Grey's POV
After returning from training, I spent the afternoon travelling around Pewter City. I hadn't gone to the museum yet since I still had a week before my gym challenge, so there was no need to rush. Instead, I decided to simply roam around the city, looking at the local houses and visiting some of the tourist spots.
Aside from the museum, there were quite a few interesting attractions. One of them was a bazaar dedicated almost entirely to different kinds of stones. It seemed stone collecting was a genuine hobby for many of Pewter City's residents. There was even a game where you paid to break open a giant rock. If there happened to be a valuable stone like a Moon Stone or some other evolutionary stone embedded inside, you got to keep it. Otherwise, it was just an ordinary rock.
I tried it twice just for fun but didn't get anything worthwhile and moved on. Initially, I thought the whole thing was a scam until I actually watched one guy crack open a rock and pull out a Sun Stone. Now, a Sun Stone wasn't the most valuable evolutionary stone since only a handful of strong Pokémon evolved through it, but it was still a pretty nice reward.
I also noticed that houses here were considerably cheaper than in any city I had visited so far. If I ever planned on buying a house in the future, Pewter might actually be a decent place to consider.
The food was different too. Compared to Cerulean or Vermilion, the dishes here were spicier and generally much heartier. I even tried the famous Pewter Crunchies, and I had to admit they tasted pretty good.
I also met a few hikers and travelling trainers while exploring and ended up chatting with them for a while. Naturally, I tried fishing for information about Flint since there wasn't much about him on PokéNet due to him being a relatively new Gym Leader.
Unfortunately, the locals weren't exactly his biggest supporters.
Most of them respected Brock a great deal and still viewed him as Pewter's true Gym Leader, so Flint naturally had big shoes to fill. That said, they did acknowledge that he was a capable trainer. Apparently, he liked using combinations such as Defense Curl followed by Rollout with his Geodude line, and he also enjoyed setting up Sandstorm to boost the durability of his Rock-types.
Brock, on the other hand, had mostly battled beginners. Because of that, Pewter Gym used to be packed during the first month of every League season. After that, however, the crowds disappeared. Right now there were barely any challengers. Most of the trainers attempting the gym this late were either genuine newcomers who had started their journey recently but were progressing slowly due to financial constraints or lack of experience, or trainers who probably weren't aiming for the League anymore and simply wanted the badge for personal satisfaction.
The locals also gave me the groundbreaking advice of using Water- or Grass-type Pokémon against a Rock-type Gym.
"...Wow. What an incredible discovery."
I kept that thought to myself.
It also seemed many of the locals secretly wanted to see Flint get defeated. Well, they might just get their wish. Since I had registered for Challenge Mode, my gym battle would be open to spectators, just like my match at the Celadon Gym had been.
All in all, it had been a good day.
Before heading back for the night, I decided to squeeze in one more training session near the Route 3 and Mt. Moon area.
This time I switched everyone's training partners.
Cloyster and Persian worked together on Water Pulse. I instructed them to put more rotation into the attack. Honestly, it was my rather poor attempt at recreating something similar to a water Rasengan, and both Pokémon were struggling to maintain that spinning compression, but it was worth experimenting with.
Fraxure, meanwhile, focused on the rest of his moves instead of continuing his mobility and anti-Ice training. The goal was to measure just how much stronger his attacks had become after evolving. I had already seen how dramatically Exeggutor's Psychic and Cloyster's Icicle Spear had improved after their own growth, so now I wanted to find Fraxure's new limits and continue building from there.
As for Charmander and Exeggutor, they continued training together, but today's focus wasn't Sunny Day. Instead, they worked on their remaining weaknesses. Exeggutor practised building momentum by running and dodging Charmander's Flamethrower, while Charmander focused entirely on controlling the intensity and accuracy of her flames instead of maximizing their power.
The reasoning was simple. Most of the time, Charmander would be able to set up Sunny Day and abuse the sunlight. But what if she faced a Pokémon with Cloud Nine, or an opposing weather setter that prevented the sun from staying on the field? She couldn't rely solely on boosted attacks forever. Learning to fight effectively under normal conditions was just as important.
Overall, the evening training was successful. Everyone had made steady progress, and with that, I called it a day and headed back to the Pokémon Center for some well-earned rest.
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Grey's POV
It was a new day. I woke up in the Pokémon Center where I had been staying for more than a week now and went through my usual routine. After stretching and finishing my morning exercises, I took a bath, ate a proper breakfast, and got my backpack ready for the day.
After that, I set off towards Viridian Forest.
The walk through Route 2 wasn't particularly challenging. It was a fairly short route and, this early in the morning, there weren't many trainers around. Not that I was interested in battling them anyway. Even Charmander would probably sweep through most of the teams here now.
Speaking of Charmander, she might evolve sooner than I had expected. I had been so focused on Fraxure after his evolution that I hadn't noticed the changes in her as much. The reddish tint on her scales had become more noticeable over the past few days, and even her flames seemed a little more intense. If things kept going like this, I wouldn't be surprised if she evolved sometime in the near future.
I continued walking with Persian beside me. This time she was carrying most of my luggage instead of Exeggutor for a change. She looked rather pleased with herself, occasionally glancing back as if to make sure I appreciated her hard work.
After a bit more walking, the entrance to Viridian Forest finally came into view.
I had packed enough supplies for the next two days since I mainly wanted to use the forest as a training ground. There were bound to be stronger wild Pokémon hidden deeper inside the forest. Dense forests naturally formed colonies where stronger members protected the weaker ones, so there was a decent chance my team would get some worthwhile training.
Besides, after this trip I probably wouldn't get another chance to visit Viridian Forest. I had no plans to be anywhere near Viridian City for quite some time considering Giovanni could still be there.
The plan was simple. Spend today and tomorrow exploring and training inside the forest, then return to Pewter City before my upcoming gym battles.
The moment I stepped inside, the atmosphere changed completely.
Viridian Forest was dense and incredibly lush. Massive trees stretched high into the sky, their branches intertwining to form a thick green canopy that blocked out most of the sunlight. Only small beams of light managed to break through the leaves, illuminating patches of moss-covered ground. The air felt cooler than outside, carrying the earthy scent of damp soil and fresh wood. Every few seconds I could hear the rustling of leaves, the chirping of bird Pokémon overhead, or the buzzing of Bug-types hidden among the trees.
Caterpie crawled across branches while Weedle clung to tree trunks. Occasionally a Kakuna hung silently from a branch, and every now and then a Butterfree would lazily flutter overhead before disappearing deeper into the forest.
The trainers here, however, were completely shameless.
Every two minutes someone challenged me to a battle. It honestly felt like I was reenacting that meme where an overpowered trainer comes back after an adventure only to bully every Bug Catcher on Route 1. By the end of today, the Bug Catchers of Viridian Forest were probably going to remember Fraxure and Cloyster as their greatest nightmares.
I could have used Charmander for most of these battles, but that only encouraged more Bug Catchers to challenge me. The moment they saw a Charmander, they assumed I was another rookie trainer sponsored by Professor Oak who had just started his journey.
So instead, I walked around with Fraxure and Cloyster.
That solved the problem rather quickly.
Most trainers took one look at the fully evolved Cloyster standing beside an already evolved Fraxure and suddenly remembered they had somewhere else to be.
Man, I wished there was a Human Repel item just like the one for Pokémon.
Speaking of Repels, I hadn't even needed to use one. Most of the wild Bug-types caught sight of Fraxure or Cloyster and quietly decided they valued their lives.
The only decent battle I had all morning came from a Samurai trainer.
It was the same Samurai that Ash had beaten in the anime, the guy who somehow managed to lose to every Pallet Town trainer. Apparently he still hadn't moved on from this forest. To be fair though, he was noticeably stronger than the average Bug Catcher around here.
His team consisted of Pinsir, Butterfree, and Beedrill.
Not that it mattered much.
I decided to use Charmander for the battle since she actually needed the experience. After setting up Sunny Day, Solar Power boosted her Flamethrowers enough to overwhelm all three of his Pokémon one after another.
After the battle I wished him luck before continuing on my way. Honestly, it was a little disappointing. The guy definitely had potential as a trainer, but spending years camping in Viridian Forest seemed to have stunted his growth.
Still, the battle wasn't a complete waste.
I managed to get some useful information from him regarding the different Bug-type colonies spread throughout the forest. There was a Beedrill colony deeper inside, a large Butterfree colony toward the eastern side, and even a recently established Spinarak colony.
Apparently the Spinarak colony had somehow managed to survive despite being newcomers, mostly because Spinarak were surprisingly good at running away whenever stronger Pokémon threatened them.
After hearing all that, I decided my first destination would be the Butterfree colony.
The Beedrill colony sounded like more trouble than it was worth. Territorial Beedrill could turn an ordinary training session into a full-scale chase, and I wasn't in the mood for that today.
Butterfree, on the other hand, were generally calmer. If things went well, there was even a chance I could negotiate with the colony instead of immediately fighting them.
Before leaving, I also asked the Samurai how he had managed to catch a Pinsir in Viridian Forest.
His answer surprised me.
Apparently, Pinsir weren't the only rare Bug-type hidden within the forest. There were several stronger Bug Pokémon living deep inside, but most trainers never ventured far enough to encounter them.
That was good news.
It meant this forest might have much better opponents for my team than I had originally expected.
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Power stones , Collections , Reviews keep at it
Author's Note: Next chapter new catch.