'Well, that worked' I thought to myself as I made my way into the chamber, now vacant of Skeevers, while trying to ignore the stink of roasted rats. It had been rather cathartic to roast those vermin, though I could do without the smell after.
With a thought I brought up my stats and grinned seeing the numbers had gone up
Trainer level: 1
XP: 29/100
Money: 0G 0S 0K
System Currency: $1,825
Seeing those numbers and doing some comparisons, I grinned even more. That little burn spree had netted me three hundred Pokédollar, and twenty further XP, I was now more than a quarter of the way to reaching level two.
Curious to see how my Pokémon were doing I brought up their pages next and nodded, pleased at what I saw.
Name: Cyndaquil
Gender: Male
Level: 17
Ability: Flash Fire
Moves: Tackle, Leer, Smokescreen, Ember, Quick Attack
-.-.-
Name: Elekid
Gender: Male
Level: 14
Ability: Static
Moves: Quick Attack, Leer, Thunder Shock, Charge, Swift
'Very nice, Cyndaquill has gone up by seven levels and Elekid by thirteen, and now they both have STAB moves' I thought to myself, with glee.
I was so very tempted to immediately go into the move section and get Thunder Shock for myself. The idea of pulling a Palpatine on some unsuspecting fool by launching lightning from my fingertips was very tempting, but I held back from doing so.
'It would be better to wait until I get access to Thunderbolt. Then it would truly be "Unlimited power"' I mused to myself as I closed out of the screens.
"Alright, looks like you both got stronger from that," I said as I looked at both my Pokémon, "Cyndaquil, you can now use Quick attack just like Elekid, and Elekid you got a load of new moves, but most importantly you can use a STAB eclectic move now, Thunder Shock"
"Cynda!", "Elekid!" they cheered, with Elekid throwing his arms into the air as electricity jumped between the horns on his head.
I chuckled, "Okay, I'm glad you're both happy with that, so for now we can keep going with.." I began to say before pausing as the ground beneath my feet shook and I had to put my hand against the wall of the cave to keep from falling over at the sudden event.
Thankfully the shaking didn't last long but I was concerned, "what was that," I muttered before a blue screen appeared in front of me and after reading it I really wanted to curse.
{Dungeon exploit detected, patching… exploit has been patched, mob monsters will no longer be able to leave the chamber in which they are spawned and a barrier will be erected at the entrance to each chamber, ranged attacks will not penetrate the barrier}
"Son of a," I snapped and mentally cursed, this is yet another reason to hate sentient systems, if we could have kept going with our strategy of funnelling enemies into a tight space like that we could have easily cheesed through the regular dungeon mobs, but now that was no longer an option for us to use.
I opened my mouth to complain again only for a second screen to pop up that made me pause and frown.
{For discovering an unintended exploit and as compensation, the user has been given two choices of payments, please choose from the following:
Ten thousand Pokedollars or 1 Regular Pokémon Token}
'Well that's something at least,' I thought to myself as I looked over my two choices, both of which would benefit me in the long run.
'The money would allow me to get a jump start on my berry farm, but on the other hand, another party member would also be a large boon, it would mean I could gain XP faster and would prove to be helpful if the mob numbers remained consistent in the coming chambers, it would mean earning money would be easier but a third mouth to feed, which would mean more expenses' I thought to myself as I considered which to choose.
'So ultimately it comes down to early game money or early game XP and more team members,' I thought before nodding, in that case, the option was clear, 'I'll take the cash' I thought before selecting the Pokédollar payment.
While I know a third Pokémon would really have been a boon, with the strength of these mobs if I brought in a weaker Pokémon right now chances were they would get beaten, especially with how we couldn't cheese the dungeon like we had just done, as it currently stood I was already getting plenty of XP from just Cyndaquill and Elekid, so I wasn't generally worried about XP at the moment.
Money was more important to get my farm set up so that I wouldn't be hurting for cash later when the number of my Pokémon would undoubtedly grow.
I took a deep breath, doing my best to ignore the still lingering scent of scorched rodent flesh before looking back to my team, "Alright, we won't be able to use the same strategy again, but we're now more prepared than before, so let's move on and scout the next chamber" I said as I indicated to the next tunnel that led further into the rodent infested cave. Not knowing what other monsters would await us, hoping that Skeevers would be the worst of them.
Chapter word count: 906