Reiji had already flown a long way before he finally let out a breath. That had been way too scary.
He couldn't stay anywhere near there now. After circling high above the region for a while, he spotted a fairly populated inland town and had Pelipper descend.
He planned to hide out in this little town for a while, and take the chance to research Gastly's evolution and regression. When it was time to move on, he'd fly back to one of the big eastern port cities to catch a ship. If that didn't work, heading to Trovitopolis for a ferry was also an option.
Right now he just wanted a proper rest. That mess just now had scared him half to death. For a moment he'd really thought he was going to have to compensate them for that Dratini, and he absolutely did not have that kind of money.
Thankfully Lance wasn't that petty as an Elite Four member. As expected of the League's poster boy, Lance really was a good guy. Reiji silently wished the man good karma in return.
If he knew Lance was already planning to investigate him, he definitely wouldn't be handing out "good person" cards. He'd be cursing the heavens instead.
Why the heavens when it was clearly Lance's fault?
Simple. The heavens wouldn't come after him, but Lance would chase him to the ends of the earth. He couldn't afford to offend that man, and he couldn't outrun him either…
Landing on the outskirts of town, Reiji walked in on foot and went straight to the Pokémon Center. From the task board that listed points missions, he pulled up information on available rentals nearby.
He rented a small villa with a yard on the edge of the town for eighty thousand Pokédollars, paying for a full month.
Hardly anyone came out this way, which was perfect for testing Gastly's evolution. A month was more than enough time to figure Gastly out.
Once he'd shut the courtyard gate, he released all his Pokémon except Gastly: Pelipper, Poliwhirl, Kingler, Rhyhorn, Scyther, Shelmet, Butterfree, Slowpoke, Croagunk, Ditto, Spinarak, Farfetch'd…
And Staryu, Wishiwashi, and Magikarp went into the pond.
"Butterfree, Pelipper, keep an eye on everyone. Don't let anybody sneak out," Reiji said after sending them all out.
He took out the stash of Pokéblocks and set them down in front of Butterfree. "Butterfree, you hand out the food. If they want more, let them take a couple extra."
Then he took Poliwhirl, Scyther, Kingler and Ditto into the villa and headed for a storage room on the second floor.
He flipped on the light first, then tossed Kingler some food and posted it at the door. "Kingler, unless I open this door myself, nobody comes in. Got that?"
"Ku-ka, ku-ka." Kingler nodded hard, promising to guard the entrance.
Reiji brought Poliwhirl, Scyther, and Ditto into the storage room. The place was spacious and completely empty, with no windows. The only way in or out was that door with Kingler standing guard outside, which made it a perfect lab for Gastly's evolution tests.
Once he closed the wooden door, only four Pokémon were inside with him: Poliwhirl, Scyther, Ditto, and Gastly.
He took the Pokéblocks from his bag and fed all four. Only after they'd had lunch did he start the evolution work.
He'd brought Poliwhirl, Scyther, and Ditto in and left Kingler on guard for a reason. If anything went wrong during the experiment, Kingler could block anyone—human or Pokémon—from barging in.
The three Pokémon inside—Poliwhirl, Scyther, and Ditto—were there to deal with any accident that might happen when Gastly evolved, and to protect him if things got dangerous.
After the four had finished eating, Reiji pulled out his little notebook, ready to record every change on Gastly's status panel.
[ Gastly ]
[ Type: Ghost + Poison ]
[ Gender: Male ]
[ Potential: 29.60% ]
[ Level: 17.83% ]
[ Ability: … ]
Gastly's current panel wasn't much different from yesterday's—only the experience had ticked up about 0.4 of a level.
"Gastly, evolve once, then revert once," Reiji said after jotting down the numbers, signaling the start of the test.
"Geh-geh, geh-geh." Gastly stared at the big pile of Life Energy Pokéblocks on the floor. That was all food for it. Unfortunately there was no poison today, but its Trainer had promised "all you can eat," and Gastly never doubted its Trainer's word.
They'd already agreed: as long as food and lodging were guaranteed, whatever the Trainer said went.
Gastly began to evolve. A flash of white light burst out, and Gastly evolved into Haunter—then a second flash lit up around Haunter's body as it devolved back down into Gastly.
[ Gastly ]
[ Type: Ghost + Poison ]
[ Gender: Male ]
[ Potential: 30.40% ]
[ Level: 16.60% ]
[ Ability: … ]
Potential up by 0.8. Level down by 1.2.
"Keep going, Gastly," Reiji said after writing down the first set of stats. He wanted to know exactly where Gastly's limit lay.
"Geh-geh, geh-geh." Gastly's expression twisted into helpless resignation, but for food and a roof over its head, it could only keep evolving and devolving. It wasn't that big a deal. As long as there was good food, the Trainer could toss it around however he liked.
After the second evolution-regression cycle, Reiji opened the panel again.
[ Gastly ]
[ Type: Ghost + Poison ]
[ Gender: Male ]
[ Potential: 31.10% ]
[ Level: 15.50% ]
[ Ability: … ]
Potential up by 0.7. Level down by 1.1.
"Again, Gastly."
[ Gastly ]
[ Type: Ghost + Poison ]
[ Gender: Male ]
[ Potential: 31.70% ]
[ Level: 14.30% ]
[ Ability: … ]
Potential up by 0.6. Level down by 1.2.
Reiji stared at the three sets of numbers in his notebook and fell into thought.
First cycle: potential +0.8, level –1.2.
Second: potential +0.7, level –1.1.
Third: potential +0.6, level –1.2.
Level loss was basically hovering around one level each time. The changes in potential, though, were a lot more interesting—they were clearly decreasing as the potential increased.
At level 14, Gastly could theoretically endure fourteen more tests. He'd need more data points before he could really trust any conclusions.
He instructed Gastly to keep cycling evolution and regression. The pile of Life Energy Pokéblocks was there to eat freely. To keep Gastly motivated, Reiji also took out 50 grams of poison and poured it straight into Gastly's mouth as a treat.
"Geh-geh, geh-geh." Once it got its poison, Haunter grabbed big pawfuls of Pokéblocks and crammed them into its mouth, only devolving back into Gastly after it finished—because once it devolved, it wouldn't have hands anymore.
[ Gastly ]
[ Type: Ghost + Poison ]
[ Gender: Male ]
[ Potential: 32.40% ]
[ Level: 13.30% ]
[ Ability: … ]
Potential up by 0.7. Level down by 1.0.
Looking at this fourth set, Reiji finally had a good grasp of the pattern: the level drop was basically fixed at around one level per cycle—at least at this stage. He still didn't know if the loss would increase once potential rose past certain thresholds.
Potential growth, on the other hand, clearly slowed as the potential climbed. That 0.8 spike only occurred once, back when Gastly's potential was still at twenty-nine-something.
In other words, Gastly's potential couldn't grow indefinitely. But where exactly its upper limit lay was still unknown.
Reiji kept pushing the test forward. In the end, Gastly's limit ended up being level 3. Once its level dropped to 3, it simply couldn't evolve anymore, which meant level 4 was the minimum requirement for evolution.
The ten further evolution cycles beyond that raised its potential to…
[ Gastly ]
[ Type: Ghost + Poison ]
[ Gender: Male ]
[ Potential: 38.50% ]
[ Level: 3.10% ]
[ Ability: … ]
[End of Chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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