Now that Mikail had left their property he had to choose where to start his exploration.
He decided to focus on a 3-km radius around their property for now and divide that into 8 areas.
He couldn't explore such a huge area, a bit more than 28 square kilometers, in one day otherwise.
Each area was about 3.5 square kilometers big and they were divided according to the cardinal directions.
North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, and Northwest.
For this outing, he decided to focus on the northern area.
The first 200 meters were easy to comb through, he found nothing special and only occasionally saw a Rattata or Pidgey.
But afterward the space he wanted to check kept getting wider.
Seeing that carefully checking for materials was going to take way longer than he had estimated he elected to simply go over the area as much as he could to familiarize himself with it and then carefully go over it bit by bit over multiple days.
He had underestimated the workload because he had thought that leisurely walking 3 kilometers normally took him about 30 minutes, so fully exploring 3.5 square kilometers shouldn't take longer than 3-4 hours.
But he had neglected to consider that those 30 minutes were spent walking 3 kilometers in a straight line, not to mention that this was not flat terrain.
He saw trees as far as he could see at least in the northern area, which should have been obvious seeing that Hope Town bordered the outskirts of the Viridian Forest.
As soon as he crossed the 200 meters mark it was like he had crossed an invisible boundary and his surroundings abruptly came to life.
He saw many more Pokemon going about their business.
He watched a Caterpie leisurely eating a leaf when suddenly a Pidgey swooped down and attacked the poor Caterpie.
He saw how the Pidgey landed on the Caterpie restraining the surprised Pokemon with its claws.
Pidgey's beak shined with what looked to be the move, Peck before it plunged its beak into Caterpies head until its defense broke and it died.
He stared as the Pidgey lifted the carcass of the Caterpie and flew back to the branch it came from and started eating.
This was the first time he directly witnessed a Pokemon being killed, as his father always send him away before killing and gutting the Magikarps they caught.
Mikail would be lying if he said he wasn't feeling bad.
His face was slightly green, but he knew that this was happening all the time and that it was normal.
This was his reality and he willingly chose to come here.
He calmed down relatively quickly and reinforced his resolve.
This was just the first death he saw and many more would follow in the future, some by his hand and some by others.
He kept walking after steeling his resolve, accepting that his road to the top would probably be paved by many corpses.
He kept walking while looking if anything stood out and occasionally checking the status of Pokemon using his psychic abilities.
He didn't want to simply approach the Pokemon without any immediate backup, his tail did not count.
Maybe he could later bribe some Pokemon using his berry reserve, for now safely exploring the area was his priority.
As he went deeper into the forest, he saw different Pokemon he had not seen before besides the ones he had already seen.
There were Ekans, Oddish, Weedle, Paras, and Spinarak.
Surprisingly or unsurprisingly none of the Pokemon he checked had any light green or better potential.
He didn't even find one with yellow or deep yellow potential.
The best one he saw was an Oddish with light yellow potential.
He watched how the Pokemon went about their lives and sometimes saw how one would be eaten by another.
The fights he witnessed only happening in such cases.
The attacks were mostly surprise strikes unless the target noticed the ambush.
"Proper" fights were rare and unless a clear winner became apparent the Pokemon would retreat.
In case a winner was determined the loser would be killed and eaten or simply killed as retaliation in case the target won and didn't want to eat the opponent.
The most interesting fight he saw was one from an Ekans.
The Ekans used what seemed to be Poison Fang from behind and bit a Rattata before using Wrap to make it immobile.
The Rattata tried to retaliate but couldn't and Ekans kept using Poison Fang to pump in some more poison.
This was curious because as far as he knew Ekans couldn't learn Poison Fang naturally at least not in the games.
They could inherit it from a parent or through being taught but not through leveling, which he assumed to be some kind of genetic inheritance on Terra.
The question was if this Ekans got the move from its parents or if it learned the move on its own.
It would make sense that they could learn moves like this on their own by simply trying to combine the move Bite with their poison energy from Acid for example.
Anyway back to the fight, the Rattata kept getting weaker until it couldn't move anymore and died.
Now seeing this you would think Rattatas were weak but its screams seemed to have attracted one of the braver Rattata, which would convince you otherwise.
As soon as it saw the Ekans that was about to swallow the carcass of a fellow member of its species, it went on the offensive.
The Ekans got in a defensive position as soon as it noticed the newcomer and immediately prepared what could have been Acid or Poison Sting.
The moment the Rattata ran toward the Ekans, it fired a Poison Sting towards the Rattata.
By dodging left and right while running towards the Ekans the Rattata made aiming at it much harder and managed to evade most of the attack.
It remained unscathed except for a few stings that successfully hit it but did not manage to poison it and finally arrived in front of its target.
It looked like it used a Quick Attack to boost its jump, aiming at just below the Ekans head with its mouth shining with what was most likely Bite.
The Ekans sensing the danger tried to dodge by moving its upper body back but just managed to tilt it enough that Rattata's teeth scrapped its skin, causing it to slightly bleed.
Incensed by its injury Ekans used an anger-fueled Glare causing the Rattata to momentarily freeze, which Ekans utilized to use a Poison Jab.
The Rattata used the momentum of the hit to back away.
Seeing that it was at a disadvantage and concluding that it was unlikely to win, the Rattata gave the Ekans a hateful stare before running away.
The Ekans seeing that it couldn't prevent it from escaping focused back on its previous bounty and started to swallow it before throwing a look his way and slinking away.
He froze in fright when it looked over but felt relieved when it simply proceeded to ignore him.
He had not dared to check their status during their fight because he was afraid of attracting their attention and he didn't want to influence the outcome of the battle by accidentally distracting one of them.
He had guessed from their strength and behavior that they both had high potential, but now he was happy that he had held back his curiosity.
That could have ended badly for him.
As for the reason why the Pokemon seemed to avoid him, he concluded that the scent from the Pokemon at their home lingered on him and deterred the wild Pokemon from attacking him.
He assumed that unless he provoked them or they were desperate, he wouldn't be attacked.
Or it could be the presence of the Butterfree following him, he wasn't sure.
What he did know was that, currently, he was very thankful for their presence.
After having witnessed that fight, he continued walking through the northern area roughly looking around for anything worthwhile.
At the center of the 3-km border, he had set for himself, he found a huge windfall.
He found Apricorns, you know, the things that can be used to make special PokeBalls.
To be specific he found Green and Blue Apricorns.
In the games, those could be used to make Friend Balls and Lure Balls respectively, but here there were more possibilities.
There existed more PokeBall variations than in the games and the Apricorns could be used to produce many different ball types.
Thanks to the knowledge he had on PokeBall smithing he could, through practice, produce his own PokeBalls.
While he was sure it would not be easy, because knowledge did not directly translate to proficiency, he could afford the time and materials to get good at it.
As long as he could get his hand on the various apricorns his space could replicate them, meaning ample practice material.
He checked if the surroundings of the trees were clear and instantly picked up one of each kind as soon as he confirmed that it was safe.
He noticed that the earth near the blue apricorn tree seemed to be damper than its surroundings and wondered how.
He checked them before putting them inside his space.
'Name: Green Apricorn
Type: Plant
Quality: Lowest
Faults: None
Uses: Contains nutrition and plant energy.
Can be eaten as food and helps slightly with physical training.
Can be used to produce various PokeBalls.
And
Name: Blue Apricorn
Type: Plant
Quality: Lowest
Faults: None
Uses: Contains nutrition, some water, and plant energy.
Can be eaten as food and helps slightly with physical training.
Can be used to produce various PokeBalls.'
Once they were inside his space they were upgraded to the low quality.
'Analyzing...., green apricorn analyzed.
Start improving...., green apricorn improved.
Storing sample in the sub-space flora.
Process finished.'
'Name: Green Apricorn
Type: Plant
Quality: Low
Faults: None
Uses: Contains nutrition and plant energy.
Can be eaten as food and helps mildly with physical training.
Can be used to produce various PokeBalls.'
He decided to think about how many trees to plant and which berry trees to replace once he was back at home.
For now, he continued his exploration hoping to come across some other apricorn types or other useful materials.
He walked around for another 90 minutes, until he decided to start his trek back home.
He had spent nearly 3 hours outside until now, 4 hours if you included the time he spent combing through their garden and the time for lunch was approaching.
It would take him about 40 minutes to reach their house, which was why he elected to return.
He hadn't managed to find another apricorn type, during these 90 minutes, just some more green and blue ones, as well as some berry trees he already possessed, but he managed to find something else that was useful.
After he had roughly gone over a bit more than 60% of the northern area he found an empty burrow.
Once he made sure that it was really empty and that he wouldn't just walk into his death or an injury, he found the shed skin of an Ekans.
It had to have been an Ekans that recently became strong enough to live deeper into the forest and left its burrow after shedding because it's shed skin still contained energy and counted as useful material, even if it was of the worst quality.
'Name: Ekans Shed Skin
Type: Poison
Quality: Lowest
Faults: None
Uses: It's the shed skin of an Ekans.
Contains some poison-type energy.
Can be used as a supplement to help poison-type Pokemon.'
The reason he said of the worst quality was that even after the space improved the skin, its quality remained at the lowest quality.
'Analyzing...., Ekans Shed Skin analyzed.
Start improving...., successfully improved, quality retained.
Storing Ekans Shed Skin in the sub-space material.
Ekans Shed Skin can be replicated in the sub-space.
Process finished.'
The only difference was that the concentration of poison energy inside the skin was improved.
'Name: Ekans Shed Skin
Type: Poison
Quality: Lowest
Faults: None
Uses: It's the shed skin of an Ekans.
Contains poison-type energy.
Can be used as a supplement to help poison-type Pokemon.'
This was still better than nothing.
There was still 40% of the northern area he had not gone through yet that he planned to go over tomorrow, before he had to decide if would carefully comb through it or leave that for later and first roughly check the other areas as well.
He did not encounter any danger or opportunity on his way back and successfully arrived at home, marking his first trip outside on his own a complete success.
He thanked the Butterfree pair, that made sure he was safe from a distance, before entering the house.
Once he was inside he shouted.
"Mommy I'm back."
His mother, who came towards him directly started checking him to make sure everything was fine.
Once she saw that he was completely fine, she started rapid-firing questions.
"Welcome home, honey.
How was your first trip outside?
Did you have fun?
Did anything dangerous happen?
You were outdoors for nearly 5 hours and I was starting to feel nervous."
Mikail, who felt his mother's care for him answered to reassure her.
"It was great.
I had a lot of fun.
I checked the garden first.
Then I walked around near our house.
Nothing dangerous happened.
My belly reminded me of lunch.
I came back after that.
Cyan and Emerald followed me.
I was safe."
Arya, who listened to her son laughed a little.
"I know that they followed you but I still worry.
It's the job of a mother to worry about her children.
You came right on time for lunch, your belly clock is quite accurate.
Mommy will prepare something for lunch real fast and then you can tell me what you happened during your trip."
"Okay."
Mikail replied to his mother.
They ate once his mother brought the food over and Mikail told his mother a censored version of his excursion.
Leaving out the risky and bloody parts, talking about all the different Pokemon he saw and the plants he found.
After his mother was satisfied, Mikail went to his play area and did some stretching exercises before doing 5 sit-ups, push-ups, and squats each.
He was planning to start small and increase the number at a later date.
He fed the occupants of his space using his berries, which included the Natu that expressed that it was fine with berries for now before he took a short nap.
He was a bit fatigued after the first part of his day.
After his nap, his father came home and Mikail had to narrate his trip once more.
After they had their dinner, they spent the remaining period before his sleeping time just relaxing, playing some memory, and watching some TV.
Once he was inside his room, he did his body training exercises once more before going to bed.
Before he fell asleep, he noted that he had forgotten to do his psychic exercises due to the excitement he felt for his outing.
He vowed to not neglect his psychic training again and fell asleep.
------------------------
I will start a poll on my Patre'on.
The poll decides the type of the first successful material test for Mikail's specimens.
So Fire-type Magikarp, Dragon-type Magikarp and so on the choice is yours.
patre'on/Azrail93