As it turned out, the name "Prosperity" had something to it after all. On the very day Aresdra clipped the tag onto Purrloin's collar, the payment from the well-known streamer Konnor came through.
Nova had sold twelve pieces of jewelry in total, most of them jadeite and diamond. The sale had been straightforward, but the knowledge behind it was anything but.
Everything Nova knew about this particular trade had come from Mort, who had taken the time to teach him personally. As a Ground-type Master-level Professional Trainer, Mort understood these things at a level Taylor never could. Taylor had worked in research before finding his way into the criminal organization, and that background showed. He knew the rough outline of things but not the substance beneath it. He had heard that Ground-type and Rock-type Pokémon could absorb energy more efficiently by consuming precious ores and gemstones, but he did not know the reason, and he did not know which specific materials were actually worth using. He had simply sent his people out to grab or buy jewelry in bulk at low prices and threw the lot into his safe without further thought.
Mort, by contrast, had gone through everything Nova recovered and sorted it carefully. Rare materials like Phosphophyllite and Antarcticite, valuable and impossible to substitute, were set aside as cultivation resources for Pokémon. Corundum varieties such as sapphires and rubies, which contained trace elements useful for training, were kept as well.
Diamonds and jadeite were put in a separate pile for sale. Both held strong individual market value, and cheaper alternatives existed for their role in Pokémon cultivation, which made them ideal for converting into funds.
The twelve pieces brought in just over 1.3 million in total. Mort declined any share of the profit outright, and Nova did not argue the point. The full amount went to him.
Nova did not have Jacinth's personal contact details, so he did the next best thing. While she was live, he sent close to 50,000 worth of stream gifts to her channel. It was his way of saying thank you. Jacinth had made the whole deal possible, and this approach had the added benefit of giving her channel a visibility boost while also putting real money in her pocket. As far as Nova was concerned, it was the right way to handle it.
Before this, Nova had a little over 300,000 in savings. With 1.3 million added on top of that, the financial pressure that had quietly followed him and Aresdra around for years finally lifted. It was not a gradual improvement. It was simply gone.
Aresdra's costs in Purple Gold City were going to be significant, so Nova transferred 500,000 directly to her card without making a fuss about it. The city was expensive, but that amount would carry her comfortably through the auditions and then some.
As for the rest, Nova was not planning to sit on it. Expenses were only going to grow as the journey continued and Aresdra added more Pokémon to her team. His approach for the near future was simple: spend where it mattered, and do not hesitate.
The first item on the list was Poké Balls.
When money had been tight, standard Poké Balls at 200 each were the only real option. His partners had never complained, but that was not the point. Now that he had the means, Nova wanted to give each of them something better. More than that, he wanted to let them choose for themselves.
Corviknight, entirely predictably, went straight for the Luxury Ball. That Pokemon had always had a taste for the finer things, and Nova had learned not to be surprised by it. Given that Corviknight had a history of coming through when it counted most, Nova was happy enough to oblige.
Sprigatito picked a Friend Ball. It rarely spent time inside a Poké Ball by choice, and would make its displeasure very clear if Nova ever tried to keep it confined against its will, but it still wanted the ball with the highest friendship rating available. It was making a statement about where it stood.
Nidoking's choice caught Nova off guard. He had expected it to go for the Heavy Ball, which suited its size and weight well. Instead, it chose a Moon Ball. Given that Nidoking's evolutionary line used a Moon Stone to reach its final form, there was a kind of logic to it. The Moon Ball seemed to resonate with something in Nidoking's nature in a way the Heavy Ball simply did not.
Growlithe had no particular preferences when it came to where it slept. Any enclosed space would do. But Nova thought ahead. Growlithe was the type to end up taking hits, and that was only going to become more frequent as battles grew harder. Nova chose a Heal Ball for it.
Purrloin picked a Dusk Ball without hesitation. It was active at night by nature, and the Dusk Ball's properties suited that perfectly. In practice, though, Purrloin was unlikely to spend much time inside any ball at all. It had taken on the role of the villa's nighttime patrol and seemed to consider it a personal responsibility.
Nova also bought two Dive Balls: one for the partner he was expecting to have soon, and one for a very specific purpose he had been thinking about for a while.
He had not yet chosen a Starter Pokémon.
Nova was still under eighteen, which meant the Starter quota was still available to him. With enough money now to pay the full initial deposit upfront, he intended to use his connections to track down a Pokémon Factory and make his selection. It was admittedly an unusual situation. Most Trainers picked a Starter at the very beginning. Nova would be doing it after already having four main Pokémon on his team. He knew how that looked, but he had his reasons.
He had decided on Mudkip.
The first reason was straightforward. Mudkip's evolved forms, Marshtomp and Swampert, both carried the Ground type. As the successor to a Ground-type Master, it made sense to have a Pokémon built around that specialty. Swampert in particular would be a strong asset when the time came to compete at higher levels.
The second reason was more personal. Mudkip's hidden ability was Damp. During the events in Lune Town, Nova had come dangerously close to the consequences of Self-Destruct, and the experience had stayed with him. Aresdra had her own coverage at home, but Nova wanted something with him at all times that could neutralize that threat in the field.
What Nova could not have known, as he made these plans, was how different things were looking for Robbin.
Robbin, the person Nova had spent considerable energy staying cautious of, was not in any position to be a threat to anyone at the moment. The word that came to mind was miserable. Hunting down the people who had harmed her was far beyond her current reach. Getting through a single day on her own was already a challenge.
She had made her way to the border region between Cornus City and Chalcedony City, where the landscape became a dense, broken tangle of mountains, rivers, and canyons. It was one of the most difficult stretches of terrain in the entire Norlandia Alliance, a vast Uninhabited Area that locals had long called the Mournful Prison Mountains. The name suited it.
Somewhere inside that forbidding stretch of wilderness, set back from an unremarkable cave entrance, Team Rocket operatives in uniform stood on guard. This was Team Rocket's main base of operations within the Norlandia Alliance.
Placing the base in a region that sparsely populated and difficult to navigate was exactly the kind of move that suited an organization like theirs.
Robbin had not known where this base was before now. That information was closely held. Among all the senior figures operating in the region, only Rene, who oversaw the base's day-to-day management, and Weasel, who served as the Boss's personal secretary, had known its exact location.
After Robbin made it out, it was Weasel who reached out to her through the organization's internal network and passed along the coordinates. The Boss had given that instruction personally. He had told Weasel once, with a particular kind of certainty, that if Robbin survived, she was going to suffer for it.
That suffering was apparently just beginning.