Old Man Qian's Concern

In a courtyard slightly east of the center of Clear Stream Village.

Old Man Qian watched the sky grow darker and darker, peeled a Sweet Citrus, and put it into his mouth.

It was midsummer, and the days were growing longer. By the time the sky darkened, it was already very late.

Old Man Qian looked toward the small gate of the courtyard, worry showing in his eyes.

"Mark left around noon. Even if he didn't catch a Caterpie, he should have been back by now. Could he have run into danger... Could he have encountered the Thunderclap Gang?"

As an illegal organization that had risen to prominence in recent years, the Thunderclap Gang needed a large number of low-level members.

Young men like Mark, who had only recently awakened, knew little of the world, and were young and strong, were very likely to be kidnapped by the Thunderclap Gang and forced into becoming expendable cannon fodder.

The more Old Man Qian thought about it, the more uneasy he became.

But he soon remembered something.

The one who had not returned was Mark.

Before awakening, Mark had always been a bit dim-witted, but he had been a tough kid who could stubbornly survive in garbage heaps at the age of two or three.

Ever since childhood, he had wandered around Clear Stream Village and Clear Stream Forest, often vanishing for days at a time, sometimes even dozens of days without a trace.

Whenever the villagers thought the boy might have died somewhere, Mark would unexpectedly pop out from who knew where.

"Forget it. Rather than worrying that something happened to Mark, I should worry about the Chaotic Pokemon Tide breaking out in the north again. Besides, even if the Chaotic Pokemon Tide does break out, this kid might not necessarily get hurt..."

Old Man Qian set aside the food he had saved for Mark, then returned to his bedroom to listen to a Hia Kingdom broadcast. Before long, he lay down and fell asleep...

Deep within Clear Stream Forest, just as Old Man Qian slept soundly, Mark and Caterpie's battle was also drawing to a close.

Although Caterpie's Tackle (Power-Up Tackle) technique was very powerful, and could even easily send the Caterpie Leader's Guard flying and briefly rob them of their fighting ability.

The problem of being surrounded had never been resolved.

On one hand, there were simply too many Caterpie in the Caterpie Group. Led by the Caterpie Leader, they possessed high morale. Even knowing they would be injured, they still charged forward without hesitation.

On the other hand, Mark's Caterpie had not gone for the kill. Pokemon were different from ordinary animals and possessed great recovery abilities. The Caterpie that had been injured or knocked unconscious would soon rejoin the battle.

As a result, Caterpie remained under siege for a long time.

Being surrounded for so long made injuries unavoidable. As time passed and the injuries accumulated, defeat became inevitable.

However, this pressure-filled battle was exactly what Mark and Caterpie wanted.

If a few cannonball-like Tackles (Power-Up Tackles) were enough to scatter the Caterpie Group, then this Combat Training would have been meaningless.

In fact, across all three battles, Mark and Caterpie had never truly fought the Caterpie Leader. They had not even managed to get close to it.

Yes, from afternoon until nightfall, Mark and Caterpie fought a total of three battles.

After fighting for a while each time, Mark and Caterpie would withdraw from the battlefield to rest.

Once they felt that their stamina and injuries had recovered somewhat, Mark would lead Caterpie back into battle, continuing to use the Caterpie Group here to hone their combat skills and speed up the accumulation of the Experience Bar.

And aside from accumulating Experience Bar progress, Mark also discovered a major flaw in allocating Points through the Trainer Panel.

During those three and a half years in the Dream World, Caterpie had only ever practiced against stationary targets. As a result, all sorts of problems would arise when it faced real combat.

Therefore, even if it were not for accumulating Experience Bar progress, this kind of Combat Training was indispensable.

"That's about enough, Caterpie. Let's call it a day!"

As the night deepened, Mark shouted as he rapidly rushed from the less intense edge of the battlefield toward its center.

Through the strange connection between Spirit Master and Spirit, Mark accurately found the panting Caterpie, scooped it into his arms, and then swiftly ran away with mobility far beyond Caterpie's.

Compared to humans—especially strong-bodied humans like him—Caterpie was clearly much slower.

Just like that, more than ten minutes later, Mark and Caterpie had completely shaken off their pursuers and sat down in a relatively dry clearing.

"Caterpie... Caterpie?"

Caterpie looked worriedly at the wounds on Mark's arm and hind leg, asking repeatedly.

Mark casually cleared away the silk threads clinging to his body and ignored his minor injuries. Instead, he carefully checked Caterpie's wounds. Once he saw that Caterpie was fine as well, he finally relaxed.

Mark smiled and stroked Caterpie's head. "Those Caterpie are slow and not much of a threat, so don't worry about me. Do you remember what happened in Spearow territory? That was real danger."

Fighting the Caterpie Group reminded Mark of a time when he had been hunted by a Spearow Flock.

Besides that, it seemed he had been attacked by a Beedrill Group before, and more than once.

To him, compared to the slow-moving Caterpie and the Beedrill that stopped pursuing once he left their territory, the vengeful Spearow Flock was clearly a far greater threat.

Hearing Mark's words, Caterpie also remembered that near-death experience. It nodded lightly, then sighed.

"Caterpie, Caterpie."

After three battles, Caterpie still had not managed to fight the Caterpie Leader. It felt deeply regretful and somewhat dejected.

Mark comforted it. "We still have too little real combat experience. Even though you've mastered Power-Up Tackle, that's your only move, so your options are too limited. But we'll grow. In the third battle, although your stamina had dropped a lot, I felt you did much better than you did in the first battle.

"Don't be discouraged. As long as we keep improving, that's enough.

"And today, we gained a lot of experience!"

As he spoke, Mark opened the system panel again. His experience had risen from 85% in the morning to 89%—or, to be exact, 89.5%.

The three battles had only taken six or seven hours altogether, but they had earned enough experience for Mark and Caterpie to grind for an entire day using normal methods.

At this pace, he would accumulate one Point in another two days.

"As expected, real combat gives the most experience. It's just that our bodies aren't machines, so we can't stay in real combat forever..."

As he spoke, Mark stood up from the ground.

"Neither of us is in very good condition right now. Spending the night out here would be dangerous, and since we have to stay alert to our surroundings, it'll be hard to truly relax and rest. Let's find some food first, then head back to the village for the night."

"Caterpie."

Caterpie nodded, straightened its tired body, and the red antenna on its forehead slowly turned. Suddenly, it caught the scent of fruit...

The night was deep. Without Caterpie constantly ramming things in the courtyard, Old Man Qian's home was much quieter.

Yet despite the quiet, Old Man Qian still did not sleep well.

What one thought about during the day appeared in one's dreams at night.

Perhaps because he had worried about Mark and Caterpie during the day, Old Man Qian once again dreamed of Caterpie headbutting the rice jar. He opened his eyes irritably.

The surroundings were utterly silent. Nothing had happened.

By the moonlight, Old Man Qian looked at the clock and sat up with a yawn.

"That kid Mark, don't tell me he still isn't back?"

Old Man Qian pushed open his door, only to trip over something. He looked down and saw a large basket filled with Purple Sweet Peaches.

Soft snoring came from the inner room.

Old Man Qian saw that the food on the table had been completely devoured, and Mark had washed the dishes spotlessly clean.

"That kid really can eat..."

Soon, after pushing open the door, Old Man Qian saw Mark and Caterpie, their clothes tattered and their bodies covered in wounds.

Man and Pokemon lay on the bed, sleeping in each other's embrace. Mark wore Wimpod's backpack backward across his chest, and had not taken it off even in sleep.

"He only went to catch a Caterpie... How did he end up like this? It looks like he was attacked by a Beedrill Group. The net I gave him also seems to be missing..."

Old Man Qian searched around the room but did not see the net. He then searched the courtyard for a while, but still found nothing.

The result was obvious: Mark had lost the Bug-Catching Net that Old Man Qian had used since childhood.

Old Man Qian looked as though he wanted to say something but stopped himself. In the end, he let out a long sigh and returned to bed. Before long, however, he came back and placed two bottles of medicine on Mark's table.

They were none other than Potions, the universal medicine used to treat Pokemon injuries...