Chapter 10: Human children?
Over the next few days, Ryū often took Kikō and Suzume out to battle. But unlike before, now it was basically Ryū battling alone, while Kikō and Suzume watched from the side to prevent a 'mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind' situation. Although it was more time-consuming, tiring, and dangerous, the results were extremely significant.
[Beedrill]
[Potential]: Blue
[Level]: Lv. 27
[Attribute]: Bug/Poison
[Ability]: Swarm
[Height]: 2m
[Weight]: 70kg
[Skills]: Fury Attack, Bug Bite, Poison Sting, String Shot, Harden, Fury Cutter, Hone Claws, Focus Energy, Venoshock, Pursuit
A week passed. Ryū had already pulled a significant distance ahead of the other Beedrill. While Kikō and Suzume were still around level 22, he had reached level 27 on his own. This level was definitely at the top of the food chain within Arbok's territory. Perhaps only the two or three Pokémon in the very center, whose levels were 30 or higher, were stronger than him.
In addition, the size of their five-member team had been greatly improved. They could now truly be called a small tribe. The number of Beedrill was still just the five of them, but besides that, there were 6 Kakuna and 13 Weedle. It wasn't that Ryū didn't want to catch Beedrill. It was just that the Beedrill they found were basically part of tribes, coming from deeper within this forest.
Later, after thinking about it, he roughly understood the reason. Weedle, the creature at the bottom of the food chain, was perhaps only slightly stronger than Caterpie. Kakuna had basically no ability to resist, a Pokémon that could only wait to evolve or be preyed upon. It was incredibly difficult for these two forms to grow up in this primeval forest. Only Weedle and Kakuna within Beedrill tribes could grow up safely and healthily under the protection of the Beedrill. Some small Beedrill tribes would even consciously bring back unclaimed Weedle and Kakuna into the tribe, just like what Ryū and his group were doing now. And these Weedle and Kakuna, after evolving into Beedrill, naturally became members of the protecting tribe. So Ryū had never found any unclaimed Beedrill.
However, he did get other useful information from the Beedrill that came from the depths of the forest. For example, the place where Ryū was currently located was the outermost ring of the entire forest. And all Beedrill tribes were basically in the middle zone. But because individual Weedle and Kakuna have difficulty surviving deeper in the forest and would be preyed upon before evolving into Beedrill, the small Beedrill tribes inside could only come to the periphery to recruit tribesmen. Currently, Ryū's Beedrill tribe was the only Beedrill tribe in the outer ring.
"Why stay on the periphery instead of going inside?" Ryū couldn't help but have this question. Wasn't it more dangerous the deeper you go into the forest? For a Beedrill tribe, it should undoubtedly be easier to develop on the periphery. Ryū couldn't find an answer to this question for the time being. In any case, he would not actively lead his team deeper into the forest.
"Keep raising my level!" Ryū currently had only this one goal. That was to continuously increase his level, defeat Arbok, and turn this territory into the domain of their Beedrill tribe to constantly grow stronger.
After eating his fill at home, Ryū first flew to the river to quench his thirst. Just as he lowered his head to drink, a floating figure on the river surface caught his attention. He looked up.
"Human?!" Ryū stared at the figure on the lake surface, feeling shocked. It was clearly a human little girl, though it was unclear whether she was alive or dead. After hesitating, Ryū decided to go and take a look. He flapped his wings and quickly flew over, hooking his hands onto the little girl's cloth clothing and easily lifted her up. Then he immediately flew back to his territory with the little girl in his arms.
This lake wasn't particularly large, but there were definitely some Pokémon in it; it might be the territory of a Water-type Pokémon, and he didn't want to stay around the lake for too long.
Returning to his territory, Kikō, Suzume, and the other Beedrill saw their boss carrying a creature back and quickly flew over to see what was happening. Suzume might have even thought Ryū had brought back some delicious prey for her.
"Don't hurt her," Ryū ordered the surrounding Beedrill and the Weedle who were gradually gathering. Upon hearing this, Suzume and some Weedle left disappointed, as they had thought there was something good to eat. Chairo and Shiro, however, looked curiously at this new Pokémon. They had never seen a Pokémon with such a peculiar form before.
'Still alive...' Ryū lowered his head to stare at the little girl's chest, and after detecting movement, he nodded, confirming that the little girl was not dead. It had been almost a month since he was reborn as a Pokémon. This was the first time he had seen a human.
However, seeing a human in the Monster Era was quite difficult. The human civilization in the Monster Era could be broadly divided into two periods: the tribal period and the kingdom period. In the former period, humans were still competing with Pokémon, referred to as 'Magical Beast,' for survival resources. But humans, being fewer in number and physically weaker, were naturally no match for Pokémon and could only gather and survive in areas with fewer Pokémon, such as plains and mountains. Later, as the human population increased, the concept of kingdoms emerged, and humans learned to use the power of Pokémon to fight against Pokémon, and the situation changed. But regardless of the period, humans were very afraid of Pokémon, so ordinary people would absolutely not willingly venture into places where Pokémon live, like forests. Therefore, seeing a human was a very difficult thing.
But Ryū also found it strange because of this; why would this little girl come to this forest?
Afterward, to prevent any accidents, Ryū stayed by the little girl's side. Meanwhile, he had Kikō and the other four Beedrill go around and spar with other Pokémon to accumulate experience. The Pokémon living around Ryū's territory, those who wanted to run had already run. Those who stayed were the clever ones who realized this group of Beedrill didn't intend to eat them. So these clever ones not only didn't run but even moved closer to Ryū's territory. Getting beaten was fine, at least they wouldn't die. But if anything happened, they could temporarily hide in Ryū's territory, reducing the chance of being eaten by other strong Pokémon.
Time passed quickly. Ryū only remembered that after sleeping twice, the little girl gradually began to show signs of waking up. And so, one night, the little girl, who had been mumbling and groaning, suddenly woke up. But when she opened her eyes and saw the 2-meter-tall Beedrill beside her, she immediately rolled her eyes in fear and fainted again.
"..."
Ryū scratched his head, found two Oran Berries, squeezed out their juice, and dripped it into the little girl's mouth. Feeling the moistening and sweetness of the juice, the little girl's eyelids twitched; she had clearly woken up, but she didn't dare to open her eyes.