Magus
patreon
Chapter 14: Wait, Who Are You Supposed to Be?
🕑 Added 2025-08-10 15:39:10 +0000 UTCWith this thought, Cynthia returned Treecko to its Poké Ball and began thinking about strategies for the current situation.
Clearly, whether considering the rival ahead or the Rock Gym Leader’s situation afterward, this game’s developer had one goal in mind: to make players prepare from the very beginning to build a reasonable, well-rounded Pokémon team capable of handling various situations and opponents.
After all, this was a game where training Pokémon cost virtually nothing—you only needed to invest time to raise their levels and strength.
Unlike the real world, where each Pokémon required enormous amounts of money and energy to grow and become stronger, building a mature team was thousands, even tens of thousands, of times more difficult in reality than in the game.
At the same time, the game’s developer had added a restriction: players could capture no more than 15 Pokémon in total. This meant players had to make serious decisions when capturing each Pokémon, treasuring every slot.
With this realization, Cynthia began thinking rapidly.
Against Fire-type Pokémon, the best countering types were naturally Water and Rock. But from what she remembered, the wild Pokémon she had encountered along this route didn’t include any of those types. Rock-type Pokémon generally didn’t inhabit roadside grass or flat terrain—they usually lived in caves and mountainous regions.
The Pokémon she had seen so far were like Pidgey, Rattata, Spearow, and Poochyena—species commonly found in suburban areas around cities. From this alone, she could tell the game’s developer had designed Pokémon distribution areas to mimic realistic habitats.
Returning to the game flow, if she couldn’t defeat her rival now, she naturally couldn’t proceed to the next area. This also meant obtaining a Water- or Rock-type Pokémon in the early game wouldn’t be easy.
Just as Cynthia was pondering solutions, a figure suddenly flashed through her mind.
That’s right! If she remembered correctly, the very first Pokémon she had encountered when leaving town with Treecko fit the requirements!
She immediately moved her character back to the grass patch at the upper entrance of town and began running around repeatedly.
This was the game’s encounter mechanic—whenever you moved through grass, caves, or other areas where Pokémon might spawn, there was a certain probability of an encounter. It was completely random: you might find a common Pokémon, or you might encounter a rare one. This unpredictability was one of the great joys and core elements of the original games.
As her character ran around, she began encountering enemies constantly. But Cynthia didn’t battle these Poochyena and Spearow—she fled directly instead.
On the seventh attempt, a green figure appeared before her—a small, cute Pokémon with a light blue body and a lily pad on its head.
This was exactly Cynthia’s target: Lotad!
Lotad was a dual-type Grass/Water Pokémon. Thanks to its secondary typing, it perfectly covered its weakness to Fire-types and could counter them in return. For dealing with Torchic under these early-game circumstances, it was the perfect choice.
After using Treecko’s Pound twice to lower Lotad’s HP, Cynthia threw a Poké Ball. It shook three times, and with a “ding,” the capture was successful.
This was her first captured Pokémon in this Emerald game!
As the battle screen ended, Cynthia explained to the chat:
"I thought it over. Although its Grass typing overlaps with Treecko’s, given the current situation, Lotad seems to be the best choice. On one hand, it can help Treecko cover the difficulty of fighting Fire-types. On the other hand, as a Grass/Water dual-type, the two types complement each other, avoiding disadvantages against Ice, Electric, and Fire types—its resistances are quite good."
Then she remembered something: you could directly check Pokémon abilities in this game.
And Lotad’s ability… hadn’t been discovered yet!
So what kind of ability would the developer give it?
She opened the Pokémon menu to check Lotad’s ability and paused. What appeared before her was an ability she had never seen before—Swift Swim.
The effect description read: Under rainy weather conditions, Pokémon with this ability have their Speed doubled.
As the ability screen appeared, the stream chat lit up:
"Swift Swim? What the heck? Never heard of Lotad having this ability."
"I think I heard someone say Lotad’s ability still hasn’t been researched and identified, right?"
"True, but this seems way too overpowered. Double speed? Sounds like the author made it up for fun..."
"Nah, even if it’s made up, it’s not that overpowered. You can only use it when it’s raining. In dry regions, this ability would be useless!"
The chat buzzed with speculation, but Cynthia kept her gaze fixed on the ability information.
As a Champion, she knew undiscovered abilities weren’t uncommon in Pokémon research circles. Many abilities had unusual trigger conditions and effects that weren’t obvious through normal reasoning, making ability exploration an important research task.
So was this “Swift Swim” a custom creation, or was it real?
Cynthia’s intuition told her it might actually be real—but it was hard to believe.
Because if it were true, this would be a big deal. Doubling a Pokémon’s Speed in battle would be game-changing; even a small boost could drastically affect combat performance. Confirmation of such an ability would cause a sensation among top-tier trainers.
Why only top-tier? Because ordinary trainers couldn’t control the weather. But recently, high-level trainers had begun developing “weather moves” to manipulate battle conditions. If weather became a controllable factor, trainers specializing in Water and Grass types would rush to train Lotad.
In the research field, this would also be a huge discovery—suggesting that many other Water-types with undiscovered abilities might also have “Swift Swim.”
The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became. Someone with the knowledge to recreate ancient Pokémon fossils and deeply understand legendary Pokémon wouldn’t add an ability at random. Besides, the latest game update had specifically emphasized weather effects.
Determining its authenticity was simple: she could contact Professor Oak and have him test Lotad in rainy conditions. But since she had just bothered him about the fossil matter, she decided to wait until after his meeting.
At the same time, a new idea struck her: since the game had a weather system and she had a Swift Swim Pokémon, why not try building a “rain team”?
In reality, her team was already set, so starting fresh wasn’t feasible. But this game gave her an opportunity to experiment early with weather-based strategies—something that might take years to see officially implemented elsewhere.
With that thought, she began training Lotad in nearby grass patches.
Twenty minutes later, after Lotad reached level 12 and learned Water Gun, she challenged the “black-haired boy” again. Torchic’s Peck could deal super-effective damage, but since it wasn’t STAB, it wasn’t strong enough. Lotad won, securing Cynthia’s victory.
She released both Pokémon, patted Lotad’s head, and said, “Well done, Lotad.”
“Lota~”
Treecko leaned against a tree, chewing a grass blade, feigning disinterest—though its wagging tail betrayed its real feelings.
The chat reacted warmly:
【So heartwarming.】
【Even in games, she values bonding with her Pokémon. That’s our Cynthia!】
【This is why she’s Champion—it’s all about love for Pokémon!】
The plot moved forward: returning to the lab for the Pokédex, heading to Petalburg City, meeting the protagonist’s father and May, and entering Petalburg Woods.
Cynthia played with focus, occasionally glancing at chat but mostly immersed in the game.
【Serious streamers are so cool…】
【Even playing games seriously, she’s so charismatic.】
【This game really suits her.】
Deep in Petalburg Woods, she remembered Iono’s stream and the tanky Cradily she had seen there. With both Treecko and Lotad at level 15, she assessed their moves and realized neither was well-suited for that fight. She would need a new Pokémon.
Meanwhile, in Iono’s stream:
"Paralyze! Paralyze! Paralyze!!"
Her face flushed as she prayed for paralysis. Electricity sparked, and Cradily was paralyzed, its HP dropping to the last third.
"NICE!!!"
As she prepared to finish the battle, something unexpected happened:
Cradily vanished in a beam of light.
【Leader Roxanne withdrew Cradily!】
A new Pokémon appeared.
【Leader Roxanne sent out Archen!】
Iono: ???
Wait, who are you supposed to be?
