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Both Sprigatito and Trapinch had Gold Talent ratings, but they were Gold Talents of very different kinds. One look at Sprigatito's stats made it obvious that it was the straightforward kind of strong. Its raw numbers were exceptional, and any trainer who reviewed its data would immediately understand that this Pokemon was on a path toward becoming a top-tier battler, the kind capable of standing against Legendary Pokemon.
Trapinch was a different story. Its strength came wrapped in a complicated set of mechanics that depended heavily on the trainer's skill to unlock. Its ceiling was astonishingly high, but its floor was equally alarming if handled poorly.
Trapinch had six traits in total, which made it one of the most trait-heavy individuals Nova had ever come across. Even so, its two core traits were really what defined it.
The Prince of Quicksand trait looked impressive on paper, but at this stage it only interacted with four moves that involved sand. If it were nothing more than a bonus to a handful of moves and a modest STAB boost, it would not be enough on its own to justify a Gold Talent rating.
But the name "Prince" suggested something. Titles like that usually implied there was something higher, something like "King" or "Emperor," waiting further up the line. In other words, this trait had room to grow, and what it would eventually become would only be revealed once Trapinch had evolved far enough to unlock it.
Looking at the effects of its other minor traits, it was clear that Trapinch's full potential was really only meant to come through after evolution.
The Tunnel Expert and Early Bloomer traits worked together with that purpose in mind. One helped Trapinch accumulate experience faster than normal. The other pushed it toward evolving into its next form sooner than the standard level. Together, they acted as a fast track.
It did not take Nova long to understand why.
The answer came down to the fundamental difference between what Sprigatito was and what Trapinch was.
Sprigatito was a cat. Even in its final form, which stood upright and took on a more humanoid silhouette, it was still a feline at its core. A cat that walks on two legs is still a cat. Because all three of its evolutionary forms shared the same basic biology, even a young Sprigatito could express most of its inherent talent from the start.
Trapinch was built differently. Although it gained the Dragon type upon evolution, its base form was closer to an insect. Insect-like Pokemon did not simply grow, they transformed entirely. That kind of evolution was less like growing up and more like being reborn.
Even just going by appearances, a trainer new to Pokemon might connect Flygon and Vibrava by sight, but they would never in a million years guess that the squat, round-headed Trapinch sitting in the sand was the starting point of that line. Nova himself, back in his previous life, had thought the same thing. He had only been able to watch the anime in scattered moments when time allowed, never having had the chance to sit down and properly play the games. For a long time, he had assumed Vibrava was more closely related to Yanma, and that Trapinch was the kind of Pokemon that might evolve into something like Shuckle.
Because Trapinch's entire body changed so dramatically with each evolution, it made complete sense that its first form existed mainly to gather energy for what came later. Expecting it to show its full talent this early would be like expecting a cocoon to fly.
Still, the Berserker trait had given Nova pause.
HP lock and priority on every move. Even if those two effects were separated and given to different Pokemon, either one alone could anchor the kit of a Purple Talent Pokemon. Having both stacked together on the same trait bordered on unfair.
Which was exactly why it came with the warning it did.
This was the first time the system had flagged anything in such direct language. Nova had noticed that. The wording was not a caution. It was a warning.
He thought about Trapinch's background. It had hatched from an egg that Taylor had tampered with, an experiment carried out on a Flygon of Elite Four caliber using what the system had called a "malicious drug." Given that origin, the presence of some kind of side effect made sense. Nova could accept that.
More than that, if Trapinch had come out of that situation with no side effects whatsoever, looking perfectly normal, acting perfectly normal, with no signs of anything unusual at all, that would have frightened Nova far more.
True danger did not announce itself. The things that kept Nova up at night were not the problems he could see and name. They were the ones where he knew something was wrong but could not find where the damage actually sat. A hidden problem was a timer with no display, no way to know when or whether it would go off.
At least with the Berserker trait, everything was visible. The danger was written out plainly. Nova could work with that.
Besides, building a strong bond with a Pokemon was something Nova felt confident about. He had watched the anime more times than he could count and had played through the main series games in his past life. Cultivating trust with a difficult Pokemon was not new territory for him.
He looked at the Pokemon already on his team. Every single one of them had been a handful at some point. And every single one of them had come around. A "Danger" label on a trait description was not going to change his approach. If anything, it was a challenge.
But that could wait. Right now, what mattered was feeding the little one.
Trapinch had already started gnawing on one of the Thermal Volcanic Rocks buried in the sand, clearly not willing to sit around and wait.
This was Nova's first time raising an insect-form hatchling, and some of his usual methods did not quite apply. He started by offering Moomoo Milk, the standard choice for young Pokemon. Trapinch refused it without much consideration.
Nova did not let it go to waste. Purrloin had done a solid job guarding the house while he was away, so both large bottles of milk went to it as a well-earned reward.
Trapinch had a clear interest in meat. It finished a Tauros Sirloin synthetic steak without any hesitation. But when Nova set out a second piece, the little one ignored it and went back to crunching on the Thermal Volcanic Rocks, its powerful jaws working through the dense mineral material without any apparent difficulty.
The Tunnel Expert trait had noted that Trapinch's diet had been altered, but it had not given any specific ratio. That was something Nova would have to figure out through observation.
He had his answer now. Meat was to Trapinch roughly what snacks were to a person: enjoyable, but not the main course. Rocks and minerals were the real meal.
As it turned out, that made Trapinch one of the simplest Pokemon on Nova's team to feed. He had a pile of corundum ore sitting unprocessed from his recent trip to the Uninhabited Area. And if that ran low, the mineral vein in the area would serve as an open buffet whenever Trapinch needed a refill.