Ace woke up quickly at six o'clock the next morning.
After freshening up, Ace enjoyed a refreshing hot shower.
He found some scissors and cut his old clothes into scraps, flushing them down the drain in several batches.
Dressed in new clothes, Ace organized his belongings.
"Organized" wasn't quite the word, as there wasn't much to organize.
Just the two cans of Zubat's food, some dry rations and water Ace had prepared for himself, over a thousand remaining League currency, and three Poké Balls, including Zubat's.
He carefully placed all of these into his half-person-tall backpack—this was Ace's entire worldly possession!
Everything was ready, and the time had already reached 8:30 AM.
Ace checked out of the inn, slung his backpack on, put Zubat's Poké Ball in his pocket, and headed towards the ferry he had bought a ticket for.
The ferry was set to depart at ten o'clock. By the time Ace arrived, it was almost nine.
After getting his ticket checked and boarding, Ace was quickly led by a staff member to a private room.
The ticket was expensive because the ferry would be sailing for nearly a week at sea to reach Kanto.
This was unavoidable, as the current timeline wasn't as convenient as the future.
One must remember that even Pokémon transfer devices hadn't been invented yet, and connections between regions were still relatively sparse.
And these modes of transportation weren't as convenient as they would become, with much slower speeds.
Ace, anticipating the possibility of being discovered, had splurged on a single-room ferry ticket. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been left with only a little over a thousand League currency.
The single room's environment was decent. Since it was a week-long journey, the room was equipped with a bedroom and a bathroom.
It was a bit small, but sufficient.
After arranging his belongings, Ace sat on the hard bed.
Time passed quickly, and ten o'clock soon arrived.
With a blast of the ship's horn, the ferry slowly began to move, pulling away from the port and heading towards the Kanto region.
Ace let out a sigh of relief, his previously wary expression relaxing.
"System, submit task."
Ace contacted the system and submitted his main quest.
"Main Quest ('Absolute Freedom') completed. Task evaluation: B. Reward: 500 gold coins, three task points."
Evidently, Ace's urgent rush had significantly boosted his task evaluation, earning him a B-rank.
Adding the previous two points, Ace now had five task points.
Opening the task point exchange page, another long list of redeemable items appeared before Ace's eyes.
"Potential Boost: 100 points."
"Speed Boost: 50 points."
"Physical Attack Boost: 50 points."
"Physical Defense Boost: 50 points."
...
"Perfect Body Restoration: 5 points."
He quickly scanned the exchange page. He had thought 5 exchange points would allow him to redeem something decent, but the reality was that, on the current exchange list, the only option Ace could redeem was "Perfect Body Restoration."
"Side quests activated."
"Side Quest (Skill Learning): Help Zubat learn the skill Toxic in advance. Task Reward: 200 gold coins, task points given based on task completion evaluation."
"Side Quest (Level Up): Zubat is still too weak. Before disembarking, raise its level to 10. Task Reward: 1000 gold coins, task points given based on task completion evaluation."
"Side Quest (Winning Streak King): There are many trainers on the ferry. Battle them, gain experience, and see where your limits lie. Task Reward: 100-1000 gold coins, task points given based on task completion evaluation."
Three quests appeared before Ace, but he felt a headache coming on as he looked at them.
Zubat was currently only level three. Raising it to level ten in a week would be easy if he could defeat many trainers.
But the difficulty now was that Zubat was only level three, simply too weak. Making Zubat battle proper trainers would be practically asking to be curb-stomped.
"To complete these side quests, the first thing I need to do is help Zubat learn the Toxic skill."
Ace focused on the first side quest. If Zubat could learn Toxic, then by picking Pokémon without aerial counter-measures, he could slowly wear them down through attrition.
But how could he learn the Toxic skill?
Ace opened the Poké Ball, and Zubat flew out, landing on his shoulder.
Currently, Zubat only knew Supersonic and Leech Life. Steel Wing was an inherited move. None of the three were Poison-type, making it difficult to even consider evolving its abilities in that direction.
"System, can you give me a hint?"
Helpless, Ace could only ask the system, wondering if it had any solutions.
"Due to the host's lack of Pokémon cultivation knowledge, the system suggests the host can purchase the Zubat cultivation manual in the system store. After careful reading, this can deepen your experience in training Zubat."
The system provided an answer, but Ace's mouth twitched.
After completing two tasks, Ace, after purchasing Zubat's food, still had 590 gold coins.
In the system store, the cheapest Pokémon cultivation manuals cost a hefty 200 gold coins.
Cultivation manuals for pseudo-legendary Pokémon, for instance, were as high as 30,000 gold coins!
The Zubat cultivation manual wasn't expensive, costing only three hundred gold coins, but for Ace right now, this price was a bit high.
"Sigh, games are games after all. For Toxic, in games, you'd just use a TM. System, do you provide TMs?"
"Toxic TM: 20,000 gold coins."
"...Never mind, I didn't say anything."
After much hesitation, Ace reluctantly paid three hundred gold coins. A Zubat cultivation manual, easily two to three hundred pages thick, appeared in Ace's backpack.
"This thick?"
Ace took out the manual, feeling a headache at its thickness.
However, remembering his daily learning task, Ace could only steel himself and begin flipping through the cultivation manual.
Time passed quickly while reading, and Ace was soon amazed by the cultivation manual.
Compared to Ace's previous understanding of Zubat, which was mostly cold data, this manual meticulously recorded a vast amount of information about Zubat.
It didn't just cover moves and base stats; it also included Zubat's physiological characteristics and behavioral habits.
At the end of the manual, there was even an anatomical diagram of Zubat, with numerous images illustrating its various body organs and how skills were performed.
"System, I was wrong."
After only reading twenty to thirty pages, Ace sincerely exclaimed, "These three hundred gold coins were truly worth it!"
p@treon.com/DaoistWujinzi