16 CH16, Psionic Training (2)

Once they were home, his father called out Butterfree and gave him some food that was prepared for after training.

Butterfree took his food and went to his part of the garden.

Mikail and his parent snacked a bit and left him in his play area to do some things.

They set up the baby phone to keep an eye on Mikail and to listen in on him in case something happened or he called out to them.

Once he was left alone, he focused on completing the fourth step of his psychic training plan.

Sensing psionic energy in the environment outside of meditation was not easy, especially when he aimed to accomplish this while being distracted so that he could do it in almost all situations if he had to.

He had already managed to sense the psionic energy a few times this morning, so he just had to build on that.

It took him 3 days to be able to sense psionic energy in the environment regardless of how distracted he got.

He naturally could not test this while putting himself in danger, but he had managed to do it while eating, talking, playing, watching TV, and even during his bathroom break.

So by the end of the third day, which was a Giratiday, he deemed the fourth step as completed.

It took 10 days but he reached the fifth step of his training plan, moving internal psionic energy during meditation.

Once he managed to do that for the first time, he would become an advance-grade apprentice psychic.

On Palkiday he started training in the fifth step.

He first sensed his internal psionic energy while meditating, which was the first step, and once he had done so, he tried to move his psionic energy.

Well, at least he tried to move just his psionic energy, but like with the sensing part before his aura got involved again.

Just as he had learned to focus on just one energy type for sensing, he had to learn to move just one of them for this part of his training.

Nonetheless, he had moved his psionic energy so he officially became

an advance-grade apprentice psychic.

He trained until the evening of the next day and managed to move his energy every time during meditation.

After that, he directly started the sixth step moving psionic energy outside of meditation.

On Kyoday he managed to move his psionic energy outside of meditation as long as he was not distracted.

He still lost focus while distracted so he had to train some more but he was still happy with what he had achieved.

Since they did not go out last weekend, even if he still had an awesome time seeing his father train with Cyan on Grouday, they decided on Kyoday during breakfast to make a trip to Lake Hope on Grouday.

They decided to go to Lake Hope because they didn't want to go to Hope park every trip.

'Man the guys in charge of this town sure love to add Hope before or after everything.

Hope park, Hope berry farm, Lake Hope.

What am I going to hear next, Hope hill?'

They packed everything needed for their trip, including a portable grill and a fishing rod.

There were many Magikarp in Lake Hope, like in nearly every body of water and his parents were planning to catch a few to grill them.

Magikarps were seemingly the main source of aquatic Pokemon meat on Terra.

After recalling Growlithe, Poliwhirl, and Staryu to bring them along as well, they drove off.

Seadra didn't want to join them.

The drive to Lake Hope took nearly 30 minutes and the first impression Mikail got of Lake Hope was that it looked great.

The surroundings were clean and it looked like a green canvas with a sparkling blue circle in it.

There were some trees in the area but it was mostly grass.

They found a place to set up everything and called out their Pokemon.

Arya lay down on the blanket and Growlithe lay down near her.

Poliwhirl and Staryu jumped into the water before Mikail had the chance to touch Staryu.

Edward took a chair for himself and the kids' chair for Mikail and set them up by the water.

After that, he set up an inflatable pool and called Poliwhirl over to fill it.

He said it was for the catches.

Then he put a small chilled metal container with soft drinks and another with bait beside them and took his fishing pole and its holder.

Edward set up the rod holder, cast the line, put the rod into the holder, he put on a hat to block out the sun on both our heads, and after that we sat down on our chairs.

Mikail wondered about one thing.

"Why rod?

Rivers catch."

He asked while tilting his head.

"Hahahaha.

Mikail my boy.

Fishing is more about the process, the result comes second.

I'm sure Rivers could catch way more Magikarp in ten minutes than we could with a fishing pole in a day.

But like I said, fishing is about the act of fishing.

How many Magikarp you catch or how fast is secondary.

You cast your line, relax on your chair enjoying the sun and environment, or you could read a book if you want.

Occasionally sipping a cold drink while relaxing, that is how you enjoy fishing.

And once your rod moves, you jump out of your chair and go into fisher mode, trying to reel in whatever got caught."

Mikail looked a little perplexed but nodded anyway.

"Un.

I understand."

'Wow, it seems dad is quite enthusiastic about fishing.

I did not expect that.'

Just 5 minutes later the rod moved.

His father managed to reel in his catch in and it turned out to be a Magikarp.

In the games and anime, Magikarp were shown as the most useless Pokemon in existence but on Terra, they were not.

A Magikarp, if it was trained correctly or survived long enough in the wild while training by itself could become strong as well.

At least it was like that according to what his parents said, and in the stories they told.

His stored knowledge had a tidbit or two that supported their claim.

So while the average Magikarp was weak, they were not useless.

Back, to his father's catch.

Mikail didn't know what the average size of Magikarp is on Terra, but in the games, it is 0.9 m and weighs 10 kg.

The Magikarp his father caught was by his estimation about 1.0 meters long and seemed pretty heavy.

His father observed the Magikarp a bit.

"You managed to become quite big for a Magikarp as young as you are.

Good job and try to not get caught again."

Seeing his father about to release the Magikarp into the lake again, Mikail reached out to touch it to observe it.

It felt like fish skin just a bit harder.

'Species: Magikarp

Gender: Male

Type: Water

Potential: Light Yellow

Stage: Stageless

Genetic variation: ?

Abilities: ?

Talents: ?

Affinities: ?

Not bad, its potential is good.'

His father released it into the lake again.

"Why release?"

Mikail was curious.

"That Magikarp was relatively young but already quite big.

That means it was giving its best to grow.

We don't need too many Magikarp, especially big ones.

Our goal is 5 or 6 smaller, old Magikarps."

His father explained.

"Un.

How to know age?"

Mikail showed his understanding before asking another question.

"The age of a Magikarp can be seen by its scales.

The brighter the orange, the younger, and the darker the orange, the older it is.

The size of a Magikarp is a good sign of its strength.

Being bigger does not always mean the Magikarp is stronger but most of the time it does."

After that enlightening talk, they continued their fishing. During the times they waited for a Magikarp to get caught he tried to accomplish the sixth step of moving his internal psionic energy outside of meditation. During the next 30 minutes they caught 7 Magikarp and he observed all of them. 6 of them had red potential and one had a light orange potential.

Of the 7 Magikarp, his father released 6 of them.

The one he kept was 0.7 m long and had a burnt orange color.

They spend the next two hours fishing and put another 4 Magikarp into the pool.

Mikail had scanned about 35 Magikarp during that time and the best Magikarp he saw had orange potential while 2 others had light orange potential.

Every other Magikarp had red potential showing how rare, even, the light yellow potential Magikarp his father had first caught was.

From all the Magikarp he scanned he managed to temporarily confirm his father's explanation about their size.

He even managed to find a Magikarp that was weak enough for him to get his first full observation.

'Species: Magikarp

Gender: Female

Type: Water

Potential: Light orange

Stage: Stageless

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Swift Swim

Talents: None

Affinities: Water

She is small and young, maybe 2-3 weeks old according to my father.'

They naturally released her again, but it was nice seeing a full status screen for the first time.

Another 10 minutes and 2 Magikarp later they put the 6th one into the pool.

His father called his mother over so that she could take Mikail to the blanket and look after him, while he gutted and cleaned the 6 Magikarp they kept.

During all this time Mikail tried to occasionally move his psionic energy.

His success rate had increased during all his tries, which made him happy.

He stayed and played memory with his mother for 20 minutes before his father came to their side with the ready Magikarp filets.

His father prepared the grill, while his mother seasoned the filets.

10 minutes later the fire in the grill was optimal and the grill was ready to be used.

While his father was grilling the Magikarp filets Growlithe came to his side and was slightly drooling while waiting for his share.

Even Poliwhirl came over once the grill got going, but he thought Poliwhirl came over after seeing the smoke and not because of the smell.

Mikail's mother had taken out a small table and a few chairs from what he assumes to be a Silph Co. Bag because there is no other way it could have fit in there otherwise.

She set up the table while his father was grilling and once the filets were done, she put them on the platters after giving Growlithe and Poliwhirl their portions.

She cut his share really small for him and all he had to say was that the taste was awesome. After our meal, his parents cleaned up everything and his mother used the leftover filets to make sandwiches for later.

Mikail used that time for his psychic training as well.

Then they put all things they had taken out away except for the blanket and a parasol.

He held his nap under that parasol.

He didn't know for how long he slept but after he woke up they spent another 2 hours just sitting around enjoying the sun and the air outside.

They played memory or told, in his case listened, to stories, and ate sandwiches.

Shortly before evening his parents put everything not already packed away and made sure they left the place as clean as they found it.

Then they drove home where everyone got cleaned up.

After a bathroom break, they watched a movie and he went to bed once the movie was over.

Before sleeping he mulled over his tries to move his psionic energy outside of meditation during the whole day.

The whole trip had ample distractions but he still managed to increase his success rate so he deemed the whole day a success.

Mikail was sure he could finish the sixth step tomorrow.

With that happy thought, he fell asleep.