Mikail fell into a rhythm after bonding with the chibi pair.
He told the Nidoran to train their moves on the side and his other Pokemon already knew what they had to do, so he focused on his own training because he wanted to finally reach Tier 1 First-Class, his other personal projects were shifted to a lower priority.
He did not forget to make sure everyone was fed and not overworked, while also keeping an eye on his breeding pair to make sure he would receive his egg sometime in the near future.
He decided to focus on increasing his psychical endurance first, so he tried to prolong the duration he could keep his telekinesis up, instead of increasing his range or the number of sand piles he could levitate.
It took him only a week to increase his time from 30 minutes to 42 minutes.
During the beginning of the second week, he noted that the female Magikarp started to behave a bit differently.
He was not sure if she was pregnant yet but he decided to keep observing.
By the end of the second week, he increased the duration to 50 minutes.
Two days after that, while the family was watching TV after their dinner, Mikail heard/saw something interesting.
His parents wanted to watch the news before they played the children's movie they had bought and one of the news aroused his curiosity.
The newscaster said that the position of the official Gym in Aero City had been transferred to the Kanzaki Hall that was specialized in flying-type Pokemon and that, now, challengers would have to face a team of flying-type Pokemon instead of fighting-type Pokemon if they wanted to win the Aero Badge.
Seeing this as a chance to learn more about the Gyms and because he was honestly curious about it he asked his parents about Gyms.
"Ohhh, Gyms like in the stories.
Mommy, Daddy are there really Gyms?
Do we have a Gym in Hope Town as well?
Have you won against a Gym as well?
Can Gyms change?"
He rapid-fired a few questions and his parents had to chuckle at his enthusiasm.
His father patted his hair before he answered.
"Yes, Gyms do exist in real life as well and not only in the stories, we told you.
Unfortunately, Hope Town does not have any Gym at all.
Our town is not big enough for a Gym, so there is none.
Now to your question if we have won Badges, those are the medals you get when you beat a Gym, during our journey.
The answer is yes.
Your daddy here has beaten many Gyms during his journey.
I managed to collect 4 S-rank Badges, 8 A-rank Badges, and 24 B-rank Badges during my journey.
Aren't I amazing?
Isn't your daddy great?"
Before Mikail could ask what his father meant with S-, A-, and B-rank Badge, his mother who couldn't stand her husband's bragging retorted.
"Quit your bragging, doofus.
Can't you see that you're confusing my sweetheart with your bragging?
You haven't told him about the different Gym ranks as well as their corresponding Badge ranks and yet you are bragging about the Badges you have won.
How should my darling know what you mean with B-rank Badge if you haven't explained it to him?
No wonder he looks confused, even if I think that he looks absolutely adorable like that.
So, how about you stop bragging and start explaining the Gym ranks instead? Huh!"
Edward, who had a gobsmacked look on his face at the sudden trashing he was subjected to just because he humble bragged a bit, turned to his son, and saw the slightly confused look on Mikail's face.
He did not know if that was because of his bragging or because of the tongue lashing his wife had just delivered, this was something that only Mikail would know.
Nonetheless, he decided to do something all experienced husbands that found the formula for a successful marriage did when their wives start to nag them about things that were not vital.
He nodded his head and acted as if she was absolutely right.
"You're right.
I am sorry, honey.
I should have explained the difference between the Gyms to Mikail before I started to brag.
How will he realize how great his father is if he does not know what I am talking about.
Thank you for pointing that out."
Edward could not stop himself from giving a cheeky reply before he turned to Mikail and started talking about Gyms.
"I'll tell you about the gyms as well as what you can use them for, and I'll try to keep it simple, okay?"
Mikail nodded at his father's query and his mother, who was about to retort, decided otherwise after she saw him nodding.
His father smirked at that for a brief moment before he put in a serious face and started his explanation.
"Gyms have 3 ranks that denote their position/importance.
The Gyms that are part of the highest rank are called Major Gyms, and if someone manages to beat one they receive an S-rank Badge.
Badges also have stars that represent the difficulty but that's not important right now.
Under the Major Gyms are the Standard Gyms, or just Gyms.
Upon beating a Gym the challenger receives an A-rank Badge.
Finally, there are the Minor Gyms, that give out B-rank Badges once they are beaten.
Did you get everything until here?"
Mikail nodded at his father's question and his mother who saw a chance to diss her husband chimed in.
"Naturally, he understood everything so far.
Whose son do you think you're talking to?"
His father opened his mouth to retort.
"Yes, yes, I know he's your son too honey.
I was just kidding."
She continued without giving him the chance so he just kept quiet.
"Anyway, I want to do some explaining too, so I will continue the explanation.
Let's see, what's else is important.
Kanto has 12 Major Gyms, 22 Gyms, and 66 Minor Gyms.
When you beat a Gym you receive a Badge and some prize money.
Major Gyms are allowed to choose the shape as well as the title of their Badge.
Gyms can choose the shape of their Badges but the Badges are named after the City the Gym resides in.
As for Minor Gyms, their Badges all have the same shape and are also named after the City the Gym resides in.
Now, the reason trainers collect these Badges besides testing their strength is to qualify for the league tournament.
We'll tell you about the league and everything in detail some other time.
What you need to know now is that there are 2 tournaments.
The Junior League Tournament and the Senior League Tournament.
To qualify for the junior tournament you need 16 B-rank Badges and for the senior tournament, you need the 16 A-rank Badges.
S-rank Badges are worth 2 A-rank Badges.
Was that too much at once or did you get everything, sweetie?"
His father snorted at his mother's question and spoke before he could reply.
"Darling, I think that was a bit too much at once.
Son, besides the Badges you should remember that Gyms are much harder than Minor Gyms and Major Gyms are much, much harder than Gyms.
The tournaments are there to see who is the strongest of the people with enough badges."
Mikail just nodded.
"Your explanation was great Arya but I wanted to simplify the second part a bit."
His mother simply smiled at his father and he saw his father flinch slightly at that.
After she saw him flinch, she said a simple sentence.
"Thank you, honey."
Mikail and his father simultaneously thought.
'Shit, she's angry."
Mikail immediately decided to use his cuteness to defuse the situation.
"Thank you, mommy.
I got everything."
That was what he said before he hugged her.
He also kissed her on the cheek and she became happy.
"Awww, you're welcome honey."
The men mentally wiped their sweat and Mikail decide to close the topic.
He was already happy with what he had heard.
'To think there are so many gyms and that there are two different tournaments instead of one.
Well, it does make sense.
Kanto is really big, so having only 8 Gyms would be stupid.
Two different tournaments are a good idea as well, this way lower and higher ranked trainers won't have to participate in the same tournament.
As for the specifics, I can learn those at another time.'
He looked at his parents.
"I want to watch the movie.
Can we watch it now?"
His parents agreed to his request and after the movie, he went to bed.
Six days later his mother had her birthday, so they held a little celebration.
The cake held no indication of any kind towards her age, despite her being quite young.
Apparently his parents told their friends that it was not necessary to come over and their friends simply send over their gifts through the post.
The next day Mikail's telekinesis duration reached 56 minutes.
It seemed to him that all the training he did before had allowed him to rapidly increase his endurance for a while but now he was reaching the end of that, which was why his improvements kept declining.
He also noted after a week of observation that the probability of the female Magikarp being pregnant was high.
Mikail remembered his father during one conversation saying that Magikarp take about one month to lay their egg, so he would see in 2-3 weeks if she was pregnant or not.
He also noticed that some of the Magikarp inside his sub-space shared intimate moments as well, so he could probably expect some eggs from there too.
As for the other Magikarp inside his pond, there had been no intimate behavior yet.
He saw no reason to rush them yet because he was considering relocating some of the ones with worse potential depending on the potential percentage he was going to see once he caught them.
Another week passed and he finally decided to stop focusing on his endurance after reaching 60 minutes.
Mikail's next goal was to widen his range from 40 meters to 50 meters.
While playing with Growlithe during one of his breaks he randomly decided to check Agni's status.
Once he saw the status screen, he couldn't control himself and release a surprised yell.
"Woah!'
While he told Growlithe, who had put on a questioning look at his shout, a random excuse, he was thinking something else.
'Agni's potential increased to light blue.
How?
When?
I thought father planned to use the Fire Stone to elevate Agni's potential but it already happened.
Either my father's ambition towards Growlithe's potential is higher than I guessed or this is simply a happy coincidence.
Either way, my father gained another Pokemon with light blue potential.'
Besides, that nothing important happened that week.
At the beginning of the next week, his guess concerning the female Magikarp's pregnancy was confirmed.
She laid her egg and as soon as she was done, and just as he was thinking that he had no incubator to help the egg hatch, his space made itself known.
'Registering the existence of a PokeEgg.
Analyzing...., Magikarp Egg identified.
Noting available Magikarp habitat...., checking habitat.... no nesting area found.
Generating nesting area..., adding nesting area to habitat....., nesting area successfully added.
Energy storage at 99%.
Process finished.'
He saw that in the southwestern area of the pond a cave opening had come into existence and it was not hard to guess that this was the new nesting area.
He "looked" inside the cave and saw multiple places that were obviously prepared for eggs.
It seemed the nesting area could currently accommodate up to 30 eggs, which he believed to be more than enough for now.
He also noticed that while energy concentration inside the cave was the same as the one inside the pond, it somehow felt milder.
'As expected of my space.
This place has the optimal environment for the egg.
Hopefully, this helps the egg and accelerates the hatching.'
Mikail helped the new parents move the egg to the nest.
The egg and the parents encountered no problems while entering but when some of the other Magikarp got curious and tried to enter as well they failed.
The other Magikarp were unable to enter and Mikail was happy to note that only eggs and their parents had access to the nesting area.
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