After beating Lisa I wished her good luck with her fishing before I continued to circle the oasis. I stayed true to my earlier decision and ignored the Sandslash, Cacnea, and Zigzagoon, as well as the other less interesting species that called the oasis their home. Honestly, after another hour without seeing any of the Pokemon I was on the lookout for, I was starting to think that I was out of luck, but just as that thought began to rise, I stumbled upon a mini swarm of 4 Skorupi hunting down three Zigzagoon.
The Zigzagoon were trying to break away and the Skorupi pursued them while rotating who shot the Zigzagoon with Poison Sting every few seconds. I watched the hunt but did not interfere since this was a natural part of the cycle of life and I was interested in the Skorupi, not the Zigzagoon. I had no idea how long they had been chasing, but the chase was pretty consistent for the few minutes we followed from a slight distance. Things only changed when one of the Zigzagoon ended up getting poisoned.
That Zigzagoon began to slow down, and I felt my respect for the Zigzagoon rise when the other two stopped running along with the poisoned one to confront the Skorupi instead of running away, which would have essentially been them abandoning the unfortunate Zigzagoon to the Skorupi. Unfortunately for them, they were not only outnumbered but also outgunned and it did not take long for a second Zigzagoon to get poisoned. That seemed to be the point that broke the camel's back so to say and a few moments after it happened, the unpoisoned Zigzagoon ran away, leaving the two poisoned Zigzagoon behind.
It was pretty obvious what the destiny of those two was going to be, but neither blamed the fleeing Zigzagoon and I was pretty sure that they were actually the ones who encouraged it to run because they broke out in a frenzy and blocked all 4 Skorupi to prevent them from splitting up. Thanks to the sacrifice of the two poisoned ones the fleeing Zigzagoon was able to escape without having a tail following after it. As for the poisoned duo, they, unfortunately, fell under the dual onslaught of the Skorupi and the poison after holding out for a full two minutes, though they did manage to inflict one or two painful injuries to two of the Skorupi.
When both Zigzagoon finally slumped over, devoid of life, one of the Skorupi looked in the direction that the third Zigzagoon had run off to, but it did not go after it, probably deciding that it had been too long, and focused back on the two preys they had taken down. We watched as the Skorupi circled and prodded the Zigzagoon for a few moments, likely to ensure that they were dead and not playing possum for a kamikaze attack. Once they had done that, they all turned in our direction, showing that they had noticed us and were now focusing on us to determine if we were a threat, though the fact that we had not interfered in their hunt seemed to have earned us enough goodwill for them to not attack us straight up.
I considered releasing my aura to show them that we meant no harm but decided that remaining at a distance and waiting until they were done before approaching would likely be better, so I went with that. Meanwhile, the Skorupi kept staring at us for nearly two minutes before they talked with each other. After their short conversation, one of the Skorupi kept watching us while the other three began to dig in. Our side simply continued to watch them, and a minute later, we saw the lookout change shifts with one of the other three.
They had obviously chosen to take turns keeping an eye on us while the previous watcher joined the other two and began to partake in the Zigzagoon as well. Since Skorupi were poison types, they naturally were not worried about the poison inside the Zigzagoon remains, especially since it was their own poison. It took them nearly 7 minutes to devour the Zigzagoon without leaving anything behind, and I made sure to watch the whole thing since I could later replay what I saw in Utopia and film it. A video of this would be rather useful/valuable for multiple professors/scientists studying subjects ranging from Pokemon relations, hunting habits, up to Skorupi specifically.
I mean, since we happened to come across it, there was no reason not to make use of it to contribute to science. I could also open a PokeGeo Wild channel on PokeTube and upload this along with some of the other stuff I had seen, though I was not sure how the platform would handle it. Particularly the latter part where the Skorupi ate since it was a rather bloody affair after all and even the hunt and battle could be seen as too violent by some people. Not that I really cared about that since it was just a random thought/idea that popped up while we waited for the Skorupi to have their fill.
Anyway, once the Zigzagoon were gone, I began closing in on the Skorupi with Seb/Nidoking and Gaia/Nidoqueen in tow. Our approach naturally did not go undetected by the Skorupi on watch duty and it alerted the other three, resulting in all four Skorupi staring at us warily. They released warning screeches when we came too close for their taste, and that was when I finally released my aura to show that we were coming in peace. Seeing how close we were already I added verbally that I wanted to talk to them about something before offering them a few Chesto Berries as a greeting gift/bribe.
They stared at the Chesto Berries levitating before them for a moment before biting into them and relaxing their stances slightly to signal that they accepted. I used the chance they gave me as they nibbled on the Chesto Berry I was levitating to Observe them using my psionic energy as a bridge. Sadly none of them qualified for the all-inclusive trip to Utopia since the highest potential among them was yellow with the other three having orangish potential. Still, since I had already gained their approval to observe them I decided to use the chance to gather some more data for the potential video, so I measured and documented their size, the size of their tails/stinger as well as pincers, their weights, and respective stages along with their genders obviously.
I then gave each of them another Chesto Berry as a reward for their cooperation before inquiring if they happened to know if some more Skorupi were in the area while playing with a Chesto Berry. The Skorupi sold out their fellows without any hesitation, and I learned that they were actually part of a larger swarm that lived just 10 minutes away; They had simply gone out to hunt/eat. The Skorupi offered to escort us there, though they added that I would have to take out a lot more berries if I wanted the swarm to cooperate instead of attacking and devouring me. I had to smile at that and I could feel the amusement of my group as well.
Obviously, none of us thought that their swarm could devour us, but I appreciated them being upfront and the warning, so I gave each Skorupi yet another Chesto Berry before telling them that I did not mind handing out more berries if it allowed me to check out the rest of their swarm. The Skorupi nodded at that while nibbling on their berries before beckoning us to follow with their tails/stingers seeing how their pincers were busy holding their berries. They led us to an area that we had yet to circle/visit, and seeing how all we saw were nonpriority species on the way I did not bother asking them to stop even once.
The Skorupi definitely saw us approach but did not bother running away, likely thanks to our guides. In fact, more and more of them began to gather around and even two Drapion showed up. By the time we stopped in front of them, over 60 Skorupi had gathered and the Drapion were giving us threatening looks while beckoning our guides over before asking them what this was about. I let them talk and waited for them to get an idea of what I wanted though just to be sure Seb and Gaia stepped closer to me the moment the Skorupi rejoined their swarm.
I could appreciate their vigilance even if I did not think that the swarm would attack us, or rather, I was confident that they would stop as soon as they felt our side's strength even if they tried to initiate something. We had three (high) dark gold stage Pokemon along with a (high) gold ghost, while they had only a (low) dark gold Drapion along with a (high) gold one. They also had more than 60 Skorupi, but the majority of those were at the iron stage, with less than 10 being at the silver stage. All in all, this group posed no risk to our/my health even if I did not bother calling out any reinforcement despite their poison, and the Drapion would realize that as soon as Mothra/Butterfree and the other flexed their power.
However, it did not come to that, the Drapion asked for an advance on the berries and once I gave each Skorupi a Chesto Berry and the Drapion three berries each, they told me to go ahead and check out the Skorupi. I used Observe on each Skorupi while measuring them, and once I was done with a Skorupi I gave it a second Chesto Berry as a reward for its cooperation before moving on to the next Skorupi. When I was roughly halfway through the swarm, Seb suddenly flexed his might and when I turned my face from the cowering Skorupi in front of me to him, Seb told me the Drapion had given him the impression that it was getting ideas so he decided to give out a warning.
I just nodded at that and threw a glance toward the Drapion who appeared sufficiently cowed before turning back to the Skorupi in front of me. I resumed my checkup and gave it a Chesto Berry once I was done just like I had done before the little byplay. I felt the Skorupi around me relax a bit when I did that, probably because they had been worried that I would withhold the berry rewards due to what happened. I had to chuckle at that and I freely announced that they did not have to worry about their berry reward since I had more than enough to reward all of them and more. I even added that I would be willing to recruit some of them and bring them to a place where they could eat as much as they wanted without having to hunt for food.
I felt them and the Drapion shift at that. It was clear to me that they were all interested in that tidbit of information. Still, I left it at that for now and simply continued to check the Skorupi. By the time I had gone through all 67 Skorupi, I had found 5 with deep yellow potential and one with deep green potential. There were 4 more with yellow potential that did not make the cut, but that was just their bad luck, I guess. Either way, I turned to the Drapion and informed them that 6 Skorupi had caught my attention and that I was willing to generously compensate their swarm in return for allowing those 6 to leave with me.
While I was expecting the Drapion to put forth a big fee, they managed to take me off guard by suggesting that I take them all in. I just stared at it for a few moments due to the unexpected proposal, but it seemed to take that in a different way because Drapion began to explain why it made the suggestion, which boiled down to a combination of us being strong enough to earn their respect/trust in my word and plain greed for unlimited food as well as shelter. While Drapion explained their rationale, I pondered if I should l go along with the request. There were quite a few Skorupi that were well below my approved potential limit, but eventually, I still chose to accept them.
However, I made sure to inform Drapion that they would have to follow my rules if they came along, including a ban on hunting the other inhabitants of the sanctuary, and that any noncompliance would be punished. They assured me that they would follow the rules as long as they could eat their fill and others did not attack them. I was fine with that and since they chose to adhere to my rules, which included that only those with light green potential post-Utopia optimization might propagate, I went ahead and balled them all. That the two Drapion had deep yellow and light green potential respectively helped as well since it would place them right in the breeding group. Ultimately, 15 members of that group retained their prolificness, which was roughly 21% of them.
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