NOVEL NEXT Chapter 46: Chapter 46: System Upgrade
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At Falcon City's Pokemon Center.
Kalia, along with her friends, gathered around the Move Disk player. After pressing the play button, they eagerly awaited the display to show the upcoming move demonstration.
Soon, they would discover which technique it was.
The trio had already released their Pokemon to watch together, as only by viewing the recorded moves on the disk could the Pokemon learn those techniques.
Lian sat nearby, also curiously gazing at the screen. In video games, move tutors appeared similarly as disks, but he never realized they needed to be played for learning.
As the player started, the screen lit up, revealing a grassy plain where two Pokemon stood side by side—Smeargle and Herdier.
Typically, these Move Disks were recorded by the Pokemon League and sold for profit. The reason Smeargle is often featured is due to its unique move, Sketch, allowing it to learn almost any other move through this ability.
Hence, Move Disks usually showcase Smeargle demonstrating various techniques. At that moment, Smeargle was preparing to unleash one such move.
In the next moment, Smeargle spat out a purple poison towards the opposing Herdier. The toxic liquid struck fiercely, rendering Herdier instantly incapacitated and collapsing onto the ground.
The demonstration quickly concluded, followed by a detailed explanation of Poison Jab, which was crucial information.
"Ah, a Poison-type move," Julian expressed disappointment. Poison-type Pokemon were generally unpopular; although not everyone disliked them, none of their Pokemon could learn Poison Jab.
After watching once, Lian also felt slightly let down upon realizing it was a Poison-type move. However, considering the masked man's Weezing used Poison-type moves, it made sense.
Despite several attempts, no Pokemon managed to learn the move. Being a Poison-type technique, only Poison-type Pokemon could master it, or at least those with secondary types like Bug-type.
Kalia turned off the player, removed the Move Disk, and suggested, "Poison Jab isn't particularly useful for our Pokemon, but I have an idea."
"What's your suggestion?" Rosa and Julian asked simultaneously.
"Just because it's not useful for us doesn't mean other Trainers don't need it. We can trade this Move Disk online for different ones suitable for our Pokemon," Kalia suggested.
Although Poison Jab wasn't beneficial to them, its true value remained high. Among the moves learnable by Poison-type Pokemon, Poison Jab is considered one of the most powerful.
Many skilled Poison-type Pokemon Trainers may not even have their Pokemon proficient in Poison Jab. Trading it for other valuable Move Disks would undoubtedly be advantageous.
"Is that possible?" Julian was somewhat surprised.
"Yes, let's give it a try. If we find good Move Disks, we'll exchange Poison Jab for moves our Pokemon can learn," Kalia replied. She then opened her phone and logged onto the currently popular Pokemon forum, beginning the trading process.
Quickly, Kalia posted information about the Poison Jab Move Disk. From there, if any Trainers were willing to trade with their own Move Disks, they would leave messages. Later, she could carefully review each offer and proceed with a trade if an appropriate move became available.
***
Despite the events of today, battles must continue. In the afternoon, Kalia embarked with her Pokemon to challenge various Trainers.
After numerous battles, it was late evening when Kalia returned to the hotel with her Pokemon, ready for a shower and some rest.
Lian immediately collapsed onto his bed upon returning to the hotel room, drifting off into dreamland.
At midnight, Lian's consciousness entered the system space, but strangely, something felt different. The data panel had vanished, leaving only a vast white expanse around him.
"What's going on?" Lian stood perplexed, wondering why there were no combat ratings after so many battles today.
Moments later,
As Lian pondered, he noticed the system space suddenly expanding. Previously, the space was quite small; taking just a few steps would encounter a wall-like boundary.
Now, he could walk several more steps before reaching an invisible barrier, indicating that the space had significantly increased in size by multiple times.
Apart from the expansion, the day's combat ratings finally appeared, albeit with changes in the battle data format.
Has the system upgraded? The thought crossed Lian's mind. It seemed plausible, but what triggered this upgrade?
Lian examined the combat rating, which naturally documented his battle against the masked man's Pokemon. At the top was Lian's own data panel, now showing he had reached level 14.
Charmander
Type: Fire
Gender: ♂
Level: Lv.14
Abilities: Blaze / Solar Power (Requires Evolution)
Moves: Growl, Scratch, Ember (20/30), Smokescreen, Dragon Breath (21/30), Dragon Rage (20/30)
Stats: Stamina 349, Attack 303 (303/327), Defense 302 (Max Limit), Special Attack 438 (Max Limit +31.7), Special Defense 323 (Max Limit +0.3), Speed 420 (Max Limit +20)
Lian noticed significant changes in his data panel. Firstly, the Ability section prominently displayed the highly anticipated Solar Power ability, albeit currently dimmed with a condition indicating it would activate after evolution.
This discovery brought joy to Lian, although it seemed that Blaze Mode and Solar Power could not coexist, requiring him to choose one over the other—a somewhat disappointing limitation.
Apart from the Ability change, there were alterations in the moves as well. Progress bars appeared next to Ember, Dragon Breath, and Dragon Rage, while the other moves did not show any similar indicators.
Lian surmised that since he had previously used Combat Points to enhance the proficiency of these three moves, it resulted in the appearance of progress bars, likely indicating their mastery level.
Previously, Lian spent 100 Combat Points to upgrade Ember twenty times, and now the Ember move's progress bar was not yet full. It could still be upgraded ten more times to reach its maximum potential.
He knew from earlier experiences that after upgrading a move twenty times, subsequent enhancements would cost ten times the Combat Points. Clearly, if Lian continued to improve the proficiency of this move, another ten upgrades would reach its limit.
Deciding against focusing on move proficiency for now, as each upgrade cost 50 points, ten upgrades would total 500 Combat Points - too expensive at present.
With the system upgrade, changes also occurred in his abilities section. The Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed categories now displayed "Limit" alongside them, with Special Attack and Speed having additional numerical values.
Next to Special Attack, it showed "Limit +31.7." Lian guessed this represented the cumulative base stat increases so far. He recalled that every time he raised his base stats by 10 points, the Combat Point consumption doubled. Therefore, if Lian increased 31.7 to 40, the Combat Point requirement would escalate again, demanding 240 points per one-point ability increase.
The system upgrade brought numerous changes and helped Lian better understand how to utilize Combat Points effectively. Next, he checked today's combat rating.
The Weezing encountered was level 25, which typically evolves from Koffing at level 35. However, games differ from reality, so slight variations were expected.
What left Lian with lingering fear was that Weezing's attack ability value reached 500, while its special attack attribute stood at 475. If Sludge Impact had hit him, it would have been game over.
Defeating these two Pokemon yielded substantial Combat Points, resulting in a combat rating of B-.
Combat Rating: B-
Level Difference Reward: 106
Racial Difference Reward: 200
Ability Value Difference Reward: 121
Output Difference Reward: 1082
Output:
Charmander: 1019
Treecko: 170
Drowzee: 133
Weezing: 0
Total Combat Rewards: 1509
Total Combat Points: 5004
Lian suspected that reaching five thousand total Combat Points triggered the system upgrade, which seemed highly plausible.
Fortunately, the system upgrade did not consume any Combat Points, allowing him to retain all five thousand.