Walking past massive trees and bypassing clusters of bushes, Sinshi and Agumon navigated through the sea of green.
Occasionally, they would stumble upon a few Caterpie huddled together and shivering at their feet, or startle a Pidgey into a hasty flight as they passed by.
Agumon looked back and forth at them with great curiosity.
“Pidgey, Pidgeotto, and that Starly hiding in the corner…
These bird Pokémon are a little smaller than Biyomon.
I wonder if they’ll suddenly get huge after they evolve.”
Agumon muttered to himself as he walked alongside Sinshi.
Aside from the Unown they had just fought, he had never seen any of the Pokémon in this world.
Everything was completely foreign to him, but this only piqued his interest.
From the moment they set out, he had been constantly observing and asking questions.
This studious attitude made Sinshi feel for a moment that the creature in front of him wasn’t a regular Agumon, but rather a Professor Agumon who had accidentally lost his graduation cap and pointer.
However…
if he really were Professor Agumon, the two of them probably wouldn’t be lost right now.
That’s right, Sinshi and Agumon were lost.
To leave the vicinity of the ruins and head to the nearest town—Solaceon Town—Sinshi had to leave the familiar area for the first time since his transmigration and embark on a long-distance trek.
Coupled with the lack of a compass, map, or any other navigational aids, they had gotten lost in the complex forest after only half a day of walking.
“If I at least had a Pokédex, it wouldn’t have come to this,”
Sinshi sighed helplessly, looking up at the canopy above where not even sunlight could penetrate.
Because the trees were too tall and the foliage too dense, there was absolutely no sunlight visible in the entire forest, save for the occasional stray beam.
Fortunately, after maintaining their pace for a while, they finally found a clearing in the dense forest where the branches were slightly sparser, allowing sunlight to shine through.
At this point, he had no choice but to use a primitive method.
Picking up a long, straight, dry branch from the ground, Sinshi walked over to the seemingly spacious area and slowly crouched down.
He planted the branch right in the middle where the sunlight hit, placed a stone at the tip of its shadow, and then sat on the ground, waiting quietly.
On the other side, Agumon, having finished his sightseeing, wandered over.
He looked at the branch on the ground, then at Sinshi, and asked in confusion, “What are you doing?”
“Figuring out our direction.”
“Just by doing this?”
“It takes about ten minutes.
We wait for the shadow to move a certain distance, then place another stone at the new tip of the shadow.
Finally, by drawing a line between the two stones, we can determine the general direction.
Once we follow that direction, we’ll be able to get back on the right track.”
“…”
After hearing Sinshi’s explanation, Agumon scratched his head awkwardly.
Sure enough, even after asking, he didn’t understand the principle behind it at all.
In the end, he simply sat down next to Sinshi and waited.
Seeing Agumon’s slightly embarrassed expression, Sinshi chuckled.
Given how he struggled to understand slightly longer sentences, it seemed he really wasn’t a Professor Agumon missing his academic outfit.
“By the way, Agumon.”
Sinshi suddenly thought of something and asked, “Since we left the ruins, have you felt your strength, speed, or move power get any stronger?”
Hearing this, Agumon frowned and raised his hands, swinging them through the air a few times.
His sharp claws sliced through the air, producing a faint whistling sound.
Then, as if discovering something interesting, Agumon swung his claws faster and faster, even using Sharp Claw.
Eventually, he stood straight up, preparing to test the power of his Baby Flame.
Seeing this, Sinshi hurriedly stopped him.
Start a forest fire, and you’ll be rotting in a prison cell.
That was a high-temperature flame.
If they accidentally started a forest fire, sure, someone would actively come to help them out of the forest, but they’d probably spend the rest of their lives making license plates in prison.
“You don’t need to test them one by one.
I think you can probably just feel it.”
“Yeah, I really am a bit stronger.
I feel like my whole body is full of energy.
No wonder I’m not tired at all after walking so far.”
Agumon said with a hint of joy.
Receiving a positive answer, Sinshi nodded silently, a smile appearing on his face.
The reason he asked Agumon this question was that on their way here, while using the system panel’s Pokémon information scanning function as a radar, his gaze had accidentally fallen on Agumon.
Rows of small blue text containing Agumon’s information had instantly appeared.
[Species] Agumon [Category] Reptile Pokémon [Type] Dragon [Ability] Sharp Claws (Due to the sharpness of its claws, the power of attacks using them is increased) [Level] 12→13 [Exclusive Move] Baby Flame, Sharp Claw [Learned Moves] None [Base Stats] 360 (HP 50, Attack 72, Defense 55, Sp.
Atk 72, Sp.
Def 50, Speed 61) [Friendship] 60 (Inwardly approves of you and considers you a friend) [Status] Normal [Information Summary] xxxxxxx
Agumon had leveled up.
His level had gone from 12 to 13.
Sinshi guessed that the main reason was Agumon’s battle against the swarm of Unown in the Solaceon Ruins.
After defeating over a dozen of them, including their leader, he had gained enough experience and then…
leveled up.
This was good news.
Of course, aside from his joy over Agumon growing stronger, Sinshi had deeper considerations.
In the Digimon world, the division of combat strength was highly dependent on type advantages and sheer willpower.
The main cast’s battles tended to rely on matching the opponent’s level and numbers, and if they really couldn’t win, they would exploit type advantages.
For non-protagonist Digimon, the most common way to increase combat power was through the simplest method—beating an opponent to a near-death state in battle until they turned into data, and then absorbing them.
Through this gradual accumulation, they would reach the total data required to evolve from stage one to stage two, ultimately achieving evolution.
Such a concept of levels and specific combat power was extremely vague.
It was impossible to quickly distinguish who had stronger on-paper combat power in the same state, or who had improved more through training and battle.
It was completely blind guesswork.
But in the Pokémon world, there was a clear concept of levels.
Whether it was the possibility of learning new moves at specific levels or being able to evolve upon reaching a certain level, the existence of levels was very clearly defined.
Now that Agumon had come to the Pokémon world and transitioned from a Digimon to a Pokémon, it stood to reason that his combat power would increase along with his level.
Agumon had just proven that this was indeed the case.
After all, Pokémon didn’t turn into data when they fainted, so Agumon couldn’t absorb them at all.
If he couldn’t increase his level and strength through training and battle, wouldn’t Agumon be trapped in his Rookie form for the rest of his life?
‘However…’
Sinshi immediately thought of another problem.
‘Since Agumon completely conforms to the settings of a Pokémon, does that mean his evolution will also happen automatically once his level reaches a certain threshold?’
‘Or does he still need the help of a Digivice, Crests, and things like that?’
‘If those are really necessary, where am I supposed to find those Digital World specialties?’
‘Agumon successfully transitioned into a Pokémon.
I can’t be the one holding us back by failing to transition into a “DigiDestined Handsome Guy”.’
Finally, Sinshi rested his gaze on the system panel in front of him.