Tsaimath

Chapter 585

• AN: And here I was wondering why my "cache" of chapters had decreased, despite me not writing less. Turns out, if you fail to upload chapters, they don't get uploaded...

“Are you sure we can trust them?” the wind carried Isabel’s quiet voice to my ears, almost impossible to hear. If I hadn’t been sitting on one of the higher branches, watching the moon and stars in the slightly clouded sly, even my high Intuition wouldn’t have been enough to catch their co...

Chapter 587

• AN: Guess who's a dumdum?
• Turns out, I somehow managed fail uploading Chapter 587. Thus, you get an extra chapter today. Enjoy. 

Before I had been able to make heads or tails of what I had done, what it meant and how I could use it in the future, Sigmir’s voice called me back into reality.

“Love, come down,” she called out, obviously standing at the trunk of the tree I was on, “We’re about to leave.”

Shaking off the con...

Chapter 592

After Doris left, we all exchanged quiet looks, nobody willing to start. One after the other, we started to look at Olivia, collectively deciding that her plans would have to be settled first. If she decided to stay with us, unlikely as it was, the option to take Jenn with us would fall off the table, as the System had a bias against groups of six or more people.

For a moment, Olivia just returned our looks, her face impassive, before letting out a soft sigh.

“It is as you think...

WO, Ch 96- Forest Badge

Once Terrance was out of our hands, I felt as if a weight was lifted from my shoulders, a weight I hadn’t noticed before. Looking at the other three, there were subtle signs of relaxation, of fading tension and Claire even let out a soft sigh of relief.

“We did it,” Lucas muttered under his breath, barely audible.

“We need to be careful out there,” Cliff chimed in, speaking just as softly. There were nods all around, the situation giving us yet another stark reminder of ...

Chapter 591

It took until the next morning for Doris to return to us. We had been given a nice, little cottage in the middle of town, where everyone could keep an eye on us, and spent the night in comfort. I used that time to delve into the boundary of the Astral River, carefully examining the way Tani had anchored her magic to reality itself, learning quite a bit and gaining two points in Astral Meditation, bringing it to fifty-six. Other than that, the night was wonderfully peaceful.

We were havi...

WO, Ch 95 - Back to Eterna City

Claire and Lucas leaned forward as if Terrance was about to reveal that hidden location to them. Given that we shouldn’t head into the underground thus far, I wasn’t sure what that information could do for them, but they seemed interested.

“Does that really matter? We should get him back to town.” Cliff interjected, acting as a voice of reason.

“Yes and don’t forget, we are far too weak to head down there. Look at what happened to him, I don’t want to end up in that ...

Chapter 590

Watching Adra and Tani, alongside Rai, was incredibly adorable. There was something naive about Tani, making me think she was either young or inexperienced. And yet, despite that naivety, she somehow managed to pester Adra, pushing and prodding her verbally until Adra could do nothing but stutter around, completely off-balance. Rai tried to help Adra out and intervened, only to get the sharp side of Tani’s tongue, and quickly retreated, leaving Adra to face the verbal onslaught alone.

WO, Ch 94- ...call the Underground Man

After the Larvitar fled, silence settled over the area. Trying to console him, I gave Charm’s shoulder a gentle pat but the gesture was as useless as it was simple. There was no quick and easy fix to help my partner, wounded in his pride, I would have to take some time and effort to do so.

“Who was calling for help?” I asked Claire, focusing on the things that could be changed in the short term.

“Older guy, managed to break his leg. Come, I don’t think we need to guard t...

Chapter 589

“Daniel said you offered your help,” Doris asked, after taking over the task of guiding us from Daniel. “What do you have in mind when you offer that? Are we talking about moral support, the creation of magical items, donation of resources, some behind-the-scenes help or something more concrete?”

“That partially depends on what you need,” I replied, “We won’t be in the area too long, merely passing through, we still need to venture further south, to Phalladri. We can spa...

WO, Ch 93 - In case of Emergency...

After checking the Geodude, we took a closer look at the crevices it had come out of. From up close, they looked just as confusing and difficult as they looked from afar, with multiple openings that led into the rock, some of which looked almost as if some massive beast had carved the stone.

“Did any of you find the sign yet?” Lucas asked, making me realise that the marker was missing.

“No,” I replied, with a shake of my head. Thinking for a moment, I looked across the val...

Chapter 588

Before I had been able to make heads or tails of what I had done, what it meant and how I could use it in the future, Sigmir’s voice called me back into reality.

“Love, come down,” she called out, obviously standing at the trunk of the tree I was on, “We’re about to leave.”

Shaking off the considerations, I remembered to take a glance at the log, as the discovery of solid darkness and its weird, light-absorbing properties almost had to give me additional skill points a...

WO, Ch 92 - Fear in the Dark

Looking down the slope, my heart fell. We had been travelling hard all day and managed to cross most of the distance to the second entrance but now, daylight was abandoning us. We had to decide whether to try climbing down the slope during dusk, hoping that we got down, or at least to a somewhat safe spot to rest, while there was still light out, or we had to sleep up on the ridge, hoping that we didn’t get disturbed by some too powerful Pokémon.

Given that the Pokémon we had seen u...

Chapter 586

With the dawn of a new day, the four humans with us looked a lot less subdued and uncomfortable than during the night. Might have been due to the light showing them that the five of us weren’t just monsters tricking them or maybe because a full night of rest had helped to restore their strength and confidence. Either way, when I was preparing breakfast for all of us, Nick, the spell caster, came over and asked a few questions regarding the magic I had used to save them.

His whole atti...

WO, Ch 91 - Rumbling

Climbing up the slope of the valley took us four hours altogether. By the end of it, we were all tired, sweaty and utterly annoyed that we hadn’t decided on the easier, but longer, path, but after a few moments to catch our breath, that annoyance quickly vanished.

While we weren’t on the highest ridge, or the most prominent, the one we were on was high enough to give us an amazing view. Looking to the east, the entire horizon was dominated by the Coronal Mountains, with Mount Corone...

Chapter 584

It was quite fascinating to see Olivia struggle with her own convictions. From what I knew about her, she was completely devoted to Eleutheria but with that devotion came a certain connection to the whole Pantheon of Olymp and, indirectly, one to the nobles of the Empire. After all, the Imperial Family itself based its claim to power on their supposed connection to Alcaeus and his father, Zeus. Similarly. the Nobles were allegedly descended from the mortal companions of that hero, some of the...

WO, Ch 90 - Below and Above

“That’s a lot less impressive than I thought,” I admitted, looking at the opening that should lead into the Underground, that massive network of caves and tunnels that spanned the entire Sinnoh Region. In my mind, the image I had of the entrance had been a grand one, with cold winds coming out of it, shadows devouring the land around, turning the whole world gloomy and foreboding as colours started to fade into grey.

The reality was, without the landmarks, I might have missed the ...

Chapter 583

“We could, but why should we explain our actions to you?” I sulked, leaning back into Sigmir’s embrace. “We saved you and now you are questioning the methods we employed and how we acted in saving you?” I paused for a moment, shaking my head before looking out into the mists I still maintained around the clearing and loudly sighing, “Humans…”

“You were a little theatric with them, you’ve got to admit that,” Adra remarked, moving out of the darkness as well, Rai at ...

WO, Ch. 89 - Foursome

Travelling as a group of four was weirdly different, yet similar to travelling as a pair. Given that we, after the first morning of wandering around Eterna Lake, had to travel up steep and difficult slopes, there was very little talking. We just didn’t have the breath for it. Thus, the overall noise was quite similar to travelling in a pair, the sounds of the wind, alongside the soft crunch of gravel, leaves and a few small twigs the soundtrack to our travel.

And yet, despite how litt...

Chapter 582

Presentation was important, especially when it came to first impressions. As such, I had taken quite a bit of care to prepare the small clearing for the people that had been hunted through the forest, to the point that they may, or may not, have been forced to wander around a little longer, isolation, cold and likely fear slowly wearing them down a little more. None of them was gravely wounded and I could easily keep enough of an eye on them to make sure they didn’t die, but putting them in...

WO, Ch 88 - Sylva's Evaluation

“Have a seat,” Sylva invited us after entering a comfortable office, filled with greenery. “Let’s do the evaluations in reverse order, starting with you,” she nodded towards Lucas.

“Let’s start with your partner,” she began, sitting back in her chair and stapling her fingers together, “Good attacks, nicely ferocious but too one-dimensional. You don’t want to have a partner that can only attack, attack, attack or you will get into trouble when meeting a foe you can’...

Chapter 581

After the first arrow, the drama beneath me started to ramp up quickly. Forced into cover by the sudden arrows, the rest of their pursuers managed to catch up before the fleeing group had time to rally and realise they needed to break through the encirclement. The ambush had caught them by surprise and they apparently lacked the discipline, or madness, to run head-first into the ambush’s kill zone or they would only be slowly ground to death. And that lack of madness was what doomed them in...

Chapter 87 - Battling Sylva II

After making sure Charm was okay, I called him back into his Pokéball, proud that he had managed to fight Sylva’s Pokémon to something resembling a standstill. We had managed to force her to use attacks far above his level to break free, or the fight would have been utterly one-sided. It made me wonder how much she had held back tactically, if she had some way to clear the visual obstruction faster or overcome such disadvantages in other ways, but I’d likely never know. I certainly woul...

Chapter 580

Sometimes, less was more. Or rather, more was less.

Since the others had decided to leave the roads and travel through the more difficult terrain of the forest, taking a longer path, our travel had sped up and we covered more ground. That paradoxical result came due to the lessened need for constant vigilance, the relaxed atmosphere letting us move faster. The forest with its cover allowed us to relax, our high intuition and perception allowing us to easily locate any potential enemy tr...

WO, Ch 86 - Battling Sylva

As always, there was no external signal given. Claire and Sylva exchanged a brief nod and the battle was on.

“Twiggy, settle in,” Claire ordered and Twiggy rooted himself in the loose soil of the training room, his body slowly taking in external power and nutrients to rapidly fuel the Growth of his strength. Opposite of him, Sylva gave her Fluffy the order to stun Twiggy and with a shake of its fluffy seedpods, a brown, somewhat spore-like powder was spread across the field, complet...

Chapter 579

After resting in my Hallow for the entire afternoon, I was reasonably calm and fully rested when we started to make camp in the evening. The others had found a small hill some distance from the river and the road next to it, giving us some privacy.

“Better now, love?” Sigmir quietly asked after I stepped out of my Hallow. The smile on my face might have been a little gloomy from my disappointment at my mental weakness but when I gave her a hug and kiss in addition to the smile, she ...

WO, Ch 85 - A wild Gym leader appears

“Good afternoon,” the attendant of the Eterna City Gym greeted us, after having sent a message for us to visit in the afternoon. All four of us had been summoned, making me wonder if they planned to combine tasks or something like that, but somewhat doubted it. Just because people were roughly the same age didn’t mean they would work together well and while all four of us were seriously considering making the difficult journey from Eterna City to Celestic Town together, nothing was set ...

Chapter 578

Leaving Nobost was a breath of fresh air, both figuratively and literally. There were no more complications in line, just a couple of annoying guards who wanted to take an intimate look at us as we passed them, but the moment Sigmir and I stopped controlling our innate auras, the interest evaporated like dew in the sun.

With every step we took, the scent of the city, the stink of badly washed humans, of perfume mixed with fish guts, of slowly rotting algae, swamp and shore, all faded in...

WO, Ch. 84 - Eterna Dreams

If I learned one thing during the five days we had to wait to get our task assigned by Gymleader Sylva, it was that I never, ever, wanted to retire to Eterna City. We did our best to explore the city, to find anything that was truly engaging and interesting but sadly, we came up empty. Unless the inhabitants had their own, hidden circles in which they travelled to have their fun without outsiders barging in, they were utterly lifeless, to the point that I had seen livelier rocks.

Gettin...

WO, Ch 83 - of Freedom - Redux

In some ways, I had to be grateful for the chaos in the Eterna City Pokécentre. Helping Leana solve that chaos gave us a lot of exposure to the internal workings of a Pokécentre and some of the official materials that were supposed to give guidance on its operation of it.

While we didn’t get into the weeds of it, just a few days gave me a good idea that I didn’t want to work as an attendant full-time, even if it seemed to be one of the more popular options for trainers who didn’...

Chapter 577

While Sigmir and I were settling in, Lenore pushed out of her Hallow, intent on getting some time in the air. After over a week of being stuck within her Hallow or dealing with the enclosed space, she needed some wind beneath her wings.

“You can relax,” Sigmir told me, realising that a part of me wanted to be with Lenore, at least in spirit. To see this strange new civilisation from the air and observe their culture. Giving her a grateful smile, I relaxed against the wall next to th...