Cooking and "door"

'Of course those like yourself who are bonded to pokemon tend to be more daring but even then few would make the same choice as you.' The Entei added with what I felt might be respect but it was faint so maybe I am delusional. I chuckled awkwardly "I imagine I'm a bit of an anomaly even amongst humans to begin with." I said honestly while thinking of the system. The Entei chuffed in what I assume to be laughter 'Quite so little one. As much as I'd like to stay and watch you grow I do have a rather pressing matter to attend to.' the legendary said before standing up.

'Thank you for the berries little one and if fate allows it may we meet again.' The Entei said before vanishing faster than my eyes could follow. "Well that was certainly interesting" I said and Gaia nodded in agreement. Surprisingly the fire that the legendary laid down on was totally fine minus the fact that the sticks had been crushed. I had to add more sticks to it but it continued burning just fine. After that I opened my bag and took out my rewards since the quest was completed.-

First was the Item ticket that I tore apart without hesitation bringing up the roulette wheel as per usual. I mentally gave the go ahead and the wheel spun rapidly. It stopped a minute later on the expert belt item. This interested me quite a bit since what an expert belt did in the games doesn't make much sense in reality. You see in the game it increased the effectiveness of super effective moves which sounds simple but it wasn't. See what is and isn't super effective changes based on ones opponent so how then does the belt figure this out?-

My theory was that rather than the belt improving super effective moves what it actually did was mess with whatever pokemon was holding it's sense of move control to slightly improve them when the pokemon uses a move it knows is super effective. Unfortunately it was very hard to test this theory since you would first need to trick your pokemon into truly believing a non-super effective move was in fact super effective. As you may be able to tell that was not easy at all to accomplish. Still I didn't really care how it worked so long as it did as it would give Gaia an extra edge against certain types of opponents.-

Once I was done contemplating the expert belts possible function in reality I moved on to my second prize. As it turned out the whole approval of the giant dangerous creature thing was completed without me even realizing it since the quest didn't end until the Entei left. It felt a little cheap but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and tore that skill ticket immediately. Once again the wheel showed up and spun at my command before stopping on a skill I could totally get behind , cooking.

Look I enjoy roasted flesh just as much as the next possibly unstable individual but I also enjoyed having flavor and variety to all my meals as well. The sudden influx of knowledge made me grin widely despite the headache because that was what this skill was all about. To put it very simply it was basically how to take ingredients and make something amazing with it. With the proper equipment the techniques could get fairly complex but the knowledge of the skill was extremely thorough like usual and covered primitive methods of cooking delicious food as well.-

Things like clay baking , burial pit cooking , and even fermentation so I was beyond excited at the sort of stuff I could come up with. "Alright Gaia lets try and get some sleep if we even can at this point." I joked and Gaia rumbled in laughter. I went back to my bed of feathers and laid down while Gaia took her normal place at the entrance of the cave. Sleep came surprisingly easy after that as the stress of dealing with a powerful legendary caught up to my mind.-

I ended up sleeping in the next day as by the time I got up the sun had already risen a fair bit though it was clearly still fairly low. Gaia was already awake and had even revived the fire herself 'likely learned from watching me.' I thought with a shrug. "We'll skip move training today and instead I'll be trying to make a pot with this iron I have so we can cook stew. Dig through the mountain here and see if you can find some salt for us." I said calmly to her and she looked interested in the idea.-

She then looked reluctant and refused to leave "Larvitar!" she said seriously and I frowned for a moment as I tried to translate what she was talking about. The connection might be able to handle simple words or concepts but not complex things. "Lar! Lar! Vi!" she seemed to find the problem an dumbed it down to three words , unsafe , pokemon and protection. "You are worried that if you leave I'll be in danger from any other pokemon in the area?" I asked for clarification and she nodded seriously. "Hmmm , I've got it! Follow me!" I say excitedly after thinking about it for a moment.-

She tilts her head slightly in confusion but decides to see what I had in mind. I quickly lead the way over to the area we normally train her moves that had several very large boulders. Find one of the seven footers I point at it with a wide grin. "Move this in front of the cave entrance while you are away and I'll be safe right?" I asked with a grin. Gaia's eyes lit up at this idea since that would indeed work to keep other pokemon away. Pokemon are very benefit driven creatures and moving something as heavy as this boulder just to attack a weak human would most of the time simply be unworth it.-

Gaia like the miniature tank she was got behind the boulder squatted down a little and pressed her claws against the boulder. "Lar!" she shouted and the huge heavy stone started to move ever so slowly out of the small divot in the ground it was in. Gaia grit her teeth and put her all into moving the giant rock and it paid off as the boulder slowly started to pick up speed. It was clearly much easier to move once it was already in motion as she no longer needed to push as hard anymore.-

I headed back to the cave alongside her as she pushed the huge boulder slowly forward towards the cave in the distance. We got some strange looks by the few pokemon ignorant or stupid enough to hang out nearby the cave but we ignored them. Gaia immediately placed the boulder snug against the entrance to the cave and I could only shake may head with a chuckle. "How do you expect me to get in there now?" I teased and she looked away in embarrassment.