Walking to Captain Ujiteru's office, Deimos reflected on the past three and a half weeks he had spent in Cragspur. The locals had been very welcoming, and he had tried cuisine he had never experienced. Who knew grilled Magikarp was so good? Or that seared Mareep taste better than seared steak? But that's beside the point.
The training over the past few weeks had gone extremely well in Deimos's opinion. Boldore had mastered Sandstorm and trained Stealth Rock and a new move they had purchased, Power Gem, to an acceptable level.
They had mostly trained at the training field and sparred with the other soldiers who were training there. They had won most of the battles they had against the different Pages they faced, but for the Squires they faced it was more of a fifty-fifty split on whether they won or not. Most squires had a second Pokemon, and they had more experience than Boldore.
Nevertheless, Boldore had gained an enormous amount of battle experience. They had also made enough cash in the end to buy the TM for Power Gem and have enough left over in case any emergencies arise.
Entering the building, Captain Ujiteru's office was in. Deimos quickly made his way up to the top floor and knocked on the door. After hearing Captain Ujiteru beckon him, he entered and closed the door before snapping to attention in front of the man.
"Sir, you told me to report back in a month," Deimos said quietly.
"Indeed, I did," Captain Ujiteru spoke as he looked up from the paperwork he was working on.
"Release your Boldore."
Nodding, Deimos grabbed his pokeball before releasing it.
Boldore appeared on the ground, quickly taking in its surroundings before stilling.
Captain Ujiteru sat in silence, eyeing Boldore with a critical eye while appearing to think deeply. Finally, after several minutes, he spoke.
"Passable. The mission I have for you is...unique. Only you, and of course, I will know about it. I need more information about Terrakion. The mural you found in the cave was an incomplete map. A mere fourth of the complete map. I have reason to believe that another fourth is here in Cragspur, another fourth in Pugilis, and the last fourth I have confirmed is with a wandering mercenary.
'What the fuck did I sign up for?' Deimos thought, staring wide-eyed at Ujiteru as he attempted to process the information he had just found out.
"What I want you to do is track down the remaining piece to the map." Ujiteru finished, staring at Deimos as if trying to gauge whether he was up to the task or not.
"Let me get this straight, you want me, a Page, to go on a treasure hunt for pieces of a map that supposedly lead to a dormant Terrakion?" Deimos said slowly, still not believing what Ujiteru was ordering him to do.
Without hesitation, Ujiteru said, "Yes."
"But, why me?" Deimos asked, now curious why he would be trusted with such an important task.
"You're an unknown to Cragspur's command, you were able to complete the last mission with remarkable efficiency, and above all, you proved your integrity by keeping the information to yourself," Ujiteru said as he reclined back in his chair, folding his hands over his lap.
"This may seem fast, maybe even unreasonable, but I don't have many options left. Gideon betrayed me by slaughtering my entire team, but two. Tamora, while loyal, is known to be a trusted subordinate under me and would be noticed if she disappeared for long." Ujiteru said while sighing.
'It does make logical sense," Deimos thought to himself. 'He must be out of options if he's telling me all this.'
Focusing himself back on Ujiteru, Deimos said, "I accept. Where do I start?"
A faint smirk appeared on Ujiteru's face before he said, "I've been looking into this for most of my life. Throughout it, I've collected bits of information. I've been able to discover the location of two pieces of the map, and the third, I only have a name."
"The first is here, in Cragspur, specifically in the High Hermitage, the sacred land of the Hermitage. The place that can only be accessed by our Warlord, Ujiyasu. The second is in Pugilis, the fighting-type kingdom. I believe it to be under the Terra Colosseum. The third, I only came across recently, hence the previous mission. The final piece is with a mercenary known as Keiji the 'Viking'."
"When you collect them all, come find me on the Cragspur-Viperia border. I will soon be deployed out to the war front once again." Ujiteru finished.
"Dismissed, don't contact me until you've found them all," Ujiteru stated, leaning forward and resuming work on the paperwork on his desk.
Snapping a salute, Deimos recalled Boldore and strode out of the office and soon enough the building, finding himself on the streets once again.
'Well, this is going to be fun,' Deimos sarcastically thought to himself.
'Not only do I have to infiltrate a hostile nation, I need to trespass into sacred land and find a mercenary that no one knows of, except I do know them due to my meta knowledge,' he thought.
Snorting, he thought to himself, 'I'm sure nothing is going to go wrong, just a treasure hunt where the treasure is a demigod beast. Oh, and it's not like the Keiji guy might have captured the Terrakion, great, just great.'
'Well, no worth worrying about it now," Deimos thought as he strode down the street towards the training field. 'What I do need to worry about now is getting Boldore to master Sandstorm. The move will be invaluable if I need to make a quick getaway.'
'One week, Boldore has one week to master Sandstorm before we begin planning the heist of the century. High Hermitage, the place where the truly exceptional Pokémon are kept. Talented Rhyhorn, Onix, Roggenrola, Shieldon, I've even heard rumors of a rare Axew or Larvitar and their evolutions up in there. Going to need Sandstorm," Deimos thought.
Arriving at the training field, Deimos quickly briefed Boldore that it needed to have Sandstorm mastered by the end of the week.
As he observed Boldore refine its control over the move, Deimos realized perhaps the heist he needed to pull off in High Hermitage wasn't only a challenge, but could also be turned into an opportunity.
If he played his cards right, he could come out of High Hermitage with a second member of his team. While Ransei and much of the Pokemon civilization focused on bonds and fought with one Pokemon at a time, Deimos had no misconception.
Honor doesn't exist if your life is at risk; if utilizing two Pokemon at once helped him climb in power in this world, then by all means, he would do what he had to.
A slight smile crept onto Deimos's lips as he continued to observe Boldore. They would be ready, whatever challenges this mission through at them, they would overcome, and continue on their path to the top.
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Deimos
Cragspur Page
Pokemon: Boldore
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Boldore
Moves Mastered: Tackle, Harden, Smack Down, Headbutt, Sand Attack
Moves Trained: Sandstorm
Moves Untrained: Stealth Rock
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A/N: Started a P@treon
2 Chapters ahead on P@treon (As of posting this)
www.pat reon.com/Kyyate