The first one of that trio was one of the two Treecko I noted among the group with the highest potential at deep blue. Obviously, there was a reason I chose him over the other one, and that was because he had an advantage over the other Treecko.
'Species: Treecko
Gender: Male
Type: Grass
Potential: Deep Blue
Stage: Iron-stage (High)
(Genetic) Modifiers: None
Abilities: Overgrow, Unburden
Talents: None
Affinities: Grass, Dragon'
This little guy had an additional dragon affinity, and as usual, any extra affinity was welcome. That was doubly true for the dragon affinity since it made me think of Mega Sceptile, who had a grass/dragon dual typing. I would have wondered if the tribe had a Mega staying in seclusion or something like that, but this Treecko was the only one with a dragon affinity of any degree or any extra affinity, really; Hence, I suspected that there might have been a visiting dragon type at some point that hooked up with one of the Sceptile and the baby got lucky, or there was really a Mega Sceptile involved but the Mega was either long gone or minimally prolific.
I was more inclined to the idea that there was either a visiting dragon or that the tribe used to have a Mega member, but that said member was a thing of the past. The second Trecko that caught my interest was the only female among the three I liked, and she was also the one that stood out the most, and I meant that quite literally.
'Species: Treecko
Gender: Female
Type: Grass
Potential: Blue
Stage: Bronze-stage (Low)
(Genetic) Modifiers: Shiny
Abilities: Overgrow, Unburden
Talents: None
Affinities: Grass'
Her being a Shiny made me notice her straight away, and even though she had already broken through to the bronze stage, which made her the only bronze one among my preferred trio, I decided to look past that unfavorable detail in favor of her Shiny gene considering that her potential happened to be pretty good as well. I would have obviously preferred it a lot if she had been at the iron stage instead, but once she underwent Utopia's optimization Treecko stood a decent chance of having her potential raised to light purple, and a Shiny with light purple potential was definitely a great choice.
Granted I was more inclined to go with the last member of the trio if I was only able to leave with a single Treecko at the end, but I was hoping that if I managed to get all three interested in coming with me, then the edler/tribe would be open to negotiate the exchange of all three Treecko with me. However, if I had to choose just a single Treecko, I would likely go with the third one.
'Species: Treecko
Gender: Male
Type: Grass
Potential: Blue
Stage: Iron-stage (High)
(Genetic) Modifiers: Ability-Mutation
Abilities: Overgrow, Unburdened
Talents: None
Affinities: Grass'
Blue potential was pretty good, but the apparent drawing point for this little guy was obviously his modifier. I usually saw the Ability-Variant modifier, which indicated that the Pokemon had a different ability than usual for its species, but this little guy had a modifier that I was seeing for the first time. I believe it was pretty clear what the Ability-Mutation modifier did; It took an existing ability the Pokemon possessed and mutated it, and while I was sure that this could end up pretty random, the result, in this case, was pretty great.
The ability that mutated for Treecko was Unburden and it turned to Unburdened. The difference on paper was minimal, but in reality, that little difference had a giant impact turning a somewhat decent ability, maybe not even that, into a great one. Unburdened took the speed boost granted by its source and turned it into a permanent passive, granting Treecko a 50% increase in its RV/BS Agility value. That its Agility value/parameter was the Treecko line's highest one made this a very good boost; Unburdened granted Teecko a ~11.5% overall boost and that amount remained roughly the same for both of its evolutions.
Honestly, I kind of preferred this kind of modifier over the Shiny one because its boost was pretty close to that of the Shiny one, while the chances of unlocking a second modifier were quite a bit higher than the one a Shiny gene holder would have. Not to mention that it made Treecko's second ability much more useful. Anyway, even though I definitely preferred the last Treecko over the other two, I still spent the rest of the hour focusing my efforts/attention on those three, though I made sure to not completely ignore the rest of the Treecko to maintain a good image in the eyes of the rest of the tribe and my targets, for obvious reasons.
Eventually, the elder declared that the hour was up and he asked me which Treecko I had chosen. I naturally pointed toward the trio I had focused on, and the elder jokingly told me that he would check if any of them would want to join me. He asked each one of the three Treecko if they would be willing to join me and I could tell that he was a bit surprised when all three declared their willingness. That exchange put a smile on my face, but I swiftly toned down the smile a bit, to turn it into one that was politer since I did not want the elder to think I was teasing him after his "joke".
When the elder turned back to me and confirmed that all three were interested before asking me which one I wanted, I could naturally not resist asking if there was a chance for me to negotiate the transfer of all three to my side. The elder did not refuse my request straight away and began to ponder instead, which was definitely a good sign, so I kept quiet and let him think. He eventually said that it was not impossible, but he asked me to wait for a moment since he would have to discuss my request with some others who had a say in this matter.
The elder then left us alone and walked through the crowd to find his fellow decision-makers. I and my Pokemon spent the time he was away with the Treecko trio to further their good impression of us. It took roughly 15 minutes for Elder Sceptile to return, and he announced that they had decided to give me the chance to make an offer for all three Treecko, but that they would retain the right to refuse if they felt that my offers were not good enough. I had no problem with that and directly asked him what they wanted/expected for the Treecko instead of giving them an offer.
That seemed to take him off guard for a moment but he swiftly began to list items their tribe acknowledged as valuable before declaring how much of those they would like per Treecko. The items he listed included high-grade Leaf Stones/Crystals, Millenial Woods, rare flowers and seedlings as well as (lively) stalks, along with a few other items that were useful to grass-type Pokemon. As for the amount, if we went with Leaf Stones we would have to use around 5 kilograms instead of pieces, which was a considerable price to pay. He showed me a big rock when he mentioned the weight/amount and I determined that it weighed around 5 kg.
If we assumed that a Leaf Stone weighed anything from 150-200 gr, then around 5 kg of Leaf Stones potentially ended up being 25 to 34 Leaf Stones. High-grade items meant that the stones had to be either B or A-grade, so let us assume I gave them B-grade ones since I at least had those at hand; The market price for a B-grade Leaf Stone was currently between 1 and 1.2 million Poke depending on your luck, so the Sceptile elders were practically asking for 25 to 41 million Poke per Treecko if we closed the deal using only Leaf Stones.
While I was sure that I could reduce that a bit using flowers and some other stuff, I did not think that I could reduce that below 20 million even if I did that. Nonetheless, I could accept paying 25 million for a Treecko, especially ones as outstanding as the ones I had found since 25 million was only slightly above the price one would have to pay to get one on the market if one was lucky. I had read/heard about cases where unlucky people had to pay up to 45 million Poke or more for a 5-star Treecko due to a scarcity of available Treecko during that period.
Hence, using 25 B-grade Leaf Stones to get one Treecko or 75 stones for all Treecko was perfectly fine with me even if their total worth was 75 million Poke or even more than that since Utopia had produced them for me for free and it could do so again if I wanted, which I was going to request since I aimed to always have a stock of 80 stones of all kinds at all grades in stock; I used all kinds of evolution stones as well as crystals in the supplements I made for my Pokemon and in various other things I did like ball crafting, so having a supply of them in my inventory was a must.
Anyway, I brought out a sack filled with 75 B-grade Leaf Stones and handed it to the elder, who seemed surprised that I actually had the resources for that trade. He weighed the bag in his hands and nodded, declaring that the weight was appropriate before he opened the bag to look inside. He nodded once more before calling someone and ordering them to bring one of their own sacks over. I told him that they could keep the one I gave him, but he waved me off. Once the Sceptile returned with the leaf satchel, the elder transferred the Leaf Stones to the new sack one by one, and he scrutinized each stone for a moment before placing it into the leaf bag.
It was obvious that he was confirming the quality of each stone and I had to nod at that since his cautious approach made sense and was sensible. Once he was done transferring the stones he gave me a satisfied nod before declaring that the transaction was complete. The elder then turned to the three Treecko and told them that they could now go with me; He also wished them a successful future, before reminding them to train hard and to become powerful Sceptile in the future. The Treecko all nodded determinedly before giving the elder a slight bow while thanking him for his nice words.
Afterward, they came up to me and expressed their happiness at being able to join us after thanking Mothra/Butterfree and the others for the warm welcome. They then asked me for the chance to say goodbye to their family, which I naturally did not mind, and while they headed towards the crowd, my Pokemon, at least the ones that were beside me right now, dragged me into a mental/telepathic conversation. They were finally unable to keep their curiosity in check and asked me why I chose those three in particular, so I told them about the things that stood out to me.
The fact that we now had two male and one female Treecko was not missed by Tatsumaki, who asked if I was planning to start a colony in Utopia before adding that she would recommend getting another female if that was the case. I was not sure if she mentioned that to tease me somehow or if she was serious, but it did spark a debate with the others discussing if I should ask the elder for another trade or not, which by the brief smile I saw flash past Tatsumaki's face was probably her plan.
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