"Phew..."
Ace exhaled. He finally had the title! He immediately chose to equip it, and his body began to strengthen, though not to an overly exaggerated degree.
"You've gotten a lot stronger," Ash said, recalling his Poliwrath. He wasn't bothered by his defeat; instead, he looked exceptionally excited.
This was the excitement of having a new goal. For Ash, having an opponent was better than anything else.
Ace also recalled his Lapras. After a quick word to Ash, Aerodactyl soared into the sky with Ace, flying towards Ace's residence.
Flying all the way to his residence, from high in the sky, Ace saw the already growing Berry trees below, and within the Berry orchard, rows of "reserved food" hanging from vines.
Aerodactyl slowly descended with Ace into the Berry orchard. Ace inspected the Berry saplings, finding that during his time away, they had grown to half a person's height, and the originally tender trunks had begun to develop some brownish bark tissue.
"Growing very fast, but perhaps a bit too fast?"
Ace stood up and called out loudly, "Victreebel! I'm home!"
Following Ace's voice, a green leaf twitched among some fallen leaves in the distance, shaking off the debris. Victreebel then directly crawled out of a deep pit.
Seeing Ace, it immediately leaped excitedly towards him.
"Thanks for guarding the house," Ace said, quickly embracing the charging Victreebel. At the same time, he looked at the large pit, momentarily puzzled as to how Victreebel had dug it.
If Victreebel hid in there, it would essentially be waiting for prey. Any creature that got too close and stepped into the pit would fall directly into Victreebel's body, where it would then be met by Victreebel's extremely terrifying Acid.
"Did you catch these?" Ace separated from Victreebel, pointing at the "reserved food" that was tied by vines and dried like jerky.
Victreebel nodded. As the Berries began to grow rapidly, they attracted many Pokémon wanting to claim the area.
But Victreebel's presence taught them what cruelty was.
Any Pokémon that invaded the Berry orchard and was discovered by Victreebel would immediately be killed, then tied up by Victreebel's vines and hung.
Its purpose was twofold: first, to become Victreebel's food, and second, to deter other Pokémon considering causing trouble, making them reconsider their strength.
Ace patted Victreebel's body and took out some Energy Cubes as a reward.
Victreebel happily ate an Energy Cube, then seemed to remember something. One of its long, slender vine whips extended and forcefully lashed the ground.
Just as Ace was a bit puzzled by Victreebel's actions, within a short while, one head after another emerged from beneath the ground. Ace looked closely and discovered they were all Diglett!
Ace instantly realized. No wonder the Berries in his orchard were growing so fast; it turned out this land had attracted many Diglett to settle here.
Diglett could till the soil, thereby increasing soil permeability and allowing plant roots to penetrate deeper.
Diglett, in turn, would feed on plant roots. The two complemented each other.
One shouldn't think that Diglett eating plant roots would kill the plants. If that were the case, the farmers in this world wouldn't be so fond of Pokémon like Diglett.
While Diglett eating plant roots could injure the plants, the Diglett knew the importance of sustainable development. So, they usually only ate some secondary roots or overgrown rootlets; they wouldn't touch the main root.
This practice allowed the Berry trees to root deeper, absorb more nutrients, and grow faster.
"It would originally take two years to grow into mature trees, but now it looks like a year and a half will be enough."
Ace felt a sense of relief. He naturally found these little fellows endearing. He simply bought a can of Pokémon food from the system, opened it, and poured it onto the ground.
Seeing this, the Diglett gathered around, quickly devouring the entire can of Pokémon food. After eating, the Diglett burrowed back underground.
That was their home.
"Ying ying ying!"
Just as Ace finished inspecting the Berry orchard and was about to return to the cabin, a reddish-brown Pokémon darted out from somewhere. Upon meeting Victreebel, it immediately bared its teeth, clearly having a grudge against Victreebel.
Victreebel, seeing the opponent, also acted uncharacteristically, immediately entering battle mode. Its vine whip struck out like lightning.
The other Pokémon didn't back down, opening its mouth and spitting a fireball that rapidly slammed towards the vine whip.
"Thud!"
The flame was shattered, and tiny sparks flew everywhere. Seeing this, Victreebel quickly whipped its vines to extinguish the scattered sparks. After all, they were near Berry saplings, and Ace had instructed Victreebel to protect these saplings, so Victreebel would naturally do its best.
However, because of this, Victreebel, in its attempt to deal with this much weaker opponent, was constantly caught off guard and unable to unleash its full potential.
"Victreebel, don't worry about the saplings anymore."
Ace threw out a Poké Ball, and Lapras and Blastoise landed beside Ace like guardian deities.
Ace's meaning was clear: he also saw Victreebel's frustration. This time, he'd let Victreebel vent a little.
Victreebel's eyes lit up upon hearing it didn't need to worry about the saplings, then it looked at the other Pokémon with ill intent.
The reddish-brown Pokémon couldn't help but take a few steps back. It felt like it had run into a brick wall!
"Whoosh!"
In a flash of Quick Attack, the opponent desperately ran backward. Using an offensive move to flee—Ace had never seen that before.
However, the opponent clearly underestimated Victreebel.
Victreebel was slow in movement, but its attack speed was incredibly fast!
Its vine whip shot straight out. The Pokémon hadn't run far before it felt its hind leg caught. Its entire body felt like it was tearing apart from the extreme speed of its run.
With a whimper, the Pokémon was lifted by Victreebel's vine whip, dangling above Victreebel's wide mouth.
The opponent tried to struggle, but the sharp vine whip pierced its body. Soon, the Pokémon fell into a groggy sleep.
However, Victreebel didn't eat it. Instead, it tucked it inside its body, still suspended.
Three minutes later, Victreebel pulled it out.
Although it hadn't eaten the opponent, the strong corrosive gas from its Acid had completely stripped away its fur.
Ace looked at the now bare Pokémon and couldn't help but chuckle.
Ace's laughter woke the Pokémon. Then, it discovered its proud fur had been completely corroded away.
Looking utterly devastated, it glared fiercely at Victreebel, crying out frantically.
Although Ace didn't understand Pokémon language, judging from the current situation, it was probably something like, "You just wait, I'm not done with you!"