Chapter 30 Tournament awards

It has been nearly three days since Bill, Alex and his pokemons have been travelling on the S S Smith for Hoenn Region.

During this time, they visited various parts of the ship yet many parts were still left undiscovered.

The places they visit the most in this endeavor is the restaurant for it served many different dishes from different parts of the world. This place is especially loved by Pikachu,Happiny and Growlithe for whenever he is out, the trio try to drag him into the restaurant.

It is times like those, Alex is glad for the 30 percent discount or these expenses may put a dent to his financial reserves.

Of course Alex has earned more than he spent during his stay on the cruise ship. The casino in the ship are the source of his income in this cruise ship. His friend is the owner of the ship, so he cannot win too much, so he kept a ratio.

He only wins more than 10 percent of the money he spent during his stay. And he has won at least 50 million dollars on his stay.

He also fought some trainers using his Pikachu, Swablu, Growlithe, Riolu and even Happiny. He has won about 60 percent of those matches. This was a good chance for Dratini to get some decent fighting experience, but his current condition made it difficult for him.

Dratini isn't particularly I'll or anything. It is his body which can cause problem. Dratini is a serpentine Pokemon and a Pokemon with shedding skin ability.

This ability is both a boon and a curse. It is a boon because it helps them from getting too much hurt by status aliments.

It is good, but for serpentine pokemons it is a defect. Serpentine pokemons grow bigger by shedding their skins every now and then. This makes the softer skin in the inner parts come out and without much protection.

Although, after some time the skins hardens becoming stronger than the previous shedded one, but the time just after their molting, is the weakest stage of the serpentine pokemons.

This weakened time is different for different pokemons. For ekans and dratini it is a month, for arbok and seviper it is two weeks while Dragonair only has a week of weakness.

This weakness is not weakness in their strength but in their defense. For any of the attack can harm them more in this condition.

Ekans and dratini are in their youth and growth stages so they take longer time. The newly borns shelf every two months while as they grow, it happens every three to four month.

Molting increase the Pokemon strength greatly so this process is good for them, but the weakness time is something a trainer must put into thoughts.

But, as they near the evolution time, they molt much frequently. It starts from once every month to every week and then to five days. Of course dratini need enough life energy or else it won't evolve even though the interval between two molting is decreased.

The food they eat only determine how much their length and strength increase after molting. This doesn't This is just for ekans and dratini.

Just after their evolution to arbok and Dragonair, the molting takes place in four to five months time. And it grows to as long as a few years till every molting period as they grow older.

Of course in Dragonair the interval between molting decreases as he nears evolution. One can determine how close they are close to evolving by knowing the interval between the two molting.

If it has reached one month gap,then it may evolve within a month or two.

The fact that dratini couldn't fight along with his friends made him sad, but Alex convinced him with a his special dragon Pokemon food as well as spicy bitter berry he likes.

The cruise ship has also decided to organise a tournament every week in the month long journey, but the clause is that one person can participate in only two such events.

Alex is currently looking at the brochure and the reward details of the tournament,

The prizes for the winner is based on their performance. For example,

Winner : 10000 dollar, two ultra balls

2nd rank : 3000 dollars, three great balls

3rd rank: 1000 dollars, five pokeballs.

This is the reward for winning one Pokemon tournament.

But if the top three of the last tournament wins in another tournament their reward is enhanced greatly,

If the third ranker of the last tournament wins, he gets:

1st rank: 25000 dollars,three evolutionary stone(fire, thunder, water)

2nd rank : 18000 dollars, one evolutionary stone of choice

3rd rank : 15000 dollars, one ultra ball

If it is 2nd rank before, then

1st rank : 50000 dollars, evolutionary stone set( fire, water, thunder, grass, moon stone, sun stone)

2nd rank : 45000 dollars, evolutionary stone set( fire, water, thunder, grass)

3rd rank : 40000 dollars, sun or moon stone.

If he ranks first,then

3rd rank: 75000 dollars, evolutionary stone set( fire, water, thunder, grass, sun stone, or moon stone, a Pokemon from Hoenn

2nd rank: 80000 dollars, evolutionary stone set( fire, water, thunder, grass, moon stone, sun stone),water Pokemon from Hoenn region

1st rank : 100000 dollars, evolutionary stone set( fire, water, thunder, grass, moon stone, sun stone), a Pokemon, a mystery Pokemon egg.

So at most only two eggs can be won along with four Pokemon given as a reward.

The rewards of the tournament seems too luxurious to Alex so he decided to ask Bill.

After touring around the cruise top deck with his Pokemons, Alex saw Bill discussing something with the Captain of the ship.

Since Alex wants to talk to his friend about the reward distribution he waits there until the discussion comes to a halt.

They talked for about half an hour after which he comes down from the cabin. Bill saw Alex looking at the open ocean with his pokemons and doing nothing else, so he called out Alex," Hey Alex. Are you waiting for me?"

Alex turns to look at Bill and smiles in greetings and said," Yeah, I was waiting for you. You were discussing something with the captain so I didn't bother to interrupt you."

Bill placed his hands over Alex shoulder pulling him closer and said,"You are one of few true friends I have so You don't need to wait for me to free myself from Work. If you need my help,all you have to do is barge into whatever I am doing and pull me out to talk.

Anyway, my Talk with Captain was related to you. I was telling him about increasing the duration of stop on the Lucky island and Alto Mere you told me about."

Alex didn't like this and grumbled, "You don't have to do this?'

Bill just shrugs and continue,"The Togepi line along with the legendary Eon Pokemons are something I too want to see with my own eyes. So it is also for my own benefit so don't think I did it just for you. "

Alex just smiled and said nothing on this, but his heart warns on hearing this.

Bill smiles in return to Alex's smile and the asked," So what is it you want to talk to me about?"

Alex asked," Bill why do your company give such luxurious reward, because it says every cruise under your name do it."

Bill just smiles mysteriously and said," It is very simple." His eyes then shove brightly," did the great Alex Bart cannot interpret what this mean?"

Alex just looked at him dryly and said," I know why your company is so overly generous to the trainer, but I don't know what they can accomplish from it?"

Bill looks at his friend and saw the confidence with which he know why they do it,but he still felt sceptic and decides to wait until he explains," So what conclusion did you reach, Alex?"

"Your company wants to attract trainer. You want the trainer who haven't joined any association and are free Lancers to join your company for these rich rewards.

These are the bait to hook the fish. But I still don't know what you want to do with them." Alex told his thoughts.

" You are right about it. We do want to attract the free Lancers, as for why, because we want to expand and the expansion needs security from abled people. " Bill explained

Alex just nodded, but he still has one doubt," But won't it cause your company to lose money?"

Bill just smiled at Alex's naivety and explained," The expansion is pretty big one and so we cannot hire enough people as it will be too costly. So we thought of a way to attract them and your cruise ship event gave us the idea.

This way we can attract enough trainers for our job at a much cheaper rate and we are still the one making profit, from the amount they spend on the Cruise. So it isn't a loss for us."

Alex is surprised and shook his head in dismay, at the politics and dealings in the dark, but he didn't speak.

While the two friends enjoyed the sun set on the far horizon from the nearly empty deck on this part of the cruise, a startled female shout brought them out of the scenery," You. What are you doing here? You know it is a VIP zone, kid.

You better apologize to me for the past event, and I may not throw you out of the ship."

Alex and Bill turns to see a blonde girl and a blunette, whom Bill doesn't know about and Alex recognize them pretty easily as he met them just s few days ago. His pokemons too recognize them, if their hissing was any indication.

They are Elsa Reid and Julius.