After confirming her registration for the Sprout Cup Freshman Challenge, which would be held three days later, Serena's next step was obvious—
Continue daily special training, focus on raising Gible, and accelerate its growth.
"Given Gible's overall strength, dominating Baby Cup matches and beginner lobbies shouldn't be too difficult under normal circumstances," Serena muttered.
"But right now, I only have Gible as my starter. If I run into Trainers who specialize in Fairy-types or Ice-types… or even Pokémon with Ice-type coverage moves, matches will become very troublesome."
While Gible was hard at work practicing its moves, Serena wasn't idle either.
She was running tactical simulations in her mind.
—Preparation never hurt anyone.
The Dragon/Ground typing Gible possessed was an excellent combination.
It had only two 2× weaknesses—Dragon and Fairy—
and a single 4× weakness to Ice.
The first two were manageable.
But a quadruple Ice weakness?
That was practically a badge of honor among top-tier Pokémon.
"Having Gible dance with Dragon Dance while simultaneously resisting Ice Beam or Icy Wind…"
"Is that actually viable in real combat?"
Dance-based moves, when used well, often significantly reduced incoming damage through timing, positioning, and momentum.
Serena recalled a Bug-type Trainer from the Johto region whose Scyther used Swords Dance to deflect even super-effective Flamethrowers.
She no longer remembered who that Trainer was—
certainly not Ash or Cynthia-tier famous.
But that innovative tactic had left a deep impression on her.
If it works, copy it.
Become a tactical "Copy Ninja."
"Hm… It's definitely a potentially viable approach," Serena concluded.
"But without real training tests and actual combat verification, I can't be sure how effective it would be."
Real-world Pokémon battles were nothing like turn-based video games.
They weren't rigid or predictable.
But she also couldn't rely purely on imagination.
Everything had to be grounded in reality.
"If Dragon Dance also had a built-in Protect effect, it'd be absolutely broken," she laughed.
At that point, she could just order Gible to spin forever—
stacking Attack and Speed buffs to +6 before doing anything else.
"But there is another strategy," Serena thought,
"one that's guaranteed to work."
That strategy was letting Gible carry a Yache Berry.
The Yache Berry was one of many strange and specialized berries in the Pokémon world—
and it belonged to the higher-tier category.
Yache Berry Effect:
When hit by a super-effective Ice-type move, the damage is halved once.
If the attack would normally deal 4× damage,
it would be reduced to 2× instead.
Suddenly, Ice-type attacks became far less lethal.
One of the core principles of Pokémon battling:
2× super-effective damage can be mitigated through defense and tactics
4× damage, however, is usually fatal
"Yache Berry… Yache Berry…"
Serena picked up her Rotom phone and began searching online.
Surely major marketplaces sold berries.
Some listings even came with the classic slogan:
'Agricultural surplus—please help us!'
"Oh—found them."
There were plenty of sellers offering regular and high-grade berries.
Basic berries like Oran Berry, Pecha Berry, and Rawst Berry were cheap—
fast-growing, high-yield crops.
Each cost around 50–100 Poké Coins.
Oran Berry:
When HP falls below half, restores 10 HP.
More advanced berries—like Sitrus Berry, which restored ¼ HP,
or Figy Berry, which restored ⅓ HP—
were significantly more expensive.
The Yache Berry, commonly known as the Ice-Resist Berry,
was a specialized defensive berry.
Its price sat between Sitrus and Figy Berries.
500 Poké Coins per berry.
Expensive?
Not exactly.
But berries were consumables.
Once eaten, they were gone.
Serena's finances definitely weren't healthy enough
to let Gible treat Yache Berries like snacks or dessert.
"If I buy one or two, that's fine—just in case," she reasoned.
"But using them as daily supplements or training snacks?"
"That would burn money fast."
She shook her head.
Raising Pokémon didn't have to be expensive.
With careful budgeting, both she and Chen Lidong could support Gible and Yamper just fine using their student allowances.
But—
There was a massive difference between raising a Pokémon
and raising one properly.
Once specialized training entered the equation,
expenses skyrocketed.
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