Chapter 43: Wandering Samurai

Weedle's dex entry was revealed before us, which brought me to a smile and a look of surprise to Serena and Lillie.

"Weedle, the hairy bug Pokemon. Weedle are often found in forests and grasslands. It can fend off attackers with the needle on its head, which secretes a strong poison. It typically hides in grass when eating some leaves."

Weedle

Gender: Female

Shiny Variant

Level: 6

Ability: Run Away

31 IVs in ATK, SPD

Moves: Poison Sting, String Shot, Bug Bite, Electroweb (A/N: As of current gen, Weedle is currently only able to learn a total of these four moves)

"As I thought...", I said, looking at Weedle's dex entry.

"You really caught an alternate color Weedle?", Lillie said with a gasp.

Now that I think about it, the Pokémon world doesn't really know about the word "Shiny", doesn't it? It was a term dubbed by residents in my past life, might as well start using that word over here.

"That seems to be the case, but calling Pokemon alternate colors is always a mouthful each time, I personally like to call them Shiny Pokemon. Even the Pokedex calls them Shiny Variants so its Shiny for short.", I smiled, putting away Weedle's Pokeball.

"I see. Shiny Pokemon does have a nice ring to it. And now with that Shiny Weedle, up next is a Caterpie. You're up, Lillie.", Serena replied with a look of interest.

"I know...I do have a Pokemon besides Snowy now too. Come out, Nidoran.", Lillie said, grabbing Nidoran. Nidoran then popped out and greeted us.

"Nidoran.", Nidoran said, greeting Lillie.

"Spear!", Spearow yelled out, swooping down only to perch itself on my shoulder. As it did, it curiously looked at Nidoran.

"Jack, we met our first goal of three today. Can you help Lillie be on the lookout for a Caterpie similar to the Weedle you found? Our last goal won't start until nightfall."

"Spearow.", Spearow responded, to to take to the skies again.

We spent around four hours in Route 2 and about two hours in Weedle territory, skipping the Bellsprout and Pikachu territory altogether. By the time it became 3pm, we arrived at Caterpie territory.

Thankfully, a good thing about bug Pokemon are, the earlier the area you are in, the far weaker they are. Unless one wanders into the inner regions of let's say, the Viridian Forest we are currently in, it is actually fairly mild. Don't stray from main path and you should be fine here, unless a few Trainers come up to challenge you. We haven't seen any worth mentioning yet.

But in these few hours of walking besides capturing Weedle, we did hear a rumor from the couple of people we chatted with en route.

Turns out there is a wandering samurai-like figure challenging Trainers in Viridian Forest lately, wielding a Scyther himself. They would challenge Trainers exploring the inner and outer regions alike, promoting growth between them. And from the way those guys described the samurai's appearance, his looks were far from that chubby boy Ash fought with his Metapod.

This samurai seemed to be much more old, around a middle aged person, and he was in a black kimono. He had an authentic sword around his waist too, which frightened off most Trainers if the samurai was the one who didn't engage them first.

If there is such a fellow here, it would be nice to meet him. Sounds like he challenges Trainers of a types, so that means he must have different degrees of difficulty. Only his Scyther is mostly known, but it sounds like he is a bug type enthusiast. If we do encounter him, he might be able to challenge. Amber and help speed up the growth of my Weedle and Caterpie when Lillie catches hers. Otherwise we'd stick to the Trainers around here.

Time flies when you're having fun though. Another two hours passed while we hunted in the Caterpie territory, and the sun was on the descent. It was now 5pm on Jan 10th. More than half of the day went by as we reached the end of the Caterpie territory.

When I told Spearow to be on the look out for a certain Caterpie, I had told Spearow to make sure it was gold-yellow. Unexpectedly, in the next few minutes, I heard Spearow let out a cry, seeing it circle around over a singular tree not too far away.

"Lillie, I think we found our second goal. You ready?"

"Yeah!", Lillie answered in anticipation.

Serena, Lillie and, I immediately rushed over to Spearow who continued to circle around the same area. Good, looks like it hadn't left yet. I urged Lillie to go on ahead of us but quietly, les to disturb Caterpie. Lillie nodded her head and let Nidoran follow her. In no time at all did she spot a golden-yellow Caterpie.

This stunned her for a good moment but Lillie quickly realized she didn't want this Caterpie to run away. Unfortunately for her Caterpie was quick to go on the defensive side, shooting iut String Shots one after another in attempt to trap Nidoran.

Lillie let Nidoran dodge every one as Nidoran was quick enough, and Lillie issued a couple attack moves, quickly finishing off Caterpie. The moment Lillie saw faint circles appear in Caterpie's eyes, Lillie tossed a Pokeball at it

Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle, Ding!

The classic three wiggles, followed by a ding. This meant Lillie successful captured a Caterpie.

Well, even though it was Shiny, bug types are still bug types. Bug types are known to easily get defeated and caught, but some are quite powerful like Scyther, who I plan to personally catch after Venonat.

As for Venonat, I was suspecting it may not be here this early but the dex proved otherwise. It does have psychic capabilities, quite stronger than what Butterfree can do, despite not being a psychic type. That's one of the main reasons.

"Good job, Lillie.", I said at her with a smile.

"Thank you. I didn't think we would encounter another alter--Shiny, was it? I didn't think it would go this smoothly.", Lillie replied, taking Caterpie's Pokeball.

"You didn't hesitate, and that lead to this result. Let me give you Caterpie's reading."

"Okay!"

"I'm curious too.", Serena replied with interest.

Spearow took this time to perch onto my shoulder again. Lillie called out her shiny Caterpie, which was a bright golden-yellow co

"Caterpie, the worm Pokemon. Caterpie's body is soft and weak. However, for protection, it can release a terrible stench from the antenna on its head to drive away enemies. It can easily climb up walls."

Caterpie

Gender: Male

Shiny Variant

Level: 6

Ability: Shield Dust

31 IVs in Sp ATK and SPD

Moves: Tackle, String Shot, Bug Bite, Electroweb, Snore

Looks like we caught a pretty good Caterpie for Lillie, which made her happy. We recalled our Pokemon, Jack included. We knew Venonat was up next before Viridian Forest took a hard left, which would bring us to the halfway point. It would be from here where one could continue going left , deeper into the inner region, or continue straight, which would curve around to the right again, letting one exit the forest.

Before we knew it another two hours passed as we chatted away about our newly obtained Pokemon. It didn't take long for us to hear so.me resulting in the grass, only for a few Venonat to pop out. As the sun had passed, nocturnal Pokemon were staring to stir awake.

I used Jack again on these few Venonat in front of us. Trying the same thing, I had Jack use Aerial Ace to quickly take care of the Venonat I deemed good. Surprisingly this one Venonat was able to dodge it at the last second. Unfortunately for Venonat though, the wind caught up with Venonat, causing it to trip. I took this time to use Heat Wave, which directly struck Venonat. Its health depleted quickly, and faint circles appear over its eyes.

Not taking any more time, I tossed a Pokeball at it.

Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle, Ding!

Venonat was successfully caught, which marked our third goal of the day complete, and our final goal of the day. Tomorrow we would go deeper in to catch a Scyther and a Pinsir.

Serena and Lillie congratulated me, and brought Venonat out proceeded to do a dex reading.

"Venonat, the insect Pokemon. It's big eyes are actually clusters of tiny eyes which never fail to spot the most miniscule of prey. It lives in shadows of tall trees and it can excrete poison from its body."

Venonat

Gender: Male

Level: 11

Ability: Tinted Lens

31 IVs in SP ATK and SPD

Moves: Rage Powder, Toxic Spikes, Morning Sun, Baton Pass, Agility, Signal Beam, Confusion

Seeing this, I took in a deep breath. This was quite the catch! This Venonat knows quite a few egg moves. Especially Baton Pass. This isn't a game anymore where players like to ban certain moves, so I can definitely use this as a retreat option. Venonat will go well with Spearow too as Morning Sun heals twice as much if used in harsh sunlight. This brought a smile to my face.

Seeing as we were now done for the day, we decided to head to the halfway point. It became 9pm and finally arrived. We could see a few danger markers far off in the distance, saying cross at your own risk. We had arrived.

As such, we decided to set up a campfire and got the fire going. We soon sat down by each other, enjoying the warmth of the fire. Just as some time passed to where we thought about taking my tent out to crash for the night, a shadowy figure suddenly appeared not too far away.

This put me on alert, and as this figure approached, I got a good look at them. It left me stunned but I was able to relax a bit after seeing who he was.

"Greetings, young ones. May I take part in your campfire tonight? Hopefully I am not imposing on you."

Seeing this man appear, Serena and Lillie became stunned too, but Serena quickly shook her head and smiled.

"Not at all! We set up our fire not too long ago, you're free to come sit by it."

"Thank you, young lady.", the man responded, only to approach us. He wore a simple black kimono and sure enough, he had a sword at his side.

"Pardon the intrusion.", the man said, before taking a seat opposite to us across the fire, letting himself warm up.

"The name is Ken by the way. I haven't seen you youngsters here in Viridian Forest before.", the samurai-like man introduced himself to us with a smile.

*

Aht here. September is finally over and will only have one or two busy days left!

Some of you are requesting to show who has what Pokemon, since mc is travelling in a group of 3.

I agree and will start putting it down at end of each chapter or author notes! I will do a larger vol 0 catalog at certain points in story.

Don't forget to drop those power stones!

*

Itsuki: Alolan Ninetails, Squirtle, Spearow, Weedle, Venonat.

Serena: Kantonian Vulpix, Froakie.

Lillie: Alolan Vulpix, Nidoran (F), Caterpie