Bruce/Golbat's evolution as well as the ensuing party were the highlights of the weekend, and considering that Arcday was the only day of the final/sixth week, I would say those two were also a great way to tie up the month.
The following Mewday was not only the beginning of the new/35th month of 2182, but it was also the start of the final month of the term. This meant that the midterm exams would begin at the start of the third week and go on until the end of the fourth week, which meant that I would only be able to return to the lab for the three days of the fifth/final week, due to the no work during the exam period policy.
So, I'd be back in the lab for only 3 days, before I'd be gone for 3 months due to the vacation of Term 3. Well, if my calculations were not wrong, I would get to be there when we finished the combination list thanks to those same three days, so at least I'd not miss out on that event.
Anyway, the week went by as usual, with only a slight addition to my day, which was an hour of revision of the trainer school classes. Other than that, the rest was as usual, and I ended up getting a pleasant surprise on Grouday during my routine check-up.
I saw that Po/Pangoro managed to complete the second round of his limit-breaking. My boy officially began his final round sometime during the week. The following week went by calmly as well, and I kept allocating an hour for revisions each day during this week as well.
On Dialday I had to say my goodbyes for the next two weeks since I would be taking part in the midterm exams on Arcday of the 3rd week. I made an exception for the weekend and increased my revision time to 5 hours per day, and by the end, I was confident that I knew all I needed to know to ace everything.
Obviously, I ended up breezing through all exams thanks to the cramming I had done at the start of the academic year and the revision I had done during the last two weeks. I was pretty sure that I'd get full marks in all of them, so I confidently shared that with my parents as well as friends after finishing my last exam on Dialday.
I decided to make a trip back home for the weekend, even though I'd be coming back for more than a month pretty soon. I'd say finishing the exams was a good enough reason to spend some time with my parents since I knew they would like to hear firsthand how everything went, even if they did not say so out loud.
I pretty much just chilled with my parents and our Pokemon during those two days, and I even pushed my weekly routine status check to the end of Grouday. I only did it after coming back to my dorm at 9 p.m. Surprisingly, I ended up finding out that Melinda/Mienshao had successfully completed her limit-breaking.
When I shared that she was ready for her breakthrough to the silver stage, everyone was excited and happy for her. We obviously, collectively, made our way over to her habitat, and I made sure to inform everyone else over UtopiaFM about Melinda's upcoming breakthrough, in case some of the non-main team members wanted to witness the breakthrough as well since I knew that a lot of them liked watching these things.
I let them mingle for a few minutes before I confirmed that no one else was joining us, so I told everyone aside from Melinda to back off to give her some space. Once they had circled her, I gave her a hug and a word of encouragement before stepping back myself. I joined the others in the circle and gave her the signal.
Melinda/Mienshao initiated the breakthrough, and since I knew that her potential would reach the aurora spectrum, I was not surprised when she lit up a little, and more energy was drawn to her. It ultimately took a bit longer than a usual breakthrough, but as all things did, her breakthrough also came to an end and I went up to her the moment it was over.
This time she was the one to hug me and she was happily laughing while she did that. When I asked her what had her in such an extra good mood, aside from the obvious, she said that she felt even more in control of her body than she did before.
It seemed that something good happened during her breakthrough, and I could not help but wonder if it had anything to do with the third ability she should have unlocked after attaining light aurora potential. However, I had a pretty good idea of what that ability would be and I did not think that it would cause such an effect.
Unless of course I was wrong and she ended up unlocking something else, such as a modifier, which might have even cost her some potential. Thankfully, I doubted that anything she could unlock would cost her the light aurora grade, so I was not really worried.
Anyway, after I congratulated her and left her to the tender mercies of the others, I quickly checked out her updated status screen.
'Name: Melinda
Species: Mienshao
Gender: Female
Age: 8+ years
-
Type: Fighting
Potential: Light Aurora (37.02%)*
{Deep Purple (13.57%) -> (14.06%) -> Light Aurora (37.02%)}
(Genetic) Modifier: None
Abilities: Inner Focus, Regenerator, Reckless*
Talents: Flowing Like Water*
Affinities: Fighting, Aura
-
Bond: Mikail (weak)
Quirks: Patient, Likes to Meditate
----
Parameters:
Stage: Silver Stage (mid)
Vitality: E
Strength: C
Endurance: E
Agility: C
Energy Capacity: D
Energy Density: E
----
Resistance:
Bug (Minor), Rock (Minor), Dark (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Flying (Minor), Psychic (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Standardized:
None
----
Condition: Healthy, Delighted, Pleased
----
Masteries:
Fighting Energy Manipulation (Proficient)
Aura Manipulation (Proficient)
----
Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
N/A
-
Novice:
Revenge (new)
-
Beginner:
Quick Guard, U-Turn
-
Proficient:
Detect, Reversal, Fury Swipes, Force Palm, Swift, Vital Throw, Pound, Fake Out, Double Slap, Hone Claws, Jump Kick, Bounce, Low Sweep, Low Kick, Brick Break, Focus Blast (++), Close Combat (++), High Jump Kick (++), Mega Punch (new), Mega Kick (new), Protect (new), Endure (new)
-
Advanced:
Aura Sphere, Meditate, Calm Mind, Drain Punch
-
Mastered:
N/A'
Well, first off the obvious one. The breakthrough bonus did raise her potential to light aurora and it even helped her past the first third of the way to aurora potential. Mienshao did not unlock a modifier, but she did unlock her third ability. She was now also in possession of the Reckless ability, which was the standard third ability in the Mienfoo/Mienshao line's ability pool.
To be honest, I did not really like the ability. Reckless gave "recoil" moves a 20% boost, but in return it increased the recoil, resulting in more self-harm. I was not a big fan of recoil moves, hence my dislike for Reckless, but it was already here, so not much I could do aside from having her either not using any recoil move, rendering the third ability practically useless, or have Mienshao master those moves to reduce the recoil as much as possible.
Not that she currently knew all that many recoil moves. The only ones she had at the moment were High Jump Kick and Jump Kick, so we'd have to see about somehow teaching her the others or even coming up with some on our own if that was what she wanted.
Regardless of that dilemma, I moved on and saw that Mienshao actually unlocked a talent, which I was assuming was the reason she felt more in control of her body since I seriously doubted Reckless to be the cause of that. Besides, Flowing Like Water did sound all "martial arty" and tai chi-like.
A quick check confirmed that it was indeed the cause of her feeling and not only that, but it also took care of my complaint. The increased bodily control bestowed by Flowing Like Water gave Mienshao's physical attacks/moves a passive power increase of 10%, and it actively dealt with any recoil damage by spreading the impact across the body and neutralizing it.
The talent was a perfect fit for Reckless. Not only did it augment the bonus, resulting in a 30% boost, but it also took care of the negative aspect, resulting in no recoil damage for Mienshao. I was really happy about that, so happy in fact that I let out a laugh, which attracted the attention of the others. It seemed the learning of recoil move could be seriously considered.
I shared the good news with Mienshao and the others. She was really happy to hear that, and everyone began to congratulate her. I quickly looked through the rest of the status screen and aside from her parameters nothing had changed as a result of her breakthrough.
Parameter-wise she was starting at the (mid) silver stage, somewhere around the middle of the road to the (high) silver stage. I told that to Mienshao and let them talk for a bit before declaring the start of her celebration. I only allowed the party to go a little bit past midnight since I had to be at the lab the following day, and it was around 1 a.m. when I finally got everyone including myself to go to sleep.
The next morning I made my way over to the lab and everyone greeted me happily. It was obvious that they were all in a pretty good mood, and I could understand why. As I had previously guessed, the combination list was about to be complete.
If, by some miracle, we did not end up finding a combo that worked as a trigger, we would be able to test the last item combination sometime tomorrow, around 4 p.m. At least that was what James told me and looking at the list, I fully agreed with him.
I naturally knew that none of the combinations on the list would work thanks to the test I did with Togetic. It was due to that exact reason, that I also knew that an actual alloy created by using the 2-item combination on the list would not work as a trigger either.
Yet, I honestly did not believe that I would be able to stop phase 2 if it came down to it, at least not completely. Nonetheless, I was still planning on bringing it up tomorrow, once the list was officially complete.
As expected, we failed to find a trigger that day, and even on the next, so we ultimately ended up going through the whole list without spotting a working combination. That made the atmosphere in the lab a bit ambiguous.
On one hand, everyone was disappointed about the lack of success. On the other hand, they were happy about having completed phase 1. As I had previously decided, I approached James after he officially declared phase 1 as complete.
I tried to persuade him that phase two would not yield any successful result and that it would be better if we directly began working on a list containing 3-item combinations, or even jumped towards 3-item alloys straight away using the reaction results of phase 1.
Unfortunately, I could not provide more than an "I have a feeling, inside my bones" when he asked me how I came to that conclusion. Predictably, that was not enough for James. I really tried my best to persuade him, but there was not much else I could say since I had no factual proof or data to support my claim.
In the end, James told me that I would be gone for my long break anyway and that we could revisit the topic three months later once I was back at the lab. However, until then the project team would proceed with phase 2 as planned. I could tell that he was waving me, or rather my idea, off in a polite way, but I resolved to definitely bring up the topic once again in three months.
Anyway, the rest of the day was spent preparing the lab for phase 2 since we would need some extra elements for the alloy creation process. The next morning, I did a brief stop at the trainer school to pick up my midterm report card, and predictably I had aced everything.
I spent the last day at the lab working on phase 2, but we failed to produce a viable alloy that day, so it was with empty hands and a lot of "enjoy your vacations", that I made my way back to my dorm that evening.
I cleaned up the room one last time since I would be gone for a while. I left for Hope Town the next morning just in time to make it back home for breakfast.
-----------------------------
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