Carl and Sibel were certainly happy about my return to the lab. I directly resumed working on Mystic Cryo Gem with them, and by the end of the week, we had managed to achieve a maximum fusion rate of 76%, which was good enough.
While I spent Kyoday in Pallet City, more specifically at the lab, I went back home on Grouday to spend a day with my parents since it was the actual last day of my vacation and also the last day of the month.
Arcday welcomed not only the first month of the 4th term since my internship was going by the schooling system, but it was also the start of the 3rd month of 2182. We were naturally fully focused on making a perfectly fused Mystic Cryo Gem, and were working hard on increasing not only the fusion rate but also the stability as well as quantity of the output of the gems.
The week went by rather steadily until I received a surprise on Palkiday. Well, not at the lab, but while visiting Utopia that evening. Hypno actually approached me and requested that I check his status screen since he wanted to know how he was doing.
Due to living inside the main space he naturally had heard about the limit-breaking training that everyone in the main cast was going through, and he decided to do that as well. So, after reaching the (high) bronze stage and attaining the chance to break through, Hypno chose to keep training instead.
He occasionally came to me and requested that I check his status to learn where he stood. The last time he did that was about a year ago when he managed to reach the regular limit and officially began limit-breaking.
I felt real respect for the guy since even though he kept doing all that hard training, he did not ask me to provide him with extra resources even once. I naturally gave him some help since I actually respected his tenacity, but the stuff I gave him was obviously not as good as the stuff the main cast got.
Still, even those things were better than the stuff he could have gotten in the wild since I gave him stuff that I was making for the main cast, but was not really satisfied with, or resources that the main cast no longer needed.
Anyway, now, after more than a year, he once more asked me to check his parameters, and I saw that he was actually more than halfway through the first round. He looked really happy to hear that and actually laughed when I told him about his progress.
He thanked me for my help before he was distracted by Hades/Haunter and a few others that had become good friends with Hypno. I let them do their thing after telling him that he was welcome.
Hypno had long shared that he did not mind not getting the same resources as the others since he was aware of the fact that he was not part of the main team. In fact, he straight up told me that he was thankful for the support I gave him so far, and it was this attitude that made me respect as well as support him as much as I did.
Anyway, aside from that little event, the rest of the week was pretty calm, and by the end of it, we managed to raise the maximum fusion rate to 80%. The next week started out pretty great right from the bat, at least on the personal front, with Charmander growing out of the stageless phase and reaching the (low) iron stage.
It took him only about 18 months and a few days to reach this point after hatching, so about half a year, which was even faster than the 20 months I had expected him to originally take. Even that had already been way, way faster than the usual maturing speed, so seeing him top that by close to two months was unbelievable.
I naturally congratulated the little tyke, and he was really happy that he could now properly train like all his big brothers and sister and uncles and aunts. Not his exact words, since he was, you know, non-sapient for now, but it was the gist of what he said in his own way.
Sadly, while the start of the week was great, the end was a bit lackluster. The best we managed was raising the maximum fusion rate to 84%. Regardless, the following week served as a good reminder that we were not the only ones working.
On Mewday, one of the Leafeon groups successfully created and tested a C-Class evolution trigger that actually worked. That brought the progress of their part of the project to the same level as our Glaceon side and their success helped motivate everyone quite a bit.
That was not all, on Dialday, Peter sent one of his aides over to inform me that most eggs that had been produced by Toedscool's harem had been finally released by the mothers and were moved to the egg room devoted to them. The first hatchlings were expected to hatch in 9 to 10 months, and presently 42 eggs had been moved to the room, with more on the way.
I had been visiting Toedscruel and his family on occasion so I had a rough idea of what was going on on their side, but I had not known that the number of eggs had reached that number, so I was a tad bit surprised. Nonetheless, I thanked the guy for sharing the news and told him to pass on my thanks to Peter as well.
After he left, I actually thought about whether I should visit the egg room or not, or rather when I should visit the egg room. I ended up deciding to visit in 8 or so months when the first batch was close to hatching. Once they did, I would get quite a few grass-type baby Pokemon thanks to the agreement I had made with Professor Oak.
Still, thinking of the number of newborns made me think of the work necessary to take care of all of them. Even though Pokemon babies were infinitely easier to take care of than human babies, at least as far as safety and food were concerned, they still required attention and care that I did not believe I could provide, at least not to the number I was expecting.
Thankfully it only took a moment for me to think of the solution to the problem. While I could not conscript the mothers since they were busy at the lab, I could still use their grandmother and aunts as well as uncles. I was simply going to ask Vileplume and some of the Gloom to help take care of the babies.
Not only were they of the same type, but they were related, and seeing how many members their family had, they had to be experienced as well. Yes, that was a brilliant idea.
Anyway, the next week was practically the last one of this month, since the one after that had only two days before the new month began on Giratiday, and I could definitely say that I was pretty happy with how the week went.
It had two highlights. One was Togepi starting her limit breaking on Giratiday, while the other one was the meetup I arranged on Kyoday. Quite a few of my friends managed to come over. Among those that came were Ace, Weiss, Kinji, Jessica, as well as Rose, and I even managed to get Erza to join us. Well, admittedly, Jessica was currently living in Pallet City, but the others had to travel over.
Oh, my lab group also managed to stabilize the fusion rate at 89%, which meant that 89% was the worst any "successfully created object achieved. I said successfully made because currently, about 2.5 out of 10 attempts failed. Also, our best product at the end of the week had a fusion rate of 93%, which was pretty good.
Honestly, the last two days of the month the week after that, were not that great, but we did manage to raise the lowest fusion rate of the last batch to 90%. Not a groundbreaking increase or anything, but it did round up the percentage nicely, so I'd count it as a good way to end the month.
I was not sure if I should call our progress during the rest of that week good or average. While the highest fusion rate we managed to achieve was 96%, the worst one fluctuated between 90% and 91%, so the stable percentage had barely grown. The output had increased a bit to 8 "successful" attempts out of 10, so there was that as well.
Well, looking at it objectively, it was pretty good progress, but I was starting to feel a slight bit hurried after coming close to the goal. That was not good. I had to stay calm and steady especially after coming close to the finish line, so I spent the weekend relaxing and calming down.
I was much calmer when I returned to the lab on Arcday. Well, that steadiness got interrupted a bit after dinner on Palkiday when I saw that Ali/Kirlia had completed his limit breaking during one of my routine checkups. I naturally shared the good news with him and the others, but it also made me fall into contemplation.
I really began to consider whether I should evolve him early instead of waiting for the optimal point at the (high) silver. The reason for that was Kirlia's sh*t racial values and consequently, slow progress speed, which would be carried over after the starting bonus from his limit-breaking was applied.
That was also why it took him as long as Enji/Arcanine or Shino/Yanmega to complete his limit breaking even though he was just at the bronze stage. Yet, my rational side ended up winning. Short-term profit, in this case, the faster progress speed during the silver stage, did not offset the long-term loss of having to make up for missing the optimal evolution point.
In the end, it came down to the fact that I could easily afford to wait an extra year or two for Ali to reach the (high) silver stage and finally evolve to Gallade, so the long-term choice simply made more sense.
Anyway, after that quick mental debate, I headed for Ali's habitat along with everyone that wanted to witness his breakthrough to the silver stage, which naturally ended up being everyone. Once we were there the others directly circled the two of us, and I joined them after patting Ali on the head and wishing him good luck.
His breakthrough ended up being super smooth, and as soon as it was over I went up to him to congratulate him. The others swiftly followed suit as well, and while they were talking, I began checking Ali's status screen.
'Name: Ali
Species: Kirlia
Gender: Male
Age: 9+ years
-
Type: Psychic, Fairy
Potential: Light Purple (97.37%)*
{Deep Blue (23.92%) -> (37.37%) -> Light Purple (97.37%)}
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Synchronize, Trace
Talents: Save Point (Wonder Guard)
Affinities: Psychic, Fairy
-
Bond: Mikail (weak)
Quirks: Faintly Stubborn
----
Parameters:
Stage: Silver Stage (mid)
Vitality: F
Strength: F
Endurance: F
Agility: F
Energy Capacity: E
Energy Density: E
----
Immunity:
Dragon
-
Resistance:
Fighting (Major), Psychic (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Poison (Minor), Ghost (Minor), Steel (Minor)
----
Condition: Healthy, Happy, Excited
----
Masteries:
Psionic Energy Manipulation (Proficient) -> (Advanced)
Fairy Energy Manipulation (Beginner) -> (Proficient)
----
Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
N/A
-
Novice:
Charm
-
Beginner:
Growl (+), Thunder Punch (new), Ice Punch (new), Fire Punch (new), Magical Leaf (new), Thunder Wave (new),
-
Proficient:
Disarming Voice, Confusion, Protect, Hypnosis, Dream Eater, Draining Kiss, Life Dew (+), Future Sight (+), Endure (++), Mega Punch (new), Safeguard (new), Swift (new), Dazzling Gleam (new)
-
Advanced:
Double Team, Calm Mind, Psychic (+), Heal Pulse (+), Psybeam (+), Aura Sphere (new), Zen Headbutt (new)
-
Mastered:
Teleport (+)'
Well, I knew that it was going to be like that, but seeing how close he had come to attaining purple potential after the bonus from his limit breaking, I could not help but feel my fingers itching. If there had been a plus button behind that percentage number I would have smashed it at lightning speed.
Still, it was a fact that Ali had pushed his potential past the blue group, and with the way things stood, I was hopeful, nay, confident that I could push his potential to purple before he was ready to evolve.
Looking at the parts below his potential, I saw that nothing had changed up until the stage part came. As I had expected, even after the limit-breaking bonus was applied, Ali's starting parameters were pretty low. While he had managed to squeeze into the (mid) silver stage, it was at the lower rung of that group.
Regardless, I had known that it would look like that, so I moved passed that and finished checking the rest of his status screen. After noting that nothing else had changed as a result of Ali's breakthrough, I focused back on Ali and the others.
I told them about his potential and exact stage before announcing that we would directly celebrate his breakthrough since it was not even 8 p.m. yet.
-----------------------------
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