25 Route 3

The next morning Aoki and Misty started their journey towards Mt.Moon.

Misty had a piece of good news that her Poliwag and Marill have reached intermediate rank with her Staryu reaching that stage earlier.

Reaching the intermediate stage gave a Pokemon more energy control, more energy to use, greater attack power and defense, and finally access to more moves.

Although her Pokemons had reached intermediate rank, Aoki was confident to solo her entire team with any of his Pokemons.

Apparently when Aoki was training alone, Misty went on challenging every trainer she would find with the bait of giving out 1k poke dollars if someone can defeat her pokemon.

After walking for a few hours they reached a junction where the road divided, one led to Mt. Moon while the other led to Cerulean city.

On the way, both of them challenged some trainers that were going to Cerulean city. Aoki used Pidgeotto and Weepinbell, earning surprised stares from trainers due to their size and color.

Aoki had a talk with them but none of them were willing to take the route through Mt.Moon and advised Aoki not to take that route too.

"Are you sure we should take the route to mount moon ? " asked Misty

" Yes,I want to see if I can find a piece of moonstone "

" I heard that there are Clefairy there, we may run into them if we get lucky," Misty said.

" Yeah, we have to be careful as they have the power to snap our neck with their powers. But before that, we need to worry about safely crossing Mount. Moon "Aoki said.

"So where are we going now? I don't think this is the route to Mt.Moon"

"We are entering the territory of Nidorino and Gravelers "

"Eh!? Are you sure those species can be found here?"

"I am sure. Even if I am wrong, we will be having an adventure "

Aoki found this information from Brock who apparently picked it up from the Black Market. Normally in the original games, the Nidoran line could be found before Mt.Moon but the game location and real life were completely different.

"Fair enough, there is no trainer without an adventure "

"Good to hear that Misty "

Aoki and Misty walked some more and entered the territory of Nidoking and Golems. Which was after an open field where they saw Doduo and Tauros.

The scene of green grass dancing with the wind was very pleasant for them to see and feel.

The territory of Nidoking was a forbidden area due to high-level Pokemon leaving there so Aoki didn't want to make some preparation before going there. Angering a Pokemon by getting into its territory was the last thing he wanted.

They decided to camp for the night in the field with their Pokemon on watch. Aoki as always made everyone a delicious dinner and gave his Pokemon message before sleeping.

Misty had settled down very comfortably with Aoki and thought of him as her ideal partner that she always thought about. Staying with Aoki has made Misty open up her real pervert self to Aoki which she has never exposed to anyone. Aoki knew that the tomboy traveling with her was a big pervert but he never backed down and make her open up even more.

Aoki and Misty expected a peaceful night but it didn't go well as they were attacked by a group of Doduo and Dodrio all at the intermediate rank giving them a hard sleepless night fighting and saving their things from getting destroyed.

At one point Charmander set up a large fire that kept on spreading making Misty's Pokemon to work extra hard to put off that fire.

The fight with Doduo even attracted the attention of some Tauros who came to see the fun. Aoki got to see something that he didn't know about. Every time a Doduo or Dodrio was in a near-death state, a Tauros would end its life and leave the area dragging the carcass by its throat.

Aoki never knew that Tauros were omnivores as he assumed them to be herbivores.

When the flock realized they were rapidly losing their members, they escaped with the rest becoming Tauro's targets or fried chicken under Charmander's flames giving everyone a good morning meal, especially Pidgeotto.

Fortunately, the Tauros neither chased nor attacked Aoki's group and left after expressing their gratitude.

"I am so sleepy !!" Misty complained with dark circles under her eyes.

"We got a new experience. It was good that we had intermediate-level Pokemons or else we would have become the food of those Pokemon instead".

After packing their bags, they started their journey towards their main goal. Not even half an hour into the forest, they saw half-eaten human and Pokemon corpses and large trails of blood.

Judging by some of the appearances, the people who died were around their age.

"Maybe turning back would be better " Misty said seeing the corpses.

"Nah it's fine, it's not like we haven't seen corpses and blood baths before"

Aoki took out three Pokeballs and released his Pokemons.

"Pidgeotto fly ahead and look signs of any Nidoran or Nidorino"

"Charmander walk in front of me, Weepinbell walk behind me "

Aoki wanted his next Pokemon to be Nidoking, he could go for Geodude but Nidoking had a wider move pool than Golems.

Aoki and Misty entered deep into the territory while Misty took out her Pokemons.

After a while, Pidgeotto returned and pointed in one direction.

"Good job Pidgeotto, keep flying and come down when I call you back "

When they reached the place Pidgeotto pointed they found that it was full of craters and broken trees.

Among them stood a Nidorino who was biting into a Gravellar corpse. Aoki was sure that a large battle took place here.

The Nidorino growled at Aoki and the others with bloodthirsty eyes as if telling them that he would attack if Aoki took a step forward.

From the feeling the Nidorina gave, he was at the peak of intermediate rank and one hit from them is enough to fatally injure a person.

" I mean no harm, I am a trainer and came to ask if a Nidoran was ready to join me. I can provide plenty of food too " Aoki with the help of Weepinbell tried to convince the Nidorino.

Seeing that the Nidorino was not convinced, he took out some Pokeblocks and presented. Nidorino sniffed and took a bite making his eyes lit up.

He looked into his eyes for a while and asked to follow him while he started walking into the forest biting the Gravellar corpse.

While they walked, they saw more blood and human corpses.

After a while, they reached a clearing within a forest where around 15 Nidorino and Nidorinas were present.

Among them were two Nidokings. One with a scar on his face. Aoki guessed that the Nidorans must be hiding somewhere.

' Peak of Master rank Nidoking ' Aoki looked at the Nidoking with the scar on his face.

'This complicates things a bit. If I mess things up we are dead '.

"Misty don't move, same for your Pokemons "

The Nidorino that brought them here explained the situation to the Nidokings.

The Nidoking with scar gave a series of roars that Aoki asked Weepinbell to translate.

First, he asked Aoki to give him some Pokeblocks to taste. After tasting the food, he gave another round of low-voiced roars.

According to Nidoking, if Aoki wants to have a Nidoran as his partner, he has to feed the pack for one day and defeat his son, the other Nidoking in a duel.

Aoki agreed without taking any time.

" Are you really fine with this? I know your Pokemon are strong but taking on a Pokemon like Nidoking….. " said Misty with a concerned tone as she was scared by the presence of such a large number of Nidorino and Nidokings that could end their lives even if they fought back with everything they had.

" Don't worry Misty, I believe in my companions."

Seeing his confidence and hearing his words, a warm feeling filled her heart.

Aoki took out his cooking ingredients and started cooking.

The pack had a lot of raw materials so Aoki had no shortage of materials but the problem was the sheer amount of food he had to make.

After an hour of continuous cooking, he was able to make the required amount. Misty was forbidden from helping as Aoki had to gain their recognition.

The first one to taste the food was the Nidoking, after eating his fill he gave a gesture for others to start eating.

The Nidoking gave a roar to which the trees deep into the forest ruffled as something approached them, after 5 minutes what appeared was a Nidoqueen along with 10 Nidorans (both male and female ).

The Nidoqueen was at master rank too but energy-wise less than the scar-faced Nidoking.

Aoki understood the gesture and started cooking for them too. They made Aoki cook till the evening after which they took a short rest.

It was in the night when the leader was ready for the duel. Every member of the pack surrounded the area with Aoki and Nidoking in the middle.

Aoki sent out Charmander to face off against the leader's son. The leader gave a roar and a series of roars and moved in a direction away from the pack.

Weepinbell and Pidgeotto had their fair share of battles while coming here so he selected Charmander who was very happy to face strong opponents.

Nidoking made a gesture as if to tell if Aoki was mocking him by choosing a weak pokemon.

" Don't worry my partner is not to be underestimated"

~ chaaar!! ~

Weepinbell: go teach that guy a lesson !!

Pidgeotto: show him who is the boss !!

Normally three of them would tease each other or mess around with other but will always be present for each other when it mattered.

"Are you scared without your father big guy" Charmander provoked the Nidoking.

Hearing this a vein popped up in the forehead of the Nidoking.

"Let me teach you how to respect your elders brat," roared the Nidoking with anger as he stomped his feet.