Day eight of the journey. Cloudy.
The weather was decent today; the rain had finally stopped. Ever since they got back to the villa yesterday afternoon, the Pokémon had gone right back into training.
After breakfast, Pelipper's schedule stayed the same: training Rain Dance as the main focus, with Tailwind and Protect on the side.
Pelipper had picked up Protect back when they all learned it together, and after so many days of practice, its Rain Dance was finally battle-ready.
[Pelipper]
[Type: Water + Flying]
[Gender: Female]
[Potential: 69%]
[Level: 34.47%]
[Ability: Drizzle / 17.39%]
[Known moves: (Gust / 15.59%) (Roost / 20.01%) (Aqua Ring / 18.23%) (Water Gun / 28.49%) (Quick Attack / 20.29%) (Wing Attack / 15.58%) (Water Pulse / 9.87%) (Agility / 22.37%) (Rain Dance / 26.17%) (Tailwind / 24.11%) (Protect / 9.74%)]
Pelipper's potential hadn't changed much, but its level had climbed to 34, one level lower than Kingler.
After more than twenty days of training, Drizzle's proficiency had gone up by sixteen percent. Clearly, using Rain Dance to "feed back" into the Drizzle ability worked. Pelipper just had to keep grinding.
Then there were the move changes…
Gust was up five percent.
Roost was up six percent.
Aqua Ring was up nine percent.
Water Gun was up seven percent.
Quick Attack was up eleven percent.
Wing Attack was up six percent.
Water Pulse was up five percent.
Agility had climbed twelve percent—no surprise, it got used a lot when running away.
Rain Dance was up twenty-three percent, the single biggest increase.
Tailwind had risen twenty percent; that one also saw a lot of use when retreating.
And Protect had reached nine percent proficiency.
The other moves hadn't really been drilled lately. The reason their numbers still went up was simply Pelipper's level rising, which in turn nudged all of its move proficiencies up—just like Rain Dance feeding back into Drizzle.
The growth rate wasn't as crazy as the heavily trained moves, but more or less every Pokémon on the team showed a similar pattern.
After checking Pelipper's panel, Reiji sent it back to training. Its plan remained unchanged: Rain Dance was still the top priority.
Next, he needed to find time to have Pelipper learn U-turn, Water Bubble(''''''''Original Author mistake''''''''), Hurricane, plus Stockpile and Spit Up—five moves in total.
Who said Pelipper couldn't burst? A single Stockpile into Spit Up had base power 100. If it Stockpiled several times… well, you could do the math yourself.
That was Pelipper's burst package. Under rain, Water Bubble and Hurricane were both big nukes. Add in Stockpile and Spit Up, and the only thing Pelipper was really missing was endurance—its stamina.
Keeping rain up also burned stamina, so training Rain Dance doubled as conditioning work. Pelipper's combat power was anything but low. Anyone who underestimated it would be in for a surprise.
Next came the running drills for Poliwhirl, Scyther, Kingler, Rhyhorn, and Croagunk.
Poliwhirl was doing weighted hill sprints up the waterfall, with an extra hundred kilos on its back.
Scyther had strapped on weighted wristbands and was sprinting with Agility, also under a hundred kilos of load.
Kingler wore a weighted vest and ran using Agility, likewise under a hundred kilos.
Rhyhorn, the big goof, was running as well. After being stuck in a Poké Ball for so long, it could finally gallop to its heart's content.
Croagunk was running too, just on a different track. It only did a slow jog. Its sweat was poisonous, so it wasn't training together with Poliwhirl and the others.
Shelmet was practicing Mud Shot. It had already learned the move; now it just needed accuracy. Reiji had originally wanted to buy Electric-type Pokéblocks for Shelmet, but he was broke, so that would have to wait.
For now, drilling Mud Shot's accuracy was just as important. Landing your hits mattered a lot.
If every attack in those key moments connected, you'd get the best possible outcome.
Shelmet's goal was to be able to land four Mud Shots in a row on a moving target while moving itself—that was the passing line. In other words, its accuracy had to be even better than Kingler's.
The last main-force member, Gastly, didn't really need conventional training. It got stronger just by evolving. Today's evolution experiments hadn't started yet; Reiji would be running tests on Gastly's evolution later.
Plenty of his Pokémon were gifted in the same way as Gastly: Kingler, Rhyhorn, Scyther, Croagunk, Shelmet, Pelipper, Butterfree… a lot of them.
As for Magikarp—uh, not this one. This one's talent wasn't bad either, but Reiji wanted an even better one. There were plenty swimming around in the ocean; he could take his pick.
Gastly-level talent was rare, though. If Gastly could actually pull off Reiji's Mega-evolution concept, then Slowpoke should be able to as well. Those two would be top-tier prodigies.
Once he'd laid out the main squad's training tasks, it was time for Psychic practice with Butterfree, Slowpoke, and Staryu.
Ditto and Spinarak, meanwhile, were on Protect drills. Ditto had transformed into a Spinarak, and the two of them spat Pin Missile at each other to train Protect and evasion.
Wishiwashi and Magikarp had it the easiest. From time to time they would fire Water Gun at Pelipper's silhouette on the wall, and at Spinarak and Ditto as well, helping the three of them practice Protect.
That left Farfetch'd. The duck was running with Poliwhirl and company. Reiji's plan for Farfetch'd was simple: stamina, speed, accuracy, and training with its leek.
Farfetch'd's leek was insanely sharp. Using it to chop firewood and boil water was a total waste. Honestly, it could probably chop down trees. Reiji still didn't know what to actually use Farfetch'd for, so for now he was just raising it.
Once all the Pokémon had their training tasks, Reiji took Gastly to yesterday's storage room and closed the wooden door.
He hadn't brought Poliwhirl and the others along this time because nothing had gone wrong yesterday. Gastly's evolve–devolve cycle was controllable; there was no need to worry.
From yesterday to today, with Pokéblocks essentially unlimited, Gastly had climbed to level 5. That meant Reiji could run two evolution trials. He planned to test Ghost Gem and Psychic Gem.
The Poison Gem could wait. He already knew Gastly got stronger when it drank poison, boosting its internal Poison typing as well as its potential—and ending up drunk. That one carried risk; best to try the other two attribute gems first.
So he took out a Dusk Stone, some Ghost Gems, the Spell Tag, some Life Energy Pokéblocks, plus a Psychic Gem, a Twisted Spoon, and some Psychic-type Pokéblocks, and sorted them into two neat piles.
He was going to have Gastly try the Dusk Stone, Ghost Gem, Spell Tag, and Life Energy Pokéblocks first. Pointing at that pile, he said, "Gastly, dig in. Whatever you like…"
"Gaaas-gas!" Gastly was a country boy; it had never seen a spread like this. Its tongue hung down in a long drool, and it didn't even know which one to lick first. This was heaven.
It used to think Life Energy Pokéblocks were delicious, but compared to the Ghost Gems, they were junk food.
Just as it was about to lick a Ghost Gem, it noticed the Spell Tag and Dusk Stone. The ghostly energy pouring off the Ghost Gem suddenly felt like a tiny candle, while those two were a pair of thousand-watt floodlights, calling to it.
"Gaaas-gas, this is too hard to choose…" Gastly agonized, not sure what to eat first. It was afraid that if it went for the Dusk Stone, it wouldn't have room left for Ghost Gems, and it really wanted the Life Energy Pokéblocks too. They might not hold as much energy, but they tasted amazing.
"Gastly, it's all yours. What are you hesitating for?" Reiji watched it stall. Had this glutton actually hit its limit? That didn't sound right.
Last night, after digesting twenty-five Pokéblocks, it had polished off another half a box. This was the most voracious Pokémon he'd ever seen—half a box of Life Energy Pokéblocks in one sitting, plus evolution on top of that, and it could eat a whole box in one go.
"Gaaas-gas…" Gastly floated over the other pile radiating tempting Psychic energy and asked Reiji with its eyes if those were also for it.
"They're all yours," Reiji nodded lightly. Everything here was Gastly's food.
"Gaaas-gas!" Gastly happily circled him several times, then hovered over the Ghost-energy pile and started gobbling down everything infused with Ghost-type power.
Once Gastly had swallowed the Dusk Stone, one Ghost Gem, the Spell Tag, and a whole box of Life Energy Pokéblocks, Reiji told it to evolve and to draw out every last drop of Ghost energy from the items.
"Gaaas-gas!" At the word "evolve" Gastly erupted in a blinding white light.
This time the light was so bright Reiji had to raise an arm to shield his eyes. Just going by the visual, this glow was way stronger than the evolution light from before when Gastly hadn't eaten any supplements.
Once the evolution finished, Haunter didn't need him to say anything—it knew the drill. It immediately devolved back down to Gastly.
Reiji pulled up Gastly's panel again, ready to log the values for the gem-loaded evolution.
[Gastly]
[Type: Ghost + Poison]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 41.60%]
[Level: 6.60%]
[Ability: Levitate / 7.92%]
[Known moves: (Confuse Ray / 10.57%) (Lick / 11.55%) (Hypnosis / 9.41%) (Mean Look / 7.48%) (Curse / 8.15%) (Hex / 7.23%) (Will-O-Wisp / 8.45%) (Toxic / 3.84%) (Shadow Ball / 5.82%) (Dream Eater / 9.12%) (Destiny Bond / 4.63%) (Payback / 5.26%) (Dark Pulse / 4.41%) (Rest / 5.81%)]
"Damn, that's a big jump…" Reiji stared at the panel, quietly stunned.
Gastly's potential had risen by 3.1 points, and its level hadn't dropped from devolving—if anything, it was up by 1.2.
On top of that, Ghost-type moves had all climbed: Confuse Ray up two percent.
Lick up one percent.
Curse up two percent.
Hex up two percent.
Shadow Ball up one percent.
Destiny Bond up two percent.
Payback up one percent.
Dark Pulse up one percent.
All of the Ghost-type moves had ticked up together. And not just Ghost-type—Dark Pulse, a Dark-type move, had also risen. That meant the Dusk Stone involved Dark-type energy as well.
After all, one of the Pokémon that evolved with a Dusk Stone was the Dark-type Murkrow.
Reiji was dazed for a moment as he stared at Gastly's panel. Then he hurriedly wrote everything down and called out, "Gastly, spit the Dusk Stone, Ghost Gem, and Spell Tag back out. I want to take a look."
"Gaaas-gas…" Gastly hesitated. He'd said it was all its food—so why did he want to "look" now?
"I'm not taking your stuff. I just want to see how much purity the Dusk Stone lost." Reiji reached out and stroked Gastly's head. If Gastly didn't solidify a body, there was nothing to touch.
Overall, it felt pretty good. Gastly just felt a bit cold, like opening the fridge door in midsummer. It also gave off a faint sweet smell.
"Gaaas-gas…" Hearing that, Gastly realized it had overthought it. Everything here was its own; Reiji wouldn't trick it. This trainer had never lied to it before.
When Gastly spat the items out, Reiji put on gloves before picking them up. Bare-handed, he was afraid he might get poisoned.
[Dusk Stone: A strange stone that allows certain Pokémon to evolve (Purity 46.12%)]
[Spell Tag: A held item that boosts the power of Ghost-type moves (Boost: 19%) (Grade: 41.23%)]
[Ghost Gem: A small gem packed with pure Ghost-type energy; it exerts an irresistible allure on Ghost-type Pokémon (Purity 57.92%)]
That was the data from before. Now it read…
[Dusk Stone: (Purity 40.12%)]
[Spell Tag: (Boost: 19%) (Grade: 40.23%)]
[Ghost Gem: (Purity 12.92%)]
The Dusk Stone had lost a full six percent of its purity, and the Spell Tag dropped one percent.
The Ghost Gem had been drained by forty-five percent, down to just twelve.
And that still wasn't counting the whole box of Life Energy Pokéblocks. Gastly had swallowed enough Ghost-type energy for three whole items, and all that only translated into a 3.1-point rise in potential.
Looking at the numbers on Gastly's panel, Reiji felt a little numb. But as he stared, he suddenly realized its potential had broken 41—that was an advanced tier.
Maybe Gastly had needed that much energy just to break into advanced. If that was the cost for the Elite Four threshold, how much energy would it take?
Honestly, one more test would tell him…
"Gastly, eat everything again and run another evolve–devolve cycle." Reiji really wanted to know, if Gastly didn't have to cross a major threshold like advanced, how much potential it could gain and how much energy it could absorb. Where exactly was the upper limit on a single evolution?
So he pulled out another Ghost Gem and tossed it to Gastly, letting it devour it.
"Gaaas-gas!" Gastly happily swallowed all four items again, then wolfed down another box of Pokéblocks before starting the next evolve–devolve cycle. After it reverted, Reiji opened its panel again.
[Gastly]
[Type: Ghost + Poison]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 44.00%]
[Level: 6.90%]
[Ability: ...]
Potential was up another 2.4 points, and level another 0.3.
You couldn't say the gains were bad; it was just that almost everything was going into potential, with only a sliver of energy left over for level.
"Once more, Gastly." After logging down potential, level, and the move gains, Reiji had Gastly repeat the process and got a third set of data—
(End of chapter)
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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