Enji/Growlithe began to shine in a bright light that signaled the beginning of his evolution. The first thing everyone noticed after the evolution was over was a very brief moment of heaviness before it vanished.
Then we saw Enji in all his glory. An Arcanine stood in the middle of the circle and he looked awesome. The average arcanine was already impressive with a length of 200 cm and a height of 130 cm, paw to shoulder with the part above the shoulder included, an average Arcanine stood at 190 cm.
Enji was a cut above that. He looked to be about 230 cm in length, his height paw to shoulder seemed to be around 150 cm with the part above the shoulder included he probably stood at 210 cm or so. While the difference sounded not that big on paper, visually it made quite the distinction.
Well, instead of me going over to him he excitedly bound over to me and threw me over in his attempt to hug me. Everyone laughed at that and Enji stood above me excitedly asking "dad, dad, don't I look awesome?"
His tail was going crazy wagging back and forth. I had to laugh as well at his exuberance. I sat up and pat his head before I began caressing it and his neck. Everyone crowded us soon enough to congratulate the not-so-little guy.
I decided to check Enji's status, curious about the possible changes and whether my plan with the moves had worked or not. I mean, I was hopeful that it did, going by the brief force we felt after his evolution.
'Name: Enji
Species: Arcanine (Growlithe*)
Gender: Male
Age: 5+ years
-
Type: Fire
Potential: Deep Purple (17.91%) -> (29.53%)
Genetic modifiers: None
Abilities: Flash Fire, Justified
Talents: Pressure (new)
Affinities: Fire
-
Bond: Mikail (strong)
Quirk: Lively
----
Parameters:
Stage: Silver Stage (high)
Vitality: C
Strength: C
Endurance: D
Agility: C
Energy Capacity: C
Energy Density: D
----
Immunity:
Fire
-
Resistance:
Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor), Bug (Minor), Steel (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Water (Minor), Ground (Minor), Rock (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Water (in progress)
----
Condition: Healthy, Happy, Excited
----
Masteries:
Fire Energy Manipulation (Proficient) -> (Advanced)
----
Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
N/A
-
Novice:
Flame Charge (new), Dig (new), Protect (new), Extreme Speed (new)
-
Beginner:
Helping Hand, Retaliate, Reversal, Odor Sleuth (new, +), Wild Charge (new, +), Outrage (new, +)
-
Proficient:
Bite, Endure, Iron Tail, Crunch, Take Down, Leer (+), Flare Blitz (+), Play Rough (+), Flame Burst (new, ++), Heat Wave (new, ++)
-
Advanced:
Flame Wheel, Agility, Flamethrower, Howl, Roar (+), Ember (+), Fire Fang (+)
-
Mastered:
N/A'
The first thing I did was to look at his genes as well as talents, and I felt excitement surge through me at what I saw. I felt great, my plan had actually worked, or at least I assumed that it did.
It could have been a coincidence as well, but I doubted it. Assuming that it happened due to the steps I had taken made me feel much better. I was going to roll with that one, and there was no one could who could tell me otherwise.
I had theorized that bringing up Howl, Roar, and Leer to advanced mastery could help Enji unlock a talent like Intimidate. He had managed to bring his Howl, as well as Roar, to advanced mastery and Leer to proficiency before his evolution.
Thanks to that, at least in my opinion, Enji managed to unlock Pressure as his talent after his evolution to Arcanine. Pressure allowed Enji to release a pressure/aura that caused those targeted by it to become more hesitant and slow down a bit.
It was practically an Intimidate that targeted Agility instead of Strength. However, Pressure also increased the likelihood of the target flinching back, so it could be seen as a slightly better alternative.
I began to increase the intensity of my brushing out of excitement which turned Enji into a puddle. He decided to get into a more comfortable position, so he laid down and placed his head on my lap so that I could keep stroking his head.
The others made slightly envious sounds, so I promised them all a grooming/massaging session so they began collectively cheering. In situations like these, I wished there was something like the Shadow Clone Jutsu to let me do more things at once.
The closest thing was Double Team but while pretty close the move did not work like that, at least not at the start. At the start it was practically like the regular Bunshin, an illusion, but the higher the mastery the more corporeal the doubles became.
Still, they did not give back any experience and could not leave too far from the user. Nonetheless, while an advanced or mastered Double Team would actually let me groom multiple of my Pokemon at once, that did not help me right now, since I was currently unable to learn any Pokemon moves not made of aura or psionic energy.
Anyway, I got a bit off-topic here, so back to Enji's status screen. Looking at his potential, I could see that all the money and hard work that I invested into the preparation for Enji's evolution were worth it.
His potential had actually increased by nearly 12 percent despite him already having deep purple potential, and that was a huge improvement at this point. I would have honestly paid double the amount and worked twice as hard if I knew that was what was necessary to achieve such growth.
Nonetheless, it actually happened with what I did, so I was happy and more than satisfied with the returns. As for his moves, the only change as a result of his evolution was the addition of Extreme Speed, which was a great move. Extreme Speed was Quick Attack's big brother that was always better in everything, and part of the reason Arcanine had such an exalted status, along with their valiant looks and great strength.
It was no wonder why there used to be legends in some parts of humanity's territory and history regarding Arcanine being something akin to a legendary. Anyway, obviously unbiased opinion that had absolutely nothing to do with fanboying aside, the rest of the status screen had not changed.
I was happy with the changes I saw, but I still stopped rubbing Enji's head and told him to let me up. Once I was able to stand up, I had everyone stand together for our traditional photo. Afterward, I pulled out a few grills and a lot of meat and we threw a grill party to celebrate Enji's evolution.
When I showed my parents Enji in his new form after dinner they were surprised and proud of us. Dad called out Agni and we let them run around outside. Since our property was too small to let them go as fast as they could, they ran into the wild for their little father-son run.
They came back the next day and Enji began to excitedly tell me how fast they were and how far they ran. They actually ran towards the coast close to Cyan City before they proceeded to run eastward towards the eastern end of the continent. They stopped somewhere close to what I assume was Teal City, before running back in a straight line through the wild.
If I was not wrong that was a round trip of around 12.000 km in less than 18 hours. Scratch that, if I removed the times they paused to admire the surroundings or decided to stop for the night, then it took them less than 10 hours to do the 12.000 km round trip.
That was pretty awesome, especially when one considered that they went at Enji's speed and not Agni/Arcanine's speed since his maximum speed was higher due to him being at the dark gold stage.
Taking such feats into account the "massive" continents humanity settle on and the even more massive continents out there somewhere on the sea did not seem as massive as before.
They were still enormous, no doubt about that, but it no longer seemed impossible to cover the distances that seemed too vast to cover before, especially when one thought about the Pokemon at the platinum or even palladium stage.
Anyway, not long after that little event the third term ended and the vacations began. The vacations after the third term were always 3 months long, so I had 3 months of free time. Well, Mr. Burns did ask me to keep up my weapon drills.
Since the start of the vacation also meant the arrival of the last month of the year 2179, we decided that we were going to spend the time before and a bit after Rayquaza's Patrol in our old home in Hope Town.
We spent the first few days just cleaning up the house, before spending a few more days weeding the lawn and garden of our property, so all in all we spent close to one and a half weeks just cleaning.
Unexpectedly, we actually discovered four little Pokemon families that had settled on our property during our absence. A family of 5 Oddish had settled within mom's flower bed. A group/family of 4 Caterpie had settled within the small grove where Cyan/Butterfree and Emerald/Butterfree used to stay.
A small armada of 6 Wooper settled in our pond, and finally, a group of 7 Hoppip and 2 Skiploom settled on Agni's previous spot since it was close to the flower bed, full of grass, and still gave off a slight amount of enjoyable warmth due to the length Agni spent there.
Still, since all four families belonged to species that were pretty much harmless as long as they were not forced into a corner we allowed them to stay. Nonetheless, we did establish who the actual owner of the property was and that we were allowing them to keep living in OUR home. It was important to establish these facts to avoid unpleasant situations.
I invited all my friends over for a visit and all of them promised to come over during the vacation. Kinji and Aaron decided to come over on the same day since they wanted to use the chance to see each other as well since they had not seen each other for a while due to being busy with their own thing.
Their visit was a week before Rayquaza's Descent and we threw a little grill "party" for them. Rose and her parents came over for Rayquaza's Descent and stayed until Rayquaza's Ascent, which meant that they were with us for the new year.
We actually invited Ace, Weiss, and their parents as well, but they couldn't come due to other commitments. Instead, they along with their parents came by two weeks later for a visit. Obviously, we threw a grill party for them as well, one could never have enough excuses to throw a grill party. I kept throwing one all the time in Utopia.
Just three days after their visit, so halfway through the second month of my vacation, Hashirama/Venusaur's Energy Density reached C and that was his second parameter to reach the C-value. Coincidentally, a day after that, Kun/Azuraid's Endurance reached D, which allowed him to enter the priority list.
Actually, only a week later, at the beginning of the final week of the second month, Kun/Azuraid's Agility reached C, becoming his first parameter at the C-value. Misty showed up for a visit on Kyoday of that week, which was the 04.02.2180. I introduced her to my parents and we spent the day talking about the things we had been up to since our last meeting.
The days after that were less exciting, and we decided to return to our home in Rota City on Grouday, the 11.02.2180, which was nearly halfway through the third, as well as the final month of my vacation.
I was honestly not expecting anything significant to happen until 03.03.2180 which was the day the Academy resumed, so when I, suddenly and unexpectedly, reached Tier 2 First-Class as an aura user a week before the end of the vacation, I was genuinely flabbergasted.
Oh, I was ecstatic, but it came so unexpectedly that it took me by complete surprise.
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