413 CH46 (410), The Work Never Stops (3)

The work on our Mystic Frost Gem continued with the same passion as before, despite the slow down of our progress speed, which kept happening the higher we managed to raise the fusion degree between the Frost Cap Extract and the Mystic Ice Gem.

By the end of the week, two days after Moka/Crobat's breakthrough, we had only managed to stabilize the fusion rate to 85%, and throughout the following week, we managed to raise that to 90%, which was not bad at all, just slower than our previous progress.

Okay, I had to admit it, my group had become a bit teeny tiny bit spoiled due to our fast success rate so far. Well, Carl and Sibel did say that we were still making quick progress compared to the time such projects usually took, which was why they were always so motivated. It was hard not to be motivated like that when the results were coming out much faster than they were used to.

I was once more thankful for my observe function, which allowed me to get a picture of what was wrong with a failed object, even if it did not have a step-by-step guide to correct it, it still helped us speed up our progress along the correct path.

Not that the others knew that since I made sure to be subtle while nudging us in the right direction, and from there it was just exploring what had to be improved/addressed. I mean there would have been no way for us to churn out so many unsuccessful and "successful" objects within just 5 months as we had if not for that.

Our success did attract attention from the other groups, but no one said anything about it. In fact, there was nothing they could say about/against our process aside from us being lucky. We did everything step by step, just with me saving us a few steps in general and keeping us from making mistakes.

Our project progress could be retraced due to the logged progress reports we kept after all, and everyone who read those could not help but think of us as really lucky. We got some jealous looks, Carl and Sibel more so than me, but that was it.

The lab had a great employee policy so things like malicious interference or bullying were impossible to find, at least from my admittedly limited experience and from what I had heard. Besides, they were working for Professor Oak, and there was no way he would have accepted bad apples into his lab. No, what the others did, was simply double down on their own research, and I could not help but admire them for it.

Anyway, I spent the final Grouday of the month in Pallet City, and Ace came over for a visit. We went out to the city to just stroll around while talking about the things we were busy with. Ace complained about his workload, which was to be expected since it was his final year at the navy academy.

He also shared some of the things that were on his mind, now that only half of his final year was left. Once he graduated he would have to go through the practical year, before he could start his official journey, or rather that was the route regular students went with.

Whether they would become regular trainers, performers, coordinators, or some other type of trainer was secondary since all of those paths were related to the regular journey. However, Ace admitted that he was not sure if he would go through with the standard journey or if he would directly go down the navy route after his practical year.

Doing the first would grant him the freedom to travel around as he pleased, as long as he kept the first year of his journey within the area of the northern continent. Going with the second option on the other hand would allow students of the navy academy to go through a fast track depending on their graduation results.

Apparently, all military-related academies offered the same option, but only for those that applied at the end of their practical year. Ace was not sure which one to choose, and both his mother and father told him that he had to make that decision by himself.

They just asked him to choose the option that he genuinely wanted and not the one he felt he was supposed to choose. Well, now Ace was asking me about my opinion, and he said he was going to ask Kinji, Aaron, and Weiss as well. I was honestly not sure what to tell him.

I knew that I would prefer to go through my journey first, but I could not say that it would be the best for Ace since I knew that he had a great interest in the navy. Otherwise, he would not have gone to a navy academy, so I went with the safe option and told him that it was probably for the best to wait with the decision until the military part of his practical year was over.

While that part of the practical year was not with the navy, the military period would still give him an idea of what to expect if he went for the navy route since all "students" were given the same treatment as the regular soldiers during their period, so the experience was a genuine one and not a coddled version.

This way he would still be making the decision on his own and looking at his bright smile while he thanked me for my advice, Ace thought my idea was a good one as well. He left after dinner and I returned to my dorm room and called my parents before entering Utopia to spend the rest of the evening with my Pokemon.

Arcday ended up giving me a pleasant surprise. Ignis/Gyarados actually managed to reach the (high) gold stage a few hours after my lunch break. He had maintained a rather tough exercise load after his experience with being last during the limit-breaking phase.

The load was nowhere near as extreme as the stuff he did back then, but he was still the hardest-working member of the Slythering Six, and those had been his competitors in the unofficial race to see who would be the first to reach the (high) gold stage among their group. Still, I was sure that Aby/Gyarados and the others were not too far behind him.

The next day, the 36th month began, officially heralding the end of 2181. Normally, Mewday/today should have been the day my vacation would have started, but due to my prior arrangements, I would keep working in the lab for the next three weeks and only leave a week before Rayquaza's Patrol.

Well, aside from starting the final month nothing significant happened on Mewday, but Giratiday proved to be more interesting since Abzu/Milotic finally completed his second round of limit-breaking. Not only that, but 2 of his parameters were already at SSS, so the distance between him and Tiamat was not as big anymore.

He had 2 SSS parameters, while she was missing 2 SSS parameters to complete her limit breaking and to break through to the gold stage. Her higher racial value due to her Shiny gene was the reason for her lead.

Regardless, Abzu was doing a good job keeping up with her, in part thanks to his slightly higher potential and in part due to training harder than her. Abzu's success naturally put me in a good mood, and I felt pretty happy for the rest of the week while working on the Mystic Frost Gem.

By Kyoday evening, we managed to push the fusion rate average of any successfully produced objects to 93% and the rate of successful products close to 9 out of 10. That meant only 1 out of 10 tries ended with the gem breaking during the pressure fusion process, with the occasional 2 out of 10 thrown in.

We knew, due to our previous experience, that getting those odds to zero was impossible since accidents happened even if it was at a 1 out of 100 or more likelihood, but the closer we managed to come to zero, the less of a loss we would make, so that aspect was also important, even if its importance was currently secondary compared to actually producing a true Mystic Frost Gem.

Well, at the pace we were progressing, there was a chance that we could successfully produce a Mystic Frost Gem before my vacation began in three weeks. Going from 93% to 100% within two weeks was hard but not impossible.

I had no idea what I would feel like if we failed to do so before I left for Hope Town, but it definitely would not be good. I had to make sure they called me in case they succeeded while I was away so that I could rush over to witness the evolution test. I wanted to be there for that one even if it ended up failing.

Anyway, I stayed past noon at the lab despite my previous plans, and my group as a whole ended up staying nearly two hours longer at the lab, so I told my parents that I would not be coming for dinner once we made the decision. Instead, I traveled to Hope Town on Grouday morning for breakfast.

A few interesting things had apparently happened during the two weeks I had been away, and while mom and dad had told me about them over the phone, I wanted to see them myself. So, I asked mom to call out her recently evolved Lairon.

I was quite surprised when she told me a week ago that she finally decided to let Aron evolve The little guy had actually gotten the feeling for evolution quite a few months ago, but mom kept pushing it back cause she wanted to enjoy his cute phase more, I meant that she wanted to train him some more.

Still, according to what she said, she finally let him go through with his evolution when he managed to reach the (high) bronze stage. I had honestly not been sure if she was serious or not until now since I knew how much she liked Aron's "cute" look. Yet, seeing Lairon with my own eyes confirmed that she had not been joking.

I had made sure to give mom quite a few supplements I prepared for Aron since I had known that he was ready for quite some time, so I lost no time checking his status screen to see how big the potential boost he received during his evolution was. Unfortunately, his potential was still at light blue, but I was sure that he was not too far off from regular blue, since I was confident in the stuff I prepared for him.

Anyway, I gave Lairon a few pats on his head making him rumble happily, before moving on to the next one since Lairon was not the only one that had made a significant step forward. Mom's Zubat had reached the (mid) iron stage, which was not bad considering that it had been less than 8 months since she came out of her stageless phase, and mom had decided against pushing her until she was 2 years old. I made sure to praise Zubat before mom called her back into her Dusk Ball.

Obviously, dad could not be left out when something happened, and it felt as if the Pokemon had waited until everything could happen close to one another. Anyway, dad's Misdreavus broke through to the silver stage, catching back up with dad's Dragonair.

Now, that Misdreavus was also at the (low) silver stage, he was no longer dad's Pokemon with the lowest stage since he was sharing that position with Dragonair. After sharing that label with Dragonair, Misdreavus was now "just" dad's weakest Pokemon, but it was still better to have 1 such label than having two, right?

Well, he would probably have a better chance against Dragonair after he evolved to Mismagius, but I had spoken with dad and convinced him to wait until Misdreavus reached the (high) silver stage before letting him evolve, so that was going to take a while.

Nonetheless, I congratulated Misdreavus for his breakthrough, satisfied after having seen all three Pokemon. After that episode, we went out to the Town center to stroll around. We did pay a visit to the shelter property and I took a look at the hole they had dug for the shelter.

Obviously, no one was currently there, since they did not work on Grouday, but that was okay since I just wanted to get a glimpse of the place, and we swiftly moved on to the town center. The rest of the day was spent strolling around as well as talking with my parents, and we also ended up eating our dinner outside.

Afterward, we went to the cinema, and I made sure to stream the movie inside Utopia as well for everyone else. Once we left the movie theater, I accompanied my parents home, but I did not step inside and made my way back to Pallet City instead.

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