CH43 (273), First Term Down

Riolu's introduction, as well as the welcoming party, went great. Over the next week, he got acclimated to Utopia and its inhabitants. Once he had gotten used to us, I asked him if he wanted a name like everyone else, and he gave a positive answer, so we went over possible names for him.

I stayed true to the idea of using either deity or element names, so my suggestions were mostly of that kind. Riolu ultimately decided that he liked Anubis the most, and I also thought that it was a great fit, so Riolu's official name became Anubis.

That was the point was when I let him join everyone in their serious training since the acclimatization week I afforded him was up. The training sessions with Marlene and Sorrel on Giratiday also resumed, and I helped them during our free double period as I had promised.

They were impressed when I showed them Anubis and exclaimed that they would do their best during the end-year competition to earn enough points to visit the Riolu habitat as well in hopes of also getting a Riolu partner.

Another thing that resumed was my training sessions with Mr. Burns, and as agreed upon, we went out so that I could fight against Pokemon without any restrictions. Well, except the obvious one, that we should not kill each other.

Since the main goal was trying to deal with energy/long-range attacks, Mr. Burns chose my opponents with that in mind, so I did not fight against Raticate or the like, but Poliwhirl or Pikachu.

In fact, I was the one with the handicap in these fights because Mr. Burns told me I should either block or deflect the long-range attacks instead of dodging them, which would have been my main course of action.

Still, he did have me only face bronze stage Pokemon in exchange so I did not get trashed or seriously hurt while getting used to blocking and deflecting the moves. That did not mean that I did not get hurt, because I did, and it hurt a lot.

At least I can now confidently say that I did not like that part/the pain, and I was thankful for that since I don't think I would have been happy with realizing that I had masochistic tendencies.

Just like that the third month of the first term went by, and I could not wait for the fourth month to start since Mr. Burns said that I had cleared his goal, which meant that starting with the fourth month I would be allowed to dodge instead of being forced to block or deflect the attacks.

That meant I would get to properly fight against the wild Pokemon, and Mr. Burns said I would be facing silver stage Pokemon now that I could fight without handicap.

So it was with a happy smile that I greeted the arrival of the 23rd month of the year 2180. That the first day happened to be during the middle of the week, on Palkiday to be exact, just meant that I did not have to wait an extra week to get my first real fighting experience against someone strong.

The stageless and iron stage Zubat did not count, since that was not a fair fight considering how much weaker they were compared to me. *sigh* Thinking about them still brought a slightly bitter taste with it, but it had to be done, for the greater good.

Oh, talking about bitter tastes, I took a look at my bank account and noticed that the number seemed wrong, so I went "hold up, wait a minute", before I remembered the arch enemy of all legal money earners, the tax.

The tax for Class 0 to 3 trainers, Rookies to Experts, was 20%, so I earned 28.760.000 Poke through my last mission instead of earning 35.950.000 Poke. I lost an unbelievable 7.19 million Poke to tax.

Thankfully, that would be reduced to 15% once I became an Ace-Class trainer or the equivalent, but it still seemed a bit much to me, even if I knew that the tax(es) in my last world was much much worse than this.

Still, considering the 50k Poke subsidy I was receiving from the alliance for being a senior class trainer or the equivalent, I could tolerate my loss in tax since I had received nearly 4 million Poke in subsidies until now.

Besides, it was better for me to get used to it because I was going to re-experience this situation a lot in the future once I began my business venture(s). I had researched that one, the corporate tax was 25 percent for civilian-centered goods, and 20% for Pokemon-centered goods.

It was calculated based on the profit of the business, so what happened was that the tax was only calculated after all expenses were deducted. Thankfully that was the only tax business had to pay here, so at least there was that.

Anyway, where was I before I began digressing? Ah, yes, the new month. The start was awesome, Mr. Burns had me face a (low) silver stage Golduck as my first serious opponent, and I managed to beat it without too many problems.

It was by no means easy but in the end, I managed to beat it while only suffering some scratches that got taken care of within seconds by Ali/Kirlia. My strategy was based on dodging any attacks and only blocking or deflecting those I couldn't dodge which was why I managed to win with minimal injuries.

Once Mr. Burns allowed me to use my short-range teleportation, I would have an even easier time while fighting. After Mr. Burns saw the ease at which I beat Golduck, he had me face a (mid) silver stage Sandslash which proved to be a much harder challenge.

That was not only because it was at a higher substage, but also due to its thorns and claws, as well as high defense and ability to go under(ground). I did ultimately manage to beat it, but it took a lot out of me, and I did suffer some semi-serious injuries. Ali had to use two rounds of Heal Pulse to heal the slash/cut wounds and abrasions I had suffered.

Mr. Burns stopped at that and told me that I was roughly as strong as most (mid) silver stage Pokemon using just my physique and aura. He extrapolated that I could face most (high) silver-stage Pokemon if I added my psychic abilities to the mix.

He did add that Pokemon with high physical defense, as well as those that could hide underwater or underground seemed to pose the greatest difficulty for me.

The next day, on Dialday evening, I received a pleasant surprise. Eggy/Salandit came up to me happily and said that he suddenly felt somehow better just a few moments ago. I knew that he had been a hairsbreadth away from reaching light yellow potential, so I checked his status to see if that had finally happened.

'Name: None (Eggy)

Species: Salandit

Gender: Male

Age: 1+ Year

-

Type: Poison, Fire

Potential: Deep Orange (86.21%) -> Light Yellow (0.01%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Oblivious

Talents: None

Affinities: Poison, Fire

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Stageless (11%) -> (69%)

----

Immunity:

None

-

Resistance:

Grass (Major), Bug (Major), Fairy (Major), Fire (Minor), Ice (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Poison (Minor), Steel (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Ground (Major), Water (Minor), Psychic (Minor), Rock (Minor)

-

Standardized:

None

----

Condition: Healthy, Curious

----

Masteries:

Poison Energy Manipulation (Initial) -> (Novice)

Fire Energy Manipulation (Initial)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Smog, Ember

-

Beginner:

Scratch, Poison Gas

-

Proficient:

N/A

-

Advanced:

N/A

-

Mastered:

N/A'

It turned out that it was indeed his potential that had finally reached light yellow. Eggy had his first birthday about two months ago, and we obviously celebrated it, but he had been missing a measly amount to reach light yellow potential, so that had been a bit unfortunate at that time.

His progress had been at 68% during his birthday, but it had managed to raise that by another percent to 69% during these two months, which was pretty nice. I was speculating that Eggy would leave the stageless phase before my graduation, and once he reached the iron stage I could finally start to train him.

It would also allow me to deal with him more seriously since I could not use a lot of my supplements since they were too potent for stageless Pokemon.

I mean currently Eggy had complete free reign and the only form of pseudo training he experienced was playing with his moves. We managed to raise his Scratch and Poison Gas to beginner mastery that way, and he learned Ember and Smog once his progress broke past the 55% margin. Well, he learned Ember at that point and Smog once he reached 61%.

His poison energy manipulation improved to novice mastery after he learned Smog, so that was nice. His current favorite move was definitely Ember since it produced a nice light show when used.

Well, other than playing and using it to help his reaction capability, as well as waiting for him to reach the iron stage, I have been adding some snacks with a minuscule amount of draconic energy to his diet. I did that in preparation for some of my hypotheses regarding a possible male evolution.

That became my routine for the rest of the term. Cruising through lessons, mentoring Sorrel and Marlene on Giratiday, fighting wild Pokemon at various substages of the silver stage under Mr. Burns's supervision, and spending the weekend with my parents.

I generally tried to meet up with one of my friends every two or three weeks if they had time, and I saw no reason to stop doing it, so that happened as well. I naturally also kept up the training of my Pokemon as well, but that was kinda obvious.

On Mewday of the second week of our 4th academic month, Optimus/Butterfree's Endurance reached A, which left only one parameter before he would officially begin limit breaking.

While I was on Optimus, the Caterpie I moved inside Utopia's main space were still undergoing training supervised by Mothra/Butterfree and Optimus. I had them focus more on improving String Shot to Proficient mastery than regular training, and after they managed to do that, I had them learn Electroweb.

Only those that did that and raised Electroweb to beginner mastery were given leave to focus on their parameters. It was pretty clear that only Caterpie that reached the (high) iron stage after fulfilling the move requirements were allowed to evolve to Metapod.

So far, none had fulfilled those conditions, so all Caterpie were still Caterpie. I mean just because they were not on the team did not mean that I could let them be too weak. They were supposed to be Mothra's subordinates, so they couldn't be losers.

I actually gave the same instructions to Parvati/Beedrill for her Weedle subordinates, and none of her Weedle had evolved so far as well.

Anyway, at the beginning of the third week, Hera's Energy Density reached A, which let her officially start limit breaking as well.

The last week of the month was tame with nothing important happening. Thankfully, the first week of the fifth and last month of the term brought good news. Saphira/Swablu's Endurance reached C, which was her second one.

Gaia/Nidoqueen gave me another piece of good news in the middle of the second week when her Energy Capacity reached A, which let her officially join those that were limit-breaking.

Obviously, when Gaia did something Seb/Nidoking was not too far behind, and vice versa. At the start of the third week, Seb's Energy Density reached A, which allowed him to officially join those that were limit-breaking as well.

I spent the first three days of that week going over everything we learned at the academy once since right after that the term exams began. Ali gave me a pleasant surprise when his Energy Density reached S in the middle of the fourth/exam week.

Just another day later I got another piece of pleasant news. Anubis as well as mine bond became a genuine one, and the next day the term was over, which was awesome news in itself.

I obviously aced the exams, at least I was confident that I had managed full marks, and it was the "I only got a 100 because that was the maximum points one could score" kind of full mark.

Oh, and as if to celebrate the arrival of the vacation, one of Mothra's Caterpie minions finally managed to evolve to Metapod after fulfilling the conditions I set.

I unquestionably did not chuckle at the "face" he made when he learned that he could only evolve to Butterfree after learning Iron Defense, raising it to beginner mastery, and reaching the (low) bronze stage. Yes, I was full of compassion for him and encouraged him that's what happened.

Well, seeing the fire that lit up in Parvati's eyes when one of Mothra's Caterpie evolved, I was sure that one or two of her Weedle would follow suit pretty soon.

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