Chapter 4: A Weedle's Path to Power
Will did not watch the process of Milly eating the Caterpie. The mental image alone was beautiful enough; he didn't dare to see it for real.
I think I might finally know what the deal is with this world.
Will stood alone on a branch, a single bug gazing thoughtfully at the distant lake.
Based on his observations over the past few days, he had discovered many differences between this Pokémon world and the one he knew. To put it simply, this was a "Dark Version" of the Pokémon world. Not only did Pokémon eat each other, but every single one of them had a physique that far exceeded the average stats listed in the Pokédex.
There was one other thing. This forest was absurdly lush, as if he were in a prehistoric age. He hadn't noticed it before, but now, using his own height as a reference, he realized that even the shortest trees nearby were over ten meters tall, with trunks at least five meters in diameter.
In his past life on Earth, that might not have seemed like much, but this was the world of Pokémon. In the anime, the trees were rarely tall, typically around five or six meters at most, with many being even smaller.
Based on all the evidence, an idea began to form in Will's mind.
Was it possible that he had indeed arrived in the world he knew, but just... not during the peaceful Era of Leagues? Could he be in the war-torn Era of Primal Beasts? Or perhaps even the more distant Ancient Age? The primordial Age of Chaos seemed impossible.
From what he had seen so far, Will believed the Era of Primal Beasts was the most likely. After all, he had seen Tangleberries in the games before—a fruit that existed in the Era of Leagues. The ones here looked exactly the same, and it was unlikely they would have remained unchanged for millions of years since the Ancient Age.
If this is the Era of Primal Beasts, then everything makes sense.
Will drew his gaze back and looked behind him. Milly had finished her meal and was now lying on a branch with her eyes closed, apparently settling in for an afternoon nap.
Seeing this, Will ate his fill of berries from their tree, then covered himself with a couple of leaves and went to sleep. The life of a Pokémon was just that simple. Eat, sleep, repeat, all on the path to growing big and strong.
But when Will woke up again, he felt like his world was collapsing.
Milly had also evolved into a Kakuna!
This meant that his three-bug squad was once again a one-bug squad.
Just as Will was debating whether he should go out alone to recruit more followers, a skinny Weedle came struggling up the tree, panting for breath. When it reached the top and saw another Weedle and a Kakuna already there, it jumped in fright. But it was too exhausted to climb back down; a fall from this height would be fatal.
Having no other choice, the skinny Weedle adopted a battle stance, trying to intimidate Will. But its body was trembling, betraying its fear.
A height of only 0.35m... In the Era of Primal Beasts, this has to be a case of severe malnutrition.
In the week he had been in this world, this was the first time Will had ever seen a Weedle weaker than himself.
Well, even a mosquito is still meat!
An evil smile spread across Will's face as he looked at the weak little Weedle.
One minute later, Will had gained another bruised and battered follower. He bestowed upon him the name: Frost. The reason was simple: the weak Weedle had a big, hard stinger on its head, but the stinger was pure white.
After some investigation and questioning, Will discovered that Frost had a very low level of poison in his system. This was likely because his diet had consisted almost entirely of ordinary bush leaves. While bush leaves were easy to find everywhere, they contained far fewer trace toxins than tree leaves and were not effective for accumulating poison energy.
This was a revelation for Will. No wonder the Pokédex and a Weedle's own instincts pointed towards eating leaves. It was to absorb the trace amounts of poison within them to strengthen their poison-type abilities. While eating fruit was more nutritious and accelerated physical growth, it did little to develop their poison attribute.
Frost had been too weak and lacked the stamina to climb trees, so he could only survive by eating bush leaves on the ground, just as Will had in the beginning.
"The fruit on this tree... eat as much as you want!"
"Wee! (Thank you, Will!)"
Hearing Will's words, Frost was so moved that tears streamed from his eyes. He cried as he chomped down on a sweet, juicy Tangleberry. In his mind, he couldn't yet grasp the concept of being a comrade. He only knew that this was Will's territory, yet Will was willing to share the food from it. He was therefore incredibly grateful. From now on, whoever Will told him to fight, he would fight!
Will paid no mind to Frost's tearful gratitude. Instead, he was busy planning the future configuration of his squad. He now understood the two distinct paths to power for a Weedle.
One path was to eat fruit. Following this path was like being a warrior class in a fantasy novel. Their bodies would grow exceptionally strong, they would have greater physical strength, their physical attacks would be more powerful, and they would be much tougher.
The other path was to follow their instincts and consume leaves, or even poisonous substances. This was like being a magic class, accumulating poison energy within the body to enhance poison-type damage.
For wild Pokémon, the first path was clearly more suitable for survival. Most Pokémon judged strength by size; the bigger you were, the more likely you were to scare off an opponent. This was especially true for a Pokémon like Beedrill, which was known for its physical attack and speed. Beedrill was by no means weak; its stats were allocated like a glass cannon's. Trying to make a Beedrill a balanced fighter would be missing the point entirely. The reason wild Beedrill weren't very strong in single combat was likely because, without a trainer's guidance to make smarter battle decisions, they had followed the wrong path, using leaves as their primary growth material.
From now on, the entire squad eats berries!
Will made his decision. He would lead his followers to become the overlords of this part of the forest, monopolize a huge grove of berry trees, and raise a Demon-Muscle Bee Swarm!
His strategic planning was complete. It had used up a lot of brainpower.
Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp!
After eating, Will lay down and went to sleep alongside Frost and the Kakuna that was Milly.
When he woke again, it was already evening. Milly and Frost were still asleep beside him. Will felt that he had grown a little taller, and there was a strange energy welling up inside him, ready to erupt.
"Let's check the status screen."
[Weedle]
Potential: White
Level: 8
Type: Bug / Poison
Ability: Run Away
Height: 0.45m
Weight: 4.5kg
Moves: Poison Sting, String Shot
"Hmm, I really am a chunky little worm."
Will looked at his height and weight and nodded with satisfaction. He had finally made up for some of his initial weakness. While he hadn't quite caught up to the average, he wasn't far off.
Is this feeling... the prelude to evolution? No, not yet. Frost is too weak. He can't guard me by himself.
Will suppressed the surging feeling within him. The urge wasn't too strong yet; he could still hold it back. He decided to accumulate more power and try to reach the average size for his species before evolving. That way, after passing through his Kakuna stage, he would emerge as an average-sized Beedrill.