The next day, Eric reflected on his conversation with Eddie. He realised that till now he had been living life with a tunnel vision, focussed only on his goal of getting stronger and ignoring everything and everyone else.
In fact, if you asked him about the people he has interacted with in Redwood, he wouldn't even be able to tell you what they looked like.
All their faces were a blur to Eric. Except for that scrawny guy in the black market. But that was only because Eric was on high alert back then.
'This can't go on.' Eric decided.
Now that he had some level of strength, he decided to focus a little of his time in other things. There was no point to a second life if he still lived like he did before.
Till now, all people he had met were scums. But that didn't mean all humans were like that. He wasn't.
Eric decided that he'll stop forming an opinion about humans for now. He will first meet all sorts of people without any bias, and then decide how he feels about them. He won't reject them from the get go like he's been doing till now.
He'll try to be neutral, try being the operative word.
Making up his mind, Eric visited the Pokemon Center to get his pokemon checked.
"Welcome Trainer, hope you're having a good day!" Nurse Joy spoke to Eric in a sweet voice as he came up to her.
"It's going well, thanks." Eric replied stiffly.
Nurse Joy's eyebrows raised slightly and she smiled lightly.
"You must be in a good mood today, trainer. This is the first time you've replied to my greeting"
"Uh...I just didn't pay attention before."
He scratched his hair and replied awkwardly.
"Fufu, so I've noticed." She replied, as she took Gastly and Spearow's Pokéballs and placed them in a machine.
"Your Pokemon are in great health. I see you've maintained giving them Pokeblocks regularly." She said as she checked their data, before handing the 2 back to Eric.
"I would like to also inform you that in order to celebrate the opening of the Redwood Pokémon gym, Redwood is holding a tournament, sponsored by the League. Any beginner training can register for it. It starts next week. Would you like to register?"
"A Pokemon tournament?"
"Correct. There are prizes for the top 16 contestants as well."
Eric thought about it for a moment, before deciding to register for it! This would be a good experience for him as he could see how he compares with other trainers.
"Alright, I'll register you for it. Please pass me your Trainer ID. Oh, and before I forget. The application time for this year's Pokemon League tournament is about to end. Are you going to register for it?"
"The Pokemon league!" Eric exclaimed. He had totally forgotten about that.
"I take that as a yes? I'll register you for that as well"
"Yes please, thanks."
"Fufu. All done. Take care, trainer. It was nice to have a conversation with you"
"Yes, thank you." Eric bade farewell awkwardly and left.
So awkward.
----
3 days later.
"Gastly, finish it with Ghost Ball!"
Gastly fired a powerful ball of condensed ghost type energy, instantly knocking out the Butterfree he was battling.
"Good job!"
"Keke"
Gastly laughed wickedly, as he floated in front of Eric. The Butterfree he had just now defeated was at Level 26!
Eric had made a lot of progress in the past 3 days. Eric wanted to win the tournament, so he gave it his all to maximize the progress of his pokemon.
On the first day, Eric went to terriroties occupied by different Pokemon species.
He wanted to capture and sell Pokemon with decent potential. The best way to find them was in these territories.
High risk, high reward.
He didn't brazenly attacked them like he did with the Beedrill, however. He now knew he was very lucky to escape with his life back then.
Instead, he sneaked around with Gastly, trying to quietly scan all pokemon and capture those with atleast Yellow Potential.
This method was a lot more efficient, as Eric managed to catch a total of 19 Pokemon from the Beedrill and Raticate territories. One of them was even a Light Green Potential Raticate!
That Raticate alone was sold for 500,000 pokedollars.
In all Eric had earned around 1.65 million pokedollars in just one day.
Robert was a lot more surprised this time.
'Looks like I made the right investment.'
Capturing so many pokemon of good potential in a day was not something everyone could do.
(One way was to obviously catch high level Pokemon, as these generally had C Grade potential, minimum. But Eric couldn't do that, obviously.)
Eric now had a lot of spending power.
He immediately upgraded Gastly's pokeblock s to the Advanced level, and Spearow's to the intermediate level.
Then he bought the TM Hex and Will-O-Wisp for Gastly, and a Tier 1 Ghost Crystal.
With that he had spent almost all the money he made.
Eric attracted some attention after spending so much, but was easily able to shake them off with the help of Gastly.
He then gave the Ghost crystal to Gastly, who absorbed it within a few hours. Gastly went through a qualitative change after finishing the crystal. His body grew darker, and the purple Haze around him started to look like purple flames.
It was equivelant to a week's worth of training for Gastly. The density of his Ghost type energy increases significantly.
In these 3 days, Gastly levelled up 3 times, reaching Lvl 18.
Spearow lagged behind him a little, but still reached lvl 15.
Eric also spent some time trying to socialise a little in these 3 days. He talked to Amanda, the owner of the berry shop and learned that she was actually an intermediate level trainer, and a breeder!
With those qualifications she had no need to run a berry shop and could earn a lot more as a breeder. Upon asking why she did it, she told him that the shop was opened by her Grandparents. She had many fond memories here and couldn't bear to see it closed.
So there are people like that too.
Eric's social skills improved somewhat in these 3 days. People at least weren't scared from his mere presence anymore.
Now there were only 4 days left till the tournament starts. With enough funds, Eric continued his training with a productivity level much higher than before!
---
Pokémon: Gastly
Gender: Male
Level: 18
Type: Ghost/Poison
Ability: Levitate
Held Item: None
Potential: Deep Blue
Moves: Lick(B+), Hypnosis(B++), Confuse Ray(B++), Astonish(B+), Disable(B+++), Clear smog(B+++), Toxic(B++), Ghost Ball(B+++), Hex(B+), Protect(B), Will-O-Wisp(B)