Caterpie: Back to the Village to Buy Pokeballs!

After picking two more Wiki Berries from the tree, Mark and the Caterpie Leader returned to the previous campfire.

The Caterpie Leader quickly climbed into the hammock from before, wriggling its body to make it sway.

It was obvious that the Caterpie Leader really liked this hammock.

As for Mark, he broke open a Wiki Berry, stuffed most of the flesh into the mouth of the sleeping Caterpie, then ate a small piece himself.

All he could say was that it truly deserved to be called a vastly superior replacement for the Oran Berry.

Under the effects of the Oran Berry, Caterpie's injuries had already been slowly healing on their own. But after consuming the Wiki Berry, the speed of its recovery suddenly increased by far more than a single level.

In just over a minute, Caterpie's assorted injuries had completely healed, leaving almost no trace behind.

Not only that, even some of the scars on Caterpie's body gradually faded with time.

If there was any drawback at all, it was that it did not provide much experience—probably only around twice as much as an equal weight of Oran Berries—and it was extremely filling.

Even though he had only eaten a small piece, Mark felt completely satisfied, with no desire to eat anything else.

This also completely extinguished Mark's thoughts of overharvesting these Wiki Berries.

After all, Wiki Berries were far too scarce. There was no need to drain the pond dry for such a small amount of experience.

As the night grew deeper, the Caterpie Leader lying in the hammock soon fell asleep, while Mark watched the campfire and silently kept watch.

Three Ekans slithered over while the two Caterpie were asleep, but under Mark's gaze, they soon quietly fled.

The night passed without incident.

Near dawn, the Caterpie Leader woke up. Mark took a short nap, and afterward, Caterpie's next round of Combat Training began...

And so, one day, two days, three days...

Mark and Caterpie settled deep within the Caterpie Territory.

During the day, Mark led Caterpie in Combat Training with the Caterpie Group, honing its battle techniques and grinding experience.

At night, Mark taught Caterpie and the Caterpie Leader mathematics together.

During this time, Mark also made time to teach the Tackle Training Method to some of the more outstanding members of the Caterpie Group, improving the group's overall strength.

At the same time, Mark did not forget to regularly use the Tackle Training Method on the Wimpod Pokemon Egg, accelerating Wimpod's transformation into his Spirit.

Ten days passed before he realized it.

Late at night, deep within the Caterpie Territory, beside an identical campfire.

A Silver Thread hung before Mark, and beneath it, a Pokemon Egg with blue ripple-like patterns continuously spun.

After ten days, the Wimpod Pokemon Egg had become his Spirit.

Mark

Class: Spirit Master

Experience: 78%

Points: None

Spirits: Caterpie, Wimpod (Hatching Progress 88.73%)

Wimpod's detailed information still could not be viewed, but a hatching progress indicator had appeared.

Wimpod was now on the verge of hatching. It only needed another 11% before it would break out of its shell.

As for why Mark had hung the Pokemon Egg beside the fire with a thread, it was because doing so could speed up Wimpod's hatching progress.

Mark guessed that Wimpod preferred a slightly warmer environment while hatching.

"Hiss?"

At some point, Caterpie had crept over, its round eyes fixed on the spinning Wimpod Pokemon Egg.

Mark lightly tapped Caterpie on the head. "Didn't I just tell you? It'll still take another three or four days to hatch. Have you finished all the problems I gave you? Go study with the Caterpie Leader!"

"Hiss, hiss."

Caterpie cried out twice, as if telling Wimpod to hatch quickly. Then, somewhat reluctantly, it moved over to the Caterpie Leader and continued writing the Addition and Subtraction Exercises Mark had left for it.

After studying at night for the past ten days, Caterpie had not only learned to count backward, but had also learned addition and subtraction. Its progress was fairly good. It had already mastered addition and subtraction within ten and was now attempting problems within a hundred.

Compared to Caterpie, the Caterpie Leader perhaps lacked the same foundation. It had only just understood the concept of numbers and learned to count forward and backward. Still, its learning progress was quite good, and it should catch up to Caterpie after a while.

As for why Caterpie was so concerned about Wimpod's hatching.

On one hand, Caterpie really did want a companion who could fight alongside it and participate in the competitions on television. But the bigger reason was the Pokeball.

Yes, the Pokeball.

Ever since Mark and Caterpie agreed that they would return to Clear Stream Village to buy it a Pokeball once Wimpod hatched, Caterpie had been asking about Wimpod's hatching progress every so often.

After all, Caterpie had learned to count backward several days ago, and it could smoothly write numbers on the ground with a branch.

It could be said that Caterpie had already received the Village Chief's sponsorship.

Seeing Caterpie's absentminded expression, Mark let out a soft sigh.

In fact, Caterpie's distraction did not only show in its studies. During daytime Combat Training over the past few days, it had occasionally been absentminded as well, resulting in less-than-ideal training results and reduced experience gain efficiency.

Of course, that was not the only reason for the reduced experience gain efficiency.

Caterpie had accumulated more real combat experience and become much more at ease in battle.

As combat became easier, the experience gained naturally decreased as well.

There was also the matter of its aura.

After living in Caterpie Territory for so long, Caterpie's aura had unknowingly changed somewhat, causing ordinary Caterpie to sometimes fall into a confused state of, "Why am I attacking a companion?"

All these factors combined meant that although Mark had put in considerable effort, the rate at which he and Caterpie gained experience never improved. In the end, they could only grind out around 6% experience per day on average.

However, compared to the unsatisfactory accumulation of experience, the effects of Caterpie eating Oran Berries and Wiki Berries had already begun to show.

There had been no changes during the first two days, but after eating them on the third day, Caterpie broke through its body's bottleneck and began developing once more.

Over the past eight days, Caterpie had grown a little larger every day. Its growth rate reached its peak on the fourth day, then gradually began to slow.

Caterpie had now grown to around ninety-three centimeters. Mark estimated that if it ate two more Wiki Berries, its body size would reach a new limit—around one meter, perhaps slightly under it, somewhere between ninety-eight and ninety-nine centimeters.

And aside from its change in size, Caterpie's status panel had changed as well.

Caterpie

Five-Dimensional Potential:

Strength: F Constitution: F Agility: F+ Spirit: E Perception: E+

Ability: Shield Dust

Special Ability: Evolution

Skills: Tackle (Power-Up Tackle, Instant Strike, Adamant Penetrating Strike, Multi-Strike Combo), String Shot, Bug Bite

Its Constitution in Five-Dimensional Potential had originally been F-. On the third day after continuously eating Oran Berries and Wiki Berries, it had risen to F.

Mark guessed that the breakthrough in Constitution Potential was directly related to Caterpie's second stage of physical development.

In other words, if he wanted Caterpie to continue growing, he only needed to add Points to its Constitution Potential.

As he pondered, Mark took the Rabbit Meat roasting over the fire and bit off two mouthfuls.

Then Mark stood up.

"Let's go back to the village. We'll make preparations today, and tomorrow we'll go buy a Pokeball."

Mark suddenly spoke as he looked at Caterpie, several meters away, absentmindedly writing numbers with a branch.

In fact, according to Mark's original plan, they would not return to the village until Wimpod had hatched, they had accumulated enough Points to add them, and all those matters had been dealt with. Only then would they start buying a Pokeball.

But Caterpie wanted a Pokeball far too badly.

It was like a child at home wanting the new clothes that all the other children had.

If they could not afford new clothes, that would be one thing. But not only could he afford it, it was also very easy for him to do so.

Seeing Caterpie's pitiful expression, Mark truly could not bear it. In the end, he changed his mind and decided to return to the village early, settle Caterpie's Pokeball first, and worry about everything else afterward.

"Hiss?"

"Hisstt!!"

Caterpie was initially unable to believe it. Then it bounced in place and did two consecutive somersaults before quickly crawling onto Mark's shoulder, repeatedly rubbing its head against Mark's cheek and neck.

Now that it had grown so large, Caterpie climbing onto Mark's shoulder was no longer very suitable, but it still stubbornly climbed up.

Mark said with a look of disgust, "I've told you so many times, don't try that Baby-Doll Eyes routine on me. And why is a big bug like you always acting cute? If you keep this up, I might change my mind and wait a few more days before going back!"

Instead of stopping at Mark's disgust, Caterpie became even more affectionate, constantly rubbing against Mark's cheek.

Several meters away, the Caterpie Leader set down the branch it had been gripping in its Feet. It stared unblinkingly at the human and bug fooling around together, its eyes revealing a hint of curiosity—and a hint of envy...

There would be two more chapters at 5:30 this afternoon.