After seeing Lisanna out of the Secret Realm and sending away Oddish and Bellsprout,
Edward could finally calm down and extract his rewards from the system.
Excluding the intangible ones, Edward had obtained two Poké Balls and some Bait.
He wasn’t in a hurry for the latter.
As for the Poké Balls…
Edward’s gaze shifted toward Tyrogue, who was currently hanging upside down from a tree branch doing crunches.
Before, he had been concerned that Tyrogue’s appearance wasn’t impressive enough to hold its own.
But this time, it would be unreasonable not to choose it.
Moreover, Tyrogue’s desire to become stronger made it a perfect companion for his adventures outside.
So, without further thought, he called out directly.
“Tyrogue, come here after you finish this set!”
“Balu!”
Drenched in sweat, Tyrogue endured the soreness in its abdomen and responded, finishing the set with high quality before immediately landing on the ground.
It didn’t even stop for a moment’s rest.
It stood before Edward with a gaze full of respect and anticipation.
“Rest for a bit first.”
Edward wasn’t in a rush.
Logically, he should have handed over a towel, but he didn’t have one…
The task of purchasing daily necessities was becoming urgent!
“Balu!”
However, Tyrogue shook its head.
Clearly, it couldn’t wait another second.
Seeing that, Edward didn’t stand on ceremony and spoke directly.
“Do you want to become my Pokémon?”
“Balu?”
Become your Pokémon?
What does that mean?
It didn’t sound like he was taking it on as a disciple.
After all, looking at the red and white ball Edward held out before its eyes, it didn’t look like an apprenticeship gift no matter how you sliced it.
As a Fighting-type Pokémon, Tyrogue was born with some innate knowledge of martial arts.
However, the concept of a Trainer did not exist within its Secret Realm.
Consequently, it had no concept of the ‘common knowledge’ that was ‘capture’.
Edward didn’t know how to explain it either.
Fortunately, he remembered he wasn’t alone anymore.
Having Onix to rely on, he immediately released it.
“Onix, could you please explain things to Tyrogue?”
Edward spoke while Onix was still in its red-light state.
But he was certain that whether inside the ball or in this state, Onix could hear his voice.
He also knew that there were no communication barriers between Pokémon.
“Roar~”
A massive creature suddenly leaped out of a palm-sized ball.
This scene, which defied common sense, gave Tyrogue quite a fright.
But once it realized this was Edward’s doing, it relaxed.
And under Onix’s step-by-step explanation, it gradually understood what it meant to “become his Pokémon,” and that seemed to be… You are reading on g.com, the official source.
a relationship even closer than master and disciple!
Tyrogue couldn’t be more willing!
If there was one single dissatisfaction, it was that it wasn’t the first…
But that was just a minor flaw!
Besides, given Onix’s size…
yeah!
Onix was still the eldest senior brother!
…
The subsequent capture became a matter of course.
The Poké Ball’s indicator light flashed symbolically once and then went silent.
This time, Edward didn’t shout “Get daze!”
It wasn’t that Edward was playing favorites, but simply that his personality wasn’t as extroverted and flamboyant as Ash’s.
Even with no one else around, doing such a chuunibyou act would feel embarrassing.
In truth, always caring about these things was quite tiring, but there was no helping it.
Personality isn’t something that’s easily changed.
…
Immediately after the capture, Edward released Tyrogue to let it get acquainted with Onix.
He, meanwhile, looked at its status panel.
[Species: Tyrogue.]
[Ability: Guts.]
[Moves: Tackle, Focus Energy, Helping Hand, Vacuum Wave.]
[Friendship: 100.]
[Potential: 39.]
The moves were mediocre.
A potential of 39 was much higher than the initial Onix, but compared to the current Onix, it was trash.
The friendship, however, had broken through the final barrier and reached the maximum level.
Unfortunately, Tyrogue didn’t rely on friendship to evolve.
So, other than making Edward feel good, there were no practical benefits.
Edward currently had only 108 potential points.
Even if he gave them all to Tyrogue, it would still be a far cry from Onix.
Moreover, Edward had realized how precious potential points were.
At the same time, he still had one capture slot left.
So…
he would just increase it to 100 first.
After making his decision, Edward no longer hesitated and began the operation.
However, with the very first click, he received an unexpected surprise.
[Friendship is at maximum, effect is superb!]
[Potential: 39-40.5.]
The friendship value he had thought useless not long ago gave him a hard slap in the face.
Of course, he hoped for as many of these slaps as possible.
But soon, Edward fell into a heartache-like regret:
If he had known about this mechanic earlier!
How many potential points could he have saved!!!
Too bad.
Even in a world of magic, there was no such thing as medicine for regret.
Fortunately, Edward wasn’t the type to dwell on gains and losses; after being depressed for less than ten minutes, his expression returned to normal as he continued adding points.
However, his plan changed slightly on the fly.
With this discovery, he naturally had to adopt the most cost-effective way of adding points, which was…
All in!
Adding 108 potential points to Tyrogue resulted in 162 points.
Adding that to the original 39 made it 201.
That was about one-fifth of the way to the gold level.
Edward re-examined its panel; a second ability hadn’t appeared.
However, a move called Mach Punch had been added to its move list, but since that was a move Tyrogue could naturally learn, it wasn’t much of a surprise.
So, to get a second ability, did he have to reach 1,000 points?
Thinking this over, Edward subconsciously opened Onix’s panel.
[Species: Onix.]
[Abilities: Rock Head, Sturdy, Weak Armor.]
[Moves: Tackle, Bind, Dig, Rock Slide, Rock Tomb, Scary Face, Slam.]
[Friendship: 85.]
[Potential: 1000.]
As expected of a gold-tier aptitude.
In just one day, and without any deliberate training, it had mastered so many new moves.
Edward felt that this “money” was truly well spent!
Edward was a carpe diem sort of person; in the past, when he bought game consoles, he’d pay extra to get them as soon as they were released.
His philosophy on money was “spend early, enjoy early” and “money can’t buy my happiness.”
So even if he had known, if someone told him to wait until friendship was maxed before adding points…
Sorry, he couldn’t wait even a little bit!
Besides, the bonus for max friendship was so generous.
Edward didn’t think friendship was that easy to max out.
Good things don’t just fall into your lap like that.
As for Tyrogue…
First, they had known each other for a long time.
Second, Edward had the benefit of a “hero saving the beauty” filter.
Finally, it seemed to have its own strange filter regarding him…
With all these factors combined, he had max friendship from the start.
Of course.
With a Pokémon’s pure heart—”If you’re good to me, I’ll give you my life”— raising it to the max was only a matter of time.
So again—he couldn’t wait, and he couldn’t help himself!
While Edward was obsessing over this, he overlooked Onix’s ability column, which had grown longer again!
And by the time he noticed…
it wasn’t that big of a deal anymore.