HELLO DEARIES
Welcome to another chapter 🙂
Enjoy
_______________________________________
The dawn broke over Island 4 like a fever breaking, hot, humid, and blindingly bright.
Alex sat cross-legged on a flat rock near the entrance of their small crevice hideout.
In front of him, laid out on a large, clean banana leaf, were the meager supplies he had bought: the grey ration blocks, the water bottles, and the roll of gauze.
But his mind wasn't on the food.
It was on the pain.
His ribs throbbed with a dull, sickening rhythm every time he inhaled.
His left wrist was a swollen, purple mess of bruised tissue.
It wasn't broken, but the ligaments were angry.
"Fifty points," Alex muttered, staring at his watch.
"Fifty points for a Potion."
He let out a bitter laugh that turned into a cough.
Back in Viridian City, District 8, fifty points could feed a family for a week.
He remembered the memory of the view from his window in the slums...the towering silhouette of the Viridian Gym in the distance, a monument to Giovanni's power, while the streets below drowned in sewage and neon smog.
He had grown up watching trainers walk into that Gym with rare Pokémon and expensive gear, while he scrambled for scraps.
He had studied in old life.
God, he had studied hard.
In his past life, he had spent four years in pharmacy school, memorizing chemical structures, drug interactions, and compounding techniques.
He knew how to extract alkaloids.
He knew how to synthesize aspirin.
And now, he was letting himself get scammed by a vending machine?
"I'm an idiot," Alex whispered.
He looked at the Nidoran, who was gnawing on a piece of ration block nearby.
The Pokémon's leg was still favoring a limp. The bruise from the Rattata bite was nasty....infected, maybe.
"We don't need to buy their trash," Alex said, his eyes narrowing behind the mask. "Potions aren't magic.
They're chemistry.
It's just berry extract and a binding agent."
He stood up, ignoring the protest of his ribs.
"Come on," he told the Nidoran.
"We're going shopping.
But we're not paying."
They moved away from the rocky outcrop, heading back into the denser vegetation. This time, Alex wasn't looking for prey.
He was looking for reagents.
He activated his Status Screen.
Until now, he had used it to look at Pokémon.
But the interface had identified the Rawst Berry earlier.
It had a database.
He scanned the undergrowth.
[ Plant: Fern (Common) ]
[ Plant: Moss (Common) ]
[ Plant: Blue Bush ] -> [ Identification: Oran Berry Bush ]
Alex stopped.
He knelt down.
The bush was small, choked by weeds, but it held three small, blue, spherical fruits.
[ Item: Oran Berry ]
[ Quality: Low ]
[ Properties: Restores 10 HP. Contains mild analgesics and rapid-clotting enzymes. ]
"Analgesics," Alex noted.
"Painkillers."
He picked them.
But he didn't stop there.
He needed something to bind it, something to turn the juice into a salve that would stick to a wound.
He scanned the trees. He scanned the dirt.
[ Plant: Sticky Barb ] -> Useless.
[ Plant: Resin Tree ] -> Too sticky.
[ Plant: Silver-Leaf Weed ]
He paused.
It was a tiny, unassuming plant with jagged, silver-lined leaves growing in the shadow of a rock.
[ Item: Silver Powder Leaf ]
[ Properties: Antibacterial
Stimulates cell regeneration,Bitter. ]
Alex's eyes widened.
"Antibacterial, That's the money maker."
He carefully dug up the weed, preserving the roots.
For the next two hours, Alex didn't hunt.
He scavenged.
He was a man possessed.
To any observer, he looked like a desperate recruit eating grass.
But inside his head, he was back in the lab.
He found four Oran Berries, two clumps of Silver-Leaf Weed, and a handful of Pecha Berries (which contained antitoxins).
He returned to the hideout.
It was time to cook.
He didn't have a mortar and pestle, so he found a smooth, concave river stone and washed it with a splash of his precious bottled water.
He used the handle of his combat knife as the pestle.
"Okay," Alex muttered.
"Oran berries first.
Remove the skin...it's just fiber.
We want the pulp."
He peeled the blue berries with surgical precision using the knife tip.
He dropped the pulp into the hollow stone and began to mash it.
It turned into a blue sludge.
"Add the Silver-Leaf."
He tore the leaves into tiny pieces and added them to the mix.
He ground them together, the friction releasing a sharp, medicinal smell that made the Nidoran sneeze.
"It needs a base," he muttered.
"Water makes it too runny. It'll wash off."
He looked around.
He saw a glob of sap oozing from a pine-like tree nearby.
He tested it with his finger.
Tacky, thick.
He added a small amount of sap to the mixture and continued grinding.
Ten minutes later, he had a small pile of thick, dark blue paste.
It smelled strong...astringent and sweet.
[ Item Created: Crude Oran Salve ]
[ Quality: D+ ]
[ Effect: Heals minor wounds over time. Prevents infection. Efficacy: 1.5x of raw Oran Berry. ]
"1.5 times," Alex grinned beneath his mask. "And it sticks."
He scooped some of the paste onto his finger.
"Come here," he signaled to the Nidoran.
The Pokémon backed away, wary of the strong smell.
It growled low.
"It's for the leg," Alex said, his voice firm but calm.
"It's going to sting, but it will stop the rot. Trust me."
He didn't force it.
He held his hand out.
The Nidoran looked at the blue glop.
It looked at its swollen leg.
It looked at Alex.
Slowly, it limped forward.
It laid down, exposing the injury.
Alex applied the paste gently.
The Nidoran flinched and let out a sharp squeal as the astringent hit the open wound, but it didn't bite.
"Good boy," Alex whispered.
"That's the bacteria dying.
That's good."
He wrapped the leg with a small strip of the gauze he had bought.
Then, he treated himself.
He smeared the paste liberally over his bruised ribs and his swollen wrist.
The cooling sensation was immediate.
The throbbing heat dialed down from a scream to a whisper.
"It works," Alex sighed, leaning back.
"It actually works."
He looked at the leftover paste.
He had enough for maybe three more applications.
A Potion cost 50 points and healed instantly.
His paste cost 0 points, took 20 minutes to make, and healed slowly.
But here was the kicker: Ingredients were free.
"I can sell this," Alex realized.
The other recruits were idiots.
They were thugs and gangsters.
They didn't know botany.
They saw weeds; Alex saw inventory.
If he could refine the process... maybe find Revival Herbs...
He looked at the Pecha Berries he hadn't used yet.
[ Item: Pecha Berry ]
[ Properties: Neutralizes neurotoxins. ]
He looked at the Nidoran's horn.
It dripped with venom.
"Wait," Alex murmured.
"If I reverse the process... If I concentrate the toxins instead of the antidotes..."
He grabbed a Pecha berry.
In pharmacy, an antidote often contained a neutralized form of the poison, or a chemical that bound to it.
If he could isolate the binding agent, he could potentially create a coating that made the Nidoran's poison sticky.
"Sticky Poison," Alex mused.
"So it doesn't just drip off when you hit something.
It stays in the wound."
He mashed the Pecha berry, but this time he mixed it with the sap and a poisonous mushroom he had avoided earlier, a Spotted Toadstool.
[ Item: Toadstool Cap ]
[ Toxicity: Mild Paralyzing Agent. ]
He ground them together.
The result was a purple, foul-smelling sludge.
"Come here," Alex said again.
The Nidoran looked at the new goop with interest.
It smelled like home.
It smelled like danger.
Alex carefully applied the sludge to the Nidoran's horn, being extremely careful not to touch it himself.
"Don't lick it," Alex warned.
"Ram it into something."
The Nidoran shook its head.
The sludge clung to the horn, It didn't drip.
Alex checked the status.
[ Pokémon: Nidoran ]
[ Weapon buff: Paralyzing Toxin Coat (Duration: 3 hits) ]
[ Effect: 20% Chance to inflict Paralysis on contact. ]
Alex sat back, wiping his hands on the grass.
He was a pharmacist from Earth.
He didn't have a Charizard.
He didn't have a million dollars.
But he had science.
"We just upgraded," Alex said, his voice thick with satisfaction.
He checked his inventory.
He still had the empty space.
"We need jars," he planned.
"We need containers.
If I can fill ten jars with that Oran Salve, I can undercut the Rocket Exchange.
I can sell them for 20 points each.
That's 200 points. That's a Pokéball."
He looked at the jungle with new eyes.
It wasn't just a slaughterhouse anymore.
It was a pharmacy.
And he was the only one with the key.
"Let's rest for an hour," Alex told the Nidoran, who was testing the weight of the sludge on its horn.
"Then we go find some containers.
I remember seeing a trash heap near the coast where the tide washes up debris. Plastic bottles, Glass."
He closed his eyes, the cooling paste on his ribs lulling him into a sense of security he hadn't felt since arriving.
He wasn't helpless.
He was essential.
In a war zone, the doctor is king.
But on Island 4, the man who makes the medicine... and the poison... is God.
Authors Note:-
Well finally Alex uses my ...his knowledge to do what he does best.
So how was it
Tell me your opinion guys.
Pleaseee support with power stones and collections
Reviews are very welcome 🤗