CH51 (112), First Dive (2)

After about 20 minutes I decided that I had seen enough of the area and chose to swim a bit further out. While I was moving forwards I was also observing my surroundings, which meant I saw a lot of grass fields consisting either of one of the three species I found or a mix of them.

Thankfully those were not the only things I saw or it would have gotten boring pretty fast. No, I also saw small regions of seaweeds, as well as various corals, and areas where all of them grew. These regions/fields served as places that fish, krill, and Pokemon congregated either to live around or for food.

It was while I was observing the colorful sea floor that I decided to grow the regular versions of the sea plants I had collected until now inside both the pond in the main space, as well as inside the marine subspace. They would serve as a food source and grew much faster than their special counterparts.

There was also no maximum limit I had to worry about, so I immediately planted them in both places. Shielding them until they had grown enough, which shouldn't take too long since they got optimized as well. The improvement included nutrition value as well as growth speed. It also allowed them to survive in all water environments.

The same was true for the fish I imported into my space I had settled on 4 species, and while they would never become like Pokemon, the optimization by my space made them healthier, more nutritious, and tastier as well. It also accelerated their growth/maturity speed and allowed them to live in any water environment.

By now I had relocated hundreds of Sardines, Herrings, Mackerels, and Seabreams. I kept them in separate areas, for now, to allow them to multiply some more. I also saw firsthand the effect the optimization had on them.

I had chosen these 4 species because they were medium-sized, and all of them grew by 10 cm after the optimization. Sardines went from an average length of 30 cm to 40 cm. Herrings had an average length of 40 cm, which became 50 cm. Mackerel went from 35 cm to 45 cm, and

Seabreams grew from about 35 cm to 45 cm.

My space turned them into the perfect food source for my Pokemon and I would have no scruples selling them for money as well since they had no other use besides as food.

I occasionally swam down to check the fields when I saw a new type of plant or coral or some Pokemon besides Magikarp. I had gotten a new type of seaweed that way called Brown Kelp, which was kinda like the cousin of the Azure Kelp.

'Name: Brown Kelp

Type: Water

Class: F

Uses: It's a piece of kelp that has absorbed water as well as some ground energy until it mutated. Contains a bit of grass energy, some ground energy, as well as concentrated water-type energy, increasing its purity.

Can slightly aid acclimate ground types to water energy. Can also be used as a supplement to help water-type Pokemon.'

As for the types of corals, I had seen until now; well, there had been quite a few of them. They were named after things they resembled, so far I had seen some Tree Corals, Horn Corals, Table Corals, Vase Corals, Brain Corals, and Whip Corals.

All of them could be found in different colors, the most common being brown, green, blue, red, and orange, which made coral fields look like colorful and beautiful places.

But that was enough about the basis that was sustaining the ecosystem in the sea, let's focus on the reason I came here in the first place Pokemon and precious materials. On the precious material front, I had unfortunately not found anything yet, except for the Brown Kelp.

However, the Pokemon front was much more promising. Well, not because of their potential, since I had not found one with satisfactory potential yet, but because of their diversity.

While I was swimming forward in a loose S-shaped movement checking the various field I saw, I also came across various Pokemon species. The most abundant were naturally the Magikarp, but I also saw quite a few Remoraid.

I came across 2 Chinchou while checking my first small coral field. They had created a house that was slightly concealed among the corals. When I discovered them they were about to shock me, but thankfully I managed to use my Jedi powers, ..., I meant my aura abilities to calm them down.

After I persuaded them of my harmlessness towards them and that I had no plan to expose their place, they turned out pretty cool. They allowed me to watch them for a bit and I got to see them "hunt" some fish using their electricity.

At the same coral field, I also found a Shellder that was just chilling between some of the corals.

I saw a few Goldeen and Tentacool among the areas with long grasses and/or seaweeds. Not in the same areas mind you, because they did not seem to like each other that much. I knew or at least assumed this because I saw a Goldeen fighting against a Tentacool in one of those places, despite there being just about enough space for both of them.

My guess was that they did not want to share their prey/bounty. Furthermore, I also found a few Barboach and from my encounters, I inferred that they preferred areas with short grass/seaweed and/or corals.

Among the other coral fields I checked, I found two more Shellder and surprisingly 2 Clamperl as well. Those species seemed to prefer to live in areas with corals, but that did not mean they could not be found outside of it, since I knew that Shellder also liked to hide under the sand.

However, these were not the only species that like corals. I came across Staryu on multiple occasions while checking the areas with corals and I even encountered a Horsea. After the Chinchou it was the most aggressive of the Pokemon I met during this dive.

I was pretty sure, if not for the 4 Magikarp that were accompanying me it would have attacked me, but when it saw them moving towards it once it showed signs of aggression it ran/swam away.

Still, I believed that Horsea to be the exception, because I met 3 more Horsea, yet none of them reacted as aggressively as the first one. While only one of them was really relaxed, the other two were peaceful as well.

Since I encountered all 4 Horsea in areas with corals, I began to theorize that they preferred such environments. Obviously, this did not mean that they stayed exclusively in such places, but it was most likely their most preferred choice.

Anyway, it had been a few hours since I had entered the water, and a quick look at my watch confirmed that it had been 4 hours already, so I had about 1 to 2 hours until it was time for me and my Pokemon to eat lunch. By now I was more than 3 km away from the beach despite spending so much time checking many things and moving in an S-shape.

I was not planning to swim back, since that would cost me more than 20 minutes; I think? I was not sure since I had no idea how fast I could swim, but the important point was that it would take too much time. I was going to swim up and call out Xatu so that he could Teleport me to the beach.

Knowing this, I could continue to spend the time until lunch on swimming further out, and I did just that. Until now the coral fields I came across could have been categorized as small, but right in front of me, I was seeing one that definitely could be called large.

I stopped for a moment and used telepathy to tell my Magikarp to stay alert and cautious. We were pretty far out right now and I had no idea what I could come across in a field this large, so being careful was important.

I began swimming around the field checking between the corals and generally keeping an eye on the whole place and I got to see a multitude of Pokemon species. It looked like the large size of the field meant that they were willing to share the place without fighting among themselves for the territory, even if they seemed to have divided the area into districts/zones.

I saw a lot of Magikarp, and they were the only ones that were everywhere, but that was kinda the norm so far. I saw more than 30 Remoraid and even two Octillery as well. The two seemed like the leaders of part of the southern zone belonging to the Remoraid. One of them was at the (mid) bronze stage, while the other was at the (high) bronze stage. None of their potentials was better than deep orange.

The zone to their left seemed to belong to a group of Krabby led by a single Kingler. I saw like 15 Krabby but had no idea how many more were in places I couldn't see. I got curious about Kingler's strength since he had to be stronger than the Octillery, being the sole leader and all that.

Since I knew that Kingler was at least at the (high) bronze stage if not higher, I acted pretty cautiously while approaching it. I had been much more carefree about approaching the Octillery since the strength of my Magikarp and my own gave me some confidence for us to stay mostly unharmed.

Against Kingler I was not so sure if my Magikarp could stay unharmed or not, so I behaved much more prudent. I moved towards the direction its back was facing before I moved closer. Even then I made sure to stop as soon as Kingler was inside the range of my telekinesis.

After that, I acted in the softest manner possible while brushing past its body to check its status.

'Species: Kingler

Gender: Male

Type: Water

Potential: Yellow

Stage: Silver-stage (low)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Hyper Cutter

Talents: None

Affinities: Water'

It turned out I was right. At the (low) silver stage, Kingler officially became the strongest wild Pokemon I had seen at sea, at least up to this point. After I was done with my check I carefully moved away. Afterward, I returned to the Octillery zone and from there to the right to check which species had settled there.

It turned out that a large part of the right/east side of the coral field belonged to the Goldeen. I was sure that I saw nearly a hundred Goldeen swimming around but there could have been more than that as well.

Nonetheless, the size of their zone alone told me that their leaders were pretty strong. The bosses of the Goldeen zone were two Seaking, and they were not the only Seaking in there, just the strongest ones.

Besides the bosses, I saw 2 more Seaking both being at the (mid) bronze stage. I had to launch another ninja-style operation to get close enough to the leaders to check their status through my telekinesis. For this one, I even took back my Magikarp for maximum stealth.

After I slowly made my way over swimming as close to the floor as possible, I successfully checked them both. They were both at the (low) silver stage, which together with the (mid) bronze ones explained the size of their territory.

Before I explored the rest of the coral field, I called out the Magikarp once more, who proceeded to swim towards me. They complained about me staying behind on my own telling me that they had to protect me. Their behavior and their feelings made me happy, so I stroked their sides for a while.

A few minutes later I resumed my exploration. I learned that the rest of the coral field, which was most of the northern and northwestern side, belonged to the Horsea-line. Now despite their territory being as large as that of the Goldeen, I saw way less Horsea than I did Goldeen. I only managed to see 40 or so Horsea, but I did spot 5 Seadra.

The behavior of the 5 made it obvious (to me) that one of them was the leader, while the other 4 were its direct underlings. When at one point I saw the leader call over the other 4 to tell them something before sending them away, I followed one of the underlings to check its status.

I noticed that it was doing a patrol and after checking up on the other 3 confirmed that they did the same. All 4 of them were at the (high) bronze stage, which was impressive and told me that the leader was at least at the (low) silver stage.

After doing yet another ninja-worthy operation this time with my Ninkarps I got close enough to check its status as well. As soon as I did it turned in my direction and we, my Magikarp and I, immediately stopped moving. Apparently, it decided to ignore us after sensing no danger or ill-intent, because I saw it turn away once more after a few moments.

We relaxed once that happened but still moved away as soon as possible. Once we were at the border between the Horsea and Goldeen zone I finally checked the status screen that showed up.

'Species: Seadra

Gender: Female

Type: Water

Potential: Deep Yellow

Stage: Silver-stage (mid)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Poison Point

Talents: None

Affinities: Water'

Seeing her strength being at the (mid) silver stage I start thanking all legendaries that she decided to ignore us after detecting something, because if she hadn't I would have had no other choice than to hide inside my space.

Who knew for how long I would have had to stay there if that happened. Fortunately, nothing like that happened. Still, it was moments like these that made me appreciate my emergency exit, aka my space, even more. Anyway, once I calmed down after that little surprise I took a look at my watch.

I saw that it was time for lunch, so I decided to start swimming upwards. While I was moving towards the surface, I took a peek in the northern direction since that was where I was moving after lunch. That's when I noticed a large swarm of Tentacool led by 3 Tentacruel moving towards the coral field I had just explored.

There were hundreds of Tentacool and their movement towards the coral field meant that I was about to witness a territory war.

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Those that celebrate Christmas, I wish you a Merry Christmas.

Those that celebrate another holiday instead, I wish you Happy Holidays.

I also wish everyone else Happy Holidays.

I hope that all of you stay safe, be happy, and take care.