486 CH117 (481), Outstanding Work (2)

Until now, I had only added two or three materials to the present formula while adjusting the proportions of the other ingredients. However, since I had decided to do some bigger changes to achieve my target efficacy, I went ahead and began to replace some of the materials used in the current formula with ones I knew had a better effect in conjunction with the other ingredients in the formula.

I chose to keep the number of replacements to 1 per formula/potion for now until I felt like it was time to introduce the second change/replacement, which was once I had managed to achieve a new maximum efficacy. Leading the research toward that point with all 3 formulas took me three and a half weeks, but it was worth it since this change alone was enough to push the potency increase of all three potions past 100%.

This success meant that I, Mikail Geo, had succeeded in doubling the effectiveness of the 3 main potions/formulas Varon Labs used for their research in less than 4 months. It was not surprising that Professor Varon and pretty much everyone else on her team were really impressed.

Still, my goal had not changed, and I was still aiming at raising the potency of those potions by another 50 to 100% by the end of the next month. Or rather the middle of the next month, considering that I had to leave for Pallet City at the end of the third week for my midterm exams, and directly after the exam phase, my 3-month long break/vacation began.

3 months was a rather long time to be away from the lab, especially during a research project, and I wanted to finish up with the internal supplements before then so that I could start with the external ones right after the break.

I planned to use the long break as an excuse to give myself a head start by saying that I did some experiments/research by myself during the break, which yielded some promising results that resulted in the head start.

Still, before the fourth week made way for the final one, I got some more good news, but this time the news was of personal nature, which only made it better in my opinion. Well, what actually happens was that Osiris/Marowak successfully advanced to the (high) gold stage on Kyoday.

His advancement meant that Optimus/Butterfree, Kun/Azuraid, Thor/Raichu, and Luna/Clefable were the only ones left among my gold-stage Pokemon that had yet to reach the (high) gold stage.

Though, I had to add that I was confident that that would change soon enough since they were not too far off from reaching that point as well. Some were closer than the others, but I did not believe that I would enter the 5th term without all 4 of them having joined the club.

The strength of my Pokemon was kind of unbelievable for someone of my age group. I currently had 25 (high) gold-stage Pokemon, and once the other four caught up, I would have 29 of them. Moreover, out of those Pokemon, one was most likely, with a tendency to definite, going to break through to the dark gold stage within a year, while 2 more had a good chance of doing so as well.

Those two, which were obviously Horus/Xatu and Stan/Gyarados would most likely, with a tendency to definite, reach the dark gold stage within two years. Also, the reason I was formulating it like that was that I did not want to trigger any "Oh, definite? Are you sure?" reflex from the universe.

So, while trying not to provoke a negative reaction, I could confidently say that I stood a very good chance of starting my journey with three dark gold stage Pokemon. That, along with the strength of my other Pokemon would mean I would practically be strong enough to qualify for the rank of ACE-Class trainer the day I officially began my Pokemon Journey.

It was just the other conditions such as participation in three recognized high-class tournaments that were standing in my way. The tournaments here were not only the senior league or grand league tournaments but also recognized type and style-specific ones, such as the Whirlpool Cup and the Aerial Cup.

Unfortunately, the whole chain of tournaments leading to my Global Student Cup only counted as one high-class tournament, but at least it did count unlike the Junior League Tournament and other similar Junior Cups.

Still, Mothra reaching the dark gold stage would also mean that the order and alliance would call off my current security detail, which I was definitely welcoming. Until now, those guys and gals only left me alone when I was at the lab, traveling with my parents, or with Kinji.

It was pretty hard to do stuff I wanted to keep a secret outside of Utopia with them on my tail. Even the last Ursaring/Ursaluna trigger test was something I only did after I was sure that I managed to lose my security tail in the Mt.Moon Mountain Range for a short while.

Anyway, it was no surprise that my parents were trying to rack up some achievements and actually rank up. They were trying to keep their model role for as long as possible which was kinda hard if your kid was as strong or accomplished as you were, and if he was more accomplished than you then you were out of luck.

In such a case there was nothing left to do but feel proud of "Your" child. Those that felt truly jealous of their kid or even went as far as to smother their progress just to stay ahead of them had to get some help. Such a mindset was not healthy at all, at least not if it went so far as to include one's kids.

Still, focusing back on the present, I could say that looking at everyone's parameters, quite a few of the 25 (high) gold stage Pokemon that had yet to start their limit breaking were not too far of from doing so as well, so I was looking forward to that.

Moving on, five days after Osiris' progress, on Palkday, the final month of the term began, leaving me with only 2 and a half weeks to achieve my goal if I wanted to finish the internal supplement part before the next term. Thankfully, I already knew what I had to do to reach that point, so I only had to speed up the progress I showed by a bit to ensure I finished on time.

Yet, even with all that, I felt that 2.5 half weeks were too short a time to meet the goal completely, so I settled on bringing up the efficacy increase of all 3 formulas to 150%/2.5 times the potency of the original formula used by the lab.

As for my original plan to raise it to 200%/3 times the efficacy, I told Professor Varon that I would work on it on my own during the break and that I would present it to her once I was back at the lab. I kept my plans regarding the external supplements to myself for now. I would simply surprise her with the news after the break.

Anyway, on Dialday evening of the third week, I said my goodbyes to Professor Varon as well as my colleagues and made my way back to Kanto. I spent the weekend at home in Hope Town, before leaving for Pallet City first thing in the morning on Arcday.

My first exam began at 9 a.m., so I easily made it on time, and unsurprisingly, I managed to easily answer everything on that Pokemon Anatomy test. Questions such as "Name the three most common crustacean species on the northern continent" were easily answered even if some would wonder what such a question had to do in an anatomy test.

This was actually a trick question that tested whether one truly knew which Pokemon counted as crustacean species. I was sure that a few of my fellow test takers were going to answer that question with Krabby, Kingler, and Corpish, but that would be wrong. Others may substitute either Kingler or Corpish with Nincada, but that would be wrong as well.

The correct answer to that question was Krabby, Kingler, and Paras. Corpish only came after Paras in number, and surprisingly neither Parasect nor Crawdaunt were next on the list. No, the 5th place was up in the air between Corsola and Wimpod, only after those two did Parasect and Crawdaunt get to make an appearance.

As for Nincada, that one was a bit controversial with a few arguing that it could count as a crustacean species, but the majority did not agree with them, so Nincada did not officially belong to that group. Though it did belong to the arthropod upper grouping. However, that was true for quite a few other Pokemon as well.

Anyway, trick question aside, I had no problems with any of the questions in any of the exams I had to sit in. I did not have to look at my internal library even once to solve any of the tasks, and at the end of the two-week-long exam period, I was confident that I had once more aced everything.

Honestly, Psychics had a disgustingly easy time with things such as written exams, and as always, I was really thankful to belong to the group that had such an exaggerated advantage.

Anyway, with the completion of the last exam on Dialday, I was done with the term and my 3 month-long vacation officially began. Coincidentally, Dialday also happened to be the last day of the month, and tomorrow the new month would begin. That new month was not only the first one of my break but also the last one of the year 2183.

Seeing how it was only 3 p.m. and that I was already in Pallet City, I decided to stop by Oak Labs. I spent close to two hours there and I even got to talk with Professor Oak during that time. He asked me how I was doing and when I thought I would be done with my/our part of Professor Varon's research project.

It was nice of him to show an interest in my situation, even though I knew that he probably already had an idea of how I was doing. I did send over monthly reports after all since I was still an intern at Oak Labs, and he had to have read those, right?

Aside from the professor, I also visited Carl and Sibel. We talked about the things we were doing, and during our conversation, they shared that they had become an official couple and that they had even moved in together.

They were surprised when I showed no surprise at all, and all I could do was shrug my shoulders and admit that I had already seen the sign long ago, so I had long been expecting them to get together.

It was funny to see them blush when I asked them when the wedding was, but both were quick in refuting me by saying that they were not planning to marry yet. I naturally could not resist and repeated the "yet" with a chuckle, making Sibel blush even worse while Carl simply let out a silly laugh.

Yet, neither denied it, showing that the thought of marriage was not alien to them. There probably was a good chance that I would receive a wedding invitation in a few years if nothing went wrong in their relationship.

Lovebirds aside, I also made sure to pay my favorite main assistants, James and Peter a visit before I left for Hope Town. Both were doing fine, and they were happy to hear directly from me that I was doing just fine over at Varon Labs.

Peter did share with me that things on his side were going smoothly and that they were currently assuming that they could potentially retire Toedscool and his harem in another year, so during my practical year. By that point, the younger Toedscool they had set aside would be ready to take over their dad's job.

When he shared that with me, I talked about the possibility of me taking in Toedscool's harem, and he did not deny the prospect, but neither did he directly say yes. Peter told me to wait until a month or so before the swap to repeat the request and that he would see if he could not guide the situation in my favor until then.

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