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Ding!
A sharp chime suddenly rang out in Kael's mind.
Startled, he blinked and noticed a faint red dot had appeared on the translucent system icon in the lower right corner of his vision.
It reminded him of app notifications from his old smartphone, and he guessed it meant the system had been updated.
"Ohhh?! Don't tell me… my golden finger is finally activating?!"
Heart pounding with anticipation, Kael focused his attention on the icon to open it.
> XP +1
The message appeared in the system's log window.
Kael's expression twitched.
(Can a Caterpie even make an expression like that…?)
"Seriously? That's it?"
He sighed, deflated.
"Well, I guess it's not too bad. At least eating gives me experience points."
"If it worked like the games, and I had to battle to gain XP… with my current stats, I'd probably need to scavenge leftovers just to survive."
Cheered by that small realization, Kael buried his head back into the leaves and munched away happily.
After stuffing himself full, he carefully crawled back into the safety of his tree hollow.
With his belly full and some XP gained, it was time to plan for the future.
[Species: Caterpie
Level: 1 (6/100 XP)
Moves: Tackle, String Shot
Evaluation: "A newborn Caterpie scraping the bottom of Viridian Forest's food chain. No, you're still not Rayquaza. (lol)"]
Kael stared at his stats, deep in thought.
Caterpie has two evolutions, right?
It should go: Caterpie → Metapod → Butterfree.
Determined, Kael nodded firmly inside his leafy shelter.
"Alright. Once I evolve into Butterfree and have at least some way to protect myself, I'll start exploring the area."
Even then, he knew that even Butterfree wasn't exactly high on the power tier of the Pokémon world.
But Kael wasn't just any Caterpie he was a transmigrator. And even though his current form was laughable, his ambitions were anything but small.
If he wanted to grow stronger and truly explore the world's hidden wonders, he'd have to be proactive.
The Pokémon world was full of mysteries and powerful forces.
Just from what he remembered, there were things like:
Totem auras
Life energy
Aura powers
And more…
Of course, he was still a long way from any of that.
For now, his goal was simple: survive and grow.
Once he evolved fully, he could make bigger moves.
Leveling up in the wild was hard very hard. Progressing quickly, especially beyond natural limits, was nearly impossible without help.
Unless… you had a good trainer.
With a competent or wealthy trainer, you could gain access to special training methods, rare evolutionary items, and rich resources that could fast-track your growth.
Kael's eyes lit up at the thought.
"But wait…"
"What trainer would ever want a plain old Caterpie? Maybe ash"
"Even if I got caught, I'd probably just rot in a Poké Ball for the rest of my life."
That sent a shiver down his long, green spine.
"No thanks. Better stick to the solo grind for now."
Even though Kael planned to play it safe, that didn't mean he was just going to sit around doing nothing.
He decided: outside of eating and sleeping, all his time would go into training building up his body, mastering his moves.
If danger came knocking, he didn't want to just lie there and die.
Kael didn't know any advanced training techniques, but he knew the basics: hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.
Repetition builds mastery.
So, he trained relentlessly using his moves again and again, pushing his tiny body to its limits.
---
Three Days Later
THUD!
…
THUD!
In the high branches of a tall tree, dull thuds echoed through the forest as something slammed against the trunk again and again.
There, perched on a sturdy branch, was a green Caterpie with a red Y-shaped antenna. A soft white aura surrounded him, pulsing gently.
Suddenly, the aura gathered at his antenna, intensifying into a blinding white as ripples of energy spread out.
Kael threw himself forward with all his strength.
BANG!
He smashed into the tree, chipping away a chunk of bark and exposing pale wood underneath.
Kael groaned, but nodded with satisfaction.
"Nice. My method is working!"
"Okay, enough tackling for now… time to switch to String Shot."
He crawled over to the branch's edge, raised his upper body, and inhaled deeply—
"PFFT!"
Thick white threads shot from his mouth, wrapping the nearby trunk until it turned ghostly white.
"Heh. Not bad it's becoming thick"
Grinning, Kael opened his system again.
[Species: Caterpie
Level: 2 (12/100 XP)
Moves: Tackle, String Shot
Evaluation: "Still a low-tier Caterpie, still not Rayquaza. We good?"]
He'd only gained a single level, but his strength was nothing like before.
His body was tougher, his moves were sharper, and to his surprise, he had even gained XP through training, not just eating.
That had been a game-changer for him.
He'd even thrown in a couple of extra Tackles just for good measure, feeling a little closer to that all-important first evolution.
---
It was now time for the most important part of his day: feeding.
Though he liked to call it "foraging," Kael had pretty much been eating the same cluster of leaves near his tree hollow every day.
Sure, he was stronger now but not so strong that he was ready to explore farther from home and risk his life for better food.
So, he stuck to what he knew: crawl, munch, survive.
The only real difference was how much faster he could move now. His body was adapting, and his days of slow, clumsy crawling were behind him.
"Nom nom nom…"
He dove into the leaves.
Suddenly his red antenna twitched.
An urgent pulse shot through his nerves.
Danger.
Kael looked up and nearly screamed.
A dark shape streaked through the air overhead, diving straight toward him at terrifying speed.
"Too fast!"
He didn't even have time to see what it was.
On instinct, he unleashed the one move he'd practiced more than anything else:
"STRING SHOT!"
"PFFT—"
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Thank you so much for reading!