for 1 hour — Pending.

- [Daily Task 2]: Serve 10 Pokémon — Completed, reward pending.

- [Shopping Task]: Purchase ingredients in Azoth Royal City — Pending.

- [Temporary Task]: Earn your first pot of gold by setting up a stall in Azoth Royal City — Completed, reward pending.

Andrew decided to claim the reward for the temporary task now and wait until the evening to claim the rewards for the daily tasks after completing the remaining task. He claimed the reward for the temporary task.

The system immediately displayed a notification.

*Congratulations, you have completed the [Temporary Task] of earning your first pot of gold by setting up a stall in Azoth Royal City. Your reward: Recipe [Dumplings].*

Andrew was momentarily surprised but quickly checked the recipe section in the system interface. Indeed, there were new additions.

The [Dumplings] recipe was far more detailed than the steamed buns recipe, including instructions for various fillings like vegetable, vermicelli, mushroom, radish, kelp, and red bean paste. It covered almost every filling Andrew knew.

Seeing this recipe, Andrew was thrilled. It meant he could earn happiness points by selling dumplings in the future!

That was fantastic!

After finishing his meal, Andrew drove the truck to a secluded spot, stored it in his system backpack, and picked up Komala. "Komala, let's go shopping."

Komala, having eaten too much, was already snoring. It turned over in Andrew's arms, burying its head in his chest, leaving only its round little tail and chubby bottom sticking out.

Andrew smiled and shook his head, then went to the supermarket where he and Diancie had shopped the previous day. He went on a shopping spree, spending almost all 20,000 Pokédollars he had earned that day.

He bought only ingredients and seasonings, as those were the items not available in his system store.

As he was about to leave, Andrew noticed that Komala, which had been in the truck, was missing, leaving only its log pillow behind.

"Komala?"

Andrew called softly, wondering how it had disappeared so quickly.

"Komala?"

He pushed the truck around, searching for Komala, worried that he might have lost it.

*Ding~*

The sound of glass clinking came from beneath him. Andrew looked down and saw Komala, somehow rolled to his feet, clutching a bottle of liquor.

"Did you run off just for that?"

Andrew bent down to pick up Komala.

Komala held the bottle even tighter.

Andrew chuckled helplessly. "Other Komalas treat their log pillow like a lifeline, never letting it go. But you abandoned it just for a bottle of liquor?"

Andrew tried to pry the bottle from Komala's grip, but it wouldn't budge.

"Alright, I'll buy it for you, okay? Now let go and get back in the truck."

Who would have thought such a cute Komala could be a little drunkard?

Hearing Andrew's promise, Komala reluctantly let go of the bottle, rolled back into the truck, hugged its log pillow, and curled up in the corner to sleep again.

Andrew glanced at the price of the wine—just 30 Pokédollars. It was very cheap. "I'll buy it," he decided. "Komala has worked hard today, so it's only right to buy this affordable wine."

He put the wine into the food truck and thought, "Once I have more money, I'll buy you some good wine—however many bottles you want."

After leaving the supermarket, Andrew decided to head back to the Nebel Plateau. He didn't plan to set up his stall again in the afternoon—he was already tired from working all morning.

In fact, he hadn't intended to work that long in the morning either. Once he earned enough to cover his expenses, he would pack up and leave. He couldn't handle much hardship; he preferred spending his days lazily on the Nebel Plateau.

Back at the edge of the Nebel River's forest, Andrew called out, "Altaria?"

"Altaria~~"

Swablu's father slowly descended from the sky with a chirp.

"Are you hungry?" Andrew asked, petting its soft wings and offering it some steamed buns.

Altaria was indeed very hungry, quickly devouring the buns.

"Thank you for your hard work," Andrew said.

Altaria shook its head, thinking that Andrew had saved its family's life. Besides, since Andrew fed Swablu every day, it was only fair to help out.

After feeding Altaria, Andrew climbed onto its back and headed home.

On the way, he checked the system interface to claim the reward for the [Shopping Task], which was completed when he checked out at the supermarket.

After claiming the reward, the system interface, as usual, displayed a notification:

"Congratulations, Host, on completing the [Shopping Task] by purchasing ingredients from Azoth Kingdom. Reward: Individual Value +2."

Wow, individual value! Andrew was excited. It was a great reward.

He added the two points of individual value to Munchlax, focusing on Attack as before.

Munchlax's individual values were now:

HP: 29

Attack: 21

Defense: 20

Special Attack: 6

Special Defense: 10

Speed: 31

At that moment, Munchlax was washing dishes at home when it suddenly felt stronger.

Crack~~

The dish in its hand shattered into pieces.

(???) "What just happened?" Munchlax looked bewildered.

(Note: A Pokémon's stats are influenced by factors such as level, base stats, effort values, individual values, and nature. This story ignores nature adjustments, and effort values are embedded in daily training, like Munchlax's culinary training sessions.)

Unable to understand, the carefree Munchlax simply ignored it.

Altaria's flying speed was much faster than Lapras' swimming speed, so Andrew soon returned to the Nebel Plateau.

As he passed the waterfall, he noticed that the number of Magikarp that had evolved into Gyarados after jumping over the "Dragon's Gate" had increased to four.

The evolved Gyarados hadn't left; they were perched at the top of the waterfall, encouraging other Magikarp to keep climbing and waiting to evolve together before embarking on an adventure upstream.

Even the fierce Gyarados had a softer side.

"Diancie, we're back!" Andrew called out as he approached Diancie, who was watering flowers in the garden.

Seeing Andrew, Diancie smiled and waved back.

After Altaria landed, Andrew quickly dismounted and patted its neck. "Thanks for your hard work. Come over to my place for dinner tomorrow."

Altaria chirped and flapped its wings, soaring into the sky and disappearing in no time.

"How did business go today?" Diancie asked eagerly.

"Pretty well. I made over 20,000 Pokédollars, and I've completed the task," Andrew replied casually.

Diancie looked surprised, "That much?"

Making over 20,000 in a single day—well, actually just in the morning—was impressive. After all, Andrew's only costs were his time and effort.

The biggest investment was the food truck, which cost several tens of thousands of Happiness Points, but it was reusable.

"Not bad," Andrew said with a smug look. "After all, I'm skilled."

Diancie laughed, "You're so full of yourself."

"Hehe~~" Andrew grinned.

"You water the flowers, and I'll cut some to put in a vase," Diancie said, handing Andrew the watering can and pulling out a pair of scissors.

Andrew set Komala down, "You can play by yourself."

But Komala didn't move.

"What's wrong?" Andrew asked, puzzled.

Komala patted the log pillow it was holding. Andrew suddenly remembered and took out the bottle of wine from the supermarket, handing it to Komala.

"Here, is this what you wanted? You little rascal..."

Komala immediately rolled away, clutching its log pillow and the wine bottle.

Soon, Andrew saw Komala return to its small house. When it came out again, it was only carrying the wine bottle.

So, it had left the log pillow behind just for the wine and even knew to take it back to its house.

Seeing Komala disappear with the wine bottle, Andrew looked at Diancie and asked, "Where is it going?"

"I don't know," Diancie shook her head. "It seems like it's been going out a lot lately."

"Really?" Andrew was surprised. Komala was usually quite a homebody. "Could it be making drinking buddies outside?" Andrew joked.

"That might actually be the case."

Diancie sniffed the bouquet she had just cut, "These flowers smell wonderful. They're really something."

The flowers in Andrew's garden were rare Gracidea flowers, known to attract the legendary Pokémon Shaymin.

Andrew only recognized them after they bloomed and wondered where Vivillon had obtained them from.

Back home, Diancie placed the bouquet in a vase at the front desk, filling the hall with a subtle, pleasant fragrance.

At this moment, Munchlax came out of the kitchen. When it saw Andrew, its eyes lit up.

"Munch~~Munch~" Master, you're back! I missed you so much.

It ran over and jumped into Andrew's arms.

Andrew patted its head and asked, "How did you do this morning?"

"Munchlax~~!" Very well!

Munchlax proudly puffed out its chest.

"Pfft~~" Diancie laughed at how Munchlax was praising itself. "You're so thick-skinned."

Munchlax looked at Diancie, puzzled, "Munch~~Munch~~" What's funny? Everyone likes my cooking.

Turning back to Andrew, Munchlax nimbly took his hand and led him toward the stairs.

(End of chapter)