After I had done my good deed for the month, even if I had been a bit forceful in the process, we continued heading towards the exit of the Hoenn Desert in Fallabor City's direction. If I had managed to keep a good enough track of our journey and I was reading the map right, then we should be able to reach the boundary of the desert sometime tomorrow, probably sometime between 2 and 4 p.m. From there, it should take us either until that evening or sometime the next morning to completely leave the Hoenn Desert behind us and if I did not make any big mistakes, we should arrive in Fallabor City after traveling at our usual travel pace for an additional 2 to 3 days.
So, if we left the desert on Dialday, which happened to be the last day of the month, then we should arrive at Fallabor City on either Grouday of the first week or on Arcday of the second week of the new/24th month. That meant that I would need to book my Gym Challenge for the second week, ideally around the first half of it. Thankfully I did not need an internet connection for that, which should happen either tonight or tomorrow morning when I came closer to or reached the boundary of the desert. Still, I already had a regular signal, which meant that I could make calls, and since I had already saved the number of the Fallabor Gym, I decided to not postpone the issue any more than necessary.
I directly took out my phone and called the Gym. It took a few moments, but someone eventually took the call, and once the receptionist finished her standard greeting lines, I told her why I had called. Since I already had some experience due to the previous challenge reservation I made, I directly listed the numbers as well as articles she had to look up and go through to ensure that the verification process went as swiftly as possible. While I could hear from her tone over the phone that the receptionist lady was a bit baffled, she remained perfectly professional. She did not put on any airs and followed the process I mentioned. Thanks to that, we were able to move on to the actual challenge registration in about a minute.
Luckily, there were multiple open slots for the second week of the next month, including on Arcday. While that might have possibly been a bit tight time-wise according to the mental timeline I made before the call if I got delayed or my guesses were wrong, I was not worried about missing the Gym Challenge since I could always just speed up the final stretch. Running at full speed, flying, or simply teleporting could compress the final stretch into a matter of minutes, which would take care of any delays. The only reason I was not speed running the Hoenn Region or rather their Gym Challenge, which I was definitely capable of doing, was that I wanted to enjoy the journey after all.
Anyway, I ended up registering for an 8-Badge 3-star challenge on Arcday at 5 p.m. The receptionist lady informed me that I would be facing 2 Elite Gym Trainers in a 4-vs-4 battle first to earn the privilege of facing Gym Leader Ryujin in a 6-vs-6 battle. She generously added that I could prepare for the challenge by accessing the information listed on their Gym's website and the associated forum. I naturally thanked her for the advice even if I had no interest in following it. The lady was just being nice/helpful after all, but I was still planning to stick to my decision to go into the Gym battle blind.
All I knew about the Fallabor Gym was that it was the Dragon Gym among Hoenn's Major Gyms and that Ryujin was the great-granddaughter of Drake, the Dragon Master of Hoenn. I learned the last bit from the online and offline gossip I came across. Another bit that I could not help but stumble across without trying was that Ryujin's starter was a descendant of Drake's Ace Pokemon Salamance, though I was not sure if Ryujin would actually use her (high) platinum stage Salamance against me in a Gym Challenge. It was not impossible since I was going for the official highest-level challenge, the 8-badge 3-star challenge, but I was not sure if Ryujin would use her ace in a sanctioned Gym Battle.
There was a good chance that I would be using her real/strongest team if that was the case, and I was pretty sure that that would be way over the top. Still, I did not exclude the possibility since there was the chance that she might do it simply because she might have heard about my reputation and chose to give me a real challenge, a lesson in humility, or both. Either way, I knew what type I would be facing and I already had an idea who would be participating in the Gym Challenge and who wouldn't. One thing was clear, I was going to go all out regardless of whether Ryujin was going to do the same or not.
Putting that issue aside, I did not put my phone away after concluding the call with the Fallabor Gym. I still had to share the news with the rest of the group and my parents after all since I had promised them to at least keep them up to date whenever I challenged a Major Gym, which the Fallabor Gym unfortunately happened to be. I first sent a message to the group that I would be slaying some dragons for my next Gym Battle before adding the date, time, and location of the battle/challenge. It was lucky that text messages could be sent and received even without an internet connection by piggybacking the regular mobile signal or I would have had to either call someone from the group to let them share the news in my stead or wait until I got some internet access.
Anyway, after I had sent the messages, I directly called my mom since I knew that she would not be satisfied with just a text. It had been a few weeks since I last talked with/called her after all. The talk with Mom went as well as I expected. She first grilled me about how I was and what I had been up to. She did not forget to ask how Mothra/Butterfree and the others were, which had the lady reply with a happy trill, which Mom heard. I still told her that everyone was doing good, and once she was satisfied that we were doing well, she began to scold me for not calling more often, before grudgingly passing the phone to my dad who also wanted to speak with me, while in truth he just chose to help my cut short mom's scolding.
I talked with him for a bit, asking what they were up to, before wishing them both a nice day and concluding the call. After that, I took a look at the group chat, which already had a few replies, and after joining the chat/conversation, I spent close to 15 minutes texting with the others. It took that long because more and more of the others began to join in while we were chatting. Nonetheless, I eventually sent a message that I had to go before putting away my phone.
We continued our journey after that, and we were actually lucky enough to come across a group of Drilbur. I had honestly not expected to see any more of them this close to the boundary of the desert, but I was definitely happy at the chance to see if any of them qualified for Utopia. It seemed that my luck held true since I found a rather good Drilbur with light green potential. I persuaded her to join me and left her group a small hill of berries after I balled her. I would have offered to plant some trees for them, but I found out while I was checking them out that the group was merely passing through the area. Their home was quite a bit away, which was why I did not mention the tree matter.
There were no further lucky encounters after that and I could not help but feel a bit regretful about that as we returned to Utopia for dinner. Still, my Pokemon got to battle a few times and we were close to reaching the boundary area, so there was that. Palkiday morning followed the same pattern as the earlier ones, and we once more left Utopia after breakfast. While we saw none of the Pokemon on my list, we did meet a guy who was heading into the desert who actually happened to be decently strong as I found out after I accepted his challenge.
Seb/Nidoking and Gaia/Nidoqueen got to battle Leif's dark gold stage Golem, Steelix, Camerupt, and Magnezone. My duo managed to win both their individual battles, though they did get a bit scuffed up in the process. Still, once Leif had moved on, the two shared that they were quite happy that they had finally gotten the chance to sweat a bit while I healed them up. Not long after that encounter, the arid ground began to turn into regular earth while patches of green started appearing here and there. This transition in the ground/environment signaled that we had already made it to the boundary area of the Hoenn Desert.
While we still saw the occasional Geodude, Diglett, and Sandslash, other non-desert species like Zigzagoon, Poochyena, Wurpmle, and Taillow began to appear as well. Within but an hour the sand had begun to become sparser than the regular ground, and at this point, I was pretty sure that we had already left the designated area of the Hoenn Desert. The reason I had to guess instead of being certain was that we did not come across any signs that said "Welcome to the Hoenn Desert" like the one we saw upon entry. Those were obviously spread out since they could not plant a sign every ten meters or so, so us not seeing one was not surprising.
Nonetheless, since I had decided to believe that we had left the desert, I chose to let my 2nd thought stream do a tally of our gains during the slightly more than 3 weeks we spent there while we continued heading toward Fallabor City. The two biggest and most important gains I made were without a doubt the Pokemon I captured and the ghost-nurturing matrixes Utopia gained. The number of Pokemon I caught in total was an astronomical 1443, though nearly 1100 of those belonged to the three groups I caught for the Pinkan project.
It was also due to the Feebas, Tentacool, and Wooper groups that only 364 of the Pokemon I caught fulfilled the propagation standard I set for Utopia. Out of the 27 lines or 42 species that made up all Pokemon I captured, the Trapinch line, Skorupi line, and Taillow line were the most numerous among those capable of breeding, which was very nice, especially the Trapinch part. Definitely noteworthy as well were the species I did not expect to find in the Hoenn Desert but still managed to capture like the Sandile, Krokorok, Drilbur, Pawniard, Helioptile, and that single Silicobra.
Oh, the ghosts, especially Palossand, along with the Gligar and Skarmory were great as well, but they were not as surprising as the previous group. Well, that was if we ignored Palossand's past as a cannibalistic amalgam, but we don't talk about that. Anyway, all in all, I had an incredible haul during my time in the Hoenn Desert, and all that without exploring much of the outer area or entering far into the inner area much less the core area. I was definitely going to come back to check out those areas. I had to admit that I was also curious if I would be able to find the Flygon habitat with the fossils that Nadir and his group mentioned.
I had not looked at their map since that would have been wrong, so all I knew was that the place was somewhere in the inner area, but that was enough of a lead for me so I would definitely give finding the place a try when I came back to the Hoenn Desert.
-----------------------------
The official chapter ends here. The next bit is the actual tally of the Pokemon he caught during his time in the Hoenn Desert, with marked numbers and potential.
-
1443 Pokemon caught during Hoenn Desert exploration end of CH805, 364 of those are allowed to propagate if they want; Split among 27 lines/42 species.
Vibrava (2)
1 deep green
1 green
-
72 Trapinch all of which are approved for propagation
1 light purple
1 deep blue
3 blue
4 light blue (1 with talent (strong Jaw))
8 deep green
25 green
29 light green
1 yellow + ability variant (Huge Power)
19 Gligar, 10 of them can breed
1 blue
2 light blue
2 deep green
2 green
3 light green
3 deep yellow
4 yellow
1 light yellow
1 deep orange
Geodude (4), all of them can breed
1 light blue
1 green
2 light green
-
Graveler (2), both can breed
1 light purple
1 green
Sandygast (1), can breed
light blue (shiny, desert variant)
Palossand (1), can breed
(high) dark gold stage light purple (alpha, desert variant)
4 Beautifly, all of them can breed
1 blue
1 light blue
1 deep green
1 green
-
5 Silcoon, all of them can breed
1 deep blue
1 deep green
3 green
-
3 Dustox, all of them can breed
1 light blue
1 deep green
1 green
-
4 Cascoon, all of them can breed
1 light blue
1 deep green
2 green
-
7 Wurmple, all of them can breed
1 blue
2 deep green
4 green
3 Krokorok, all of them can breed
1 blue
1 deep green
1 light green
-
16 Sandile, all of them can breed
2 light blue
2 deep green
6 green
6 light green
5 Drapion, all of them can breed
1 deep green, (low) dark gold male
1 green, (high) gold female
3 light green, 2 (low) gold, 1 (high) silver
-
79 Skorupi, only 21 of them can breed
1 blue
1 light blue
3 deep green
8 green
8 light green
9 deep yellow
7 yellow
13 light yellow
18 deep orange
6 orange
5 light orange
3 Sandslash, all of them can breed
1 blue
1 light blue
1 light green
-
10 Sandshrew, all of them can breed
1 light blue
4 deep green
4 green
1 light green
3 Dugtrio, all of them can breed
1 light purple
1 light blue
1 green
-
13 Diglett, all of them can breed
2 blue
2 light blue
7 deep green
2 green
1 Cacturne, can breed
1 deep green
-
13 Cacnea, all of them can breed
1 light blue
2 deep green
8 green
1 light green
1 deep yellow (plus fire affinity)
2 Lombre, both can breed
1 deep green
1 green
-
2 Lotad, both can breed
1 light blue
1 green
8 Swellow, all of them can breed
1 blue
1 light blue
1 deep green
3 green
2 light green
-
49 Taillow, 35 of them can breed
2 blue
1 light blue
5 deep green
9 green
18 light green
14 deep yellow
Misdreavus (2), 1 can breed
1 light green
1 deep yellow
Shuppet (1), can breed
1 green
Gastly (1), can breed
1 deep green
Duskull (2), both can breed
1 deep green
1 light green
Numel (3), all of them can breed
1 green
2 light green
Cubone (1), can breed
1 green
8 Drilbur, all of them can breed
1 blue
1 light blue
1 deep green
2 green
3 light green
Skarmory (1), can breed
1 light green
Electrike (3), all of them can breed
1 light blue
1 green
1 light green
Helioptile (5), all of them can breed
2 green
2 light green (1 with extra dragon affinity)
1 yellow (plus extra dragon affinity)
Feebas (337), 19 of them can breed, the rest is purely for the Pinkan project unless some of them managed to elevate their potential during the project
1 blue
1 deep green
6 green
11 light green
23 deep yellow
27 yellow
42 light yellow
83 deep orange
51 orange
79 light orange
13 deep red
Tentacool (596), 40 of them can breed, the rest is purely for the Pinkan project unless some of them managed to elevate their potential during the project
1 deep blue
1 blue
1 light blue
2 deep green
9 green
26 light green
57 deep yellow
53 yellow
78 light yellow
113 deep orange
82 orange
128 light orange
45 deep red
Quagsire (28) 8 of them can breed, the rest is purely for the Pinkan project unless some of them managed to elevate their potential during the project
1 light blue
2 green
5 light green
7 deep yellow
11 yellow
2 light yellow
-
Wooper (117) 19 of them can breed, the rest is purely for the Pinkan project unless some of them managed to elevate their potential during the project
1 light blue
1 deep green
3 green
14 light green
9 deep yellow
11 yellow
19 light yellow
27 deep orange
19 orange
9 light orange
4 deep red
Pawniard (3), all of them can breed
1 light blue
1 green
1 light green
Silicobra (1), can breed
1 light green
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