CH16 (246), Knight Academy Visit
Once I was back home, I let Drowzee out inside Utopia and let him go through Utopia's tender care. I'm not sure if it was because of the past, but I decided against severing/releasing him from the Pokeball, so our artificial bond remained and Drowzee could be considered as one of my "officially" owned Pokemon.
I explained the situation he found himself in and told him he could live inside Utopia. If he ever wanted to fight, he could ask the other inhabitants to spar with him.
The empty areas on the outermost circle were available for sparring matches, no matter how destructive they could get, at least for now. Moreover, he could ask the more experienced psychic types for advice if he wanted to.
Before I let him take a look around his new habitat and Utopia in general I took a quick look at his new status screen.
'Name: None
Species: Drowzee
Gender: Male
Age: 8+ years
-
Type: Psychic
Potential: Yellow (40.16%) -> Light Green (0.16%)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Forewarn, Inner Focus
Talents: None
Affinities: Psychic
-
Bond: Mikail (artificial, weak)
Quirks: Determined, Hardworking, Tenacious
----
Parameters:
Stage: Bronze Stage (mid)
Vitality: E
Strength: F
Endurance: E
Agility: F
Energy Capacity: F
Energy Density: E
----
Immunity:
None
-
Resistance:
Fighting (Minor), Psychic (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Bug (Minor), Ghost (Minor), Dark (Minor)
----
Condition: Healthy, Satisfied
----
Masteries:
Psionic/Psychic Energy Manipulation (Proficient)
----
Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
N/A
-
Novice:
Psych Up, Swagger, Psychic
-
Beginner:
Poison Gas, Mind Reader, Zen Headbutt
-
Proficient:
Pound, Disable, Confusion, Headbutt, Psybeam
-
Advanced:
Hypnosis
-
Mastered:
N/A'
Drowzee seemed to have turned 8 years old just one month ago, so when we first met he was not even 3 years old. No wonder he got as affected as he did. Positive thoughts, yes, at least I can support him now.
As for joining the main team in the future that depends on what he did with the resources I was going to provide him. If he kept training with my resources as he did before, then he might actually become good enough in a decade or two.
I was going to tell him about the limit-breaking method and update him on his progress, but I would leave the choice to him. Still, seeing his quirks I did not doubt that Drowzee would try his hand at it.
His Quirks were pretty impressive, and most likely a result of the extreme training he mentioned. The will to go through with it despite the hardship had to be enormous and seeing those quirks I was willing to believe that he had not been exaggerating when he said he kept going until he bled.
Taking a look at his potential, I could say that he really benefited from Utopia's care. Thanks to the bonus he barely managed to reach light green potential, which was pretty fortunate.
Reaching light green potential also unlocked his second ability, and to his luck, the ability he unlocked was the Drowzee lines hidden ability, Inner Focus. That one was much better than Insomnia, at least in my opinion.
His moves while not numerous were not too bad, and he even had a move at advanced mastery. That it was Hypnosis did not surprise me in the slightest since sleep was kinda the thing of their species.
I let him do his exploring after that and went up to my parents to tell them how my mission went. I was not told to keep the mission parameters a secret so I had no qualms about telling them how awesome everything went.
The days and weeks went by after that and before I knew it the first month ended. During the last weapon session of the month, Mr. Burns declared that I was ready for my joint sessions at the Knight Academy. According to what he said, I would not embarrass our academy as I was now.
Well, he absolutely made sure that I knew that I was not that good yet but just good enough to not be an embarrassment. Mr. Burns seemed to think that he had to show me as much, so he completely demolished me during our last "sparring" session, before he rated my performance as adequate.
I found it funny how he was trying to make sure I did not get a big head due to my relatively fast progress, while also sincerely praising my performance. However, I saw nothing wrong with his approach since no one liked arrogant young masters.
Anyway, we arranged a joint session with the Rota Knight Academy and next Palkiday I went there during my free period. The other subject had been shifted to Giratiday, to make sure I had enough time for this.
So, here I was walking towards the pearly gates of the Rota Knight Academy, and I was not kidding when I said that since the academy went all old school with the Academy building. The academy was a freaking castle with its gates, walls, watch towers, and all that.
I saw Erza waiting for me in front of the gate. It looked as if she had been tasked with leading me toward my destination. As for why she was here despite having graduated from the secondary academy?
Well, the Rota Knight Academy was using a whole freaking castle, so obviously all three educational levels were taking place there, just in different parts of the castle.
Now, I knew that my training/sparring session was going to happen with the second-year secondary-level students, so the only reason a first-year tertiary-level student like Erza was guiding me, was because the staff knew that we were friends.
"Sorry, that you had to come out to guide me, I did not expect your academy to call you over just for that," I told Erza while we were heading towards the fighting grounds of the second-year students.
"I had language classes anyway, so I don't mind being late to class," she replied with a smile and I had to laugh a bit.
"That's good, at least I did not cost you a portion of a free period or anything," I said in amusement.
We talked a bit about what we did since we last saw each other and before we knew it we reached our destination. She brought me to the instructor responsible for the joint session, which I recognized as Ms. Striker from the excursion last year.
Once she "handed" me over to Ms. Striker, Erza left to return to her language lesson. Ms. Striker motioned me to follow her and we went to a field where 18 kids, or rather knight academy students were waiting for us.
I got introduced and then thrown right to the wolves. Ms. Striker had me spar against each and every one of her charges. I was given 3 minutes of rest between each sparring match, but I spent close to 3 hours fighting against them all.
I had to fight against, 5 Sword and Shield users, 2 Longsword wielders, 1 dual wielder like me, 2 Saber wielders, 2 Spear wielders, 1 Naginata wielder, 1 Halberd wielder, 2 Axe wielders, 1 Axe and Shield users, and 1 Dual Axe wielder.
Well, I'd like to say I won all my spars, but that would have been a lie. While I could have probably won all of them if I used my internal aura manipulation to boost myself, or my external aura manipulation to boost my weapon, that was not the aim of this exercise.
No, I was here to improve my weapon mastery, so I had been requested to only use my physical abilities without involving my aura, and I heeded that request. The result was that I lost 6 out of 18 spars.
I lost to 1 of the Sword and Shield users, 1 of the Spear wielders, the Naginata wielder, the Halberd wielder, and the Dual Axe wielder. This showed me that I had a problem facing people/weapons with a long reach, and those that could defend themselves pretty well.
I had faced these problems against Mr. Burns as well, but there had been that thought in the back of my mind, that the difficulty had been more due to me facing Mr. Burns and less the weapon he was using. Now, I was shown without a doubt that I had to work on that aspect.
Well, at least I won two-thirds of the spars, so I didn't do that bad. After the spars were over we agreed with Ms. Striker that I would be for now joining them twice a month.
I would alternate these knight academy sessions with the ones with Mr. Burns, so I would be meeting 2 times a month with the knights, and two times with Mr. Burns.
I told Mr. Burns about the result of my spars and the arrangement we had come to with Ms. Striker. He told me to work hard, but did not interfere otherwise, simply accepting the arrangement
Time went by and the end of the second month of my fourth term arrived in the blink of an eye. Still, before the third month began I received a really pleasant surprise, I managed to advance to Tier 2 First-Class as a psychic.
It happened during my evening meditation session. One moment I was gathering psionic energy and the next I felt something click and I knew I had reached First-Class. My advancement brought with it a boon that was extremely helpful to me.
Now, that I had reached Tier 2 First-Class I could actually use short-range teleportation. That was what that click-feeling was. The ability to use short-range teleportation not only increased my safety due to being able to dodge better, but it also made me more dangerous, since it increased my mobility during a fight.
Still, I immediately began to test the limits of my new ability and found out that they were not as great as I would have liked. Still, I knew that those limits would improve with training and progress.
However, for now, my maximum teleportation distance was 20 meters, while the highest number of jumps/teleportations I could do at the maximum range was 15. If I did not go for the maximum distance of 20 meters during the jumps, the number of maximum jumps increased accordingly.
I directly put training my short-range teleportation on my personal training/to-do list. I did that along with everything else on my plate, and a whole month passed with me being busy with, well, everything.
Then in the middle of the third month of the fourth term, Gastly's Strength elevated to C, and he reached the (high) bronze stage. That was doubly good news because he had not only gotten stronger but also because we had previously agreed that he would evolve once he reached the (high) bronze stage.
Still, before we went along with the evolution, I decided to settle the matter of his name. We have been pushing it back for quite some time now, but I felt it was time to choose one, now that he was ready to evolve. A new name to commemorate his new form so to speak.
We went through quite a few names but ultimately settled on Hades. Once his name had been determined, we, or rather I, started the preparations for his evolution. I set the circle and took out the sludge he had to drink.
Since Gastly had a gaseous body, I couldn't apply a paste on it, so I had prepared a drink/sludge instead that he would have to consume before evolving.
I motioned for Hades to move to the center of the circle and handed him the mixture which he directly swallowed. After I stepped out of the circle I gave him the go-ahead, and he began to glow under the eyes of everyone in Utopia.
Once the light show settled down a Haunter floated in the circle. I went up to him and coated my hand in psionic energy to pat his head. He was surprised that I could touch him without him first turning his body corporeal, but just laughed in elation at the little surprise I sprung on him.
The others quickly came up to congratulate him as well and I took a look at his new status screen.
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