Chapter 2: The First Pokémon, Caterpie

After a few minutes, Mark rubbed his head and sat up from the grass again, then looked carefully at his reflection in the puddle next to him.

He looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, about 1.8 meters tall. After tidying up his hair and washing his face, he looked quite handsome and had a well-proportioned and strong body. His only problem was that his clothes were tattered and a bit shabby.

"Is this my body…?"

He already had a basic understanding of the cause and effect of the matter.

All I can say is that the consciousness loading speed of the Spirit Master System is really too slow.

It took more than ten years to go from 0.001% to 99.999%.

He had grown from a baby into a young man before his consciousness was loaded, which also caused him to be like a fool during the more than ten years when his consciousness was loaded.

He lived in a daze in a nearby small village.

He didn't know the name of the village, but he remembered its general outline and size. It was probably a small village with two or three hundred households.

It seems that both his parents died when he was very young, leaving him to wander the village alone.

As far as I can remember, a few elderly people in the village would sometimes feel sorry for him and give him some food, but more often he would just pick up potato peels, rotten vegetable leaves, etc. to fill his stomach. Occasionally, he would go out to eat some wild fruits, mushrooms, etc. If he was really hungry, he would even nibble on some grass plants...

In short, survival is not easy, but he still survived tenaciously like weeds. As for the Caterpie following him, it seems to have been following him in recent years.

Yes, this Caterpie has been following him for several years. In some secondary Pokémon novels, bug-type Pokémon are synonymous with short life and will die after a few years. However, in the official setting and the world he traveled through, bug-type Pokémon are obviously not so short-lived.

This is indeed the case. The original translation of Pokémon is Pocket Monster, which means monsters in the pocket. They are fairies and spirits. You know, even some insects in reality can live for several years. As insect-type Pokémons, it is naturally impossible for them to have such a short life.

As for why this Caterpie followed him, Mark did not find the answer from his hazy memory. He just remembered that this Caterpie had been by his side since he did not know when, wandering with him in the village and forest.

When he sleeps, Caterpie will snuggle up to him.

They often searched together for edible food in the village's garbage dumps, and then ate the garbage together.

Sometimes Caterpie would find some sweet wild fruits and share them with him; he would also stand up to the Carterpie when it was in danger, such as when it was attacked by bird Pokémons such as the Spearow , and would probably just make a few strange noises to scare the bird Pokémons away...

Mark looked at Caterpie next to him again.

After the fusion of memories, the expression he showed when looking at Caterpie was completely different.

Caterpie is not only a Pokémon, but also his relatives and family in this world.

"Hiss?"

Caterpie tilted its head and looked at Mark in confusion.

Mark's behavior started to seem a little strange about ten minutes ago.

Mark still smelled the same, but the expression on his face was something it had never seen before. Also, Mark muttered something not long ago. Mark used to be unable to speak.

What's going on?

Caterpie didn't think for too long. The red Y-shaped antennae on its head trembled slightly as it smelled a sweet fragrance.

The Y-shaped antennae on the top of Caterpie's head can not only release pungent odors to drive away natural enemies, but it also serves as Caterpie's sensory organ.

"Hiss, hiss!"

Caterpie showed an excited expression, and its four spherical forelimbs kept swinging, sharing its discovery with Mark.

Mark looked at Caterpie's movements and guessed, "You mean, you found food?"

"Hiss!"

Caterpie nodded continuously and then quickly crawled towards the forest, and Mark followed.

Caterpie looked back from time to time to see if Mark was catching up. When he found that Mark was following him, he gradually sped up.

While Mark was traveling with Caterpie, he once again opened the Spirit Master game panel in his mind.

…

[Mark]

[Occupation: Spirit Master]

[Experience: 1%]

[Points: 1]

[Royal Spirit: Caterpie]

…

"I didn't think about it carefully just now. Are these points skill points? Or are they used to increase the level?"

As Mark was thinking, he clicked on the panel with his mind and suddenly discovered something.

When he clicks on himself or Caterpie with his mind, a secondary menu will appear, showing more information.

…

[Mark]

[Spiritual Talent: None]

[Spiritual Skills: None]

[Special Talents: Strong Body (+), Poison Resistance (+)]

…

The Spirit Master has no talents or skills, but he does have two special talents.

When he continues to click on these two talents with his mind, further explanations of these two talents will appear.

…

[Strong and healthy: Strong and healthy, with a physique far superior to that of the same kind. (Can be strengthened)]

[Toxin resistance: Has a certain resistance to toxins, and the damage caused by toxins is reduced. (Can be strengthened)]

…

Mark speculated that these two talents were inherent in this body.

Being able to thrive like a weed without anyone to take care of him and with abnormal intelligence is largely due to his strong physique and natural talent.

As for toxin resistance, if his muddled memory is good, he must have eaten a lot of garbage in the village and unknown wild fruits and poisonous mushrooms in the wild. It is very likely that he ate too much toxic food and developed a talent for resisting toxins.

Without observing his own panel for too long, Mark continued to open Caterpie's panel.

…

[Caterpie]

[Five-dimensional potential:]

[Strength: F (+)] [Physique: F- (+)] [Agility: F+ (+)] [Spirit: E] [Sensitivity: E+]

[Features: Unawakened]

[Special Talent: Evolution]

[Skills: Impact (+), Silk Spinning (+)]

…

"If I remember correctly, the six dimensions of the Pokémon game are health, attack, special attack, defense, special defense, and agility. This spirit master's game panel has turned it into five dimensions?"

"Strength should be strength, body is physical fitness, then agility, spirit... should be spirit, probably related to the special attacks of Pokémons, and the last one, perception, has no reflection in the Pokémon game, but in the real world, this attribute of perception seems to be quite useful, it can be used to spy on danger or something."

"As for the characteristics of Caterpie, this panel shows that it has not awakened."

"I remember that in the Pokémon game, Caterpies should have two characteristics, namely [Scale Powder] and [Escape]. Any Caterpie will awaken one of them."

"The former has the effect of not triggering the additional effects of the moves when being attacked. For example, [Flame Spray] has a chance to put the target into a burning state, but with the [Scale Powder] feature, it will not enter a burning state; the latter [Escape] feature, as the name suggests, means that you will definitely be able to escape successfully during a battle in the wild..."

"So... in the real world, Pokémon's characteristics are not awakened naturally?"

Mark talked to himself, and did not dwell on the characteristics of Caterpie for too long. He continued to look at the special abilities and skills in the two columns behind the system panel.

"It seems that the evolution of Pokémon is considered a special talent by this game panel."

"There's no change in [Impact] and [Silk Spin]. In the Pokémon games, any Caterpie is born with these two moves."

Mark continued to trigger the two skills of striking and spitting silk with his mind, and detailed information of the two also appeared in front of him.

…

[Collision: Use your body to crash into the opponent to attack. (Can be enhanced)]

[Spitting Silk: Spit out silk threads to wrap around the target. (Can be strengthened)]

…

Stare at the game panel for a while.

Mark pinched his chin and said, "Some abilities have a (+) behind them. It seems that clicking this (+) will consume points and strengthen this ability.

I have an initial point, which can not only strengthen Caterpie's five-dimensional potential, but also strengthen my skills and myself.

So this point..."