With Elekid beside him, SIlas began to explore the area. There were a multitude of stands. Some people were selling pokemon in cages or pokemon eggs in incubators. There were also unique materials and items being sold. One could find almost anything in this underground market.
Silas and Elekid strode up to the pokemon egg stall. "Hey kid, wanna try your luck? 50k pokedollars for an egg of your choice, incubator included." A tall and skinny old man approached Silas. He was the type of man that you instinctively didn't trust.
Silas had 140k pokedollars remaining. There was no telling what kind of pokemon would hatch or what quality. This would be a high stakes game of roulette. Silas stood there in deep thought. The stallowner patiently waited as he was used to having to convince customers. The less he said, the better.
"The system was made for this!!" Silas suddenly realized he had a unique advantage. At this moment a strange feeling of foreboding washed over the shop owner. He had no idea that Silas was about to cheat the system!
Silas activated his system, scanning the dozen eggs on display. The system was truly perfect in this situation. Silas struggled to hide his smile as he heard the voice in his head.
8 of the eggs were Rattata and Spearow with low to average talent with the highest reaching D+. The remaining eggs contained a D- talent Weedle, a C Tyrogue, & a C- Growlithe.
"A Growlithe, what luck!" These fire dog pokemon were almost completely monopolized by the Jenny police family.There aren't many left in the wild since the family does everything in their power to monopolize Growlithe and Arcanine.
So this egg once hatched could yield a significant sum of money, especially considering the potential. Growlithe was also a baby pokemon which had its own advantages. A pokemon raised its entire life by a trainer has a better chance of becoming powerful and the bond is always stronger. It can be difficult to tame a grown wild or previously owned pokemon.
Silas immediately paid the man and chose the Growlithe egg. He made sure to pretend to have a hard time picking the right egg to not arouse any suspicion. The man was watching him like a hawk but noticed nothing out of the ordinary.
He was now down to 90k pokedollars. He approached another stall that held books and training manuals. You could squander your pokemon's potential if you forged on blindly. For instance if one were to have a Machamp specialize in ranged combat.
There was a book that caught Silas' eye, it was a beginners guide to being a breeder. The book was for 60k but SIlas bought it anyway. If he could master breeding skills, it would allow him to become a more powerful trainer.
What set breeders apart from regular trainers was pokemon maintenance. Breeders understood techniques on how to help their pokemon recover their strength and recover from injury. The real advantage was pokeblocks. This pokemon food was made from berries and natural treasures. Over time they could enhance the power and potential of pokemon. They were divided from low to high grades.
Silas knew becoming a breeder was a necessity from looking through the official stores earlier in the day. A pack of 50 low grade pokeblocks would cost someone 25k while the ingredients to make those same pokeblocks would cost at most 10k. As the grade went up, the cost disparity remained so it was simply fiscally responsible to learn breeder skills.
He walked around the underground a little more and came to the main attraction; the auction. On the stage, there was a short chubby man wearing a red suit.
"Ladies and gentlemen this round of auctioning begins now! We will start with a Skarmory with solid talent and at level 20."
The man ushered to the larger man behind him who handed him a great ball. He summoned the pokemon to be viewed. A metal bird with sword-like wings appeared in the air.
The man let the crowd size up the pokemon for sale.
"Bidding will start at 50k and bids can be increased by a minimum of 10k."
Silas laughed to himself, he realized he wasn't even qualified to participate. He needed more funds.
The bidding got all the way up to 250k pokedollars.
"The hunters guild makes too much from these auctions. I hear they take 10% of the sale price as a service fee." Some men were talking amongst themselves and one was excitedly talking loudly.
"Still who else can guarantee a safe auction but the hunters guild." Another man jumped in and said."
Silas was just a beginner trainer, he knew nothing of the inner workings of the pokemon world. These gossipers were a treasure trove of information for someone like him. So he stealthily positioned himself nearby without drawing attention to himself.
Silas learned that the hunters guild was a powerful underworld power comparable to Team Rocket but not nearly as strong. They specialized in selling captured wild pokemon. Directly selling pokemon was deemed as amoral by the law so this was technically a crime.
However, like most serious crimes, law enforcement paid little attention to the most serious perpetrators. The Hunters Guild was too powerful for the Indigo League to try and get rid of them. There was a branch in almost every region so destroying 1 branch would invite the wrath of several others. This was one way the Hunters Guild guaranteed their survival in every region, mutually assured destruction to anyone who dared attack.
One of the men actually decided to join the guild. It was easy to join the Hunters Guild but extremely difficult to rise in rank. The man went over to the guild building behind the stage. Silas noted that this was one of the few buildings in the entire underground.
He followed the man inside the Hunters Guild building. There was a beautiful woman at the desk talking to a trainer. There was a line of 5 people counting Silas and the man he followed.
The line went at a reasonable pace.
"Next!"
Silas came up to the counter and inquired about joining the guild.
"Are you sure a kid like you wants to join us?" She looked at Silas and although he was fairly muscular, he still felt like a child to her.
"Miss this is my decision. Please handle my request." Silas hated being underestimated.
The woman shook her head at Silas' coldness.
"That's no way to talk to big sister Julie! I will give you a pass this time but next time you come back, remember to be a good boy." Julie had a strange personality.
She was clearly at most 5 years older than him but she dared to look down on Silas as a child. Silas bore the indignity throughout the registration process which was relatively quick.
"What's your hunter alias?"
"You can call me Odin." Silas always loved the norse & greek myths.
Julie rolled her eyes but filled out the information as stated. She handed him a card.
Codename: Odin
Rank: F
"Your rank is determined by the amount of pokemon caught and the quality. This will get you points. 200 points will get you to D rank then 2000 will get you to C rank. 10k is B rank, 30k is A rank, and 100k gets you to S rank. Missions have their own award set by the client issuing it. "
"Thank you sister Julie!" Silas' words were dripping with sarcasm and Julie could only smile and laugh at his audacity.
She then handed him a storage pouch. It could hold up to 1 cubic meter which was sizable considering it was a small pouch. Technology has come a long way in terms of object teleportation and size control.
Silas thanked her and then walked out of the building. He decided to leave the underground as well and return to the pokemon center. It was only a few hundred per night including dinner for official trainers so it was well worth the price.
That night, Silas was excited for tomorrow to arrive. He wanted to go into Viridian Forest to hunt some bug pokemon. There were also Pichu and Eevees if one was lucky. This would also serve as great training for Monferno and Elekid.
Silas scanned them both.
Monferno — Level 20
Ability: Flame Aura
Potential: B+
Moves: Rank B Scratch, Rank C Aura Sphere, Rank C Flame Wheel, Rank C Taunt, Rank C Shadow Claw, Rank C Vacuum Wave, Rank D Mach Punch
Elekid — Level 19
Ability: Static
Potential: B
Moves: Rank C Brick Break, Rank C Thunder Shock, Rank C Light Screen, Rank D Cross Chop
Their growth was satisfactory, Elekid even increased the proficiency of Light Screen. It was almost time for Elekid to evolve. This pokemon evolved when the relationship between trainer and pokemon is strong enough and the pokemon level is sufficient. Silas felt that him and Elekid were close enough so the issue had to be the level.
Now he was filled with anticipation for the next day but forced himself to calm down so he could go to bed.