Once we made it to Hades/Haunter's place, I left the others to their own devices and pulled out the two masterpieces I prepared for Hades' evolution. The Purified Ghostly Essence and Refined Poison Essence were definitely among my finest works so far.
Well, at least they were the costliest, especially since they were made using materials that could, for now, not be replicated by Utopia. I was confident that the two supplements would give Hades a good boost during his evolution, and after asking if he was ready, I gave him the Purified Ghostly Essence first.
'Name: Purified Ghostly Essence (Gengar-Core)
Type: Ghost
Class: B+
Uses: Encompasses the quintessence of multiple ghost-type Pokemon, centered around a core essence seed that remained behind after going through numerous purification processes supported by supplementary materials. Contains pure ghost-type essence and can be used as a supplement to help ghost-type Pokemon in various ways. It is especially useful for the Gengar line.'
I made that one using the core/origin ghost-type essence coming from a (high) dark gold stage Gengar, who accumulated that essence for nearly a century, which was why I had to pay so much for it. The Gengar essence one alone cost nearly half as much as the various supplemental ghost essences I bought, and I bought hundreds since I needed that much due to the "loss" in essence that happened during the purification process.
Yet, buying it like this was still cheaper than trying to get the essence of a slain Gengar. If I had tried to get the essence of a slain Gengar instead, then the price I would have had to pay would have been two or three times higher, which in my opinion would not have been worth it. Just because I had a lot of money did not mean I had to waste it.
Besides, I did not want to use the essence of a slain Pokemon for this supplement for various essential reasons. As for the supplementary essences, those came from various Gengar, Shuppet, and Duskull line members. Since they were just used to supplement the core essence they did not have to come from a particularly strong Pokemon.
I mostly used the essence of bronze stage ghosts, with some iron and silver stage essence, which was why they were much cheaper individually than the core Gengar essence.
Anyway, once the ghostly essence began to disperse throughout Hades' body, I handed him the Refined Poison Essence as well, which Hades directly gulped down.
'Name: Refined Poison Essence (Gengar-Core)
Type: Poison
Class: B+
Uses: Created through the merging and refining of hundreds of poisons and toxins from various poison-type Pokemon. One kind of poison or toxin served as the base while all kinds of other poisons and toxins serve to supplement and amplify the core poison/toxin.
The more numerous and compatible the supplementary poisons and toxins the higher the quality of the final poison. It has unlimited variations depending on the core and supplementary poisons/toxins. Contains highly refined poison-type essence and can be used as a supplement to help poison-type Pokemon in various ways, especially useful for the Gengar-line.'
Getting my hands on high-quality poison essence from a Gengar was not easy. At the very least it was harder than finding its ghost essence, and the best I managed to find/buy came from a (low) dark gold stage Gengar.
Furthermore, since the alliance was stricter with the distribution/sales of poisons, I had to first make sure that no misunderstandings happened before I began procuring all the poisons/toxins/venoms I needed.
Still, even with that declaration of intent, the actual procuring of the various poisons was much easier than buying the ghostly essence, simply because it was easier to harvest the poisons/toxins. Moreover, unlike the ghost essence, the procuring method had no impact on my supplement as long as the poison was not polluted/tainted in the process.
Ultimately, after clarifying to the alliance clerks that showed up, why I bought such a vast array of poisons, I managed to get my hands on some poison from each poison-type tribe that called the northern continent its home. I also bought some Drapion Toxin, which was the only non-northern addition I insisted on getting.
Anyway, once Hades had ingested both essences, I let out some encouraging words before I retreated to the circle that the others had formed. Naturally, Fortuna/Togetic also went up to her mischief buddy Hades and wished him good luck with his evolution. She then retreated back to the circle and once Hades was left alone in the center, I gave him the go-ahead signal.
A moment later Hades lit up, signaling the start of his evolution. Everything went well until the light ball suddenly erupted in a brighter light, and a lot of energy was drawn into the ball of light. Everyone cheered when that happened since we knew by now, that this was an indicator of the unlocking of some kind of modifier or notable talent.
The light only began to die down after nearly 4 minutes, which made Hades' evolution the longest one we had witnessed so far, and it made me, and probably everyone else as well, wonder just what he had unlocked.
As soon as the light cut off, I began to approach the freshly evolved Gengar, and while I was moving closer, I observed his body to see if I could spot any changes that stood out from that of a regular Gengar. Yet, at first glance, Hades appeared to be the same as any other Gengar.
However, once I was a bit closer and took another look I noticed that the pointed ears all Gengar had, seemed to have become wispy at the tips. Moreover, it appeared like the tips had turned a dark grey. At this point, I had already made it in front of Hades, who was also checking out his new body, and upon taking a closer look at him, I also noticed that the tips of the spikes on his head that resembled hair appeared waiver, though they did not turn wispy or change color.
These changes made me believe that Hades had unlocked a modifier rather than a talent, though I had no idea what kind of modifier it was. Well, aside from knowing that it was not the Shiny modifier since he had not changed in color, at least not to the extent that I would associate with a Shiny.
Size-wise Hades reached the tip of my nose, which meant that he was somewhere around 172 to 174 cm tall, which was definitely nowhere near the size he would have had if he had unlocked the Giant or Alpha modifier, so instead of keeping up the guessing game, I congratulated Hades before I took a look at his new/updated status sheet, while the others took up his attention.
'Name: Hades
Species: Gengar*
Gender: Male
Age: 9+ years
-
Type: Ghost, Poison
Potential: Purple (15.86%)*
{Light Purple (76.84%) -> (82.17%) -> Purple (45.86%) -> Purple (15.86%)}'
I had honestly not expected him to still manage to attain purple potential after he ended up unlocking a modifier. That just went to show how much of a good job I had done with the supplements I prepared since they seemed to have given him a boost of over 60%, which still left Hades with enough left over to push him into the purple club.
This was definitely a pleasant surprise, but I could not help but glance down to the next section instead of sharing the good news with Hades, and I once more could not help but be astonished when I saw the modifier Hades unlocked.
'(Genetic) Modifier: Trace of Shadows*'
This was definitely not one of the modifiers I knew, and I had no idea what it did, or how much of a bonus it provided. All I could guess from the name was that it was related to shadows, though that was a bit on the nose with a title like "Trace of Shadows".
So, obviously, my next act was to check out the modifier's description, and I could not help but exclaim in surprise when I read just what kind of modifier "Trace of Shadows" was. Trace of Shadows had nothing to do with shadows, well, it kinda did but not in the literal sense.
The modifier "Trace of Shadows" appeared to be the title given to any Pokemon that had traces of Marshadow's lineage. Yes, Hades had somehow managed to unlock the lineage of a freaking legendary, and while he only had a hint of the lineage for now, who knew what the future would bring.
Besides, one could not underestimate even a trace of a legendary's lineage, since just that was enough to provide some excellent boons. The most straightforward one was the 20% overall boost it provided its holder, and while this was a bit below some of the top level 1 modifiers like the royal or ancient gene, it was still better than the boost given by the Shiny gene.
Furthermore, this was the boost one gained with just a smidge of the legendary's lineage. One just had to imagine what kind of boost one would gain with an improved lineage factor.
Anyway, the overall bonus was not the only boon granted by Trace of Shadows. It also unlocked the talent "Shadow's Favor".
'Talents: Prankster King, Shadow's Favor*'
I read through its description, and it normally granted the holder the ability to merge and lurk inside shadows, which was something that Gengar was already capable of, so in his case, it amplified Genegar's natural ability to merge and lurk inside shadows. It also gave him the ability to perform limited shadow jumps, which was awesome.
Even this was not the end of the boons provided by Trace of Shadows. It also granted its holder an additional fighting-type affinity if one did not already possess it.
'Affinities: Ghost, Poison, Fighting*'
Seeing it on Hades' list of affinities was impressive because I had honestly never expected it to appear there. This was definitely an impressive number of boons, and seeing that there was nothing else, I finally addressed the others.
Their attention had obviously been drawn by my exclamation and they had come up to ask me what was up. Pure chaos. That was how I would describe the reaction that followed after I told the others just what Hades had unlocked.
Everyone was whooping, cheering, and exclaiming in disbelief all at once. Meanwhile, Hades was staring at me in incredulity, unable to believe that he was now part of the lineage of a legendary Pokemon, regardless of how minute the connection was.
Still, trace connection or not, I was pretty sure that at least the OG Marshadow would be able to feel the appearance of another Pokemon with a connection to its lineage, but I had no idea how and if it would react to it. Heck, even if it did react and somehow ended up deciding to pay us/Hades a visit to check him out, we wouldn't be able to notice anything unless Marshadow decided to make his presence known.
No lie, that thought did make me a bit nervous, but I was genuinely not worried about my/our safety since the impression I had of the legendaries was rather positive, and I/we had done nothing to earn/deserve their ire. I did not believe that the possession of a trace of a lineage of theirs was enough to cause their ire as long as it happened "naturally".
Anyway, after the others had sufficiently calmed down, I began to explain just what Hades new modifier entailed, aside from the whole Marshadow thing, and they all cheered with each new boon I listed. Meanwhile, Hades' grin became wider with each additional boon that came up, and after I was done, he was all smiles.
Regardless, the news caused quite a hubbub, and after taking part in the atmosphere for a few minutes, I let them bug/congratulate Hades, while I continued to check the rest of his status screen.
I jumped between a few of the sections while checking his new modifier, but after moving back to the next section in line, I saw that Hades' evolution to Gengar also led to a change in abilities.
'Abilities: Infiltrator, Cursed Body*'
He lost Levitate and gained Cursed Body instead, and I for one welcomed the change. All ghost types were able to naturally "fly", so all Levitate really did was remove the energy/stamina cost of "flying". So, removing that in exchange for an ability that granted him a physique with an auto "curse"/disable chance was totally worth it, at least in my opinion.
Especially, since Hades apparently did not even notice the drain until I told him that he had lost Levitate in exchange for Cursed Body even though he was currently floating. While that was probably because he was still distracted by the previous bombshell I set loose, it still showed that the drain was small enough that it could go unnoticed.
Anyway, I moved on to the rest of the status sheet, but the next few sections remained unchanged, at least until I took a look at the standardized sub-section of the type-relations section.
'Bond: Mikail (strong)
Quirks: Playful
----
Parameters:
Stage: Silver Stage (high)
Vitality: SS
Strength: SS
Endurance: SS
Agility: SSS
Energy Capacity: SSS
Energy Density: SSS
----
Immunity:
Normal, Fighting
-
Resistance:
Poison (Major), Bug (Major), Grass (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Psychic (Minor), Ghost (Minor), Ground (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Dark*'
We had been working on his resistance towards dark-type energy/moves, and it appeared that his evolution had pushed his residence training to completion. I suspected that Hades' new modifier was responsible for this as well, but regardless of whether that was true or not, the important bit was that Hades had lost one of his weaknesses.
He was definitely happy to hear that, and this news, more so than the modifier one, caused some exclamations of envy among the others, which I found really amusing.
Nonetheless, after sharing that piece, I resumed looking through the rest of the status sheet, but there were no further changes that happened as a result of his evolution.
'Condition: Healthy, Happy, Elated, Pumped
----
Masteries:
Ghost Energy Manipulation (Advanced)
Poison Energy Manipulation (Proficient)
----
Techniques:
{I've decided to henceforth only list the changes that happened since the last status sheet. The full move list can be seen at the "clean" status sheet at the end of the chapter}
-
Unofficial/In progress:
Hysteria (C)
-
Novice:
Thunder (new), Rain Dance (new)
-
Beginner:
Self-Destruct (+), Hyper Beam (new), Phantom Force (new)
-
Proficient:
Gaslight (C, ++), Double Team (+), Scary Face (+), Explosion (++), Lick (+), Taunt (+), Sludge Wave (+)
-
Advanced:
Psychic (+), Dream Eater (+), Confuse Ray (+)
-
Mastered:
Shadow Ball (+)
-
Combo moves/Custom moves:
Gaslight (Proficient) {Poison Gas & Will-O-Wisp}, Hysteria (in progress) {Poison Gas & Will-O-Wisp & Confuse Ray}'
Once I was done looking at Hades' status sheet, I made sure to gain everyone's attention before warning them to keep Hades' new modifier/connection a secret. I made sure they knew that this was something that could not be shared with anyone under any circumstance, at least not for now.
Additionally, I and the other psychics amongst us, with everyone's consent, made sure to plant a subtle subconscious suggestion to each one of us to not think about the matter whenever other beings outside our group were present. I then reinforced that suggestion with the help of Utopia, making it as foolproof as I/we could.
After that was handled, I told everyone to head to my area to celebrate Hades' evolution and luck.
---------------------
---------------------
This part is purely to display Hades' status screen in one piece and does not count toward the word count.
Name: Hades
Species: Gengar
Gender: Male
Age: 9+ years
-
Type: Ghost, Poison
Potential: Purple (15.86%)
(Genetic) Modifier: Trace of Shadows
Abilities: Infiltrator, Cursed Body
Talents: Prankster King, Shadow's Favor
Affinities: Ghost, Poison, Fighting
-
Bond: Mikail (strong)
Quirks: Playful
----
Parameters:
Stage: Silver Stage (high)
Vitality: SS
Strength: SS
Endurance: SS
Agility: SSS
Energy Capacity: SSS
Energy Density: SSS
----
Immunity:
Normal, Fighting
-
Resistance:
Poison (Major), Bug (Major), Grass (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Psychic (Minor), Ghost (Minor), Ground (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Dark
----
Condition: Healthy, Happy, Elated, Pumped
----
Masteries:
Ghost Energy Manipulation (Advanced)
Poison Energy Manipulation (Proficient)
----
Techniques:
-
Unofficial/In progress:
Hysteria (C)
-
Novice:
Attract, Thunder, Rain Dance
-
Beginner:
Spite, Energy Ball, Thunderbolt, Foul Play, Ally Switch, Giga Drain, Swagger, Destiny Bond, Self-Destruct, Hyper Beam, Phantom Force
-
Proficient:
Astonish, Sucker Punch, Payback, Hex, Night Shade, Sludge Bomb, Curse, Nightmare, Toxic, Shadow Punch, Mean Look, Dark Pulse, Smog, Protect, Poison Jab, Shadow Claw, Gaslight (C) Double Team, Scary Face, Explosion, Lick, Taunt, Sludge Wave
-
Advanced:
Hypnosis, Poison Gas, Venoshock, Will-O-Wisp, Psychic, Dream Eater, Confuse Ray
-
Mastered:
Shadow Ball
-
Combo moves/Custom moves:
Gaslight (Proficient), Hysteria (in progress)
-----------------------------
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