CH52 (416), New Year’s Surprise

The next morning everyone was ready for breakfast at 9 a.m., and we all looked just as fresh as always despite going to bed after 3 a.m. Well, everyone except for Rose, who grumbled about stupid high-rank trainers and aura users.

Everyone just laughed good-naturedly at her grumbling and teased her that she would also benefit from the bond once she got more Pokemon and trained them up. She was in fact already profiting from the bond she had with her 3 (high) bronze-stage Pokemon, and she knew that, but the effect they had on her was still relatively small.

Rose also knew that she needed at least 6 Pokemon like that to get a chance at the unearthing all benefits she could get at this stage. However, she also knew that the boost she could receive grew with each stage, hence her grumbling.

Nonetheless, sleeping 5 hours was not a problem even for Rose, she just enjoyed sleeping she threw me a stink eye when I pointed that out while laughing. Well, Jessie chimed in, saying that she liked sleeping as well, and everyone else joined in as well. Even I freely admitted that I liked sleeping just as much as everyone else, which earned us a nod from Rose, who no longer looked bothered at having to wake up "early".

After breakfast, we began talking about stuff we were planning to accomplish during the new year and other random stuff for a while before playing a few games, while the TV ran in the background. At one point Kinji looked a bit hesitant before he spoke up.

"Would you mind if my Butterfree copied the spiral Energy Ball move Mothra showed yesterday?" I could feel that he was a bit hesitant to just copy the move, but it seemed the move had impressed him quite a bit and he could not resist asking.

"Sure, go ahead," I directly agreed, having already expected him to ask when Mothra/Butterfree displayed the move combination. "Since you're you, I'm sure you've noticed it, especially since you're asking whether you can copy it or not, but that move does not just look pretty," I added to show him that I understood why he was asking and for the sake of the others.

"Spiral Galaxy, that's what we decided to call the move, is something Mothra and I came up with to deal with big really mobs that contain strong individuals. Not only does deal a lot of damage to the target, but the subsequent explosion causes widespread dissemination of a powder capable of paralyzing, poisoning, and sedating those that come in contact with it while attracting the attention of those that manage to resist falling asleep," I shared and I saw impressed looks on Rose as well as Jessie's faces at the explanation.

"I had come to a similar conclusion after witnessing it yesterday. Well, except for the last bit," Kinji acknowledged and I gave him a thumbs up.

"By the time Mothra began working on the move she had already mastered Energy Ball and raised Sleep Powder, Stun Spore, Poison Powder, as well as Rage Powder to advanced mastery. However, I think that you could give it a try before that point, even if I would recommend raising Energy Ball to advanced mastery, and the powder moves to proficiency at the very least.

You'll probably need at least that much to keep the Energy Ball together while spinning at the necessary speed to create the spiral galaxy and to keep the powder from losing effect or dissipating," I decided to give him some advice, not minding the fact that everyone else heard how to go about learning the combo.

"Oh, and you don't have to add the Rage Powder into the mix if you don't want your Butterfree to earn the aggro of the mob," I decided to add since his Butterfree was not his strongest Pokemon, unlike my adorable monster queen.

Kinji pat me on the shoulder and said, "thank you". I could feel the gratitude radiating off of him, so I gave him a smile before telling him that he was welcome, closing the topic.

Before long it was time for lunch, and while we were cleaning up afterward, Kinji announced that he was leaving once we were done. Jessica decided to join him, and uncle Thorn decided that they might as well join in as well. Mom tried to persuade them to stay until after dinner, but she failed, so everyone left after we finished cleaning up the table.

Well, after they left, mom decided that dad should clean up the terrace and that we would help him. Honestly, there was not much to do and it took less than 10 minutes to clean the whole place. Once we were done mom pulled out some of the leftover cake from yesterday as well as a few drinks and we spent a few hours chilling outside before going back inside.

The next day we stayed at home as well, and it was pretty calm too for the most part, except for one tiny detail that caused a lot of excitement an hour or so before dinner. It was at that point Rivers/Poliwrath came up to mom and said that he was ready to break through to the dark gold stage.

I had already told my parents about the advantages of limit-breaking or even just reaching the limit quite a while ago. Well, the potential bonus and the faster progress speed. I obviously did not mention my observe ability, the extent of the boost, or the actual parameters.

I simply used the actual experience of my Pokemon and some hearsay as an example. Since I had so many examples at hand convincing them of the validity of my word was no problem at all and it also explained why I kept my Pokmeon from breaking through for such long periods.

That knowledge was also why Rivers put off his breakthrough despite reaching the (high) gold stage close to 3 years ago, or rather two years ago since that was when he actually felt capable of breaking through. Nonetheless, he was ready now, which meant he was no longer willing to keep training without proper returns.

While I was sure that he had definitely reached the regular limit, I was uncertain if he had managed to raise the parameter average to S or even higher to qualify for the potential bonus. In the unlikely case that he managed to achieve an SS average I would definitely notice the bonus since I was pretty sure that 80% would be enough to raise his potential to deep blue.

Unfortunately, I could not bring myself to think that he succeeded with that, and sadly I doubted the 40% bonus would be enough to reach deep blue, so I would be unable to verify whether he failed to reach an S average or not if that was the case.

Regardless of my internal lamentations, we all followed Rivers outside, where the others were already waiting for us. Mom and dad called out the rest that preferred staying inside their Pokeballs, especially after I gave them new ones better fit for their species.

Once everyone was present, Rivers gave mom a last look before he initiated his breakthrough. The whole thing did not last long, which was something I had previously noted as well. Apparently, breaking through took less time if one did not go through limit breaking, or went through less of it.

Anyway, he was done in much less than a minute, and mom rushed up to him as soon as he was done. She hugged him before she began congratulating him on reaching the dark gold stage. Rivers' fellow Pokemon also joined in a moment later, as did dad and I along with dad's Pokemon. I also made sure to check his status, but as I had suspected, his potential remained blue.

I obviously congratulated him regardless of the potential matter, and he looked happy enough, so I made sure to keep mum on that front. He was mom's second dark gold stage Pokemon and that was good enough. Mom knew about my habit of storing massive amounts of food and snacks as well as drinks in my bag, so she asked me to pull some out so that we could celebrate Rivers' breakthrough and I naturally complied with her request.

Dinner got mixed in with the celebration, and we kept the party going until it was time for our movie night, which I made sure to stream in Utopia as well. Compared to Dialday, Kyoday, and Grouday ended up really being calm. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, and we just ended up enjoying the day. Though we did go out for a stroll to the town center on Kyoday.

Arcday ended up being a bit of a disappointment to me since work at Oak Labs had resumed that day, and I had actually been hoping that Carl and Sibel would call me over to witness the evolution test of our completed Mystic Frost Gem.

Well, of course, they ended up calling a day later, just as I decided that I was being silly and that they would probably take up to a week to finish. The call actually came while I was helping mom clear the table, and once Sibel finished sharing excitedly the news with me, I told mom that I had to head out and directly rushed to Pallet City.

As soon as I made it to our lab room, I saw that the central table was already set and that everything seemed to be ready for the actual test. My appearance did not go unnoticed, and everyone began to gather at the central table. Samantha gave me a quick greeting before hurrying off to get an Eevee.

Meanwhile, I was busy exchanging greetings with everyone. I managed to finish that quickly enough to take a look at the Mystic Frost Gem on the table, but I decided to wait with the actual observation until after the evolution test.

Samantha showed up only a few moments later anyway, making me focus on the Eevee that she placed on the table. Looking at the lack of reaction on his part it seemed she had decided to finally give the previous Eevee a break.

It would be sad if Eevee ended up missing the chance to evolve into Glaceon due to that. Less than 30 seconds later I ended up having to change my mind. It was good that Samantha changed the Eevee since the Mystic Frost Gem ended up failing to trigger the evolution of the Eevee as well.

No one complained and they all simply cleaned up t devices before returning to their own workstations. James told me that it had been nice to see me and to have fun with the rest of my vacation before he went back to work as well, leaving Carl, Sibel, and me at the central table.

I gave them an encouraging smile before taking the gem and moving over to our workstation. I also used the chance to check its status screen.

'Name: Mystic Frost Gem

Type: Ice

Class: D

Uses:

The Mystic Frost Gem is a compound item created through the infusion of Frost Cap Extract into a Mystic Ice Gem, and as such can not be found in nature. Despite that, the Mystic Frost Gem is an object containing a high concentration of refined ice energy.

Due to the nature of the materials used in its creation, it is capable of increasing the power of ice-type moves by a third. It is further capable of increasing the training speed of ice-type moves and there exists a small chance that the Mystic Frost Gem might trigger moments of inspiration regarding the ice element. Additionally, the Mystic Frost Gem releases trace amounts of its ice energy into its surroundings and prolonged exposure can cause non-ice-type Pokemon to slowly freeze up."

The primary effects were pretty much the same as the ones of the Yache Essence Gem, but the secondary effect was totally different. Instead of helping ice types, this one actually targeted non-ice types. I could see how this could be really useful for anyone wanting to create an ice habitat since it would slowly but surely drive back anyone else.

Nonetheless, since the Mystic Frost Gem had failed, that meant we would have to work on the fusion with the Cryogonal Ice next. Well, after Carl, and Sibel finished categorizing/analyzing the effects of the Mystic Frost Gem.

To help them on that front, I made sure to bring up the secondary effect by mentioning the uncomfortable feeling it was causing which we could easily feel, unlike the previous one's soothing effect.

There was no need to say much about the failure on the evolution part since we were already somewhat used to that, so simply giving them both a pat on the shoulder and an encouraging word was enough, which I did before giving the hint. After I did that though, I left and made my way back home since I had actually understood James' message.

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