CH4 (134), What Happened/The Squad (3)

I believe Osiris should be next since he had yet to evolve to his final form as well. The evolution condition for Marowak was too vague, even the strength requirement one.

I mean overcoming the resentment ingrained in the genes was pretty vague, and since that one had to be solved (first) I had no idea how high the strength requirement really was.

The earliest documented evolution was of a Marowak at the (high) dark gold stage, but if that was because that's the strength requirement or if it was because it took Marowak that long to overcome the resentment I didn't know.

Logically, it should be the second one, because no species I knew of needed its members to reach the (high) dark gold stage before evolving, not even the pseudos.

So, yeah. Despite breaking through to the silver stage pretty recently Marowak had not evolved yet. Well, to be honest, I caught him as a Cubone so he has already evolved once.

For that one to happen did not take too long. It took him roughly 9 or 8 months to raise all parameters to S and after that, he evolved. It took another 20ish months to finish his limit breaking and to break through to the bronze stage.

He became fully sapient shortly after reaching the bronze stage and just as I did with Growlithe I had waited for that to happen before naming him.

We went through the options but ultimately settled on Osiris. Completing the bronze stage took a long time and he actually broke through to the silver stage just 2 months ago. A few days after that our bond upgraded to "strong" as well.

I got the little bonus in resistance towards ground energy/moves and wondered about the bonding stages more specifically about the next one and if I had missed anything about them in general.

So, I went to my trusty sea of knowledge, my personal super-library, to see what I could find there on that topic and I indeed found something. Seems like I unlocked more knowledge after the first bond upgraded.

I already knew that the weak bond gave the trainer a slight boost in his attributes while increasing the rate at which the Pokemon gained sapience.

Obviously, there was a limit to the boosts/things one can get through bonds, and increasing the number of bonds only accelerated the pace one reached the limit.

Furthermore, the limit could be reached through a low number of bonds as well, it just took longer.

Anyway, after the weak bond came the strong one. I knew about the "slightly" bigger attribute boost and the resistance gain depending on the type of the bonded Pokemon.

What was new was that the amount of resistance gained was higher if bonded with Pokemon that had a single type, which made sense. The Pokemon on the other hand gained a slight increase in training speed and comprehension.

I had also not known about that one before this. What I had found out on my own is that I could actually piggyback on our bond to check their status anytime without having to touch them physically or with my abilities.

Apparently, it worked as long as the bond was genuine no mattered the stage of the bond. I have no idea why it took me about 4 years to notice that. All I can say is that I'm only human.

That piece was not among the stuff inside the library, but I got some info on deep bonds. On top of that, I discovered that there seemed to be another bond stage after that called solid, which I had not known as well.

I had no info on that one but I got a peek into the deep bonds info. First, it seemed like the Pokemon needed to be at the dark gold stage to support the bond.

The question I had at that was if I could do that earlier by shouldering part of whatever the bond needed. You know, since I had access to energy on my own.

Turns out I was already doing it, which was why my/our bonds could turn strong at the (mid) silver stage instead of the (high) silver stage. Furthermore, it was not only me that could do it but all sufficiently strong energy users could do so.

For a strong bond, the trainer had to be peak Tier 1 at least. For a deep bond, the trainer had to be either peak Tier 2 or early Tier 3 looks like it changed depending on the individual for some reason.

In case the trainer could help support the deep bond, the Pokemon only had to be at the (high) gold stage instead of (low) dark gold. Now, on the Pokemon side accessing temporary mega evolution/unleashed potential became possible at this bond stage.

On the trainer side, the trainer got a small boon/ability that depended on the type of the bonded Pokemon. For dual types, the type was randomly chosen among the two types it had.

I could imagine that the previous gains got a slight boost in addition to these new bonuses. Unfortunately, I could not see what the boons/abilities one could get were, but I was sure the list would get unlocked when one of my bonds reached the deep stage.

Still, with the temporary mega-evolution being available at the deep stage, I could assume that the permanent one becomes available at the solid bond stage.

Man, I digressed once more. That keeps happening to me all the time. Thankfully, thinking works pretty fast and my monologues always happen mentally, wouldn't want my parents or others to think I was crazy.

I mean only villains hold monologues out loud. We Non-Villians hold our monologues inside our heads. I'm doing it again, aren't I? I am digressing once more. *sigh*

Back to Osiris.

'Name: Osiris

Species: Marowak

Gender: Male

Age: 7+ Years

-

Type: Ground

Potential: Blue (35.9%) -> Purple (64.83%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Rock Head, Lightning Rod

Talents: Conduct Current

Affinities: Ground

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (mid)

Vitality: E

Strength: D

Endurance: C

Agility: F

Energy Capacity: F

Energy Density: D

----

Immune: Electric

-

Resistance: Poison (Minor), Rock (Minor)

-

Weaknesses: Water (Minor), Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Water (in progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Ground Energy Manipulation (Beginner) -> (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

(Unofficial) Initial:

Thunder Strike (in progress)

-

Novice:

Endeavor, Thrash

-

Beginner:

Growl, Tail Whip, False Swipe, Leer, Protect, Flamethrower

-

Proficient:

Mud-Slap, Headbutt, Retaliate, Fling, Endure, Focus Energy, Iron Defense, Iron Tail, Brick Break

-

Advanced:

Bone Club, Bonemerang, Stomping Tantrum, Bone Rush, Double-Edge, Fire Punch, Thunder Punch

-

Mastered:

N/A'

What do I have yet to go over? Hmm, after his breakthrough he began at the (mid) silver stage. Since that has been a pretty recent event he still had a long way till the (high) silver stage, since his parameters roughly averaged at E.

That was okay with me, so everything was alright. The two breakthroughs together with my supplements raised his potential from blue to purple and that was more than halfway to deep purple at that.

Osiris did not unlock any genes during his breakthroughs or evolution, but I had a feeling that just like many others he might do it during his breakthrough to the gold stage, at least I hoped so.

He began his resistance training after he broke into the bronze stage. He began training his water resistance with the help of my water types, but sadly it was still a work in progress.

At least it helped with learning as well as improving Endure and Focus Energy. He learned the first one and subsequently raised it to proficient mastery, while the second one got raised from beginner to proficient mastery as well.

Hmm, next up was his ground element manipulation. That one had improved from beginner to proficient mastery. Mostly, because of him learning Stomping Tantrum and Bone Rush and raising both to advanced mastery.

Well, more like that together with upgrading Bonemerang from proficient to advanced mastery as well. Osiris actually had a pretty easy time learning and upgrading Bone Rush because of his high mastery in Bone Club.

He managed to comprehend Endeavor, Thrash, and Double-Edge while he got stronger, but Double-Edge was the only one he actually trained.

Since he had Rock Head as an ability he could use Double-Edge without harming himself, so I had him train it quite a bit and it reached advanced mastery. The other two stayed at the novice mastery.

I also had him learn Iron Defense from the others, mostly Mothra, and with that as a basis, he learned Iron Tail as well. He only occasionally asked Nyx for some tips.

Once he had done that he learned Protect from Horus/Xatu since it was a convenient move. He upgraded it to beginner mastery before focusing on other moves.

After that, he learned Fire Punch from Mars who was pretty good with the move since my Ursaring liked to punch things. Osiris actually had an easy time learning Fire Punch, the species origin probably helped with that a bit.

Once he became proficient in Fire Punch, he learned Thunder Punch from our electric newbie, and Mars helped out as well and while they were at it our punching master Mars began teaching him Brick Break as well.

He raised all three to advanced mastery before he used Fire Punch as a basis to learn Flamethrower. Surprisingly, or not, learning Flamethrower turned out easier than expected as well. Most likely for the same reason as well.

Still, once he raised Flamethrower to beginner mastery I got this genius idea to use his talent Conduct Current to turn Thunder Punch into a long-range electric move. We have been working on that one for the last two months and Thunder Strike was still a work in progress.

That was pretty much it on Osiris and since I mentioned Mars there at the end let's go over him next. Teddiursa actually gained sapience three months, I think it was, after I caught the Feebas, so he was still at the (mid) bronze stage when it happened.

Now before I go to the naming thing let me add that the fights at the Battle Club seemed to have awakened his fondness of close combat battles, so when it was time to choose a name for him he settled on Mars.

Mars was the Roman god of war and initially also a protector for agriculture-related things. I naturally only mentioned the battle aspect and him being a protector, so Teddiursa took a liking to the name.

It took a few more months but roughly 4 months it was I believe before "Rayquaza's Descent" that he reached the (high) bronze stage. Now surprisingly he chose to not immediately evolve which he could have but decided to properly settle at the (high) bronze stage first.

Three months later, one month before the new year, he raised most of his parameters to B and chose to evolve to Ursaring. After that, it took him nearly three years to finish his limit-breaking training.

The reason it took him longer than expected was probably his less than ideal early breakthrough from the iron stage to the bronze stage while he was wild.

Still, that was no problem since time was currently one of our most abundant resources. So, about half a year ago he broke through to the silver stage, and just like the others before him, he began at the (mid) silver stage too.

Furthermore, his breakthrough together with the boost he got from the supplements he regularly took and the boost from the stuff I prepared for his evolution raised his potential from light blue to deep blue. It was even a bit more than halfway to light purple.

Since then he had managed to raise all his parameters once except for his strength which impressively started at B. Among the other parameters, Agility took the longest to raise from E to D.

Still, thanks to his hard training, he only needed to raise another parameter to C before would have reached the (high) silver stage. Hmm, about 6 months ago our bond became "strong", and it just enhanced the resistance I got from Nyx.

Similar to Nyx, Mars was also training his resistance towards the fighting type with the help of one of our newbies. He also doubled as his favorite sparring partner.

However, unlike with Nyx Mars's resistance training was still a work in progress. His move pool on the other hand got a serious update.

'Name: Mars

Species: Ursaring

Gender: Male

Age: 8+ years

-

Type: Normal

Potential: Light Blue (65.8%) -> Deep Blue (53.89%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Guts, Quick Feet

Talents: None

Affinities: Normal

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Likes Close Combat

----

Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (mid)

Vitality: C

Strength: B

Endurance: D

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: D

Energy Density: D

----

Immunity: Ghost

-

Resistance: None

-

Weaknesses: Fighting (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Fighting (in-progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Neutral Energy Manipulation (Beginner) -> (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

Hyper Voice

-

Novice:

Thrash

-

Beginner:

Scratch, Sweet Scent, Play Nice, Charm, Scary Face, Snore, Work Up, Shadow Claw, Throat Chop

-

Proficient:

Lick, Feint Attack, Swift, Dig, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Hammer Arm

-

Advanced:

Fury Swipes, Brick Break, Fire Punch, Slash, Rest

-

Mastered:

N/A

-

Combos/Custom:

Fury Slashes (Beginner)'

Because of his newfound love for close combat that was naturally what Mars wanted to focus on, but I obviously had to think about the bigger picture, so I persuaded him to switch between learning some moves that helped him with more than direct combat.

He finished learning Swift and raised it to beginner, which gave him at least one option to attack from a distance. After that, he focused on Brick Break for a while and using pure focus and commitment raised it from beginner to advanced mastery in just 2 months.

The next moves he learned were Scary Face, Rest, and Snore. All three moves were part of Ursaring's natural move pool, so it wasn't that hard to learn them after he concentrated on them long enough to raise them to beginner mastery.

Besides intimidating the foe with Scary Face and relaxing with Rest we're right up Mars's alley so he actually enjoyed learning those. After that, he got to focus on Fire Punch and Slash improving them to advanced mastery from beginner and proficient respectively.

Work Up and Dig were next. I wanted to give him an option to retreat for a time if necessary with Dig and seriously Work Up boosted his strength so that one was obvious. For both, he went to Nyx whenever he needed help or even just if he had a funny idea with the moves.

They played their own version of Whack-A-Mole with Dig which was funny to watch. It helped with trying to reduce the vibration one produced while digging so I just watched them amused by whenever they did that.

They even occasionally pulled the other into their game. Ahh, those were pretty funny and happy memories. The game led to Dig being raised to proficient mastery while Work Up got raised to beginner mastery.

Once he had those moves down, I let him go wild with learning close-range/physical moves. He decided that he wanted to learn Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, and Shadow Claw.

For Thunder Punch our electric Newbie helped him whenever necessary, for Ice Punch Lapras was the girl to go, and for Shadow Claw, he went to Horus and Nyx, mostly Horus for that one.

He became proficient with Thunder Punch and Ice Punch while reaching beginner mastery with Shadow Claw before he went on to learn Thrash and Hammer Arm, which were part of his natural move pool.

Hammer Arm, Mars actually became proficient with since it allowed him to hit his adversaries hard, his words not mine. Thrash was mostly neglected since we both did not like the uncontrolled behavior. Maybe someday in the future, we would come back to it but for now, it was on the bench.

After those two, I told him that the next one was the last physical move he could learn for now, so I gave him a few moves that fit his taste and he naturally chose the one I or any of the others couldn't really help with.

Mars wanted to learn Throat Chop and I had to go to Citron City just to buy the move/technique record, which was practically a TR, of Throat Chop. The thing cost me 350.000 while only coming from a Pokemon that raised the move until proficient mastery.

I also had to search a while to find someone willing to sell it to someone anonymous, and as soon as I bought it I carefully but quickly got the h*ll out of there.

What, let's call them TRs, did was to let you experience the training the original owner went through while learning/raising the move. How much of that you could internalize depended on yourself, but everyone at least managed to learn the move (at novice mastery).

It was possible to even use the opportunity to raise the mastery directly, but TRs from Pokemon that had a higher mastery were better for that since the process shown inside their mind was longer and more comprehensive.

Obviously, such TR's were more expensive and not just by a bit. The reason for that was simple as well. It was because of the way the TR's were produced.

A really strong and precise psychic type isolated the knowledge from the mind of the source and cut it out before imprinting the (psionic) knowledge load onto a material in the form of a small tablet that was receptive to psionic energy.

The Pokemon the knowledge was taken off lost said knowledge in most cases because most psychic types were not strong or precise enough to directly copy it. There naturally we're some that could do so but those were extremely, extremely rare.

Anyway, I paid the 350.000 Poke and Mars actually managed to learn enough that Throat Chop began at beginner mastery. After that, we worked on combining Fury Swipes with Slash since he had advanced mastery in both.

It took a while but he succeeded and each slash of the resulting Fury Slashes had the power of a regular Slash. Once he raised that one to beginner mastery, which was just 2 months ago I thought it was time for another ranged move.

At first, I planned to have him learn Hyper Beam and I was even ready to bleed money to buy the TR for it but turn out not only is it extremely expensive but it also can't be bought without proof of identity, meaning staying anonymous was not possible.

I was like okay, so I went to the Normal Hall but who would have thought that they had the same rule. It was like they did not want to teach such a destructive move to people willy nilly.

Since I was pretty sure it would take us a really long time to learn it without any help we changed our target to Hyper Voice. That one we decided to learn on our own and while it was still a work in progress he was not too far off from successfully learning it.

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

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