章 55: A Hill

Added an auxiliary chapter to jog the memory of particular terms of the fic and it also has much-awaited MC's Pokemon names. I thought of adding the index of MC's Pokemon at the start of each chapter after he names at least 3 Pokemon, but some readers wished otherwise.

So, here they are.

Zubat - Cet

Ducklett - Nia

...........

"Why did you refuse the sponsorship?" Celia asked, not even waiting for me to sit down.

"Do you think I should have accepted it?" I made myself comfortable preparing myself for a long talk.

The camp was devoid of activity unlike the previous days, most of the trainers were gone making the camp seem empty.

I will also depart after my talk with Celia.

"Yes! The sponsorship offer matches your talent, what's stopping you?" Celia asked furrowing her eyebrows.

"Did you read the contract?" I asked.

"Of course, I myself checked through all the 10 conditions you have to follow."

Maybe she is not as naïve as I thought, she at least checked the conditions. But the butler showed her one thing and gave me another contract. Because there were more than 10 conditions in the contract I read, even if you ignore the stupid conditions in it that made me reject the offer.

"Then why do you think I refused it?"

Celia pinched my hand.

"Don't play games, just answer me."

'Man, what's with all this violence? Peace is a myth I tell you.' I rubbed my hand.

"I am serious. If the contract is impartial and fair, why would I refuse it."

As Celia was about to speak, I cut her off.

"Just think about it, I am not in a position to refuse sponsorship for silly reasons like pride, qualification etc. So why did I refuse?" I spoke, enunciating the word refuse.

"You may have to check on your end, I don't want to point at the people you trust and accuse them," I said, and slowly got up, expecting Celia to stop me and barrage me with more questions.

Which she didn't.

'Not everyone is as annoying as Amanda it seems,' I muttered seeing Celia stare into the distance not stopping me from leaving.

I bid her farewell and walked out of the camp, after not finding Mike in his cabin.

I can reach Pewter just in time for my match if I hurry up, I may have to shave off some of my resting time or training time.

And you already know what I am going to do.

I will just have to catch up with sleep when Cet and Nia train. The buggers need less sleep than me and if they feel sleepy, I will just rotate the one guarding me in the jungle while the other one sleeps.

I released Cet and Nia, planning my upcoming journey.

Already familiar with our traveling arrangement Cet took flight as I held Nia in my arms.

The Ducklett was fully healed.

"Ducc" The water Pokemon settled into my arms, ignoring Cet who was flying around frantically- sniffing and licking whatever caught his eye.

The flying water Pokemon was more subdued than ever after the encounter with the wild Graveler.

However, I was not worried as I already had a plan to increase her confidence.

'We were unlucky to meet a Graveler who was at the edge of becoming an Apex otherwise Nia would have at least escaped unscathed.'

Just when I was about to start jogging, the Xatu appeared before me.

"I promised that you will reach Pewter in time. So, I can teleport you to Pewter directly if you wish." The Xatu gestured with her right-wing, generating a gale that shook the leaves as she finished speaking.

"Ok! Teleport me to someplace three days away from Pewter," I said happy to take advantage of the totem bird's power.

My surroundings blurred just as I finished speaking.

I stood on a dust path littered with overgrown roots and leaves.

"The Pewter City is straight ahead, and this hill houses a great number of Geodude."

The Xatu said pointing to a hill beside the dirt path. A large river snaked around one side of the hill, its flow unabated by the large rocks that littered it.

It seems Xatu guessed why I didn't want to reach Pewter directly.

I wanted to let Nia battle some Geodude and Graveler. The battles will help in patching up Ducklett's confidence.

I observed my surroundings.

Maybe because of the lack of grass Pokemon, the dirt path towards Pewter City was visible through the roots and dry leaves, unlike the routes near Celadon.

A bag floated towards me, catching my attention.

"Use this well, it is a part of the bet winnings I won due to you. Look forward to an even better gift. After all, my daughter's companion can't be poor."

"Wait! Can you give me more details about the anarch thingy?" I asked hastily, clutching the bag.

"I informed you about the basics and as I said before you can find more about your abilities yourself."

The Xatu disappeared as her reply reverberated in my mind.

I already had a vague idea about what my abilities could do, but before that, a bag was taunting me to open it.

I excitedly opened the bag to see it filled with rare berries.

"1 Bike…3 Bike…5 Bike…10 Bike" I nearly frothed at the amount of money the berries represented.

'This is just a part of the winnings, and I will get more when Natu joins me.'

'I am rich.' I happily did an awkward dance as all my financial problems disappeared.

*Giggles*

I froze on hearing the giggling sound.

'Didn't Xatu didn't leave?' I wondered recognising her voice(?).

'Damn it' I awkwardly shuffled on my feet, embarrassed. Nia was looking at me with scorn in her eyes, whereas Cet was imitating me flapping around in the air and looking like an electrocuted bat.

"Let's go" I muttered and started climbing the mountain.

It was easy to guess the route the rock Pokemon used for their daily tumbling. The surface of the hill was worn down into a perfect track for them with empty berry trees and bushes conveniently growing on either side of the route. Most likely pit stops for the rolling rocks.

I ignored the track and chose to climb on the other side as I was not interested in knowing whether I could dodge a living rockslide if the Pokemon got curious about me. The track provided zero cover making me visible to every Pokemon on the hill.

As it was nearly evening, the armed rock Pokemon were most likely returned to their lairs after a hard day of tumbling.

I encountered very few Pokemon on my way up, it seems even Pokemon don't like waking up to earthquakes every day.

'Elemental Anarch.' I mumbled.

The elemental was the easy part, after the last round, which I spent flying around dodging Pokemon I can feel the Flying type energy, but I can't seem to get a grip on it, unlike the Dark energy which is very elusive.

Being an Elemental, an Aerial Elemental to be exact, granted me better eyesight and bird-like instincts on how to fly, how to be one with the wind.

The augmentation ability pitching in for my smooth flight.

Anyhoo I can't quite seem to be able to replicate it now.

The Xatu said I have a 'Perception Filter', 'Emotional Manipulation', and 'Augmentation' as an Anarch.

From the info dump the Xatu provided the dark energy working as the Emotional Dampener, smothering my emotions when they got high, turning me into a cold logical machine was a side effect of being an Anarch.

Otherwise, I think the transition to this world and the aftermath of the deadly situations I find myself in would have affected even someone like me more. I knew I was not a perfect example of a normal person, mentally.

But being normal is for chumps. And I am the Elemental Anarch.

Cough! I still don't understand what that entails though.

Anyway, where was I.. yes, my abilities.

Emotional Manipulation looks complex, so let's leave it for another time.

Perception filter and Augmentation, I think I know why only an Anarch has a Perception filter as a separate category, unlike the Elemental where the perception filter is a minor ability under augmentation.

The Xatu told me to find it myself, but when I recalled and sumamrised every conversation I had- which are very few- I knew the answer, probably. I think it gave me rogue-like invisibility.

I am not crazy and it's not wishful thinking, listen to my reasons before throwing me into a mental hospital aka a mental health facility.

As Amanda said before they had to use repels to let her Pokemon rest in the wild. She talked like she faced a horde of unending Pokemon, but I didn't face such a scenario.

Even if we think that the ability Perception Filter comes easily to me on account of being an Anarch making me have the presence of a weak Rattata, I still think I would have encountered more Pokemon.

I mean Cet always battles ahead of me and some wild Pokemon even challenged Nia, but most Pokemon ignored me with some exceptions.

I think Trainers' Aura attracts wild Pokemon, swamping them with many wild Pokemon.

I believe that my subconscious use of augmentation and Perception filter made my aura nearly invisible to the wild Pokemon, at least to those who are far away.

I know it's quite a leap, but the Xatu was surprised when I said I only saw a small ravine when she asked me if I was not afraid of the deep and dark cliff- when I climbed down the ravine to rescue Cet.

I think I am emitting dark energy subconsciously which makes me more resistant to psychic shenanigans, making the Xatu miscalculate. And it also can be the reason for the hesitation shown by Chansey while parting with her egg.

I guess the relationship between the fairy and dark type is somewhat like a bug and flying type Pokemon.

Argh! I wish I had something to validate my conclusions, but I don't have anything. So back to my ramblings.

I think the two abilities, perception filter and augmentation, have a synergy, and can make me invisible to others' senses or their gazes just slide off me like an amped-up version of notice-me-not charm- a hp spell- when I subconsciously try to blend into the surroundings. The aura suppression being just a small amount of its ability.

I am ambitious, I know. But the effects of some dark-type moves make me think that escaping the attention of reality or other beings is possible.

"Anarch…Monarch..Anarchy.." I mumble trying to decipher my abilities from the name.

Anarchy…. Chaos… no authority figure.

Hmm.. I think we can assume the Anarch comes from Anarchy.

Maybe the name anarch refers to the ability of dark-type Pokemon ability to remain unfettered or elusive to Psychic and Ghost Pokemon.

Both of these types Pokemon can mess with free will and can easily violate the privacy of others.

As an Anarch I am free of such things.

Like .. no authority figure…Argh!!

'I am reaching too much.' I forcefully exhaled, dismissing my line of thought.

"I will have to catch a dark-type Pokemon. I think if I had one from the start, I would have experienced the abilities of an Anarch more thoroughly, just like how I experienced being an Aerial Elemental while flying."

I concentrated on feeling the flying-type energy instead of theorizing about things I had no clue about.

'Maybe some idiot in a position of power thought the name was cool and labelled the dark-type aura users without a second thought.' I stopped my reasoning and grappled with the flying energy. It was somewhat like touching your arm which was numb due to poor posture. The more time passes the more you can feel the arm, In this case, the flying energy.

The hike was nice, I could feel the progress I was making in manipulating the flying-type energy.

Halfway up the hill, I stopped, hesitating whether I should continue my climb.

A huge rock barred my path, which let off after some height. I would have to loop around the hill if I wanted to continue my way to the top, without scaling the rock.

'An hour climb, then I can set camp and search for those Geodude,' I murmured, deciding to scale the rock.

After making sure I wouldn't face any surprises on my climb by letting Cet survey the whole rock, I started climbing.

5 min into my climb I was feeling good. The rock leaned away from me, making the climb very easy.

'Easy Peasy.' I muttered.

*Ping* My Dex went off.

I hastily opened my Dex using cracks on the rock for support as I recognized the sound of an emergency message. The emergency message was sent by the league for the trainers near Sanda Hill.

It seems rangers evacuated trainers from the possible danger zone and the message is requesting trainers near the said hill to stay put and not to venture anywhere near it as an Apex Snorlax was spotted.