CH4 (526), Prelude To The Practical Year (4)

"Alright, I know all of you are very curious about the changes that happened and want to check them out, but I still have to check Horus' changes. Besides, the tremors started before we could congratulate Horus on his breakthrough," I stopped the others, including Horus/Xatu himself, from wandering off before we completed the breakthrough session.

Everyone aside from the newcomers looked bashful at my reminder. Those two were just curiously watching everything that was happening since it was the first time they were participating. They were simply going with the flow.

I took the lead and hugged Horus before congratulating him on his breakthrough to the dark gold stage. After I let him go, the others began congratulating him as well, and as usual, I used the moment to check out the updated status sheet.

'Name: Horus

Species: Xatu

Gender: Male

Age: 13+ years

-

Type: Psychic, Ghost

Potential: Deep Purple (18.13%)*

{Purple (33.76%) -> (38.13%) -> Deep Purple (18.13%)}'

This was the second time that the reduction of the potential bonus at the dark gold stage could be truly felt. Considering that this was only the third time one of our family members broke through to that stage, this was definitely not a good sign.

If not for the bonus being halved, Horus would have been within spitting distance of the light aurora grade, but now, he was only close to a fifth of the way there. Nonetheless, having deep purple potential was great as well. I was just hoping that the potential bonus during the platinum breakthrough did not undergo another drop, because that would just be painful.

If it at least maintained the current rate, I would hopefully be able to keep up the potential increase rate of a little more than 1% per year I had been sustaining in the last few years, and the only reason I thought that was possible was the upgrade of Utopia and the steady stream of B-Class materials I would gain thanks to it. That should, hopefully, be able to offset the difficulty increase to his potential growth due to its rise to deep purple.

If that was truly the case, I would be able to help Horus barely attain light aurora potential at the Platinum stage, but only as long as no further restriction appeared at that point. My ruminations aside, I shared the news with Horus and the others, and they were happy to hear about the improvements.

Afterward, I resumed looking through Horus' status sheet, and I was happy to note another change just a moment later.

'Genetic modifiers: Ghost-type variant, Ancient Gene

Abilities: Keen Eye, Synchronize, Magic Guard

Talents: Energy Sense*

Affinities: Psychic, Flying, Ghost'

It appeared that his Energy Sensitivity had gone through another upgrade, and this time around the upgrade even adjusted the talent's title. This also explained Horus' curious reaction after his breakthrough before he got distracted by Utopia's upgrade.

While I had an idea of what the talent did, I still read through its description. Unsurprisingly, Energy Sense provided a wider range, and more detailed perception compared to Energy Sensitivity Plus. It also allowed Horus to differentiate between the energies he detected, not only in terms of intensity, but also quality, and type.

Previously, Horus could only clearly sense energies he himself possessed, but now he was able to sense all kinds of energy even if he could not interact with it. Though there was a note that warned that the talent would grant him the ability to do so, but how well it worked depended on his usage, the energy density and quality, as well as a few more factors, so he would not be able to sense time energy from the get-go for example.

Regardless of those "limitations", this was still an awesome improvement, and the fact that he now even stood a chance at actually sensing and maybe even comprehending time energy and the like was incredible.

I naturally shared the extraordinary news with Horus and the rest, and it caused quite a commotion among my Pokemon. They first congratulate him on his new awesome talent, before they actually began testing it by manipulating/using all kinds of energies to see if he was able to perceive them with his new Energy sense or not.

Even the desire to explore Utopia's new areas was pushed to the back for this, and I watched their tests, while my second thought stream continued looking at the rest of Horus' status sheet.

'Bond: Mikail (deep)*

Quirk: Observant'

There had been no doubt that our bond would promote to the deep grade, and I was sure Horus had already noticed the change, especially after the upgrade his talent went through. I still shared the news for the sake of the others before I moved on to the next section.

'Parameters:

Stage: Dark Gold Stage (mid)*

Vitality: D

Strength: D

Endurance: D

Agility: C

Energy Capacity: C

Energy Density: D'

Horus had already displayed his prowess, so everyone already knew that he had reached the (mid) dark gold stage. Still, I was happy to see that he already had two Cs, while the rest of his parameters were Ds. He only had to raise two more parameters to Cs to advance to the (high) dark gold stage, so I decided that Horus would focus on his Strength and Endurance for the next while.

Those two parameters could be easily trained together, and the two parameters had the next highest value after his Agility and Energy Capacity. Actually, his Energy Density had the same racial value as his Endurance, but it was harder to incorporate it into one exercise than simply focusing on the other two. I would naturally see if I could do it, but otherwise, this would be Horus' temporary focus.

I naturally informed him of this as well, and Mothra/Butterfree joked that they could try and see who would reach the (high) dark gold stage first. Everyone knew that she was just teasing him since it was obvious that raising two E values to Ds was easier than raising two D values to Cs, especially since she already had a headstart of a few months.

Still, Horus gave a nonchalant "okay". Though from the glint in his eyes, I and a few others were sure that he would truly try to see if he could advance before Mothra.

After that exchange, they went back to testing his talent, while I moved on to the next section on his status sheet.

'Immunity:

Normal, Fighting

-

Resistance:

Poison (Minor), Psychic (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Ghost (Major), Dark (Major)

-

Standardized:

Ghost (in progress)

-

Refinement:

Electric (on pause)

----

Condition: Healthy, Excited, Curious'

I had hoped that his breakthrough might give him the push to complete his ghost resistance training, but he missed out on that one. We could have moved on to train his dark resistance if that had happened, but it seemed we would have to wait with that until Horus managed to turn his ghost weakness into a minor one.

Anything else would have to wait until those two weaknesses had been dealt with. Seeing how there was nothing worth reporting I simply moved on to the next section.

'Masteries:

Psychic/Psionic E. Manipulation (Advanced)

Flying/Air E. Manipulation (Proficient)

Ghost/Spectral E. Manipulation (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Destiny Bond, Spirit Shackle* (new)

-

Beginner:

Guard Swap, Power Swap, Nightmare (new), Shadow Sneak (new), Hex (new), Dream Eater (new)

-

Proficient:

Reflect, Light Screen, Wish, Psycho Shift, Confuse Ray, Leer, Peck, Night Shade, Gust, Flash, Rest, Steel Wing, Tailwind, Swift (+), Zen Headbutt (+), Aerial Ace (+), Heat Wave (+), Giga Drain (+), Thunder Wave (+), Curse (new), Hurricane (new)

-

Advanced:

Shadow Ball, Air Slash, Protect, Calm Mind, Cosmic Power, Roost, Future Sight, Ominous Wind, Miracle Eye (+), Double Team (+), Air Cutter (+), Phantom Force (new)

-

Mastered:

Stored Power, Teleport, Psychic (+)'

I had to say that I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had finally learned Spirit Shackle. No doubt due to some epiphany that he experienced during his breakthrough. We had been working on that move for months now but despite our best efforts, it didn't work out properly.

Both of us knew that Spirit Shackle was the signature move of Decidueye, but we thought they were both ghost-type birds, so why not give it a try? What followed was months of experimenting without any substantial success, and we had actually been about to shelve the idea, at least for now, but since it apparently was enough to work as a base for an epiphany, I'd say the time we spent was worth it.

Now, we only had to worry about him going bald from using the move since it actually used a feather of his as the base of the move, and unlike Decidueye, Horus' species was not inclined to rapidly regrow the missing feather. I could not help but snort and laugh at the thought of a featherless Horus, which drew everyone's attention.

I told them that Horus had finally learned Spirit Shackle before jokingly mentioning the bald Horus thing, and they broke out in laughter as well. Only Horus did not laugh and I actually saw him shudder at the thought before he gave me a dirty look for even joking about something like that.

Anyway, I watched as they resumed their testing and it took around 10 more minutes before their curiosity was satisfied. Once that happened, the matter of Utopia's expansion came back to the forefront and they wanted to check it out.

Traveling 15 km in any direction was no problem for any of my Pokemon, not to mention that we were currently close to the center of the upper square, which meant that we were only 7ish km away from the border. Still, to avoid having to slow down or leave someone behind, the stronger ones wanted to bring along the weaker guys.

At least that was the case before the psychic types said that they would teleport them all over. For that, they first rose up to get a look at their destination before grabbing hold of the rest and teleporting them over, and just like that, we were all at the border of the upper/original square.

Everyone was curious and peered over the edge. Doing so was a bit bewildering since looking over like that made everyone there look as if it was hanging off the side. Naturally just looking over was not enough and it didn't take long before the first ones wanted to go over as well. They were just confused about how to do that considering that we stood at what could be seen as a cliff.

I naturally knew that some space shenanigans and gravity were involved at the edges to ensure a "smooth" movement from one side to the other, so all one would theoretically have to do is step over the edge. Still, something like that was easier said than done, so I took the first step.

I simply stepped forward and my foot found purchase on the soil on the other side. With just two steps I was on the other side, and turning back I saw the others peering over. Honestly the "crossing" was a bit disorienting, at least for the first few seconds, because one was expecting some perspective change, which did not happen due to the space manipulation that happened.

It was the mental image one had from walking over a 90-degree cliff that caused the brief confusion. I was pretty sure that would not happen if one was flying over instead. Still, I was certain that this feeling would vanish once the brain got used to the idea since this was solely a mental problem. The crossing itself was perfectly smooth.

I naturally shared that with the others, and they began to move over as well. Those that could fly did so at first, but everyone chose to go back and forth a few times, whether that be due to curiosity or to get used to it. The flying ones joined the ones on the ground for a few tries as well just to experience it, and I joined them as well since I wanted to get used to the "feeling" as well.

For me, it took only two more crossings before I could do it without any problems, and I saw that the same was true for the psychic and flying types. The others needed a few more tries, but within less than 5 minutes no one was bothered by the "perspective shift" anymore.

Afterward, we began moving around the area before we began spreading out in smaller groups since everyone had their own pace of exploration that they wanted to go at. Horus, Mothra, and Enji/Arcanine stayed with me while the others went off in their own little groups.

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

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

'Name: Horus

Species: Xatu

Gender: Male

Age: 13+ years

-

Type: Psychic, Ghost

Potential: Deep Purple (18.13%)

Genetic modifiers: Ghost-type variant, Ancient Gene

Abilities: Keen Eye, Synchronize, Magic Guard

Talents: Energy Sense

Affinities: Psychic, Flying, Ghost

-

Bond: Mikail (deep)

Quirk: Observant

----

Parameters:

Stage: Dark Gold Stage (mid)

Vitality: D

Strength: D

Endurance: D

Agility: C

Energy Capacity: C

Energy Density: D

----

Immunity:

Normal, Fighting

-

Resistance:

Poison (Minor), Psychic (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Ghost (Major), Dark (Major)

-

Standardized:

Ghost (in progress)

-

Refinement:

Electric (on pause)

----

Condition: Healthy, Excited, Curious

----

Masteries:

Psionic E. Manipulation (Advanced)

Flying/Air E. Manipulation (Proficient)

Ghost/Spectral E. Manipulation (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Destiny Bond, Spirit Shackle

-

Beginner:

Guard Swap, Power Swap, Nightmare, Shadow Sneak, Hex, Dream Eater

-

Proficient:

Reflect, Light Screen, Wish, Psycho Shift, Confuse Ray, Leer, Peck, Night Shade, Gust, Flash, Rest, Steel Wing, Tailwind, Swift, Zen Headbutt, Aerial Ace, Heat Wave, Giga Drain, Thunder Wave, Curse, Hurricane

-

Advanced:

Shadow Ball, Air Slash, Protect, Calm Mind, Cosmic Power, Roost, Future Sight, Ominous Wind, Miracle Eye, Double Team, Air Cutter, Phantom Force

-

Mastered:

Stored Power, Teleport, Psychic'

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

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