"Ponyta!" Rosaria cried out in distress, her heart racing as she rushed toward the collapsed Pokémon.
Her anxiety had already been mounting when Ponyta was at a severe disadvantage, but after calling for the move Rest, she believed the situation was still manageable. However, she never anticipated that the paralysis would be so debilitating, preventing Ponyta from using Rest altogether.
The moment Lena announced the outcome, Rosaria couldn't wait any longer.
Though she hadn't spent much time with Ponyta, it had already become a treasured companion—one she considered almost like family. It was a sentiment unlike anything she had felt for her other horses. There was something uniquely enchanting about Pokémon that tugged at her heart in a way nothing else ever had. And now, seeing Ponyta unconscious, that feeling had only deepened.
Followed closely by Wentia and Reden, she knelt beside Ponyta, cradling the fainted Pokémon in her arms as tears welled in her eyes.
But as Arthur approached calmly, her panic began to subside.
Arthur was the one who had introduced her to the world of Pokémon, and it was clear how deeply he cared for them. His calm demeanor assured her that, as long as he remained unfazed, Ponyta would be safe.
So, rather than immediately pleading for her Pokémon's well-being, Rosaria smiled softly, brushing Ponyta's fiery mane with a gentle hand when the Pokémon began to stir. "You did great, Ponyta. We'll win next time, okay?"
"Ponyta~!" the Pokémon responded weakly, nodding as it tried to rise. But Rosaria held it down firmly, her voice laced with concern, "Don't push yourself."
"Ta~..." Ponyta sulked, but it obeyed, settling back against Rosaria's comforting touch.
"You have potential to be a great Pokémon Trainer," Arthur said with a warm, encouraging smile as he neared them. He then handed Rosaria a Potion, the standard, basic healing elixir designed for Pokémon.
Though Rosaria also possessed healing potions, she wasn't sure if they would work on Pokémon, so she had refrained from using them to treat Ponyta.
Arthur's Potion was crafted using a human's healing potions as a base model, but even the most basic version of that potion was far too expensive for someone like him, a simple farmer's son. The cost of ingredients was a constant hurdle, and if he couldn't develop a more affordable potion—one that could treat Pokémon effectively without putting a hole in his wallet—it would shatter his dreams of supporting aspiring Rookie Trainers.
Countless hours of research and failure led him to refine his formula, ultimately focusing it exclusively on Pokémon. While humans and other species could still drink it, the potion wouldn't heal any injuries—its effects were no more than that of plain water.
Yet, despite these advancements, the cost of materials remained prohibitively high. There was still much work to be done before he could perfect his Potion and bring it within reach of Rookie Trainers.
That's why, for the time being, Arthur had no intention of researching Super Potion.
After Ponyta drank the Potion, it visibly regained strength, shakily standing up. Being only level 12, the Potion was sufficient to restore a significant portion of its health.
Arthur turned to Rosaria and advised, "You should have Ponyta use Rest for now, so she can fully recover. I've got a limited supply of Potions, and I can only spare you one."
"Alright, Ponyta, you heard him," Rosaria said, gently rubbing the Pokémon's head. "Use Rest!"
Ponyta nodded obediently and immediately settled down, falling into a deep sleep. As it rested, its wounds healed rapidly, much faster than after drinking the Potion, with the recovery process visible to the naked eye.
Rosaria stood up, brushing off her knees, and gave Arthur a light pat on the shoulder. "That was fun! I've seen underground fights before, where they throw animals into cages for bets... but it's cruel and bloody. The animals clearly hated it—they didn't want to be forced to fight their own kind."
She paused, glancing at the sleeping Ponyta, then offered a soft smile. "But seeing Ponyta and Butterfree battle each other so happily was refreshing. I really enjoyed commanding the battle as Ponyta's trainer."
Arthur smiled as Butterfree flitted over to him, landing lightly on his head, looking pleased. "Yeah, these little guys could battle for a lifetime without getting bored... though, of course, not all of them feel the same way. Some Pokémon might not be so fond of it, so keep that in mind."
Rosaria nodded thoughtfully and asked, "The potion she took earlier—was it specially made for Pokémon?"
"Yes," Arthur confirmed. "It won't have any effect on you if you drink it." He paused for a moment, choosing his words carefully. "I can give you the recipe, but besides the ingredients, you'll need someone skilled with magic circles to craft it properly." This was necessary because the potion was designed with a code—much like a Poké Ball—that made it specific to Pokémon.
Eventually, he would need to ensure that Pokémon's basic necessities were more widely available. Having the royal family take on the role of Poké Mart's items manufacturers wasn't a bad idea, especially since the cost of Potions was still far too high for him to manage on his own.
"That'd be great," Rosaria said, nodding. She gestured to Reden, signaling her to take the recipe. Anything related to magical research was usually handled by Reden's Windazen family, and with her ties to an alchemist association, she was confident they could discreetly produce a new type of Potion.
Once Ponyta had fully rested and woken from its slumber, the group returned to the portable bedchamber. They gathered around a tea table, where Wentia went to brew tea for everyone, a calming activity after the excitement of the battle.
At that moment, Lena leaned toward Arthur, her eyes wide and pleading like a puppy. "Little bro... after watching that Pokémon Battle... I just can't take it anymore. Please... please, I beg you, give me a Pokémon... I need one so badly." Her eyes shimmered with fake tears, looking utterly pitiful.
However, having spent twelve years with her, Arthur could recognize crocodile tears when he saw them. With a gentle push, he moved her face away and smirked. "Alright, I'll give you a Beedrill."
"No!" Lena's face drained of color as she recoiled, her fear evident.
"Bee?" Beedrill tilted its head, then fluttered toward a nearby mirror, swirling its body in an almost dramatic fashion as it gazed at its reflection. Am I really that ugly? it likely wondered.
Arthur laughed, joined by Rosaria, as Lena's annoyed expression only made the moment funnier. Everyone in the room knew by now that Lena was terrified of insects.
After a moment of laughter, Arthur regained his composure and turned to thank Wentia for the tea. His face shifted to a more serious expression as he entered business mode. "I was planning to discuss some... funding matters with Rosaria, but we can adjust the schedule."
Rosaria, now intrigued, leaned forward, holding her hot tea cup. "What do you have in mind?"
Smiling, Arthur took a sip of his tea before he stood up and walked toward an open space. "I'll summon some new Pokémon for all of you."
Lena and Reden's faces immediately lit up with excitement, while Wentia remained composed, though the slight twitch of her eyebrow betrayed her own anticipation. Rosaria simply smiled, observing her trusted attendants and bodyguards, glad to see their happiness.
"Finally, I'll have my own Pokémon!" Lena cheered, her voice bubbling with excitement. She'd been pestering Arthur for years ever since she first heard about Caterpie, the pre-evolution of Butterfree. Her desire only grew when she witnessed Weedle, the pre-evolution of Beedrill, and Ponyta hatching from their eggs.
However, Arthur wasn't heartless. It wasn't that he didn't want to give Lena a Pokémon—it was just that creating them wasn't an easy process. He couldn't simply hand one over without ensuring everything was set up for success. And, as mentioned before, he still wasn't sure if evolution for non-Bug-type Pokémon would even work.
Pokémon wouldn't be called magical creatures if their process of evolution were as ordinary as an insect's metamorphosis. Instead, they burst into bright light, their forms shifting and morphing in a matter of moments, their shape completely changing within a short span of time.
Normal living beings couldn't do that.
Arthur had also researched Ocasia's native monsters like mimics and shapeshifters, but those beings only altered their outward appearance—they didn't undergo the fundamental transformation that Pokémon did, evolving into something entirely different and stronger.
Thus, he had to compromise....
Anyways, in this world, summoning-type spells weren't particularly popular.
While there were a few Summoners in the Krosia Kingdom, their numbers were small. Most people preferred to focus on strengthening themselves rather than spending their mana to summon creatures as familiars.
To put it simply, summoning required the expenditure of mana, and the strength of the summoned creature depended on how much mana was used. The moment you summoned a creature, your maximum mana reserve would be reduced to establish the connection between you and the summoned being. If this link wasn't formed, the summon would be canceled, forcing you to start over, wasting both time and resources.
On top of that, after summoning, another spell was required to form a contract, ensuring that the summoned creature obeyed your commands and wouldn't cause harm.
That's why average Summoners, focusing solely on summoning magic, could typically manage only two summoned creatures at a time. Having more or less than that risked summoning creatures that were either too weak to be of any use or too powerful to control, potentially killing the Summoner before they could sign the contract.
As for Arthur, he was a unique blend of Artificer (for his Poké Balls and Pokédex), Researcher (focused on magic circles), and Summoner (for his Pokémon). His profession might expand even further as he continued to pursue his dream of a world with Pokémon.
Reaching into his small waist bag, Arthur pulled out an enchanted brush and, after asking Rosaria for permission, began drawing a magic circle on the floor. The magic runes he used were a mix of English and Japanese, which immediately captivated Reden, causing her to nearly drool in fascination at the unusual runes etched into the circle.
A summoning magic circle established a link to the spirit realm, a place where summoned creatures could be called forth. However, Arthur's circle was a little special—it served two purposes. The first function allowed him to connect to a hidden space where he had stored Pokémon eggs, containing templates of Pokémon he had already created. The second function was to summon the soul of a random ordinary animal, destined to be reborn in some creature.
Yes, the way he created 'living' Pokémon was by first crafting an empty body—the egg—and then merging it with the soul of a newborn animal. Both steps barely required any mana, and he didn't intend to sign a contract with the summoned souls anyway.
Some might question the ethics of randomly pulling an animal's soul and merging it with a Pokémon egg to create life, but since that soul was already destined to enter some random animal body, Arthur reasoned that it wasn't much different if it were placed into a Pokémon's body instead.
However, he later discovered a flaw in his Pokémon creation process because of the Poké Ball. The reason the Poké Ball could store a living Pokémon was that when the Pokémon entered the ball, its soul was ejected and instead attached itself to the Poké Ball. This allowed the Pokémon to influence the ball, deciding whether to stay inside or leave, and was the reason the Pokémon appeared still when viewed through the Poké Ball's transparent red surface.
Though the process wasn't perfect, the connection between the Pokémon's soul and its body had already been established, and they were becoming one. According to Arthur's theory and observations so far, this bond would grow stronger as the Pokémon leveled up, eventually merging completely and forming a fully living being.
Consequently, this meant that capturing higher-level Pokémon would become more difficult, or perhaps even impossible, as the Poké Ball would try to reject the living beings. However, it also meant that to allow captured Pokémon to still enter their Poké Balls at higher levels, they would need to form a stronger connection with the ball itself. This raised the high possibility that once a Pokémon reached a certain level, changing its Poké Ball could severely harm its soul.
But this was the world of magic, after all. Arthur was confident he would find a solution in time.
As Arthur reminisced on his past creations while drawing the magic circle, his mood turned a little sour. He couldn't shake the feeling of responsibility for not perfecting his earlier Pokémon creations like Beedrill, Butterfree, and Ponyta. The issue only became apparent to him after he had successfully crafted a Poké Ball.
"What's wrong, Arthur?" Lena noticed his change in expression and asked with concern.
Hearing her voice, Arthur shook his head with a smile and continued focusing on the magic circle. "It's nothing."
There was nothing more he could do to fix those early mistakes. The only thing they could do now was level up and hope for a complete merge. This was also one of the reasons he hadn't given Lena a Pokémon yet.
However, for the Pokémon eggs he was about to summon, he had already found a solution. The key was to use a rare magical material as a catalyst during the summoning.
That material was called Harmonite—a rare, transparent gem found only beneath clear lakes during a solar eclipse. Harmonite could bridge and link the body and soul during the merging process, which is why it could only be used during the Pokémon summoning, as this is where the initial merging occurs.
And it was expensive!
Arthur had spent a large portion of his savings to acquire five pieces of Harmonite. Now, he planned to use four of them to summon Pokémon eggs for Lena, Reden, Wentia, and Rosaria.
As for the issue with the Poké Ball not working on the Harmonite-infused Pokémon... it would need to be observed later, as this this was the first time he'd be using Harmonite in the summoning process. However, he already had a potential solution in mind that wouldn't alter the function or catch rate of the Poké Ball. Of course, this solution would come at a high cost—something he could stress over later.
Once the magic circle was complete, Arthur reached into his 'multi-purpose' waist bag and pulled out the Harmonite, placing it carefully in the center of the circle.
"Harmonite?" Reden, the knowledgeable Court Mage, exclaimed in surprise. She didn't ask why Arthur needed it but was clearly intrigued.
Arthur stood before the magic circle and cast a simple spell, "Summon!" That was all he needed to do—the magic circle would take care of the rest.
A blinding flash of light enveloped the circle, flashing brightly and overwhelming everyone inside the tent.
When the light dimmed, an egg appeared before their eyes: light brown at the top and bottom, with pale yellow in the middle.
Arthur carefully examined the egg and the magic circle. So far, everything seemed to be going well, and Harmonite appeared to have successfully merged with the body and soul inside the egg.
Success? Arthur wondered, though he felt a bit uncertain. The real test would come once the Pokémon hatched. If the current version of Poké Ball couldn't capture the Pokémon, that would confirm his success.
He gently picked up the egg, then pulled a makeshift nest from his waist bag and set it down beside him before carefully placing the egg inside.
His time and money were very tight, so the invention of a Egg Incubator would have to wait for a later time.
The girls gathered around the egg, eyes wide with curiosity. They had many questions, but they held them in check, silently watching as Arthur approached the magic circle again, adjusting a few magic runes and repeating the summoning process.
Butterfree and Beedrill were filled with quiet excitement, their anticipation palpable. They knew that once the egg hatched, they would gain a new companion. Beedrill, of course, was too cool to show any visible eagerness, casting a casual glance at the egg as if it were no big deal. Ponyta, however, was lost in her own world, happily nibbling on apples. Her reaction came slower than the others, but as soon as the realization of what was inside the egg hit her, her excitement erupted, her mane practically crackling with fiery energy.
Soon, four eggs rested neatly in their makeshift nests.
In addition to the first egg, there was one with a light orange shell with fiery red hues, another with a light blue shell patterned with dark red color, and a fourth with a pale green shell, subtly dotted with plant-like features.
Arthur smiled as he saw the girls' sparkling eyes fixated on the eggs. He spread his hands slightly, secretly glancing at a note tucked inside his sleeve.
"Ahem, ahem!" He cleared his throat, his voice taking on a more theatrical tone as he crossed his arms behind his back and straightened his posture, adopting the air of an old and wise professor.
"There are three Pokémon here!"
"Haha!
"The Pokemon are held inside these Poké Balls.
"When I was young, I was a serious Pokemon Trainer.
"But now, in my old age, I have only these three left..."
He then spread his arms wide, gesturing toward the eggs in a manner both simple and theatrical, "You can have one. Go on, choose!"
"???" Visible question marks seemed to materialize above the heads of the four humans and three Pokémon as they all turned to Arthur, their expressions strange.
What three Pokémon? Aren't there four eggs here? And these are eggs, not Poké Balls! And what's with the 'When I was young' comment? You're still twelve!
"Bro, are you good?" Lena asked, her voice laced with concern as she stared at Arthur, feeling increasingly awkward. "Do you want me to smack your head and knock some sense into you?"