Chapter 4: Hard Work

  As Matty walked into town with Grub on his shoulder and a tent under his arm, he walked towards the Pokemon office hoping to find Sarah. Because he had set up his temporary lean-to and didn’t need the tent anymore, he had patched the bite holes using Grub’s silk. It was a scorcher out today, and Matty definitely regretted his choice to live so far from town. Walking up to the office, he saw Martha sitting in her chair resting while clutching a brown striped pillow.

  “How’s today treating you?” Matty asked politely. He looked around to see if Sarah was in but didn’t see her. While waiting for Martha to look up, he clocked that the office was significantly colder than the outside, but still warm

  “Oh, it's treating me quite nicely dear,” Martha said, sitting up and setting the pillow down on her desk. To Matty’s shock, it turned around to reveal a pink nose! Matty sat staring at it for a second before it snorted some snow at him and walked into the back of the office.

  “What Was That?” Matty asked, still trying to get a glimpse of the strange creature.

  “That's just my pet Paulie, he’s a Piloswine, I just like to keep him around because he has been such a dear using his ice-type moves to help cool down the office, without him I might have caught heatstroke and died,” Martha said while smiling knowingly.

  “That is so cool, Literally,” said Matty. “Have you seen Sarah at all today, I need to return this tent and thank her for lending me some food”

  “Well, yesterday, a wagon train came in, and they set up a small market outside town on the side facing the woods.”

  After thanking Martha for the cold air and the nice visit, Matty walked through town toward the forest. Remembering how he had needed some way to create a permanent water source or augment his temporary one, he looked around to find a solution. After seeing that most of the hoses had a water barrel to collect rain, he saw it was mostly used to water plants. Remembering that the town had 2 wells, he stopped by the one that was closest to his route.

  It was an old-style pump well, but it looked well used and taken care of. Matty made a mental note that something similar would work well with his plans for his farm.

  Walking up the wagon circle, and walking around the people hawking their wares, he found a surprising number of people both buying and selling. There were even people selling Pokemon in cages, with a surprising amount of variety. He saw foodstuffs being exchanged, basic weapons, Apricorn balls, and almost everything necessary for frontier life He also saw a berry trader selling seed packets, and a basic gardening kit. Walking around the wagons, he accidentally bumped into a girl carrying a basket of supplies.

  “Oh my bad, here let me help you,” said Matty, setting down the tent. To his shock, it was Sarah who he had bumped into!

  After helping her pack up her supplies, he gave her her tent back and helped her carry her stuff back to the office. Martha was asleep, using Paulie as a pillow, so they talked quietly so as to not wake her.

  After helping her stow the tent and other supplies, they both went over to the job request board. Sarah had explained that there were only a few ways of making money in this town, but Matty struggled to remember what they were. Sighing, Sarah explained again.

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  Farming- Growing foodstuffs, like wheat or potatoes which took the same time he remembered them to grow, or growing berries, which took days or weeks instead of months (they also were a necessary component to Pokemon food). This was a rather steady form of income, that was safe from issues such as surplus and devaluing because everyone needs food, and it is easy to export. He could also raise Pokemon and sell them or their eggs, to be eaten, or sold to a trainer, depending on the type

  Jobs- Most jobs were rather trivial, but all were found on the job request board. They could be as simple as package delivery, bounties, materials orders, and more. Though slightly less steady than farming, this was a good way to make a quick buck.

  Foraging and Crafting- mostly similar to what Matty had been doing so far, this consisted of gathering wood and other items from the forest, plains, and mountains to either sell or make into useful tools like apricorn balls

  There were other professions too, but none were as friendly to beginners and required training or were very safe. As Matty looked at the job board, he saw one that looked rather simple, a basic Package delivery job with a decently high reward. He needed the money, and Sarah wanted to help, so they both woke Martha up and accepted it. The delivery was for an out-of-town house near the forest and was for basic building supplies. Feeding Grub the last leaves he had on him, he was surprised to see he had shrunk slightly. Worrying he had not fed him enough, he made a note to grab more leaves on the way to the job.

  Walking through the wooded path with Sarah, Matty decided that he and Grub needed a food break. Stopping under an especially tall tree, he opened his prepared lunch, and set grub loose in the green leaf litter. They sat there, talking for a while, while Grub crawled off into the underbrush on his own.

  Crawling up to a berry bush, grub began devouring the leaves like there was no tomorrow. He knew that there was something in store for him, his instincts were going off like crazy. He had eaten the whole berry bush and was crawling to the next one when he suddenly was stuck in a web! Looking around he could see that there were lots of webs hidden in the berry patch, but he knew better than to struggle.

  Ending their lunch laughing, Matty and Sarah packed up their food and began looking for Grub. following the trail of devoured plants, they soon came to a berry patch. Seeing the bushes, Sarah's whole face lit up. “Jackpot!”. She exclaimed. As it turned out, these berries were highly sought after by all types of Pokemon because of their delicious taste, nutritional value, and rarity.

  Gleefully picking them, she only noticed grub sitting tangled in a web until it was too late. Right as she noticed, she began to panic. Her struggles to free herself soon alerted what had made the webs that it had caught something. Up in the tree, hearing screams and feeling struggles, it descended.

  Looking up, Matty was horrified to see three massive green and yellow spiders slowly descending on their threads. The spike glistened on their head, and Matty swore he could see venom dripping from their mandibles. Sarah began to scream even louder, as the terrifying creature began to come closer and closer. Throwing the first thing she had on hand at one, she nailed it with an apricorn ball. As it struggled to escape, the other two sank closer. Seeing her idea, Matty threw another ball at the snarling spiders and barely nicked it. It too went into the ball, struggling to escape. Right before the third one could land on Sarah, Grub made his play. Leaping for it, he nailed the spider right in the thorax and knocked it to the ground, where Sarah punted it into the forest.

  Catching their breath, they heard two dings go off. Looking at the balls on the ground, they both picked theirs up and found that they had captured the spiders.

  “What were those?” asked Matty, still breathing hard from adrenaline.

  Sarah looked at the balls the spiders were in like they could explode at any second. “Those were Spinaraks, you got really lucky your Caterpie didn’t get eaten by them. Now hurry up, we have to finish this mission.”

  They gathered what berries they could, delivered their packages, collected the reward money, and began to walk back to town. Matty contemplated the ball in his hand and tried to think of a name for his new accidental acquisition. Walking up to the wagon circle, he found himself at the farming supply cart. Grabbing a berry he had gathered, he asked how much they would trade for it. He was offered a basic growing kit which he gladly took. He knew that he was about to start his new life in full swing