Mikail was curious what he would learn upon seeing the full status screen of Natu and Caterpie.
He decided to start with Caterpie's status.
'Name: None
Species: Caterpie
Gender: Female
Age: 3 Months
Type: Bug
Potential: Light Blue (99.5%)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Shield Dust, Run Away
Talents: Quick Start V2
Affinities: Bug/Growth, Psychic/Psionic (budding), Grass/Flora (trace)
Bond: Mikail (weak)
Quirks: Likes to eat, Curious
Parameters:
Stage: Stageless (80%)
Condition: Healthy, Content
Masteries: Bug E. Manipulation (Novice)
Techniques: Tackle (Novice), String Shot (Beginner), Bug Bite (Novice), Electroweb (Initial), Confusion (None)'
The screen Mikail saw was a bit different from what he had expected.
'Let's start from the top.
The name section is empty, which is normal.
I don't know if I want to give my Pokemon a nickname or not because I will have so many of them.
Maybe, for those with the highest potential and only if they want to?
Caterpie fits that category.
I'll think about it.
What else is new?
Age.
Wow, I knew Caterpie was young but to think she only recently stopped being a newborn.
No wonder she was so easy to coax.
Potential seems to have a new addition, brackets that show a percentage.
Let's see, so once the percentage reaches 100% the potential increases.
That's nice, especially seeing that Caterpie is only 0.5% away from blue potential.
Until the Affinity line, everything seems to be the same, but the affinity line here shows all affinities over a certain threshold that the Pokemon possess.
All Pokemon possess a neutral affinity so that is not shown unless it is a normal type Pokemon.
The bond line shows Caterpies bond with me and the brackets show the level of the bond.
Weak, shows that our bond was just established, this is also the one that the artificial bond the pokeballs create is at. The strength and lifespan boost is minimal at this level.
Then there is strong, which is the one that can be established at the silver stage by the Pokemon.
This is the bond that allows trainers to really get stronger and live much longer.
After strong comes solid/deep, which is one of the requirements for a mega-evolution.
The next section Quirks shows things that stand out and currently depict Caterpie perfectly.
After the bonds section follows the Parameter section.
This one really surprised me.
It currently only showed Caterpies stage and a percentage.
There were none of the parameters he expected.
After a quick check, he learned that the reason for this was that Stageless Pokemon reach the iron stage through normal development.
Good nourishment, experience, and supplements could accelerate the process but work on the body and energy was not recommended.
Nature itself seemed to say don't overwork and train them, they are just babies, let them mature/grow first.
The bracket was only available during the Stageless phase and once it reached 100% the Pokemon would reach the (low) iron stage.
Next up was Condition which showed just that.
Masteries seemed like passives but only showed important ones.
Techniques showed active skills, like the moves from the games, combos, or self-made techniques.
The bracket showed the mastery the Pokemon had over the technique.
Mastery was divided into novice, beginner, proficient, advanced, mastered, and transcended, but the status showed initial when the Pokemon managed something resembling the objective and none when the first step is taken but the result sucks.'
Mikail went over Caterpies status once more after understanding the new information.
Nodding to himself satisfied with Caterpie's status he focuses on Natu's status next.
'Name: None
Species: Natu
Gender: Male
Age: 1+ year (43 months)
Type: Psychic, Flying/Air
Potential: Light Green (47.3%)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Keen Eye, Synchronize, Early Bird
Talents: Moderately increased energy sensitivity
Affinities: Psychic/Psionic, Flying/Air, Ghost/Spectral (trace)
Bond: Mikail (weak)
Quirks: Curious
Parameters:
Stage: Iron Stage (low)
Vitality: H
Strength: G
Endurance: H
Agility: G
Energy Capacity: G
Energy Density: H
Resistance: Grass/Flora (Minor), Psionic (Minor), Fighting (Major)
Condition: Healthy, Content
Masteries: Air Element Manipulation (Novice), Psionic E. Manipulation (Beginner)
Techniques: Leer (Novice), Peck (Novice), Night Shade (Novice), Stored Power (Beginner), Gust (Beginner)'
Mikail saw that this time the Parameter section was like he had expected it to be.
'Let's focus on the new information, from the top to the bottom.
Natu is relatively young but I knew that.
He is not even halfway to green potential and has a trace of a ghost affinity.
Now to the part that was missing for Caterpie, the parameters.
Vitality, Strength, Endurance, Agility, Energy Capacity, Energy Density, and Resistance were the parameters that were added.
I already knew that all parameter values are ranked from 'I' to 'SSS'.
I looked up how the grades are decided, if the values always start at 'I' or if different Pokemon have different starting points, and what happens when one advances to the next stage.
Turns out that the BS makes itself known once again.
The grades for the first 4 stages are divided into 4 categories.
From 'I' to 'G' is Low-grade, 'F' to 'D' is Mid-grade, 'C' to 'A' is High-grade and 'S' to 'SSS' is Limit Break.
As for the starting parameter, it is influenced by the BS the Pokemon species possesses, also every time a Pokemon advances to the next stage its parameter value goes back to its starting value if no negative or positive modifier has been added during the advancement.
I knew the advancement requirements for the first 4 stages.
An upgrade during these stages requires a minimum average of B-value, but this is only the minimum requirement.
Here the previously mentioned negative and positive modifiers appear.
If the value of a parameter is 'B' during the advancement, then the starting value of the following stage is lowered by one.
If the value of a parameter is lower than 'B' during the advancement, then the starting value of the following stage is reduced by one for every lower value ('C' = -2, 'D' = -3, etc).
In case the value of a parameter during the advancement is 'A', then the starting value of the following stage stays the same.
If the value of a parameter during the advancement is 'S', then the starting value of the following stage is increased by one.
For 'SS' the starting value of the following stage is increased by 1.5 and for 'SSS' the starting value of the following stage is increased by 2.
For example, if my Pokemon starts with a 'G' in strength during the iron stage and advances to bronze with a 'B' in strength, then the starting value at the bronze stage is 'H'.
Now if this same Pokemon advances from bronze to silver with 'B' in strength again, then its strength starting value for the silver stage is 'H' once more despite of the starting value it had at the bronze stage.
That's the mechanism for advancement but the parameter average has another important aspect, at least for me.
If the average score during the advancement is 'S' the potential gauge is raised by 40% regardless of its stage.
If the average score is 'SS' then the boost is 80% and for 'SSS' the boost in potential is 160%.
So Pokemon can increase their potential through sheer hard work, postponing the theoretical stage limit.
As long as their starting point is not too low and their luck not too bad they can get pretty strong this way.
Naturally, the use of supplements can increase the potential as well, especially during an evolution.'
Mikail was deep in thought going over everything that he learned just now and looking over the status of his Pokemon once again with this knowledge in mind.
'Depending on how hard it is and how long it takes to reach a parameter average of 'SSS' I could boost the potential of my Caterpie to Aurora, which is normally only available to Legendaries and their descendants, without the aid of supplements or further boost from my space when it's capabilities increase.
This is really beneficial because, besides the fact that supplements are only useful until certain stages depending on their quality, repeated use diminishes the effectiveness of a supplement.
Having the option to upgrade their potential even without outside help is great and I can't wait to see what I can achieve using both.
I can already see my future monster of a Butterfree with Deep Aurora potential.
Wait a minute, I know the perfect name for Caterpie should I decide to give her a name.
Mothra, Queen of Monsters, or in this case Bug-types.
Caterpie is only missing 0.5% to reach blue potential, so she should manage to do so in a few days at the latest with the help of the silver powder.
As for Natu that was going to take a while longer.
Tomorrow starts the new week and I will start combing through the northwestern area.
I should go to sleep, I have much to do, and will need to be well-rested.'
Mikail spent the next 3 days combing through the northwestern area and in the middle of his exploration on the third day, it finally happened.
Caterpie, who had been absorbing the energy from the silver powder, managed to upgrade her potential from light blue to blue.
During this time her Stage had progressed by 10% and she was only another 10% away from reaching the (low) iron stage.
Mikail had told Caterpie to not evolve and postpone it even if she could.
Evolution happened only while Pokemon were conscious.
Pokemon could delay their evolution without any outside help, but they had to allocate a bit of their energy and focus on it, so they could not go all out during fights without risking an accidental evolution.
He wanted to wait until she had increased the mastery of her moves a bit and to use the evolution to boost her potential to deep blue.
For that, he needed a bug-type material of a higher quality.
He had already covered 15% of the area, unfortunately, he had found nothing useful during the last 2 days but he hoped that Caterpie's advancement brought him some luck helping him discover something new.
Mikail was presently checking one side of the stream hoping to find some water-type material or anything really.
Natu was sitting on his head, helping him look for things from there.
It appeared his luck had really improved because just 10 minutes later Natu saw something shiny in the stream.
Mikail tried to see if he could reach it using his telekinesis thankfully it was inside his range.
He pulled it up enough to separate it from the ground and checked it.
It turned out to be marble.
'Name: Azure Marble
Type: Water
Quality: Lowest
Faults: None
Uses: It's a piece of marble that has been smoothed by flowing water.
Contains some compressed water-type energy, increasing its purity.
Can be used as a supplement to help water-type Pokemon.'
He put it into his space, where its quality was boosted, without raising it from the stream.
"Good job noticing it, Natu.
It's turned out to be something useful."
Natu preened.
"Na. Tu."
He conveyed that it was obvious.
Mikail chuckled before he continued his search.
He spent another 2 hours searching before he decided to stop for the day and return home.
He kept checking the Pokemon he encountered on his way home.
Just as he was about to reach the area of their property he surprisingly found a Pokemon with good potential, it was another Caterpie.
'Species: Caterpie
Gender: Male
Type: Bug
Potential: Deep Yellow
Stage: Stageless
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Shield Dust
Talents: None
Affinities: Bug'
The Caterpie happened to crawl from one tree to another when he saw it.
Mikail told Natu to discreetly look if their tail was focusing on them at the moment.
When he received a negative answer Mikail immediately pulled the Caterpie into his space.
The space upgraded his potential and he was deposited in the first Caterpie's habitat because they were of the same species and the area was deemed large enough for both of them.
Mikail observed how the male Caterpie reacted to his abduction, ahem, abrupt location change, and had to chuckle.
It was looking around and he could positively see his confusion.
The female Caterpie had noticed the newcomer and went over to check him out.
When she reached the male Mikail put a few berries near them and allowed her to do an early introduction to his new situation while he finished his walk back home.
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Advertising plug-in:
I started a poll on my Patre'on to decide if I should give nicknames to Mikail's Pokemon or not and if yes, then to whom.
This poll is only for patrons and goes on until the end of today, so those that plan to become patrons can still participate until then.