CH41 (405), The Next Step

Well, successful test or not, everyone went back to their respective workstations a few minutes later since they were busy with their own experiments, and our success, even if it was not the D-Class version, no doubt motivated them a bit.

Regardless, after gathering our part of the recording devices, my group did the same. James told us that he would be reporting our semi-success, semi because it was not the D-Class version, to Professor Oak before he left our group alone.

"Mikail, Carl, Sibel, you did it. Congratulations," Weiss said once James had left.

"Thank you/Thanks," Carl and Sibel returned simultaneously still visibly happy about our success. I also thanked her while smiling at her.

"I'm sure many trainers hoping to get a Glaceon will be interested in you Mystic Ice Gem, even if that's all you end up releasing to the public. It seems to be affordable after all," Weiss commended and she was right about that.

"That might be the case, but we are still going to do our best to create a D-Class object capable of doing the same," Sibel said with conviction.

"She's right," Carl chimed in as well. "That has been our project goal from the very start, after all."

"Yep, but it's still nice to see that we've made tangible progress," I added with a happy chuckle, and the other two joined in as well.

"Nonetheless, us wanting to keep our goal in mind does not mean you're not right, Weiss because I think you are." I gave her a nod in acknowledgment.

"Yes/I agree," came from my colleagues as well, and Weiss gave me/us a smile in return before turning a bit more serious.

"I would like our previous agreement in writing, signed by the professor, as soon as possible," she requested and I nodded in understanding. I saw Carl and Sibel doing the same.

Weiss had until now not insisted on being handed a written contract/agreement of our previous verbal arrangement. However, now that our C-Class Mystic Ice Gem had shown itself capable of triggering the evolution to Glaceon, aside from the capabilities we had uncovered together, it was understandable that she wanted a written guarantee as quickly as possible.

Weiss was after all a prominent member of the Schnee family, so it was normal that she would try to ensure the benefits of her family. Normally, I would have told her that I would make sure that she received the document as soon as possible, but I had noticed the professor entering our lab and then heading toward us. Moreover, it seemed he had heard the last bit.

"That's certainly no problem, young lady," the professor spoke up after he arrived at our workstation. "James informed me of the details of the agreement as soon as your group decided on the terms and I already gave him the go-ahead. I'm sure we can have a written contract ready soon enough.

I'll sign it and have James hand it to you," he finished warmly while chuckling a bit after seeing Weiss whirl around in surprise at the voice that had come from behind her, and the face she made when she saw who the person talking to her was.

Still, as expected from someone with her upbringing I guess. She calmed herself in mere seconds, acted as if her previous surprised reaction didn't happen, and gave the professor an elegant but grateful nod.

"Thank you, Professor. It is truly an honor to see you again, sir" she said fairly formally, with her words indicating that this was not the first time she got to see him.

"No need to act so rigidly, young lady Schnee. You can save that for boring formal events," the Professor returned warmly, with the last bit obviously being said in jest, which seemed to be enough for Weiss, who relaxed once more, even if I could tell that she was not as relaxed as before.

Well, I guess that much was pretty normal considering who the man in front of her was, no matter how amicable he was behaving. Still, after Weiss gave him a thankful nod, the professor moved on to my research group.

"I have come over to congratulate the three of you. You've done an excellent job," he addressed us, and all three of us stood a bit straighter at his praise.

It felt great to be praised by someone like the professor, and I could feel the happiness radiating from Carl and Sibel. Not that it was hard to notice it since they were visibly beaming after the professor said that. Still, no one spoke up since everyone knew that the professor was not done yet.

"While the main aim of your project is to create a D-Class evolution trigger for the Glaceon evolution, developing a reasonably priced C-Class item capable of doing the same, with said object also possessing other practical uses is no doubt a great achievement worthy of praise.

I know that you've already spoken with James about it, but you can rest assured that our Oak Labs will publish your findings and handle the production as well as the sale of your Mystic Ice Gem. You shall receive the share you were promised since you've definitely earned it," he declared and he somehow managed to pass on his appreciation of us while saying that.

"Thank you, sir," all three of us said in sync without even trying to do so, and I heard Weiss chuckle really quietly.

I would have probably missed it if not for my enhanced senses, but I could guess that she felt a bit amused by our automatic polite reaction, even though the professor asked us to be at ease.

Still, all three of us knew that the C-Class Mystic Ice Gems' worth had risen after proving capable of triggering Eevee's evolution, so the Professor's assurance that we would still receive the same share was good news. Not that I thought that the professor would allow the price to increase by much considering why we were doing this in the first place.

Anyway, the professor spoke a few more words after that, encouraging us to keep doing good work, and expressing that he was looking forward to our future work on the project before he left. No pressure at all, right?

Nonetheless, after the professor left we asked Weiss to focus on one of our Mystic Ice Gems, while the three of us began discussing what our next step was going to be. It was obvious that the Mystic Ice Gem on its own was not enough to trigger Eevee's evolution, at least not at the D-Class.

We clearly needed to introduce another component and see if the addition would cause a positive change that would allow the new object to act as an evolution trigger for Eevee, so we pulled up the resource list to look for options for that purpose.

There were hundreds, maybe even more than a thousand items on the list, but thankfully the number of materials that fit our purpose was lower than that. The new material could obviously not exceed a certain price since the cost would be added on top of the production cost of our Mystic Ice Gem.

Yet, even after that, there were still a few hundred materials that fit the bill, so we began looking through the list one by one to note the options that stood out to us the most. By the end, we had marked nearly 20 items, due to each one of us marking a few, so we began discussing which ones we should actually choose. We simply did not have enough time to test out all of them.

The first one was one I really insisted on since I had a pretty good experience working with items of that vein, and I felt as if it could prove itself surprisingly useful. While Carl and Sibel were skeptical at first, I managed to persuade them, so the Yache Berry ended up being our first test object.

Well, more precisely it was the concentrated juice extracted from a lot of D-Class Yache Berries. Still, no matter how many Yache Berries were used to get the concentrated fluid it still remained the cheapest of our options, and we could definitely add it even if we decided to add another item into the mix.

The second object ended up being the Frost Cap, which was also relatively "cheap". We could obviously not use the Frost Cap as it was and would need to use it to create a liquid extract to infuse it into the Mystic Ice Gem.

It was also possible to ground it down and mix it with the Mystic Ice Gem after grounding it down as well. However, we wanted to leave that as a last option since we had not tested if the M. Ice Gem could retain its properties after being ground down.

The third object was a bit pricier, but all of us wanted to try using the D-Class Cryogonal Ice. It belonged to the category of Pokemon parts we could freely use since Cryogonal Ice was an item that Cryogonal naturally dropped on occasion, and could be found in areas they usually hung out as well as their dwellings.

The last object was of a similar vein, but actually pricier than even the Cryogonal Ice. Well, it was also a bit rarer and more importantly more potent, which was why we added the Vanilluxe Powder Snow as our last object. It could be found in the same fashion as the Cryogonal Ice, which was the reason it was on the list.

We also decided that we could try a mix of the first three options in case none of the four objects proved to be enough. The reason we left out the Vanilluxe powder was that it was too costly to use with an extra item.

After we finished our plans, we ordered a huge batch of Yache Berries for the first round of experiments before moving to Weiss and her Pokemon. We wanted to finish her part of the work before the next month, and there were only 6 days left since the 34th month began on Dialday next week.

Actually, we did not even have 6 days, but 5 since Grouday was our day off. Thankfully we were nearly done with determining the average training speed-up rate, so 5 days was not an unrealistic goal.

Unfortunately, neither Weiss nor any of her Pokemon had gotten an epiphany so far, so that aspect had not been unearthed until now. There was not much I could do about that since the description said that the likelihood was a pretty small one.

Well, at least this way the price would remain the way it was since I could imagine that a proven epiphany chance would result in an involuntary price increase due to an increase in popularity/worth.

Seeing what the goal of our project was, that might have been a bit counterproductive, but honestly, I was already finding excuses for myself to keep quiet and not push for extra tests, in case Weiss and her group failed to trigger the effect of the end of Palkiday.

Anyway, two hours passed by pretty quickly, and it was soon 6:30 p.m., so after storing the first batch of Yache Berries that arrived a few minutes prior, we left for the day. Weiss directly left Pallet City, and I returned to my dorm room after accompanying her to the Teleportation Hub.

The next day, we began extracting the juice of the Yache Berries, before processing the juice to increase its energy concentration and purity. Now, it was pretty obvious, that the energy concentration and purity would be higher the more juice was being processed, but there was a point/limit after which both stopped increasing.

To reach that point we had to process the juice extracted from nearly 60 Yache Berries, 3.5-liter juice for just 50 ml of concentrated liquid on average. There was obviously no way that we would only test the most concentrated version, so we also used the 90%, 80%, 75%, 60%, and 50% versions in our tests.

Well, not that we managed to get a complete product even after one of us spent 100% of our time at the lab on it, while the other two spent around 60% on the experiment and the rest with Weiss' group. Truly by the end of Palkiday, the last day of the month, none of the tests had produced a completely fused/successful object.

The higher the energy and purity concentration of the juice/liquid, the worse the fusion rate was. The best one was the 50% liquid which had a fusion rate of 86%. The liquid with a 100% concentration only had a fusion rate of 61%.

Well, at least we managed to accomplish our goal with Weiss. We had gathered sufficient data, so her part in our project was done for now. I said for now since there was the possibility of involving her to test our next object as well.

In the end, my suspicion regarding the epiphany aspect proved itself correct and that property of the gem remained undiscovered. I left it be for now since it would come out at some point even if I did nothing, once it was released on the market and got triggered a few times. I was sure would someone let his or her experience slip.

Anyway, that evening, after leaving the lab, my group of three invited Weiss to a thank you and farewell dinner, which she accepted. It seemed she had expected our move and had made sure she had the time for our invitation.

The whole thing took until a bit past 8 p.m., and I accompanied her to the Teleportation Hub, from where she departed 15 minutes later. I naturally thanked her once more for her help, and we had our farewell hug before she left.

It had been nice to see one of my friends nearly every day while it lasted, and the few times we visited Jessie together were great as well. Even if I could have done without James' increased teasing. Regardless, she was gone now, so I made my way to my dorm room.

There I did my routine of closing/locking everything before I entered Utopia to spend some time with my Pokemon before I went to bed. I was not expecting to be surprised after I made my presence known. Yet, I still ended up pleasantly surprised when Hera/Pidgeot told me to inspect her since she felt the wholeness mentioned by the Slythering Six.

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