Dante and Pikachu reached the Drenched Bluff just before noon. Looking at the wet entrance, Dante looked at Pikachu.
"Pikachu, looks like we'll have to rely more on you in this dungeon. I don't think my Ghost form will be immune to the moves of the Pokemon here."
"Okay, so what will be our strategy?"
"Let's see how much stronger the Pokemons inside are first. I really hope they are beginner-friendly like what Chatot said."
Dante was still very worried about how much the difficulty of this dungeon changed due to Expert mode. If there was no time limit for this task, he would have preferred grinding some more levels and Gummies in the Beach Cave.
However, they are much more prepared now than when they first came to the Beach Cave.
"You ready, Pikachu?"
"Yeah!"
Entering the dungeon, the first thing Dante noticed was the wet ground. In the Beach Cave, even though they were on a Beach, the ground was still mostly composed of sand.
This time however, the ground felt more like soil after a heavy rain. Luckily, both he and Pikachu have light weight and don't have to worry about their movement being hindered by digging deep into the soil.
In the first room, the two of them saw a Tentacool. The two of them teamed up and easily took care of it without getting a scratch. After a deeper exploration, they encountered Grimer, Mudkip, Lotad, Barboach, Luvdisc, and Finneon.
Just as Chatot said, the strength of the Pokemon that they encountered were not much different than the ones in the Beach Cave. The only problem is, as Dante expected, most of them have more varied moves other than Normal-types.
Even so, the two of them did not have any trouble navigating through the first floor and reaching the stairs in under an hour.
The Def. Scarf and Sky Blue Bow that they just equipped also helped a lot. The Def. Scarf gives +8 Defense stat and was equipped by Dante. The Sky Blue Bow, which adds +1 to every Stat, was equipped by Pikachu.
"Chatot said that this dungeon only goes until the 7th. If the rest of the Pokemons are as easy as the ones on the 1st floor, then we can go back before sunset."
And it was indeed easy.
Especially with Pikachu learning Quick Attack after leveling up, he was now able to easily make space when confronting other Pokemons, making Dante less worried about his situation.
In Dante's case, he also learned Fury Swipes.
Fury Swipes is a Normal type physical move with a base power of 18. Like all multi-hit moves, Fury Swipes allows the body to quickly attack multiple times in a short amount of time.
In the PMD games, multi-hit moves are very powerful because of the damage calculation there.
This is because the base power of the move doesn't really matter much in the PMD games. According to Dante's understanding, the damage calculation in there is the base power of the move + the Attack or Special Attack stat. The base power of the moves are also lower there compared to the main games.
An example of this is the Fury Swipes. In the PMD games, it may have a base power of 8. Therefore, with Dante's current stats, it will deal 33+8 damage to the enemy for every hit, dealing 205 maximum damage for 5 hits. A move like Night Daze, with a base power of 24, will deal 24+33 (57) damage to the enemy.
Therefore, the higher the attack stat is, the lower the relative value of the move's base power will be.
In the main Pokemon games however, the calculation is a bit more complicated. With the same example of Fury Swipes, it has a base power of 18. With Dante's stat, he will deal 18% of 33 for every hit, which is 5.94 or 6 damage. Meanwhile, Night Daze has 85 base power, 85% of 33 means he will deal 28 damage to the opponent.
So unless Fury Swipes hits the opponent the full 5 times to deal 30 damage, Night Daze which always deals 28 damage is better.
Dante tested it on multiple opponents, and confirmed that the damage calculation in this world and the human world is mostly based on the main Pokemon games.
After two hours, Dante and Pikachu finally reached the 7th floor where Spoink's pearl was located. During the climb, Dante had to eat an Oran Berry due to his HP falling to the single digit.
"Whew, finally. This must be Spoink's pearl! Come here, Pikachu, I found it!"
Looking at the pink pearl between the two of them, they looked at each other and smiled for finally completing their first task.
"We still have some time, let's eat some apples before going back."
The two of them took a break for one hour in the last room before starting their return journey.
In this world, there is no such thing as Exploration Badges being able to send Pokemon back to the guild. Therefore, the return journey must always be considered when diving in the dungeon.
The return journey was much faster due to them already marking where the dungeon stairs are. Returning to the guild, the both of them were a bit clueless on how they can turn in the task. Helpless, they can only find Chatot.
"Very good!! You've completed the task before the sun even sets. You've both shown a very promising future! For the task, you can go and submit it to Chimecho for completion. Really good job, the both of you!"
Hearing Chatot's compliments, Dante and Pikachu felt very happy. Following his words, they both looked for Chimecho on the 2nd floor. Looking at the line in front of her, their enthusiasm dampened a little, but they still honestly lined up.
After a bit of waiting, it was finally their turn.
"Dante! Pikachu! I am so happy to meet you two! I am Chimecho, your senior in the guild. If you have any problems, please don't hesitate to ask me. I'll help you to the best of my abilities!"
Hearing Chimecho's words and her friendly tone, it instantly made both Dante and Pikachu have a good impression of her.
"Hi Chimecho! Chatot said we have to go to you when submitting completed tasks."
"Wow! It's your first day in the guild and you've already completed your first task? That's amazing!"
"Huh? Isn't it required to finish the first task in a day to stay in the guild?"
"Oh, ahaha…That's something Chatot says to every newcomer. Most of the time however, the newcomers come back to the guild defeated and Chatot will tell them that they need more training."
"But isn't that dangerous? You know, letting them go to the dungeon unprepared?"
"It's alright. Chatot makes sure that the dungeon they go to does not contain Pokemons that eat other Pokemon. It's what he calls a 'beginner-friendly' dungeon."
"What! So Chatot tricked us?!"
Pikachu on the side looked hurt and angry about being deceived. Knowing that he sent them on a task anticipating that they will fail will really make most Pokemon angry.
Seeing this, Chimecho hurriedly explained for Chatot.
"Chatot doesn't mean to harm you! He just wants newly joined apprentices to fully understand what being an Explorer really means. And if they don't come back in a day, Chatot himself will come and rescue them!"
"Still…"
Pikachu deflated and felt confused after hearing Chimecho's explanation. He doesn't know what to feel about Chatot tricking them for their own good.
Dante doesn't care much about Chatot's 'tricks'.
As he said from the beginning, this task was an assessment of the two. If they fail, both will learn more about the cruelty of being an Exploration Team and will need more training in the guild.
If they succeed however, then Chatot knows that they are ready to undertake more dangerous tasks.