CH127 (741), Following Phantump’s Lead Again

I decided to have a repeat performance of the solution I came up with on the way to the ghost cave system. I asked Phantump to sit on my shoulder, and once he was done greeting Mothra/Butterfree, who was as usual relaxing on my head, I had him point out the right way while I ran at 200 km/h. That was still the highest speed at which Phantump could keep up reliably enough to keep track of the direction we had to head to. Going at that speed meant we were nearly entirely unmolested the whole time, and even the two ambush attempts that did happen were diverted by Thor/Raichu and Nyx/Umbreon, who were running beside me.

I only stopped running at around 9 p.m., when I finally decided that I had delayed dinner for too long, and at that point, I had already covered around a third of the estimated distance we had to travel. After some quick mental math, I concluded that there would only be 4 days of travel at Phantump's regular travel speed (30 km/h) left if I did another running block like this one tomorrow. 

Anyway, I moved all of us to Utopia and since everyone was already waiting for us I just greeted them real quick before I began to hand out dinner. Our group did not have all that much to share, so after Nyx and Thor mentioned slapping away two would-be attackers, the other began to share what they had been doing in the meantime. We continued chatting even after dinner was done as well as cleaned up, and at some point, Anubis/Lucario sat down next to me and quietly, to avoid disturbing/interrupting the others, requested me to check his status sheet.

I had an inkling of why he wanted me to do that, and a quick look confirmed it. My boy here had completed his limit-breaking and was ready to take the next step, so I gave him a smile and a nod, which had him smile brightly in return. Still, this being the case, I had to interrupt the others after all to share the good news with them, which I did. They all looked happy for Anubis and congratulated him on his upcoming breakthrough. I did notice that a bunch of them, more specifically the ones that were close to a breakthrough, were envious of his "luck", though none of them let that stop them from cheering for Anubis, which made me rather proud of them.

Regardless, I gave them a minute to congratulate Anubis, and while they did that I announced his upcoming breakthrough throughout Utopia to give those who were interested a chance to watch. Afterward, we made our way to Anubis' place, and after waiting the usual 20 minutes to give all possible spectators the chance to come over, or to at least make their way over so that I knew whom I had to let the other pick up, I told everyone to start forming the circle.

While they did that, Fortuna/Togekiss and I went up to Anubis, who stayed put at the center. I hugged him first followed by Fortuna, and we both wished him good luck with his breakthrough before joining the rest. Once we had joined the circle I gave Anubis the signal, and he initiated his breakthrough to the dark gold stage. The process went quite smoothly. I noticed that the ambient energy drain was slightly higher than usual, but it was not to the degree where I would expect anything to get unlocked.

Either way, as soon as the process was over and Anubis' new dark gold might spread out, I made my way over to his side and gave him a hug, though as always I had to be mindful of his chest spike, before congratulating him on reaching the dark gold stage. The others joined in as well, and while they were congratulating him, I checked out his new/updated status sheet.

'Name: Anubis

Species: Lucario

Gender: Male

Age: 14+ years

-

Type: Fighting, Steel

Potential: Light Aurora (83.62%)*

{Light Aurora (43.37%) -> (43.62%) -> (83.62%)}'

He had gotten quite a bit closer to elevating his potential to Aurora, and I could not help but complain about both reductions he suffered since the absence of either would have allowed him to take the next step straight away instead of having to wait for his next breakthrough. Still, I was happy with everything we got since the boost I, or rather the supplements I supplied were able to grant/provide at this point was minuscule compared to even this reduced 40% boost.

Anyway, I moved on from his potential, and as I had expected there were no further changes as far as the next few sections were concerned. Only once I made it to the bond section did I come upon the next change, but I had already felt our bond deepen, so this bit was just as expected.

'Bond: Mikail (Deep)*

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Dark Gold (High)*

Vitality: D

Strength: B

Endurance: D

Agility: C

Energy Capacity: B

Energy Density: D'

The same was true for his stage or rather sub-stage since Anubis had revealed his might as he was flaring his aura. Still, expected or not, it was always incredible to see one of my Pokemon start at the (high) substage, and in Anubis' case, I had his Aura Blessing to thank for that. Most Pokemon, wild or bonded, worked pretty hard to reach the (high) dark gold stage and broke through to the next stage as quickly as possible once they did, if they did not get stuck there that was. 

Yet, their endpoint was only Anubis' starting point, which sounded pretty insane, but was the honest truth. I continued checking the rest of Anubis' status sheet after that small bit of introspection, and surprisingly I noticed another change right away.

'Weaknesses: 

Fire (Minor), Ground (Minor) 

-

Standardized:

Fighting*'

While going over the type relation section, I first noticed that the fighting type had vanished from the weakness subsection before I saw the proof of our resistance efforts having been brought to completion during Anubis' breakthrough. I was quite happy to see that Anubis' fighting type weakness had been standardized, much earlier than planned at that, and I briefly considered which one we should work on next before deciding to speak with Anubis first before I made any decision.

'Techniques: 

-

Novice:

Flash Cannon (new)

-

Proficient: 

Heal Pulse (+), Dragon Pulse (+), Extreme Speed (+), Sky Uppercut (new)

-

Advanced:

Meteor Mash (+), Focus Blast (new)'

After that, my gaze swept over the rest of the status sheet without noticing any additional change, so I shared the news with Anubis and the others before declaring the start of his party. I pulled out all kinds of snacks and drinks/juices before asking Anubis what he wanted to do for his celebration, and he asked me to put on an earth doll battle performance with him fighting against the Regi trio; He did not add the other two since he knew had an advantage over those 3.

After an epic 20-minute-long showdown/performance that ended with sand/earth Lucario beating the Regi trio, I accepted other requests, and unsurprisingly everyone was interested in seeing their likeness beating a Legendary or two. I ended up doing puppet shows until close to midnight before I finally decided that it was enough. After sending everyone away, I gave Anubis a final pat on the shoulder before I entered my mansion to sleep.

The next morning I left Utopia at 9 a.m., right after I was done cleaning up after breakfast, after deciding to forgo the chance to supervise everyone's morning training session. I spent the next 6 hours running in whatever direction Phantump pointed before I chose to finally stop for a slightly delayed lunch. Still, thanks to my marathon, less than a third of the estimated distance to the Sceptile habitat was left, which we should be able to cover in just 4 days while traveling at regular Phantump speeds.

Since we had reached the goal I set, I decided to eat our lunch inside Utopia, even though the others had already eaten their lunch on time, since doing so was more comfortable. Luna/Celfable, Tyson/Machamp, and Horus/Xatu happened to be hanging out at my place when we showed up, so they ended up joining us for a second lunch. It was after lunch that Tyson approached me and requested that I check his status sheet. Apparently, he had gotten that feeling of saturation and he had been talking with Horus and Luna about whether he should reach out to me or if he should wait until dinner to approach me.

Well, our appearance solved that rather neatly, and a quick check confirmed that Tyson had completed his limit-breaking phase as well, just a day after Anubis at that, and just like Anubis, Tyson would be breaking through to the dark gold stage as well, though unlike Anubis, I expected Tyson to start at the (mid) dark gold stage. It had been around 3 years since he broke through to gold, and honestly, he could have probably reached this point half a year or so earlier if he had not focused as much on his moves, but I did not mind that at all since we were still progressing super fast.

Anyway, I shared the good news with Tyson and the others, before making the announcement over UtopiaFM after deciding that there was no need to delay things since we had already covered enough ground today. As we made our way to Tyson's place for his breakthrough, I could feel some envy and frustration coming from both Luna and Thor, so I established a mental link to them and consoled them by assuring them that it would soon be their turn. I wasn't saying that just to comfort them either since those two were pretty close to completing their limit-breaking phase. Moreover, both had taken part in the challenge and subsequent massage sessions, which ought to have helped as well.

Speaking of the massage session, I had skipped out on it yesterday due to Anubis' celebration, and I made a mental note to not do so today as well even if I was going to celebrate Tyson's breakthrough. Moving on, we made it to Tyson's place and proceeded to wait for everyone to arrive before I told them to start forming the circle. While they did that, Fortuna and I went up to wish Tyson good luck with his breakthrough, just like we had done for Anubis yesterday.

Once we had joined the others, I gave Tyson the go-ahead and he initiated his breakthrough. There was some extra energy drawn during the process but I had honestly expected a bit more than that due to past experiences. I could hardly be faulted for that since as incredible as it sounded, Tyson had managed to either unlock or get his unlocked talent upgraded during every breakthrough so far. However, given how relatively smoothly this breakthrough had gone, I was unsure if it had happened again this time around or not.

Still, I pushed those doubts aside for now and went up to Tyson to congratulate him on his successful breakthrough. While the others did the same, I went ahead and checked Tyson's status sheet for some answers.

'Name: Tyson

Species: Machamp

Gender: Male

Age: 15+ years 

-

Type: Fighting 

Potential: Deep Purple (45.42%)*

{Purple (61.89%) -> (65.42%) -> Deep Purple (45.42%)}'

I had to exert some effort to not skip straight to his talent section, and seeing Tyson's new potential proved that it was the right choice since his Deep Purple potential put a smile on my face. I was looking forward to seeing him push into that fabled boundary after his next breakthrough, but for now, this was more than good enough. Moving on, I was not surprised that the next few sections remained unchanged, and as sad as it was, that included his talent section.

'Talents: Iron Body'

Tyson had been incredibly lucky with his talent so far, but I had already suspected during his breakthrough that this lucky streak had come to an end, and this just confirmed it. Still, I was hopeful that his luck would resume during the next breakthrough. That aside, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that he had gained an additional affinity, even if it was just a weak one for now. On the other hand, it did not surprise me that the affinity was towards Aura due to our bond and the relation between fighting types and aura. 

'Affinities: Fighting, Aura (weak)*'

Still, the rest of the status sheet was as expected.

'Parameters:

Stage: Dark Gold (Mid)*

Vitality: D

Strength: B

Endurance: D

Agility: E

Energy Capacity: E

Energy Density: D'

I had felt our bond deepen, and Tyson's (mid) dark gold stage undulations got freely released right after his breakthrough; Aside from those two sections nothing else had changed. 

'Techniques: 

-

Beginner:

Throat Chop (new)

-

Proficient: 

Thunder Kick (C, +), Fire Kick (C, +), Ice Kick (C, +), Poison Kick (C, +), Steel Kick (C, +), Elemental Combat (C, ++), Punch Barrage (new), Stone Edge (new), Dragon Fist (new), Dark Fist (new)

-

Advanced:

Mach Punch (+), Drain Punch (+)

-

Mastered:

Bulk Up (+)'

Once I was done with the status sheet, I began to take out the snacks and drinks before declaring the start of Tyson's celebration.

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

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

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

'Name: Anubis

Species: Lucario

Gender: Male

Age: 14+ years 

-

Type: Fighting, Steel

Potential: Light Aurora (83.62%)

(Genetic) Modifiers: Blessed by Aura 

Abilities: Inner Focus, Prankster, Justified

Talents: Auralize

Affinities: Fighting, Aura, Steel

-

Bond: Mikail (Deep)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Dark Gold (High)

Vitality: D

Strength: B

Endurance: D

Agility: C

Energy Capacity: B

Energy Density: D

----

Immunity:

Poison

-

Resistance: 

Bug (Major), Rock (Major), Dark (Minor), Normal (Minor), Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor), Dragon (Minor), Steel (Minor)

-

Weaknesses: 

Fire (Minor), Ground (Minor) 

-

Standardized:

Fighting

----

Condition: Healthy, Pleased, Delighted

----

Masteries: 

Fighting Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

Aura Manipulation (Proficient)

Steel Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

----

Techniques: 

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Flash Cannon

-

Beginner:

Quick Guard, Helping Hand, Final Gambit

-

Proficient: 

Foresight, Quick Attack, Metal Claw, Iron Defense, Rock Smash, Bite, Counter, Screech, Crunch, Copycat, Feint, Nasty Plot, Reversal, Vacuum Wave, Low Kick, Low Sweep, Protect, Detect, Iron Tail, Earthquake, Bone Rush, Metal Sound, Heal Pulse, Dragon Pulse, Extreme Speed, Sky Uppercut 

-

Advanced:

Force Palm, Bulk Up, Bullet Punch, Endure, Close Combat, Sword Dance, Work Up, Meteor Mash, Focus Blast 

-

Mastered:

Aura Sphere'

——————

'Name: Tyson

Species: Machamp

Gender: Male

Age: 15+ years 

-

Type: Fighting 

Potential: Deep Purple (45.42%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Guts, Steadfast

Talents: Iron Body  

Affinities: Fighting, Aura (weak)

-

Bond: Mikail (Strong)

Quirks: Likes To Train

---

Parameters:

Stage: Dark Gold (Mid)

Vitality: D

Strength: B

Endurance: D

Agility: E

Energy Capacity: E

Energy Density: D

----

Resistance: 

Bug (Minor), Rock (Minor), Dark (Minor)

-

Weaknesses: 

Flying (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Psychic, Fairy (in progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy, Pleased

----

Masteries: 

Fighting Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

N/A 

-

Beginner:

Knock Off, Foresight, Scary Face, Leer, Double-Edge, Throat Chop 

-

Proficient: 

Low Sweep, Strength, Endure, Dual Chop, Seismic Toss, Revenge, Bullet Punch, Mega Punch, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Poison Jab, Double Hit, Cross Chop, Dynamic Punch, Wake-Up Slap, Karate Chop, Mega Kick, Submission, Superpower, Earthquake, Thunder Kick (C), Fire Kick (C), Ice Kick (C), Poison Kick (C), Steel Kick (C), Elemental Combat (C), Punch Barrage (C), Stone Edge, Dragon Fist (C), Dark Fist (C)

-

Advanced:

Focus Energy, Brick Break, Low Kick, Vital Throw, Close Combat, Mach Punch, Drain Punch

-

Mastered:

Bulk Up

-

Combo moves/Custom moves:

Thunder Kick (Proficient), Fire Kick (Proficient), Ice Kick (Proficient), Poison Kick (Proficient), Steel Kick (Proficient), Elemental Combat (Proficient), Punch Barrage (Proficient), Dragon Fist (Proficient), Dark Fist (Proficient)'

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