I was observant enough to notice the tenseness that Steven had despite his friendly way of speaking and calm appearance. I couldn't exactly blame him considering that despite the fact he was DEFINITELY more powerful than me as a trainer he also didn't have any of his pokemon out at the moment and he was in a small chamber with all of my own. In other words if any of my pokemon were to attack with a wide area move he was almost guaranteed to die , he clearly knew it too.-

"You can relax Mr. Stone we aren't here to cause trouble but to deliver a letter from your father." I explain calmly while taking the letter out of my bag. His eyes scan the letter briefly before he relaxed his tense body. "Thank you for going through the effort of delivering this letter as a show of thanks you can have this TM!" Steven says before casually bringing out a silver colored Tm from the fanny pack on his wait that I totally missed until now since it blended into his suit. "No need , your father already paid me." I say while holding up a hand to stop him.-

Steven smiled more genuinely at that "Then consider it an investment in your future." he said and tossed the TM to me. I wasn't going to force the issue since I had already clarified that I wasn't accepting it as payment for the delivery. Normally I wouldn't have said no to a free TM like that but I really wanted to leave a good impression on Steven. "It will teach any pokemon you have that can learn it the move steel wing , it's one of my favorites." Steven said in a friendly manner.-

"Maybe it will come in handy after Rune finishes evolving into a Charizard." I say with a shrug as I place the TM into my bag. "Well now that you have the letter my job here is done so I'll be on my way now , on a bit of a schedule you see." I added casually and turned to leave. "Wait!" Steven exclaimed to stop me. I looked back confused since I honestly couldn't think of a reason why he would want to stop me from leaving. If anything he should want me to leave faster so he can go back to his stone collecting.-

"I don't mean to pry or anything but would you be willing to part with one of those crystals on your waist?" Steven asked sheepishly and I sighed since I should have known. I un hooked one of the crystals and tossed it to him before turning around and leaving for real this time. The Sableye didn't cause us any more problems on the way out and besides the occasional Makuhita or Hariyama(the evolved form of Makuhita) the other residents of the cave left us alone. Thanks to that we got out of the cave much faster than we went through it and Rune even got a couple levels putting him at forty one at the moment.-

I honestly wasn't sure how close to evolving Rune was since with his triple variation there was simply no record online about what the signs for that in a Charmander like him was. The signs for a normal Charmander were almost entirely absent from Rune so I am pretty sure that his signs are different. As for Tank his signs were blaringly obvious since he had already reached the required amount of calories to evolve but had been trying to stock up even further to see if it helped him at all.-

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Gaia would still need at the very least another two months before she could evolve again as royal variants of her species took on average four to five months to show signs of their next evolution. Once I was out of the cave I balled up my pokemon and started heading back to the city so I could apply for my gym challenge. Nothing happened on the way back to the city and even after I got to it there was nothing worth mentioning. Though I suppose the higher than average amount of fit people in the city was something but it was a fighting type gym city so it was kinda to be expected.-

Still I stood out from the masses due to my minimal amount of clothes and size that was considered borderline unnaturally tall for this world people. Average height in this world was about five foot nine inches and the tallest person ever was someone with gigantism and reached seven foot exactly(I looked it up on my pokenav). I myself was sitting at six foot six at this moment which was only half a foot short of that size so I was very eye catching.-

I ignored the looks i got however and made my way to the rocky and steep path to the gym and began to climb the incline deftly. All those workouts and high stats weren't for show and I absolutely tore through the path with brute force and agility. The few trainers climbing up the incline themselves could only stop and watch in awe as I did so. It was like comparing a snail to a chimpanzee in terms of difference in climbing speed.-

Once I hoisted myself up onto the flat ground that the gym rested on I sighed in comfort "That was a pretty good warm up actually." I said while rolling my shoulders as Tank rolled his eyes. I strolled up to the gym after that and entered the building calmly. To my surprise there was a man who looked about my age in blue swim trunks , sandal and a tight white t-shirt that had tan skin and wild spikey bluish colored hair. "Yo Alex I am glad you made it!" the man said with a bright smile. "I admit you've got me at a bit of a disadvantage here since I wasn't excepting to meet you for another three weeks at least." I say honestly while scratching the back of my head in confusion.-

This was obviously the gym leader for this gym , Brawly , and as I had just said meeting him so suddenly had me all sorts of off center. "Don't sweat the details dude , all that matters is that we are here now. Just as a wave cannot help but meet the shore so too were we destined to meet!" Brawly says brightly and I'm not going to lie I kinda felt the urge to punch him in the face.-

Like he was WAY too chipper for me to not be tempted to do it but I resisted my violent impulse. "I'm going to be honest right now so don't take this the wrong way but like chill please. I can appreciate a warm welcome but I prefer calmness." I say bluntly and Brawly actually dims somehow but remains smiling still. "Heh , Sorry about that I have just been so pumped to finally meet you ever since I saw that battle you had with Roxy!" Brawly says eagerly if a bit more subdued.