Chapter 37 : Meaning behind the gift

Back in the training room, Koda said, "It looks like you have made quite an impression on Lady Sabrina. I haven't ever seen her gifting a student something. Continue training hard, Orion. You have to live up to her expectations."

Orion mentally scoffed at how cliche his motivational speech was. However, he understood that it would be extremely effective on a normal 9-year-old kid. He smiled and said, "I will, Instructor."

Koda smiled in response and said, "Good. I'll see you around later."

Koda quickly left to inform Cedric, leaving Orion behind with his Pokemons. With no one watching, Machop and Rhyhorn curiously looked at Abra's new spoons and began talking among themselves.

Meanwhile, Orion's mind was busy analyzing the meaning behind Sabrina's actions. He thought, 'So many unanswered questions… Why was Sabrina surprised after seeing my Abra more carefully? Did she see something that I didn't or can't? If yes, then what exactly?

Also, why did she decide against giving me a Silver Talent Psychic Pokemon and instead gift me the spoons? What could be the reason behind it?'

Thoughts clashed at the speed of light in Orion's brain. He quickly concluded, 'It is difficult to say why she was surprised by my Abra. One possibility is that my Abra has a very high talent. However, how could she see my Abra's talent without the use of the Talent measuring device? Another possibility is that she is somehow familiar with this Abra. Considering that he teleported in front of me out of nowhere, that isn't very far-fetched. That said, I can't be sure that either of these two is the correct guess.

As for not giving me the Pokemon and instead giving me the spoons, I think I understand. During evolution, it is best to gather items having an extremely high amount of energy of that Pokemon's type.

I kind of lucked out by finding the Hard Stone for Rhyhorn. It still has sufficient energy which he can absorb while evolving into Rhydon. For Machop, the Macho Brace is my only option. However, it is undoubtedly very subpar. Unfortunately, I can't get anything better at the moment.

It was even worse for my Abra. I didn't have any money to buy items with high amounts of Psychic energy for him to absorb. However, the Psychic Spoons have solved that issue. It will help increase Abra's talent considerably.

I guess giving me the spoons instead of a Pokemon was a message that I should focus more on ensuring that my current Pokemons are raised properly instead of me catching more Pokemons and being unable to raise anyone properly. I guess she was hinting at not evolving Rhyhorn and Machop unless I can get something as good as the Psychic Spoons. Unfortunately…'

A helpless expression appeared on Orion's face as he thought, 'From where would I get something of such a high quality? The instructors in Dojo don't seem to have any intention of gifting something this valuable to my Machop.

Though evolving Machop and Rhyhorn without better resources will cause them to lose an opportunity to improve their talents optimally as evolutions provide a very good chance to improve talents, I don't have a choice.

My initial Pokemons would ease my journey and provide me with more opportunities to create an ultimate team. I can only make it up to them by buying more resources for Machoke and Rhydon in the future when I can get my hands on them. During their final evolutions, I'll get the best resources for them.'

Orion made his decision. For him, having stronger Pokemons was more important than raising Rhyhorn and Machop's talent. He could only make it up to the two of them later by acquiring the best resources for them.

While Orion was analyzing, Cedric met with Sabrina. On being asked, he informed Sabrina of how Orion had caught his Abra. Even for someone as stoic as Sabrina, a peculiar expression appeared on her face as she thought, 'This is my first time hearing an Abra being caught in such a way…'

She enquired some more things about Orion before dismissing Cedric. Alone in her office, Sabrina thought, 'There isn't much to suspect Orion as his background is very clear. However, this is very strange. There is no harm in keeping an eye.'

Sabrina thought for a bit before taking out a Pokeball and releasing the Pokemon. A bipedal, humanoid Pokémon whose body resembles a flowing gown appeared in front of her.

Sabrina telepathically conveyed, 'Gardevoir, keep an eye on Orion for the next month. Check who he meets with and what he does when he is out of the city. Don't interfere with him unless his life is in danger and he is about to die. Also, if someone tries to steal the spoons that his Abra is holding, eliminate them.'

Gardevoir had already seen the exchange between Sabrina and Orion and knew who he was. She nodded and teleported away. Sabrina thought, 'If there is anything wrong with this boy's intentions, then Gardevoir will be able to sense it. I don't need to worry anymore about him.'

Sabrina quickly got back to her duties as the Gym Leader. As for Orion, he was completely oblivious to the fact that he was being spied upon by a Pokemon that could wipe him and his team off the surface of the planet in the blink of an eye!

Luckily for him, there wasn't much suspicious about him. Though he had transmigrated to the Pokemon World, he did act just like any other human. The only difference was the amount of effort he put into training. Fortunately, that wasn't something that could cause Gardevoir to be suspicious of him.

Over the next few days, Gardevoir followed Orion and his team as they visited the wild repeatedly to train. She discovered the Hard Stone that Rhyhorn was consuming but didn't think much of it as it wasn't special in her eyes. Though Orion had grown confident in his ability to be alert to any enemies in the wild, he stayed unaware that he was being watched by Gardevoir all the time…

Around a week and a half later, Orion encountered a group of 4 Bellsprouts. He immediately called out his Abra and defeated the four of them using Confusion. In a couple of minutes, all the 4 Bellsprouts had been knocked out.

As soon as that happened, Abra's body began glowing!