The week following Bruce/Crobat's evolution as well as breakthrough tied up my first month and started off the second one. It didn't do much else for me, same for the second week that followed, but I was used to that by now. I was really thankful for the presence of my Pokemon and Utopia, or I would have been really bored during this time.
Not that there was nothing else I could do since I was also training myself, and whenever possible I tried to combine my own training with the time I spent with my Pokemon. The ground/earth doll battles were such an example, or the aura massages. On occasion, like last Kyoday for example, I also tried to meet up with one or more of my friends.
This time around I went across the pond to Turquoise City and met up with Ace. He used one of his days off to hang out with me. We first strolled around a bit before Ace suggested we do something fun, but when I asked him what he had in mind he just shrugged and said nothing before telling me to propose something. Yet, he was pretty quick to shoot down my offer to go watch a movie since he wanted to do something more active.
After some back and forth I could not help but think of something I had been tinkering with since my military phase, or rather since those gun dismantling lessons. I told Ace we could do a fake gunfight, and when he seemed interested I explained my idea. There were two ways we could go about it.
The first was through aura manipulation by producing "blank" mini Aura Sphere and shooting them at each other. This method would also act as some low-key training for us, but the "problem" with this one was that it would put Ace at a considerable disadvantage since he was quite a bit worse than me as far as aura manipulation was concerned.
Hence, it was no surprise that Ace wanted to know what the second option was. He was quite shocked when I told him we could use fake/model guns I had fashioned myself to play the game. It was normal for him to be a bit shocked by that since the private production and unlicensed possession of actual guns was illegal.
Still, while I could not bring out a fully functioning gun, I made quite a few model replicas, each one capable of shooting fake bullets. The bullets were made from strings/silk produced through String Shot and exploded as soon as they hit a target, resulting in a blob of sticky string/matter signifying that one was shot.
As for the gun models I had, honestly, the metal "model" worked the best. In fact that one worked too well and could pretty much be considered a fully functioning gun, which was why I couldn't bring it out. I only had one of those since I mostly made it to prove myself I could produce a real working gun, and work it did. As long as no one saw it everything was fine, but it was likely to get us/me in trouble if someone saw us with "real" guns. Not that we could have made use of it for our game since there was only one.
Still, I kept its existence to myself and told Ace about the wood models instead. I had 4 of those and each one could shoot string bullets with an effective range of 30 meters range, which was more than enough for our game. When Ace heard that we could use those to have a "safe" shoot-out, he directly chose option two, and I could see that he was burning to go, though he had to stop when I told him we needed a proper place to function as our war zone first.
We could not "play" in an area where others could come between us after all. In the end, we went to a training center and booked ourselves a rock field since it provided us with a large enough field to move around while also providing stuff that could act as covers to hide behind while we were shooting each other.
We spent close to three hours there and Ace made sure to post quite a few photos and short videos to our chat group of our "String Gun Tag", causing quite a few of the boys and girls to "exclaim" in jealousy and interest. One or two of them asked if I could get in trouble due to the guns, but I assured them that they were simple models that were not all that dangerous even to regular people, which meant they would not get me in trouble.
I made sure to research the related laws and regulations before I began crafting those models, so I knew that it was true. My current gun project on the other hand was rather dangerous and could get me in quite some trouble, though the "Aura Gun" could also become a rather useful tool for any Aura User once it was complete. Nonetheless, it was something I worked on the side when I was bored and wanted a change of pace, so it was a bit slow going.
Anyway, after our game of "String Tag", we needed an urgent change of clothes. Thankfully, the facility had the necessary facility for us to clean up, and once we were clean we spent the rest of the time until dinner talking while strolling around. All in all, it was a pretty great Kyoday.
Grouday on the other hand was spent inside Utopia. After breakfast, we did our usual check-up routine, though no major things popped up this time around as well. Eventually, the day passed by normally with us training for a few hours before having some fun.
Arcday started off week three and I was resigned for another rather dull work week. My prediction ended up being true, at least for the most part. Giratiday, more specifically an hour after lunch, was the moment a bit of color came into my so far dull week. My boy Enji/Arcanine called for my attention to inform me that he had gotten the "feeling".
Once the agonizingly slow three hours until the end of my shift had passed, I quickly left the building and made my way inside Utopia as quickly as possible. Enji along with the others were already waiting for me, and as soon as I appeared, Enji bound over to me, "tackling" me in a hug, with his forepaws on my shoulders.
Enji urged me to check if he was ready or if he was wrong. Luckily, he was right, and he released an excited howl when he heard that. I swiftly made the corresponding announcement over UtopiaFM before we made our way to Enji's place for his breakthrough.
Enji happily bent his head and used it to shove my legs with enough force to make me stumble onto his bent back. He then moved his shoulders to bring me into a stable position before he began bounding over to his habitat. He was happily laughing the whole way and I could not help but laugh along.
Due to Enji's enthusiasm, we made it to his place in less than a minute, though the others were already there. Horus/Xatu told me that they had teleported everyone over when they saw Enji rushing ahead so quickly since most of the "little" ones could not keep up with that kind of speed.
Anyway, since Enji was quite eager to get the show going I sent out the teleporters and had them bring over the spectators. Once everyone was here, I had them form the circle while Fortuna/Togetic and I wished Enji the best of luck.
He initiated his breakthrough upon my signal, and moments into the breakthrough energy began being drawn to Enji, who started to light up a bit. It was obvious that he had triggered an extra phenomenon, and I was curious what exactly he had gotten. I was definitely hoping for a good modifier since his talent was already pretty good.
As soon as the breakthrough was over, without even having to look at Enji, I knew that he must have unlocked a modifier of some kind since the undulations he was releasing belonged to the (high) dark gold stage. I knew for a fact that he should have normally started at the (mid) dark gold stage, so the bonus by a modifier was the only logical explanation for his jumped-up start.
Nonetheless, it was better to confirm it with my own eyes, so I made my way toward Enji. I naturally observed him on the way there, but I saw nothing different, at least until I was in front of Enji and he stopped moving around. I then noticed that he was now sporting a thin black line on his forehead that was roughly 5 cm long.
There was not much one could infer from that, so I let it be for now and focused on congratulating Enji on reaching the dark gold stage. The others rushed over as well, and while they were talking animatedly, I proceeded to check Enji's new/updated status sheet.
'Name: Enji
Species: Arcanine
Gender: Male
Age: 10+ years
-
Type: Fire
Potential: Light Aurora (56.07%)*
{Light Aurora (45.93%) -> (46.07%) -> (16.07%) -> (56.07%)}'
The impact of a dark gold stage breakthrough combined with a light Aurora potential on the limit-breaking potential bonus was rather painful, especially if the Pokemon unlocked a modifier as Enji had done. The initial 160% bonus turned into a 40% one, which, due to the 30% reduction Enji's potential suffered, only raised his initial potential by a meager 10%.
Honestly, it was rather tragic, but in the end, it was a good exchange. Besides, it was better that this happened now rather than later on when the impact would be even worse. Anyway, I moved on and quickly saw the reason for the potential reduction.
'(Genetic) Modifiers: Royal*'
Enji ended up unlocking the royal gene, though I had to add that this was probably the first time this gene had caused such a minor visual/physical change as it did for Enji/Arcanine. Yet, it still raised his original racial value/BS from 555 to almost 694. Not only that, but I also caught a glimpse of his affinities and saw that he had actually gained a budding affinity for dragon-type/draconic energy.
'Affinities: Fire, Dragon (budding)*'
This was a bit surprising, but welcome nonetheless. Gaining extra affinities was always good. As for whether that was a lucky coincidence or linked to his new modifier, I did not know, and until I got to "observe" another Royal Arcanine, the answer would remain hidden.
Disregarding that for now, I shared the good news so far with Enji and the rest, triggering a round of jubilation. After enjoying the happy atmosphere a bit, I continued looking through the rest of the status sheet.
'Bond: Mikail (deep)*
Quirk: Lively
----
Parameters:
Stage: Dark Gold Stage (high)*
Vitality: C
Strength: B
Endurance: D
Agility: C
Energy Capacity: C
Energy Density: D'
I had already felt our bond deepen, and the undulations he released had divulged his current stage. Still, it was interesting to see that despite the Royal bonus, Enji's parameter average was only slightly above the minimum needed for the (high) substage, so one could say that he had been quite lucky with this.
Still, the next part ended up being quite a bit more interesting, simply because it was truly good news.
'Immunity:
Fire
-
Resistance:
Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor), Bug (Minor), Steel (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Ground (Minor), Rock (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Water*'
I was happy to share with Enji that he no longer had to endure being hosed down. It took him a moment to understand what that meant, but once he did, he jumped out of happiness. No one found his behavior amiss, at least among the ones who had experience with resistance training. The ones that didn't just felt a bit apprehensive thinking that they would have to do it in the future.
'Techniques:
-
Novice:
Solar Beam (new)
-
Beginner:
Hyper Beam (new)
-
Proficient:
Snarl (+), Fire Blast (+), Incinerate (+), Swift (+), Psychic Fangs (++) Dragon Pulse (new), Body Slam (new), Scary Face (new)
-
Advanced:
Flame Charge (+), Double Team (+), Protect (+), Extreme Speed (+)
-
Mastered:
Heat Wave (+), Fire Spin (++)'
After looking through Enji's move pool and seeking no changes due to his breakthrough, I began pulling out everything we needed for his celebration. I ended up calling it off at 11 p.m. since I had to work tomorrow.
The rest of the week resumed being as dull as the previous ones, and the same was true for the fourth one. The weekends were my only real solace during these days and I actually ended up meeting up with a friend during each Kyoday. Erza and Aaron insisted on playing "String Gun Tag" too, though Aaron chose to add in the Aura Sphere exercise as well.
Honestly, I was really thankful that the fun weekends balanced out the dull workdays, or I would have failed to keep up my polite facade during "work".
Thankfully, I had made it to the final week, and once these 5 days were behind me I would move on to the next phase, though I had to admit that I was not really looking forward to the finance phase since I was expecting it to go similarly to this one.
---------------------
---------------------
This part is purely to display both Enji's status screen in one piece and does not count toward the word count.
'Name: Enji
Species: Arcanine
Gender: Male
Age: 10+ years
-
Type: Fire
Potential: Light Aurora (56.07%)
(Genetic) Modifiers: Royal
Abilities: Flash Fire, Justified, Intimidate
Talents: Alpha's Presence
Affinities: Fire, Dragon (budding)
-
Bond: Mikail (deep)
Quirk: Lively
----
Parameters:
Stage: Dark Gold Stage (high)
Vitality: C
Strength: B
Endurance: D
Agility: C
Energy Capacity: C
Energy Density: D
----
Immunity:
Fire
-
Resistance:
Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor), Bug (Minor), Steel (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Ground (Minor), Rock (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Water
----
Condition: Healthy, Delighted
----
Masteries:
Fire Energy Manipulation (Advanced)
----
Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
N/A
-
Novice:
Solar Beam
-
Beginner:
Helping Hand, Retaliate, Reversal, Odor Sleuth, Hyper Beam
-
Proficient:
Bite, Endure, Take Down, Leer, Flare Blitz, Play Rough, Flame Burst, Dig, Thunder Fang, Safeguard, Sunny Day, Wild Charge, Outrage, Snarl, Fire Blast, Incinerate, Swift, Psychic Fangs, Dragon Pulse, Body Slam, Scary Face
-
Advanced:
Flame Wheel, Agility, Howl, Roar, Ember, Fire Fang, Iron Tail, Crunch, Flame Charge, Double Team, Protect, Extreme Speed
-
Mastered:
Flamethrower, Heat Wave, Fire Spin
-----------------------------
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