The amount of Mana someone currently has relative to those of the same age or with the same job as them. That was how most talent was recognized in Ortus. For example, a five-year-old boy's amount of Mana compared to those around him. If he's gifted by mana, his pool of Mana would leave his peers behind even when he's not formally trained or educated. The same goes for those who were physically talented. Even without training, their bodies would naturally develop faster compared to those who were not as talented.
All in all, they always got more resulted with less work. Unfair, yes. But that's just how the world rolled. Nothing could beat the whim of the world; only hard work could slightly bend it.
Therefore, how Ludwig would choose his Pokemon was easy. He would look into the amount of Mana they had.
Pokemon have mana?
Yes, they have. Mana was present in most of the world. He would even bet they were also present in the abandoned Earth of Aoki and his family. Only the potency as well as the amount differ from world to world. Well, their name might also change from world to world.
By the time the last light of the day disappeared from the world, Ludwig, along with Rimuru, Claire, Oak, and Looker, had arrived in the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town.
The building rose above the town like a pillar against the night sky. Its narrow windows reflected the lanterns lit up along the street below, while the upper floors disappeared into shadow where the moonlight could not quite reach. Compared to the busy roads they had passed earlier, the hill where the tower stood felt noticeably quieter.
Lavender Town itself had not fallen asleep. A few lamps still glowed in the windows of nearby houses, and the occasional voice drifted faintly through the streets. But the space around the tower remained undisturbed, as if most people preferred keeping a respectful distance after dark.
Rimuru stopped near the wooden gate and looked up.
"…Imagine going ghosthunting without the Ghostbusters."
Ludwig chuckled at the slime's words. Well, yeah, that's funny in itself. But still, what would Ghostbusters do here? Shooting some Gastly with their laser gun?
Meh, they might end up getting Pokemon for themselves.
After he thought so, Ludwig opened his mouth. "So, there will be Gastly here, Professor Oak?"
The professor, who had been lost in thought as if it was the first time he looked at the tower, looked to Ludwig before answering. "Yes. The tower serves as a resting place for Pokemon that have passed away. Because of that, ghost-type Pokemon are often drawn here."
Rimuru folded his arms as he studied the building again.
"Couldn't we just go back to that forest earlier?" He asked as his eyes moved slightly toward Ludwig. "It was dark enough there."
However, Oak just shook his head.
"Viridian Forest houses a wide variety of species, and ghost-type Pokemon indeed could be seen there. But they are rare there. Their behavior tends to center around locations tied to strong emotional residue. A place like this."
Ludwig listened to the explanation while letting his gaze drift toward the darker space around the tower grounds. The place carried a different atmosphere compared to the riverbank they had left earlier. The air itself felt stiller here, as if the night pressed a little closer around the structure.
Oak continued.
"Most ghost-type Pokemon prefer areas where human activity decreases after sunset. Places like abandoned buildings, caves, or memorial grounds such as this one."
Rimuru scratched the back of his head.
"So basically the opposite of that forest."
"More or less."
Claire stood a short distance away while observing the path leading toward the tower entrance. Abra remained beside her in its usual posture, sitting cross-legged with its eyes closed as if the change in location had made no difference at all.
Meanwhile, the Dratini rested loosely around Rimuru's shoulders, its pink body coiled comfortably as it watched the surroundings with quiet curiosity. The small dragon had spent most of the walk sliding through the grass beside them before eventually deciding that riding along was easier.
Ludwig stepped closer to the gate.
But even before crossing into the tower grounds, he could feel it. The flow of mana in this place was different. It was not stronger exactly. But the mana here reminded him faintly of old battlefields back in Ortus. It was a kind of place where mana had settled into the environment over time rather than dissipating completely.
Through Oak's explanation before, it seemed like ghost Pokemon would naturally gather in places like that.
Viridian Forest might have been darker, but darkness alone was not enough. A forest was in the end still a place full of life. Too many creatures were moving through the same space for a ghost-type Pokemon to claim it as their domain.
Rimuru finally stepped forward.
"Well." He started while glancing at Ludwig. "This is your hunting ground. I wish you a happy hunting."
Ludwig smiled faintly.
"Oh, it will be a happy one alright."
To be honest, Ludwig had butterflies in his stomach right now. He's just an exploration behind getting a Pokemon he had been a fan of for a long time.
As he let his breath out to calm his excited heart, he pushed the gate open and stepped inside. The gravel path crunched softly beneath his shoes as the group moved deeper into the tower grounds. The air grew cooler near the building itself, and the lanterns placed along the walkway cast narrow circles of light that barely reached the edges of the grass.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then something moved.
Near the far end of the path, where the lantern light faded into shadow, a faint movement passed through the grass. The shape darted quickly between the stones lining the path before stopping near the base of a low fence post. Two small eyes reflected the lantern light for a moment before the creature stepped out far enough for its body to be seen clearly.
It was a Rattata.
The small rodent stood on its hind legs while sniffing the air, its whiskers twitching as if trying to decide whether the newcomers posed any kind of threat. After a few seconds, it lowered itself again and scurried across the gravel, disappearing into a patch of grass further down the slope.
Rimuru watched the movement.
"…That one doesn't look very ghost-like."
Oak chuckled softly.
"The tower grounds are still part of the town's ecosystem." He said. "You will see more ordinary species here as well."
As if the comment had summoned the next example, a faint flutter passed above their heads. Something dark swept across the space between two lanterns before circling once near the tower wall.
Ludwig looked up.
A small bat-like Pokemon clung briefly to the stone surface before pushing itself away again, its wings beating quietly against the night air.
It was a Zubat.
It flew past them without slowing, disappearing into the darkness above the tower roof.
Rimuru followed its path with his eyes.
"Alright." He muttered low, maybe intending for only Ludwig to hear it. "That one I expected."
Ludwig looked at the darkness where the Zubat disappeared into. Yeah, that only made sense. If he used the Earth ecosystem, a rat and a bat in a place like this was almost a foregone conclusion.
They loved this kind of place.
Ludwig continued walking at that moment. On their way, a few more sounds reached them. Something rustled in the grass near the edge of the path again. Another Rattata emerged briefly before vanishing behind a stack of stones. Somewhere higher on the tower wall a Zubat shifted position, its wings scraping faintly against the surface before it disappeared into a narrow opening between the bricks.
None of them paid much attention to these movements anymore. They were what was considered normal species here. Moreover, they were not what they were looking for.
As they arrived close enough to the door, the wooden doors at the tower entrance stood slightly ajar. But rather than being the one who pushed it, Professor Oak walked past them and pushed one of them wider.
The hinges creaked quietly, and the air inside rushed at them like a tidal wave. It was cooler than the night air. On top of it, it was also stale and a little bit musty.
The lanterns mounted along the interior walls cast dim circles of light across the stone floor. The room beyond the entrance looked more like a memorial hall than a battlefield. Several carved markers stood in orderly rows near the walls, each one placed carefully as if someone still visited them from time to time.
For a moment, the group simply stepped inside. Then the door closed behind them with a dull sound.
Then suddenly, a faint movement drifted near the ceiling. However, it's not fast like the Zubat outside.
When Ludwig's eyes shifted to the source of the movement, he could see something round hovering in the darkness above one of the lanterns. The shape expanded and contracted slightly as it floated through the air, while a thin haze surrounded the small body drifting between the beams of light.
Then, he could see two bright eyes opening within the mist.
Only by that, he could recognize the identity of the creature.
It was a Gastly.
Before Ludwig could even move, Rimuru, who stood beside him, chimed. "That easy? No way, right? I have to search for so long, yet a Gastly appears just as we enter this tower? The hell?"
The Dratini coiled around Rimuru's neck perked up at his owner's word. Then, as if losing interest as it was not food, it lay back down.
"Well, I doubt it will be easy." Ludwig answered before letting some strands of mana flow into his eyes.
A new world appeared in the Pokemon world. If what he did could be translated into a function of a piece of tech, it would surely revolutionize the world.
The Gastly he was seeing right now had mana in it. But compared to Claire's Abra and Rimuru's Dratini, it was nothing significant. It could be chalked up to Gastly being an inferior pokemon compared to them in this stage of evolution. But Ludwig didn't think so. The more accurate reason was that both the Abra and Dratini were quite talented. They both had higher mana in their body compared to the others of their species they had seen through this journey.
Thinking he shouldn't catch the Gastly right now due to how low its mana was, Ludwig moved deeper into the tower.
The Gastly near the ceiling did not react when the group passed beneath it. Its round body drifted slowly between the wooden beams above.
Rimuru watched it as Ludwig walked past it.
"…You're not going to get that one?"
"Nope." Ludwig answered.
"Why?"
Ludwig didn't answer the question instantly. He just looked at Professor Oak and Looker first. Only when the two realized Ludwig was looking at them and gave him their attention did he open his mouth.
"Uh… I have a way to see whether a Pokemon is talented or not. It's not really fool-proof, but it works in my world."
Professor Oak did not interrupt him. If anything, the older man's attention sharpened a little.
"A way?" Oak asked.
Ludwig nodded once. "In my world, we judge talent by the amount of mana someone has compared to the people at the same stage as them. Imagine this, two Gastly, but one has more mana than the other. I'm willing to say the one with more mana is stronger and has a higher ceiling than the other."
Professor Oak listened without interrupting.
His eyes moved briefly toward the Gastly drifting above them, then back to Ludwig. The reaction was not disbelief. If anything, the older man looked like someone comparing a new idea against a set of observations he had gathered over decades.
"That is an interesting way." Oak said.
He folded his hands loosely behind his back as he looked up toward the ceiling again.
"And it was on the same path as how we judged whether a Pokemon had high potential or not."
Rimuru leaned slightly to the side so he could see Ludwig's face.
"So you're basically saying you can tell which one is the better pick."
"Something like that."
"By looking at them."
"Not exactly looking at them. But what is inside them?"
Rimuru squinted.
"…Right."
Claire did not comment, but her eyes shifted briefly toward Abra sitting beside her before returning to the drifting Gastly above them.
Oak nodded slowly.
"If what you describe exists, it would explain several long–standing observations."
He paused.
"But I assume it is not perfectly accurate."
"No." Ludwig admitted. "It's closer to… probability. But I can make it accurate, but it will require your help and some research."
The word seemed to pique Oak's curiosity rather than the precious one.
"Oh… That's something worth trying. Just let me know, and we'll dive into it."
"Later then, for now, let me get my own Pokemon." Ludwig nodded before once again walking deeper into the Pokemon Tower.
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