CH69 (591), Finance (3)

My first thought was that he had become a "Shiny" because Igneel/Charizard turned black, but I quickly noticed that was not the case. No, it appeared that Igneel turned into a full-fledged dragon. The reason I came to that conclusion was the similarities he showed to the Mega X form, which had a black skin tone as well.

However, unlike the Shiny Charizard which still sported a cream-tone belly, Igneel had a sky-blue undertone/belly as well as deep blue wing membranes, though that was not the difference that struck me first, no it was his blue fire. More specifically it was his tail flame that was now burning in a sky blue. Yet, unlike Mega Charizard, Igneel's back had no spikes, his wing membranes remained whole, and his eyes retained their blue coloring.

I was naturally not the only one who saw the changes Igneel had undergone, and there were excited cries as well as exclamations all around me. Ignoring them for now, I made my way over to Igneel, with Osiris/Skellibra following at my side.

When we made it to Igneel's side, Osiris let me go first, and I hugged Igneel while congratulating him on reaching the silver stage as well as the change he had unlocked, though we had yet to confirm what exactly the change constituted even if I had a pretty good idea what happened. Osiris quickly followed suit, after which the two urged me to take a look at Igneel's status sheet since they wanted to know the details of his change.

The others, who were coming over as well, were just as curious, and after they all congratulated Igneel, everyone was staring at me in anticipation, while discussing the possibilities among themselves. I was just as curious, so I did not make them wait and directly began checking Igneel's status. Due to my curiosity, my eyes directly focused on his type section first, and there I saw the confirmation of my guess.

'Name: Igneel

Species: Charizard

Gender: Male

Age: 3+ years

-

Type: Fire, Dragon*

Igneel's flying typing had been replaced by the dragon typing. I had suspected as much due to the similarities to his "Xvolution". Anyway, I quickly shared his new typing with Igneel and the others before moving on to the next section while they were celebrating his change into a dragon, though they quickly turned their focus back to me since they wanted more details.

'Potential: Aurora (7.06%)*

{Light Aurora (74.12%) -> (34.12%) -> Aurora (7.06%)}'

Looking at his new potential, I noticed a discrepancy in the potential loss he "suffered". According to my calculations, Igneel's type/dragon variation cost him 40% instead of 30%, which was not consistent with what the aura variants, namely Freyja/Lopunny and Kimura/Hitmonform, had to pay for their variation.

After pondering on the possible reason for that difference, I came up with three possible reasons. The first one was the chance that the aura variation cost less, while the second one was that the dragon variation cost more, though it was the third possibility I was the most partial to.

The two cases of aura variation happened to Pokemon/species that had only undergone a single evolution, while Charizard had undergone two. Hence, it was not unthinkable that the potential cost to affect his being on a level that a variation usually did was higher than for the species with only a single evolution.

Nonetheless, I kept his new potential to myself for now and focused on the part everyone was waiting for. His modifier section was next, and it was where I saw the cause of the change being displayed.

'(Genetic) Modifiers: Ability Variation, Dragon Variant*'

I lost no time and looked at the modifier's description. I was mainly curious if his variation had caused a change in his racial value spreadsheet. Yet, it came as no surprise that the total racial value did not change and remained at 534. Unlike the aura variant, the dragon variant did not count as a superior version of the species, which made sense since aura was basically a "superior" type of energy while the dragon type wasn't.

Nonetheless, while the total racial value did not change, the distribution of that value certainly did. Compared to the regular Charizard's base stat distribution, the dragon Charizard's distribution was more balanced, which admittedly would not have been a good thing in the games, but was definitely good in real life, at least as far as I was concerned.

Igneel's special attack/energy capacity went down by 5, leaving him with 104 RV, while his speed decreased by 10, leaving him with 90 RV in that parameter. Those 15 points were then distributed to his attack/strength as well as defense/endurance values, raising his endurance to 85 and strength to 92. It was not the biggest change, but it was one that balanced the value distribution a bit more. The only drawback I saw was that we would have to train his speed/agility a bit more, but that was a price I was willing to accept.

Anyway, I went ahead and shared the news with the others, and everyone was happy for Igneel. Not only did he become a dragon like his big brother, but he still managed to attain aurora potential while doing so. I let them discuss the differences among themselves and resumed looking through the rest of Igneel's status sheet. I saw that the next few sections remained unaffected by his breakthrough and his variation, right up until the parameter section.

'Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (mid)*

Vitality: D

Strength: D

Endurance: D

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: C

Energy Density: D

The substage was no surprise, and I had to admit somewhat reluctantly that the same was true for his individual starting parameters. While the distribution of his racial values was more balanced, this change seemed to have no impact on his starting parameters since I saw no real difference as far as his current parameter sheet was concerned, though the difference would definitely show in the training/progress speed, at least in the long term.

Unlike his parameters, his type relation section had undergone a significant change due to his variation. The replacement of Igneel's flying typing with the dragon one had affected both his weakness as well as resistance subsections.

'Resistance:

Grass (Major), Fire (Major)* {increased}, Electric (Minor)* {new}, Bug (Minor)* {reduced}, Steel (Minor) {Fairy (Minor), Fighting (Minor) gone}'

Starting with his resistances, Igneel had lost two of them. The fighting type disappeared due to the flying type being replaced, while the fairy type got lost due to his new dragon typing. In fact, if not for his fire typing, it would have become a weakness instead.

On the flip side, Igneel gained a minor resistance toward electric energy, and his resistance to fire increased to major, though I had to mention that his resistance to bug-type energy fell to minor due to the loss of the flying type. Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, the changes were fewer.

Weaknesses:

Rock (Minor)* {reduced}, Ground (Minor/if hit), Dragon (Minor)* {new}{Water (Minor) gone}'

Thanks to his new dragon typing Igneel lost his minor water weakness, which was good news. However, he gained a minor dragon one in return, so that balanced itself out. On the bright side, his major rock weakness turned into a minor one, and the reduction of any major weakness was a welcome occasion since it significantly reduced any resistance training we would have had to do to standardize the weakness. Considering how long some of these were taking even for "just" the minor ones, we were talking about a lot of time.

Anyway, I went ahead and explained all the changes to Igneel. Due to the amount, it took him a bit to get all of it, but he seems pretty happy with the situation, especially the rock one and I could not blame him. Now that he had reached the silver stage he would start his resistance training, so it was only normal that he was happy about the loss of a major weakness.

Regardless, with his type relations out of the way that only left his masteries and moves. Not much has changed in the first one, though I had to say I really wanted to see a uniform picture instead of the current one.

That was also the reason we would not be changing our current move-related training plans even if Igneel had become an "official" dragon. He would continue to raise his flying-type moves, specifically Gust, Air Cutter, and Air Slash until proficiency before focusing on Fire Spin.

'Masteries:

Fire Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

Dragon Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

Flying Energy Manipulation (Beginner)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Tailwind (new)

-

Beginner:

Gust (new), Air Cutter (new), Inferno (new), Air Slash (new), Flare Blitz (new)

-

Proficient:

Wing Attack (++)'

Once I had gone through the whole status, I declared the start of Igneel's celebration while pulling out everything we needed for the party. Party aside, the next two days were spent with my Pokemon inside Utopia as well. Unsurprisingly, everyone was fully motivated and wanted to be the next one to complete their training to break through.

Unfortunately, despite everyone's enthusiasm, I came across no completed parameter stat sheets during my regular checkup on Grouday. Not that I thought that a result had to come about this quickly, but it would have been nice. Nonetheless, that didn't happen, which was fine as well. We did not dwell on it any further and played labyrinth instead.

Labyrinth required me to make use of my admin control over Utopia to manipulate the ground inside a certain area to create a labyrinth according to my imagination. I made sure that the labyrinth was decently sized, and that there were "chests" spread around/hidden within the labyrinth that contained "treasures" which was pretty much a whole bunch of tasty snacks.

Obviously, every decent labyrinth required adversaries, and I drew the "mob monsters" from the regular Utopians. "Elite Monsters" were drawn from them as well, with "Boss" Houndoom and "Boss" Primeape often taking the role. As for the "Boss Monster", this time around Mothra/Butterfree "volunteered" for the role, or more like insisted.

Naturally, Optimus/Butterfree joined her as well, though he only counted as a "Super Elite Monster". The "Mini-Boss" roles were left to Toedscruel and his wife Vileplume. Honestly, it was really unfortunate for everyone else that Mothra was the final boss cause it meant that the hero party ended up failing to conquer the labyrinth.

They might have been able to win if the Slytherin Squad, as well as Manami/Lapras, had participated, but since the dungeon was an underground one his time around, they had chosen to forgo the chance to participate and were watching the adventure party with me in real life through the projection I projected into the sky.

We were snacking as well as chatting while watching the show, and I knew that we were not the only ones watching the show. Most Utopians were watching as well and it was no surprise since it was quite entertaining to follow the quest to slay the "Butterqueen".

We watched as they explored the map, allowing the younger/weaker ones to deal with the mobs as well as some of the elites. They shared any chests/snacks they came across, and after roughly four hours of questing, thanks to yours truly moving around some of the walls in real life, they made it to the "Hazard Pair" who was guarding the door to the Butterqueen's "throne room".

Toedscruel and Vileplume managed to "wipe out" the adventurers below the dark gold stage as well as a third of the dark gold ones, who mostly fell due to their efforts in shielding the weaker ones. Regardless, the six remaining heroes merely managed to recuperate their breath for a scant few minutes before the entrance to the throne room mysteriously opened, prompting them to enter.

The hero party came across the Butterqueen and after a quick exchange of words, they began their battle. The Butterqueen proved her might by resisting the onslaught of 6 heroes on her own, which was possible because she used her shrinking powers to dodge or sneak up on/surprise her adversaries, but the heroes gave their all, and at the cost of two of their members they managed to bring the queen to her knees.

At least that was before she got her second wind and changed into a giant form, proving exactly why she was the final boss. The Butterqueen in her giant/final form managed to force the hero party into an even more desperate struggle, and at the end when the battle was over, only a single hero was left standing.

Actually, there were initially three of them that still stood after the Butterqueen fell, but they fell over shortly after their victory as well due to exhaustion, which I counted as them "dying", leaving Horus/Xatu the leader of the hero party, who could be seen panting heavily while surveying the throne room, as the sole "survivor". Horus looked at the bodies of his fellow heroes strewn around the floor along with the giant Butterqueen, before slowly trudging over to the "throne" and sitting down, which signaled the completion of the dungeon.

Seeing how the "quest" was over, I teleported everyone out of the labyrinth and brought them to our side. I congratulated the heroes on "winning", before asking them if they had fun, which made everyone share their experience. I felt quite happy, watching them talk so animatedly about the fun they had.

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

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

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

'Name: Igneel

Species: Charizard

Gender: Male

Age: 3+ years

-

Type: Fire, Dragon

Potential: Aurora (7.06%)

(Genetic) Modifiers: Ability Variation, Dragon Variant

Abilities: Blaze, Tough Claws, Drought

Talents: Solar Boost+

Affinities: Fire, Flying, Dragon

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (mid)

Vitality: D

Strength: D

Endurance: D

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: C

Energy Density: D

----

Immunity:

N/A

-

Resistance:

Grass (Major), Fire (Major), Electric (Minor), Bug (Minor), Steel (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Rock (Minor), Ground (Minor/if hit), Dragon (Minor)

-

Standardized:

N/A

----

Condition: Healthy, Delighted, Excited

----

Masteries:

Fire Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

Dragon Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

Flying Energy Manipulation (Beginner)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Protect, Tailwind

-

Beginner:

Growl, Smokescreen, Scary Face, Endure, Thunder Punch, Thunder Fang, Gust, Air Cutter, Inferno, Air Slash, Flare Blitz

-

Proficient:

Ember, Scratch, Dragonbreath, Fire Fang, Fury Swipes, Metal Claw, Dragon Rage, Dragon Claw, Fire Spin, Fire Punch, Flame Burst, Iron Tail, Wing Attack

-

Advanced:

Dragon Dance, Flamethrower

-

Mastered:

N/A

-

Combo moves/Custom moves:

N/A'

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