Soon, Barboach and Whiscash helped Lucas plant all the lotus roots. The brothers then returned to their original home to prepare for moving.
Lucas also went to help.
The brothers dug out the remaining lotus roots from their puddle, and Lucas took Munchlax and the others to help carry them back to his house.
Barboach and Whiscash had already decided to store all these lotus roots with Lucas. He put them in his refrigerator and then instructed Diancie to provide portions to the brothers every noon and evening.
In this way, the two Water-type Pokémon officially became neighbors with Lucas's family.
––––––
In the blink of an eye, several days passed. On this particular day, Lucas and Munchlax had just bid farewell to the Pokémon who had finished breakfast when they suddenly received a system notification. The taskbar status had changed.
[Invite 100 Pokémon, deadline 30 days. (100/100) — Completed, rewards pending.]
The last novice task was finally complete. Lucas had even deliberately delayed it, but he hadn't expected it to be completed so quickly.
Without hesitation, he clicked to receive the reward, and the system immediately displayed a notification window.
[Congratulations to the host for receiving the reward: Constitution +2.]
As soon as Lucas finished claiming this reward, another pop-up window immediately appeared on the system taskbar.
[Congratulations to the host for passing the novice period, obtaining achievement rewards: Constitution +5, Intelligence +5, Home Binding Qualification, System Permission Sharing Qualification.]
Lucas glanced at his personal information bar, and sure enough, the data had been updated.
Lucas
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 16 (+500)
Constitution: 12
Intelligence: 8
Cooking Evaluation: A novice who can make edible dishes.
He clenched his fist, feeling that his whole body was filled with power at this moment, as if he could almost take down a Tauros with a single punch.
He looked at the system taskbar again and found that the interface had been updated, showing:
[Daily Task 1]
Train in the cooking training room for 1 hour — Pending.
[Daily Task 2]
Invite 10 Pokémon — Completed, rewards pending.
Lucas didn't need to guess to know that these two daily tasks were fixed and would be refreshed every day in the future. He didn't hesitate to claim the rewards for the completed [Daily Task 2].
A prompt window appeared immediately.
[Congratulations to the host for receiving the reward: 1 catty of rice.]
One catty of rice? Is this so meager?
But after thinking about it, Lucas felt it was reasonable. After all, it was a daily task that would refresh every day, and such rewards were typically modest.
Checking the system backpack, Lucas indeed saw a "1 catty of rice" icon inside. Come to think of it, he hadn't eaten rice for quite some time. He decided to prepare it for dinner that night with a couple of stir-fried side dishes. It would definitely be delicious, and there were plenty of vegetables ready for harvest in his garden.
However... his novice period was over. Would the seasonings in his kitchen still be available? Without seasonings, he would be completely at a loss and unable to prepare any dishes properly.
Suddenly, Lucas remembered that after passing the novice period, he seemed to have received special rewards: Home Binding Qualification and System Permission Sharing Qualification. What were these exactly?
"Diancie! Diancie!"
Time for his guiding sprite to appear again!
"Coming, coming!"
When Diancie heard Lucas calling so urgently, she thought something serious had happened. After listening to his questions, she realized:
"Oh, is that all!"
Then she explained to Lucas in detail what Home Binding Qualification and System Permission Sharing entailed.
First was the Home Binding Qualification.
Lucas could choose a location as "Home" and then bind it to the system. After binding, as long as Pokémon lived in "Home," no matter where Lucas was, he could summon them and send them back at any time.
Then there was System Permission Sharing.
Lucas could use the system to issue wages (happiness points) to the Pokémon living in Home, and then share the system store's permissions with them, allowing the Pokémon to freely shop in the system store!
After listening to Diancie's explanation, Lucas said in surprise: "Goodness, is it really that convenient?"
Diancie nodded, "Do you want to bind Home?" Her face was full of expectation; she also wanted to shop in the system store.
Lucas eagerly replied: "Yes, definitely! Home is of course where we live now."
"Very well."
As Diancie finished speaking, a pop-up window appeared on Lucas's system interface.
[Bind the current residence as Home?]
[Yes]
[No]
Lucas clicked "Yes" without hesitation, and the system immediately displayed a prompt:
[Congratulations to the host for successfully binding Home.]
Diancie asked again: "Do you want to share permissions with Pokémon?"
Lucas didn't hesitate here either. "Yes, of course."
Sure enough, as soon as he spoke, the system interface displayed another prompt.
[Share the Pokémon sub-system?]
[Yes]
[No]
This sub-system must be the shared permission, right? After Lucas clicked "Yes," a second window appeared immediately.
[Please select the sub-system sharing object.]
[Diancie]
[Komala]
[Munchlax]
This was a multiple-choice selection, so Lucas simply selected all three, and the system immediately displayed a notification: [Congratulations to the host for successfully sharing the sub-system.]
After the permission sharing was complete, Lucas found a new button below his personal information interface.
[Wage Distribution]
He clicked the button, and a new window appeared.
[Please select the wage distribution object.]
[Diancie]
[Komala]
[Munchlax]
This was also a multiple-choice selection, with input fields for wage amounts positioned beside each name.
Lucas thought for a moment, then entered 500 for each one. It wasn't that he was being stingy; he simply didn't have an abundance of points. He promised himself the salary would definitely increase in the future.
After Lucas finished entering the amounts and clicked OK, his happiness point balance suddenly decreased by 1,500. At the same time, Diancie and the other Pokémon reacted as interfaces suddenly appeared before them.
[Diancie]
[Balance: 500]
[Shop]
[Backpack]
The sub-system interfaces for the three Pokémon were identical except for the name. They were concise and very user-friendly.
Diancie, as the system's guiding sprite, was naturally familiar with everything. After seeing the interface appear, she immediately said to Lucas playfully:
"Thank you, boss, for the reward."
Meanwhile, Komala and Munchlax stared at their interfaces with puzzled expressions.
Seeing this, Lucas said to Diancie: "Alright, stop teasing, and quickly teach Munchlax and Komala how to use the system, or their brains might short-circuit."
"Yes, boss!" Diancie dashed away in a puff of smoke.
Lucas shook his head with amused resignation.
The three Pokémon then gathered together and began studying how to use the sub-system.
When Lucas was preparing lunch at noon, he discovered that his seasonings hadn't decreased; they had actually increased, along with flour and other ingredients.
Diancie explained the reason to him. To allow for a smooth transition, the system had provided him with enough ingredients and seasonings to last a month. Once these were used up, it would be entirely Lucas's responsibility to find new sources of ingredients.
Lucas once again felt that the system was truly considerate, taking all aspects into account.
In the evening, Lucas went to the training room with Munchlax as usual, and after an hour, the system taskbar status changed.
[Daily Task 1]
Train in the culinary training room for 1 hour — Completed, reward pending.
[Daily Task 2]
Host 10 Pokémon — Completed, reward claimed.
He clicked to claim the reward, and the system displayed a notification.
[Congratulations, Master, for receiving the reward: a bunch of celery.]
Well, the daily task rewards were consistently practical, if modest.
Early the next morning, Diancie knocked on Lucas's door.
"Lucas, there's a new task. Do you want to accept it?"
"What task?" Lucas asked.
"Take a look." Diancie showed the task notification to Lucas.
[Procurement Task]
[Go to Azoth Kingdom for a food procurement, do you want to accept?\
[Yes]
[No]
Seeing this task, Lucas was momentarily stunned.
Azoth Kingdom, his former home!
He had long thought about returning for a visit, but whenever he considered that it was probably unrecognizable now, he felt a wave of homesickness.
Was he finally going back?
Diancie could understand Lucas's complex emotions—after all, Azoth Kingdom had once been her home too.
"Let's go back and see," Diancie said gently.
"Okay." Lucas smiled and nodded to Diancie, then accepted the task. The system taskbar interface immediately updated.
[Daily Task 1]
Train in the culinary training room for 1 hour — Pending.
[Daily Task 2]
Host 10 Pokémon — Pending.
[Procurement Task]
Go to Azoth Kingdom for a food procurement — Pending.
Daily tasks refreshed each day, and Lucas didn't need to accept them manually.
Although the task rewards were modest, the advantage was their consistency. Diancie had also mentioned that there was a very small chance of exceptional items appearing among the daily task rewards, which would depend entirely on Lucas's luck.
Additionally, now that the novice period had ended, none of Lucas's tasks would have time limits, though failing to complete some tasks promptly might affect the acceptance of subsequent ones.
After accepting the new task, Lucas, Diancie, and Munchlax went downstairs together, and a new day began.
In the kitchen, Lucas entrusted the steaming of buns to Munchlax while he worked with the reward he'd received from completing the previous night's task—a bunch of celery.
"Munch~ Munch~" What are you making, Lucas?
Munchlax stared intently at the celery in Lucas's hand while kneading dough.
Is Lucas going to make something delicious again?
Remembering the rice they'd eaten the previous night—so fragrant!—Munchlax couldn't help but salivate.
It's just that the portion had been rather small, just enough for a taste.
The rice reward Lucas had received was only half a kilogram, nowhere near enough to satisfy Munchlax's hearty appetite.
Lucas smiled and said: "We won't have steamed buns this morning. Let's try something different."
He planned to use the celery to make stuffed buns.
Stuffed buns would be a nice change from plain steamed ones.
Hearing Lucas's words, Munchlax's eyes lit up, and its kneading motions accelerated.
So exciting!!!
Lucas glanced at Munchlax and shook his head with amusement.
He finely chopped the washed celery, added various seasonings, and stirred until well mixed. He also incorporated scallions and garlic grown in his own vegetable garden, plus a drizzle of the system's special sesame oil. The aroma was irresistible.
After preparing the filling, Lucas took the kneaded dough from Munchlax and rolled it into long strips. He cut these into equal portions and began folding the buns.
Holding a piece of dough in his left hand, he added filling, then used his right thumb and index finger to pinch the edges. Keeping his thumb steady, he used his index finger to create pleats around the circumference, forming perfect folds in the dough.
The appearance of Lucas's buns was flawless—white and plump, about the size of a baby's fist, with uniformly spaced pleats. They looked machine-made rather than handcrafted—a skill that required considerable practice to master.
Lucas's bun-making speed was impressive, and soon the cutting board was covered with cute white buns. Munchlax watched with shining eyes, not even blinking.
"Munch~ Munch~~" Lucas, I want to learn this!
Lucas asked with a smile: "You want to learn?"
"Munch~~" Yes, please teach me!
Munchlax nodded eagerly, reaching out to gently touch a bun. So cute, it thought.
"Okay, I'll teach you later." Lucas naturally had no reason to refuse.
"Munch!!" Thank you!
Munchlax spun around happily.
After the other Pokémon had finished breakfast, Lucas, Diancie, Munchlax, and Komala gathered around a table. A steamer of buns sat in the center, hot steam carrying a delicious aroma that tempted all four family members.
Munchlax kept twitching its nose, as if wishing it could inhale all the fragrance directly into its stomach.
"Alright, everyone, let's eat. Try today's buns and see if they're delicious."
As soon as Lucas finished speaking, Munchlax eagerly grabbed a bun.
Hoo-ha~ Hoo-ha~~
The freshly steamed buns were very hot, and Munchlax sucked in air to cool its mouth, but even so, it refused to release the delicious food in its paws.
Although Komala's eyes remained closed as always, its movements were no slower than Munchlax's.
Munchlax took a bite that consumed half the bun, revealing the crisp celery filling with its juice. The fresh vegetable taste, interspersed with chopped scallions, mingled with the wheat aroma of the bun wrapper, the two elements perfectly complementing each other.
Wonderful!
"Munch~~~" This is amazing!
Seeing Munchlax and Komala eating happily, Lucas smiled contentedly and urged Diancie: "Diancie, you should eat quickly too before they're gone."
The family of four rapidly finished a steamer of buns, though Munchlax still looked unsatisfied afterward and consumed another steamer of plain buns alone.
There was no helping it—the celery reward from the system had been limited, so Lucas only had enough to make that small batch of stuffed buns, just enough to whet Munchlax's appetite.
Having eaten so much, Lucas picked up Komala and took Diancie and Munchlax out for a walk to aid digestion.
The morning breeze on Nebel Plateau carried a hint of coolness, making them feel refreshed as they strolled leisurely across the grass. Occasionally they greeted Pokémon they encountered along the way.
Compared to when he first arrived at Nebel Plateau, the Pokémon's attitudes toward Lucas had completely transformed. While not all had fully accepted him, at least now almost none ran away at the sight of him—at worst, they might pretend not to see him.
Of course, these were the minority. Most Pokémon were now quite friendly toward Lucas and his family.