I made sure to congratulate Ryujin/Gyarados on his breakthrough while the others were animatedly talking to him. The other members of the Sinister Six were especially motivated, and I could feel the enthusiasm roll off them.
It seemed that Ryujin's success had stoked their zeal even further, and I would not be surprised, if another one among them completed their limit-breaking as well during the next few days since the distance between their individual prowess was not big, in fact, the distance was pretty small.
Anyway, I took a look at Ryujin to see if anything had changed during his breakthrough, but there was no visual change, so the aura he released could not be linked to a visual change. After I finished my optical check, I proceeded to check his status screen.
'Name: Ryujin
Species: Gyarados
Gender: Male
Age: 9+ Years
-
Type: Water, Dragon
Potential: Light Purple (81.5%) -> (90.49%) -> Deep Purple (50.49%)
(Genetic) Modifiers: Dragon Variant
Abilities: Intimidate, Mold Breaker
Talents: Alpha Predator*
Affinities: Water, Dragon
-
Bond: Mikail (strong)
Quirks: Slightly Combative
----
Parameters:
Stage: Gold Stage (mid)
Vitality: D
Strength: C
Endurance: D
Agility: D
Energy Capacity: D
Energy Density: D
----
Resistance: Fire (Major), Water (Major), Steel (Minor)
-
Weaknesses: Dragon (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Dragon (in progress)
----
Condition: Healthy, Happy, Elated
----
Masteries:
Water Energy Manipulation (Advanced)
Dragon Energy Manipulation (Proficient) -> (Advanced)
----
Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
N/A
-
Novice:
N/A
-
Beginner:
Solar Beam (new, +), Earthquake (new, +), Torment (new, +), Brutal Swing (new, +), Breaking Swipe (new, +), Sunny Day (new, +)
-
Proficient:
Tackle, Flail, Bounce, Scald, Bite, Dragon Rage, Whirlpool, Twister, Ice Fang, Scary Face, Brine, Crunch, Thunder (++), Thunderbolt (new, ++), Flamethrower (new, ++), Ice Beam (new, ++), Protect (new, ++), Safeguard (new, ++), Iron Tail (new, ++), Iron Head (new, ++), Dark Pulse (new, ++), Hurricane (new, ++), Blizzard (new, ++), Dragon Rush (+), Outrage (++), Draco Meteor (++)
-
Advanced:
Splash, Swift, Aqua Jet, Water Pulse, Hydro Pump, Waterfall, Dragon Pulse (++), Aqua Tail (+), Dragon Hammer (+++), Dragon Breath (+), Hyper Beam (new, +++), Rain Dance (+)
-
Mastered:
Water Gun, Dragon Dance (+)'
The last three-plus years had been good to Ryujin and the other members of his group as well. I managed to raise his potential by nearly 9% in that time, which was good enough considering his potential. Adding the bonus of his breakthrough to his potential catapulted him straight to deep purple.
It even went so far as to help him cross half the way to the aurora grade. This meant that Ryujin would definitely reach light aurora potential upon breaking through to the dark gold stage, regardless of what happened, unless he was lucky/unlucky enough to unlock multiple modifiers, such as the "King Gene" or the "Primal Gene", at once.
However, I doubted that something like that would happen, since the probability of such an event was minuscule even with all the work either Utopia or their limit breaking did on my Pokemon's genes. Speaking of modifiers, as I had expected, Ryujin had not unlocked any modifiers during his breakthrough.
No, the presence/aura outbreak everyone witnessed, was due to the talent he had apparently unlocked while reaching the gold stage. His new talent was called Alpha Predator, and it allowed Ryujin to overwhelm/intimidate others, and at least to me, it was obvious that Alpha Predator was derived from his Intimidate ability, high racial value, and his dragon typing.
The difference between AP and Intimidate was that Alpha Predator made it possible for Ryujin to cause a loss of consciousness to those vastly weaker than him using his aura/presence. Moreover, Ryujin could use AP whenever he wanted, unlike Intimidate which was passively triggered only when he made an appearance.
Now, regarding the effect of Alpha Predator, the bigger the difference in strength/prowess between Ryujin and the affected party(-ies), the more likely it was for them to lose consciousness. The smaller the difference, the easier it was for them to resist the effects of Alpha Predator.
The strength of their will/mental fortitude also played a role, allowing weaker ones to resist AP if their will was strong enough. Consequently, it was also possible for stronger Pokemon to succumb to Ryujin's pressure if their will/mental fortitude was weak.
Well, there were many such techniques across various media in my previous life, so I had no problem understanding the nuances of Alpha Predator, and due to the same reason, I knew exactly how strong of a talent AP could be if used correctly.
The easiest, or rather most obvious use was functioning as an "army killer". Well, rather than killing them, it would cause the cannon fodder to fall unconscious, but that still meant that Ryujin could easily deal with any large number of Pokemon as long as said Pokemon were weak enough to lose consciousness, so overwhelming him with cannon fodder was no longer an option.
Alpha Predator made Ryujin my go-to Pokemon in case I ever came across a tide, especially once he became even stronger, allowing him to deal with stronger Pokemon in the same way he could deal with weak ones right now.
I would have to properly test how weak the Pokemon had to be right now to lose its consciousness, and if training with his talent helped him increase that or his range. Regardless, I was immensely satisfied with the talent Ryujin had unlocked and he looked really happy as well when I told him some of the things he could do with it.
The others also pricked up their ears when I told Ryujin about his new ability. They were naturally curious after having witnessed its effect, and once I told him what AP did and could do, they began a new round of congratulations.
I also felt the motivation of those close to completing their limit-breaking rise by another notch, which I had not thought possible considering how fired up they had already been.
Anyway, I focused back on Ryujin's status screen, looking at his parameters, and they were looking pretty good. D's across the board, with even a C among his parameters. Ryujin was practically at the limit of the (mid) gold stage and would be able to reach the (high) gold stage, once a few more of his parameters rose from D to C.
Considering the progress speed I had observed of my other gold-stage Pokemon, I could confidently say that he would reach that point before I began my second year at Oak Labs. Probably much earlier than that as well, but I was unsure by how much, so I went with the safe bet.
Speaking of a safe bet, I felt that it was time for Ryujin to turn his main focus on his resistance training so that he could finally standardize his weakness towards dragon-type moves/energy.
He had been doing so in an on/off manner for the last few years, so I was hopeful that he would be able to complete the process within a year or so, now that we were going to turn it into his main focus, or rather one of his main focuses, along with reaching the (high) gold stage. His advanced draconic/dragon energy manipulation would hopefully help as well.
Ryujin's moves could take the back seat until then, especially considering the good job he had done in the last few years in that regard. Looking at his current move pool, I saw no problem neglecting his move training for a while.
Ryujin certainly could afford it with how many proficient and advanced moves he had. Simply raising the beginner moves to proficiency could be done for a change of pace whenever Ryujin felt somewhat bored or stifled.
Anyway, once I was done looking through Ryujin's status screen, I declared that we would be directly starting the celebration, which was met with the cheers of everyone.
Well, what can I say, except I was right? After the party, everyone that was close to being able to break through threw themselves into training in an overly enthusiastic fashion, and it did not take long for another one to raise her final parameter to SSS.
Medusa/Gyarados managed to complete her limit-breaking just three days after Ryujin. Considering that it was only Palkiday right now, we were only halfway through the second week. This made me think that I might get to witness the whole Slythering Six break through to the gold stage before the end of the vacation.
Nonetheless, I entered Utopia to make sure that Medusa was right, which she was, and once that was confirmed, I called everyone over so that they could witness her breakthrough. Considering how much Ryujin's breakthrough had motivated them, I expected Medusa's breakthrough to keep that fire going. They would see it as an affirmation that their enthusiastic training was working.
Anyway, once everyone had gathered, I gave Medusa the go-ahead and she began to break through to the gold stage. There were no delays and her breakthrough passed in an extremely smooth manner. Once the process was done I went up to her and congratulated her, which was followed by the others doing the same.
A swift look at Medusa confirmed that she had no visual change, and while everyone was busy congratulating her, I looked through her status screen.
'Name: Medusa
Species: Gyarados
Gender: Female
Type: Water, Poison
Age: 8+ Years
-
Potential: Light Purple (79.8%) -> (88.92%) -> Deep Purple (48.92%)
(Genetic) Modifiers: Poison Variant
Abilities: Intimidate, Poison Touch
Talents: None
Affinities: Water, Poison
-
Bond: Mikail (strong)
Quirks: Kinda Biased
----
Parameters:
Stage: Gold Stage (mid)
Vitality: C
Strength: E
Endurance: D
Agility: D
Energy Capacity: C
Energy Density: C
----
Resistance:
Fire (Minor), Water (Minor), Ice (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Poison (Minor), Bug (Minor), Steel (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Electric (Minor), Ground (Minor), Psychic (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Electric (in progress)
----
Condition: Healthy, Happy, Elated
----
Masteries:
Water Energy Manipulation (Advanced)
Poison Energy Manipulation (Beginner) -> (Advanced)
----
Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
N/A
-
Novice:
N/A
-
Beginner:
Thrash (+)
-
Proficient:
Tackle, Flail, Bounce, Bite, Dragon Rage, Whirlpool, Twister, Ice Fang, Scary Face, Brine, Crunch, Rain Dance, Aqua Tail, Acid, Dark Pulse (+), Acid Spray (new, ++), Poison Fang (new, ++), Poison Gas (new, ++), Poison Tail (new, ++), Dragon Pulse (new, ++), Flamethrower (new, ++), Sludge Bomb (new, ++)
-
Advanced:
Splash, Swift, Aqua Jet, Water Pulse, Hydro Pump, Waterfall, Dragon Dance, Sludge Wave (+), Poison Jab (new, +++), Venoshock (new, +++), Toxic (new, +++), Purify (new, +++), Coil (new, +++)
-
Mastered:
Water Gun'
Just as it happened with Ryujin, Medusa's potential also rose to deep purple, and similarly, her potential was also close to halfway to the aurora grade. She was only missing 1 or so percent to reach the 50% mark.
Another similar point was that she did not unlock any modifiers, which I had already suspected due to her pretty standard breakthrough. Unfortunately, Medusa's talent section was empty as well, so the first real change I got to see aside from her potential was in her parameter section.
Her starting parameters actually looked better than Ryujin's starting parameters. Half her parameters already started at C, and only her strength disturbed that impressive picture due to starting at E.
Nonetheless, the current board meant that she only had to raise her strength to D as well as one of her other two parameters to C, to reach the (high) gold stage, and honestly, I was pretty sure she would manage to do so before Ryujin could fulfill his part. That meant, that Medusa would most likely end up reaching the (high) gold stage before Ryujin.
Whether she would become the second member of the Slythering Six to reach the (high) gold stage had yet to be determined. For that, we would have to see what their parameters looked like when the others broke through. As far as I could remember only Ignis/Gyarados should have a better start than Medusa parameter-wise, so if he broke through fast enough, he might be able to overtake her.
Anyway, back to Medusa's status. Her resistance training had been more of a side project as well, which was why she had yet to standardize her electric weakness, and just as I had decided for Ryujin, I would move the priority of her resistance training to the top by pushing aside her move training.
Medusa had done a really good job move-wise, especially on the poison front, which showed in her mastery section as well. She learned quite a few new poison moves and raised them all to either proficiency or even to advanced mastery. That resulted in her poison energy manipulation rising from beginner mastery all the way up to advanced mastery.
She truly did a good job with her moves, and only had a single one that had yet to reach proficiency, so unlike Ryujin, Medusa would probably have to focus on raising her proficient moves once she finished with Thrash whenever she wanted to train her moves for a change of pace.
Well, she naturally could also learn new moves, but I wanted to avoid that for now. No matter what she would do, it did not change the fact that she had done a great job so far, and I praised her for reaching this point before I announced the start of the celebration for Medusa's success, which was met with cheers.
-----------------------------
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