Chapter 12: I am Baal
"Hakuna Matata, it means no worries..."
*Slurppp*
*Chew*
*Crunch*
"aah, Okay, it wasn't that bad...Although, I'm definitely learning ember or flamethrower in future to cook things," Raiden complained.
After a while, Raiden heard a ting before the sound of the system echoed in his head. He realised now that he hadn't checked his system stats since before his death.
[System Rank Up successful! The system is now Rank 2, access granted to:
Energy Growth: The user can actively increase their energy capacity through training!
Better Energy Conversion Efficiency: Drawn Items become cheaper to convert to Reality!
Discount Coupon 1x, reduce the cost of an item by 10%!
Discount Coupon 3x, reduce the cost of an item by 5%!
Talent Function activated!]
"System...what is the meaning of this?" Raiden enquired with a dark expression on his face.
[System exchanged 3 masteries before death to rank up as it predicted a high chance of death.]
"So you realised that I was going to die and yet you didn't tell me?!" Raiden thundered.
[Host needs to remember that he has only recently broken through his strings of fate, before that, the System couldn't directly interfere or both of us would receive backlash. Hence, the system interfered indirectly to be able to revive you again.]
"and this included your so-called rank up?" He asked again.
[No, with the system's prediction, it realised you would lose almost all your masteries at death. Hence, it used them as fuel to rank up. With the remaining masteries, it gained the ability to revive you.]
"You basically took advantage of my situation for self-gain basically?" Raiden narrowed his eyes.
[System only does what is in the best interests of the Host gaining power. Even if the host disagrees with the actions. You will grow more powerful here and with the systems new unlocked functions, you will grow stronger...faster.]
Raiden glared before coming out with a final statement,
"I expect you to inform me of any decision whilst I'm awake and alert. Don't make decisions on my behalf without consulting me, are we understood? Or you can piss off right now and find a shittier user than me."
[...Hosts wishes are factored into the system algorithm. The system will inform the host before any major decisions are made unless the host is disabled for an extended time.]
[Does the host wish to pull up his new stats page?]
"Sure"
Name: Yet to Be Set
Race: Salamandra Aquadraconis
Age: 1 day
Bloodlines: None
Characteristic:Remarkably Alert to Sound
Rank: -> Level: 5
...
Stats
Attack: 12
Defence: 10
Special: 10
Speed: 15
Total Current Energy:
50 Chakra
15 Elemental Aura (PP)
Other Energies N/A
...
Mastery:
None, No soulbound skills were detected.
"Fuck, does my characteristic mean that my speed is above even the limits of the original pokemon games?!" Raiden questioned, "With my attack stat that high, I'm more cut out to be a physical attacker if the world is still relatively the same as the games. System, what is this Talent function?"
[The talent function allows a percentage of prey stats to be absorbed as well as a percentage chance to assimilate one of your prey's abilities or characteristics.]
Raiden nodded in understanding as he finished eating another insect. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him, he could just use his new senses to pinpoint an insect hotspot.
Listening in closer and breathing in deeper, he managed to identify a burrow of small arachnids in one of the walls of the cave. He tried to walk over there on two legs but only managed to walk halfway there before his legs collapsed and he had to resort to a quadrupedal stance again.
He used his claws to be able to climb up the wall giving him a firm grip as his mouth started digging into the crevice and crunching whatever he could.
....
After a while of hunting insect prey, I felt full and pondered on what type of energy PP was before coming to a conclusion that it was most likely Bio-magical. After all, Each pokemon move has to be specifically prepared so the pokemon can execute it in the fastest flashes of intense battle. Once its reserves are spent, most pokemon can still use their moves in more relaxed contexts (such as surfing or cutting down a tree) but cannot use it fast enough to be useful in a fight. Hence, their biology can probably tap into certain energies... and with my Pokedex entry, that's a reasonable theory.
Sigh, I can't keep calling myself Raiden especially not with that scum's second name. Raiden died being a good man, I am no longer that person. I am...Baal. Right now... Right now I am just Baal. I have not thought of a true surname.
I looked again at my stats after basically eating all the insects in this cave,
Name: Baal
Race: Salamandra Aquadraconis
Age: 1 day
Bloodlines: None
Characteristic: Remarkably Alert to Sound
Level: 6
Stats
Attack: 14
Defence: 12
Special: 11
Speed: 17
Total Current Energy:
50 Chakra
25 Elemental Aura (PP)
Other Energies N/A
...
Mastery:
None, No soulbound skills were detected.
[Does the host wish to see innate information as well?]
"Yes"
Characteristic: Remarkably Alert to Sound
Abilities: 1) Tough Claws
2) Moxie [HIDDEN]
3) Pressure [LOCKED]
"Wait...Doesn't this mean that if I become a Charizard, I'd get stronger by killing more enemies and even then they'd be under pressure..." Raiden growled as he thought out loud, "I can only hope that the energy manipulation system in this world doesn't mean that I'm more manipulatively inclined than physically."
....
A week passed as Baal continued scavenging insects and small burrowing prey to eat. He even managed to catch some sort of teenage rock-type ancient mole which lasted him two days.
At this point, Baal understood that he had to move towards the pool of water and see where it lead. He had sufficient evidence to think that this was an underwater cave and that's why only animals with a small-medium size can get through to here.
He'd noticed a turtle-like pokemon come near the shore for a few days now, probably to scout out the area. With his chemoreception, he did notice that the cave was warming up indicating it was probably turning to spring. This meant turtles and similar animals would be looking for good places to lay their eggs... which is a perfect time for him to start exponentially growing.
Another day passed and Baal had woken up earlier than usual as he felt the vibration of a lot of circular pokemon moving towards the cave with their unique rock-like scent. He wrapped himself on another stalactite that was hanging high above the beach-like area near the water. The stalactite had to be high up as the turtle looked like it had a really thick shell.
....
I thought about how I should maximise my ability to hunt these turtles and due to me not having access to pokemon moves yet or at least I didn't know how to use them, I resorted to basic physics. F=ma states that the force exerted on something is decided by the mass of something multiplied by its acceleration. Basically, I need a super long or super thick stalactite that is super high up so it can fall further and faster. I now noticed what these turtles were...Tirtougas! The ancient ancestors of modern turtle pokemon! Unfortunately, they were this weeks dinner so I removed myself from thinking how badass their evolution was.
Opening the system, I drew the image of a TM...TM66-Thunder fang and defined its attributes. Once I obtained it and placed it on my forehead, knowledge of how to use the move would immediately form in my mind and allow me to use it.
This would let me do two things. Firstly, I could cook things with lightning and secondly, I could cause reasonable damage. I prepared this beforehand so that once I gained the points from killing the tirtougas, I'd exchange them immediately and go on a spree.
Conclusion? Turtles go splat, my belly gets fat. I smiled at the image I had in my mind.
Soon enough I saw the turtles start to surface and use their flippers to dig a hole in the sand as they began laying their eggs. At this point, I started using my claws to cut through the stalactite...The tough claws ability really does come in handy. Pun intended.
Soon enough, all the turtles became complacent and I had almost finished clawing through this piece of rock. They all started using the sand to cover the eggs and very few had already started leaving until...
Crash!
a large sword-like piece of rock had pierced through a group of closely-knit tirtougas, a beep from the system quantified the amount for him,
[8 Tirtougas have been killed, Tirtouga, the proto turtle pokemon has been recorded in the system, entry formed. 89 PP has been obtained!]
as the tirtougas started fleeing, I exchanged it immediately,
[Confirm use of 97PP to gain TM66-Thunder Fang?]
I clicked yes in a hurry as I could see some of the tirtougas start forming auras around them, some were bluer in colour and others were browner. I assumed this indicated the type of moves they would use.
Immediately, knowledge of how to use thunder fang developed in my mind. I now knew that the energy system in this world was similar yet completely different to chakra. It seemed more akin to Nen from the hunter x hunter series.
There seemed to be PP nodes in the body, similar to Aura nodes or tenketsu. These PP nodes allowed Aura to be released in various forms. This is when the Aura takes on specific energy signatures forming what is known as 'type moves'. This is because the Aura takes on electric properties or fire properties or any of the other number of types. The moves are separated into three levels of mastery, Novice-Intermediate-Sage. Pokemon with Sage level mastery can use another ability in conjunction with the one already being used. These categories are further separated into Shallow, Deep and Abyssal. A pokemon with an Abyssal Sage level move would be at the zenith of its species.
....
The Thunder fang move he got was already at the novice level, some pokemon would take months to get to this level, even with their genetic memory of how to train in the moves. Unfortunately, only the soul of the previous embryo got the memories of how to use moves, so Baal didn't understand how to form any pokemon moves until now.
He opened his maw as thunder began coating his razor-sharp canines before he speedily jumped off of the rock as jets of water and pieces of earth were fired at his original position.
He neared a large group of the tirtougas with a grin on his face as they all started forming twisted expressions, this was...Fear. Their Fear of a Predator.