Caterpie: Master is really too amazing!

Experience penalties were a very common mechanic in role-playing games.

Simply put, once your level rose, grinding low-level monsters would yield less and less experience, until it became negligible.

This mechanic actually suited reality quite well.

After all, if killing monsters allowed one to gain unlimited experience, the butchers at the market would have become saints long ago.

Caterpie was in exactly this situation right now, its strength far surpassing that of its opponents.

As it grew increasingly familiar with the derived techniques of Tackle, facing these Caterpie Groups again produced almost no training effect. Naturally, the Experience Bar rose much more slowly.

Specifically, if the total experience they could gain in a day had originally been 7%.

Then now, the total experience he and Caterpie could gain in a day was perhaps only 3%. This even included the experience he gained from studying, as well as the experience he and Caterpie gained from their daily meals.

In other words, he had originally been able to accumulate one Point in fourteen days, but now it would take around thirty-five days. The speed at which he accumulated Points had slowed by more than half.

So I shouldn't spend Points immediately. I should use the Caterpie Groups here to save up a batch of Points, then spend them all at once later?

Mark muttered to himself, then shook his head.

If he had been using this Trainer Panel for years, and some abilities required multiple Points to upgrade, then saving some Points would indeed be fine.

But this was only his second Point. Saving it instead of using it would be seriously brain-dead.

Becoming stronger through spending Points would indeed slow down experience gain through his existing methods, but once he became stronger, the ways he and Caterpie gained experience could also be upgraded.

After thinking briefly, Mark quickly came up with a way to improve the efficiency of gaining experience, then jumped down from the treetop.

During those forty-seven years of dreams, not only had Caterpie grown, but he had as well.

It was not merely that the Tackle Training Method displayed on the Trainer Panel had gained several more derivatives.

Even in areas the Trainer Panel did not display, his control over the power of a Spirit Master had become stronger.

Take the Prenatal Education of Wimpod's Pokemon Egg as an example.

Wimpod's consciousness within the Pokemon Egg was extremely timid. At the slightest disturbance, it would frantically scurry about inside the egg. Previously, whenever he wanted to use the power of a Spirit Master to form a Consciousness Connection with Wimpod and teach it the Tackle Training Method, it took several minutes each time.

But now, it took only a few seconds, ten seconds at most, for him to form a Consciousness Connection with Wimpod.

So, with his current strength, he could absolutely teach the Tackle Training Method to the wild Caterpie here and provide them with some ideas for combat and tactics.

That way, the enemies would become stronger, allowing Caterpie to feel pressure again and gain better training results. The Experience Bar would then rise accordingly.

Besides, he and Caterpie had disrupted the peace of the Caterpie Territory. Teaching the Caterpie here could also be considered a form of compensation.

"With my current body, I should be able to use the Tackle Training Method more than twenty times in a row. After that, I'll need to rest for several hours to recover. It's not many uses, but it should be enough if I use it on the Caterpie Leader and those Leader's Guards responsible for battlefield command first."

Mark lightly pinched his chin and looked at a Leader's Guard lying on the ground, constantly trying to stand up.

At this point, the Caterpie Group on the main battlefield was already on the verge of collapse.

In the battles over the past few days, Caterpie's cannonball-like Tackle, Power-Up Tackle, had been fierce, but it had still gotten injured. There were always a few wild Caterpie that could rush in amid the chaos and deal some damage.

But in this battle, aside from injuring itself while testing techniques at the start, Caterpie had not been hit even once from beginning to end.

Gradually, fear and unease appeared in the eyes of the Caterpie taking part in the siege. Their frequency of attack and desire to attack both decreased greatly.

Although the number of Caterpie surrounding them had not fallen by much, they had already shifted from offense to Defensive Stance. Some Caterpie had even begun to Run Away.

This Leader's Guard struggling to stand was one of them. Deep in its eyes was a hint of panic toward Caterpie.

However, that panic was directed at Caterpie. Mark was not included.

When it noticed Mark approaching, the Leader's Guard's expression gradually changed. It became vicious and let out a hissing warning at Mark. As Mark drew closer, it even spat a mouthful of sticky silk at him.

"Come to think of it, by now that Caterpie Leader should have shown itself. Is it not in the territory?"

Mark raised an arm to block the silk as he walked up to the Leader's Guard.

Then Mark pressed his palm against the Leader's Guard's forehead and used the Tackle Training Method on it. He thoroughly taught it the principles of Power-Up Tackle, Instant Strike, Multi-Strike Combo, and Adamant Penetrating Strike. He then further explained the opening characteristics and weaknesses of these techniques, along with some countermeasures he had considered.

Just like Wimpod's Pokemon Egg, after its body trembled slightly, the Leader's Guard quickly fell asleep.

Caterpie also noticed Mark at that moment. Using Tackle, Instant Strike, it darted repeatedly across the battlefield and arrived at Mark's side.

"Hiss hiss hiss, hiss hiss hiss hiss, hiss, hiss hiss?"

Caterpie was curious about Mark jumping down from the tree to the ground. After briefly describing the situation, it asked him about it.

Mark did not hide anything and simply explained, "These Caterpie don't put enough pressure on you now. They can barely provide any training effect, so I've decided to teach the Tackle Training Method to these Leader's Guards first, making them stronger. That way, when they command the ordinary Caterpie, they can better target your weaknesses."

Caterpie was stunned for a moment, then looked at Mark with admiration.

As expected of its Master. Although he had been rather foolish before, ever since he had suddenly become enlightened some time ago—well, according to Mark, it was the awakening of a transmigrator's consciousness. It still did not quite understand what that meant, but in any case, Mark had become very smart.

It never could have come up with such a fancy maneuver as improving its training efficiency indirectly by teaching its own kind!

All it could say was that Mark was truly amazing!

"Hiss, hiss hiss, hiss hiss hiss."

Thinking this, Caterpie described the shortcomings it had personally felt.

Mark had noticed some of its shortcomings, but clearly not as comprehensively as Caterpie itself had felt them.

Mark nodded slightly. After further organizing and summarizing Caterpie's weaknesses and shortcomings, he walked over to the Leader's Guard that had just fallen asleep and used the Tackle Training Method on it once more, teaching it Caterpie's weaknesses in greater detail.

"Other than those details you mentioned, I think your greatest shortcoming right now is that warm current inside your body.

"In Pokemon games, that warm current corresponds to your Tackle PP. As you keep using Tackle's derived techniques, that warm current will grow weaker and weaker.

"From what I can tell, your total amount of warm current is still a little too low. You can't sustain a prolonged battle of attrition.

"So in the battles after today, we might be able to deliberately create difficult situations. First, we'll proactively consume some of that warm current, then fight when it is insufficient. This will indirectly improve your training efficiency and may also raise the upper limit of your warm current.

"Perhaps we can also consider this direction when spending Points in the future..."

"Hiss!"

Caterpie nodded heavily. It was Mark, all right. It had no choice but to admire him; he had casually come up with another good idea.

Mark gently rubbed Caterpie's head, then suddenly remembered something. "By the way, when you were describing the battle just now, you seemed to say there was something wrong with the Caterpie here. What's the problem with them?"