CH37 (401), Baby Steps

The next morning I naturally went to the lab on time. While Saphira/Altaria's evolution and subsequent breakthrough were great events, I still had to keep up my work at the lab, especially while we were in the middle of our experiment phase.

So after exchanging greetings with James who was supervising everyone, while occasionally giving his input, as well as Carl and Sibel, who had been waiting for me, the three of us resumed where we left off yesterday.

Compared to yesterday the demand for Mystic Ice lessened, which was a good sign for us since it meant we had to use less of them. This decrease could be ascribed to the fact that we were destroying less of the Mystic Ices in the pressure part of our experiment, but also because the electric heater/freezer had been cut off.

Still, at the end of the day, our attempts at creating a Mystic Ice Gem failed. The best we got was a Mystic Ice Block that failed to perfectly fuse the two base items together resulting in something that barely managed to count as a new item, and none of us bothered doing the screening tests.

Funnily enough, the block exhibited similar effects to a Never-Melt Ice, and my observe confirmed that it could indeed act the same. However, considering its production cost, even the slightly higher effect compared to the Never-Melt Ice was not enough, so while it was not useless, the Mystic Ice Block was still considered a failure.

Still, we were producing results, even if those were not exactly the ones we were aiming for, so none of us three felt unhappy when we went our separate way to go to our respective dorm rooms/homes.

Once I was back in my dorm room, I ensured everything was locked before I entered Utopia. I informed everyone that I had returned and that I would be handing out dinner. While my Pokemon made their way over, I began organizing everyone's dinner before I pulled out one of my pre-prepared meals as well.

I then levitated everything behind me while leaving the mansion and stepping out on the grass. I distributed their portions to those that had already made it there and began doing small talk with them on the side. Only once everyone had their food, did I begin eating mine, and a lot of them copied me, which made me smile on the low.

After dinner, I declared that Saphira's party was a go, and we spent the next 3 plus hours playing games or watching them, with some carrying out small performances. We also consumed copious amounts of snacks along with drinks.

I had chilled juice of all kinds, and even some local as well as self-made fizzy drinks. Unfortunately, I had yet to manage something like a Coke, but I had managed to produce a drink that tasted rather similar to Fanta and Sprite.

If the Pokemon thing did not pan out I could probably revolutionize the non-alcoholic liquid industry. Sadly, nearly all of my Pokemon preferred non-carbonated drinks anyway, so I was close to being the only one among us that drank the fizzy drinks.

The next few days following that day were rather uneventful. We, unfortunately, failed to get the item we wanted and either produced items that were not really worth the effort of creating them, since the alternates and even original base components had similar effects while being much cheaper, or the processes ended up in failure.

Still, none of that bothered us since all three of us knew that failure was part of the process, so neither Carl, Sibel, nor I were discouraged when we separated on Kyoday for our day off tomorrow.

I swiftly made my way to Hope Town and arrived at our home only a bit after our usual dinner time. Since my parents knew that I was coming over they were waiting for me, so after going through the greeting, I helped mom set the table and we ate our dinner together.

We talked while we ate, and I learned that dad had now reached the point where he was interacting with the ground energy he could sense. He was not yet at the point where he felt confident about moving it into his body, which he would have to do if he wanted to spot his energyscape.

It was much easier to find the exact location of the energyscape so that one could unlock it than it would be to spot it without it showing a minuscule reaction to the energy introduced to its immediate area. Not to mention that he could not unlock it without introducing the ground energy into his body and having it interact with the energyscape once he spots it.

Still, I was happy that dad had made good progress. The way I saw it, dad had a real chance of reaching Tier 1 within half a year to a year if he was lucky enough to quickly locate his energyscape.

Other than that, dad told me that his acquaintances had settled well enough and that they had been doing a good job so far. Additionally, the construction of the playground and the cultivation of the green area were complete.

Dad organized a meeting with the foreman as well as his boss with me so that we could settle the final payment, and he added that he had also called Mr. Anderson over.

Mr. Anderson had long come through with my request regarding the property for an emergency shelter and after he had settled everything with the administration in Hope Town, I bought the place. However, the property located between my first and second one had been staying untouched until now.

The reason I requested the presence of Mr. Anderson was naturally that I wanted the construction company to work on the emergency shelter next, and Mr. Anderson was the one who had the best idea of what the conditions set by the Hope Town office were, so he was there in an advisor capacity.

The rest of the evening was spent talking with my parents about random stuff, with mom being more proactive during our conversation than dad. She knew that I had told the girls that I had no interest in any romantic associations for now, but she still teased me for a bit by asking how my relationship with the girls was going.

She did add in "as friends" at the end, but the wink she threw me showed what she was insinuating. Still, mom made sure that she did make no more than a few such jokes on occasion, so I let her have her fun and just told her that the girls were doing fine.

After she had her fun, mom smiled and asked me how I was doing over in Pallet. She made sure to inquire whether I was taking care of myself properly and reminded me to not overwork myself. I told her that I was fine and insisted that I did not need anything when she asked if there was anything mom/they could help me with.

The next morning our family went to my orphanage property for the meeting. We greeted the security guard that had the morning shift, and I got to formally met the first one of my new hires. I went around the property to take a look at the finished playground and I was satisfied with the end result.

The green area also looked good and mom told me that the grass was healthy and of the more robust kind, which was good since there would be a lot of kids walking all over it in the future.

Less than 10 minutes after we made it there, the foreman and his boss arrived and less than 5 minutes after them Mr. Anderson arrived as well. Still, those 5 minutes were enough for me to finish the final payment, so once Mr. Anderson arrived, I directly opened the talks regarding the emergency shelter.

The duo representing the construction company was obviously happy about the prospective work, and thankfully they had the credentials to work on an underground shelter, so they were qualified to work on my project.

I had Mr. Anderson introduce the property as well as the guidelines that had to be observed. He also handed over a map of the property outline along with the data on the property, such as a soil analysis that had to be made to get permission to build an underground shelter.

The construction duo asked for permission to record our talks so that they could show the recording to the architect they were working with along with any notes they made, and after getting permission from me and Mr. Anderson, we began to talk about my requests as well as idea on the layout of the shelter.

Once they had everything, they told me they would send me a few designs along with their cost estimates, so that I could choose the one I wanted. After that, they said their farewells and left.

Mr. Anderson followed suit a few minutes later, after having declined our invitation for lunch, citing that his family was waiting, which made sense since it was Grouday after all. We wished him a good day and left for the town center after saying our goodbyes to the security guard as well.

The rest of the day was spent with my parents strolling around and relaxing. Still, I had to be back at the lab tomorrow, so two hours after dinner, I made my way back to Pallet City.

Once I was back I spent another two hours inside Utopia to spend some time with my Pokemon before I went to sleep. Arcday morning, I found myself back at the lab to continue our work together with Carl and Sibel. We got back into things without any delay and in that manner, two more days passed before it was Giratiday.

While our experiments did not produce any results yet, Manami/Lapras did bring me some joyous news during the middle of the day. She told me she had gotten that feeling of wholeness the Sinister Six had mentioned, and once I was back in my dorm room, I made my way inside Utopia to confirm whether she was right or not.

Well, it appeared that she was right, so I called everyone over to witness her breakthrough, and once everyone had come, I gave Manami the go-ahead. Her breakthrough was a pretty standard one and was completed without a hitch.

Once Manami's breakthrough was over, I went up to her and congratulated her. She bend her head down and I hugged her before I scratched her chin just as she liked making her coo in happiness. The other also came over to congratulate her. I went ahead and checked her status screen while they were busy.

'Name: Manami

Species: Lapras

Gender: Female

Age: 12+ years

-

Type: Water, Ice

Potential: Light Purple (2.69%) -> Purple (62.69%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Water Absorb, Hydration

Talents: Rain Absorb

Affinities: Water, Ice

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Optimistic

----

Parameters:

Stage: Gold Stage (mid)

Vitality: B

Strength: D

Endurance: D

Agility: E

Energy Capacity: D

Energy Density: D

----

Immune:

Water

-

Resistance:

Ice (Major)

-

Weaknesses:

Grass (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Rock (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Electric*

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy, Elated

----

Masteries:

Water Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

Ice Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

Sparkling Aria*

-

Novice:

Avalanche (new), Dream Eater (new), Hyper Beam (new), Icy Wind (new)

-

Beginner:

Confuse Ray, Growl (+)

-

Proficient:

Shock Wave, Thunderbolt, Sheer Cold, Thunder, Body Slam, Surf, Protect, Safeguard (+), Dragon Pulse (+), Endure (new, ++), Whirlpool (new, ++), Perish Song (++), Smart Strike (new, ++), Mega Horn (new, ++), Zen Headbutt (new, ++), Iron Head (new, ++)

-

Advanced:

Ice Shard, Ice Beam, Rest, Hydro Pump, Water Pulse, Life Dew, Brine, Mist, Sing, Psychic, Blizzard, Hail, Freezing Rain (C, ++), Hyper Voice (new, +++)

-

Mastered:

Water Gun, Rain Dance

-

Combo/Custom:

Freezing Rain (Advanced)'

Manami had finally reached light purple potential a bit more than a year ago, and now after breaking through to the gold stage, her potential had risen to purple. Moreover, she was more than halfway through to deep purple potential, and if nothing unforeseen happened she had a chance to reach light aurora potential during her next breakthrough, so at the dark gold stage.

I was unsurprised that nothing had changed in her modifier or talent sections. Still, looking at her parameters was enough to put a smile on my face. Manami was pretty close to the limit of the (mid) gold stage, and with some good old hard work, she also stood a good chance of reaching the (high) gold stage within a year or so. Hopefully, less than that.

Another good piece of good news was her resistance or rather standardization training. Manami had been among the group that had been working hard on their resistance training, and the two of us had known that she had been pretty close to completing the process for her first type.

Luckily, it seemed that her breakthrough decided that her hard work was enough to finalize the process, and Manami's electric relation turned neutral, which meant her electric resistance training was complete.

The rest of her status screen remained unchanged by her breakthrough. Her energy masteries and moves showed no changes. Still, seeing Sparkling Aria displayed as the move she was learning at the moment, I happily pat Manami's head.

While the move could be considered the signature move of Primarina, Lapras were capable of inheriting it as an egg move. However, that was not the case with Manami. No, since I knew that it was possible, even if it was as an inherited move, Manami and I decided to see if she could work out the move on her own.

We used her water energy manipulation mastery, Sing, Hyper Voice, and some of her water moves as the basis to try to recreate Sparkling Aria. It was not easy, but she made some progress, and my status screen did acknowledge her work. We saw Sparkling Aria being displayed in her move section as a confirmation that she was on the right path.

Anyway, after I finished checking her status screen, I congratulated Manami once more and directly declared the start of her celebration.

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