I told Gengar to wait until the last minute possible to remove me from the fire’s way.

As the fire neared, I sweated like crazy and wanted to move as I could start feeling the heat, but I held on ignoring the pain.

Just as the fire was about to touch me huge wind soared towards me sweeping away the burning leaves and extinguishing the fire.

For a second, I thought Gengar put out the fire as I was reeling from the pain tingling from my arms and face.

But observing the wind's direction and the happy squeals coming from Cet, I knew he pulled it off.

Gengar released both of us from our restraints.

As I caught my breath, Cet zoomed towards me and tackled me, letting out cooing noises.

I petted, scratched, and spoiled him for some time and fed him the last remnants of moo moo milk.

The milk is delicious and can be consumed by humans too, I just drank one glass and stopped myself from more no matter how I craved it.

I promised myself that I would drink it until I puke when I am rich in the future.

There are reasons for implementing this crazy plan.

It's not me being sentimental over my first battle as an official trainer and making sure I won't lose even if I have to starve, by purchasing those TM’s.

Nah, nah those who believe that are underestimating my rationality.

I am telling you; I am not crazy. Just driven, crazy driven, I say.

The very same day I received my Pokedex, I booked my first Gym match with Erika. Generally, trainers with less than 3 badges only get to battle gym trainers, not gym leaders, but Erika decided to allot a day for newbie trainers on the 10th day after the league officially starts.

Erika, a Grass-type expert, has many poison-typed Pokemon, I decided to book myself a match on that day hoping for some tips regarding poison type for Cet, after my match with her.

With Celadon being very near clinching the deal. Thus, the reckless purchase of TM’s.

Some Gym leaders don’t even bother with trainers having less than 3 badges except Surge, Brock and Misty.

With Surge always allotting a day every week for novice trainers, the day is called rookie crushing day by the locals.

Brock and Misty are always overbooked as they are famous starting points for rookies, and they too are also only available on certain days with remaining days Gym trainers filling their place.

Even though I know losing my first trainer battle or my first gym battle means nothing in the end.

I don’t want to lose.

With Cet learning Gust, I can defeat most rookie trainers of this year, as most of the wildlings (Unawakened) starters don’t have efficient long-range attacks and some even do not have any attacks for an opponent in the air.

And I am closer to my goal of not losing as with Gust, I can deflect most ranged attacks and can also cause damage from a distance.

And with this, I can even win my challenge with Joy and can avoid wasting my time working part-time for money.

Just as I was imagining Joy’s expression on seeing me defeat whoever she intended for me to challenge - I heard a roar.

“What in the hell were you thinking before setting fire and cooking yourself alive.” Joy roared.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Whaa.. when did you come here Nurse Joy,” I asked worriedly.

“Did you think Gengar is not responsible enough to let me know when someone wants to start a fire in my Pokemon centre?”

I glared at the traitor, who waved his hand guiltily and vanished.

Before I could say anything, Joy touched all over my hands and face.

“I know what I was doing,” I mumbled.

“ Did you, Mew tell me why you thought nearly burning yourself was a good idea,” she asked scathingly.

“ I wanted a trump card to win our bet, to waste my time doing a part-time job,” I replied confidently.

“So, you are telling me for the bet I made to not let you into the deep wild, you thought nearly causing a fire hazard and cooking yourself was a bright idea.” She questioned in a monotone voice.

“ Gengar was here, he would have stopped any fires and saved me from any harm,” I said shrinking from her cold gaze.

“ Really! Did Gengar save you from feeling the burns when the fire was near, any sane person would have stepped out of the fire way after feeling pain,” she said with some respect in her voice.

It’s definitely respect, don’t listen to anyone else saying otherwise.

She took some deep breaths and continued speaking.

“ Harming yourself for a 10-day progress is not worth it, Leo. Do you know if it was the Zubat in the line of fire, I would have to report it to the league about it. If there is no damage from mistreatment the league ignores most trainers’ training methods, but it would have been a black mark on your trainer record. Which is accessed by gym leaders above the 3rd badge and in any job, you apply in future.”

“ I am not cruel enough to keep Cet in harm's way when I am the only one who wants the results and gets benefit from it,” I said glumly.

“ I am not calling you cruel, but sometimes well intentions lead to disastrous results. I know you are not a bad kid, why do you think I didn’t stop you….” She continued her lecture on risk analysis, self-control, and risks of impatience.

Even though I considered every angle before I implemented this crazy plan, I still listened to her. It was nice to know someone worries about you and a lecture on your mistake(welfare) is not a thing on their timetable they have to cross off.

I suddenly got emotional and hugged her, thanking her for worrying about me.

Joy sighed and patted my back.

“The risk you took now is okay, just don’t do experiments like this in the wild as you can’t predict all variables,” she said ending the hug.

I nodded gratefully.

“No more training for today let Cet relax and bond with you,” she said leaving me.

I took her words to heart, With Cet learning Gust, he will be able to use Brave Bird in about 5 to 6 days. His experience with manipulating flying-type experience from Gust would help him.

The average time for learning an egg move is 10 days with some taking longer and some shorter, but none on the first day without some extraordinary circumstances like I just created.

‘The little bugger really loves me,’ I thought feeling warm and caressing the sleeping Zubat.

A guy in a forum suggested that a high-tension situation can lead to Pokemon learning its egg move faster.

I had other plans if it didn’t work but they would take time, which I don’t have with my upcoming Gym battle.

……….

It's been 6 days since Cet learned Gust, I have him working on Brave Bird, Agility, and Poison Sting. I divided the day into three parts and made Cet concentrate on learning the moves according to the timetable.

Learning Poison Sting took less effort when compared to Agility, but I think he can do it soon enough.

Cet’s poison sting attack travels slowly and has a smaller number of stings when compared to standard ones, but he is halfway through and just needs more practice.

There is no noticeable progress for the Agility move. But the Brave Bird came along nicely.

I showed him a video of a Talonflame using BraveBird from a movie.

A Huge Talonflame tucking its and diving. The visuals were great, the cry of the Talonflame gave me goosebumps.

After showing him the video, instead of making him practice it, me and Gengar, mostly Gengar, started gently nudging Cet towards diving, by creating certain situations where diving is required in the game of tag.

Cet took a shine to it after diving for the 2nd time.

He used a battered version of Brave Bird 3 days back, even though it took more time than predicted to get him to dive.

At least on the bright side, he enjoyed playing tag and is very competitive.

I noted his love for games, giving the small Zubat a bad feeling.

But he always used Brave Bird while playing tag with me and Gengar. He was so happy when he caught Gengar for the first time, making me spoil the cute thing more.

I took advantage of his love for the game and made Gengar use disable on him whenever he tries to dive.

He became teary-faced and confused when that happened, but then I showed him a video of Agility, already having used the TM.

It took some time for him to grasp that he could become faster by using the move and with the help of TM, and Gengar using Psychic-type moves to get him familiar with the energy, he got all possible resources for learning agility, making me confident he will learn it by the time of our journey.

I took some time to spend with Joy when Cet was taking his energy naps.

So, effective use of time if you ask me.

I got a message from Trainer Lucas about how a certain joy pitching in to replace the basic tent issued by the league and how I can replace my tent for the better version in the nearest Pokemart.

Even with her coveted Nurse Joy position, the upgrade would have cost her a small fortune.

I hugged her hard and promised to repay her, to which she waved her hand telling me to look after myself.

Thus, the days went by and came the day of my departure, bringing both excitement and dread along with it.