CH124 (354), Boss Stan

It took less than a minute for everything to calm down, but that was nearly as long as a regular evolution. I knew from experience that this only happened when a gene got unlocked, so congratulations were in order I guess.

The moment the light died down and Stan/Gyarados became visible my theory got confirmed. Well, actually, Stan did look pretty much identical to how he had looked before his breakthrough with a single obvious difference. The crest on his head had turned royal purple.

Other than that, I could see no further visible changes, at least for now. With that thought, I headed towards Stan who was moving his body, no doubt testing any differences he felt. He stopped moving when I came close enough, and he brought his head close when I finally stopped in front of him.

"Congratulations on reaching the gold stage, Stan," I congratulated him while patting his head. He gurgled happily when I began massaging his chin.

"I guess I also have to congratulate you on becoming a Royal Gyarados," I added after taking a quick glance at his status. Stan laughed happily when he heard that, and I noticed the other coming up as well to congratulate him.

At the forefront were the members of the Slithering Six, and while they were talking to him I took a closer look at Stan's body. I did not doubt that others may have missed it, due to Stan's already large size, but I kept giving the guy full body massages and grooming sessions, so I had a pretty good idea of how long Stan was.

The other Gyarados being beside him also help since they made the slight difference in the usual length disparity between them a bit more obvious to me.

If I was not wrong then the addition of the royal gene had increased Stan's size by a bit. Not much just 15 to 20 cm, but I was unsure if that was only because Stan was already much longer than the average/usual Gyarados or not.

I was also curious if that meant that he would start to grow once more until he reached the new maximum length his additional gene granted him, or if this initial size boost was the only growth that would happen.

Stan and the others had already reached the limit of their growth around half a year ago, so any growth that happened, if it happened at all, could be attributed to the new gene. Ah, things like this were what kept my curiosity regarding Pokemon and research fresh.

Anyway, while the others were distracted, or rather busy, with congratulating as well as checking out Stan, I decided to take a closer look at his status screen.

'Name: Dilong (Stan)

Species: Gyarados

Gender: Male

Age: 8+ Years

-

Type: Water, Flying

Potential: Purple (19.2%) -> (34.1%) -> (4.1%) -> Deep Purple (64.1%)

Genetic variation: Royal*

Abilities: Intimidate, Moxie

Talents: None

Affinities: Water, Flying

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Calm

----

Parameters:

Stage: Gold Stage (high)

Vitality: C

Strength: B*

Endurance: D

Agility: C

Energy Capacity: D*

Energy Density: C

----

Resistance:

Fire (Minor), Water (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Bug (Minor), Steel (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Electricity (Minor), Rock (Minor)

-

Standardized:

N/A

-

Resistance Training:

Electric (1st phase finished)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy, Elated

----

Masteries:

Water Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

Flying/Air Energy Manipulation (Novice) -> (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

N/A

-

Beginner:

Thrash (+), Torment (new, +), Blizzard (new, +), Brutal Swing (new, +), Breaking Swipe (new, +), Sunny Day (new, +), Dark Pulse (new, +)

-

Proficient:

Tackle, Flail, Scald, Bite, Dragon Rage, Whirlpool, Twister, Ice Fang, Scary Face, Brine, Thunder (+), Surf (new, ++), Thunderbolt (new, ++), Ice Beam (new, ++), Iron Tail (new, ++), Iron Head (new, ++), Protect (new, ++), Safeguard (new, ++), Earthquake (new, ++), Dragon Pulse (new, ++), Flamethrower (new, ++), Hyper Beam (new, ++), Air Cutter (new, ++)

-

Advanced:

Splash, Swift, Aqua Jet, Water Pulse, Hydro Pump, Waterfall, Dragon Dance, Hurricane (++), Rain Dance (+), Aqua Tail (+), Crunch (+),

-

Mastered:

Water Gun, Bounce (++)'

Well, the first thing that stood out was his potential. The effort and resources I and Stan invested during the last 3 years along with the bonus from his breakthrough would have raised Stan's potential close to the limit of Deep Purple.

However, unlocking his royal gene had cost him 30% of his current potential progress, so instead of needing less than 6 more percent before he would reach the fabled aurora realm, light aurora really, potential-wise, Stan needed about 36%.

I knew personally how hard it was to increase the potential of Pokemon in the purple spectrum, especially the deep purple one, so I did not doubt that filling up that 36% would take me many years and a lot of resources.

The real question was if I could help Stan take the last step before he broke through to the dark gold stage or not. Because, in that case, the bonus would raise him to that grade anyway.

Still, knowing how long limit breaking usually took, I did not doubt that the limit breaking of the gold stage would probably take quite a few years as well, so helping Stan hopefully reach the aurora grade earlier was something I was willing to try regardless of any ifs and maybes.

Moving on, there was his new royal gene. As I had previously noticed the only observable indicator of his new gene was a slight growth and his now royal purple crest, at least that was the visual change. Internally, he received the usual 25% boost that all Pokemon with the royal gene received.

The additional gene had not caused any change in his current abilities, and he had not unlocked any talent. The next bit was pretty exciting and took me by surprise.

Thanks to the bonus the royal gene gave to Gyarados's racial value along with the bonus the limit breaking gave to the starting value upon breakthrough, Stan directly started at the (high) gold stage.

However, that was not what took me by surprise since I had already expected that to happen after learning about his new royal gene. I knew what the bonuses would do to his racial value/starting point after all.

It was for this exact reason that I was surprised to see that two of Stan's parameters were different from what they should have normally been like. His Strength should have been at an A-value instead of B, and his Energy Capacity should have been at an E-Value instead of D.

At least that was how the parameters should have normally ended up when taking the Gyarados line's usual racial value into account. The change in Stan's parameters indicated that Stan's racial value distribution had changed after he unlocked his royal gene.

Stan/Gyarados's strength had been reduced by a certain amount and his Energy Capacity had risen, presumably by the same amount. To a certain extent, it made sense, at least to me.

While the strength of the Gyarados line was really high, their energy offense was quite "weak" compared to their physical strength, so the royal gene ensuring that this "weakness" was taken care of made sense to a certain degree.

A real leader of the species should be strong both in the physical and energy aspect, which is probably the idea that the gene is working with. I wondered if the ancient gene would result in a similar change, only with a focus on increasing the Gyarados's strength instead, or maybe it did not change the racial value distribution at all and simply gave the 25% bonus.

I guess I would either have to capture an ancient Gyarados or hope that one of the many Gyarados inside Utopia unlocked the ancient gene. Anyway, all this meant that while Stan ended up being "only" my fourth gold-stage Pokemon, he was still my third (high) gold-stage one.

Oh, it also meant that I now had 3 (high) gold-stage Pokemon, allowing me to stand at the same level as many senior Senior-Class trainers. A few more and I would push into the group reserved for the top Senior-Class trainers.

I was absolutely sure that no one that heard of this would dare complain about me being given Expert-Class privileges ahead of time. Whether I would make the knowledge public or not on my part was another thing, but it was already public knowledge that I had 2 (high) gold-stage Pokemon, so I would not go out of my way to keep it a secret.

Well, I'd probably not use him in an official battle/capacity for a year or two, but that's all. Nonetheless, the next bit was truly a pleasant surprise as well.

It seemed that unlocking the royal gene had somehow given Stan's electric resistance the last kick it needed to complete the first phase of his resistance training. With that Stan's weakness to the electric type was officially reduced from Major to Minor, which was a big step forward, and it took care of the biggest drawback a Gyarados had to deal with.

Other than that, only his moves, as well as masteries, were left, and nothing had changed with those. Still, looking at his move list, I was still pretty proud of linking Bounce with Splash, allowing the move to progress at extreme speeds right until it was mastered.

That the progress of Bounce also helped Gyarados increase his flying/air energy mastery by quite a bit was totally welcome as well. His increased mastery along with his mastery over Hurricane allowed Stan to derive Air Cutter, which cost less energy at the expense of being less powerful. Still, it was better at targeting wider areas, and more targets, so it was still a good move.

Besides, it gave Stan an in with some more flying-type moves, that were not part of his natural and supplementary move pool, which was something I was really grateful for. It was pretty annoying that the Gyarados line only had access to a measly two flying moves in their natural and supplementary move pool.

I mean how did that make sense when Gyarados clearly had a flying typing? Anyway, ignoring that little mess, now that Stan's energy offensive capacity had risen, I could let him focus on some of his special/energy moves.

I had not bothered with many of them after a certain point because I felt that it was simply better to focus on physical moves due to his much higher strength. That had now changed, so moves such as Thunder and Hyper Beam became more tempting.

Once I was done checking Stan's status screen, I rejoined the others, and after everyone had their turn congratulating him, I officially declared the start of his celebration. The first thing we did was take pictures, and once that was done I pulled out snacks and drinks for everyone.

We played, and I was asked to play a few songs with my ocarina. Some danced along to the tune, and others swayed or bobbed to it. Some hummed while others even sang along with my tune. We kept going until it was close to evening, and I only left Utopia after handing out everyone's dinner.

I made my way back home since I had left the house before entering Utopia for Stan's breakthrough. My parents immediately noticed my good mood when they saw me, and I told them about Stan's breakthrough to the gold stage after they asked me why I was in such a great mood.

They congratulated me and asked me to pass my congratulations to Stan as well, and I promised them that I would do so. The reason they did that, was that I generally only called out Stan and his gang on our property for a massage and/or grooming session since their big size made it otherwise inconvenient for them to chill or train there.

After that bit, I helped mom with preparing dinner. We made some Magikarp filets, along with steamed potatoes, carrots, and broccoli. I also made two berry sauces, one for the fish and one for the veggies, and dad praised mom and me to the heavens while eating the food.

He did that quite often, but it was still nice to hear someone praise the food one made. After dinner, we talked a bit before watching some TV, and the next morning after breakfast, I made my way to Mr. Cameron's office for my visit to the Mienfoo habitat.

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