Remembering how it was used, he held the pokeball in his right hand as he bumped on the struggling rattata' head with the button of the ball.
The moment he did, the pokeball opened up and sucked the rattata in, in a white glow.
The pokeball closed after absorbing the rattata and shook once.
It shook again, before stopping completely.
Expecting the worst, he got ready to fight and kill the injured purple rodent when a panel surfaced from the pokeball right in his face.
0000000000
Dominance Check
Level 5 x Level 1
Domination Confirmation
0000000000
Kain: Domination? Wait. Level 5? Is it a comparison between my level and rattata's?
Picking up the pokeball while thinking about what had just happened, he was caught off-guard by another panel emerging in front of him.
0000000000
Rattata – Male
Normal
Level 1
Energy – 25/100
0000000000
Watching attentively the new panel, he noticed the value of energy going up from 25 to 26.
Kain: It's.... it's pretty different from what I remember.... shouldn't there be values representing others stats such as health, attack, defense, special and speed? What about the moves they could learn through level up? Wait. Level 1.... even then.
Confused by the new panel, he was about to put the pokeball in his backpack when it shrank into the size of a marble.
Kain: Great. Didn't remember they had this function.
Playing with the marble-size pokeball, he sat down again before bringing out of his jacket pockets and bag, the whole set of knives he had, big and small, to clean them up.
He was doing it to pass the time to be honest, since he was paying more attention to the panel that emerged from the pokeball, showing the stats of his rattata to calculate how long the energy would take to recover.
[1 hour later]
0000000000
Rattata - Male
Normal
Level 1
Energy – 86/100
0000000000
Kain: 1 energy per minute.... it's not that bad.
Picking it up he was about to wonder how to enlarge the red and white ball, when it did in his hand. Looking at it for a short moment, he pressed on the round button, causing it to open up and a flash of light emerging from the ball. The light hit the ground forming the shape of rattata.
Squeak
The purple rodent squeaked at him with a happy expression, before running around him and finally climbing up his body and sitting at his right shoulder, nudging its head against his own.
Kain: Hmmm.... I should give you a name.... how about.... Nev.
Squeak
Kain: I don't know what that means, but I guess that you are happy with it.
Squeak
Kain: Now that I have you, things should be more manageable.
He couldn't help but smile. A smile that sent shivers down the rodent's back.
[ 20 minutes later ]
A strange sight could be seen in the school building dungeon, where a single rattata could be seen fleeing from a group of six rattatas.
Just as the group was beginning to catch up to the lonely fleeing rodent, it made a sharp turn around a corner.
whoosh
The group pursuing the rattata were caught off-guard upon making the same curve, when a large number of knives appeared in their field of vision.
Kain: Well... that makes it about 30 with this group.
Kain emerging from the shadows brought down the larger knife in his hand, decapitating the only one survivor from the group of rattatas.
Just as he was about to send his rattata to fetch more pokémon, for him to slaughter, he saw that one of the disappearing rattatas wasn't gone like the rest, but instead was forming into a poke ball.
Kain: Another one? Nice.
Picking up the new poke ball from the ground, he turned to look at Nev before recalling it into it's poke ball.
Kain: I guess you can rest a little bit while I do the same.
Peeking around the corner, he sat down while bringing up the panel of Nev.
0000000000
Rattata – Male
Nev
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Normal
Level 7
Energy – 30/100
0000000000
Kain: I should see how it can learn some moves, or even if it can learn at all.... now that I think about it, but shouldn't there be some kind of ability? I bet there are more things that I can't remember that are missing.
Closing his eyes and putting Nev' pokeball away, he began relaxing a little.
Kain: "Since I have Nev I don't want another rattata, but I also don't want that shitty looking cat."
Looking at the watch on his wrist, he saw that it was morning already.
Kain: "Maria should have gone to home by now and the other two fucks either found my body behind or left as well." .... "The only way to find out is to complete this dungeon since I don't see any other way out of here."
Standing up, he began heading upwards to the roof.
Going up the stairs he began to feel a strange heat surrounding him.
Kain: Where is this heat coming from?
Opening the door, to the roof of the school building, he found something rather mythical, to say the least.
A dog stood in the middle of the roof glaring at him, with embers flickering through its entire body. It had orange fur with black stripes, with the fur on its muzzle, chest, belly and tail being beige.
Various spots in the roof were cracked and burnt.
Kain: I don't even know what this is... but it looks dangerous as fuck in comparison with the other two. Wait. A rat, a cat and a dog. Really?
Just as he distracted with his own thoughts, the dog attacked him by opening its mouth and spewing flames towards him.
The projected flames were incredibly fast, reaching where he stood in an instant.
The dog was about to relish on the fact of having killed the intruder, when it noticed a silver glint flashing, through the corner of it's eye, causing it turn around, while jumping away, barely dodging numerous small knives.
grrrr
Growling in anger at the feeling of pain on its left hind leg, that had a small cut on it now, the dog spewed flames once more at the still alive perpetrator.
Kain dashed away from the incoming flames while throwing knives at the dog.
Kain: "This one is truly different from the previous creatures.... not to mention those flames he continues spewing, I don't think that it would be safe to approach and engage it in close combat. I have the feeling that it would ripe my arm off with its teeth if I dare to try."
The two of them continued attacking each other, from the distance, until Kain noticed that he was beginning to run out of his small, throwing, knives.
Kain: "I can't keep this up for long. Time to bite the bullet and preserve."
Steeling his will, he sled across the floor while retrieving rope and a large knife from the backpack, before throwing it aside.
Dodging the incoming flames, he rushed towards the fiery creature.
Kain: "Basics. Immobilize the enemy before dishing out punishment."
Constantly dodging the incoming flame attacks, by either jumping or dashing out of the way. The time he spent exchanging blows, at distance, allowed him to get a better understanding of the pattern of the flame attacks from the fiery creature. It's throat would always bulge priorly to spewing out the flames.
Knowing that, and slowly getting used to the attacks, he continued closing the distance between the two of them, although it only got harder the closer he got.
The dog began to notice something odd when Kain was a few meters away from it. It was too late by then, as Kain dashed and closed the distance instantly while unrolling the rope, in his left hand, and swinging the large knife with his other one.
The fiery creature surprisingly didn't retreat in the face of his attack, as it instead tried to bite his right arm off.
Kain' expression didn't change at the behavior of the fiery creature, with him retracting his arm, seemingly aware of the dog reaction to his attack, and throwing the rope forward to entangle around the neck of the quadruped creature.
He didn't stop there, he immediately pulled the rope, causing the creature to stagger and lose its balance, creating a chance. That he immediately took by stabbing the knife in it's left eye.
Kain: "Deciding not catching you means that everything goes."
Rapidly letting go of the knife and rope, he backed away while retrieving something from his jeans' back pocket.
Meanwhile, the dog had tried to retaliate in fury by spewing flames around it, but he was too slow in reacting in comparison to Kain's reactions. Who had disappeared into the smoke, created by the retaliation of the fiery creature.
grrrrr
Glaring in fury at the cloud of smoke, in front of it, it was building up flames in its mouth.
whoosh
brrrr
A torrent of flames exploded out from the dog' mouth when something emerged from the smoke at high speed.
Smirking in happiness at the burnt piece, after its attack, it almost wanted to release a bark in celebration. So, it came to a surprise upon seeing Kain emerge from the cloud of smoke, while failing to notice a purple rodent rapidly dashing behind it.
bang
Nev used its full body-weight to slam against the rear of the dog, causing it to stagger, before retreating swiftly, while Kain was merciless in using another of his large knife to stab in the remaining eye of the creature.
Kain: "Immobilizing doesn't always mean to go for its legs, without its sight it will rely on it nose and ears. Greatly limiting its time reaction and actions."
[ 5 minutes later ]
The rest of the battle was uneventful as the dog couldn't react in time to the combined attacks of rodent and human without its sight. Even if it tried to use its flames to keep them away, it would only exhaust itself more and more, while otherwise gaining numerous injuries.
Kain: That was rather exhilarating and exhausting.
Succumbing to the tiredness, he fell to the floor while recalling Nev to it's pokeball as he watched the dog' body beginning to glow and disappear.
Kain: I lost so many of my knives to the flames of this little shit.... I need to make another trip to the mall from the looks of it.
Relaxing he saw that the glow of the dog was changing shape like it had happened when he obtained his two pokeball, the thing was that the shape it was producing wasn't a ball but a rather odd one.
With the glow slowly dispersing he was able to see what was hiding beneath it, it was a strange bottle with a purple body and a light-blue cap.
Kain: What the hell....
Picking it up he was expecting for a panel to emerge and give him information, but unfortunately it didn't happen.
Kain: There should be a way for me to obtain information regarding this and that last creature. If I know more, then I can deal with it better without wrecking my knives every time.
At that moment a black portal slowly emerged in the center of the rooftop of the school building.
Kain: That should be the exit.
Turning to look at the watch, the visor had cracked at the fight against the fiery creature. Even then it was still working and showing him the time and day.
Kain: Almost one full day went by. Hfff... I just want to go home and rest.
Stepping into the black portal, he appeared back in the principal office, but he couldn't relax as he heard noises from the outside.
Kain: "Are you kidding me!? Why is this fucking principal meeting someone everyday so close to midnight! Fuck!"
Seeing the only escape being to enter the dungeon once more, he pressed on the scorching golden question mark before staggering a little because of it showing two options now.
0000000000
Hidden Locations – Dungeon
The Beginning
Do you want to enter? (2/3)
Yes/No
0000000000
0000000000
The Beginning
Level 1 – Complete
Level 2 – Open
0000000000
Just as he was hesitating in choosing which level to choose, the sounds began to grow closer pushing him to make his choice. Pressing down on the Level 1 option before being sucked into the golden question mark.
???: Did you see that?
???: What are you talking about!? Just get inside and stop wasting my time!
???: Alright. Alright.
As the two shadowy figures made their way inside the office, Kain appeared once more at the entrance of the school building.
Kain: I escaped that shit, but I practically have no knives left.
Feeling something odd about what had just happened, he decided to take out his phone as his eyes bulged in shock.
Kain: What the fuck.
His astonishment was justified since he had spent a whole day in doing the dungeon, while just one minute passed in reality. He was able to confirm this, as, even though old, his phone was connected with the internet and, with that, the date/time as well.
As such when he got out of the dungeon and his phone connected with the internet again, since it lost connection inside the dungeon, the date and time reset back to the regular one. On contrary to his phone, his watch didn't have such function, which allowed him to confirm this.
Kain: Well.... that is new.... and rather perfect. Time courses differently in here.... it should be one minute equaling one day in here.
A strange glint flashed through his eyes as he relaxed.
Kain: Let's take it nice and slow this time around.
[ 4 days and 22 hours later ]
Kain had already cleared the whole dungeon right in the first day, with him obtaining three pokeballs and another bottle from dog.
Without nothing else to do, he decided to train with Nev. Taking breaks now and then, sleeping occasionally and eating the food from the cafeteria, of course after having Nev being the experimental guinea pig before consuming any of it. This was because the food he had brought with him had run out in the third day, not to mention that he wanted to wash his mouth of that shitty taste of the food he had brought with him.
The pair of rodent and human were now training by running around the school in a race, with Nev winning by a big margin.
Breathing down to recover, Kain recalled Nev back to it's pokeball while looking at his stats.
0000000000
Rattata - Male
Nev
Normal
Level 14
Energy – 80/110
Moves – Quick Attack, Hyper Fang
0000000000
He smiled upon laying down his sight on the new moves of his partner. He tried to get Nev to learn some moves, and he managed to succeed in two of them.
Although both of the moves seemed simple, they were rather strong and, above else, useful.
[Quick Attack] would allow Nev to charge at the enemy with incredible speed while [Hyper Fang] would simply kill its targets if it was used wisely, since it was able to rip through steel at the right angles.
Kain: Not bad. Not bad at all.
Nev wasn't the only one experiencing changes and powering up in the last days, with Kain also improving greatly. Although the changes weren't visible or big, they were still improvements nonetheless. Especially when it came to his body and his deformed back, that still limited greatly his movements and pained him. It all led to him finding a way to heal and cure his back from all of it's injuries, otherwise he wouldn't be able to live normally in the future.
The biggest improvement he had experienced was of his battle experience and mastery with knives increasing by a lot, and his figure no longer looking so skeletally.
Just as he was about to start doing push-ups, a panel emerged in front of him stopping him in his tracks.
0000000000
The Beginning
Time Left – 0, 00:59:55
0000000000
Kain: Time is up.
It came as a surprise to Kain how late it came, if he were to be honest, he was expecting such message/warning much, much, earlier. After all, he had just spent close to five days in the dungeon, with the possibility, although very likely, of only five minutes passing in reality. One could only imagine if he could stay inside the dungeon for a year.
This dungeon was his most valuable instrument, together with the Profile function, as with the time difference he could train himself, hide from others, or even to the point of trap someone else in the dungeon.
Dusting himself off, he began packing everything up before stopping and coming to the realization that only 5 minutes had passed in the other side.
Kain: They should still be in the office.... I can't just appear and disappear by selecting the dungeon once more.... right?
….
Kain: No. Damn it. If such a thing happened those fuckers would only just stay behind to try and witness it once more... can't I just re-select the dungeon here?
Time was nearing the end as he stood in front of the black portal, while holding on a pair of chipped knives that he still had left.
Breathing out, he stepped into the black portal and when he felt that he had reached the principal' office, he quickly jumped back and took a battle stance. It was useless since he was all alone in the office with darkness being the only companion of him.
Kain: That settles it. Hmmm.... I guess that I should do the dungeon one more time then.
Doing what he had the previous two times, he reappeared in the dungeon.
[ Dungeon, 5 days later ]
Stepping out of the dungeon and out of the school building, he easily and quickly made his way past the metal gate.
Maria that was on the car biting on her fingernails, seemingly in stress, didn't notice him.
Smiling a little, he pushed his messy and dirty hair back as he knocked on the window of the driver seat, causing her to jump startled.
Turning around, she was stunned at the state Kain was in. Lowering the window of the car, she couldn't even know where to begin.
Maria: W.... what the hell happened to you? Where were you!?
Kain: Let's go home. I really need a shower.