Pokemon: An Icy Path

Chapter 10

It took us about an hour and a half before we finally made it to the entrance of the Viridian forest. Not that we spent all that time walking, as we made sure to stop by one of the cafes for breakfast as it would be some time before we would see civilization again. While we were eating, I thought about what to train for our upcoming Gym battle. Knowing that my first gym battle is going to be against a rock type and my current team has the type disadvantage I download some move training videos from the Trainer Forums. 

The Trainer Forums is a message board that trainers can use to share information from around the world after they sign up with the League. As such, the quality of the forum is enforced by the League to ensure that only content without any underlying malice is available. All videos that are posted as a training video are vetted and tested by the League to ensure that no undue harm will come to a pokemon in learning the moves. Not every move is available for anyone to access though. Any move that can cause wide area destruction or is simply too powerful is only able to be accessed by those with the proper amount of badges. 

Standing outside the entrance of the forest, I take a moment to hype myself up. This truly will be the first step on my journey. The path from Pallet to Viridian is well kept and does not have any hostile wild pokemon. Viridian forest on the other hand is still wild. There are numerous markers inside that are to guide trainers through the forest but other than that, it is left untouched. It is a realm where pokemon rule. I instruct Skadi to take point as we head into the forest.

A few hours in, the forest is still peaceful with a bunch of sunlight still passing through the canopy. Seeing as it is nearly lunch time, I call for a break near a small stream that we just came across. I pull out some food for each of us and sit on a rock with my feet in the water while eating a type of granola bar made with Occa berries. I found that Occa berries have a slight cooling effect when used in cooking, similar to mint, but when I eat it, it increases my ice generation slightly and makes me feel more comfortable causing it to become my favorite fruit. While I was eating, I decided that now would be as good of a time as any to spin the gacha as there is no one around.

[Congratulations host! You have received a white gold bracelet.]

Like usual, the item appears in front of me and then lands in my outstretched hand. It catches the sunlight which causes it to almost shimmer in my hand. I bring the bracelet closer so that I can examine it closely. The bracelet is an exquisite piece of craftsmanship that portrays a phoenix like bird in flight. The wings are swept back and the long tail makes up the band itself. Looking closely, you can see every feather in vivid detail. The only thing on the bracelet that is not silver white is a lone amethyst that is cut to resemble the eye of the phoenix. When the light catches the eye just right, you can almost see the pupil of the bird. 

“So pretty…” I stare at the bracelet in wonder. I don’t know how anyone could have crafted something this beautiful. I slide it onto my left wrist where it seems to shrink slightly to fit perfectly on my arm. After admiring my new accessory on my arm for a bit longer, I turn to my two pokemon. 

“Alright, so we are now far enough away from any eyes, I think we can start to learn some new moves. Our first gym is going to be a nightmare for us as it almost directly counters us. Skadi, I want you to start learning Iron Tail as we travel, the same goes for you as well Zephyr, you will be training Steel Wing. These moves will also be helpful in our third gym so no slacking!”

I pick up Skadi into my lap and then pull out my phone and bring up a training video for Iron Tail and start to play it for both of us to watch. Training the move is fairly straightforward, as the pokemon needs to strengthen their tail and then learn to attack with it while attempting to fuse type energy into the attack. When I pull up SteelWing and watch it, the training is the same, only focused on the wings instead. This makes it so we can keep moving while they train.

After we reviewed the moves, Skaid and Zephyr started to train excitedly. They both seemed to want to get stronger and I was not about to stop them. I had Skadi learn to pick up and carry a decent sized stone in each one of her tails and try to lift them separately, similar to doing arm curls. Zephyr started to run on the ground at full speed with her little wings out. She would purposely run into rocks attempting to toughen up the leading edge.

As the two of them trained, I matched my pace with theirs. We were not currently in a hurry as I planned to take a week in the forest to train away from any prying eyes. As we head deeper into the forest, the canopy gives more and more cover, causing the surroundings to darken. It takes me to almost sunset to actually notice that it had been getting darker. As I look around more in the dimming light, I realize I can see everything still in vivid detail. I don’t think I have ever had this ability, but this is also the first time I am away from artificial light. Maybe I have always had good low light vision but due to living in a town with its light pollution I just never noticed until now.

I shrug my shoulders and chalk it up to just not noticing. I start to look around for another clearing that is large enough to sleep in. Soon we come across a spot that was just large enough. I had Skadi check to see if there were any pokemon in the clearing just to be sure but she came back quickly and just shook her head. I quickly go about setting up my campsite and took a look around at the vegetation nearby, hoping to see something helpful. My quick search was fruitful as I was able to find two flowers and a herb that when mixed together make for a weak repel that can be applied on tents to keep away weak pokemon.

I quickly collect the different ingredients, making sure to grab multiples in case we are not as lucky later on, and then pull out my stove, thermos and the pot from my mess kit and start making the mixture from my memories. Minutes pass and soon I am left with a greenish yellow mixture that has a fairly sharp smell. It doesn’t smell bad, just sharp on the nose when right next to it. The color should have been a leafy green color if it was made perfectly, but what I made should suffice in these bug infested woods. I gently pour the mixture onto the rain tarp for the tent  and let it sit until it dries which should not take long. 

Speaking of bug infested woods, I listen and look around but I don’t recall seeing any bugs at all on my trip so far. Maybe I am not far enough into the forest to see any? I file that thought for later as I wash up from making the pseudo-repel and start making dinner for us. After we eat, I finally pull out my lantern and turn it on its lowest setting as I place the now dry trap on the tent. I climb into the tent with Skadi and Zephyr and out of habit remove my dress and bag before sitting down on my sleeping bag and pulling out the Ancient Ice Phoenix Forbidden Divine Blue Ice Lotus Code that I got over a year ago. 

Over the past year, I have been working at decoding the text inside as it seemed to be in a cypher of some sort. I have successfully figured out a number of the letters and I only had a few more to go. I had not been reading what was written yet as I was still trying to figure out the correct letters. What I did figure out was the first page had information on how to read it after it was decoded. Every third letter was the correct letter for the word and it was read vertically. I spent an hour working on it before laying down and cuddling my pokemon. I was determined to finish decoding it during this week.

The next morning I woke up to the quiet sounds of the forest and gently nudged my pokemon awake. Stepping out of the tent and enjoying the cooler morning temperature. I did a light workout and ran through a few katas because the clearing wasn’t that big and I didn’t want to risk getting attacked while working out or being overly tired. I grab my dress and bag out of the tent before picking up the fully set up tent and placing it in the bag as is. It will just make setting up camp that much easier tomorrow. I let the sweat on my skin dry off in the warming air and then finally get dressed. 

The next two days followed the same pattern. On our fourth day in the forest, we finally started to come across many different types of bug type pokemon. I’m not sure why we had not seen any until the tree cover had created a solid barrier over the top of us and hardly let any light through. I could still see perfectly fine due to my new eyesight but that was only during the hours the sun was actually up, any other time and even I would need a light.

“LING!”

Suddenly I hear Zephyr’s panicked cry as it looks to be caught in a web that we missed. As I move to get her out, I am suddenly struck by this feeling of dread which causes me to slow down and look around for what is going on. From the corner of my eye, I see a thin string shooting towards Zephyr.

“Zephyr, use Ember! Burn that web and get away!”

I see a small gout of flame spit from Zephyr's mouth and it just happens to catch the string being shot at her as well as the web around her. Once she is free she quickly goes into the air and looks towards where the string came from. I look as well and see a purple colored spider on the tree right beside me. I quickly back up as the spider then spits out a little purple needle towards Zephyr as the bird is the bigger problem at the moment. 

“Dodge quickly then Quick Attack into a Peck!”

Zephyr nimbly dodges the poison needle and then glows a whitish color before shooting in a blur at the spider and rams into it not a second later. The hit doesn’t take it out but does cause some damage as I can now see a little bit of greenish ichor starting to drip from the pokemon. It retaliates by spitting another poison needle from the needle on its head and a string shot from its mouth trying to catch my little bird. Zephyr dodges the poison needle again but gets caught by the string shot and isn’t able to pull away from the spider pokemon.

“Ember into Peck! Burn it down Zephyr!”

Zephyr follows my command by building a flame up in her beak before diving at the bug again and hitting it hard in the abdomen before letting the fire attack it from the inside. What immediately follows is a sound that will haunt my nightmares. Zephyr falters slightly in the air before catching herself and attacking with one last peck which causes the spider to stop moving and fall to the ground. I wait a few seconds to make sure it isn’t going to attack again before I sigh in relief and give Zephyr a cheer.

“Great Job Zephyr! I knew you could do it!” I gently remove the webs that are still caught on my little bird while praising her. I place Zephyr on my shoulder and then turn to the pokemon we were just fighting. I pull out my pokedex and scan it.

[Spinarak, the string spit pokemon]

[It sets a trap by spinning a web with thin but strong silk. It lies still in the same pose for days in its web, waiting for its unsuspecting prey to wander close. Some fishermen weave its sturdy thread into nets to catch fish pokemon.]

[This Spinarak is male]

I take a look at the pokemon, deciding if I want to catch it before feeling a slight shiver go down my spine at the thought of having a spider type pokemon crawling on my body. Nope, no way. I might not mind spiders but only if I look but don’t touch.

[Congratulations host. You have defeated a strong foe, you receive a gacha spin.]

On seeing the message from my system, I realize that getting gacha points is going to be easier than I thought. I just needed to head out on my journey to actually get them. I guess my system isn’t the idle type.

“Alright Skadi, next one is yours. We need to get some battles done as they will help you grow stronger.” I look at my little fox who just watched the fight happen a moment ago.

“Vulpix!”

Well it looks like she agrees with me. I didn’t use her in the fight just now as fights in a gym are done in one versus one format so I need to get them used to sighting against single opponents as well as groups for when we run into some sort of trouble. We spend the rest of the day switching between Skadi and Zephyr as they fight different bug pokemon. By the time I had to pull out the lantern and set up camp, both pokemon were exhausted and needed to rest.

I quickly found a small clearing and took out the tent and made us a quick dinner from the forest bounty that I had collected throughout the day so that we could save on our non-perishable food stocks. After dinner I followed my normal routine and pulled out my cultivation manual as I felt that I could finally decode it tonight.

About thirty minutes later I had scribbled out the decoded words and sat up to stretch slightly before reading my work. Finally after a year of puzzling out what it says I can see what my cultivation technique is. I looked down at the page I had written the decoded technique on and started to read it. As I read further my eyebrow started to raise and the corner of my mouth twitched slightly as I realized what was written. Just to be sure I wasn’t seeing things, I decided to read it aloud too.

“Desert you. Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh. Hurt you.”

“We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I…”

“...Never gonna…” My voice trails off as I read out the iconic line. I take a long, slow deep breath before I suddenly scream out at the audacity of what happened. “A year. A year of work of looking up different ciphers, a year of slowly decoding the nonsense words. All that to get Rick rolled. ARGH!”

I toss the book down in my frustration. The book lands on its spine before opening up and the text slowly changes into english with a different message. The new message was just as infuriating as getting Rick rolled in a different universe. 

“All you needed to do was inject your energy.”