As night deepened, tranquility settled over the White Gym.
Squishy contentedly clutched the two Key Stones, curling up inside an empty Moomoo Milk bowl, and fell fast asleep.
Excadrill, completely stuffed after a heavy meal, collapsed happily onto the floor.
It had fully embraced this place as its home—free room and board, plus opportunities to battle powerful Pokémon and grow stronger.
No matter what anyone said, it refused to leave now.
“Even though the gym is starting to build a reputation at the school, it’s far from enough.
My current strength is still way too weak.”
After finishing up the cleaning, Mashiro sat at the living room table and muttered softly to himself.
Although he had Excadrill by his side, relying on it alone to support an entire gym was far too difficult.
He lacked enough battle-ready Pokémon; after all, he couldn’t actually send Squishy into official matches.
Right now, the most urgent matter was to catch new Pokémon.
His vision for his future team still centered around Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution.
Therefore, his capture efforts would lean heavily toward that objective.
“I’ll go out tomorrow and take a look, or…
maybe ask Blue for a favor?”
Just as Mashiro was planning his next steps, Excadrill, having eaten and drunk its fill, suddenly scrambled out from under the table.
“Ga-cha!”
It waved its claws, a look of eager impatience on its face.
Seeing its restless expression, Mashiro knew that this guy had tasted the benefits of the last training session and couldn’t wait to enter the Nurturing Path again to boost its strength.
“Alright then.”
After brief consideration, Mashiro decided to let Excadrill give it another shot.
After all, the recent quest had rewarded him with 400 Legendary Points, and besides unlocking the Nurturing Path, those points didn’t seem to serve any other purpose anyway.
Well…
surely nobody was foolish enough to spend precious Legendary Points just to refresh “Daily Intelligence,” right?
“Let me set it up!”
Once he selected Excadrill to enter the Nurturing Path, Mashiro watched its figure fade into thin air.
Soon after, a map slowly unfolded before his eyes.
Excadrill’s avatar flickered a few times before landing on an area he was intimately familiar with.
“Hoenn Region…
Mt.
Chimney?”
Seeing this location, Mashiro froze for a second before a surge of intense joy welled up inside him.
He stared intently at the appearing text prompts with high expectations.
The Hoenn region, Mt.
Chimney…
The answer to who resided at this trial location was almost blatantly obvious!
*Precipice Blades!
Precipice Blades!* he chanted excitedly in his heart.
[Excadrill has set out on its trial.]
Excadrill attempted to swim in the lava.]
[Excadrill became a barbecue.
The avatar returned.]
“???”
*That was way too fast of a death!*
Mashiro was dumbfounded.
Had twenty seconds even passed?
It didn’t even get to see the Boss’s face before getting kicked to death like a stray dog…
No, that didn’t even count as getting kicked; the creature had literally just turned over in its sleep!
“Ga…
cha…”
*I’m probably just a useless mole…*
Excadrill materialized in the living room in an instant, collapsing limply onto the floor.
The terror of being swallowed by molten lava still lingered in its mind, and the overwhelming physical exhaustion left it without even the strength to struggle.
Its previous battle against Zygarde had made it a little arrogant, completely unaware that Zygarde was just holding back to play with it.
This time, however, was what a true encounter with a Legendary Pokémon usually looked like.
“Rest up for now…”
Mashiro reined in his wishful thinking.
Buying a lesson for 100 Legendary Points wasn’t a total loss.
At the very least, it made him realize that the Nurturing Path was no easy walk in the park for leveling up.
Without sufficient strength and luck, the outcome would be exactly like this.
There was also another point: the Nurturing Path randomly selected trial locations based on the Pokémon.
It didn’t rule out the possibility of rolling a relatively safe place next time, but high risks usually went hand-in-hand with high rewards.
“If I let Squishy give it a try…”
The thought crossed Mashiro’s mind, but he suddenly realized that he hadn’t officially caught Squishy yet.
If it wasn’t his Pokémon, he couldn’t use the Nurturing Path on it.
An awkward silence hung over the living room.
Scratching his head, Mashiro walked over to the Moomoo Milk bowl and gently poked Squishy, who was sound asleep inside.
“Squish…?”
Squishy opened its eyes sleepily, looking at Mashiro in confusion, before shaking its head instinctively.
“Are you willing to become my Pokémon?” Mashiro asked softly.
If Squishy hadn’t appeared at his house last night, none of today’s events would have happened.
He might still be an idiot staring at impossible system quests at home, waiting for Excadrill to come knock down his door with a giant drill.
So, from the bottom of his heart, he was truly grateful to Squishy.
“Squish?”
Squishy tilted its head.
Though it was newly born, it wasn’t dumb.
After going out for a walk today, it understood very well what “becoming a Trainer’s Pokémon” meant.
Therefore…
Squishy nodded.
Mashiro treated it so well, so of course it was willing to stay by his side forever.
Besides, if Mashiro hadn’t found it, it might still be staring blankly alone under a streetlight, eventually getting picked up by a wild Pokémon to serve as dinner.
This was a mutual encounter where both embraced each other.
Mashiro pulled out a Poké Ball and held it out gently.
Squishy took the initiative to lean forward, lightly tapping its forehead against the button.
Its body turned into a beam of red light and was drawn inside.
The Poké Ball didn’t even shake before a crisp *click* sounded.
Successful capture!
He released Squishy once more, looking at the happy little creature, and said warmly, “Please look after me from now on~”
“Squish~”
…
[Daily Intelligence: Hoenn’s Devon Corporation is holding its monthly discount event.
All subsidiary store products are 21% off, and the first 1,000 customers can enter a lucky draw.
The event runs until 7:00 PM tonight.]
“As expected, I really shouldn’t hold out high hopes for this thing.”
The next morning, while sipping his coffee, Mashiro looked at the freshly updated intelligence and couldn’t help but complain.
What use was news about the Hoenn region to him here in Kalos?
Taking a plane over there would take more than ten hours!
Seriously, couldn’t this intelligence function restrict its geographic scope?
He wasn’t asking for pinpoint precision down to Lumiose City, but at least locking it to the Kalos region would make it less useless than this.
[You can manually refresh.]
Hearing the system’s slightly teasing prompt, Mashiro set down his coffee cup and let out a cold laugh.
“Nice try, buddy.
Trying to trick me?”
[Then feel free to keep reading the intelligence like daily news.]
“You little…” Stung by the system’s provocation, Mashiro felt a wave of annoyance, yet he had no way to pull the system out and beat it up.
Still…
maybe he really could try a manual refresh just once?
After all, paid experiences hit different than free ones.
The thought popped into his head so suddenly that even he startled himself, almost suspecting the system was subtly altering his mind.
Yesterday, if anyone had suggested spending Legendary Points to refresh the Daily Intelligence, he would have thought only an idiot would do that.
But thinking about it now…
weren’t the Daily Intelligence and the Nurturing Path equally risky gambles?
The probability of throwing Legendary Points down the drain wasn’t that different.
A wrong gamble in the Nurturing Path cost 100 points, whereas refreshing the Daily Intelligence only cost 10 points…
Besides, if he got lucky and refreshed a useful piece of information, leading to a few easily completed Legendary Archive quests, he might even recoup his investment—or perhaps…
make a profit?
So, should he give it a try after all…?