"I was wondering if you had a map of town, or the surrounding area," Mel asked. "Or if you can give us directions, either way."

"Of course," Joy said, nodding. She gestured to a small organizer near the front doors. "There should be some maps over there, both for the city and the region. Feel free to take what you need."

"Great, thank you!" Mel grinned at her before heading over to grab a couple maps for them.

"My pleasure!" Joy replied. "And if you don't mind my saying so, I would suggest trying to make your way to Little Root town if you get the chance? I've heard that Professor Birch sometimes gives useful things to trainers who visit, especially new trainers."

"Excellent," Mel said. "We can use all the help we can get at this point." She smiled. Now that was a good idea, especially since Dratini weren't exactly found in every pond. Larvesta weren't very common either, now that she thought about it.

"I'm glad I could help," Joy said. She smiled. "Good luck to you both!"

"Thanks!" Mel waved a bit to Joy as they headed out.

"So, that was a good idea, heading to Little Root town. Can't hurt." She glanced over at Ithica.

"Definitely can't hurt," Ithica agreed, nodding. She grinned. "Depending on how close we are to the games or the anime, we might run into the region champion while we're there."

"Oh goodness that would be amazing and hysterical," Mel said with a little snicker. "Either way, it's a solid plan, I approve."

"Then let's head to Devon Corp and see what it would take to get pokegear, first," Ithica said. "Then, did we want to take on the gym while we're in town? I think it's a rookie-level gym."

"You can try if you want, I'm going to wait," Mel said with a shrug. "We'll probably be in the area later, and I don't mind waiting."

"We'll see," Ithica said. "Devon Corp first, then we can figure out if we're headed for Little Root or not."

"Sure." Mel grinned and looked at the maps she had. "Well, off to Devon Corp, then."

"Let's go," Ithica agreed.

It didn't take long for them to get to Devon Corp. Ithica was a little surprised when they were allowed to walk right in through the front door.

"No badge security or anything," she murmured to Mel. "Feels weird, but I guess it's because their whole schtick is serving trainers."

"I guess so," Mel murmured. "It does feel odd though, almost unprotected. Then again, with pokemon, our normal security measures might not work so well."

"True," Ithica replied. "Still. Feels weird." She shook her head a bit.

"It does."

"Good afternoon," the receptionist greeted with a smile. "How can I help you two today?"

"Uh, yeah, hi," Ithica said, a bit awkward. "We were wondering if we could get any information on how to get a pokegear? We're both new trainers, and we heard that pokegear is definitely a good thing to have."

"It is," the receptionist agreed with a smile. "We do have pokegear for sale, and we have a good price if you have your new trainer's license with you."

Ithica nodded and pulled out her license.

"We don't have a lot," she admitted. "We're pretty much starting from scratch, so we might not be able to get them today, at least until we make a bit more money."

"Oh that's alright," the receptionist agreed. "As long as it's under two weeks you'll be fine." She smiled at them. "If you want, we keep a list of odd jobs around town for trainers to do. Some of them involve type-specific Pokémon, too. If you'd like to take a look."

Ithica blinked.

"That would be really helpful, thanks," she said.

The receptionist smiled and nodded, pulling out a copy of the list to give to the girls. "Here you go."

"Thanks," Ithica said. She moved over so Mel could see the list too.

Mel perused the list. "Well, nothing is jumping out at me," she murmured. "There's some cleaning and organizing on here, I can definitely work on that."