Chapter 10

    It took us about an hour and a half before we finally made it to the entrance of the Viridian forest. Not that we spent all that time walking, as we made sure to stop by one of the cafes for breakfast as it would be some time before we would see civilization again. While we were eating, I thought about what to train for our upcoming Gym battle. Knowing that my first gym battle is going to be against a rock type and my current team has the type disadvantage I download some move training videos from the Trainer Forums.

    The Trainer Forums is a message board that trainers can use to share information from around the world after they sign up with the League. As such, the quality of the forum is enforced by the League to ensure that only content without any underlying malice is available. All videos that are posted as a training video are vetted and tested by the League to ensure that no undue harm will come to a pokemon in learning the moves. Not every move is available for anyone to access though. Any move that can cause wide area destruction or is simply too powerful is only able to be accessed by those with the proper amount of badges.

    Standing outside the entrance of the forest, I take a moment to hype myself up. This truly will be the first step on my journey. The path from Pallet to Viridian is well kept and does not have any hostile wild pokemon. Viridian forest on the other hand is still wild. There are numerous markers inside that are to guide trainers through the forest but other than that, it is left untouched. It is a realm where pokemon rule. I instruct Skadi to take point as we head into the forest.

    A few hours in, the forest is still peaceful with a bunch of sunlight still passing through the canopy. Seeing as it is nearly lunch time, I call for a break near a small stream that we just came across. I pull out some food for each of us and sit on a rock with my feet in the water while eating a type of granola bar made with Occa berries. I found that Occa berries have a slight cooling effect when used in cooking, similar to mint, but when I eat it, it increases my ice generation slightly and makes me feel more comfortable causing it to become my favorite fruit. While I was eating, I decided that now would be as good of a time as any to spin the gacha as there is no one around.

    [Congratulations host! You have received a white gold bracelet.]

    Like usual, the item appears in front of me and then lands in my outstretched hand. It catches the sunlight which causes it to almost shimmer in my hand. I bring the bracelet closer so that I can examine it closely. The bracelet is an exquisite piece of craftsmanship that portrays a phoenix like bird in flight. The wings are swept back and the long tail makes up the band itself. Looking closely, you can see every feather in vivid detail. The only thing on the bracelet that is not silver white is a lone amethyst that is cut to resemble the eye of the phoenix. When the light catches the eye just right, you can almost see the pupil of the bird.

    “So pretty...” I stare at the bracelet in wonder. I don’t know how anyone could have crafted something this beautiful. I slide it onto my left wrist where it seems to shrink slightly to fit perfectly on my arm. After admiring my new accessory on my arm for a bit longer, I turn to my two pokemon.

    “Alright, so we are now far enough away from any eyes, I think we can start to learn some new moves. Our first gym is going to be a nightmare for us as it almost directly counters us. Skadi, I want you to start learning Iron Tail as we travel, the same goes for you as well Zephyr, you will be training Steel Wing. These moves will also be helpful in our third gym so no slacking!”

    I pick up Skadi into my lap and then pull out my phone and bring up a training video for Iron Tail and start to play it for both of us to watch. Training the move is fairly straightforward, as the pokemon needs to strengthen their tail and then learn to attack with it while attempting to fuse type energy into the attack. When I pull up SteelWing and watch it, the training is the same, only focused on the wings instead. This makes it so we can keep moving while they train.

    After we reviewed the moves, Skaid and Zephyr started to train excitedly. They both seemed to want to get stronger and I was not about to stop them. I had Skadi learn to pick up and carry a decent sized stone in each one of her tails and try to lift them separately, similar to doing arm curls. Zephyr started to run on the ground at full speed with her little wings out. She would purposely run into rocks attempting to toughen up the leading edge.

    As the two of them trained, I matched my pace with theirs. We were not currently in a hurry as I planned to take a week in the forest to train away from any prying eyes. As we head deeper into the forest, the canopy gives more and more cover, causing the surroundings to darken. It takes me to almost sunset to actually notice that it had been getting darker. As I look around more in the dimming light, I realize I can see everything still in vivid detail. I don’t think I have ever had this ability, but this is also the first time I am away from artificial light. Maybe I have always had good low light vision but due to living in a town with its light pollution I just never noticed until now.

    I shrug my shoulders and chalk it up to just not noticing. I start to look around for another clearing that is large enough to sleep in. Soon we come across a spot that was just large enough. I had Skadi check to see if there were any pokemon in the clearing just to be sure but she came back quickly and just shook her head. I quickly go about setting up my campsite and took a look around at the vegetation nearby, hoping to see something helpful. My quick search was fruitful as I was able to find two flowers and a herb that when mixed together make for a weak repel that can be applied on tents to keep away weak pokemon.

    I quickly collect the different ingredients, making sure to grab multiples in case we are not as lucky later on, and then pull out my stove, thermos and the pot from my mess kit and start making the mixture from my memories. Minutes pass and soon I am left with a greenish yellow mixture that has a fairly sharp smell. It doesn’t smell bad, just sharp on the nose when right next to it. The color should have been a leafy green color if it was made perfectly, but what I made should suffice in these bug infested woods. I gently pour the mixture onto the rain tarp for the tent and let it sit until it dries which should not take long.

    Speaking of bug infested woods, I listen and look around but I don’t recall seeing any bugs at all on my trip so far. Maybe I am not far enough into the forest to see any? I file that thought for later as I wash up from making the pseudo-repel and start making dinner for us. After we eat, I finally pull out my lantern and turn it on its lowest setting as I place the now dry trap on the tent. I climb into the tent with Skadi and Zephyr and out of habit remove my dress and bag before sitting down on my sleeping bag and pulling out the Ancient Ice Phoenix Forbidden Divine Blue Ice Lotus Code that I got over a year ago.

    [This Spinarak is male]

    I take a look at the pokemon, deciding if I want to catch it before feeling a slight shiver go down my spine at the thought of having a spider type pokemon crawling on my body. Nope, no way. I might not mind spiders but only if I look but don’t touch.

    [Congratulations host. You have defeated a strong foe, you receive a gacha spin.]

    On seeing the message from my system, I realize that getting gacha points is going to be easier than I thought. I just needed to head out on my journey to actually get them. I guess my system isn’t the idle type.

    “Alright Skadi, next one is yours. We need to get some battles done as they will help you grow stronger.” I look at my little fox who just watched the fight happen a moment ago.

    “Vulpix!”

    Well it looks like she agrees with me. I didn’t use her in the fight just now as fights in a gym are done in one versus one format so I need to get them used to sighting against single opponents as well as groups for when we run into some sort of trouble. We spend the rest of the day switching between Skadi and Zephyr as they fight different bug pokemon. By the time I had to pull out the lantern and set up camp, both pokemon were exhausted and needed to rest.

    I quickly found a small clearing and took out the tent and made us a quick dinner from the forest bounty that I had collected throughout the day so that we could save on our non-perishable food stocks. After dinner I followed my normal routine and pulled out my cultivation manual as I felt that I could finally decode it tonight.

    About thirty minutes later I had scribbled out the decoded words and sat up to stretch slightly before reading my work. Finally after a year of puzzling out what it says I can see what my cultivation technique is. I looked down at the page I had written the decoded technique on and started to read it. As I read further my eyebrow started to raise and the corner of my mouth twitched slightly as I realized what was written. Just to be sure I wasn’t seeing things, I decided to read it aloud too.

    “Desert you. Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh. Hurt you.”

    “We''re no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I...”

    “...Never gonna...” My voice trails off as I read out the iconic line. I take a long, slow deep breath before I suddenly scream out at the audacity of what happened. “A year. A year of work of looking up different ciphers, a year of slowly decoding the nonsense words. All that to get Rick rolled. ARGH!”

    I toss the book down in my frustration. The book lands on its spine before opening up and the text slowly changes into english with a different message. The new message was just as infuriating as getting Rick rolled in a different universe.

    “All you needed to do was inject your energy.”