CH8 (372), Introduction Phase (2)

Next up were the ones that had yet to make it to bronze, I guess. Gible had come closer to the (high) iron stage, but he was still a few months away from reaching that point, and the Eevee Squad was in the same position as well.

Not only them, but Buneary was also close to reaching the (high) iron stage. In fact, she was the closest out of them, needing only two more parameters to raise to C, which according to my estimates should happen in two or three months.

Then there was Togepi, who had made it to the (mid) iron stage last month. Despite her being the "weakest" in her trio, consisting of Gible, Tyrogue, and her, the other two followed her lead most of the time. Probably because she was the most outgoing and active out of them.

Speaking of Tyrogue, he was the one in the current iron batch that was the closest to the bronze stage. Even if that was still a bit away even for him. Tyrogue had managed to raise the last two of his parameters to A as well during the last five months. Not only that, thanks to his talent, I was hopeful that he would simultaneously raise 4 of his parameters to S soon enough.

I had managed to sum up the exercise for Tyrogue in two routines. One targeted all his physical parameters and physical move masteries, hence the four that were close to reaching the S-value, and the second routine targeted his energy parameters as well as energy-based move masteries. Since he had a distinct deficit of those for the moment, he mostly focused on his fighting energy manipulation during those routines.

Moving on, I had a talk with them regarding their names, and we collectively agreed that we would wait for any naming until they reached the bronze stage. For those that were already at the bronze stage such as Pancham, the goal was simply raised to the silver stage.

Anyway, that left us with the youngest group of the iron batch. Eggy/Salandit and Bruce/Zubat had both grown out of the stageless phase, reaching the (low) iron stage a few days ago.

Compared to Eggy's 2 years, he had his second birthday 3 months ago, Bruce was just a bit over half a year old, but the huge difference in potential and partly in their racial value resulted in Eggy being only two days faster in reaching the (low) iron stage than Bruce.

Still, I had always known that Eggy would grow slowly, so there was not much else I could do other than support him to the best of my abilities. Well, that and making sure that the frustration of everyone else growing much faster than him, did not cause any mental/psychological harm.

The last time I checked his status had been just yesterday, and it looked better compared to one year ago. It was proof that we could slowly and steadily overcome his bad start, as long as we kept going.

'Name: None (Eggy)

Species: Salandit

Gender: Male

Age: 2+ Years

-

Type: Poison, Fire

Potential: Light Yellow (0.01%) -> (47.58%)

(Genetic) Modifiers: None

Abilities: Oblivious

Talents: None

Affinities: Poison, Fire

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Stageless (69%) -> Iron-Stage (low)

Vitality: H

Strength: H

Endurance: H

Agility: F

Energy Capacity: G

Energy Density: H

----

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, Happy

----

Masteries:

Poison Energy Manipulation (Novice) -> (Beginner)

Fire Energy Manipulation (Initial) -> (Novice)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Sweet Scent (new)

-

Beginner:

Scratch, Ember (+), Smog (+), Dragon Rage (new, +)

-

Proficient:

Poison Gas (+)

-

Advanced:

N/A

-

Mastered:

N/A'

One year of effort as well as supplements on my part allowed me to raise Eggy's potential by nearly 50% in a single year, and I could have surpassed that if not for the fact that I had to limit myself to lower-class material due to the potency issue. I mean, since Eggy was pretty weak most materials above F-Class would cause more harm than good.

Well, the main reason why the growth in potential was so high, was that his starting potential was so low. Nonetheless, it worked in my favor, and I was confident that I could raise his potential to yellow in another year.

Now, this was maybe looking too far into the future, but I was hoping that I could bring his potential close enough to deep yellow, that by the time he broke through to bronze the bonus would bring his potential straight to light green. Still, as I said, we were talking about a few years into the future, and who knew what would happen until then?

Anyway, there was not much to say regarding his parameters since he had unlocked that section just a few days ago, and training his type resistance was a no-go for now as well.

It was his mastered and move column that had seen some positive change in the last year, but even that was not a grand one. Eggy managed to learn two new moves and raise the mastery of his older ones. Dragon Rage was a welcome addition since it was a pretty good move that would be useful when he began fighting against wild Pokemon, which was why I had him raise it to beginner mastery after he learned it,

That was also the reason I had him focus on Poison Gas until he was proficient with it instead of focusing on Ember. Being able to poison his opponent was just more useful for Eggy at the moment than Ember has been, but now that those two points had been reached, I had him work on Ember once more because causing burns on top of poison would be a nice bonus.

Well, compared to Eggy's status, Bruce's status screen looked a bit more impressive especially considering his age.

'Name: None

Species: Zubat

Gender: Male

Age: 21+ Months

-

Type: Poison, Flying

Potential: Blue (58.91%) -> (62.42%)

(Genetic) Modifiers: Deviant Gene

Abilities: Inner Focus, Huge Power

Talents: None

Affinities: Poison, Flying

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Stageless (0%) -> Iron Stage (low)

Vitality: G

Strength: D

Endurance: G

Agility: G

Energy Capacity: H

Energy Density: G

----

Immunity:

None

-

Resistance:

Grass (Major), Fighting (Major), Bug (Major), Poison (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Electric (Minor), Ice (Minor), Psychic (Minor), Ground (Minor/if hit), Rock (Minor)

-

Standardized:

None

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Poison Energy Manipulation (Initial)

Flying Energy Manipulation (Initial) -> (Beginner)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Astonish (new), Mean Look (new), Hypnosis (new), Bite (new), Poison Fang (new), Swift (new), Leech Life (new)

-

Beginner:

Absorb (+), Supersonic (+), Gust (+), Wing Attack (new, +),

-

Proficient:

N/A

-

Advanced:

N/A

-

Mastered:

N/A'

The increase in potential was much smaller, but that was because his potential was much higher, on top of having the same limitation as Eggy regarding the supplements I could use.

Our bond had obviously been upgraded to a genuine one by now. However, unlike with Eggy, there was something to note in his parameter section despite him only having unlocked it a few days ago. The parameters of a regular Zubat would have been H across the whole board, and he would have been the same if not for the bonus from the deviant gene and Huge Power.

While the increase of the other parameters was not that excessive, the combination of those two resulted in quite an incredible change in his strength, going from H straight to D.

Looking at his mastery section was a bit sad, especially his poison mastery. Zubat did not have that many poison moves in their natural move pool, especially not in the lower stages. In fact, his only poison move was Poison Fang, and that was something that Moka/Crobat focused on teaching Bruce after he learned Bite.

Actually, she was responsible for his "expansive" move pool since she was tutoring him semi-regularly since she had taken him under her wings. The number of new moves he learned and his young age was also the reason none of his moves had reached proficiency.

That was pretty much it on Bruce and the whole iron batch, which left me with one of the two biggest events that had happened in the last five months, Charmander.

The Charmander egg had hatched three months ago and I obviously was present for the whole thing. I also brought Osiris/Marowak into the nesting ground, but he remained out of sight until Charmander got to see me since I had to be the first individual that Charmander had to see for him to properly imprint on me.

Only after that had happened did I allow him to step up and take a look at the freshly hatched baby. A most particular thing besides the optimization process that started as soon as he hatched, was that a genuine bond was established between us as soon as I fed him his food under the watchful eyes of Osiris.

That was something that had not happened with the other eggs, and I was assuming that it happened because I regularly saturated his egg in my aura and psionic energy, on top of the thing Utopia did in the nesting ground. That, or maybe Charmander just knew what was the best for him.

Regardless of that, it meant that I could have checked Charmander's status screen even without capturing him, but I did that regardless. Still, I could vividly remember his status screen after I checked it since it was quite a sight to see.

'Name: None

Species: Charmander

Gender: Male

Age: 0 Day

-

Type: Fire

Potential: Purple (40.6%)

(Genetic) Modifiers: Ability Variation

Abilities: Blaze, Tough Claws

Talents: Solar Boost+

Affinities: Fire, Dragon (weak)

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Stageless (0%)

----

Condition: Healthy, Asleep

----

Masteries:

Fire Energy Manipulation (Initial)

Dragon Energy Manipulation (Initial)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Growl, Scratch, Dragon Dance*

-

Beginner:

N/A

-

Proficient:

N/A

-

Advanced:

N/A

-

Mastered:

N/A'

The bonus from Utopia's optimization raised his potential straight to purple, and since it was above 40%, it meant that he would reach light aurora potential as soon as he broke through to the bronze stage if he completed his limit-breaking.

Also, while the process did not unlock or change Charmander's modifiers or abilities, it did improve his talent to Solar Boost+, which raised its standard boost from 10% to 15%, and the boost under Sunny Day rose from 15% to 20%.

Additionally, the optimization also improved his dragon affinity from budding to weak, which was nice and probably the reason Charmander already had a dragon energy manipulation mastery. Granted it was only an initial one, but that was a given since he was newly hatched, so the same was true for his fire energy manipulation.

Charmander's move section also had a surprise since he had an egg move, and it was a really useful one. Dragon Dance was, in my opinion, the best dragon-type move he could have inherited. It would boost him, and training the move would help his dragon energy manipulation since it involved his whole body.

Dragon Dance being his egg move along with his weak dragon affinity was most likely also the reason he had his dragon energy manipulation mastery from the get-go. At least I was sure that the move increased the chances, even if the affinity was the main driving factor.

In my opinion, the process of mastering this move would make it easier for him to learn the other dragon moves. Anyway, dragon moves side, I had made sure to add a few mild dragon-type materials into his food to help along his dragon affinity since I wanted to turn it into a full-fledged one as fast as possible.

However, I could only use the lowest class ones to avoid overburdening Charmander, so it still would take some time for that to happen. Also of note was his progress during the 3 months since his hatching. His progress toward maturity had increased by 11%, which meant that if he kept that pace, he would grow out of the stageless phase and reach the (low) iron stage in 27 to 28 months.

That might have been a bit longer than it took Bruce, but considering that the growth/maturity rate of Charmander's species was quite a bit slower than that of Zubat, this was quite good. Charmander's high potential and my care reduced the usual 1.5-2 years considerably. At least if the current speed stayed constant.

Oh, and Osiris had taken quite the shine on Charmander, spending some time with him every day. Charmander had also taken a liking to Osiris thanks to the positive attention the other gave him, so my plan was working perfectly for now.

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

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