Weight and mastery

Yani moved out the way once Tank's powder bomb was ready and the Garchomp got a face blasted full of the terrible mixture. It became clear that while the sleep powder hadn't taken hold in that mixture the other two powders had. A slightly purple tinge appeared on its skin while it's movements became sluggish as the poison and paralysis took hold. I didn't bother calling out orders after that as there was no longer any need with my pokemon being well able to handle it on their own.-

That said I did tell them to go for a knockout rather than a kill as we were sorta the bad guys in this matter. We were not only trespassing on the Garchomp's turf but also going to steal the plate that was obviously it's treasure. I was not so cruel as to condemn it to death for protecting what was it's, not anymore. Once it was out cold and I retrieved the plate I even force fed it a full heal and potion to help it get back to full strength faster once it awoke. With the plate in hand I made my way back to the main path and stuck to it to reach the opposite side of the mountain the cave cut through.-

Even with the cave saving me days worth of time traveling to Oreburgh we still needed to stop about three times to make camp for the night before reaching the caves exit. This was mostly due to how the cave was not a straight path but a winding one through the mountain so as to not upset the ecosystem within the caves. Even with the majority of the treasures being taken already on this main path we still found another six before reaching the exit.-

Once outside the caves I wasted no time at all releasing Rune, Gaia and Vulcan from their balls. I traced the engraved Unknown runes on the Earth plate with my finger tips in thought as I did.

"When the universe was created, its shards became this Plate."

It was always a fun little detail back when I played the game how each plate told a part of the story of the world's creation myth. Now though the significance of that couldn't be more clear and so very real as well.-

When it was behind a screen and considered fiction it was fun but now it filled me with nervousness. It was hard to really grasp that gods truly existed and held power over you without undeniable proof. Sure there were plenty of religions on Earth but not a single one seemed to have any proof beyond "that's what the scripture says". You couldn't see or interact with those religions gods in any real fashion unlike here where I have personally met no less than three. Two of which even gave me very real blessings that I can easily point at as proof.-

With that in mind was it any wonder that I was so serious about the plates tied to what was definitely the most powerful of all the gods? All of my pokemon understood what I felt holding the plates through my bond with them so when I gave Gaia the Earth plate she took it very seriously. "How do you feel? Similar to what Tank previously described or different?" I asked my big girl once she had some time to adjust to the plates effect. "Tyrani Rani Tar!" She rumbled which I roughly translated to mean "About the same".

I nodded "That's good. Take the same approach to training with the plate as Tank did and we'll compare results in three days." I said seriously and she rumbled agreement. We didn't stop traveling while she trained but our time was drastically slower than normal for us. On the fourth morning I checked on the progress Gaia had made using the training method Tank used for the Insect plate. The results were more or less equal once the accelerated rate Tank learned by being a bug type pokemon with a short lifespan was taken into account. Gaia had managed to internalize the initial boost the plate gave her ground type energy and started on her second boost at this time.-

While this sounded ridiculously fast I had no doubt at all that it only got harder and harder to internalize the plates benefits the further you went. It was kinda like learning how to build a car without any training or instruction and once you were done getting the proper training on how to do it. Until now my pokemon trained the best way we knew how but the plate showed us the correct or Orthodox approach to whichever type of energy it held.-

The first few times were as a result naturally easy as we were merely patching the holes in our foundation with this correct knowledge. Once we got past that however you get into the mastery territory and that is a far far harder thing to achieve. In fact I highly doubted even Steven or Cynthia who were champion level trainers could claim their pokemon held true mastery of their types. Perhaps only the older long lived species, normal ancient legendries or those of godly status could claim that. Before we left the forest I claimed my rewards for turning in the quest.-

I ended up getting two skill tickets and an item ticket for the amount of treasure I found. I wasn't surprised about this as obviously the system wasn't going to count the plate since it was one of the objectives. While my rewards could have been much better if I had put in more effort I had expected this outcome once I chose to rush out the cave after getting the plate. After leaving the forest it only took us an extra three hours to see the rocky terrain and sunk in place that was Oreburgh.-

I naturally balled all but Hades as I approached the gate the the city. "Alexander Drake correct?" The Jenny at the gate asked seriously as I approached. "I am, why?" I said confused at the way I was stopped. "We were told to keep a lookout for your approach by the Champion herself. Said to say it was a confidential matter of historical importance if you asked." The Jenny said sternly. "Ah! I believe I know what the issue is. Feel free to inform Cynthia that I'll be waiting for her at the pokecenter." I said before entering the city after the Jenny nodded.