"HEY! RISE AND SHINE!"
The sudden loud shout awoke Dante and Pikachu from their slumber. Opening their eyes, they saw Loudred at the entrance of the room looking at the two of them.
"Why are you still ASLEEP!? WAKE UP! It's time for our MORNING BRIEFING!"
Dante and Pikachu begrudgingly got up from the comfortable pile of straws. Loudred led the way while also introducing himself as their senior fellow apprentice.
Both of them were led to line up with the other fellow apprentices. Dante recognized all of them.
Croagunk who was in charge of the Swap Shop, which is arguably the second most important thing in the game, second only to Spinda's Cafe.
Chimecho who is in charge of the recruitment. Loudred and Diglett in charge of identifying the visitors. And Dugtrio who is in charge of placing and replacing the tasks on the commission board.
The rest of them, Bidoof, Sunflora, and Corphish, should also just be ordinary apprentices like the two of them, who are in charge of completing tasks.
"Good! Everyone is present on time. Before we begin, let me first introduce our two new apprentices, Dante and Pikachu!"
*Clap Clap Clap*
"Golly, I won't be the newest anymore!"
"Eep! They look so cute."
"Hehe, more potential customers for me."
"Alright, quiet down. Let's now begin our morning assembly."
"Ehem! Guild Master, the guild is in full attendance!"
With Chatot's call, Wigglytuff walked out of his room and stood in front of everyone.
"Thank you, Guildmaster. Please address the crew."
"Zzz…zzz…snork…"
Seeing the Guildmaster still asleep with eyes wide open, standing straight, and was even able to walk over, Dante was impressed.
'His body should be so conditioned that he can even respond to danger in the dungeon while asleep.'
The rest of the apprentices also started to chatter about how impressive the Guildmaster is.
"Ehem. Thank you, we all value your words of wisdom."
Seeing how Chatot remained unfazed and even didn't forget to praise the Guildmaster, Dante was amused. If it were not because their gender is the same, Dante would suspect that Chatot has other ideas for Wigglytuff in addition to admiration.
"Ok, everyone! Take our Guildmaster's words of wisdom to heart! And lastly, let's not forget our morning cheers! All together now!"
"ONE, TWO, THREE!"
"ONE! DON'T SHIRK WORK!"
"TWO! RUN AWAY AND PAY!"
"THREE! SMILES GO FOR MILES!"
"Ok, everyone! Get to work!"
"HOORAY!!"
After watching everyone disperse in order to do their work, Dante and Pikachu moved in front of Chatot.
"You two, follow me."
Chatot flew up the ladder and into the second floor of the guild. With Dante and Pikachu following behind, they stopped in front of the Bulletin Board.
"Seeing as you are just beginners, I'll have you start with an easy one. This is the Job Bulletin Board. Pokemon's from various regions post job requests here."
After saying that, Chatot began looking through the posted tasks.
"Because of the recent surge of bad Pokemons, the guild is also starting to receive more tasks."
"Is it because of the flow of time getting messed up? I heard Pokemon in Town talking about it recently."
"Precisely. The time getting out of whack has caused an outbreak of bad Pokemon. In addition, although it is unconfirmed, it may also be the cause as to why there has been a mass outbreak of Mystery Dungeons!"
After saying all that, Chatot looked like he finally found a satisfactory job.
"Here, it is very suitable for beginners like you."
Same as in the game, the request was from Spoink who lost his pearl in the Drenched Bluff Mystery Dungeon. After confirming the details of the task, Chatot continued.
"The Drenched Bluff is very suitable for beginners like you two. This task also serves as your assessment whether the both of you are suitable for the guild. If you expect to stay in this guild, then I expect you to complete this task before the end of the day!"
After saying that, Chatot left and returned to the third floor.
"Well, I didn't expect that we would still need to undergo an assessment. Come on Pikachu, do you know where this Drenched Bluff is?"
"Yeah, we can reach it before noon. Do you want to go now, Dante?"
"Well, how about heading to Treasure Town first? Maybe we can find something there for our exploration."
"Sure! We can take a detour on our way to the dungeon."
Unlike in the game, the Treasure Town is very much larger. Different from the game where only shops can be seen, most of the town was filled with Pokemon houses.
Dante followed Pikachu towards the area where most Explorers frequent. There, Dante finally saw the Duskull Bank, the Kangaskhan Storage, the Kecleon Brothers, Chansey's Daycare, and Xatu's Appraisal.
Duskull Bank, as the name suggests, allows for secure storage of the Pokemon's Poke.
Kangaskhan Storage is a part of the Official Team Federation. Kangaskhan allows for safe and secure storage of items for Exploration Teams. The total number of items that can be stored depends on the Explorer Ranking.
Chansey's Daycare is where Pokemon's can leave Pokemon Eggs for hatching. It's also where newly born Pokemon can be placed while the parents are away.
Xatu's appraisal is where treasure boxes that can be found in the dungeons are opened to possibly get exclusive Pokemon items, Stat boosting items, drinks…or a Gravelerock.
The Kecleon Brothers are more of a General Goods store. The Green Kecleon sells items such as Gummies, Oran Berries, Apples, etc. Meanwhile, the Purple Kecleon sells Orbs and Move discs.
Dante and Pikachu first headed towards Kecleon's shop and looked at the goods. When he saw the move disc for Thunderbolt available, Dante had his eyes widened. However, seeing the price of 9,000 Poke and his own 1,569 Poke, Dante reluctantly gave up.
After some looking around, the two of them bought two Oran Berries, two Pecha Berries, and two Apples for 420 Poke. The rest of the money was given to Duskull Bank for safekeeping.
Dante also asked around for an Escape Orb, but it was out of stock. The orb can be said to be a very popular life-saving item for anyone who wishes to dive into a dungeon.
Walking out of the town and towards the Drenched Bluff, Dante noticed the well in which the player can save progress in the game. Looking around, he found the large boulder which should be the place where Spinda's Cafe will be established in the future.
'I remember the Cafe can be unlocked after the Dungeon with Drowzee? That reminds me, I wonder if I can prevent the plot of Azurill's kidnapping from happening?'
Dante kept thinking about what he can change in the future while walking with Pikachu to their target Dungeon.
A/N: Hey guys! Thank you very much for supporting me and reading my work! As a first time writer, I didn't realize just how much the support from my readers would help with my motivation. Whenever I see the data on how many people read the story today, those who chose to store it in their collection, the comments, reviews, power stones, as well as those who voted for Dante's Pokemons on my patreon, I was able to force myself to sit in front of the computer and begin writing.
Sadly however, it looks like I'll be forced to slow down the updates on this book in the foreseeable future. I started writing this early December in the hopes that maybe I can earn money while doing something I love, from the looks of it however, it looks like writing will just solely remain as my hobby.
I'll still maintain the daily updates for this story until I can find a job. But after that, the update schedule will vary depending on how much free time I will have. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to find a decent job that can give me enough time to still update per day.
Once again, thanks for reading my story and may all of us win our 50/50s in the upcoming year!