I left my second thought stream to follow up on the waterfall evolution idea, while I began to swim up a few meters to start the second round of swimming/circling to explore another layer of the stream. Halfway through the second round, our usual lunchtime came around, so I had to consider for a moment whether I should finish the round first or if I should just stop right now.
I chose to complete the round first, and I was not sure if this was a reward for my diligence, but we actually came across a trio of Luvdisc just 2 minutes after I made that decision. I naturally Observed them the moment they appeared before us, but it seemed that the reward was a somewhat half-assed one since the Luvdisc failed to meet my criteria.
I regretted thinking that the moment after the thought appeared because it made me feel a little like an ungrateful little b*tch since objectively assessed, the Luvdisc were not bad at all. Two of them had yellow and deep yellow potential respectively, while the third one actually had light green potential. It was just that even the light green one was not good enough to have her potential raised to light blue, much less blue, which was what I needed to match the first one I captured.
Nonetheless, while I felt a bit bad for putting them down like that in my mind, that was all there was to it. I still did not attempt to capture them and simply let them be. We came across some Magikarp after that, as well as a bunch of Goldeen, and before long we made it to the vicinity of the waterfall. Maybe it was because of that, but we came across a lone Feebas who was swimming upward.
I was not sure if it was actually heading for the waterfall, but the fact that it behaved differently from the bunch we saw below, at the bottom of, this area drew my attention, so I went ahead and Observed it. I honestly did not expect much, and I was surprised to see that he had deep green potential. Nearly as surprising as that was that Feebas was at the (mid) bronze stage, but I guess considering his seeming proactiveness and pretty good potential, it should not have been as surprising that this Feebas was one of the relatively uncommon strong wild Feebas.
Even though I already had close to 400 Feebas inside Utopia, who were part of the Pinkan Project, it would have been a lie to say that I was not tempted to catch the guy, but instead of directly making a choice, I chose to follow after Feebas, for now, to watch what it was planning to do. Feebas had not stopped swimming upward even after it saw us, and I was quite curious if it was truly heading for the waterfall.
If that was the case, I had to wonder if it failed to climb the waterfall even with its current strength. While the (mid) bronze stage was not really what I would call strong, it was also not truly low. Even if the flow/pressure of the waterfall was strong, a (mid) bronze stage fish should have been able to climb it since its height was not all that large. It was when I remembered Feebas' pretty sad base parameter sheet that I deemed its failure to climb the waterfall possible.
While Feebas' racial speed was not bad at all, speed alone was definitely not enough to climb a waterfall with a strong current, and sadly for Feebas their base/racial strength, endurance, as well as stamina were pretty bad. The fact that all three of those factored in on Feebas' ability to swim/climb up the waterfall made it possible that Feebas failed to succeed despite reaching the (mid) bronze stage.
Naturally, all of this was just conjecture on my part. Maybe there was another reason that Feebas was heading upwards that was completely unrelated to the waterfall, or maybe he was heading to the waterfall and was not incapable of returning to the water channel above, but had another reason why he did not do that. While I was contemplating this stuff, we came pretty close to the surface, which one could feel due to the turbulent currents that appeared as a result of the waterfall crashing onto the surface of the stream.
Seeing Feebas head for that exact point confirmed that his goal had been the waterfall after all. We watched as he swam against the current and began to head up the waterfall at a somewhat slow speed. Curious to see if he would manage to swim all the way to the top, we swam to the surface of the stream and headed a few meters back to get a good look at the waterfall, specifically at the silhouette of Feebas, who was swimming upward.
Honestly, looking at it from our current position, I was pretty sure that Magikarp, and likely Feebas as well, could easily reach the water channel above, if they skipped the waterfall itself and directly jumped into the opening straight from the stream. While they would still have to swim against the current at the top, that was still miles easier than trying to swim up the waterfall.
Granted that could be seen as cheating, but if the goal was just to return to the channel up there, then this was a pretty good shortcut, though given the general slowness of Magikarp and Feebas at the lower levels, they might not think of using Splash to solve the problem at all. However, given the strength and potential of this particular Feebas, I was sure that he was already smart enough to think of the shortcut.
It took close to 3 minutes for Feebas to swim up the waterfall, but he did eventually reach its top. All he had to do was swim into the opening and he would be back in the upper water channel. It was right at that moment that Feebas got dragged down the waterfall, and I could not help but feel frustrated in Feebas' stead. Kun/Azuraid and BossBro shared their disappointment as well. BossBro even asked me if he should give Feebas a bit of a telekinetic push if he tried to climb up again and reached the same height.
I told him to go ahead if that was what he wanted to do, but he refrained, and Feebas did not disappoint either of us. It began a second attempt, reaching the top of the waterfall yet again. The moment Feebas did that, I felt BossBro take action. He gave Feebas a telekinetic nudge, and we all saw Feebas receiving a push that thrust him into the channel. When Feebas did not attempt to resist the current, allowing himself to get dragged down the waterfall again, all of us felt startled.
BossBro felt doubtful and asked me if Feebas did that because of his interference. I was honestly not sure, so I told him that it likely had nothing to do with him, though that did not seem to really convince BossBro, so I told him to keep watching. If Feebas started a third attempt and got washed down right after reaching the top again, he was likely doing it on purpose. I had barely finished saying that when Feebas appeared at the bottom of the waterfall once more and began his third climb.
As suspected, he once again made it to the top before being washed down yet again. BossBro seemed relieved when that happened before that changed to confusion, though it seemed that he came to the answer before I could share my conclusion with him and Kun. BossBro directly shared that he suspected that Feebas was using the waterfall to aid his training, and I told him that I suspected the same.
Apparently, the live feed showing Feebas had drawn Mothra/Butterfree's attention and she asked me to let her out of Utopia. The moment she was out, she settled on my head and we watched together as Feebas began a fourth round of swimming. It was as if he wanted to confirm our earlier assumption, and as before things once again ended with him reaching the top before getting flushed down.
It was a good, great even, use of natural resources, and probably the reason why Feebas was at the (mid) bronze stage. Still, since our/my curiosity had been sated, I could not help but start to contemplate once again whether I should capture Feebas or not. While I was considering what to do, we watched as Feebas initiated his fifth round, and seeing him train like this, I finally decided to capture him since he had impressed me, though I decided to wait for him to get flushed down again before I went through with the capture.
Things took a surprising turn shortly after Feebas passed the halfway point of the waterfall. Feebas actually ended up advancing to the (high) bronze stage mid-climb. Once he did that, his swimming/climbing speed rose, and he ended up reaching the top faster than before. However, unlike before when Feebas allowed himself to get dragged down, he actually finished his climb and swam through the mouth/opening in the wall.
Then as if to commemorate the achievement, he actually lit up, causing the mouth of the channel/top of the waterfall to shine brightly. The moment we saw that light, all of us realized that Feebas was evolving, and even though it was a happy occasion for Feebas, I could not help but feel a pang of regret. Since I had already decided to capture him, I could not help but see it as a missed opportunity. Feebas evolving right now meant that we had missed the chance of using the event to boost his potential.
Nonetheless, the fact that he managed to just evolve like that shortly after advancing to the (high) bronze stage was enough to shift my feeling of loss to curiosity and doubt pretty quickly. While the (unaided) Feebas evolution did have a certain strength requirement, it was still mainly dependent on Feebas' visual appeal with a minor mental factor. Given his stage, we could disregard the strength aspect, and I was pretty sure that Feebas was mentally ready as well, but I could not help but wonder how Feebas had managed to fulfill the visual/physical condition.
I had not seen any kind of material/resource around that could benefit Feebas' body in a way that would make him better looking. My deliberation stalled to a stop when immediately after the light of evolution died down, Milotic began to break through to the silver stage. I really wanted to shout for Milotic not to break through, but he had already initiated the process, so there was no interrupting it, which was much worse potential-wise than him evolving.
It took just a few moments for (low) silver stage undulation to spread, signaling that Milotic's breakthrough was complete, and the regret I felt at that moment was not small. The difference between a deep green potential Feebas at the (mid) bronze stage and a (low) silver stage Milotic with deep green potential was quite big. If I had captured Feebas before this chain event, it could have had deep blue potential upon breaking through to the silver stage. Adding Utopia's optimization into the mix, it could have been purple.
Now the best Milotic could hope for was blue, and while that was still not bad, it was nowhere near as impressive as purple. Still, given the fact that he was a Milotic with deep green potential, I was still planning to capture him. Just because I was mourning what could have been, did not mean that I was planning to let go of what was before us, so once Milotic had released his triumphant/happy cry/thrill, I levitated toward the top of the waterfall. Finishing my previous musing would have to wait until I had captured Milotic.
BossBro levitated right after me, while Kun flapped his wings and followed suit the standard way. We stopped right before Milotic, who had noticed our approach since a human with a bug on his head, a Slowbro, and an Azuraid flying toward someone was not what anyone would call subtle. I could feel that Milotic was a bit wary of us, but he did not attack us, which was a good start. Since I had not lost my manners, the first thing I did was to congratulate Milotic, and Mothra, Kun, as well as BossBro followed suit.
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