Training for Black Mist Mountain, Day 2! Trudging through Cattail Marsh!?

Akuroma grimaced at the sight of the swamp. He knew he was the one to suggest coming here, but after seeing it, all he could think about was how hard it'd be to get the mud and grime out of his gown. As he waited for Enzu to arrive he was debating on if he should try to convince the Pawniard to not go into the Marsh.

Enzu arrived at the edge of Catttail Marsh and looked across at the swamp and its natural calm state. He figured that this training would be good for him and Akuroma. This time they could see some of the oncoming pokemon. But they would have to watch their footing like on the mountains, and there was a chance of surprise attack from below. Enzu walked over to Akuroma once he had taken in the sights of the marsh, "Are you ready to go?" he asked. The two of them had only been in Rainfront for about a day, and figured that that was more than enough time to rest and recover from their earlier training at Pricklemist hill.

Akuroma nodded a bit, "Yeah. Definitely not gonna like this, though. The last time I was in mud and gunk like this I was black for a week," the Ralts said before hefting his bag up. He somewhat reluctantly began to walk into the swamp, each step making him feel more tempted to turn back. However, he trudged on, for one thing he didn't want to appear stupid in front of the Pawniard for being concerned about his gown, and he also knew how beneficial this training would be.

"Haha, well hopefully that won't happen this time," Enzu said as he began to follow Akuroma into the swamp, "And besides if you get dirty the ocean isn't that far from here so you can just stop there after we finish up our training here. Enzu had been through plenty of mud before, and he was lucky that it washed off relatively easy from his metal body.

Akuroma shrugged, "I guess, but I'm covered in fur, not metal. Mud tends to find ways to stick to me," he said, patting his gown as he walked. There didn't seem to be much in the Marsh. If anything this looks like it might be more of training their endurance of walking through unpleasant terrain than training their attacks and strength.

As Enzu walked he looked around and kept a weary eye out for any items or pokemon that might suddenly appear. However it felt too quiet when both him and Akuroma were walking, so he figured he would try and make some conversation, "So Akuroma, why exactly do you want to climb Black Mist Mountain? I had figured you got all of the information that you needed from the mist."

"Black Spiral Staircase," he said as he pushed some cattails out of his way, "It's near the top of the mountain, and beyond that leads to Dark Void Peak. Much like the mist of Black Mist Mountain, the Library has very little information on the staircase and Peak. Normally they'd ask for a guild escort for one of the librarians, but after I already climbed Black Mist without their permission and came back...relatively unharmed, they decided I would be strong enough to go there again. They first sent me to the Frozen Stream to explore the area and as a punishment for going so far from Grassveil. Afterwards they said they wanted me to go on a week long excursion in Black Mist Mountain, Black Spiral Staircase, and finally Dark Void Peak. I did with another friend of mine and we barely escaped with out lives, so I decided to train. That's when I came to you and you know the rest," Akuroma explained as they continued to trudge through the marsh. He thought that there'd be some sort of dried path, but the entire dungeon was water and mud, and he was soon looking black and brown from the waist down. If he did take Enzu's advice to wash it off in the ocean, he'd probably be there cleaning out the mud longer than the two Pokemon would be in this dungeon.

(10/25 Energy)

Dracorexion carried out 3 launched of one Cattail Marsh :

, ,

"Oh okay," Enzu said as Akuroma explained his purposes for climbing the mountain again, it was for research exactly as Enzu guessed it was. As they kept walking Enzu did his best not to lose pace while they walked through the mud and water. The marsh would definitely be a good way to work on endurance, and Enzu made sure to take note that he should come back at some other point in the future. As Enzu looked ahead he noticed a small light, he had heard that Vobleat's and Illumise would like up the marsh with their tails, so he figured that there was one ahead. He didn't say anything though because he figured it would be best to try and avoid a battle.

As Akuroma trudged along, something stuck to his foot. The Ralts reached down and pulled off what looked like a piece of paper.

"Eh? What's this?" he said as he began to wipe off the mud as best as he could, revealing the paper to be a TM Defog. Though the instruction manuscript was useless to him, he could definitely sell it to the Springfall Dojo. Placing the TM into his bag, Aku looked forward to see a strange lilypad floating towards them, though his twitching horn showed the lilypad to actually be a Pokemon.

(4/25 Energy)

Enzu had noticed the small lillypad moving towards him and Akuroma, but he ignored it and kept his eyes on the Volbeat in case it would come and attack him and Akuroma. Since the lightning bug pokemon didn't seem to notice the pair of explorers, Enzu turned his attention to the item that Akuroma pulled out of the mud. "It's look like another TM." he said. Enzu caught a glimpse of the words 'Defog' on the manuscript just before Akuroma had placed it into his bag.

Since Enzu was distracted by both Akuroma's find and the Volbeat that was ahead of them, he did not notice the light mist that was beginning to surround him and Akuroma.

((Lotad's Move-set: Mega Drain, Mist, Nature Power, Growl))

Akuroma sighed, lifting his foot up and smashing it down on the lilypad, which responded with a sudden cry of pain.

"It was obvious I noticed you, yet you continued to approach," he said as he lifted his foot up and the lotad with it, mud causing his foot to stick to it's lilypad. Shaking the Pokemon off, Akuroma got an idea. Using Confusion to stop the Lotad's movements and subdue the Pokemon, Akuroma stepped onto it and began to steer it along.

"This is much better," he said as he rode around on his new ride, to which the Lotad was probably unhappy about.

Enzu watched as Akuroma began to climb up onto the Lotad, "Don't you think that's a bit cruel?" Enzu asked. He wasn't going to admit that he didn't realize that the lilypad was actually a Lotad. But it worked out that Akuroma could ride on the small pokemon, that way he would not complain so much about how his cloak was getting dirty.

"The Lotad line were built to do this. Though it may not like that I'm riding it, it's still fulfilling it's purpose," he said as he floated towards Enzu, "Either way, let's get going before the Volbeat over there decides to pay us a visit." He then began guiding the Lotad to move around the Volbeat, checking to make sure Enzu was keeping up. Akuroma wondered if they'd meet a Lombre later on, he could probably do the same thing to it as he was doing to the Lotad and then both Enzu and he could ride it.

"Well okay," Enzu said, he wasn't completely happy with Akuroma's explanation, but he decided to just go with it for now. "And I agree on the Volbeat, if we can simply avoid it then things would be a lot simpler for us." Enzu knew that they were at the marsh to train, but he figured that it would be best to avoid battles as much as possible. Getting stronger was necessary, but Enzu doubted that they wouldn't be battling every pokemon they encountered at Black Mist Mountain.

As Akuroma floated on the Lotad he looked around boredly. Despite the marsh probably having plenty of Pokemon and items, he couldn't tell anything from anything else except for the cattails, with everything half covered in mud. He frowned a bit. Perhaps the two should've headed straight to Serene Cave and back to Grassveil instead of going through here. He sighed a bit, debating it now was useless. Who knows how many Pokemon blocked their way out? It'd probably be best to just head in deeper to train more before leaving.