CH228 (842), Back To Exploring Caves

After learning all that from Machop I gave him a bag his size containing some of Tyson's old supplements. They had been perfectly preserved so they had not lost their effect at all, and if Machop used them according to my description his training speed would see a remarkable increase. There was even a pretty good chance that his potential could rise by a shade by the time he used them all, but that was mostly because his potential was rather low to begin with.

Well, that was provided that Machop did not share the supplements with others or got them taken away for that matter. Thinking of the last bit, I went ahead and advised him to be careful in that regard, but I was not sure how effective that was since Machop simply waved off the possibility altogether. I did not really care since I just did it to appease/satisfy my inner nice guy who thought that I should do it. Whether Machop followed through or not had nothing to do with me.

Anyway, having compensated Machop, I went ahead and completed my inspection of the second section/(height) level. We had been nearly done when we saw Machop come down from the third/final level of this platform, so it took just a few minutes before we were ready to go up. The reveal/discovery of the Marill Pond courtesy of Machop did not change that the next area was the final (elevation) level of the platform since the pond appeared to be on the same level as well; It was just hidden.

Still, just because I had potentially found a hitherto undiscovered area did not mean that we directly rushed there. No, we still finished checking out the area marked on the public/alliance map first. The third level was quite a bit narrower compared to the second one, but it was also double in length, so, overall, both sections were actually pretty similar in size. Pokemon-wise, I noted that I saw no Diglett at all, and a much lower number of Geodude.

We did however see a lot more Zubat, which was not surprising since they were mostly chilling on/hanging from the ceiling above our heads. The real surprise was when a Gastly suddenly passed through the wall not far ahead of us. Gastly was startled when it noticed us and tried to run away, but Hades/Gengar directly sprung into action and caught it just as Gastly tried to slip back into the wall.

Hades then brought the struggling gas ball to me and presented it to me for a check while sporting a wide grin. That grin vanished the moment I told him that she "only" had yellow potential, and he directly let her go. The poor Gastly had no idea what was happening. One moment she got captured by a Gengar, the next she was freed and was being shooed away by the same Gengar. Nyx/Umbreon scolded Hades for being too insensitive, but he just laughed before diving back into my shadow.

I honestly understood why Hades acted/reacted that way. The existence of the Gastly Nurturing Matrix, which guaranteed a supply of good to high potential Gastly, made a (low) bronze stage Gastly that would have its/her potential raised to light green at best and deep yellow at worst rather unattractive. My ghost boy was being a realist, and I definitely could not blame him given my own actions as far as recruitment was concerned.

Anyway, ignoring that little Gastly interlude, the other Pokemon, aside from the Zubat, chose to ignore us when they realized that we did not plan to disturb them. Things were different with the Zubat. One or more Zubat would occasionally dive down from the ceiling and try to nibble on us, presumably to suck our blood, before getting beat up by Larvitar, Beldum, or Wartortle; At least that was what happened the first five, six, seven times.

While I was able to remain cool even though I was definitely starting to get irritated at the flying rats, Thor/Raichu finally lost his temper after having to smack away yet another Zubat. He unleashed his dark gold stage aura and released just enough electricity to make the air around him spark a bit, which startled all the Pokemon in the area, but none more so than the Zubat and Golbat above since that was where Thor was directing his attention/aura.

Compared to the Pokemon on the ground who were just a bit tense, the Zubat and Golbat screeched in fright before they fled/scattered. Interestingly enough, I actually caught a green blotch among the hundreds of panicked Zubat that were fleeing, so I froze it mid-flight using telekinesis, and it truly turned out to be a Shiny Zubat. I naturally levitated it to my side and checked the panicked Zubat's status sheet to see its potential.

I had to admit that I was willing to give Shinies some leeway, but I would still not bother catching it if it had shit potential unless I was going to give it away or just sell it. Luckily enough, this guy here ended up having potential that was not shit, so I blanketed him with some calming aura before I caught him. While I did not see any chance of him joining even the reserve team, his light green potential certainly secured him a spot in Utopia.

If he was lucky enough the optimization would raise his potential to deep green and considering that he was Shiny I did not mind providing some help when he was ready to evolve, so he had a good chance of attaining blueish potential at some point, though his ultimate potential and level would depend on whether he would be able to suck up to Moka/Crobat and Bruce/Crobat.

Anyway, I did not scold Thor for his outburst since I had been pissed as well. The possibility of his act scaring potentially rare Pokemon away had to be accepted in this case. Besides, it allowed us to find a Shiny Zubat, so we did in some way find a rare Pokemon, which was why I just patted him on the head and asked him if he felt better now. Thor gave me a sheepish grin and nodded, which had me, Nyx, Hades, and Mothra/Butterfree laugh.

We continued our walk after that little escapade, but the number of Pokemon we saw in the open had gone down drastically due to the fleeing Zubat/Golbat. Thankfully, we had already checked most of the place at that point so that did not affect us all that much. Once I was satisfied with our inspection of the place, we headed for the left corner at the back, because Machop had told us that the path leading to the Marill's pond was around that place.

When I found the spot, I was once more happy that my aura allowed me to appear trustworthy in the eyes of wild Pokemon because there was a good chance that I would have ignored or missed the opening if Machop had not told me what it was and where it led. Just 6 or so meters away from the corner, the left wall had a decently sized crack that was located half a meter from the ceiling. It looked like something that could have been created by an attack or something, possibly a Pokemon, impacting the wall.

While the crack was not small, with a width of close to a meter and a length of around half a meter, its location made it less conspicuous. Furthermore, there were more cracks like that across the chamber, and I had seen quite a cracks like that in other caves, so it did not really stand out as anything special; Especially when one considered that the wall was more than 10 meters tall.

One would truly have to scrutinize everything to avoid missing anything, and then check every hole as well as crack to discover that this particular crack actually continued deeper into the wall/rock, forming a path that led somewhere. The time that would take was not small in any fashion, especially if one wanted to do it in a cave/space of this size, so I was not surprised that this particular "rabbit hole" actually leading to a wonderland had been missed.

It made one wonder how many other such paths/openings had been missed. Not that I thought that this discovery of mine would change much since it did not change the time-consuming nature that searching all cracks and holes entailed. Not everyone could use my method to learn about undiscovered places after all. I did not think that either the Aura Guardian Order or the Psychic Council were suddenly going to add a new sub-profession to their repertoire.

Well, the spectralists could do it as well, but those groups were much more loose/splintered, organization-wise, so I doubted it. Ah, I got distracted again. Once we found what I believed to be the opening Machop mentioned, I began to consider how to go through there. Walking was out, but I could fly through in a Superman pose. Chibi Mothra could fly through as well, and Thor would fit through without a problem, but Nyx would probably have to slowly crawl/drag herself forward even if she managed to enter.

Granted, that was only if the tunnel did not get wider down the line. I did not plan to widen the hole since I did not want to destroy its secrecy, so I chose to temporarily move Nyx to Utopia since that seemed better than just hoping that the tunnel would get wider, and since I was already at it, I moved Thor over as well. With them out of the way, I took off into the air and flew through the opening in the wall.

The tunnel was just 25 or so meters long, so it took me just a few seconds to leave from the other side. The first thing I noted was that I had entered an enclosed space, which explained why this place had not been found from the waterfall's side. Who knew how many meters of rock were between the back of this place and the rock wall on the waterfall side? Well, actually, I was able to make an educated guess based on what I was seeing and the map, and it had to be at least 6-7 meters.

Putting that aside for now, I saw that the chamber was roughly the size of the second-level area, with roughly 60% of that being covered by a pond. The targets of my visit were obviously there, and since a flying human was not really discreet, my arrival had been noticed. Still, the fact that they were not shooting me was a good sign, so I landed not too far from the pond, activated my signature good-guy aura, and slowly walked over to the place that had the most Marill as well as Azumarill.

I decided to leave Nyx and Thor inside Utopia for the moment since suddenly bringing them out right now could lead to some misunderstandings that I would rather avoid. I would take them out once I had established some basic trust with the blue water rodents. While Mothra was still by my side since she was in her chibi form, they probably wouldn't feel threatened by her unless she began flexing her prowess.

Anyway, when I made it to their side and stopped, I took a glance at the pond and I actually saw some Luvdisc swim in there, which honestly had me wonder how the hell they had gotten in there. Well, at least that was what I thought for a moment before I realized that there had to be an underwater tunnel between the pond and the stream on the waterfall side.

Regardless of how they had gotten here, the Luvdisc did rouse my interest since I remembered Jessie and Rose mentioning that they would love to add a Luvdisc to their roster. I knew that they mostly wanted the Luvdisc due to their looks, but I personally did not see the appeal. Heart shape aside, Luvdisc were pretty weak compared to other species of the same stage, so I did not plan to add any to Utopia.

Still, since the girls wanted one, I would try to see if I could find two Luvdisc with good potential for them. While I knew that both Jessie and Rose would not really care about their potential since both wanted the heart-shaped fish for their visual appeal, I could not and would not hand out Pokemon with shitty potential to them; At least not if I had a choice.

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