Chapter 21 - If we switched roles...

"I can keep you, but we need to set some ground rules." Quinn said to the Gengar.

After learning that Gengar had said everything to scare him, the role of captive and captor had immediately switched. Now, Quinn doesn't need to look at what Gengar wants, but Gengar needs to look at what Quinn does.

Gengar was a little nervous, saying, "What are the rules?"

Quinn said: "First thing, you can't play any tricks or prank others. Secondly, I'd like to stop having nightmares every night- can you do that?"

Being in his current position, Gengar answered honestly, saying, "It can be done."

Although the orb is made to curse it's holder, the being sealed inside can still be reasoned with...

Quinn nodded: "Finally, if you can stick with these two rules, then I might be able to help you fulfill your wish."

"Really?" Gengar said, surprised.

Quinn replied, "Yes, really. What do you want me to do for you?"

(E/N -- I don't know if MTL had a stroke while translating this chapter but it's a lot more brain-numbing to edit....)

Gengar said excitedly, "Take me back to the ruin I was in!"

"Didn't you just get taken out of there?" Quinn said, confused.

Gengar replied, almost as confused as Quinn, "I don't know, but something in that ruin is calling to me. If you take me to the ruins, I can tell you the location of the treasure hidden there.

Hearing this, Quinn raised his eyebrows asking, "So you didn't lie to me when we first met?"

Gengar didn't intend to deceive Quinn from the beginning. It had only regained consciousness the day the orb had been bought by him. Before being sealed, it had been lied to and tricked before, and instinctively was unwilling to trust humans, so it thought to threaten Quinn to bring him back to the ruin. Gengar just hadn't expected to be caught so soon...

"It's just that you're not strong enough yet." Gengar looked at the Budew and whispered, "That ruin is very dangerous for you."

Quinn nodded, fully understanding Gengar's worries. After thinking for a moment, he got up to deal with the fish that Cramorant had brought back.

Rinse the pan, pour the oil, add the onion, ginger, and garlic to fry until the fragrance is released, and then put the filet in one by one... Not long after, an alluring scent was spread throughout the room.

Cramorant was already stood by and was waiting to be fed. Budew is a grass-type Pokémon and doesn't like meat, so Quinn wasn't preparing any for her. Gengar couldn't touch anything, but he could still smell. So as soon as Quinn turned around, he saw the purple figure floating in the air.

Quinn was shocked for a moment, seeing that Gengar's eyes were fixed on the fish he was cooking. He could see the Gengar salivating, he felt bad shutting down Gengar's thoughts- but he still said, "You can't actually eat it..."

Gengar, who hadn't eaten for thousands of years, almost cried hearing this. And when Quinn saw that he wanted to eat so much, he thought about it seriously. Gengar is currently a spiritualized state that cannot be condensed into a physical form. Simply put, he's a ghost.

'How do ghosts eat?' Quinn thought.

He first thought of the horror films he watched in his previous life, and the paper money and sacrifices that people burned while sacrificing things to their ancestors...

Thinking of this, Quinn took out a piece of paper from the drawer and burnt it with a lighter. Waiting until the paper turned to ashes and fell on the floor, Quinn asked Gengar, "Can you try touching the ashes?"

Gengar was a little puzzled, but still stretched out his hand towards the dust, and without any pause his hand was inserted directly into the ground.

"..."

'That's one theory down...' Quinn thought, turning around to feed Cramorant.

Gengar who saw this, was sad and soon went back into his orb.

The next morning, he woke up without any nightmares. Seeing that Gengar had fulfilled his promise, Quinn also started to fulfill his promise, and made a plan to help Gengar return to the ruins. To begin these plans, it started with a special training session with Budew.

After class, Quinn took her to the mountain behind the school again, and while Cramorant was catching fish in the river, he directed Budew with practicing her moves on the riverbank.

The battles in the game are much different from reality, and those moves that have certain effects on hit in the game may do next to nothing in reality. Therefore, realistic commands and battling are much more difficult in real life. A Pokémon may use Swift, which hits without any doubt in the games- but in real life the other Pokémon can still run around and evade.

Because of this, it becomes very difficult for some moves to accurately hit the opponent. The trainers in this world are also very aware of this. After Quinn's research, he found that most trainers performed special training to improve their Pokémon's moves. Of course, in addition to this there's speed training, strength training, etc. These special trainings are carried out through running, weightlifting and other methods.

Quinn came up with ways to improve three of the moves Budew knows, those moves being Absorb, Stun Spore, and Seed Bomb.

To clarify, there are no such things as TMs in this world. There are only three ways to have a Pokémon learn a new move. Being taught by another Pokémon, naturally learning a move through evolution or leveling, and through development by their trainers.

Regardless of that, Quinn doesn't intend to have Budew learn any new moves- instead he plans on making Budew's use of these three moves reach the top.

'Stun spore is a control move. If the opponent's resistance is not enough, and they inhale the spores, their body will enter a state of paralysis." Quinn thought.

Quinn asked Budew to use Stun Spore with all her strength.

"Bud~!" Amid the vigorous cry of Budew, a large cloud of light yellow spores spread out from the bud on her head. The coverage area is the area directly in front of Budew, which spreads to about three meters away from her. One of the flaws of this move is fairly obvious, if the enemy doesn't enter this coverage, but uses a long-range attack instead- the paralysis powder will lose its effect.

Next Quinn asked Budew to use Seed Bomb, and not long after a seed the size of an adult's fist was shot out from the bud on her head. The seed is brown, and has faint green glow to them. They are incredibly hard, and they seem to be able to smash human heads into flowers.

But this only corresponds to the first word of the move "Seed Bomb"- the second part being the word bomb. The attack method of this move is not the big seed hitting the Pokémon, but the explosion after they are hit. It is worth mentioning that the seed bomb is not a continuous move like Bullet Seed, although the animation from the game does launch a group of seeds to attack the enemy.

The seed bomb in reality is the Pokémon shooting a large seed from their body or from another place to attack the enemy. The reason why it is done like this, maybe the Pokémon isn't genetically capable of making the seed, either way- the flying speed of the Seed Bomb after it's been shot isn't that fast. If you want to hit a faster Pokémon, it definitely won't be easy.

With this line of thought, is there any way to make sure the Pokémon being targeted will always be hit? For this, Quinn turned moved his attention back to the move Stun Spore.

The shortcomings of these two moves are obvious, but what if Seed Bomb and Stun Spore are combined into one move? In this way, even if the Seed Bomb misses, the explosion generated after it hits the ground will spread the paralyzing powder hidden within, and as long as the enemy inhales the spores- it will become paralyzed!