Chapter 56: A New Round of Learning

Amu had long since noticed that Exeggutor’s speed was insufficient, but he hadn’t focused on training its skill preparation speed—after all, with a base stat of merely 55, any improvement would be limited and hardly worth the effort. Not to mention, Amu had plans for Rhyhorn after this…

Rhyhorn was a typical example of a Pokémon whose movement speed and skill preparation speed were completely different. While Rhyhorn wasn’t slow when running—just not agile enough, which is why it was a mainstream riding Pokémon—its speed stat was only 25, meaning its skill preparation speed was extremely slow! Even after evolving into Rhydon or Rhyperior, its speed would only reach 40.

For such Pokémon, training skill preparation speed would have little effect. It was far better to focus on non-skill combat techniques. If one truly wanted to compete in terms of skill usage…

Only Trick Room could come to the rescue!

In Pokémon battles, skill accumulation speed was a result of the interplay between both sides, but Trick Room’s effect was to reverse this “interplay” within the space it created. In the games, activating Trick Room meant the action order was immediately reversed, with the slower Pokémon moving first. In this real Pokémon world, Trick Room didn’t “swap speeds” so dramatically, but it could narrow the gap between fast and slow Pokémon. Under Trick Room, the relatively faster a Pokémon was, the more its speed would be reduced, while the relatively slower a Pokémon was, the more its skill preparation speed would increase—in other words, the speed gap would narrow!

Used skillfully, Trick Room could compensate for the disadvantages of slow Pokémon and remained the core technique for “slowpoke teams” even in this world. However, it was difficult to learn, and generally, only Psychic-type Pokémon could master it. Apart from Oranguru, which could naturally learn it as it grew, all others had to acquire it later in life.

With this in mind, Amu released Ditto as well. “Coffin, you can try learning Trick Room in your Cofagrigus form here…”

After transforming, Ditto had to learn the skill on its own, and Cofagrigus could learn Trick Room. Seeing Ditto’s indifferent attitude, Amu added, “If you’d known Trick Room before, you wouldn’t have been defeated by Boom so easily… Boom didn’t take a scratch that time, you know!”

Ditto simply rolled its beady eyes at Amu, giving him a “piercing” look, but Amu didn’t press further. There was no need to rush, and Ditto, despite its indifference, was quietly observing the skill demonstrations.

Not only did the training room project three-dimensional images, but after connecting the TM device, Amu found it could even simulate similar waves of psychic energy. Although these had no real effect, they served as a helpful guide for learning skills.

There were six TM interfaces in the training room, theoretically allowing six Pokémon to train simultaneously. However, trainers rarely used all six at once. More often, as their Pokémon practiced, trainers would cheer them on or even offer guidance.

Amu took his role seriously, but when it came to training Pokémon, he was more of a “hands-off” type—befitting his identity and skills as a “Beast Tamer.”

At this moment, Bulbasaur’s task was to learn the weather skill Sunny Day, which was quite difficult! While it couldn’t truly change the weather, it could alter the surrounding environment in a localized area. With a successful Sunny Day, solar energy around them would intensify!

Not only would Fire-type moves become stronger and Water-type moves weaker, but some Grass-type moves that required solar energy would also be accelerated. Most importantly, it could trigger certain Abilities.

The Bulbasaur Professor Oak had prepared for Amu was exceptionally rare, possessing the Chlorophyll Ability! In the games, this doubled the Pokémon’s speed under sunlight. In this world, when sunlight was especially strong, skill preparation speed would greatly increase.

Once “Sunny Day” was active, Bulbasaur, whose speed was otherwise unremarkable, would suddenly become swift!

As for Amu’s own Pokémon, while it didn’t have Chlorophyll, it did have the Harvest Ability, which also benefited from sunny weather. This was why it had previously served as an assistant apothecary.

In this world, Pokémon with the Harvest Ability, after consuming a berry-based potion, could absorb solar energy for a time and regenerate the effects of a berry that had already been used! Normally, “regeneration” required the time of two skill preparations, but under intense sunlight, that time was halved.

This meant that by absorbing sunlight, the effective components of the berry potion could be continually regenerated and reapplied…

Bulbasaur was thus entrusted with the important task of learning Sunny Day, serving as the engine for Amu’s sunny-weather strategy.

Once the Sunny Day TM was connected, it immediately created a small area of intense sunlight, similar to the environment for learning Grass-type moves, allowing Bulbasaur to experience the move more directly.

Meanwhile, Nidoking had already mastered Thunderbolt, and Amu had prepared Ice Beam as its second special attack. Firstly, the team currently lacked an Ice-type move, and if Nidoking could learn Ice Beam, it would broaden their offensive capabilities. Secondly, before evolving, the valuable special moves Nidoking could learn were Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and Earth Power—of which Earth Power could be awakened after evolution.

With all four Pokémon assigned their tasks, Amu released Electrode.

Although Boom was already level 50 and had never fully acknowledged Amu, it was being subtly won over—especially after the recent battle with Ditto. Now, Electrode no longer resisted Amu’s commands.

“Boom, your previous moves were all learned when you grew up with other Electrodes, right? They’re powerful, but lack synergy…”

In some ways, Boom’s situation was similar to Bajir’s Eevee squad. Professor Giantwood also had many ancient Electrodes, since his research focused on Poké Balls, and Electrodes were closely related to them. Even if Professor Giantwood didn’t train them specifically, these Electrodes would naturally pick up skills from one another.

“This is Volt Switch. You can use it to retreat from the battlefield in solo fights, but more importantly, in team matches it lets you switch out without losing momentum…”

In the games, Volt Switch allowed the user to “switch out” after attacking—the move itself had a power of 70, so compared to a straightforward switch, it didn’t break the flow of battle.

In this world, the principle behind Volt Switch was that, when charged with electrical energy and ready to attack, the user would slip into a sort of spatial state, allowing it to return to its Poké Ball or quickly escape and disengage from battle in the wild.

Electrode hesitated briefly, then began to study the TM display on its own.

As for Amu, after writing his battle log, he uncharacteristically refrained from reading strategy guides or apothecary manuals. Instead, he picked up the “Pokémon Rider Theory Exam” and began to study.

—

Note 1: In the game settings, other Pokémon can also learn Trick Room as they level up, but besides Porygon-Z and Oranguru, these are all legendary Pokémon. According to this book’s setting, humans don’t understand the growth of legendary Pokémon, and Porygon-Z is still in the experimental stage, so here only Oranguru can naturally learn Trick Room—this is not an error.

Note 2: Skills that require “remembering” to learn are also within the scope of those that a Beast Tamer can activate directly.