CH26 (548), The Next Phase (2)

'Name: Igneel

Species: Charizard*

Gender: Male

Age: 3+ years

-

Type: Fire, Flying*

Potential: Light Aurora (74.12%)*

{Light Aurora (65.5%) -> (65.81%) -> (74.12%)}'

Well, his species obviously changed to Charizard, so no surprise there. The addition of the flying type was also normal since that was the usual typing of Charizard, and I had seen no indicator that Igneel had gone through a variation evolution, even if I had had the slight expectancy that he might turn into a dragon-type variant, due to his ability variation as well his weak dragon affinity. Still, that obviously did not happen, so no surprise there.

Moving on to his potential, I could say that I was not too surprised to see that the increase granted by everything I prepared only amounted to around 8%. That was within my expectations, and objectively speaking it was already a pretty good result considering that this was an increase that happened within the light aurora grade.

What this meant, was that the "theoretical" potential increase had actually been ~16%, but since the requirement of each percentage increase was doubled, the actual increase ended up being just ~8%. Regardless, each increase was a welcome one, especially for those with aurora potential.

Still, feeling that this was not enough to interrupt my check-up just yet, I continued looking through the rest.

'(Genetic) Modifiers: Ability Variation

Abilities: Blaze, Tough Claws, Drought

Talents: Solar Boost+

Affinities: Fire, Flying*, Dragon*'

It was unfortunate that there was no additional modifier listed besides the ability variation, but I had already expected that, so I simply moved on to the next section, which was unchanged as well. The talent section remained similarly unaffected by Igneel's evolution.

Only when I made it to the affinity section, did I get to see some changes. The addition of the flying/air energy/type affinity was a matter of course that was related to his new extra typing. However, the upgrade of his "weak" dragon energy/type to a full/standard affinity was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise.

I was sure that this dragon affinity of his would prove rather beneficial at some point in the future, and I honestly could not wait for that day to finally arrive. Nonetheless, I decided that there was finally enough to share with the others, so I went ahead and told Igneel and the others about the changes I had seen so far.

I was not surprised to see that the news Igneel was the most interested in and happy about, happened to be the one regarding his dragon affinity. It was not that the other stuff was unimportant, it was just that we had either already known that those changes would take place since they were a natural part of his evolution to Charizard, or anticipated the result to be within a certain range in the case of his potential.

Anyway, after sharing the somewhat scarce news, I continued looking through the rest of his status sheet.

'Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Bronze Stage (high)

Vitality: S

Strength: S

Endurance: S

Agility: S

Energy Capacity: S

Energy Density: S'

The unchanged state of the next few lines/sections was something we had expected as well. Just like we had expected the next major change that came about due to Igneel's evolution was the shuffling his type relation section underwent due to the addition of the flying type on top of his original fire typing.

'Immunity:

N/A

-

Resistance:

Grass (Major)*, Bug (Major)*, Fire (Minor), Steel (Minor), Fairy (Minor), Fighting (Minor)*

-

Weaknesses:

Rock (Major)*, Water (Minor), Ground (Minor/if hit), Electric (Minor)*

-

Standardized:

N/A

----

Condition: Healthy, Delighted, Excited'

The probably biggest change of them all was most likely the upgrade his grass and bug-type resistance underwent. The step from minor resistance to a major one was rather significant and would have taken decades or even centuries of dedicated and steadfast training to achieve.

In my opinion, losing his (minor) ice resistance was a worthy exchange, especially since he even gained an additional (minor) fighting type/energy resistance in return. Even after adding the additional (minor) electric weakness to his list of weaknesses as well as the upgrade from (minor) to (major) weakness for the rock type, the positive changes outweighed the negative ones. Well, at least in my opinion they did.

Regardless, knowing one's strengths/resistances and weaknesses was important, so I made sure to share Igneel's new/changed type interactions with him. While these might be pretty much the standard set for a Charizard, it was important that we went over them.

He seemed happy enough with the changes, and I also made sure to remind him that while he now had the option to dodge/escape ground moves by flying away, and/or staying airborne, he still had a weakness toward ground energy that persisted and would come into effect as long as he got hit by a ground type move.

After making sure that he got the message, I moved on to the next section on his status sheet, and this one happened to have been affected by his evolution as well.

'Masteries:

Fire Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

Dragon Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

Flying Energy Manipulation (Novice)*'

Igneel's additional flying type automatically granted him the ability to manipulate the energy of the air/flying type. Considering that he had not learned any flying-type moves, it was normal for its mastery to start at the lowest level/grade.

Frankly, the only flying type move in Igneel's move section was Wing Attack, and that one came along with his evolution to Charizard. It was part of the intrinsic knowledge every Charizard gained to "master", or more like handle, their wings and flight.

'Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Protect (new), Wing Attack (new)*

-

Beginner:

Thunder Punch (new), Thunder Fang (new)

-

Proficient:

Fire Spin (++), Fire Punch (++), Flame Burst (+), Iron Tail (++)

-

Advanced:

Dragon Dance (+), Flamethrower (+)

-

Mastered:

N/A

-

Combo moves/Custom moves:

N/A'

I was pretty happy with his current move pool and the work Igneel invested in mastering the moves he knew. Still, now that he had evolved to Charizard we would be focusing on learning a few flying-type moves I had in mind for Igneel that in my opinion were absolutely necessary.

Gust would naturally be the first one since that one could easily be used as a base for quite a few other moves, though Air Cutter, Air Slash, as well as Tailwind, were definitely at the top of the list, and any other moves could wait until Igneel had learned those.

Anyway, once I was done with Igneel's status sheet, I told the others to give Igneel some space so that he could go ahead and try out his wings. I knew he was dying to give flying a try, and Igneel's eager reaction was all anyone needed to understand that.

Everyone gave Igneel some space, and he began flapping his wings. He acted surprisingly cautious, I certainly had not expected him to simply focus on his wings for a minute like that. He didn't try flying straightaway even after that.

Instead, he did something akin to "Mario jumps". He jumped up while flapping his wings to gain some extra height and then kept flapping them while falling back down, though calling it falling seemed a bit inappropriate. It was more like a mix of gliding, floating, and falling, which could probably be called a pseudo-form of flying.

He did 3 of those "Mario jumps", and each one was higher than the previous one. Heck, for a moment I thought he had unwittingly learned Bounce. Still, after his test phase, he took off and started to fly around. The others capable of flying joined in as well, and for some time we all watched as Igneel enjoyed his first flight.

A few minutes later Fortuna/Togetic dragged Igneel into a round of aerial tag and they were joined by the others, though all senior fliers tried their best to limit themselves to a certain speed. They relied on their experience and maneuvering instead.

Seeing them have fun, I saw no reason to interrupt them since we were not in a hurry, so I let them play to their heart's content. It took more than half an hour before Igneel finally came over and declared that he had his fill. That being the case, we moved to my area and started the celebration.

The final five days at the hospital following Igneel's evolution went by without any surprise, and unlike the grand farewell I received at the border camp, only Doctor Bethany and Nurse Jasmine sent me off on Dialday.

I did not waste any further time in Aero City, and after returning the keys to the dorm room I stayed in for the duration of my stay here, I directly headed for Ivory City. Coincidentally, or not, each phase of my practical year so far has taken place at one of the borders of Kanto. The border camp had been on the northern border, and Aero City had actually been at the meeting point of the eastern as well as the southern border.

Adding in Ivory City, which was located on the western border, I would have practically worked/served at all border fronts of Kanto once the PokeCenter phase of my practical year was over, and with how close Indigo City as well as the Indigo Plateau were, relatively speaking, I was expecting to see some strong trainers during my three months at the PokeCenter.

Anyway, once I was done traveling from the eastern end of Kanto to its western end and arrived in Ivory City, I directly headed to the address of the PokeCenter I was assigned to by the alliance. Out of the 101 PokeCenters in the city, I was assigned to one of the sixteen PokeCenters in the inner area of the city. Furthermore, it was the PokeCenter closest to the Ivory Gym.

The reason I went there even though I was only starting on Arcday, was to inquire about the dorm room I would be staying in for the next 3 months. Each PokeCenter had quite a few rooms for trainers to stay in, but I knew from Jessie's case that the PokeCenters also had their own employee dorms, so I suspected that I would be assigned one of the rooms in such a dorm.

Honestly, I would have preferred staying in one of the rooms at the PokeCenter, but that was more like wishful thinking on my part. I got visible proof of that when I was handed a dorm key along with an address upon reporting my arrival at the reception.

Once I got my key and the address, I first headed to my dorm, which was a simple 5-minute walk from the PokeCenter, to check out the room, before exploring the immediate area around the dorm and the PokeCenter.

Obviously, the Ivory City Gym was amongst the first places I visited/checked out. The Ivory City Gym was one of the only 4 steel-type Gyms in Kanto, and the only standard Gym among them. There was no steel-type Gym among the 12 Major Gyms, and the other 3 steel-type Gyms were minor ones.

From the gossip I heard at the entrance/lobby area, the Gym Leader Bolt was in a poor mood lately because his application to have the Ivory Gym recognized as Kanto's 13th Major Gym was rejected once more. That naturally elicited my curiosity, so I did some digging, and I found out that this was not the first time that Gym Leader Bolt made an application like this.

It appeared that having the Ivory Gym be recognized as a Major Gym was Bolt's dream, and he had applied for the promotion a total of 4 times since he took over the position nearly two and a half centuries ago. I was not sure why exactly his request was declined each time, but Bolt was the strongest standard Gym Leader in Kanto by far, so objectively speaking his personal strength or rather that of his Pokemon was strong enough for the job.

There had to be some other areas that he or his gym were lacking, though I had no idea where. Regardless, there was nothing else I could do at the Gym for now, so after marking Bolt as a good challenge for the future, I left and resumed scouting out the area. Naturally, my main focus was restaurants and supermarkets.

---------------------

---------------------

This part is purely to display Igneel's status screen in one piece and does not count toward the word count.

'Name: Igneel

Species: Charizard

Gender: Male

Age: 3+ years

-

Type: Fire, Flying

Potential: Light Aurora (74.12%)

(Genetic) Modifiers: Ability Variation

Abilities: Blaze, Tough Claws, Drought

Talents: Solar Boost+

Affinities: Fire, Flying, Dragon

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Bronze Stage (high)

Vitality: S

Strength: S

Endurance: S

Agility: S

Energy Capacity: S

Energy Density: S

----

Immunity:

N/A

-

Resistance:

Grass (Major), Bug (Major), Fire (Minor), Steel (Minor), Fairy (Minor), Fighting (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Rock (Major), Water (Minor), Ground (Minor/if hit), Electric (Minor)

-

Standardized:

N/A

----

Condition: Healthy, Delighted, Excited

----

Masteries:

Fire Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

Dragon Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

Flying Energy Manipulation (Novice)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Protect, Wing Attack

-

Beginner:

Growl, Smokescreen, Scary Face, Endure, Thunder Punch, Thunder Fang

-

Proficient:

Ember, Scratch, Dragonbreath, Fire Fang, Fury Swipes, Metal Claw, Dragon Rage, Dragon Claw, Fire Spin, Fire Punch, Flame Burst, Iron Tail

-

Advanced:

Dragon Dance, Flamethrower

-

Mastered:

N/A

-

Combo moves/Custom moves:

N/A'

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