CH67 (589), Finance (1)

Arcday morning I made my way to "Persian Finance", the finance bureau I had been assigned to for my finance phase. As soon as I showed up at the reception, I was recognized, and the receptionist requested me to wait a bit. Less than a minute later I noticed a man in a business suit approaching me with purposeful and confident steps.

The moment he stopped in front of me he gave me a friendly as well as confident smile before welcoming me to "Persian Finance" and introducing himself as Francis. He actually began to give me a brief rundown on the history of the finance bureau, which I politely listened to before asking Francis the truly important things, such as my working hours and accommodations.

Francis straight up told me that I was expected to organize my housing myself, but he offered to help me organize something for me as long as I told him my acceptable price range. I thanked him for the offer but declined it since I was planning to stay inside Utopia during this phase as well.

He acknowledged that, before telling me that I had a 5-day work week and that I was expected to show up at 7 a.m. each morning. I would be allowed to leave at 3:30 p.m., with a daily break allowance of 30 minutes. Moreover, it seemed that the bureau had a dress code and that I as well was expected to show up to work fully decked out in a suit with a pair of fitting shoes.

After mentioning that point, Francis asked me if I had a suit ensemble. In case I didn't, the bureau was ready to loan me one. I declined the generous offer since I had more than a suit ensemble. When Francis heard that, he suggested me to either go with a black, grey, or dark blue set along with black shoes.

Anyway, once the greeting and formalities were out of the way he called someone over, whom he introduced as a senior intern. Francis was rather frank and told me that full-fledged employees were busy earning money, so Maria would be responsible for covering the alliance stipulated points.

Maria would be the one who would make sure that I knew how to handle my finances by the time my two months at the bureau were up. Well, we, the aspiring trainers, were not expected to become finance experts within these two months, but we were expected to be able to handle all, or rather most, available payment methods.

Along with that, we had to know how to use our account, the going rate of the common items and materials as well as where to look them up. There were quite a few other minor points, but to sum it up, we were expected to know, or at least have an idea how to handle our finances throughout our journey. While that was great for others, it was not so great for me since I pretty much already knew all these things.

Anyway, after saying all that, Francis wished me all the best and left. Maria then led me to an empty office, pulled out her laptop, and opened a file on it. She showed me a plan detailing everything I would have to work through during each workday for the next two months. She then printed the portion for today and after looking through it I directly told her that I already knew everything listed there.

Maria did not seem surprised by that but shrugged her shoulders, and said that I could not leave the bureau before 3:30 p.m. even if that was the case. However, she did declare that I could do whatever I wanted with the rest of my time until 3:30 p.m. as long as I managed to finish my daily quota. Granted I was still not allowed to leave the finance bureau, but I would be able to use that time to train myself or do other technical stuff.

I was quite happy with this arrangement. I thanked Maria and told her to pass on my gratitude to Francis as well as the other seniors. Following that I focused on going through the list, and while some points required Maria's cooperation/verification, I still managed to finish everything before 12, leaving me free to do whatever I wanted for the next 3.5 hours.

Maria left at that point and I decided to focus on mediating on my aura as well as psionic energy. I still wanted to reach Tier 3 First-Class in both at some point so being able to focus on that for an extra 3 to 4 hours every day for the next two months would be equal to my usual training/meditation of 10 to 12 months.

At point 3:30 p.m. I stopped my meditation and stepped out of the room. I headed for the reception where I "checked out" before leaving the building. I briefly considered heading to a nearby KFP to celebrate a surprisingly productive first day but decided against it and found a secluded place instead to go inside Utopia.

Everyone was happy when they heard that I would be able to spend much more time with them for the next while, and they showed their enthusiasm during the pre-dinner workout/training session. Also, since it had been some time, I promised them that come Dialday, I would start a massage/grooming session.

They were all rather excited about that throughout the week, and they were all waiting for me to show up when I entered Utopia on Dialday. I could not help but laugh a bit seeing their overeagerness, and directly started working on batch 1. Batch 2 got their turn on Kyoday, and Batch 3, which consisted of the water types, got their turn on Grouday, though I made sure that we still did our weekly Grouday check-up.

A piece of good news we/I got that day was that Squirtle's second round of limit breaking was complete, so he was only a final round away from breaking through to the bronze stage. Still, all good things had to come to an end. In my case, Arcday came around, starting another week at the finance bureau. Well, at least I was only wasting 3-4 hours each day, so that was good.

I decided to spice things up a bit this week, or rather the weekend, so I told everyone that we would be "playing" tower defense this weekend. The news was received with enthusiasm as well as excitement, and everyone was all fired up. They kept up the topic throughout the week, betting amongst themselves who would have the best time.

Most bets were on Mothra/Butterfree, not only because she was the strongest, but also because being a sometimes giant, sometimes tiny flying Butterfree with an arsenal of moves was quite advantageous for the game. Still, we would have to wait for the result since I decided to go from weakest to strongest group, so the dark gold stage Pokemon would have to wait until the others were done.

It ended up taking Dialday and Kyoday to go through the iron, bronze, as well as silver stage Pokemon. By the end of Grouday, we failed to go through everyone in the gold group, forcing the rest to wait for the next Dialday. Following them, the dark gold group got their turn on Kyoday and Grouday, finally tying up the castle defense "game".

As the majority had expected, Mothra managed to both hold out the longest, as well as storm the castle at the fastest speed. On average, it was shown that offense-wise the flyers and teleporters had the biggest advantage while "storming" the castle, followed by those specializing in large-scale moves. Direct/frontal fighters had it the hardest, and that was actually true for the defense of the castle as well, though here the large-scale specialists had the biggest advantage.

Anyway, at this point, I was starting my fourth week at the bureau, and the final one for this month. I had not forgotten that I had promised Rose that I would watch her contest on Kyoday. I honestly thought that her contest would be my highlight of the week, but that changed when Nyx/Umbreon excitedly bounded over to me on Palkiday after I returned from work.

It seemed that she had felt something after her training, and a quick check confirmed that she had completed her limit-breaking. I first shared the good news with her and her hanger-on, the Eevee Squad, before announcing her upcoming breakthrough over UtopiaFM. We teleported over to Nyx's place, and the others in our family quickly arrived as well, leaving us to wait for Nyx's friends, along with those among the Utopians interested in witnessing the event.

When the last batch of spectators was about to arrive, I told everyone to form the circle while Fortuna and I went up to Nyx to wish her good luck. Once we rejoined the others, Nyx initiated her breakthrough, and not long after the start she got covered in light. When the light settled and her breakthrough was over, we got to see Nyx in all her glory.

The breakthrough had triggered a change, and it was a pretty obvious one since the difference between before and after was clear as day. The yellow rings on her body had turned bright blue, while her eyes had changed from red to yellow. Yes, it appeared that Nyx had unlocked the Shiny gene.

The Eevee Squad rushed ahead of me to congratulate their big sis, and I joined them, followed by the others. During that hubbub, I went ahead and checked her new/updated status sheet.

'Name: Nyx

Species: Umbreon

Gender: Female

Age: 12+ years

-

Type: Dark

Potential: Deep Purple (69.03%)

{Deep Purple (17.46%) -> (19.03%) -> Purple (89.03%) -> Deep Purple (69.03%)}

(Genetic) Modifiers: Shiny*'

I got the confirmation that, yes, Nyx had unlocked the Shiny gene, which raised her RV/BS slightly above the 600 mark, at 603. It was a good milestone, even if it did not help her start the (high) dark gold stage instead of the (mid) one. I could feel the undulations she was releasing so I knew that to be true, and her parameter section ended up proving it on paper.

'Bond: Mikail (deep)*

Quirk: Lively, Curious

----

Parameters:

Stage: Dark Gold Stage (mid)*

Vitality: C

Strength: E

Endurance: B

Agility: E

Energy Capacity: E

Energy Density: B'

Honestly, her parameter spreadsheet looked a bit unbalanced with those Es and Bs. One thing was certain, it would take her some time to advance to the (high) dark gold stage, but that was okay since we were already so far ahead of the curve that none of us minded things like that. Besides, I was estimating that she would reach the point before the start of my journey.

I resumed looking through the rest of her status sheet but saw no further changes caused by her breakthrough, though I could not help but chuckle when my eyes landed on Karen.

'Techniques:

-

Novice:

Giga Impact (new)

-

Beginner:

Karen (C, new)

-

Proficient:

Double Edge (+), Body Slam (+), Hyper Beam (new), Throat Chop (new), Rest (new), Payback (new)

-

Advanced:

Fake Baby-Doll Tears (C, +), Charm (+), Mimic (+), Psychic (+), Thunder Wave (+)

-

Mastered:

Dark Pulse (+), Feint Attack (+)

-

Combo/Custom:

Fake Baby-Doll Tears (Advanced), Karen (Beginner) {Mean Look, Confuse Ray, Taunt, Screech}'

Honestly, the move had started as a combination of Mean Look and Confuse Ray. It was a pretty solid combo, one "froze" the Pokemon, while the other confused it. From there Nxy decided to add Taunt into the mix, and after she managed to work it in, she actually went ahead and mixed Screech in, at which point I officially dubbed the combination Karen since it just fit perfectly.

So far this was the first combination any of my Pokmeon knew that consisted of four separate moves, and it did not come without a drawback, which was its mastery. Each time another move got added into the mix the mastery regressed to novice mastery, which was why it was currently at beginner mastery.

Thankfully we were/Nyx was done adding moves to the combo, so she could now focus on raising its mastery since as it was right now, it was not really combat viable due to its long "cast" time. Anyway, once I was done checking her status sheet, I declared the start of Nyx's celebration and began to pull out the party stuff.

---------------------

---------------------

This part is purely to display both Nyx's status screen in one piece and does not count toward the word count.

'Name: Nyx

Species: Umbreon

Gender: Female

Age: 12+ years

-

Type: Dark

Potential: Deep Purple (69.03%)

(Genetic) Modifiers: Shiny

Abilities: Synchronize, Inner Focus

Talents: Stealthy

Affinities: Normal, Dark

-

Bond: Mikail (deep)

Quirk: Lively, Curious

----

Parameters:

Stage: Dark Gold Stage (mid)

Vitality: C

Strength: E

Endurance: B

Agility: E

Energy Capacity: E

Energy Density: B

----

Immunity:

Psychic

-

Resistance:

Ghost (Minor), Dark (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Bug (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Fighting, Bug (in progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Delighted, Cheerful, Very Pleased

----

Masteries:

Neutral Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

Dark Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Covet, Guard Swap, Last Resort, Giga Impact

-

Beginner:

Growl, Tackle, Tail Whip, Helping Hand, Karen (C)

-

Proficient:

Baby-Doll Eyes, Baton Pass, Sand Attack, Take Down, Refresh, Snarl, Assurance, Pursuit, Moonlight, Mean Look, Calm Mind, Confuse Ray, Screech, Foul Play, Taunt, Fake Tears, Double Edge, Body Slam, Hyper Beam, Throat Chop, Rest, Payback

-

Advanced:

Quick Attack, Swift, Shadow Ball, Iron Tail, Endure, Focus Energy, Dig, Bite, Stored Power, Protect, Crunch, Fake Baby-Doll Tears (C), Charm, Mimic, Psychic, Thunder Wave

-

Mastered:

Copycat, Work Up, Dark Pulse, Feint Attack

-

Combo/Custom:

Fake Baby-Doll Tears (Advanced), Karen (Beginner)

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