I asked the system what was up with the grade in the appraisal and was slightly surprised to learn that special stones like this hardstone or an evolution stone such as a fire stone actually have different levels of effectiveness and are thus graded. The lowest grade was 1 and meant that the item was barely capable of fulfilling the minimum requirement to count as a graded item. Grade 2 was the most common and average level of item that fulfilled the requirements and if it was a high grade 2 had a little extra.-

In this regard the hardstone I just got was a high grade 2 item since it helped mastering rock type moves. Grade 3 items had the same benefits of a grade 2 but improved by a certain amount. Grade 4 items were rare and had an additional effect beyond to grade 2 and 3 versions in boosting stats. Grade 5 and the second highest grade were super rare and had much stronger effects than a grade 4. Finally there was grade 6 items that were so rare you had a better chance of winning the lottery than finding one.-

Unlike the previous grades however grade 6 items were not only far more powerful than the others but also had the unique feature of filling their surroundings with dense type energy making them fiercely guarded treasures by the nearby pokemon. For evolution stones however this was much simpler as the higher the grade the stronger the pokemon after evolution. Grade 6 evolution items still filled their surroundings with type energy however. I didn't mind the fairly low grade of the hardstone I found though since treasure is treasure to me. Having already fully explored this first area of the cave system Gaia and I headed to the second one we found earlier.-

This one was different than the previous area as there was the sharp spikes on the ceiling showing that this part had water in it somewhere. There was also a noticeable increase in pokemon with Geodude , Graveler , Aron , lairon , Paras and Parasect visible just from the entrance thanks to the torches light. The more timid species like the Aron quickly fled the light while the others merely looked at it curious or hostilely. 'Appraise' I thought while looking at each of these visible pokemon and started to get a read on how strong they were.-

I was surprised to see that the average level amongst them was between fifteen and twenty. The Paras fled the light but the Parasects were controlled by the mushrooms on their backs and thus wanted to attack at once. It was specifically four of them that were levels fifteen , seventeen , seventeen and eighteen respectively, "Gaia sandstorm and iron defense!" I called and she obliged glowing brown as the localized sandstorm formed a bit stronger than her previous ones. Following that her body shone silver for a moment as her carapace hardened thanks to the steel type energy.-

The first of the four Parasect arrived immediately after these preparations were complete and glowed purple on it's right front claw. "Dodge that it's poison!" I call out and Gaia quickly avoids the glowing claw before using bite on it's head decapitating it without her touching it. The level fifteen now out of the picture the two level seventeens enter the outskirts of the sandstorm. "Avoid to the best of your ability and try and get them to attack each other if you can since you're faster then them!" I order and Gaia moves between both of the Parasect before leaping to the side as they try to attack her instead attacking each other.-

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The mushrooms controlling them didn't posses a lot of intelligence as they began fighting amongst themselves viciously taking heavy damage each. I didn't even need to give Gaia any orders as she finished off one of them that was on it's last legs and then the other that hadn't been able to react yet. Unfortunately the final Parasect arrived as she did so and hit her with a dark green barb that caused yellow energy to flow through the air and into it.-

Gaia grunted in pain at the leech life but swiped the barb off of her and turned to face the last opponent. "Sandstorm again and then keep your distance , let the storm wear it down!" I ordered and Gaia didn't hesitate to double down on the sandstorm. This was the biggest difference between the game and reality in terms of this move , it stacked in reality. The storm went from thin and barely damaging to hard to see and stinging winds that slowly scour away at you in an instant. The stupid mushroom knew it was taking damage but couldn't tell why and went haywire attacking the wind and sand around it recklessly like there was some sort of hidden attacker.-

Gaia waited patiently for the bug zombie to start wobbling from physical exhaustion before dash towards it and ending the fight with a decisive bite. "Good work Gaia you were great!" I complimented her and she rumbled happily. She let the sandstorm fade and I stepped forward to check the bodies since I remembered that these thing sometimes had a tiny mushroom on them. I smiled as I found a faintly glowing orange and red mushroom underneath one of the bodies.-

I plucked it and stored it away since it could be used as a rare food ingredient as far as I remembered from the games. The Geodude , Graveler and Lairon had decided as a group that they didn't want any trouble after watching how Gaia killed those Parasect with almost no injury. Gaia wanted to get some training in but I convinced her that making an enemy of every pokemon in a cave we were still exploring was a bad idea. I offered an oran berry to the stronger members of these species for a spar instead which tempted a level twenty Lairon to spar with Gaia.-

It opened up by using iron defense and harden back to back raising it's defense by three levels but I had Gaia use screech to lower it down to one. As it turns out screech is exactly how you would expect it to be as Gaia screamed at the Lairon while her throat was glowing white. White energy waves flew through he air and struck the Lairon and it shuddered a bit causing it's defense to drop. Gaia then used Sandstorm for the boost to evasion followed by bite to try and deal some damage.-

The Lairon dodged to the side of her attack and used headbutt to crash into Gaia's side making her grunt in pain before latching her jaws around the Lairon's neck and squeezing , hard. The Lairon cried out in pain and she released it since it had admitted defeat. I handed over the oran berry as promised and the Lairon left us happily as if the defeat didn't bother it at all. I checked Gaia's level and saw that after those Parasect and this last fight she had reached fourteen. Considering she was out leveled by all of her opponents however this was to be expected. Her size and high stats covered that gap for her perfectly though.