Tackle Training Method

Beside the broken Fruit Tree, Caterpie still wore a completely bewildered expression when it suddenly heard a rumble like muffled thunder.

"?"

Caterpie raised its head, the Y-shaped red antenna on its forehead spinning like an antenna as it searched for the source of the thunderous rumble.

After scanning the area in every direction and finding nothing, Caterpie lowered its head to look at its twitching, wriggling abdomen.

Another thunderous rumble sounded.

Before Caterpie had time to think any further, an intense hunger surged up from its belly.

Although it had often gone hungry during all those years with Mark, this was the first time Caterpie had felt hunger this intense. It felt like it could eat an entire mountain.

Caterpie was not the only one who felt hungry. Mark, not far away, felt the same.

At first, after waking from the dream, he had not felt anything. But soon, an unbearable hunger hit him.

Fortunately, food was close by.

The hungry man and Pokemon rushed to the Fruit Tree together and began devouring its fruit.

The fruit looked somewhat like a mango, and its taste and texture were similar too. However, its peel was thinner, and its pit was spherical rather than flat.

At first, Mark tried to peel them, since mangoes were supposed to be eaten without their skins.

Later, he found that far too inefficient and simply ate them peel and all. The peels were somewhat astringent, but he was too hungry to care.

Compared to Mark, Caterpie ate even more thoroughly.

Mark merely ate the peel along with the fruit, but Caterpie swallowed each fruit whole, chewed it in its mouth, then swallowed the flesh and kernel. It spat out the broken pit fragments like watermelon seeds.

Who knew how much time passed.

Mark ate dozens of fruits in a row.

His stomach still felt somewhat hungry, but nowhere near as badly as before. He began considering why he and Caterpie had become like this.

"It seems that the dreamlike experience after adding Points causes our bodies to expend a tremendous amount of energy, which needs to be replenished... Huh, Caterpie, your body seems to have gotten a whole size bigger..."

Mark looked at Caterpie beside him.

Caterpie was a small Bug-type Pokemon, usually between thirty and fifty centimeters long. Mark's Caterpie had been around forty centimeters long, making it above average in size.

But now, Caterpie seemed to have reached half a meter in length, qualifying as a large Caterpie.

"?"

Hearing Mark's words, Caterpie examined its body and revealed a puzzled expression. It had noticed that it had grown bigger too.

However, that confusion did not last long. Its belly was too hungry, and it soon resumed wolfing down fruit.

It was clear that Caterpie was far hungrier than Mark.

Mark lightly pinched his chin. "It seems this time adding Points affected Caterpie more than it affected me, so it needs to replenish a huge amount of nutrients..."

As Mark spoke, he looked down at his own stomach. Though he had eaten dozens of fruits, his belly was only slightly swollen.

Caterpie was the same. There was no obvious change in its abdomen.

And Caterpie had eaten at least a hundred fruits.

There were over a hundred fruits. Even the pit fragments Caterpie had spat out had formed a small pile, and those fruits far exceeded Caterpie's body weight.

Yet when Mark gently lifted Caterpie, he did not feel the slightest bit of weight.

"Without a doubt, this must have been affected by adding Points..."

Mark muttered to himself and opened Caterpie's system panel.

...

Caterpie

Five-Dimensional Potential:

Strength: F Constitution: F- Agility: F+ Spirit: E Perception: E+

Trait: Not Awakened

Special Ability: Evolution

Skills: Tackle (Power-Up Tackle), String Shot

...

Just as Mark had guessed before adding Points, the (+) after the Five-Dimensional Potential and skills had disappeared after the Points were used.

With his only Point exhausted, he naturally could no longer add any Points.

And after being strengthened with Points, Caterpie's Tackle had become Tackle (Power-Up Tackle).

"After adding Points, Tackle gained an internal suffix: Power-Up Tackle... Does that mean a powerful Tackle after charging up?"

Mark murmured softly as he opened the description for Tackle (Power-Up Tackle) with his thoughts.

...

Tackle (Power-Up Tackle): Gather the body's strength into a whole, then concentrate that unified strength into a single point and use that point to strike the target. Because some reserve strength is retained during the Tackle, it performs exceptionally well in both accuracy and skill follow-ups after the Tackle. Its drawback is that the body's strength must be gathered before Tackling. If used hastily, its power will be greatly reduced.

...

As Mark read the description of Tackle (Power-Up Tackle), his mouth fell slightly open.

It was not because there was anything wrong with the skill's description.

It was because this skill description was exactly what he and Caterpie had practiced for more than three years in the dream.

It was what he had taught Caterpie bit by bit in the dream, using the knowledge he had accumulated as a small-town exam grinder.

Gather the body's strength into a whole, then concentrate that unified strength into a single point and use that point to Tackle.

Keep some reserve strength during the Tackle to deal with whatever came afterward.

He had laid out this theory of Tackle on the very first day he trained with Caterpie.

And throughout the following three and a half years of Tackle practice, he had always adhered to that theory.

"This skill enhancement... It's as if I personally trained Caterpie to obtain it..."

His three and a half years of training experiences flashed through Mark's mind like a revolving lantern.

Mark looked at Caterpie, which was still constantly eating fruit, then walked to the broken section of the Fruit Tree some distance away. He reached out and touched the fractured spot, and several wood chips stuck to his fingers.

The process of Caterpie's Tackle gradually replayed in his mind.

Using a point to break through a surface. Setting aside its power for the moment, in terms of the technique of exerting force during the Tackle, there was no doubt that it was what he had taught Caterpie.

Mark frowned and thought for a while before continuing to browse Caterpie's system panel. He suddenly noticed something and switched the panel to its homepage and his own page.

...

Mark

Profession: Spirit Master

Experience: 4%

Points: None

Spirit: Caterpie

...

...

Mark

Spirit Talent: None

Trainer Skill: Tackle Training Method (Power-Up Tackle)

Special: Robust Health, Poison Resistance

...

The information on the system panel was clear. There were two differences in total.

First, the experience value on the main panel had increased, rising from its initial 1% to 4%.

Second, his Trainer Skill was no longer blank. It now contained Tackle Training Method (Power-Up Tackle).

As he clicked further with his thoughts, detailed information about Tackle Training Method (Power-Up Tackle) came into view.

...

Tackle Training Method (Power-Up Tackle): Can teach the Tackle skill to a target and increase the target's Tackle training efficiency. Has a certain chance of allowing the target to comprehend the Power-Up Tackle technique.

...

"This is clearly the method I used to train Caterpie in the dream. I could just directly replicate the method from the dream to train Pokemon, so why did it form into a Trainer Skill? Is there any need for this skill to exist?"

Mark muttered to himself, then suddenly sensed something and his pupils contracted...