"Ugh..."
Halfway through its physical training, Vulpix's stomach churned, threatening to vomit its breakfast.
However, Ace was quick, literally. With the Elite Trainer title, his reaction speed had increased by 10%, allowing him to quickly grab Vulpix's snout.
Then, under Vulpix's almost desperate gaze, Ace pressed its throat, forcing the food that had reached its gullet back down.
Vulpix's small frame was too frail to keep up with Ace's main Pokémon's training pace. However, Ace didn't reduce its training just because Vulpix was a new addition.
Since Vulpix had the determination to grow stronger, it had to endure the pain on the path to strength!
Physical training ended, and Vulpix lay on the ground like a puddle of mud, completely exhausted. It couldn't even move a single paw.
Ace assigned his other Pokémon their respective training routines, then walked specifically to Vulpix. He lifted it by the scruff of its neck, bringing it to eye level, and said to Vulpix, "It's your turn."
Vulpix whimpered coaxingly, hoping Ace would let it off the hook.
"No," Ace ruthlessly rejected Vulpix's idea of slacking off, stating seriously, "The food I prepared for you this morning was special. Now that your stamina is depleted, the Energy Cube's nutrients can fully nourish your body. Even if you tried to slack off, your stamina should have mostly recovered by now. Next, you need to practice temperature control, trying your best to raise your flame's temperature. I'll also give you relevant Energy Cubes to help you later."
Vulpix stared, mouth agape, an expression of utter shock on its face.
Indeed, just as Ace said, after resting for a bit, its stomach felt warm, and a warm current quickly flowed throughout its body, its stamina mostly recovering.
The situation was now clear: Ace absolutely would not let Vulpix slack off. Vulpix, helpless, had no choice but to obediently sit down after being released and, following Ace's instructions, began to condense the temperature within its body to increase the power of its flames.
Ace, with Lapras as a precedent, had some experience in temperature control.
More importantly, Vulpix's ability was Flash Fire. It was immune to Fire-type attacks and could also boost its own fire power.
With this ability, it was relatively simple for Vulpix to increase its flame temperature.
It was a perfect match for its specialty, and its improvement speed would be much faster than Lapras's.
"It doesn't need to be flashy; the most fundamental aspect of fire is burning," Ace told Vulpix. "The prerequisite for burning everything is to have sufficient temperature. Not enough, still not enough. Keep increasing the temperature. Convert all the nutrients into fire..."
As he spoke, Ace disregarded the gradually intensifying heat emanating from Vulpix, pointing at Vulpix's body to guide it on how to further increase its temperature.
"Now! Release the high-temperature flame in one go!"
Following Ace's words, Vulpix suddenly opened its mouth, and a Flamethrower roared out, shooting straight for over ten meters before slowly dissipating.
Vulpix was stunned. It knew it hadn't even learned Flamethrower yet, so how had it used it instantly just after a single guidance from Ace?
"Flamethrower, huh?" Ace smacked his lips. "Still a bit lacking. I thought it might skip Flamethrower and go straight to Overheat."
If anyone else had heard Ace's words, they'd probably be furious enough to hit him.
Was that even something a human would say?
Vulpix hadn't even mastered Flamethrower yet, and he was already expecting it to learn Overheat.
However, Ace didn't have that kind of self-awareness. In his mind, if Vulpix could raise its temperature higher, it was entirely possible to reach that step.
Looking at the somewhat excited Vulpix, Ace couldn't help but pour cold water on its enthusiasm. "What are you excited about? You haven't even mastered a basic Flamethrower. You're truly the worst Pokémon I've ever trained."
Upon hearing Ace's words, Vulpix instantly wilted.
Ace then pointed at Vulpix's tails and said, "Next time, try not to use your mouth for Flamethrower. Use your tails to gather flame attacks, understand?"
"???" Vulpix tilted its head, utterly bewildered. It couldn't quite grasp how it could breathe fire with its tails.
Ace then began to explain to Vulpix. From Vulpix's anatomical diagram, Ace could see that the location of Vulpix's Fire-type energy organs wasn't actually within its body, but in its tails.
When fire passed through the body and then exited the mouth, the efficiency wasn't too slow, but it definitely couldn't compare to generating fire directly near the energy organs.
And it was important to remember that Vulpix had six tails, meaning six energy organs.
After evolving into Ninetales, it would have nine energy organs!
Imagine Ace commanding Ninetales to attack, and Ninetales raising its tails, sending nine streams of Flamethrower towards the opponent.
That scene...
Would be exceptionally exhilarating!
But that was a future aspiration. For now, Vulpix hadn't even figured out how to gather fire at its tails.
"Is your psychic ability just for show? Don't you know Psychic-type moves?"
"???" Vulpix tilted its head again, looking confused.
"Psyshock, Psyshock! Can you use it?"
Vulpix tilted its head once more, then shook its head, indicating it couldn't.
Ace couldn't help but rub his aching temples, asking the system internally, "System, didn't you show that this Vulpix knows Psyshock? Why is it telling me it doesn't?"
"Initiating scan..."
"Scan complete. Examination shows that although Vulpix's brain damage has been repaired, its psychic senses have been weakened by 99%. To restore them, please host resolve the issue independently."
"Side Quest (Vulpix's Psychic Power): Vulpix's brain once suffered severe trauma, leading to a degradation of its psychic senses. The host needs to repair this personally. Quest Reward: 100 gold coins, plus quest points based on completion rating."
Looking at the suddenly appearing side quest, Ace felt his headache worsen.
Regarding energy organs, Ace now had a successful case with Blastoise, so he at least had some ideas.
But things related to psychic abilities were generally located in the brain.
The brain was unlike a Pokémon's body; even minor damage could cause permanent harm.
This could be seen from the system telling Ace to handle it himself.
A degraded state wasn't considered damage, so even perfect physical repair couldn't fix this.
"This is troublesome..." Ace said, his head aching. "Looks like I'll have to do some serious research again. I was originally planning to rest for a month before visiting the Draconid Village, but now I'll have to sort out Vulpix first before going."
Ace sighed, then opened the system's shop and purchased the training manuals for Alolan Vulpix and Ninetales.
He hoped that drawing lessons from similar Pokémon in other regions would provide him with some insights...
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