CH34 (57), Market
They walked towards the Field's car and stored their suitcase inside the trunk.
After that Thorn told them that the teleportation hub was not too far from the main commercial street and they started walking towards there.
The walk took about 10 minutes and the adults were talking amongst themselves, while Rose was chattering at him and he was half-heartedly listening to her, sometimes nodding or shaking his head.
Most of his concentration was on looking around.
He noted that most people had a Pokemon by their side, but that all Pokemon were of small or medium size, around the size of a fully grown Growlithe or smaller.
When he asked aunt Lily why that was the case, she told him that all Major Cities forbade the release of large-size Pokemon outside of special areas, like the Gym or parks with signs signifying that large Pokemon could be released inside.
Those that broke the rule would be fined if they had no acceptable reason or permission to do so.
As for the single Pokemon thing, that was more of an unspoken rule kind of thing, so while it is not forbidden to walk around with more than one Pokemon as long as they are small or medium-sized, it is frowned upon by the population.
This means you won't get fined for it or anything but the other people might give you the stink eye for it.
When he looked at Mothra sitting on his left shoulder and Natu sitting on his head, all adults chuckled.
Uncle Thorn said not to worry and that no one would say anything about them because the two were rather small and Mikail, himself, was quite young, so people would ignore it because he was cute.
He huffed at that.
He was not cute, he was handsome, alright?
The adults started laughing at his reaction and they continued walking.
Mikail kept checking out any new Pokemon species he saw or species of Pokemon he had not checked as often but to be honest he was a bit disappointed with the outcome until now.
He had checked about 20 Pokemon in the last 5 minutes but all of them had less than nice potential, including one of the f*king royal starters.
That one was especially disappointing, he had expected it to have great potential for being a royal starter and all, but this just proved that at the end of the day they were like all other Pokemon species as well, they also had members with bad and good potential.
Still in the end he was disappointed to see a Bulbasaur with Deep Orange potential.
He was sure that one had been a wild Bulbasaur before it was captured because he had seen a children show that described the royal starters of Kanto for a bit and when he asked his parents about them, they told him that 100 royal starters were given out every year to the Top 100 graduates of Kanto.
The starters given out had 3-stars at worst, which means they have at least light yellow potential and 4-star ones were not that rare.
The Top 3 were even guaranteed 5-star starters, the Top 20 were guaranteed 4-star starters and the others were random.
Anyway, besides the royal disappointment, the other Pokemon had orange or worse potential.
At least he got to scan a few new species like Murkrow and Cubone.
He stopped looking around and started listening to Rose.
"Princess is really cute.
She is old enough for me to play with her now.
Too bad she had to stay at home."
He was pretty sure that Princess was her Vulpix.
It had been about 3 months since Vulpix had hatched so it was normal that it had left behind its most vulnerable state.
Still, he was curious about something.
"Alone?"
Rose, who understood his question shook her head in denial.
"Nope!
Tamamo is staying with her."
Mikail nodded at that.
'So they left the Ninetales behind to look after the Vulpix, makes sense.'
Rose started excitedly talking again after seeing him nod.
"When we get back home, I will introduce you to Princess.
Then we can play together."
He nodded at that.
He had zero problems playing with a Vulpix, especially one that was still a youngling.
'Huh!
It seems like I have a weakness towards cute/adorable things.
Who would have thought?
Cue sarcastic comment.'
After his brief comedic mental reaction, they arrived at the commercial street.
Two hours later he was starting to feel mentally exhausted.
The women of the group kept entering all stores that caught their eye, which was practically every second store.
They would enter the store, look around, try things on if possible or simply look at them if not, and then leave without buying anything.
They had entered more than 15 stores in these hours, including but not limited to 2 perfume shops, 3 boutiques, 2 Pokemon utensils stores, and more.
The only thing they bought was a new grooming kit for Vulpix that Rose wanted at one of the utensils stores.
Another hour later he was about to snap or collapse and he did not know which one would be better.
He looked over to the other men of the group and he could see that they also seemed to need a break.
It made no sense to him, they had spent 3 hours entering and leaving stores, but had bought nothing, yet the women seemed to be ready for more.
He did not know if they had sensed his desperate gaze or if heaven was helping him but his father said that it was time for them to find a restaurant to eat lunch.
Thorn supported him by saying that he was absolutely right and Mikail simply nodded his head in support.
The women looked torn, as if they had not had enough yet but ultimately agreed.
Thorn led them to a restaurant called Goldine&Tauroast that according to him was famous for its Goldeen filets and Tauros roasts.
Who would have thought, right?
They ordered their food and while they waited for their orders to arrive, the adults discussed what to do after lunch.
While they were talking Mikail heard Thorn mentioning the public trainer's market, where you could apparently buy materials as well as some Pokemon.
They were discussing if they should first return home and go there later or if they should do it now.
Mikail, who wanted to go now shot his parents a puppy look and said he wanted to go now.
The easily excitable Rose quickly joined him and their combined might made the adult accept their demands.
When he saw that they agreed to directly go to the market after lunch he was happy.
'Hehehe!
All according to keikaku.'
That was what Mikail thought after succeeding in getting his wish.
Soon after their meals arrived and he had to agree with uncle Thorn's earlier comment, the Tauros roast tasted amazing.
After everyone had eaten they asked for the bill and his father tried to pay for the meal, but uncle Thorn disagreed.
They started to softly argue who should pay for the meal, with each one wanting to pay the bill.
Mikail had to chuckle a bit at that, and he was not alone as Rose and our mothers giggled as well.
The two men finally finished their discussion and uncle Thorn was the one paying after he said that as the host he had priority for paying.
It was funny to see two people argue about wanting to be the one paying the bills and after that small scene, they left the restaurant towards the public trainer's market.
The public trainer's market was apparently outside the commercial street because uncle Thorn led them out of the street towards the west and after a 5-minute walk they saw the market, and it was huge.
Mikail was impressed by its size since it looked nearly as large as the commercial street in his eyes, just not as well organized.
There were many complete stores but many more stalls and booths.
As they walked around he noticed that the vendors of the stalls are often not as professionals as those at the stores.
When he asked uncle Thorn why this was the case, aunt Lily decided she wanted to answer his question and explained the reason before uncle Thorn could.
She said that the stores were owned by either companies, families, or trainers that had a constant supply of products/materials and that their business was big.
The stalls/booths on the other hand were set up by either smaller businesses that did not need or want a large store and general trainers that rented the stalls for some time to sell the things they have found themselves.
Most trainers sold the things they found in the wild to either the alliance stores or to other businesses that wanted those materials, but sometimes some trainers wanted to sell their goods themselves.
Mikail nodded at her explanation and thanked her.
They had already entered 3 stores, that sold traveling equipment, berries, and Pokeblocks as well as evolutionary stones respectively.
He was not as interested in the first two stores but at the third store, he decided to check out the goods.
The store displayed a few Fire-, Water-, Thunder-, Leaf-, and Moon Stones in cases with different price tags.
He saw that the cheaper ones were 8.000 Poke per stone and the pricier ones cost 15.000 Poke and 40.000 Poke per stone.
He used his telekinesis to slightly touch the stones to check their status because he wanted to see if his guess for their pricing was right.
Fortunately, his psionic energy went through the safety glass and after he checked a few of the stones his guess was confirmed.
'Name: Fire Stone
Type: Fire
Class: F
Uses: It's a stone, that has absorbed and stored large amounts of Fire energy from the environment.
Contains fire-type energy and can be used as a supplement to help fire-type Pokemon, as well as to help some Pokemon evolve.
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Name: Fire Stone
Type: Fire
Class: E
Uses: It's a stone, that has absorbed and stored large amounts of Fire energy from the environment.
Contains compressed and thus purer fire-type energy and can be used as a supplement to help fire-type Pokemon, as well as to help some Pokemon evolve.
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Name: Fire Stone
Type: Fire
Class: D
Uses: It's a stone, that has absorbed and stored large amounts of Fire energy from the environment.
Contains compressed and thus purer fire-type energy and can be used as a supplement to help fire-type Pokemon, as well as to help some Pokemon evolve.'
Just as he thought the pricier ones were of a higher class and it was the same for the other stones as well.
The price for the 4 elemental stones was the same but the Moon Stones were a bit more expensive.
'Name: Moon Stone
Type: None
Class: F
Uses: It's a stone, that has absorbed and stored large amounts of Lunar energy from the environment.
Contains Lunar-type energy and can be used as a supplement to help some Pokemon, as well as to help some Pokemon evolve.'
Their status mostly resembled each other, except that the Moon Stone had lunar energy as the energy instead of a normal element like the other stones.
Besides the 5 evolution stones, they had a catalog with different evolution materials they could offer, that were currently not in the store, but could be provided as well.
He noticed that there were many things he had never heard about, like the Deep Sea Water and the Pure Lightning Marble.
He guessed that the water had the same function as a Water Stone but was more precious because it was more expensive than the stones.
He generally noticed that the evolution stones he knew seemed to be the least expensive items in their category.
He heard his father asking the clerk if they had better Fire Stones available and the clerk said that while they did not have any in the store, there were some in the main branch that could be delivered if necessary.
When his father asked for the price Mikail involuntarily sucked in air when he heard the price the clerk quoted for the next higher quality stones.
She said the price for the Fire Stone was 130.000 Poke.
He looked around and saw that except for him no one else was surprised at the price.
The adults seemed to have expected something along those lines and Rose was in her own world looking at the different stones, muttering things like beautiful and shiny from time to time.
His father thanked the clerk and said that he will think about it and they left the store.
Once they were outside, his father said that Agni was nearly at the point where his father thought that Agni was ready for evolution, which was why he was gathering information about the necessary high-quality evolution resources.
As they kept walking around Mikail saw stalls selling different things, including some that sold Pokeballs containing Pokemon they had caught but didn't plan to keep.
One stall even sold an Elekid in the form of a public auction.
The stall owner said that he had not checked the Elekid's potential since he planned to sell it, because he was a poison-type specialist and had no need for it.
At that moment he did not know if it was because Elekid were really rare or if Pokemon were generally expensive, but the Elekid sold for 1.096.000 Poke.
His father even said that the buyer got a good deal as long as the Elekid had 3-star potential.
They did not stand too far from the buyer who released the Elekid to check it out on the spot before he finalized the payment and Mikail used this chance to check its potential since it was barely within his range.
'Species: Elekid
Gender: Male
Type: Electric
Potential: Light Yellow
Stage: Iron-stage (mid)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Static
Talents: None
Affinities: Electric'
Mikail nodded at what he saw.
'It has light yellow potential, which corresponds to 3-star potential, so the buyer made a profit.'
After that bit of excitement, they kept walking around.
They also visited the stores of a few certified breeding/food farms, that decided to sell the Pokemon that showed promising growth instead of using them for other purposes.
All of these stores seemed to have two options to choose from.
One being Pokemon that had their potential tested because they showed the most promise, and the other being Pokemon that were not tested but still showed promise.
The first one guaranteed that the buyer would get a good potential Pokemon, but the price would be much more expensive, while the other group had unknown potential but was cheaper because of it.
The price of the second group inside the store was the same.
These stores were relatively large and kept the Pokemon outside their balls as long as they were not too large.
He also noticed that they were all quite young and thus on the weaker side ranging from Stageless to (mid) iron-stage.
One store that sold Rattata even had a tested 5-star potential Rattata, which was priced at 2.750.000 Poke.
He checked it out and saw that it had blue potential.
The 4-star ones cost 750.000 Poke and the undetermined ones cost 200.000 Poke.
His father told him that there has never been a case where a Pokemon sold at such certified stores had worse than 2-star potential, so the price was more than fair and the risk acceptable, as long as one got a 3-star Rattata it would be with the price.
He checked out all the released undetermined Rattata and found one with deep green potential among them.
'Species: Rattata
Gender: Male
Type: Normal
Potential: Deep Green
Stage: Iron-stage (low)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Guts
Talents: None
Affinities: Normal/Neutral'
He tried to get his parents to buy it for him but failed, so he sulked for a bit after they left the shop, but decided to forget it.
He now knew where he could buy good potential Pokemon once he started his journey since all Tier 5 and up cities, and most Tier 4 cities seemed to have one according to his parents.
He could either use them himself or buy them for cheap and sell them for more.
During their walk, they heard that there was going to be a Gym challenge tomorrow after a trainer had managed to beat the Gym assistants today to qualify to challenge the Gym Leader.
Yes, it looked like one had to beat Gym trainer before one was allowed to challenge the Gym Leader, which made sense, as the Gym Leader would be swamped with challenges otherwise.
The games were right in this aspect.
Anyway, the adults decided to book tickets for the fight when they saw the awed looks on the children's faces at the mention of a Gym battle.
Thorn bought the tickets at the Gym's webpage before they were sold out because you apparently couldn't just go to watch the Gym matches for free.
The Gyms made money by selling tickets for the matches, which they used to help finance the Gym and the price money.
The challenger did not get a cut of the earnings and only got some money in the form of prize money if he won the fight.
After that was settled they walked back to the Field's car and drove to their home.
The Fields lived in a relatively large apartment.
Their home had 5 rooms, a living room, the parent's bedroom, Rose's bedroom, an office, and a guest room.
They had dinner, Rose introduced Princess to Mikail, Natu as well as Mothra, before they played for an hour or two, then it was time for them to sleep.
While they were being introduced Mikail did not forget to check out her status, but he saw no difference compared to his last check, besides the Poke Egg part in the Stage-line turning to Stageless.
'Species: Vulpix
Gender: Female
Type: Fire
Potential: Light Green
Stage: Stageless
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Flash Fire, Drought
Talents: None
Affinities: Fire'
When it was time to sleep, Mikail this time around did not give the women the chance to somehow make him sleep in Rose's room and directly went to the guest room to sleep while the adults stayed in the living room.
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