8 Chapter 8

Alex's birthday

Today was the day Alex was turning 8 years old. The project had started today as it aligns with the new trainer season. Alex had planned to visit the orphanage one last time before leaving but he met the matron/nun at the library where he was giving back all the books he had borrowed but she seemed withdrawn and afraid of Alex so he decided to cancel his plan of visiting the orphanage.

The only thing that had changed since the program began was that Charmander now belonged to Alex legally and Charmander had a Pokeball that he disliked staying in.

So currently he was talking to Charmander who had received a few pointers from his father which were invaluable. Charmander was excited to go on a journey with his trainer but seeing his trainer's serious face he was a bit confused. Seeing Charmander's face, Alex sighed and explained to Charmander.

"Charmander, the difference between advanced trainers and us currently is too great, all your potential only makes you more enticing. If anyone knew about a Charmander that could use a dragon move, they would try and create havoc to steal you or blackmail me into trading you away 'legally'.

You will be training dragon-type moves since learning them now is going to do wonders for your future especially considering your age. I refuse to compromise your future by avoiding dragon-type moves and we can't stay at pallet to grow stronger.

Plus advanced trainers are stationed at every minor town so we will definitely encounter quite a few and without current power, we won't even be able to escape."

Charmander also nodded, not even considering using Professor Oak's protection as it would be shameful to rely on someone else for your problems that you could solve. Also, Charmander knew the difference between himself and an advanced Pokémon. An advanced Pokémon can split boulders 50 ft tall and create a fire that can burn away an entire pond that is 30 ft wide.

"Also even if you can tie against one advanced Pokémon, most trainers who have an advanced Pokémon have a full team of six that they would have no problem using against us and I refuse to get a Pokémon just for the sake of numbers, every one of the Pokémon I will capture will reach for the stars and will be like family."

Alex closed his eyes and before taking a deep breath as he looked towards Charmander,

"I have one solution but it will lengthen our travel time by quite a lot and reduce the number of battles against trainers but it is pretty dangerous.

The solution is to travel not through the routes carved out for traveling trainers but through the dense jungles."

If any sane person heard even an advanced trainer say this, they would have laughed at their face let alone our normal rookie trainer who hasn't set foot in any place except for his hometown. This was due to quite a few reasons.

First. You can never relax in the wild, if you let your guard down for even a second any Pokémon will capture and kill you without mercy.

Second. Even a wild caterpie is feral in the wild and although weak it can shoot string to hang or suffocate you.

Third. It is far more dangerous for a human than for a Pokémon as humans have large chunks of meat and few natural defenses so most trainers don't even try.

Fourth. You may come across advanced Pokémon if you stray too far from the intended path.

Fifth. There are many poisonous Pokémon who have spread poison so thoroughly over their region that it will slowly poison you to death.

Sixth. Living in the wild brings out the feral nature of Pokémon, especially the dragon types.

And many, many, many more reasons that Alex knows yet Alex also knows the benefits of the wild, his caterpie although his first Pokémon, caterpie was the weakest of his group and didn't have much potential it started to transition in one year due to the increase in strength from the wild and Alex's training and diet.

Charmander had tons of potential that were untapped and Alex wanted his Charmander to reach the absolute limits of his abilities and gain absolute control over its elements before evolving into charmeleon.

However, the main clincher was that Alex has lived in the wild for full weeks and he ventured pretty deep, by estimation 5 -6 km at the deepest which is around what he would be traveling through by not taking the intended route.

Also, the routes were technically the longer route since they ran around the wild territories and you would have to travel 3 times the distance compared to the straight line route that Alex was gonna take but the speed would be greatly compromised in such dense jungles.

Charmander nodded as he agreed with his trainer.

"So we will set out tomorrow"

At this point, Alex tensed and turned around to face the forest just as a speeding yellowish blur shot out of the trees and towards Alex. Charmander jumped into the air as he charged up a massive ember in his mouth and he landed right in front of Alex and released the 3-foot long mini flamethrower at the blur.

At that very moment, the blur stopped for a moment, revealing a large beedrill with an extremely sharp drill that glistened under the light and burned fur. It took to the skies in an attempt to recover from the failed assassination attempt but Charmander, who had faced many a pidgey, didn't let it get away by grabbing the beedrill and smashing it into the ground before driving his now metallic claws through the beedrills head causing a splatter.

Alex was just about to look for more possible predators when he heard a sound that would make loudred cover its ears.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?"

Alex immediately tensed up and Charmander's tail burst with fire and its claws turned metallic once again as they turned around to see... Leaf?

Alex saw a green-haired girl that looked to be about 11 years old screaming to the high heavens. Alex's first instinct was to silence the girl, permanently. but his rationale quickly kicked in as he remembered her as the girl from his school. She was also a weird one and she was the one who was excited when Alex pointed out that the Rattata wouldn't last for a week in the wild.

Alex at this point simply decided to talk this out like a rational human.