Chapter 47: Exiting The Forest

Lillie stood dumbfounded seeing the remains of the swift paced battle that just took place. Ken walked up to his Scyther who still saw faint circles in its eyes.

"The power of a Z-Move, was it? It can be quite devastating...Thank you for this experience, Itsuki. Have a good long rest, Scyther.", Ken said with a smile.

"You're welcome. That was a really enjoyable battle. Did you have fun, Amber?"

"Nine.", Ninetales replied happily, but every so often she would limp as she returned to my side. Seeing this, I patted her head.

"Don't you worry Amber, we'll get you healed up soon. Have a good rest for now.", I said, recalling Ninetales back into her ball.

As we returned things to normal, I decided to speak out to Ken once more.

"Still, you really do show a lot of potential, Ken. Have you ever thought spreading your wings?", I asked.

"Spreading my wings? Hmm...can't say that I've had. I've been pretty content training myself and others inside Viridian Forest in this past while. I've not traveled to too many places in Kanto besides my hometown."

"I see. Why don't you take this opportunity and challenge the Pokemon League? Kanto's season has just started just a little over a week ago. You've got a Pokedex so you probably met with a Professor before going on your own way.", I said with interest.

"I did, but I opted not to receive a starter Pokemon. I've been going about my own way to enjoy, but I haven't really thought about entering a League before....That's where the top of the line trainers appear to have exciting battles, right?"

"Pretty much. I'm not sure if you can reach out to get your league recommendation. You'd have to go to the nearest city, Pewter City or Viridian City."

"Quite a bit of time passed, so I'm not too sure either."

Hearing that made me smile. At times like these if we encounter people who wish to further themselves and have fun in league competitions, I can use my own status. Being a Pokemon Professor has its perks. The only thing that really differentiates me from other Professors is that I'm wandering now since I started my journey.

I don't have a place to settle down and make my own lab in a city just yet. The thought of being a wandering Professor had actually crossed my mind before. Perhaps become someone like Professor Hodaka? He is the Professor who would become good friends with Professor Oak in the near future, sharing the same goal the two have.

Finding Mew.

This would lead to the creation of Project Mew. And how Professor Hodaka went about that was actually having a mobile lab that could fly. Technology here is developing at a much faster pace compared to my past life, so such that even teleporters aren't out of the question, let alone having mobile bases that could fly, like the Flying Palace. I even saw the Aether Foundation develop short range teleporters to be used inside their giant lab, and I had the ability to use them during my studies there.

It probably won't be long until we start seeing Rotom get utilized into modern machinery too, and when that happens, it will be the birth of the Rotom Dex.

But I digress, deciding to reveal my status as a Professor to Ken.

"Then I've got a simple solution Ken. I'll give you a recommendation myself to join the league competition and you can use that when you arrive at the nearest city.", I said, causing Ken to become surprised.

"Eh? You can do that...?", Ken asked, surprised. But then his expression changed. "I see, then you are saying you're a Professor yourself then. Why the heck is a Professor being halfway into a dangerous forest like this?", Ken uttered

"Heh, did you forget already? I may be a Professor in status, but who said Professors can't go on journeys too?"

"Haha, you make a point there. I almost forgot one of the most basic rules, anyone can have fun and set out if they have the means to do so. Even though I've come a long way, I indeed can start partaking in these gym battles."

"So I take it as a yes then?", I asked back.

"Yes. I guess it's about time for me to exit this forest. I will be sure to head to the nearest Pokemon Center."

"Sounds good. let me write you a letter so you can give it to one of the Nurse Joy once you arrive."

"Thank you, Professor."

"Haha, I still find it weird for people to address me like that. We're acquainted now so you can call me Itsuki."

"Very well."

Concluding our conversation, I went into my storage and officially wrote Ken a letter of recommendation. Now that I think about it, this is my first time doing such a thing, isn't it? I'll be able to deliver more recommendations to aspiring trainers in the future too.

Some time passed before I finished my part, and we bid farewell to Ken. It was a good time spent together.

Ken would head out of Viridian Forest. Yet we would spend the remainder of the day venturing deeper inside.

Ken gave us some areas of interest and even he said to be wary of Kakuna falling down from trees. The moment that would happen, you would be lucky to escape from a swarm of Beedrill. With that in mind, Serena, Lillie and I took our steps carefully in the inner regions.

As we were now familiar with bug type Pokemon through battling, we were able to quickly navigate the inner regions.

As a result of battling some bug Pokemon after our battle with Ken, my shiny Weedle evolved into a shiny Kakuna, and subsequently, a shiny Beedrill. Bug types have one really good advantage over other types, and that is they are really easy to train and get experience. And in my opinion a green Beedrill looks a lot cooler than a yellow bee.

On top of that, Spearow also got Aerial Ace pretty down now. It can be activated with ease and find its target with a fast speed.

I wasn't the only one who benefitted this day of training in the inner region either. Lillie fought several bug Pokemon with her Metapod and successfully evolved into a very cute looking Butterfree.

It was a pink Butterfree. It looked like the very same Butterfree in that episode where Ash released his, having Ash's Butterfree join the pink one. It was a very sad episode for sure, but at least he had reason to release his. It was easy to tell Ash's Butterfree wanted to stay there, so he couldn't take it along any longer during his journey.

I wonder, will that scene happen here when Ash reaches Viridian Forest? I mean Lillie's Butterfree is shiny....but there's no way hers would be the very same one that appeared in that episode, right? Haha!

Putting that joke into the back of my head, I slowly forgot about it. We spent half of the remaining day carefully making our way through the inner region and doing some battles.

By the time it was around dinnertime, the bug Pokemon started to get more active. Thanks to Ken's notes, we were able to locate both a nest of Scyther and Pinsir. I was familiar with Scyther now so I was able to catch one with relative ease, using Spearow.

Serena was the one who had more of a challenge. This was actually her first battle with a rather experienced Pokemon besides the few battles we had along the way, but thankfully she had a fire type.

Serena was actually lucky enough to land a burn on Pinsir, slowly crippling it over time. Both of us succeeded our goals today. Every Pokemon we caught was registered into our Pokedex.

After doing our catching we were able to cut time short and safety made it out of the region. We made sure not to disturb any Kakuna trees along the way, so we had a pretty safe time exiting it, unlike a certain someone who would often find himself running from trouble.

"That sure was a blast.", Serena said as we left the area that had the sign that marked the entrance to the inner region.

"It was but it was pretty dangerous too. The Pokemon in there were on another level. I'm glad we made it back here.", Lillie said with a sigh of relief.

"Right? But I say, I think out of us three, you were probably the luckiest, Itsuki."

After Serena said that, the two saw me, who was currently revealing a happy look, locking down at the single item in my hand.

It was a clear sphere of sorts, about twice as big as your average marble. It had a unique symbol inside of it. Half of it was covered with dark teal, and the other half yellow. It was almost as if it was a bumblebee.

"Yeah. To think Viridian Forest would have one of these guys. Fighting those extra Pokemon for training was worth it.", I said, currently admiring the stone in my hand right now.

"That's...a Mega Stone, as I recall?", Lillie asked looking at the marble like stone in my hand.

That's right, the marble sphere in my hand was indeed what one would call, a Mega Stone! The one component missing to the Key Stone I have on my other hand. And the missing component to perform a Mega Evolution.

"That's right. It looks like this Mega Stone is associated with Beedrill. It makes sense, considering we just came out of the inner region filled with bug Pokemon. Professor Sycamore did say these stones can be naturally formed, I didn't think we would be able to find one in the inner region."

"All the more to be happy! I don't know what Mega Evolution looks like but I bet it's super exciting like those Z-Moves. We don't know which Pokemon can do such things yet since Professor Sycamore recently submitted his thesis."

"Yeah. That's more testing we'll have to do on our part, as well as other trainers."

"It's pretty late into the night now too. Why don't we set up camp again near our last spot from last night? We can exit the forest and make our way to Pewter City in the morning."

"That works for me. Now that Ken is gone we can cuddle all we want tonight!", Serena replied happily.

Lillie blushed to that but didn't deny, and nodded. I chuckled and then decided to call it quits for the night after we set up camp.

The next morning came before we realized it. I found Lillie clinging onto my side like a Komala. She became a bit flustered seeing how she how she woke up, but we were able to get ready and eat breakfast.

We took the first half of the day, successfully leaving Viridian Forest.

Upon exiting the map, there was still a bit of distance, but we finally saw the outline of Pewter City!

It was now Jan 12th, and we arrived in Pewter City, the city known to be home to the first gym of Kanto.

But now the main question is, is Brock or Flint running the Gym?

*

The last chapter of Viridian Forest!

Next up: Pewter City!

Let's see if we can start reaching back up to 500 power stones or more!

*

Caught Pokemon:

Itsuki: Alolan Ninetales (shiny), Squirtle, Spearow, Beedrill (shiny), Venonat, Scyther.

Serena: Kantonian Vulpix, Froakie (shiny), Pinsir

Lillie: Alolan Vulpix, Nidoran F, Butterfree (shiny)