Outside Alcazarzaray

Luciel

Sitting next to Garbanag in one of the hastily set up chairs and tables of the July 4th party, Luciel watches Fuse drunkenly sing the national anthem.

After lighting the fireworks, Fuse immediately went to start drinking. Though, he had this weird thing where he absolutely refused to show his face no matter what. So he would briefly lift down his mask to drink, then immediately pull it back up when he was done.

Predictably, drunken Fuse was not very good at singing, and with an anthem like the Star Spangled Banner, this was an embarrassment to his country.

Though, Luciel knew that Fuse would retort with a line about freedom or whatever.

As the two defeated gamers watched Fuse make a fool out of himself, Luciel asked her companion, "So, Garbanag, what do you plan on doing after this?"

"I can't get fucking drunk," Garbanag whined instead of answering her question, "Gamer's body doesn't let me… Doesn't he have it too?"

Well, this was a waste of a conversation.

Still, it wasn't as though Luciel had much better to do, so she answered, "Even if Fuse had it… Do you really think that Fuse, a man who believes himself to be the pinnacle of freedom, would bother following any rules set by the universe itself?"

"That went unnecessarily hard."

"Thank you."

As Garbanag tossed his trash into his inventory, he actually bothered to answer her question, "I don't really know what I'll do after this. Maybe I'll just hang my dreams of godhood and accept that I just didn't have what it takes."

Well, that was a very pessimistic answer. It seems as though all of the confidence within Garbanag disappeared.

Though, he could've always been like that. Luciel didn't know him beforehand.

Lazily stretching her back and adopting the worst sitting posture known to humankind in her chair, Luciel chuckled, "Well, that's sad. But I'm mostly in the same boat of having no ambitions. The first thing that happened to me when I got put here was that I was immediately hit with a massive headache that told me to kill Fuse. This might as well be my first day as a free woman."

Garbanag was silently judging her for her sitting posture, but he was polite enough to say, "Damn, that sucks."

Luciel shrugged it off, "It is what it is, right? But either way, I think I'll stay here for a while longer. Live vicariously through Fuse. Maybe watching him do his own thing will let me figure out what I want to do with this second chance in life."

Garbanag did not share such a view, "If anything, I'll be waiting in the shadows for the right time to strike."

Luciel pointed her eyes back in the direction of Fuse.

Fuse was now drunkenly dancing with a similarly drunk Romeo, ranting how much he hates Donald Trump.

"Oh, man, I fucking HATE that Fucking Trump-" Fuse hiccupped before continuing, "Piece of shit… Turd… God I hate Republicans! I would not- Blegh, I might throw up…"

Luciel had no clue what issues Fuse had with the 45th President of the United States. Wasn't that the president who cured cancer or something?

Still, Luciel pointed out the obvious, "The best time to strike would be right now."

Even with very little understanding of LitRPG mechanics or whatever laws govern the gamer system that the three of them had, Luciel still understood that growth was exponential in this market.

Garbanag sighed Britishly, which Luciel was genuinely surprised to hear him somehow sigh Britishly, "Well, with that 75% limit to my abilities, I'm doomed if I go up against him now."

"He took 25% of your total invisible health that doesn't really matter at all," Luciel pointed out.

Garbanag continued as though nothing was wrong, "I would rather convince Fuse to let me continue my journey and gather up the strength to beat him in a fair fight."

Luciel raised an eyebrow. Were all British men like this? First Garbanag didn't want anything to do with Fuse. Then he suggested that he would beat Fuse. But now he just wants an equal fight with Fuse after politely asking him to let him go.

Yeah, she made the right choice in moving to America rather than the United Kingdom.

Rolling her eyes, Luciel decided that she had enough, "I'm going to steal a bed and go to sleep."

"Didn't we wake up just a few hours ago?" Garbanag asked, drinking more.

Luciel reaffirmed her statement, "I'm going to sleep."

With that, Garbanag shrugged, "You do you."

The party continued until Fuse literally passed out.

Fuse

Yeah, that was great, but I'm never drinking again.

I found myself on the floor, so the next natural step was to get up. Then my eyes found Luciel who was casually looking at the nearby terrain.

"Hey," I called out, grabbing Luciel's attention, "What time is it?"

Luciel didn't look at me as she replied, "I have no idea. Morning, at least. Sun came up 2 hours ago."

Well, that'll have to do for now, then.

More importantly, I asked her, "So, what are your plans?"

Luciel turned around and had the audacity to walk past me before she answered, "Stay here for a while. Garbanag is doing the same."

Well, if Luciel is here, then it's probably fine that Garbanag is staying too. I guess I don't need to kill them again in the end after all.

Still, I should probably say this to make sure, "Don't be mean to Dori, alright? I'm gonna go apeshit if either of you touch a hair on her head."

Luciel stopped to turn around and question, 'What? Is she your girlfriend?"

"A fellow American," I stated.

She seemed to get it as she lightly scoffed, "Ah, right. Well, I'll tell her that you'll be gone for a while."

"Oh, really? Thanks," I felt pretty happy about that because now, I can just jump straight into the journey without having to go through the pleasantries of telling them what the fuck I was on last night.

Well, alcohol. But that's beside the point.

Creating a portal to the Pokemon world, I immediately leapt through, leaving Luciel's world behind.

As I was falling, I did feel kind of bad for Luciel to have her own world be used by me as my own. Maybe I should give her something in return.

I didn't have much time to give it more thoughts as I made my landing back into the wild area.

I was planning on making it to Stow-on-Side so I can beat the crap out of the gym leader there to see if my pure Pokemon battling skills have improved or not.

Then, because social media is a thing, I know that Lily is heading her way to the Ballonlea gym. So I have a high chance of intercepting her for a test battle.

Yeah, I think my plan is pretty good right now.

Pulling Washington's Pokeball out, I tossed out Braviary from his slumber.

Hm, I should've let them out during the party. I'm an asshole for forgetting them, but that's the downside of having an immaterial inventory, I suppose.

I'll just make sure to have them out for the next party.

Wordlessly standing on top of Washington, he immediately knew where I wanted to go, and we quickly flew up into the sky.

While Galar was big, it wasn't that big. I can see the edges of where Stow-on-Side is.

While we were flying through the air, I was taking a look at Hammerlocke.

It was a fairly magnificent city that was made out of stone. Dark stone. Whatever it is. And if I recall the games correctly, there's a legendary Pokemon hiding under that castle. Maybe I could take it if the opportunity ever rises.

Still, I'm not really a fan of Eternatus. Or the two wolves. Or like, any of the legendaries in this region aside from the Kanto birds.

Oh, and Regieleki.

So, if I want to keep up my pace of getting 12 Pokemon to fight Lily with, then I'd best get some more Pokemon in Stow-on-Side.

Though, I'll figure that out when I get there.

After waiting for a while, Washington makes it to Stow-on-Side. Almost immediately, I returned Washington back to his Pokeball and hit the ground just to ensure that I wasn't spotted.

So, I made it to Stow-on-Side. And the biggest thing in this city was most definitely the gym. It was, like, 10 times the size of anything else in the city.

It was closed right now, though, so I doubt I could find the gym leader there. So I'm just going to have to find something else to do in the meantime…

Which is when, conveniently, I heard something very shady in the alleyway I ended up in.

"Hey. Those foreign goods made it here?"

"Yeah. Do you have the… Extra strong dosage?"

"...What the hell? Can't you come up with better code words?!"

"Hey! Shush! I'm not good at naming things, okay?! I have your Pokemon, you have mine. Let's shake hands and get going!"

Oh? Two Pokemon being traded seemingly illegally? Don't mind if I take those off your hands.

Cutting through the various alleyways towards the conversation, I find two regular looking guys walking together somewhere.

It was easy to see that the deal hadn't been made yet, so I guessed that they were going to split up to go actually get the Pokemon.

And knowing how this plotline usually goes, I decide to just walk up to the two and introduce myself, "Hello, fellow foreign criminal and fellow criminal!"

The two panickedly turned around, and they must've noticed my get-up because they froze.

The guy on the left, who looked more foreign than the other dude by some undeterminable metric, hesitantly asked, "Are you… Fuse?"

The other guy scaredly asked me, "What do you want from us?!"

"You guys smuggling Pokemon?" I casually asked as though I didn't hold their lives in my palm.

The two quickly nodded.

So, I was in the right place.

Holding a grin beneath my mask, I demanded them, "Oy, foreign guy. Lead me to your base of operations."

"I'm working alone! I was going to a different meetup spot to make sure I wasn't going to be ambushed!" The foreign guy yelped.

I tilted my head, "And where's your Pokemon?"

"...He's in my pocket."

Yeah, this guy would've been done for, if he was actually ambushed. Better hope that Pokemon of his is okay with being traded.

"Take him out," I commanded, and the foreign guy immediately replied.

The foreign guy took out an Ultra Ball, and I could immediately tell that I was about to have fun in a bad way.

The foreign guy called out the Pokemon out of the Pokeball, and I could immediately tell that I was going to take him on my team.

Because there stood a Kingambit from Paldea, I'm fairly sure.

Unless Bisharps from other regions could also grow into Kingambit, I'm pretty sure that this is illegal to have.

"Well, hey-" I tried to greet the Kingambit, but it immediately swung its head down, trying to cut me.

I dodged, of course. This Kingambit must've been affected by the sands of time because it was only level 45, when I'm pretty sure Pawniards evolve at some insanely high level.

Though, fun to know that Pokemon can level down. Because a real Kingambit should probably be more powerful because it has to defeat other bisharps.

No bad blood, though.

I immediately ask, "Hey, do you want to join my team?"

The Kingambit growled at me as if I were the one who killed his family.

So, that was a no, obviously.

Grabbing the two random guys and tossing them aside so I can talk to them later, I decide that winning against Kingambit in a sword fight should be a good way for me to get its friendship.

Tossing out California to make sure that my two hostages don't escape, I pulled out Washington and Lincoln and wielded them in my hands.

Pointing Washington towards the Kingambit, I told him, "Hey, if you lose this fight, you join my team under the name… Hm, you look like a New Jersey type fellow. If you lose, your name is New Jersey and you join my team."

The Kingambit grunted, accepting the terms.

So, I immediately held nothing back as I cheated and activated my anemo delusion to get a boost of speed to get behind Kingambit, who would have a difficult time turning in this narrow alleyway.

Though, I was the idiot in the situation because Kingambit's roomba thing that he was sitting on suddenly jumped into my face, forcing me to stumble back a few steps.

And Kingambit was now standing up, something I wasn't really sure he could do. But a Kingambit that stood up was cool as hell, and I needed to have it on my team.

This was also a good time to develop a few sword skills, since I rarely ever get into sword fights.

Kingambit's hand suddenly turns into sharp blades, and I decide that coating my sword with an element was a fucking badass idea.

So, a spell, then.

Spell Created!

[Weapon Coating - Coats your weapons using a class that you own.]

Using my spare B-tier souls that I still have leftover from the dungeon, I coated my two blades with the power of souls.

Then I figured I would become an anime swordsman.

Skill Created!

[Long Slashes - Using the wind from your slashes, you can extend the distance of your blade.]

Preparations done, all that was needed was the execution.

Slashing towards Kingambit, he easily deflects my blow with his arms. But that was alright because I was just going to slide under his arm-

Reality hits my sides in the form of Kingambit's fucking leg.

Being punted into the wall, I lose any and all initiative as Kingambit spears me in the gut with his fist.

As a half-slime, I was only sort of resistant to physical attacks. So it hurt a lot…

Enough to make me decide that yeah, I sucked ass at swords. I didn't even last 3 paragraphs before I got my ass kicked.

So I quickly put Lincoln back into my inventory, opened my palm against him and used Soul Blast.

As it turns out, I outscale a level 45 Pokemon.

Kingambit actually hits the opposing wall so hard that he ends up bringing the entire wall down with him.

Standing back up, I asked Kingambit, "Did I win? Or do you want to go a bit more?"

Kingambit stood back up, visibly wounded.

Then it charged straight at me.

Taking that as a no, I took out Lincoln again and struck at Kingambit, sending two slashes at him in quick succession with my blades.

Kingambit deflected the hit from Washington, but not from Lincoln, staggering it.

Then I cheated again by shooting him.

I honestly didn't intend to do that, I kind of just did it out of habit.

Kingambit fell to the floor, not dead, but probably very much in pain.

"Sorry," I apologized, "It was a pretty cowardly way of winning, but I really don't have much skill in sword combat compared to you."

Kingambit slowly got back on its knees.

Continuing, I said, "Honestly, if you don't wanna join my team, I'm totally fine with that."

It would suck not to get a Kingambit, but shooting him was kind of a dick move. And while I may be a beast master, I don't want to mistreat my Pokemon. I name them after one of our precious states, after all.

Observing me, the Kingambit makes its decision.

It bowed.

Smiling, I earnestly thanked him for his decision, "Thank you, New Jersey. Hopefully you don't mind the adventures I'll bring you on. We can fight again when you're more powerful, how about that, huh?"

Kingambit made some odd noise of agreement, and I decide that it was enough and put him into his Pokeball. He probably had enough for today.

Turning back to the 2 smugglers, I told the foreign guy, "Leave before I change my mind."

He quickly sprinted out of the general vicinity.

Then, turning to the Galarian dude, I told him, "So, where's your group?"

(Pitter)

Stowy:

HUGE BRAWL IN STOW-ON-SIDE! CONFIRMED TO BE A BATTLE AGAINST FUSE'S POKEMON AGAINST A POKEMON TRAFFICKING RING!

[Link]

Greyquaza!:

Against a trafficking ring? Yeah, I won't even blame Fuse if those guys were to die.

Tentin La Toto:

Damn, this is happening right across the street from me. I live on the outskirts of the city. I think I just saw Alister show up…

I let my Pokemon deal with the gang. To be perfectly honest, they were more merciful than I was.

Most because they're considerably less deadly than my guns are. But that's beside the point.

Sitting next to a Tinkatink who decided to stay here instead of running off somewhere else, I was in the middle of figuring out what to do with her.

"So, trafficked all the way here, huh?" I asked, not sure if it could communicate.

The Tinkatink nodded. So, yeah, could communicate.

Humming, I deduced, "No family stolen with you?"

A shake, this time.

Well, here goes nothing.

Pulling out a Pokeball, I offered, "Wanna join my team, Florida?"

The Tinkatink contemplated my words for a few moments, before she eventually decided yes, and hit herself onto my Pokeball.

So, I have a level 10 Tinkatink now. Hooray.

I was gonna have to help her get to her peers. Don't they become fully evolved at level 36 or something? That should be fine. It was something actually reasonable.

Anyways, with the arrival of Tinkatink, my team now has all 6 slots of a regular team filled out.

California the Regieleki, Washington the Braviary, Texas the Bagon, Hawaii the Larvesta, New Jersey the Kingambit, and Florida the Tinkatink.

The team is a bit screwed, I think. But that wasn't going to matter when I get TWELVE MORE POKEMON!

Cackling inside my head, I was alerted to another presence behind my back.

"...I'm Alister. The gym leader around here this year."

Well, all this did was save me a trip.

Turning around to meet the young gym leader, I greeted him, "Hey. I wanna fight you."

Alister blankly looked at me before deadpanning, "Who starts a conversation like that?"

AN:

Another 2 AM 3k word chapter, epic.

At least I finally get a break now (2 weeks.)

On Tuesday/Wednesday, I had to write 13k words just to make sure I had a Time Capsule chapter out on a reasonable time and ruined my sleep schedule. Then I was finishing chapter 30 just as July 4th came about. And now I'm doing the same with the bi-weekly chapter.

Man, I am such a cooked man.