CH113 (727), Made It To Brightwick City

Considering the number of new arrivals that underwent Utopia's optimization, it was not all that surprising that some of them ended up unlocking something in the process, though it did nearly get buried due to their sheer number and the general excitement the ghosts were feeling at recovering from the drain damage they suffered. Honestly, had my third thought stream not been looking at the right optimization screen at the right time while Utopia was optimizing the ghosts in batches, I and probably everyone else might actually have missed the fact that one of the (high) gold stage Ceruledge had unlocked a Shiny modifier.

Ceruledge had to have the most minimal change out of any existing Pokemon in its shiny form since I barely managed to spot the difference even after scrutinizing the Ceruledge in question once the optimization was over and things had calmed down a bit. I mean, a slightly deeper red shade in Ceruledge's eyes was not that noticeable and who knew when or if it would have gotten noticed by someone at some point. I mean Shinies that were hard to differentiate at first glance always existed, but Ceruledge raised the bar to a whole new level.

I actually employed Utopia's admin view after that to check all Ceruledge to make sure that I had not missed a Shiny which was possible due to the sheer number of Pokemon that underwent the optimization at the same time even if I let them out in batches. It turned out that I hadn't missed one, but I still decided to go through the status sheets of all ghosts at some point to see if any of them had unlocked a good talent or a modifier that did not stand out visually. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to do so right now. 

After settling the new arrivals, I immediately organized a belated dinner for everyone since we had missed our usual dinner time by a lot due to the invasion, and I had noticed the signs that everyone was very hungry earlier which was why I did not want to delay it any longer. Once everyone had eaten, we spent around an hour talking about the crazy day we had before I decided to call it a day, which naturally meant that everyone was going to bed.

The next morning after a very merry breakfast, I first left Utopia before leaving the cave system as well. It would be a lie if I said that I was not interested in some of the natives, but I had added so many ghosts to Utopia yesterday that I decided that there were enough of them for now. I felt that it would be better to wait a bit before adding any new ghosts.

Still, the exploration of the cave system had undoubtedly been a full success; With the discovery of 2 new species (4 if we counted the ones I knew about but could not prove for now) and the capture of all those strong ghosts, calling yesterday anything but a full success would be a sacrilege. However, just because I had gained something capable of catapulting me straight to the top eschelon did not mean that I would abruptly change my plans because of it.

It might sound excessively arrogant to some, but I made plans to reach the champion and even master class using my team and I was confident in doing so without relying on sudden unexpected additions even if doing so could have provided a shortcut. Hence, why I was not planning to tell anyone, aside from my parents the next time we came face to face, about the ghosts I caught until Mothra and the others broke through to the platinum stage as well. The Shadinja were obviously not included in this since I was still planning to give Kinji the Shadinja I picked for him. 

I would naturally still reveal them if I was forced to since keeping the secret was not as important as saving lives, so if I came across a tide that I could stop if I used them I would. The same applied to situations where my interference could save innocent lives even if it would require me to reveal Ceruledge and co, but the chances of something like that happening within my proximity were minuscule, so I'll likely be keeping the secret for the next year or two.

Anyway, after leaving the cave system, I made my way back to the main road leading to Brightwick City and resumed my trek towards said city with Hades/Gengar in my shadow, Mothra/Butterfree chilling on my head, and Nyx/Umbreon walking by my side. Thor/Raichu chose to stay inside Utopia and focus on his training since he like the others who were close to a breakthrough had gotten supremely motivated/pressured by the addition of so many strong Pokemon/ghosts. Since they were close, they wanted to take the next step as quickly as possible.

I did not mind their sudden surge in motivation at all, though I did remind them to not go too far and to take some breaks between training sessions. Back to my journey towards Brightwick City. The city was still roughly 7 to 8 days away if I went at the same pace as I did before, but to be perfectly honest I currently felt like speeding up things for a bit, and since that was the case, I decided to just go ahead and speed things up a bit. Instead of traveling at the leisurely pace I had used until now, I raised my speed a bit and practically powerwalked for the whole day, though just because I felt like speeding up things did not mean that I skipped the lunch break.

Yet, despite a 45 to 50-minute long lunch break, I still ended up shortening the travel time to Brightwick City to 2 to 3 days by the time I returned to Utopia for dinner. Having cut down the time by so much I decided to slow down again since the urge to speed up had faded by now. I guess powerwalking for nearly the whole day had calmed my spirit after it had gotten a bit agitated/restless by the events that happened yesterday. Hence, Palkiday was spent walking at a leisurely pace. Due to the hurried pace I was using yesterday, the few trainers I came across did not bother challenging me, probably assuming that I was in a hurry. 

However, after my return to the relaxed pace, I did encounter a few challenges which I chose to accept to aid my Pokemon with their training efforts. Sometimes a good battle was all it took to give that final push they needed after all. All in all, we fought like 13 battles at the end of the day, with most of the challengers using either silver or gold stage Pokemon; Only 2 used bronze Pokemon, while 3 trainers used a mix of gold and dark gold stage Pokemon.

The important part was that my Pokemon were happy so I was happy, which was why I accepted all challenges on Dialday/the next day, and I did the same on Kyoday as well. As a result, I nearly missed my estimate of 2 to 3 days, which would have been totally fine since my Pokemon definitely enjoyed watching and participating in the battles during the last three days, but I still managed to make it to Brightwick City 20 minutes before 11 p.m.

I might have had to continue traveling after having dinner inside Utopia to manage that, but I didn't mind since walking an extra 3 hours allowed me to "stay on schedule", and more importantly, I got to see how it was to travel along the route after it had gotten dark. One thing I noticed, which was not really a surprise was that there was less going on since most route dwellers were asleep. Yet, despite that, the number of wild attacks, or more like ambushes, had increased. 

It almost felt like they were trying to prove that the saying that night dwellers liked to ambush their prey was not just empty talk. Hades and Nyx definitely enjoyed counter-ambushing/scaring those same night dwellers, so the whole thing took on a rather funny tone rather than an annoying one. 

Anyway, I entered Utopia right after stepping foot onto Brightwick City soil since I had already decided to leave the Gym Battle registration for tomorrow, and I went to sleep after spending slightly more than an hour hanging out with my Pokemon. The next morning I did not hurry to the Gym after finishing breakfast. I chose to first supervise everyone's morning training, and only after said training session was complete did I leave Utopia.

Once I was back outside, I pulled out my phone and looked up the shortest way to the Gym before heading out. When I made it to the Gym building I was happy to note that things seemed to be relaxed, and I was hoping that their schedule was just as relaxed. After entering the Gym, I directly headed towards the reception and as luck would have it, the receptionist told me that the earliest free slot for a 3-Star 5 Badge challenge was for the day after tomorrow at 11 a.m. I naturally directly signed up for it, and after listening to the receptionist share what to expect during the challenge, I thanked her before leaving.

Once I was out, I looked for a close by bench and settled down before pulling out my phone to do some more research. I would have to face two Gym Trainers in 3-vs-3 battles before I was allowed to battle the Gym Leader in a 4-vs-4 battle for his A-rank Badge. The reason I went with a 3-star challenge this time around was that I had read that the Gym used a mix of (high) gold and (low) dark gold stage Pokemon during the 5 Badge challenge of this level which would be a good challenge for Thor and a few others who still needed a little push to either advance or to complete their limitbreaking.

After once again reading up on the Gym Trainers to see if I could find anything new that would make me adjust my strategy, I looked up the best eateries in Brightwick City before calling Kinji to see what he was up to. Luckily, Kinji ended up picking up my call right away, which indicated that he was not on one of his deep diving trips in some big forest, and he ended up confirming that when he told me that he was hanging around Azalea City in Johto to challenge the stronger trainers that came to challenge the Gym as part of his training.

I had to laugh when Kinji described the Gym Leader's face whenever he beat someone after having specifically chosen them among those who managed to beat the Gym Leader. I could not remember the Gym Leader having offended Kinji, so I asked him if there was a reason why he came to Azalea specifically, and when he said that he just didn't like the Gym Leader's attitude during one of the interviews he watched, I had to laugh again. I could not help but wonder what the Gym Leader would feel if he knew that the recent taunts he was suffering were a result of the pompous attitude he showed in an interview.

Anyway, after talking with Kinji about anything really, I brought up the reason I called him in the first place. I asked him if he had the time to make a trip to Brightwick City either today or tomorrow since there was something I wanted to tell him something that I couldn't share over the phone. The reason I said it like that instead of telling him that I wanted to give him something was that he was likelier to come over if I kept that part to myself since Kinji was the type that preferred to give rather than take/accept stuff, though I was sure that he would accept the gift once he learned about Shadinja. He would probably start looking for a good return gift though, but that was fine since it was just how Kinji was.

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