CH115 (479), Working On Them Bunnies (2)

I spent the whole duration of my first term at Varon Labs, so the whole 4 months of the second term of my third academic/internship year, first observing and then participating in the methods used by Professor Varon and her team.

I got to watch, witness, as well as learn how each method was implemented. I found out which materials were being used directly for the projects and which were being produced at the lab, along with the various components used for the creation of those materials.

Unsurprisingly, I was of the opinion that the supplemental route was the most promising one, but I did not deny that supplementing that one using radiation therapy along with the other methods could and would help speed up the process.

Still, I chose to focus on the various supplemental methods they were working on since I felt that those were the topics I could provide the most help. I could have probably already chimed in after the first month or the second one at the latest, but I decided to simply go with the flow for my first term here, to get everything down pat, and give everyone the chance to get used to the idea that I knew what I was doing.

I was sure that once they believed that, they would be more open to adjustments and changes coming from me. At least, I did not think they would have been as receptive to my ideas at the start as I assumed they were going to be once I was back from my break.

Obviously, I was not relying on just the impressive performance I put on during the last few months, but I also spent my time here actually interacting with Kate, Kyle, Emi, and Amari, along with a few of the other more important assistants. I even got to meet up and work with Professor Varon quite a few times, which I was at first a bit surprised about since I had not been expecting that due to my experience at Oak Labs.

Anyway, my interactions as well as dealings with the movers and shakers of the lab were another reason why I was reasonably confident that they would actually take my suggestions seriously, or rather more seriously than they had already started to do, which was a result of my meticulous work so far.

I got to see more bunnies during these four months than I had ever expected to see in my life, and I got down to work on quite a few of them. I naturally made sure to observe all of the bunnies I could and I came to the conclusion that there were actually more ways to cause an aura variant evolution than I had expected, which was one.

In fact, I had noticed three ways that seemed to work reasonably well if one wanted their Buneary to evolve into an Aura-Variant Lopunny. The first and probably most obvious one was having a full/standard aura affinity. Well, the full affinity and an influx of aura during the ongoing evolution, but that one was pretty easy to achieve.

The second one required at least a weak aura affinity, along with an advanced mastery over an aura move, the most obvious one being Aura Sphere. Naturally, the influx of aura during the evolution itself was still a necessity for this one as well.

The third way was for those with the worst/lowest aura affinity, the budding one. This one not only needed an advanced mastery over an aura move, but it also required an aura manipulation mastery at beginner grade or higher.

Now, some would say that this was not that hard, but I'd like to remind those people that unlocking the corresponding energy manipulation was only easy if one had a full affinity. The lower the affinity grade, the harder it was to unlock the related manipulation, and most Pokemon with a budding affinity did not have the complementary manipulation to go with the affinity.

Unlocking it at budding affinity required guidance, supplements, and hard work/a lot of training. Still, I had seen multiple examples of all three viable methods, so I was confident that I was right with my hypothesis. Furthermore, it was naturally possible to fulfill multiple or even all of the conditions. My Lopunny would be one such example.

She used to have a full aura affinity, along with her Aura Sphere being at advanced mastery, and having her aura manipulation mastery at the beginner grade before she initiated her evolution. The supplements I gave her provided the necessary aura influx, which was the common condition in all three methods, so she did end up fulfilling all conditions at once.

Anyway, with the three methods I uncovered, I managed to find three solid and clear approaches for anyone who wanted their Buneary to evolve into an aura variant Lopunny. Well, at least for those that had at least the lowest officially accepted affinity grade.

I had yet to find a reliable set of conditions for a regular Buneary without any aura affinity to evolve to an aura variant Lopunny, and as I said at the beginning, I believed the chances of us managing that were pretty much nonexistent.

Well, even if the odds were not nonexistent, I did not think that it was something that could be produced without a few additional years of research, and since my stay here was not going to be here anywhere close to that kind of time, I chose to focus on what I could actually work on.

So for now, the only thing someone with a regular Buneary could do was to focus on nurturing an aura affinity in their Buneary and then go through one of the three approaches I previously mentioned depending on the affinity they managed to nurture.

Now, one could wonder how a trainer would know that his Buneary actually fulfilled the condition for the variant evolution since as far as I knew no one else had the ability to check the status of their Pokemon. The answer to that was actually pretty simple.

While checking the grade of an affinity was not easy, especially if one wanted to differentiate between a weak and full affinity, it was much easier to check if a Pokemon had the corresponding energy/aura manipulation or not. The Pokemon in question simply had to try to manipulate only aura instead of using a move such as Aura Sphere.

If it was capable of freely manipulating aura outside of forming an Aura Sphere, then it possessed the manipulation skill. This was not limited to aura but was also true for other types of energy such as fire or water.

Still, as I said testing the affinity degree was hard but not impossible. There were a few particular materials that showed certain reactions if they came in contact with someone with an aura affinity, and depending on the extent of the reaction shown by those materials, one could tell what the degree of one's affinity was.

Still, such materials could be considered rather uncommon, so not everyone would be able to use that method. Though using the academy method of seeing if one can actually feel something in materials of a certain type can be used to test whether a Pokemon has a particular affinity at all.

Though, unlike with the previous test, this method was rather vague, so determining the grade was not really as easy or reliable. All in all, the manipulation test was still the easiest one to perform, and if one did have a manipulation skill, one had to have a corresponding affinity since it was impossible to have any kind of manipulation skill without the related affinity.

Anyway, I think I'm starting to go off the rail here, so back to what was happening at hand. I just left the lab after saying my goodbyes to everyone since I would be gone for a month due to the start of my break/vacation. Since I had not left Rota during the past 4 months, I was going to leave for Hope Town after doing a last check at the Rota house, and I would be staying in Hope Town for the whole duration of the break.

Obviously, there was no way Mom could have held out for a whole 4 months without her vitamin M, so they had actually come to Rota two months ago and stayed for a few days, the weekend included. Nonetheless, that was still 2 months ago, so chances were that she was once again running low.

Still, thinking back to my experience over the last 4 months, I could not help but think about one significant event that happened a month ago. Eggy finally managed to complete his limit-breaking and advance to the bronze stage at the tender age of 4, closing in on 4.5.

Everyone had been extremely enthusiastic during the whole thing, and we threw a pretty big party for him after he had officially reached the bronze stage which was a pretty big and important step for him due to the fact that his strength and foundation had improved which also raised his tolerance. That meant that I could now use better and more effective supplements than before.

Anyway, as I said it had been a pretty big event and I perfectly remember his new status screen after his breakthrough.

'Name: None (Eggy)

Species: Salandit

Gender: Male

Age: 4+ Years

-

Type: Poison, Fire

Potential: Deep Yellow (68.98%)*

{Yellow (8.98%) -> Deep Yellow (68.98%)}

(Genetic) Modifiers: None

Abilities: Oblivious

Talents: None

Affinities: Poison, Fire, Dragon (budding)*

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Bronze-Stage (mid)*

Vitality: F

Strength: F

Endurance: F

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: E

Energy Density: F

----

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, Glad, Delighted

----

Masteries:

Poison Energy Manipulation (Beginner) -> (Proficient)

Fire Energy Manipulation (Novice) -> (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

Poison Tail (new)

-

Novice:

Nasty Plot (new)

-

Beginner:

Sweet Scent, Incinerate (new), Double Slap (new)

-

Proficient:

Poison Gas, Scratch, Ember, Smog, Dragon Rage, Tinder (C), Poison Fang (new), Flame Burst (new), Toxic (new), Endure (new), Protect (new), Iron Tail (new)

-

Advanced:

N/A

-

Mastered:

N/A

-

Combo moves/Custom moves:

Tinder (Proficient)'

I had been happy to see his potential upgrade to deep yellow, especially since it was not that far off from breaching into greener pastures. I was and still am pretty confident that I could help Eggy bridge the gap within a year or two at most, now that I could go for stronger supplements. That would also be when he unlocked his second ability, and I was looking forward to him gaining Corrosion since it was a pretty strong ability.

I also had been really happy when I saw that he had actually gained a budding dragon affinity during the breakthrough. I used to add supplements with draconic energy in them into Eggy's usual intake while making absolutely sure that the dose remained within his tolerance level. In the end, all that effort paid off and he got his dragon affinity even if it was at the lowest official grade for now.

Aside from that, his starting point had been the only other thing on his status screen that had been affected by his breakthrough. Eggy got to start at the (mid) bronze stage thanks to the starting bonus he received for raising all his parameters to SSS. Without that one, he would have actually started at the (low) bronze stage.

More importantly, Eggy had been the happiest I had seen him in a long time when I finished sharing the good news with him, and I saw him burn with hope and enthusiasm when I told him that he was slowly but steadily catching up to the others.

Well, I might have left out just how slowly he was catching up, but that was not that important at the time, so I believe I could be forgiven, especially since I did not lie when I said that. I just did not go into detail.

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