The celebration went a bit past midnight before I called it off and we all went to sleep. The next day was the official last day of the month since Giratiday was the first day of the new/16th month. Still, that did not stop me from spending Mewday like I did any of the previous work days.
I went to the lab, joined the Porygon Project Team, and read up on stuff they had researched when I was not doing things I was asked to do. I did the same on Giratiday as well, regardless of whether this day signaled the start of the final month of my internship here at Oak Lab or not.
I also temporarily ignored that I would be sitting my final exams this month. The exam phase would be starting on Arcday of the third week, and once I was done with all of them, I would be graduating from the tertiary/trainer school.
Still, I chose to shove that to the back of my mind until the end of Dialday and focus on the here and now, which was the work I was doing for/with the Porygon project. I could freely admit that I found the topic and work interesting enough, and the highlight of the week was probably being able to actually see the notes and research that enabled the evolution of Porygon to Porygon 2 and later on to Porygon Z with my own eyes.
Porygon's evolutions could practically be seen as successful major upgrades, and each one of them was the result of the effort that various scientists had invested in the Porygon project. What made their achievement even more impressive, at least in my opinion, was that it was based purely on scientific work.
There were some of the original notes with crucial ideas among the files, though most of them were copies. Yet, seeing them like this for some reason felt more real than looking up the info in my super library, which I could do since all of this was documented information that was present inside my super library.
Well, at least most of it, since the information and documents that had been recorded after my arrival, so close to 14 years ago, were not included in my knowledge pack. That meant that there were enough points I had not already read to keep me interested for the rest of the week.
I honestly could not help but think that Porygon had the biggest potential for "alternate" evolution among all known species. Well, aside from Eevee obviously. Seeing how the evolutions of Porygon were the result of the hard work of the science community, I could see them coming up with a Porygon T (Tank) with high endurance stats and other alternate evolutions instead of Porygon Z.
Anyway, seeing how the first of the final exams was only a week away, I spent a few hours each day of the weekend hitting the books for a while before hanging out with my Pokemon. Along with the supplementary material, each year had around 20 "books", and I went through the whole first-year collection and a third of the second-year collection by the end of the weekend.
I had to admit that this would have been impossible if not for my boosted intellect and memory, along with my second and third thought stream. Not the reading part, since I would have managed that either way, but ensuring that I actually understood and comprehend what I read.
While I speed-read through the books to get a perfect grasp on what the required content for the exams was, my thought streams actually made sure I had a full understanding of the content, and they cross-referenced my super library to ensure that I did not misunderstand anything.
Aside from spending time with my Pokemon and working through my course books, I also occasionally thought about what project I should join for the upcoming week since it would practically be the final full week of my internship considering that my final exams began on Arcday the week after.
Since I had gone through the list of ongoing lab projects quite a few times while choosing which ones I wanted to join, I had them pretty much memorized, which allowed me to search for an interesting one even from home.
However, the lists I had memorized only contained the project titles along with a sentence or two to avoid misunderstandings, so I would still have to read the description to see if I truly wanted to join the project or not. Still, that was enough for me to choose 3 projects that sounded interesting enough.
On Arcday, the first thing I did, after moving Mothra/Butterfree who still insisted on accompanying me outside of work back to Utopia, was to directly look up the information on those three projects, and after reading through the details, I ended up choosing the Overqwil project.
I could still remember the discovery of the historical Qwilfish variant along with its surprise evolution Overqwil around 3.5 years ago. Though surprisingly, that was not when the Overqwil project began here at Oak Labs.
According to the introduction file I read, the Overqwil project began about 2 years ago, since Oak Labs was only able to get access to some specimens at that point, which was quite surprising to be perfectly honest since we were talking about the Goat, sorry I meant the Oak getting delayed access here.
That naturally ended up being my first question once I joined the team, and they clarified how that happened. Due to the danger and risk the discovered historical Qwilfish/Overqwil tribe posed to the environment and the ecosystem, the alliance had chosen to isolate the area they were discovered in and put the whole zone under heavy watch.
Considering the warnings and alarming statements found in historical text related to the species, the alliance behavior was not surprising. The first contact with the tribe did confirm that these precautions were justified as well.
Anyway, the isolation as well as preliminary surveillance ordered by the alliance took a few months, but eventually, the green light for research was given. However, due to established traditions and rules, the regional professor of the region a species was discovered or rediscovered in had "dibs" so to say.
All the other professors/regions had to wait for a certain period before they could be spared a few specimens for their own research, and in the Overqwil case, this period took about 1.5 years in total. Only after that was Oak Labs able to get their hands on an Overqwil and a few historical Qwilfish variants for research purposes. Though even then, the specimens came with a batch of conditions and warnings.
The area the specimen were placed in had to be isolated from the rest of the environment and there had to be constant surveillance to ensure that no one escaped. Breeding them was also temporarily forbidden until the alliance managed to find a method to turn them less hostile and malicious.
Obviously, handing them out to trainers was forbidden as well since they did not want to risk someone or multiple someones letting a specimen go somewhere. I myself got a live demonstration of the vicious and nasty behavior/temper of the species when I was allowed to approach the specimens on Mewday.
The Overqwil actually tried to spear me once I came close enough, and the b*st*rd had the gall to leer at me when he failed due to the intervention of the head of the guards. The guards consisted of a mix of psychic, flying, and ground types. Though I had to add that all psychic guards had to keep up the move Miracle Eye due to the dark typing of the Overqwil line.
Anyway, no one was surprised at Overqwil's ambush, myself included, since the others had already warned me that something like that was most likely to happen and that the guards would ensure my safety.
Apparently, the strongest three Pokemon guards were focused purely on Overqwil since he was the most dangerous as well as vicious one amongst the specimen.
They also shared that it took over a year before Overqwil actually stopped trying to constantly kill or maim the 4 researchers that focused on him, and another half a year before he stopped trying to "surprise" kill them.
The historical Qwilfish were apparently much nicer than the Overqwil since they seemed to have stopped any murder attempts after the first half a year. All in all, I could say that this particular line was quite the piece of work.
Nonetheless, my work on the Fish of Doom was obviously not everything I did. On Giratiday, I had to hand Hades/Haunter another Millennial Tree Core, after he sucked dry the last ghost-type item I handed him.
The Millennial Tree Core was one of the better ghost-type items produced by Utopia, and it was actually the upgraded version of the Ancient Tree Core I obtained a few years ago.
'Name: Millennial Tree Core
Type: Ghost
Class: C
Uses: It's the core of a fallen tree, that has been absorbing the spectral/nether energy in its surroundings for over 1000 years. If left alone the tree could have become a Trevenant. Contains ghost-type energy and can be used as a supplement to help ghost-type Pokemon, especially useful for the Trevenant-line.'
After Utopia's upgrade, the grade of the item rose by a step, and the potential Pokemon listed in the description changed from a Phantump to a Trevenant. It was always fascinating to see a reminder that ghost types were Pokemon that could be "born" at a higher evolution stage.
Anyway, I decided to check his status screen while I was handing out his next ghost energy battery, and I was surprised to see that his first parameter had actually advanced to SSS.
There were no further noteworthy events after that little interlude, right up until Dialday, and having made it to the last day with the project team, I could honestly say that I did not like the Overqwil line since they, at least in my opinion, truly seemed to be the embodiment of their two types, which were dark and poison.
Seeing their behavior I could understand why the alliance was so strict in their approach to the species and why the species was categorized as a potential disaster and thus strictly regulated.
Regardless of my opinion on the species, Dialday was my "last" proper day at Oak Labs, and while the first half of the day went as usual, I was only slightly surprised when towards the end of the second half, quite a few acquaintances showed up.
Peter, James, Carl, Sibel, Sarah, and a few others that I had worked together with during the last three years visited me to wish me the best for my final exams and also the future in case we did not see each other after the exams.
The most surprising part was that Professor Oak visited me as well. Well, actually that was not as surprising considering that my internship was about to end and that I was about to start my last set of official exams. No, the surprising bit was what he shared with me during his visit.
The usual reward for the Top 3 of the final exams at the Pallet City Trainer School was the option to choose one of the three royal starters of Kanto. Those three were, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle.
Seeing how I already had a Venusaur and a Charmeleon, I thought I would simply choose a Squirtle for the school reward. As for the alliance reward, I was planning to see what the options were, though I knew they were usually pretty good, and choose the "best" option for my team/family.
However, Professor Oak's offer changed that completely. It seemed that neither the Professor, the trainer school, nor the alliance doubted that I would ace everything and get first place during the exams. So, they came together, and under the support of Professor Oak decided to give me another reward option in case I got first place in the school rankings and across the board.
For the alliance reward, he presented me with three alternate species and allowed me to choose one of the three species in advance. According to him, he would then bring me three members of the species I chose to choose from once I got first place and came back to the lab to tie up my internship.
The three alternate options Professor Oak listed were Larvitar, Bagon, and Beldum. Yeah, I actually got the chance to choose a pseudo-legendary if I managed to get first place across the board. Professor Oak admitted that this would normally not have happened, but my excellence and contributions gave them quite a bit of wiggle room which Professor Oak capitalized on for me.
That my withdrawal from the usual reward pool allowed the person that came in fourth or sixth for the alliance reward to receive one of the regular starters was another benefit, even if that one so did not affect me. Still, this way the person that would have lost out on a reward because of me got one after all, so everyone won.
For that same reason, the Pallet City Trainer School wanted me to choose one of the royal starters in advance so that they could prepare that one for me and prepare the usual trio for the three best students that came after me. I obviously told Professor Oak that I wanted a Squirtle for that one.
Anyway, back to the big reward choice. While all three pseudo-legendary options were great, I went for the one that was the most interesting for me among the choices, and that was Beldum. Professor Oak promised that he would get the alliance to present 3 of the best 5-star potential Beldum they had in reserve for me to choose from, and I thanked him sincerely for his support.
I was sure that even the option of being presented with three members of my species of choice were due to his assistance. Still, those visits and the good news from Professor Oak aside, I eventually ended up finishing my "last" work day at Oak Labs and made my way back to my dorm room.
Once there, I went inside Utopia, where I got greeted by Mothra/Butterfree and the others. We had our dinner together, and after that, I pulled out a comfy seat along with a couch table where I began to stack all the course material that would come up in the upcoming final exams.
I pulled out another table and placed it beside the first one. Once everything was ready, I settled on the seat and took one of the books before I began going through it. When everyone else saw that I was "learning" or rather rehashing everything, they quietly dispersed to avoid distracting me.
The only one that stayed was Chibi Mothra, who settled on my head and simply chilled on top of there while I kept going through the books. I spent pretty much the whole weekend on my exam preparations. I first finished going through all books and materials I could find for the rest of year 2 and the entirety of year 3 before I began working through the final exam papers of the last 15 years.
Since it was a unified exam, I did not have to worry about finding papers from each school since all Kanto schools went through a unified set of exam papers each year. Still, considering the number of courses a student had to go through, that still made over 210 exam papers that I worked through within less than 54 hours.
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