I spent the first two days of the week after my training week on training as well, but after Aby broke through to the bronze stage near the end of our training session on Mewday I decided to focus back on exploration, at least for a week or two.
Aby had been the last of my Magikarp that had not broken through to the bronze stage, and while she did she successfully gained the dark type as her second typing.
I naturally asked her to do the breakthrough process inside my space once I noted that she was ready. The process was the same as it had been when Ignis broke through and everyone congratulated her after it was over.
Honestly, except for Stan who stayed a regular Magikarp, she was the Magikarp with the least changes after gaining her second type. Her main body was still half black, half burnt-orange, and the only difference to before the breakthrough was the thin red line that appeared on the yellow of her fins.
I naturally checked her status while the celebration was happening, and there were quite a few changes that happened.
'Name: Aby
Species: Magikarp
Gender: Female
-
Type: Water, Dark
Potential: Blue (86.7%)
Genetic variation: Dark-variant
Abilities: Swift Swim, Infiltrator
Talents: None
Affinities: Water, Dark
-
Bond: Mikail (weak)
Quirks: Calm'
First of all was the fact that she gained the dark type as her second typing, which was displayed in the genetic modifier section as well. Another change was that her Reckless ability got replaced by Infiltrator, which in my opinion kinda did fit the dark type.
What was reassuring was that her quirk stayed the same. Calm should be able to temper any negative influence her new dark typing would have had on her.
That her potential increased to the upper scale of blue after the 160% potential boost granted by her limit breaking was expected. Just like her new parameters after the boost she received as a result of her previously mentioned limit breaking.
'Parameters:
Stage: Bronze Stage (mid)
Vitality: G
Strength: G
Endurance: E
Agility: D
Energy Capacity: G
Energy Density: G'
Just like the other Magikarps she also started at the (mid) bronze stage, mostly thanks to her agility. Then there were her new relations with other types after the introduction of her new dark typing and her condition as well.
'Immune:
Psychic
-
Resistance:
Fire (Minor), Water (Minor), Ice (Minor), Ghost (Minor), Dark (Minor), Steel (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Electric (Minor), Grass (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Bug (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
----
Condition: Healthy, Happy, Pleased'
She obviously gained the inherent immunity to the psychic type all dark types had. She also gained a (minor) resistance to the ghost and dark types, bringing the total number of resistances to 6.
Unfortunately, not everything was sunshine and rainbows. The new dark typing also brought three (minor) weaknesses with it in addition to the previous 2.
So, a (minor) weakness to the fighting, bug, and fairy type was added on top of Magikarp's original weakness to the electric and grass type.
'Masteries: Water Energy Manipulation (Beginner)
----
Techniques:
-
Novice:
Water Pulse, Fake Tears
-
Beginner:
N/A
-
Proficient:
Aqua Jet, Tackle, Flail, Bounce, Hydro Pump, Swift
-
Advanced:
Splash
-
Mastered:
Water Gun'
Well, she did not gain dark energy manipulation mastery, but it looked like she did learn the move Fake Tears upon gaining the dark typing. It was naturally at the novice mastery.
Fake Tears was a dark type move that lowered the opponent's energy density and I could kind of understand why Aby was the only one among my Magikarp besides Ignis to learn a new move upon gaining a second typing.
I mean Fake Tears kinda fit the whole image Magikarp as the species had about being weak and pathetic. Kinda harsh when it came from me, but that's what many people thought, so a dark type variant gaining a move that made use of that belief made kind of sense to me.
After I was done looking through her new status, I told everyone that the training session was over for the day. We instead used the roughly 40 minutes we had before it was time to go home to chill and eat snacks while talking.
Everyone was happy for Aby even our newer members. Especially Cubone seemed fascinated by the change Aby went through. Thinking about the origin story of Cubone's species I asked my Pokemon if they wanted to hear about it.
When everyone enthusiastically agreed I told them about the things I had learned during my research on the topic. Cubone was flabbergasted and excited when he heard that Marowak had an evolution as well. I released a benign laugh at his reaction.
Still, it seemed like Skellibra was not well known even among the line itself. However, Cubone was not the only one that liked the "story" I told, not at all.
It looked like all of them liked hearing about the "story" of how Prof. Oak uncovered the origin of Cubone and the myths in general. They all had that sparkling in the eyes when one heard or saw something really exciting.
Anyway, as I said I resumed my exploration the next day. To that end I had Xatu teleport me to one of the small fake islands I came across during my search for the Lapras.
I wanted to go diving and the "island" was pretty far out in the ocean. Much farther away from the beach than I had ever gone while diving, so I was pretty excited to see if I would see something new and I was not disappointed.
The depth of the sea in the area was 200-300 meters and the natural sunlight was sparse at the bottom in some of the deeper parts. However, in a few of these places, I found two things that produced light that made up for the sparse sunlight.
I discovered a type of seaweed called the Twilight Kelp that grew in those sparsely lit areas. It grew quite tall to reach the altitudes with more sunshine and I saw some that looked to be 60 meters long or more.
The Twilight Kelp absorbed the sunlight in those well-lit areas while giving out light on its own. Since the kelp was yellow the light it gave off had a slightly yellowish tone as well.
It was called Twilight Kelp because it passively lit up the region it was growing in making up for the sparse sunlight in those areas. The same was true for the Light Coral, at least the lighting up the area part.
Contrary to the Twilight Kelp the Light Coral did not grow to extremely large heights to reach the sunlight. No, they used the sunlight that did reach them and then made up for the rest with other sources of nutrition.
Just like the Twilight Kelp the Light Coral passively gave out light as well which lit up its surroundings, hence the name Light Coral. However, unlike the Twilight Kelp the Light Coral came in different colors, so depending on the color of the coral the light it emitted changed as well.
This created a magical light show in places where Light Corals with different colors grew together. I noticed that certain species seemed to prefer certain light colors since I nearly always found them living in those places while disliking others.
I naturally took some of both the Twilight Kelp and Light Coral for myself. Anyway, I had just finished lunch and returned underwater. Once I was fully submerged I called out all my Magikarp as well as Remoraid out as well.
I did not call out Lapras, since she had asked to stay inside the space unless she was needed. While it was true that she could stay underwater for looong periods she preferred swimming on the surface instead of diving.
Pokemon like Lapras and Wailord could make up for the lack of gills through their use of water energy to extend their stay underwater, but they still preferred regularly surfacing for some good old fresh air.
Additionally, the energy trick had limits so they did have to resurface eventually even if it took days or weeks to reach that point depending on the Pokemon.
Anyway, Lapras asked for it so I left her inside my space and called out the rest. Together we swam into a direction we had not checked out yet. We examined a few coral fields as well as kelp/grass fields.
We saw a multitude of Pokemon in and around those fields, including some that were pretty rare in these parts like Luvdisc, Qwilfish, and even a family of Wailmer.
I was tempted to catch the Wailmer despite their average potential, simply because their habitat would have to be really big, but I ultimately decided against it. I did not want to capture them just for that if I was not planning to use them in the future.
I can freely admit that it may not have been the smartest or logical decision on my part, since it was practically "free" estate that I was giving up, but I had my personal principles and no matter how illogical or arbitrary they seemed I was not planning to change them.
Anyway, we were currently checking out a small coral field we just came across. There were quite a few Magikarp around but aside from the customary potential check, I left them alone.
We were more focused on swimming between the corals to see if there was anything hidden under or among them. However, we only found a pair of Goldeen and a few Chinchou that had made their home among the corals. None of them had good enough potential to attract me.
Just as I was about to tell the others that we were moving on I noticed two Chinchou about a hundred meters away from me moving towards a small group of Magikarp. Seeing that a hunt was about to happen I decided to observe it before we moved on.
Once they were close enough, they used Thundershock which spread a bit hitting a majority of the Magikarp school. Obviously, Thundershock was not enough to kill them, but it caused them damage and even paralyzed some of the Magikarp.
This was enough for the Chinchou who only wanted to eat one or two of them. They only had to swim up to some of the paralyzed Magikarp to finish them off before they could eat.
As for the other Magikarp, those that were not hit by the Thundershock and those that were not paralyzed had already retreated. Those that were paralyzed but were simply ignored by the Chinchou could count themselves lucky.
They just had to wait until the paralysis wore off before they could swim away as well. As long as no one else used the chance to attack some of them while they were handicapped, at least that's what everyone thought. What no one expected was for one of the Magikarp to start shining.
The moment I saw that one of the Magikarp was shining my first thought was to get the f**k out of there, but then I remembered that none of the Magikarp I checked was stronger than the (low) bronze stage, with most of them being either at the (mid) or (high) iron stage.
That caused me to calm down and I decided to watch the show since we, my Magikarp, would have no problem taking on a Gyarados at that stage.
As for its sudden evolution, the answer to that was simple.
While the most important requirement for a Pokemon was its strength, most of the time some Pokemon were missing the last push to trigger their evolution despite being strong enough.
So, for nearly all of the ones at the upper spectrum of the (high) iron stage or above that could not evolve they were missing that something. That or they were ready and still wanted to get stronger before they evolved.
Nonetheless, whether it had been ready and had chosen to delay its evolution or if the electric attack had delivered the final push, ultimately it had kicked off that Magikarp's evolution.
While I was planning to enjoy the show Magikarp began to absorb energy from the surroundings to support its drastic form change. I was getting excited when the shining "cocoon" that was Magikarp began expanding.
"Take a good look everyone. That's going to happen to you too." I told my Magikarp.
While we were enthusiastically watching the evolution suddenly several more Magikarp began to light up.
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