The Weedle Who Lived.

The Weedle, catching sight of the apparition-like ball of gas, scurried up the closest tree, but Jared remained unperturbed by the creature's attempted escape.

After receiving the job several hours ago, Jared had returned to his humble abode and conducted some experiments with Gastly, before packing a water skin that he had recently purchased with his meagre funds. Once he was satisfied with his preparations, he had loaded up his backpack and ventured into the forest.

Every individual, whether human or Pokemon, possessed what was known as elemental veins or elemental roots, as well as an elemental core. Only Pokemon had the ability to generate elemental energy, as a human's core remained inactive. However, when a Pokemon formed a mystical bond with their trainer, their elemental cores would link, becoming one.

Even though a larger Pokemon might have superior physical strength due to its bulk and possess greater stores of elemental energy, it was still restricted by its elemental veins, which acted as a valve. Even if the valve was connected to an enormous ocean of water, it wouldn't increase the volume of water that the valve could release. Therefore, while a smaller Pokemon might have a smaller reservoir, it didn't necessarily mean that it couldn't produce the same amount of energy or overcome larger opponents.

This is where trainers came in. Although they couldn't widen their pokemons veins, they acted as an additional tap, allowing the pokemon to access more of their own energy.

By enabling their pokemons energy to flow through their own elemental veins, trainers not only boosted their pokemons power and defence but also made their own bodies stronger. With enough elemental energy flowing inside them, a talented trainer could supposedly even withstand otherwise lethal attack.

Through testing, Jared called upon Gastly to perform a move while focusing on the ghost energy in its body. It was during this exercise that he first felt the presence of his own elemental core. Unfortunately, he was disappointed to find that the veins extending from his core were as short and stubby as carrot roots. This realization left him feeling disheartened, knowing that the assistance he could offer Gastly was minimal, resulting in a mere three percent increase and an abysmally low one and a half percent elemental regeneration rate.

However, he was still determined. He knew that talent wasn't everything, and he had read stories of untalented trainers who still managed to produce elite level pokemon by building up their elemental quality via absorbing battle energy, increasing both the lifespan and quality of both the pokemon and the trainer. Even though these elite-level pokemon might be weaker than others due to their paltry amplification from their trainer, they could still defeat strong amateurs. Jared was betting on this strategy.

"Get closer to it, Gastly," Jared commanded, "Let the Weedle attack you."

Gastly's form hazily floated closer, as he observed the fleeing creature. "Why?" it asked with some scepticism.

"Because we need to test your defences. There's very little information on what can harm a Gastly, and I need to test this out now, so that it doesn't surprise us later."

With some reluctance, Gastly positioned itself in front of the bug's retreat, cutting off it's escape. Meanwhile the weedles spindly legs worked frantically as it scurried in a different direction. Gastly commented, 'It's not attacking.'

"Then use lick to knock it down," Jared replied, his body tingling with the flow of elemental energy, after invoking the command.

Weedle was having the worst day of its life. First, a bipedal monster had tried to sneak up on him, and now a nightmarish creature had appeared out of thin air, clearly up to no good. And even when he attempted to flee, the monstrous shadow continued to pursue him relentlessly!

Just as Gastly's extended tongue was about to make contact with the terrified bug, Weedle made a daring leap from the tree onto the soft soil, before frantically crawling towards a large stretch of red and white leafed bushes not ten feet away. "Maybe we should just leave it alone," Gastly suggested, retracting its long tongue.

"Stop second-guessing me and lick the damn thing before it gets away," Jared ordered.

"Fine," Gastly acquiesced.

As the ghostly pokemon floated down towards the frantic insect, it was about wrap the bug with his long tongue, when the weedle suddenly turned and retaliated. The small pokemon delivered a swift strike to the tip of Gastly's tongue with the stinger on top of its head.

Jared noticed the sizzling purple energy on Gastly's tongue and inquired, "Does it hurt?"

Gastly responded, holding his tongue out like a child who had just tasted something spicy, "My tongue feels like it's burning."

"Try dispersing and then reforming. Let's see if the energy still affects you," Jared said while walking over to inspect something.

Gastly began to disperse fully in the air as Jared approached, leaving behind a few specks of purple that briefly sizzled the mossy forest floor before dissipating.

Once Gastly reformed, Jared asked, "Are you still affected by it?"

In response, Gastly stuck out his tongue to show that he was as good as new, "Nope, see? But I feel a little smaller. I think."

Jared nodded, observing that no visible wound was left behind. He conjectured that, given Gastly's lack of internal organs or even a fixed shape, the pokemon couldn't suffer permanent damage because any lost mass would regenerate over time. However, with a fixed mass, any mass lost would make Gastly proportionally smaller.

The Weedle, now nowhere to be seen, having since escaped into the thick strip of shrubbery. But whether or not the unfortunate bug would ever recover from this traumatic event would remain a mystery.

Jared's patience was wearing thin. "Alright, enough fooling around. Get above me and start searching for Weepinbells. I want to finish this job quickly because we still need to test our battle energy."

Gastly let out a sigh before complying with Jared's command, dispersing his body completely as he floated up into the tree canopy.

As he moved deeper into the forest, while avoiding the Weedles he spotted on the way, he couldn't help but notice patches of mushrooms popping up around him. Then he heard Gastlys voice in his mind, "There's a big strange bird up ahead of you. What do I do?"

Jared furrowed his brow. "A bird? What does it look like?"

"It's a black bird with a bushy tail, it looks like... like its wearing a hat?" Gastly replied unsurely.

Jared's mind immediately identified the Pokemon. "It's a Murkrow. Just ignore it."

"Why, you think I can't win?"

"Because it's a dark type, and aren't ghost types supposed to be weak against them?" Jared questioned.

"I don't know?" Gastly replied honestly.

"I'm beginning to think you don't even have one of my memories, don't you at least know what you are supposed to be weak against?"

Although Jared couldn't actually confirm whether dark types were strong against ghost types, from what he had read about the other elements, they perfectly resembled the strengths and weaknesses back on earth. Which meant the weaknesses and strengths of ghost types were very likely to accurate as well.

As Jared pressed on, the dense forest enveloped him, the ground softening, as he gently crunched the small mushrooms underfoot. He noticed the patches of mushrooms becoming increasingly dense, their white and brown hues remaining uniform. It appeared that in this place, only this particular species thrived. But as he passed by a few fallen trees, he suddenly caught sight of something different: patches of those mushrooms, but many times larger than the ones he had seen before, even growing up to a meter tall. There were less real trees around this area, allowing much more sunlight to stream in.

Scattered among the towering mushrooms were several small creatures, their bodies partially concealed by a clearing filled with three dozen mushroom caps, each standing at least one meter tall. Jared recognized them immediately as Paras: some were nibbling on the stems of the mushrooms, while others scurried about in piles covered in moss.

The Paras varied in size, some no bigger than a human hand, while others were as large as a cat. They looked mostly the same with their small beady eyes and orange colouring, but were easily distinguished by the amount or size of the mushrooms growing on their backs. Additionally, there were numerous small holes dug up all around. Jared had seen a few earlier, but now they seemed to be everywhere. Some of the holes looked old, with mushrooms sprouting out of them, while others appeared freshly dug.

As Jared observed the holes scattered around, he wasn't particularly concerned about the culprits who had dug those holes. His attention was then caught by a much larger Paras, with a single exceptionally large mushroom cap that almost rivalled the size of its body.

Jared wondered if this was the stage before the pokemon evolved, but he had never heard of Parasect inhabiting this forest. Perhaps after evolving, like the Beedrill, they migrated elsewhere? It seemed to make sense to him: If Beedrills and Parasect competed with the Weedles and Paras for the same niche, wouldn't they be stifling their offspring's growth?

As Jared observed the faint purple glow in the Paras's eyes and the small trail of mist emanating from its body, he grew uncertain about what the Pokemon was doing. To avoid being caught off guard, he concealed himself in the darkness of the trees. Suddenly, a screeching sound shattered the silence, and Jared turned to see the large Paras dragging a helpless brown slug-like Pokemon away. The poor creature wriggled like a fish out of water, while the other Paras looked on with hungry eyes, yet hesitant to compete with the much larger Paras for its prize.

Jared clicked his tongue, realization dawning upon him. Diglets fed on mushroom roots, but this one had stuck its head out, unwittingly becoming a victim to the stun spore of a territorial Paras defending their mushroom home.

As he squinted at the colony of mushroom-laden Pokemon, Jared wasn't optimistic about his chances of completing his task. Even a Weepinbell wouldn't dare to disturb an angry swarm of Paras. Although the vast majority of the mushrooms were of the same species, a few were red with yellow polka dots, identical to those on the backs of the Paras. These were the funguscarpp, the core ingredient of medicinal potions.

Jared contemplated having Gastly try to suck them out with his body, but Malo had insisted that pulling was useless. They needed to be cut, or else they would retreat deep underground. Jared moved cautiously around the edges of the mushroom forest, hoping to find an unguarded funguscarpp, but luck was not on his side, so he shook his head and departed.

After searching through multiple Paras colonies and finding no unguarded Funguscarpps, Jared was beginning to believe he had been sent on a fool's errand or a practical joke. The Paras were clearly fiercely protective of their mushrooms and never strayed far from their colonies. He couldn't even fight them one by one, let alone cheat them of their precious Funguscarpps.

Sipping from his water skin and eating some bread, Jared had had enough. He had been out here for hours, and even if he headed home now, he would only make it back with a little sunlight left.

He had no choice but to leave empty-handed. Unfortunately, while the Paras consumed all those large mushrooms for their food, they were slightly toxic to humans, causing severe diarrhea.

Retracing his steps using the markings he had left behind, Jared began making his way back, although this time no longer intentionally avoiding any Weedles. Besides those, there weren't any other commonly seen Pokemon in this forest besides lone Spinaraks who travelled between the trees using their webs.

Jared wished he could defeat some Weedles to sell, but just like the Meowths that scurried along the streets, there was no market for them. The only Pokemon that might be worth a damn was that Murkrow he had seen, but he wasn't willing to piss it off in case he didn't live to regret it.

The weepinbells were an evolved pokemon, and had value, but therein lay the problem. Bellsprouts, after reaching a certain size and refining their energy, would forever abandon the sun's rays, and venture into the dark forests, where they would quickly evolve. This resulted in their basic stage energy transforming into intermediate stage energy, rendering them many times more dangerous than the generally harmless, sun-loving bellsprouts that he had observed swaying along the steep hills by the shore.

Had it not been for Gastly twice warning him about this deadly danger lurking overhead, Jared might not have been able to leave the forest alive.

Jared's frustration mounted as he dwelled on the time he had wasted and how delighted Gastly seemed to be that they were finally returning home. "Don't get too happy, the next time we encounter a weedle, we are fighting it and knocking it out whether it wants to or not, and that goes for the spinaraks too, if you happen to notice one, don't conceal it from me."

'Then... there's one of them here. What do I do, do I attack it now?' Gastly asked unsurely.