545 CH18 (540), Military (13)

Everyone else followed suit and began to congratulate Ali/Gallade on his breakthrough as well as his apparent changes. Meanwhile, I, who was really curious about the changes Ali had undergone, began to look through his status sheet.

'Name: Ali

Species: Gallade

Gender: Male

Age: 12+ years

Type: Psychic, Fighting

Potential: Deep Purple (70.93%)*

{Purple (39.38%) -> (40.93%) -> (10.93%) -> Deep Purple (70.93%)}

Genetic variation: Royal*

Abilities: Steadfast, Sharpness

Talents: Save Point Plus (Moxie)

Affinities: Psychic, Fairy, Fighting

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Persevering'

Well, I was not really surprised to see that Ali's potential had only risen to deep purple and not light aurora as we had initially been expecting it to. It was obvious that Ali had unlocked a modifier, and doing so actually cost potential, hence why he ended up with deep purple potential at 70.93% instead of having barely squeezed into the aurora club.

The fact that the deducted potential amounted to 30% told me that he had unlocked a level 1 modifier, and looking at the next section showed that the modifier Ali unlocked was the royal gene, which was part of the level 1 category.

As usual, the royal gene gave an overall 25% bonus to Ali's essence. That pushed his racial value into the fabled realm of pseudo-legendaries. In fact, it actually propelled it passed the standard 600 RV/BS and raised it to a total value of nearly 650, 647.5 to be specific if my math was not wrong. It was always an awesome experience to see one of one's own Pokemon/partners get elevated to or even past that realm.

Looking further down his status sheet I saw that Ali currently had Moxie saved in his talent slot. Moxie and Wonder Guard were the two main/favorite abilities for his talent slot, but for the last few days, he has been staying with Moxie since Wonder Guard actually interfered with his training.

Additionally, I had lately been contemplating if we should add Huge Power to the list of save slot options since doubling his base/racial strength stat was a rather significant gain. Actually, if we had done that before his breakthrough, we might have been able to find out whether it was possible for one of the parameters to start out at the S-value or not.

'Parameters:

Stage: Gold Stage (high)*

Vitality: D

Strength: A

Endurance: D

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: D

Energy Density: B'

As it stood, the royal gene he had unlocked pushed his starting strength value to A. That, along with the B his energy density had, was sufficient to push his parameter average enough for him to start at the (high) gold stage, even though the other 4 parameters "only" had a D-value.

Honestly, looking at that A-value, I could not help but regret the missed opportunity. Still, I'd make sure to do so during his next breakthrough. Oh, and every time he trained his strength since a higher (base) strength value meant a higher progress/training speed.

Now that I thought about that, we/he could totally do that for his other parameters as well as long as it was possible. Unfortunately, after going through all the abilities I knew, I could only think of two more abilities that actually doubled a base stat, and of those, Pure Power had the same effect as Huge Power, so I was only left with one that was worth looking for.

Fur Coat doubled the defense stat of the possessor, and there were two Pokemon species that possessed the ability, which meant that I would have to actually get one of them to have an available source to copy the ability from.

One of these species was Furfrou, while the other was the Alolan Persian. Considering my dislike for Alolan Persian, my choice naturally fell to Furfrou, so made a mental note to get one for Utopia once I had the time to do so. I personally had zero interest in the species, so the Furfrou would likely never join the team, but it would get to live in a virtual paradise, so everyone was winning.

As for Ali/Gallade not having any fur, that was irrelevant since his talent copied the effect of the ability. He did not need to have any fur to copy it, which was a relief since the idea of a furry Gallade just did not sit right with me. If the addition of Fur Coat would have actually caused Ali to grow fur, I would have probably not even contemplated the idea of adding it to his repertoire.

Anyway, I stopped for a moment and shared the good news I had come across so far with Ali and the others. They congratulated him, and some among them such as Seb joked that he had now joined their royal club. Ali was actually the seventh one among my Pokmeon to unlock the royal gene.

Though if we excluded Mothra/Butterfree from the equation because her royal gene had been upgraded to the king/queen game, then Ali was currently the sixth member of the royal club. Considering that royals were supposed to be quite rare, this was an insane number.

Anyway, I let my Pokmeon do their thing and focused back on the rest of Ali's status sheet.

'Immunity:

None

Resistance:

Fighting (Minor), Rock (Minor)

Weaknesses:

Ghost (Minor), Flying (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

Standardized:

Fairy (in progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy, Amazed

----

Masteries:

Psionic Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

Fairy Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

Fighting Energy Manipulation (Beginner) -> (Proficient)'

Looking at his type relation section, I was a bit disappointed to see that Ali did not get to take advantage of his breakthrough to complete his resistance training, which meant that he would have to standardize his fairy-type weakness the old-fashioned way after all.

As for his masteries below that, I still felt slightly incredulous whenever I saw his proficient fighting energy manipulation mastery. It was the fact that Ali/Gallade as a fighting type only had this mastery as a result of his Aura Sphere mastery alone, that was a bit embarrassing.

Still, that could not be helped. Sacrifices had to be made, and we decided to first focus on learning some slice-related moves to make use of Ali's Sharpness ability before we began developing additional slice-related moves based on those and the various elemental moves he already had.

'Techniques:

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

Novice:

Close Combat, Low Kick (new), Low Sweep (new), Brick Break (new), Bulk Up (new), Drain Punch (new), Fury Cutter (new), Night Slash (new), Water Blade (C, new), Ice Blade (C, new), Fire Blade (C, new), Thunder Blade (C, new), Wind Blade (C, new), Fairy Blade (C, new), Nether Blade (C, new)

Beginner:

Growl, Charm, Rest, Sleep Talk, Snore

Proficient:

Disarming Voice, Confusion, Protect, Hypnosis, Dream Eater, Draining Kiss, Life Dew, Mega Punch, Safeguard, Swift, Dazzling Gleam, Thunder Wave, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Fire Punch, Magical Leaf, Shadow Ball, Psycho Cut (new), Sword Dance (new), Aerial Ace (new), Energy Ball (new), Leaf Blade (new)

Advanced:

Double Team, Calm Mind, Psychic, Heal Pulse, Psybeam, Zen Headbutt, Future Sight, Endure, Slash (+3)

Mastered:

Teleport, Aura Sphere (+)

Combo/Custom:

Water Blade (Novice), Ice Blade (Novice), Fire Blade (Novice), Thunder Blade (Novice), Wind Blade (Novice), Fairy Blade (Novice), Nether Blade (Novice)'

That focus meant that Ali ended up with a rather extensive list of moves at beginner mastery, but that was fine since we were mostly done with learning new moves. Only Sacred Sword was still on the list of options, but learning that one proved to be surprisingly hard.

Anyway, thanks to Sharpness, nearly each one of his "blade, cut, or slash" moves was as strong as a super/ultimate move like Solar Beam or Hydro Pump, and with that kind of move repertoire, Ali was now free to focus on improving the moves he already had. He would only start learning additional moves once the old ones had reached at least proficiency.

Honestly, Ali's current move pool was already enough to turn him into a nearly unstoppable fighting machine. He had enough moves to boost himself, an impressive number of "ultimate"-level moves capable of effectively dealing with nearly every type, Teleport to move around nearly unhindered, and more than 5 moves to heal himself.

If someone like this was not considered impressive I did not know who deserved that label. Regardless, once I was done checking Ali's updated status sheet, I declared the start of his celebration. I had wanted to spend some time with my Pokemon anyway, and a celebration was a pretty great way to do that.

We kept going until my 6 hours of free time were nearly up, at which point I left Utopia and made my way back to the border camp. At the end of the day, this Grouday had been awesome, and I thought that the new month could not have started better than this.

Still, great start or not, that did not change anything for the monotony I felt during the following week starting on Arcday. Only my search for the Quagsire grouping during my 6 hours of free time on Grouday served as a welcome distraction.

Honestly, at this point, I could not help but wonder what was keeping the invading Pokemon I had been expecting/envisioning. I mean I had read through the various action/invasion reports in the archive, and I knew for a fact that a calm period like this was rather unusual. Usually, the border camp had to deal with more intrusion than this.

Some of the soldiers and officers mentioned that point to me as well. They said that I was lucky enough that my military phase coincided with a lull period for the camp. Obviously, I could not just say that I would have preferred it if we got attacked a few more times, but that's what I thought whenever I heard something along those lines.

Anyway, I failed to find any traces of the Quagsire that day, but I did manage to cover quite a distance. The fact that Quagsire would have settled beside a water source made my search easier. Still, it seemed that luck was on my side after all since I finally managed to come across a bunch of strolling Quagsire.

It could have been possible that they had nothing to do with the Quagsire that I was searching for, but that was unlikely, so I decided to quietly follow behind them, instead of confronting them, to try to find the rest of their group.

That decision ended up being a good one since it appeared that the Quagsire had managed to find themselves a large-sized underground pond or a really small-sized underground lake depending on how one looked at it. The entrance to the place was an inconspicuous hole/crack that I seriously doubted I would have noticed if not for the Quagsire unknowingly showing me the way.

My entrance attracted the attention of the inhabitants of the underground cave/pond. Looking at the numbers there was a high chance that this was the Quagsire grouping that got driven off 3.5 years ago. Though they were not the only species that I saw. There was a bunch of Slowbro and Slowpoke as well.

Still, I ignored them and made my way to the strongest Quagsire I could see. Mothra/Butterfree, as well as Horus/Xatu, were naturally by my side, and Mothra was lying on her favorite hang-out spot. A few more Quagsire gathered by the Quagsire's side when they saw that I was heading for it.

The Quagsire was rather straightforward, and directly asked me what I wanted once I stopped in front of it. I shared why I tracked them down, namely to offer them the chance to relocate to a heaven/paradise grotto I had access to, which had an environment that was multiple times better than this underground pond of theirs.

Unfortunately, the boss Quagisre declined the offer even after I elaborated on Utopia's awesomeness, and even when I offered it the chance to simply take a look at Utopia Quagsire said that it was not interested.

It appeared simply uninterested in my offer, and I could feel that it was not the only one. Even the other Quagisre by its side appeared uninterested in what I had to say, though it appeared that someone else was interested in my offer.

Just as I was considering whether I should challenge Quagsire with the stake of taking a look at Utopia, or if I should leave them alone, one of the Slowbro close by came up to me and expressed its interest in checking out the place I mentioned.

---------------------

This part is purely to display Ali's status screen in one piece and does not count toward the word count.

'Name: Ali

Species: Gallade

Gender: Male

Age: 12+ years

Type: Psychic, Fighting

Potential: Deep Purple (70.93%)

Genetic variation: Royal

Abilities: Steadfast, Sharpness

Talents: Save Point Plus (Moxie)

Affinities: Psychic, Fairy, Fighting

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Persevering

----

Parameters:

Stage: Gold Stage (high)

Vitality: D

Strength: A

Endurance: D

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: D

Energy Density: B

----

Immunity:

None

Resistance:

Fighting (Minor), Rock (Minor)

Weaknesses:

Ghost (Minor), Flying (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

Standardized:

Fairy (in progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy, Amazed

----

Masteries:

Psionic Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

Fairy Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

Fighting Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

Novice:

Close Combat, Low Kick, Low Sweep, Brick Break, Bulk Up, Drain Punch, Fury Cutter, Night Slash, Water Blade (C), Ice Blade (C), Fire Blade (C), Thunder Blade (C), Wind Blade (C), Fairy Blade (C), Nether Blade (C)

Beginner:

Growl, Charm, Rest, Sleep Talk, Snore

Proficient:

Advanced:

Double Team, Calm Mind, Psychic, Heal Pulse, Psybeam, Zen Headbutt, Future Sight, Endure, Slash

Mastered:

Teleport, Aura Sphere

Combo/Custom:

Water Blade (Novice), Ice Blade (Novice), Fire Blade (Novice), Thunder Blade (Novice), Wind Blade (Novice), Fairy Blade (Novice), Nether Blade (Novice)

-----------------------------

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