That evening, Nate returned to his apartnt.
He had spent the entire afternoon observing Pokémon battles and hadn't found any strange bugs so far. Checking the ga's backend, he discovered that the highest-level Pokémon currently belonged to Natsu—his Charmander had already reached level 10.
Charmander evolves at level 16, and at the rate Natsu was grinding, he'd reach that within two or three days. So, Nate decided he needed to get Charmander's evolved form ready soon.
Fortunately, that would be simple. Essentially, it was just a matter of updating the appearance of the Celestial doll, not a big deal.
"But... is leveling up happening a bit too quickly?" Nate pondered. But maybe it wasn't that fast. After all, there were over a thousand different Pokémon, and players wouldn't stick to training just one—they'd end up collecting and training multiple Pokémon.
Plus, Nate had capped the maximum Pokémon level at 50. Once they reached that, leveling up wouldn't improve their stats any further. If players wanted to make their Pokémon stronger, they'd have to get creative.
For example, Natsu was personally training his Charmander in Dragon Slayer magic. That kind of extra effort would undoubtedly make his Charmander stronger than the average one.
"Real-world battles seem fine, but I also need to implent online battles," Nate said, opening the coding tool on the Magic Net platform.
Ti to start copying! He could just reuse the code from [Magic Arena]. Well, not exactly copying—let's call it "secondary code application."
The only real adjustnt was allowing each player to carry a maximum of six Pokémon in battles. Other than that, everything else could be structured similarly to [Magic Arena], with ranks from Bronze Trainer to Silver Trainer... all the way up to Master Trainer at the top.
Nate got fully absorbed in the "joy of code reuse." Before he knew it, an hour had passed, and he received a private ssage from Natsu.
Natsu: "Nate, battle in a Pokémon match! ??"
What's this guy doing up so late? Nate sighed, wondering if all that energy couldn't be put to better use—like writing code. Although, knowing Natsu, coding was out of the question.
Sigma Male: "Find soone else, I'm busy."
Natsu: "Everyone else went to bed... ??"
Do I look like soone who never needs sleep? Nate thought, then sent Natsu a screenshot.
Sigma Male: "[Level 50 Pikachu Screenshot]"
Sigma Male: "You sure you want to battle ? ??"
Natsu: "??"
Natsu: "You're rciless! Totally rciless!"
Sigma Male: "You've got this, Natsu. You're destined to beco a Gym Leader soday. Keep at it!"
Natsu: "What's a Gym Leader?"
Sigma Male: "It's the title given to the strongest trainer in a guild—a title only you could hold!"
Natsu: "Oh, I'm fired up now!"
Sigma Male: "Then go! Train hard, with the goal of becoming a Gym Leader!"
Natsu: "Got it! Later, Nate!"
Phew... finally managed to get rid of him.
Nate sighed in relief. Of course, it wasn't all just a brush-off. He was seriously considering organizing a Pokémon tournant down the line, where players could challenge gyms and collect badges.
As for the gyms, they could be hosted by the various mage guilds.
But that was still far off in the future. The ga was barely in its early stages; that idea would have to wait for now.
Nate went back to coding, but soon received another ssage.
Drink with : "Thank you, Nate! I finally told my dad!"
Drink with : "[Photo of dinner at a restaurant.jpg]"
Cana had sent him a photo, showing her and Gildarts sharing a al at a restaurant.
Nate thought to himself, "Turns out things are easier said online—no pressure of a face-to-face confession."
Sigma Male: "Congratulations."
Drink with : "It's all thanks to you for giving the courage! I'd like to properly thank you. How about a date next ti?"
Sigma Male: "I have a feeling you'll drag to a bar, and it'll just end up being drinking with you..."
Drink with : "What's wrong with that? I started drinking when I was 13! ??"
Sigma Male: "Hold on. Isn't the legal age for drinking in Fiore 15?"
Drink with : "Hehe, ??"
Drink with : "I an it's really a date, not just for drinking!"
'I don't buy it,' Nate thought. 'It's bound to turn into a drinking session.'
He rembered Mirajane ntioning that a solid 30% of the guild's yearly bar expenses went straight into Cana's stomach. In fact, most of the money Cana made from missions went back into buying drinks at the guild. Given the choice, Nate would much rather spend ti with his girlfriends... well, 'all' of them.
Sigma Male: "Only if you promise not to drink."
Drink with : "Alright, alright! A week without drinking—I'll do it!"
Sigma Male: "Just to go on a date with ? ???♂?"
Drink with : "That's not why!"
Drink with : "Anyway, I'm a woman of my word!"
Sigma Male: "Alright then, I'll hold you to it."
Drink with : "Thanks! Gotta go back to dinner with my dad. See you!"
But just monts after saying goodbye, she ssaged him again.
Drink with : "Oh no... he saw texting you! ???♀?"
Wait, 'he saw her'?
Nate felt a sudden unease, and sure enough, the next mont, a friend request popped up.
[User "Gone Fishing" has sent you a friend request. Do you accept?]
'Gildarts, this isn't what it looks like! It's your daughter who asked on a date!' Nate hesitated for a mont, but then clicked accept.
Gone Fishing: "Thank you, Nate."
'Thank ? For going on a date with Cana?' It took Nate a second to figure out what Gildarts was referring to.
Gone Fishing: "Cana told it was thanks to you that she found the courage to tell who she was."
So that was it. Nate replied quickly.
Sigma Male: "You're welco—it was nothing."
Gone Fishing: "It may have been a small thing to you, but to , it ant a great deal."
Gone Fishing: "During my travels, I t many won, but the only one I truly loved and married was Cana's mother."
Gone Fishing: "I didn't know she was pregnant when I left, and by the ti I learned, I'd also heard she'd passed away unexpectedly."
Gone Fishing: "In any case, I owe you for this. Thank you."
'Gildarts types fast,' Nate thought. Each ssage popped up before he had a chance to respond.
Sigma Male: 'Think nothing of it. We help each other out in the guild.'
Gone Fishing: 'Well, I owe you one. If you ever need help, don't hesitate to ask.'
And with that, the chat ended.
Nate rubbed his chin, amused. 'Guess he didn't even ntion the date part, huh?'
~~~
How's my Patreon works? Let's use the [Chunin•Bleam] mbership Tier as an example:
With this tier, you'll always have access to Chapters that are 50 ahead of what's publicly available. For instance, if today's public Chapter is 204, you'll be able to read up to Chapter 254.
Every ti I release more Chapters publicly, your advanced access adjusts to keep you consistently 50 Chapters ahead. So, if tomorrow I post two more Chapters (bringing the public count to 206), your access will shift up to Chapter 256.
Across a full month, if I release, say, 60 new Chapters (making the public Chapter 264 from today's 204 60), your access would extend to Chapter 315 (264 public 50 advance) by month's end. This way, you'll always enjoy exclusive access to content beyond what's publicly available.
Of course, all content will eventually be released publicly, so subscribing to my Patreon is never required. However, having subscribers helps keep this 'work/hobby' sustainable, and your support truly makes a difference (no joke). Thank you for reading, and an extra thanks to those who choose to support on Patreon!
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The Winners of $10 mberships is at Chapter 202, please comnt there.
Let's have a happy December!
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