[ti]closed[/ti][C/Alicia] Faster! Faster!

"Yep!" Josh chirped at Alicia's confirmation. "You sound like you're an avid rider yourself. You get the chance to go horseback riding much back home?" He asked, trying to get to know her better. Then, awkward silence from him. Perhaps it was too much to ask? They hadn't known each other long, but already asking questions about life outside the game?

Alicia was certainly taking the easy way out, using Tikani's VINE WHIPS as straps. Resourceful, but did that ever seem restricting. It did give Josh an idea for when he rode a flying mount for the first time. That would be a long ways away, though; with Slider needing both an evolution and a high level to be ridden, he would only be left dreaming what it would be like to soar. He also did a double take when he saw just how gigantic the Bayleef was. "I didn't realize it until now, but Tikani's... huge. Is she an Alpha? She has to be. If UNOVR has alphas, that's so cool. Would love to have some myself. Imagine riding on a Jolteon!"

With the two settled, Josh squeezed Raiden's sides just as tightly as he did with Granmarg. With a whinny, the Zebstrika bolted. Not only did the smaller horse accelerate faster, sparks flying from his hooves, but he had a higher top speed than Granmarg did. "Gaaaaaaahhhhhh!!" the rider panicked as iron spires, hills, and tall grass whipped past him.

Panicking wouldn't do Josh any good. He had to remember his fundamentals. The tutorial with Granmarg taught him everything he needed to know to bring his speeding mount under control. Letting up on his grip slightly, Josh signaled for the horse to slow. Though it took many circles around the tall grass field they were nearby, Josh being careful not to enter it lest he trigger an unwanted encounter, he was able to get Raiden to a controllable speed. "Whoa! You're... really fast, Raiden!" Josh complimented, still gasping for air from riding at what he felt was full gallop.

"That's... nothing," Raiden answered in a snarky tone. "Try riding me in a Quick Attack."

Even after bringing Raiden to a stop near Alicia and Tikani, Josh was stunned. He had never thought about using Pokémon moves while in the saddle. Would it be faster than a normal Sprint? How fast was Raiden's "normal" Sprint, anyway? He wanted to go fast, and he was getting it. It was a lot scarier than he thought it would be.

Be careful what you wish for, Devlin.

"You too?" Josh asked, trying to comfort Alicia in the silence. Perhaps he had been a bit too insensitive. He would try to write it off, transition away from life beyond the game, anything to make her more comfortable. "There's no place to do it where I'm at, either. One of the reasons I got into UNOVR at all was to experience it for myself. Since I was a child, I had dreamed of riding on fast animals. Think a cheetah. Having done it here, it's fun, but it's a lot more terrifying than I thought it would be!"

When Alicia mentioned the Gardener class, the gears turned in Josh's mind. He had received a Type Mod for a banking error in his favor not long ago. Devs had given it to him in exchange for correcting the thousands of erroneously-received BYTES that had appeared in his inventory. "So this means I could make any Pokémon I wanted big, so long as I have a Grass-type Type Mod? Might have to put those plans of getting Zapdos DNA on hold..."

Enhanced by the lightning storm's presence, the Zebstrika was faster than a real-world cheetah. He knew from his experience with traditional Pokémon games that electric Pokémon were absurdly fast. "It was just... more than I was expecting is all," the now-calm rider replied. "I do have a reaction time under naught-point-three. It's what playing lots of video games gets you. I think it's more physical in nature. It's going to take a lot of training and getting used to going so fast before I can reliably do it. And this isn't the best place to practice yet. You have any suggestions?" he asked. "I haven't been to every zone in Asper yet."

When asked about Type Mods, Josh shrugged. "How about we go into the help menu and find out together?" If they went into their menus, they would find that type mods were only a mechanical change and not a cosmetic one; applying an electric Type Mod to a Ponyta, for instance, would not change its appearance. Mechanically, though, it would make a difference. "It says here that there are two types of Type Mods: primary and secondary. Primary is used to replace the existing type, while secondary adds a type or replaces the second type if they already have one. They're pretty rare, though. I got mine from an event."

"Admittedly, exploring UNOVR is a lot easier if you saddle up like I do," Josh half-teased Alicia. Walking everywhere was tiring, and some of UNOVR's terrain was pretty rough. Ostellia especially. Asper was mostly flat, but it had enough hills to wear one out if they tried to travel too far on their own. Alicia was right, though; they had spent quite a bit of time together. She may as well have been a permanent member of his party, with how much time they spent logged in together.

As the conversation turned toward Type Mods once they had reduced their speed to a more reasonable level, Josh nodded in agreement. "It's a lot of BYTES to invest, though... in getting Gardener maxed. I wouldn't want to invest that kind of money until I max my other class first. The prospect of making some Pokémon really big like Tikani is nice, though. Imagine... being able to strap a saddle to a Jolteon. How fast you'd go." Jolteon were well-known for being fast as lightning, but were too small for even a child to sit on. If a Bayleef could be ridden by a Gardener, then surely a Jolteon could be, too.

"Ever thought about buying me a Flying Type Mod, Josh?" Raiden asked. "I bet it'd make me faster, too!"

Josh rolled his eyes. "Why do all the ultra-fast Pokémon have to have Ground weaknesses?" He asked to no one in particular.

Alicia did have a point; it was harder to appreciate the world when it was flying by at the speed a Pokémon mount could reach. Especially late game and endgame ones. From the pool of available legendary Pokémon, there was one Josh already had his eyes on: Galarian Zapdos. Which it wasn't his favorite, they were blistering fast. "Wonder if there's a data mine out there of all the overworld speeds of Pokémon. That would help a lot." Even if it existed, it was probably hard to locate due to likely being against TOS.

Alicia's quick quip got a laugh out of Josh. "That's good to know, but the issue is you can't equip a second class simultaneously without maxing your first one first. I can't afford to give up Ares' extra damage... and damage from other fire Pokémon." The last remark got another chuckle out of him, almost like a living laughtrack. "I'm already struggling with adapting to Raiden's speed. And I haven't even had him sprint yet. Gotta work up to a Jolteon's speed, you know?"

Tikani's concerns were valid, too, particularly when Josh sharply reined Raiden around a steel spire coming up a bit more quickly than he anticipated. Even with reduced pain thresholds, a crash into anything would still cause thumping pain. "That can be fixed with a cocoon saddle," he rebuffed the Bayleef. "Ever seen one? They're common on dragons."

The answer to that question depended on whether UNOVR had Pokémon speeds set per species, or there was a range they fell between, much like real-life creatures. Were it the latter, getting the fastest Pokémon in the game would be far more of an ordeal than it needed to be. Could Josh, one day, handle speeds so fast. "Don't disagree there. I'd be plaster on the wall if the Galarian Zapdos I'm after could actually do a buck eighty in-game."

He couldn't help but laugh at Tikani and Alicia bickering with one another before getting back to the topic at hand. A lightning strike forced the wannabe racer to rein his Pokémon out of the way if he didn't want to get engulfed by flames from brush igniting. "Not just for dragons. For birds, too. Imagine the bank angles some of those Pokémon can get to. If you've never seen one before, they have material you zip up that wraps all the way to your waist." He hesitated for a moment before thinking of an illustration. "You play Magic? The card game?"