Nightblade Bamboo Forest
Helios' sight distorted for an instant before finally clearing up again. What greeted him was a dark environment with only the dim light given by the few stars that could be seen in the sky, as well as the giant Moon that reigned supreme above him, and that gave off a candid radiance. Around him just seemingly endless forest of strange black bamboo. Indeed, this was the embryonic form of his future pokemon aperture, the Nightblade Bamoboo forest!
Its name obviously refers to this strange variety of bamboo that grew all over the space. Well, strictly speaking it was not a plant, instead it is more of a metal pole on which were placed dozens of razor-like "leaves", still as time passed and energy inside condensed they would grow bigger just like a living plant would. This was the unique effect of the Smirking Shadow esoteric art, capable of condensing and refining the dark and steel type energy originating from Pawniard into this particular scenery.
Helios looked around with a satisfied expression as he assessed the overall space with his spiritual sense. He had a very deep connection with the place, and felt that he subconsciously knew it like the palm of his hand.
"According to the multiple books I have read on the matter a regular aperture awakened with a low level art should span around 1000km2, while the average one obtained with a high level art should be around 1500km2. In comparison my seems to be around… 2000km2!"
Helios was instantly exhilarated, after all, the aperture was the foundation for a trainer's strength and growth. Let alone the future, even just the benefits today would be huge. That was because a larger space could accommodate for more worldly energy, which could then be used to boost his pokemon. At the same time this greater energy would allow for higher quality resources to develop inside.
"This Nightblade bamboo is very sharp, and its number is also very high. Compatibility with the art is still very important after all. If not I would never have these many resources, although cut bamboo can grow back, at end it is not alive and cannot be planted, if I completely consume one, I will have one less. Although the forest is incredibly big it is still my starting point, I must be careful not to squander it."
As he thought so he took out a short hidden blade from his sleeve and decisively cut down a few bamboos in front of him, making sure to leave at least 0.3m for each on the ground. After cutting around a dozen or so he chopped them into smaller pieces and fed them to the Pawniard that had been curiously watching him until.
"Here, eat them. They are rank 1 materials. Steel attribute is the most abundant in it and it even has the somewhat rare property of sharpness to it, it should help you make your own blades even more deadly. Additional there is also a certain portion of dark energy inside. All this combined will make you quite stronger in a short period of time. Who knows, given the high quality, you might even take just about a month to go to rank one, then we will start the true training."
Just like trainers, pokemons were also classified into ranks 1-9, however to this rank system was also paired a more specific level system from 1 to 100. Basically pokemons got their strength from the natural energy that the world provided them with. However for mysterious reasons, this supply would end as soon as they stopped being "wild" pokemons. How is the world capable of understanding where the exact threshold lied nobody knows. Still it does. And when a pokemon no longer receives this energy their strength falls greatly, becoming a rank 0 pokemon, equivalent to level 1-10. The same applied to pokemons born in captivity like Pawniard. Hence humans were able to fend off wild pokemons only after they discovered their Pokemon Apertures. This was because these apertures were in essence like small independent worlds, capable of producing their own worldly energy and converting that from the outside. Only then would the pokemon of a human have the chance to compete with a wild one. And to breakthrough from one rank to an other, other then sufficient energy and accumulation a pokemon also needed enough materials of the respective rank. One could already see the advantages of a high level technique from this. A low-level art would not allow you to produce anything until reaching rank 3, meaning one would have to buy rank 1,2 and even some rank 3 materials from the market in order to cultivate. Other than the huge cost behind this, that would inevitably slow down the cultivation speed, one must be lucky to find materials perfectly suited for them. Take for instance the Nightblade bamboo, despite it being mainly steel type, it did not emphasize on defense like most resources of this type, its main attribute being sharpness instead. Although the uniqueness of one's aperture would become more and more important in the later stages of cultivation (ranks 4-6), it was only better if one could start preparing early.