Tales of the Grind (ft. Smith)
by Skorupi-anon
While not long, my stay in this world has certainly been eventful up to now. True to my suspicions, this world does seem to operate by very similar rules to the real world Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games in many regards. I've been able to adapt more quickly than I expected to in some areas, but others still baffle me. Let me share my experiences:
Firstly, my new body. Surprisingly, controlling this new, scorpion-like body feels like second nature to me. Every action I take feels perfectly natural, from walking on four legs, to articulating my tail, as well as my pincers. On top of that, despite my small stature, I've discovered that I can lift what seems like several times my own body weight, using my tail. I'm stricken with a mixture of joy and concern over my new, super-human abilities, at least relative to my old body. Part of me is afraid I'll forget what it feels like to even had been a human to begin with.
Seeing as how I'm stuck this way indefinitely, I decided to work towards my goal of gaining as much power as I can, to ensure I can survive long enough to return to the normal world.
As I stated earlier, I'm already pretty familiar with how this world works due to my many hours of gaming. (It's still difficult to believe that it actually payed off, in a twisted way.) I'm grateful to have found Capim Town, which has been my in-and-out sort of home base. ...Well, mostly in the sense that I have a general area to stick to. I haven't found a place to stay yet. I haven't talked to any other Pokemon that I've seen, and have only picked up on bits and pieces of gossip and rumors. As well, I haven't been able to keep any money, for reasons I'll explain later. My immediate concern has been getting food, and to get it, my only choice has been eating what I can find lying around in the mystery dungeons. Not exactly top class eating but I have to survive somehow.
Around the outside of the town there are several mystery dungeons, the furthest ones I've reached being about a half day's walk away. Ironically, I feel ridiculously lucky to have found myself here, as the feral Pokemon residing within the dungeons provided me with plenty of combat training. As crazy as it sounds, I'm strangely relieved that they attack at first sight, with no intent to talk things out. It makes it far easier for me to fight them without feeling regret, or having to question if it's right. Jesus Christ, I've only been here for, if I had to guess, two weeks at most, and I'm already trying to justify beating up what are essentially wild animals, and eating food off of the dirty ground.
Anyways, about the dungeons. There are many forests in the area, so I've grown well accustomed to fighting off Grass, Bug and Poison type Pokemon. I guess that makes it even more lucky that I've been reborn as a Skorupi: my own Poison and Bug typing gives me incredible natural resistances against the ferals, for the most part. Many of the common Sunkern, Oddishes and Shroomishes fall swiftly to the techniques I've been practicing, but I've already grown strong enough to the point where technique isn't always necessary anymore; Merely ramming with my body, or even a basic scratch from my pincers is enough to significantly injure the below-average ferals. I started off with primitive biting and stabbing using my fangs and stinger, but I've already begun to hone the offensive capabilities of my body.
After practicing enough, I've gained the ability to secrete a vicious poison through my claws at will. It started as a defensive reflex, and quickly became a conscious action. The closest comparison I can make to the human body would be... it reminds me of when you gather a lot of saliva in your mouth, and spit it out.
...I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but it's the most accurate thing that comes to mind. Moving on, the more unfortunate Grass types started dropping like they were nothing after enough training with my poison. The offensive and defensive utility of subduing a foe with poison seriously can't be understated, as it allows me to finish off a weakened opponent, as well as potentially making their movements more sluggish and easy to dodge. I'm worried that it feels a bit too good... even if I have a good amount of control over it, I don't know what I would do if I left someone permanently injured, or possibly worse.
It isn't all easy, though. There are still many Flying types that patrol the forest, and they are significantly more of a threat to me than the average feral. Their rapid movements and small figure make them much more difficult to land a clean hit on, an issue only compounded by their ability to fly out of my reach, forcing me on the defensive at a significant disadvantage. On top of this, my innate weakness to Flying type attacks puts me particularly at risk of taking serious damage. Countless early defeats were at the hands of these menaces. I think I have a slight grudge against anything with wings at this point, and I've tried to avoiding engaging Flying type ferals in dungeons altogether unless absolutely necessary. However, over time, I've developed rudimentary tactics for fighting back against those feathered bastards, thanks to the items that appear in the dungeons.
There are always a variety of items scattered throughout the dungeons, such as food, money, cloth accessories, colored orbs and more. To be honest, the accessories are nice looking, but I haven't had interest in them. More importantly, I can't wrap my head around these orbs. I expected them to hold convenient powers to help my travels, but I can't figure out how to make them do anything. On my most recent outing I was able to retrieve a curious red ribbon, which I've decided to put away for safe keeping. I'm not sure if it does anything at all, but it's the only real possession to my name at the time. I've decided to wear it the next time I go to the town, in an effort to appear slightly more formal and less like a neanderthal who punches cave walls all day. ...Besides that, I do just find it pretty charming.
As for the food, there are, of course, dozens of Apples. It's super simple, and while they don't taste half bad, the flavor tends to get stale after it's the only actual meal you've had in weeks. They do wonders for filling up my stomach so I guess I can't complain too much.
Of higher interest are the colorful Gummi candies that I spot occasionally. They aren't very filling but, true to my expectations of the gummy snacks, they send a rush through my whole body that feels like a jolt of lightning from my tongue to the tip of my several appendages. They really are delicious, even the ones with the more off-putting colors. I can't get enough of the pink ones: even eating just one makes every muscle in my body feel like they're bursting with strength. The pink ones seem to be pretty uncommon, as there are many different colors that I've come across with no apparent bias in distribution.
But the items that stand out to me the most are the TMs. I've seen many different kinds in my exploits, but I tend to lose all of them nearly as soon as I grab them, again, for reasons I'll go into eventually. The only TM I've actually used on myself contained "Rock Tomb", which I found on one of my first expeditions into the dungeons. As I pressed it against my forehead, incredibly vivid images of myself hurling rocks large enough to be considered boulders appeared in my head. It was as if the knowledge had been literally injected into my mind. Allow me to go into more detail on how I trained intensely in an effort to master my new power...
My "training ground" is merely a short stretch of dirt on the outskirts of a forest roughly ten minutes of walking from the town, underneath the shade provided by the foliage. Nearby boulders tower over me, forming a half circle around part of the dirt. They act as my durable training dummies on which I practice my moves. I started exercising with Rock Tomb my picking up the pebbles and small rocks accumulated around the base of the large stones, working my way up in size and weight over several days. I was able to apply this in several ways once I got the hang of it: I was finally able to fight back against those flying assholes and hit them out of the sky. I don't really care if the method is as primitive as chucking rocks, I don't have sympathy for them. Besides that, it also allows me to attack a grounded opponent from a distance. With good enough aim, I can hit an enemy in their crucial weak points to slow them. I might have a knack for hitting weak spots, sometimes going as far pinning them to the ground under a well-aimed rock for a brief moment. However, even after that, I pushed myself further.
As the setting sun peered through the gaps in the leaves above, illuminating my private little zone of strength, I thrust my tail into the ground for what felt like the one-thousandth time that day. With enough force to completely penetrate the earth, I grip a chunk of rock with my rear stingers as hard as my muscles allow me to, lifting away from the ground and causing small splits and cracks to form. Exerting as much effort as I can possibly put forth, I raise my tail, carrying a large rock roughly the size of my own body. Using my last bit of strength for the day I'm able to launch the stone. A heavy THUMP shakes my body to it's core, and as I collapse to the ground, the rock rests roughly a foot from my face.
I haven't explored any dungeons since, as my whole body still feels like jelly after overexerting myself, and I need time to recover. While I've been inactive for the past few days, I've had some more time to reflect. Surely at this point I've gained a satisfactory level of strength. I can hold my own against seemingly anything that would threaten my safety out here. Yet, I still have rarely entered a mystery dungeon and made it out without being forced out. (Still assuming this world functions like the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon that I'm familiar with, even though I played them frequently I was always pretty bad at the games... specifically the exploration and resource management aspect.) I'm more than powerful enough to defeat my enemies in dungeons yet for whatever reason my journeys tend to end in failure.
Whether it be finding myself hopelessly lost, or accidentally drugging, harming, or otherwise incapacitating myself by eating an unknown seed I found off the ground, or feeling sudden powerful gusts of wind, the result is always the same: I wake up groggily in front of the dungeon's entrance, all of the money and items I'd collected gone like they were never there in the first place. It's why I haven't been able to save any money or keep any useful TMs for later. Because I lose any food I had as well, I'm forced back into a loop of exploring the dungeons, surviving off whatever random food I find, then waking up with memories of what transpired before, with varying levels of clarity. But even besides the survival aspect, deep down I really enjoy the battles. It's an exhilarating rush that I've never experienced in my life, and the constant want to get stronger pushes me towards a goal that I'm not sure has a concrete end, that is, if I even want it to end.
It feels good being strong, but this new life is starting to take its' toll on me mentally. I've decided that I need an actual place to stay, rather than a patch of dirt next to some rocks out in the open, exposed to the elements. Thinking back to the gossip I've overheard in the town, there has quite a bit of whispering about a "Clover Guild", and every conversation about it inevitably shifts its' focus to the very eccentric members that comprise the guild, and everything from their wild degeneracy, constant sexual harassment, and barely coherent, nonsensical, esoteric references and in-jokes. More importantly than that, I've heard talks of the large number of Pokemon that are employed at the guild, as well as being allowed to live there. I tell myself that they sound completely deranged before I remember how deranged my sudden transformation into a Pokemon and subsequent isekai into another world is. Throwing caution to the wind, I decide to don my ribbon and set out for the Clover Guild the next time I leave the base.
The worst I can imagine happening is that either they'll try to kill me, or they'll be a bunch of gay ass degenerate larpers. But what are the odds of that in this world?