Wintergreen Forest lay just to the south of Wintergreen City.
Once you left the city and trekked for a while,
you could see countless towering wintergreen trees rising into the clouds.
The dense trees linked together into one continuous forest,
like a green carpet draped over the rolling mountains.
In this forest
lived many wild Pokémon.
There was even a rumor going around among the townsfolk
that deep within this forest
a Legendary Pokémon lay sleeping.
"Hurry up! Keep up!"
Isobe Himeko stepped over the pebbles between the streams,
calling back to Hirata Shiko, who was lagging a few meters behind.
Shiko drooped his head,
numbly nodded,
and reluctantly quickened his pace.
Last night
he hadn't slept well at all!
Himeko's sleeping posture was terrible!
At first, the two of them each occupied their own bit of space,
minding their own business, well water not disturbing river water.
But once Himeko actually fell asleep,
things went off the rails.
Not only did she cling to Shiko with both arms and legs like an octopus,
she even scooted her face very close to his.
Shiko ended up with a crystal-clear view of her adorable sleeping face.
After being tossed around like that,
his sleepiness vanished without a trace!
Who could possibly fall asleep in that situation?
The flame burning at the tip of his tail, which was half exposed outside the blanket,
pulsed with the beating of his heart,
flickering brighter and dimmer throughout the entire night.
It was just like someone had installed a breathing light in the room.
To be fair,
Shiko understood that, in Himeko's eyes,
he was just a highly intelligent, extremely promising Charmander.
Sleeping together with him
gave her the feeling of cuddling a cute pet to sleep.
But he himself knew very well
that even if his exterior was that of a Charmander,
his soul was that of a bona fide man!
Being hugged tightly in the arms of a youthful, beautiful girl like that—
what kind of mental strain was that supposed to be?
If this went on for a long time,
he honestly didn't know if he could handle it!
After silently sighing to himself,
Shiko closed his hand into a fist.
When he opened his palm again,
two bottle-cap-sized gems lay there.
One was a light brown, the other a deep pink.
The two gems shimmered with dazzling light.
Through their surfaces
he could clearly feel the intense fluctuation of elemental energy within them.
These two
were the rare, precious type-boosting gems.
On the market, each one of them was worth upwards of a million!
And they were the kind of thing you could have money and still not be able to buy!
The light brown one was a Fighting-type gem, while the deep pink one was a Psychic-type gem.
These two gems
were precisely the reward for this last special event quest.
Originally, he had only obtained a single Fighting-type gem.
But because the system only settled the quest this morning,
it just so happened to trigger the Lucky Day buff.
So it became a buy-one-get-one-free, double reward—
and he received an extra Psychic-type gem.
However, Shiko felt that even though it was Lucky Day, his luck didn't seem all that great.
Neither of these two gems
was something he could actually use.
Nothing to be done about it.
He could only hang on to them himself for now
and see if he'd get a chance to use them in the future.
After putting his things away,
he looked up
and realized that Himeko had already opened up quite a distance ahead of him.
Shiko hurriedly broke into a run to catch up.
"Let's stop here."
After trekking for more than ten minutes,
Himeko finally stopped and chose a flat spot on the outskirts of Wintergreen Forest
to set up camp.
She put down her backpack,
took out a Repel, and sprayed a circle around the campsite
to ward off wild Pokémon.
Then
Himeko started setting up the tent.
She was very handy with this sort of thing.
In no time at all the tent was standing,
looking quite decent.
By now it was about noon as well.
After finishing with the tent, Himeko busied herself with setting up a rack
to prepare lunch for today.
On the other side,
Shiko found a rock,
leaned back against it in an utterly relaxed manner,
and got ready to bask in the sunlight and take a little nap.
He planned to knock out his "sunbathing" and "nap at noon" daily tasks while he was at it.
With the Lucky Day buff active today,
how could he not grind his tasks like crazy, pile up a wave of experience,
and level up once or twice in comfort?
Shiko had just closed his eyes
when his lazy appearance
fell perfectly into Himeko's line of sight.
"Shiko, don't sleep, okay? Get up and train a bit?"
"The Fire-type energy in the Pokéblocks you ate yesterday is all piled up in your belly. If you don't train and compress it under control, it'll just turn into heat and body fat in the end!"
Himeko gently reminded him in a soft, warm voice.
"It's fine, I'm not afraid."
Shiko replied carelessly,
not even bothering to open his eyes.
He rolled over,
flicked his tail,
and continued to sleep.
His behavior
could be summed up with just two words, utterly accurately:
Totally perfunctory!!
Seeing Shiko's reaction,
Himeko's brows knit slightly.
What kind of Pokémon acted like this!
Himeko clearly remembered
that back at the Breeding Center, when they had laid down their three conditions,
it had been Shiko himself who had said, out loud,
that he wanted to grow stronger as quickly as possible!
And besides, what they were about to face
was the Entry-level Trainer Exam and a Pokémon Tournament.
If they didn't seize every minute of these two months
and pour it into training,
and instead wasted all of it on sleep, how could that be acceptable?
"Shiko, get up and train a bit, okay?"
"Let's find a few wild Pokémon and have some battles, get familiar with combat, all right?"
Himeko forced herself to be patient as she spoke.
"I'm training, I'm training, don't worry."
Shiko replied without opening his eyes, the words rolling right off his tongue.
He was telling the truth.
Basking in the sun and napping
really were completing system quests—another form of cultivation and getting stronger.
But in Himeko's eyes, this behavior
was nothing but laziness and idleness, with not a shred of ambition!
Himeko looked at Shiko,
and quietly clenched her fist.
She
was angry now!
(End of Chapter)
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[[email protected]/Zukooo]
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