We enjoyed the festivities for a few hours, the appearance of Ho-Oh kept being brought up all around, and along with it anyone that made it to the Top 8.
While Richard was seen as the most likely candidate responsible for Ho-Oh's visit, followed by dad, the rumor went around that it could be anyone in the Top 8 and that there was a precedent for it, even if no one could confirm it at the moment.
I was sure it would come up on the news if that was true. There was quite a bit of finger-pointing whenever someone recognized dad. Some bold people came up to us and asked if they could take a picture with dad.
Dad was happy to pose for pictures, or give autographs, and mom was supervising the situation to make sure no funny business happened. She did not want some random woman groping her man after all, and bosom autographs were a no go as well.
I found the whole thing funny, especially since I saw the disappointment in the face/eyes of some woman that came up to ask for pics or autographs. Dad just smiled at the whole situation, which made the whole thing even funnier in my opinion.
We retreated to our hotel room a few hours later. As soon as we were behind closed doors mom couldn't keep her curiosity any longer. Once we sat down on the couch, she blurted out the question she had been holding back so far.
"So, what did Professor Oak tell you during the award ceremony?" She asked curiously and I turned my full attention towards dad as well.
"Nothing much," Dad replied in a blasé tone, and mom showed an unbelieving look.
"What do you mean by nothing much?" Mom asked incredulously. "Why would he turn off the mic if he did not have anything to say? Come on, tell me what he told you."
I had to nod in agreement and dad chuckled a bit before answering.
"Alright, I won't tease you, but he really did not say much. Professor Oak just told me that he and a few others that watched the tournament with him were impressed with my performance as well as my behavior after my defeat.
According to him quite a few of the others were going to keep an eye on me, which according to him was something very good for me. He said it was possible that one of them might decide to sponsor me in the future, or even become my mentor if I'm really lucky.
However, that was only a possibility and depended on my future performance." He clarified with an easygoing look as if he was talking about buying milk from the grocery store.
"Is that all?" Mom inquired curiously quite obviously having expected something more.
"Yeah, pretty much," Dad affirmed before he smiled a bit.
"That, and he told me that due to my impressive performance, he and the other higher-ups had decided to grant me a twelve-month access pass to a resource list, that was normally only available to people that made special contributions, as well as Elite-class and above trainers.
Professor Oak informed me that I could use my contribution and merit points to buy/exchange the stuff on the list. Moreover, I was also awarded a one-time 50%-off voucher that I could use for any item on the list.
The contribution, as well as merit points that we that have been amassing, are going to come in handy. Along with the 5000 merit points I received for obtaining second place I should hopefully have enough to get something good." Dad expanded in a cheerful mood obviously happy with the additional reward.
Mom smiled happily after hearing the news, and I was happy for him as well. I was sure getting access to such a resource list was a great boon for dad, especially in combination with the 50% voucher.
If he was lucky enough and had enough points, he could get himself a pretty rare Pokemon with great potential. Mom was so happy at the news that she went up to dad to hug him and give him a smooch.
"That's great, honey. I'm sure you'll get something great from the list. If you're missing points you can have mine, and if that is still not enough we can do some missions to earn more. I'm sure we can make up the difference within 12 months." Mom said after their little smooch, raising the sugar level in the room.
The contribution and merit-point sharing was something only possible between husband and wife. Moreover, even they, husband and wife, had to undergo a psychic check to ensure that both parties were doing so voluntarily.
"Thank you, dear," was all dad said on that topic before giving her a quick peck on the lips.
I chose to ignore their display of affection and focused on something much more interesting.
"Can we take a look at the list? I'm curious about what they put on it." I asked not just to stop them from being all lovey-dovey, but because I was genuinely curious.
Mom's face quickly turned interested as well, and she threw him a puppy/wifey look. Dad let out a happy laugh, enjoying our antics and the warm atmosphere.
"Sure, let's do it." He agreed and went to his bag to pull out his notebook before returning to our side.
We let him sit between us so that mom and I could look at the display from the sides. Dad quickly booted up the notebook, connected to the hotel wifi, and opened the alliance website Professor Oak told him about.
The website had a link that forwarded him to another site that oozed security. Dad logged in using his Alliance ID and we saw a rather simplistic site. Don't get me wrong, I thought the design was great.
Everything was visible at first glance, and the labeling of each category was easy to understand. Everyone should be able to navigate through the site pretty easily even without any instruction or explanation, which was great in my opinion.
"So, what should we check out first?" Dad asked curiously.
The tabs we could see were Information, Lessons, Entrance Licenses, Plot/Property, Items, Pokemon, and Miscellaneous.
"We could check Items to see if there is something useful for Vibra or Tangela's evolution." I offered first since things that could allow Vibra/Rhydon to evolve were extremely hard to come by.
As for Tangela, while I had a lot of Ancient Stones, it did not hurt to see if they had something better. I saw that my dad agreed with what I said, so I continued before he made a decision.
"Or we could check out the Pokemon first to see if they have one that you really want and can afford. Honestly, I'm quite interested in seeing what kind of Pokemon they have available," I freely admitted.
"I think it's better if we check the Item section first. I have a feeling that browsing through the Pokemon section is going to take a long time, so it would be better to finish with the Item section first." Mom threw in and dad nodded in agreement.
"I'm with Arya on this one. Let's see what they have in store for us." Dad acknowledged before opening the Item tab.
We first looked through the main page and saw the most popular items. There were a lot of dragon and steel-related materials, followed by rare evolution materials. What we were looking for was also among the items on the main page.
Dad clicked on the Protector picture, and we saw that its price was either 20.000 merit points or 180 contribution points. It seemed pricey, but the description mentioned that the creation process was pretty costly and rather complicated. Due to that only 5-8 were created each year.
A reminder was included that the Protector was an artificial evolution trigger and that it was quite a bit worse than the natural triggers. Upon reading that reminder we returned to the Item's main page and used the filters to search for Rhydon evolution triggers.
Along with the Protector, two more results showed up. One was the chest plate above the heart of a 5-century-old (high) dark gold-stage Rhyperior. It cost 40.000 merit points or 360 contribution points.
The second one was something called an ancient tectonic plate said to contain some specks of energy from Groudon. I nearly had to whistle when I read Groudon, that impulse became bigger when I saw the price.
Taking a look to my left I saw the shocked faces of both my parents. The plate cost 150.000 merit points or 1350 contribution points. It was completely out of dad's budget, but it was still an impressive item.
We looked at possible evolution triggers for Tangela and there were five available options, of those five options dad could afford three. The first was an ancient fossilized vine that cost 25.000 merit points or 225 contribution points.
The second one was the central vine of an 8-century-old (mid) dark gold-stage Tangrowth. It cost 50.000 merit points or 450 contribution points.
The last one was the wooden core of a millennial (high) dark gold-stage Trevenant. It cost 85.000 merit points or 765 contribution points. Dad could barely afford to buy it if he used both his merit and contribution points, along with mom's points to pay for it.
The reason these items are so expensive was that the alliance had confirmed that they had a high chance of improving the potential of 4-star Pokemon and even a small one for 5-star Pokemon.
"Hmm, seems like they have the stuff, but except for the ancient fossilized vine and the Protector, the other items are a bit too expensive for my taste. Let's take a look at the Pokemon, if I don't find anything interesting there I might buy one of the more expensive items." Dad mulled over his options before switching to the Pokemon tab.
That one was split into two major sections regular and variant. The regular one obviously had Pokemon with their original typing, or at least with the one they first got discovered with, and the variant section had the type variants.
It was also possible to filter according to species, in that case, both the regular and variants were displayed. According to dad the regular lists available to all trainers were sorted like that as well.
However, unlike this one which only had 5-star Pokemon, the regular ones normally also show 4-star Pokemon and sometimes even 3-star ones. Both lists also offered eggs but there was no potential data displayed for those and they also had a reminder that they were not responsible if the potential was not up to par.
We looked through the ones we found interesting and only 5 species really piqued dad's interest. A 5-star (high) iron-stage Flabébé that cost 76.000 merit points or 684 contribution points. There was also its evolution Floette, a 5-star (low) silver stage one was available for 95.000 merit points or 855 contribution points.
There was a 5-star (mid) iron-stage Axew that cost 122.000 merit points or 1098 contribution points. Finally, there were actually three pseudo-legendaries available.
The cheapest one was a 5-star (low) iron-stage Goomy that cost 169.000 merit points or 1521 contribution points. The second one was a 5-star (low) iron-stage Dratini that cost 186.000 merit points or 1674 contribution points, and the last one was a 5-star (low) iron-stage Beldum that cost 212.000 merit points or 1908 contribution points.
Normally, dad could afford none of the Pokemon except for the Flabébé even if they added mom's points, but thanks to the 50% voucher all Pokemon are within his reach.
Well, he needed to earn some more points for the pseudo-legendaries, but earning the amount he was missing was entirely possible within the next 12 months.
While we were checking out the available Pokemon two particular Pokemon caught my eye. The first one was a 5-star Slakoth and the other one was a 5-star electric-variant Growlithe. I noticed Slakoth because Slaking were absolute beasts and the Growlithe was self-explanatory.
Still, this was not about me, so I just made a mental note to maybe get one of them for myself in the future.
"I think I'll try to earn enough points for one of the pseudo-legendaries. We'll have to see which one is still available once we amassed enough points, but I'm okay with pretty much any of the three." Dad said after skimming over the majority of the Pokemon species he found interesting.
"Great, I'll help you get those points, hubby." Mom said while giving dad a side hug.
Afterward, dad put away his notebook. We were going to return home tomorrow morning, so we went to sleep since it became pretty late.
-----------------------------
***A Big Thank You to Seeker511 for becoming a Patron***
***A Big Thank You to Samuel Valis for becoming a Patron***
Advertising plug-in:
Help me stay motivated.
patreo*n/Azrail93