"This place is pretty big."
Hidden in the shadows behind the cold-storage room, Mu Yun surveyed an aquaculture area divided into square pools.
Its layout was much like the freshwater fish farms outside.
The difference was that there were fewer pools, each one larger. Instead of freshwater fish, they held Basculin that floated almost motionless in the water, listless from head to tail.
[Pokémon: Basculin] [Level: 9 (Normal Level)] [Potential: Normal Level)] ... ... [Pokémon: Basculin] [Level: 11 (Normal Level)] [Potential: Veteran Level)] ...
Mu Yun looked through his mask at the Basculin in the pools.
Their potential was much like Magikarp's. Most were Normal Level or Veteran Level, with an occasional one or two reaching Professional Level potential.
By rights, Basculin shouldn't have had such poor potential.
After all, the higher a Pokémon's Base Stats, the higher its species' average potential tended to be.
Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon, for example, almost always had at least Elite Four Level potential. The Starter Trio were generally Professional Level or above, with Elite Level and Totem Level both common.
Basculin might not compare to the Starter Trio, but after evolving, they were powerful Pokémon with Base Stats as high as 530.
Did they get rid of all the high-potential ones...?
Mu Yun had a theory.
Basculin were raised for meat, so their levels didn't matter. Keeping high-level ones around would only cause trouble.
Generation after generation, the high-level Basculin had been removed. Naturally, those left behind lacked potential.
Looks like the Red-Striped Basculin's birth wasn't so simple.
For a Red-Striped Basculin with Totem Level potential to be born among a group whose potential topped out at Professional Level, it clearly couldn't have been a simple beneficial mutation.
"Bas!"
"Blue, I'm back!"
The Red-Striped Basculin leaped from pool to pool in excitement