Training Begins

The ninth day of Desert Island Survival: cloudy, no rain.

The weather was quite nice today. Yu Hai woke up early; just as the horizon began to glow pale with dawn, he got up.

Perhaps because his fever had broken, he could not fall back asleep once he woke. He merely shifted his upper body slightly, leaned against a tree trunk the size of a plastic basin, and quietly watched the rising sun at the horizon.

By this hour, the campfire had long gone out. Nor had he forgotten Poliwag. The little tadpole slept soundly beside his leg, even drooling clear, glistening saliva. He was probably having a sweet dream.

Yu Hai could not bear to disturb the little tadpole, so he let him continue sleeping.

Even when shifting his body, Yu Hai moved quietly so as not to wake Poliwag. This little guy had truly worked hard yesterday.

Having a little tadpole running around and taking care of someone was something he could never have imagined.

Perhaps that was the wonder of Pokémon World. As long as they were Pokémon, their intelligence was exceptionally high, basically on the level of human youngsters.

In his previous life, even the smartest human pets only possessed the intelligence of children.

Watching the slowly rising sun, Yu Hai chewed on salty seaweed to replenish some strength. As he waited for the sun to rise fully, his body gradually warmed up as well.

But at some point, a dewdrop slid down from the canopy and landed on Poliwag's nose, waking him up.

"Yo..." Poliwag opened his eyes groggily. He too saw the sunrise at the horizon and felt warmth spread through his body. He even patted the grass beside him with his tail.

But Poliwag quickly came to his senses, because his tail had not hit Yu Hai. He clearly remembered falling asleep beside Yu Hai, so where had Yu Hai gone?

At that thought, Poliwag instantly woke up. He sprang to his feet and scanned his surroundings, finally spotting Yu Hai beside the tree trunk.

"Yo! Yo..."

Seeing Yu Hai smiling at him, Poliwag immediately hopped over in excitement and threw himself onto Yu Hai.

"Cough, cough... Easy, easy," Yu Hai said. A twenty-plus-pound Poliwag pouncing on him nearly killed him. His body had yet to recover, and he could not help covering his mouth as he coughed.

"Yo... Yo..." Seeing Yu Hai cough, Poliwag knew he had made another mistake. Embarrassed, he backed away and did not dare make any more overly excited movements.

After regaining some strength and stopping his coughing, Yu Hai did not blame Poliwag. Instead, he raised a hand and stroked Poliwag's blue head.

Like a child who had made a mistake, Poliwag did not dare rub against Yu Hai on his own. He merely blinked his large, innocent black eyes, afraid of hurting Yu Hai again.

"It's okay, Poliwag. Let's cook breakfast," Yu Hai said, soothing him. Then he used both hands to support his weak body and struggled over to the fire pit, where he picked the leaves out of the stew pot.

He poured the water from the stew pot into a plastic bottle, dumped out the sediment at the bottom, then poured the clean water from the bottle back into the stew pot.

Then he used some plastic and bits of wooden board left over from last night to get the fire going again, placing the stew pot over it to boil water.

He picked up the seaweed lying on the grass, rinsed it with clean water from the plastic bottle, and put it into the stew pot to cook.

Compared to eating raw seaweed that was salty and fishy, he still preferred it cooked.

"Yo, yo..."

Hearing Poliwag's cries, Yu Hai turned around. Poliwag had somehow found some broken wooden board pieces and placed them by Yu Hai's feet.

"Poliwag, you even know how to gather wooden board pieces? You're amazing," Yu Hai praised him.

"Yo! Yo!" Poliwag was so pleased by the praise that his tail nearly stuck straight into the sky. He looked unbearably proud, and his mood grew even brighter.

Yu Hai could naturally tell. The little tadpole was so happy that his tail was whirling like a propeller. He could be gentle now, but training would be another matter entirely.

As the water in the stew pot boiled and the seaweed cooked, he and the little tadpole each used a leaf as a bowl. Yu Hai also quickly fashioned a pair of chopsticks and used them to pick up the boiled seaweed.

Poliwag had quite the appetite today. Yu Hai only ate three or four strips of seaweed before he was nearly full, while Poliwag devoured the entire mountain of seaweed.

"Is the seaweed good, Poliwag?" Yu Hai asked when he saw Poliwag eating so happily.

"Yo! Yo!" Poliwag nodded. As long as he was eating with Yu Hai, he was happy to eat anything.

"Heh." Yu Hai smiled helplessly and patted Poliwag on the head. Then he poured some of the slightly salty hot water from the stew pot into an iron cup and slowly drank it, soothing his throat.

His fever had completely subsided. He could feel it. All that remained was the itchiness from his inflamed throat, which could also be eased by drinking hot water.

Actually, doctors were right when they said to drink more hot water—it really could treat illnesses. Most inflammation in the body could be cured by drinking hot water.

But in his previous life, "drink more hot water" had somehow become a derogatory phrase. What else could it be when it was treated as a cure-all? Some hopelessly chauvinistic men only knew how to say one thing: drink more hot water.

"Poliwag, are you full? Starting today, we'll officially begin special training. Are you ready?" Yu Hai asked, setting down the iron cup and looking at Poliwag, who was still chewing seaweed.

"Yo! Yo!" The moment Poliwag heard special training, he knew it meant getting stronger.

He desperately wanted to become strong—strong enough to help Yu Hai. Fierce flames seemed to ignite in his eyes, and his bright gaze grew increasingly resolute.

"Your fighting spirit is burning. Let me check your Water Gun proficiency," Yu Hai said as he opened Poliwag's Proficiency Panel. There had been almost no changes since last time.

[Poliwag]

[Attribute: Water]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 31%]

[Level: 7.01%]

[Ability: Damp/0.53%] [Hidden Ability: Swift Swim/1.53%]

[Mastered Moves: (Mind Reader/0.21%) (Ice Ball/0.31%) (Soothing Mist/0.51%) (Bubble/1.31%) (Hypnosis/0.52%) (Chain Slap/2.64%) (Pound/0.51%) (Water Gun/2.52%)]

"Your Water Gun proficiency is currently 2.52%. Your special training task this morning is to raise it to 4%," Yu Hai said after checking the Water Gun proficiency on Poliwag's panel, assigning him a training plan.

"Yo!" Hearing that he would be training Water Gun, Poliwag immediately sprang off the ground and rushed toward the shore.

"Poliwag, be careful. Don't go too far either. If there's danger, dive into the sea..."

"Yo! Yo!" Poliwag's response seemed to say, "I know! I'll train seriously..."

Still somewhat worried about Poliwag, Yu Hai filled the iron cup with hot water again and added freshwater to the stew pot to continue boiling. Only then did he use the tree trunk to pull himself to his feet, supporting himself with a branch picked up from the ground as he slowly headed toward the shore.

His condition had improved somewhat by then. As long as he did not touch cold water or stay under the blazing sun, he would recover soon enough. It was only a matter of time.

Thank you all for your votes. Lately, I've seen many readers asking for extra chapters. Let me look into that. Also, readers from other sites, I hope you can come support this on Qidian. This book was first published on Qidian, and following updates is really important. Please keep following! Fanfiction recommendations now get several times the follow-up readership of original books. It's practically the dead of winter for fanfiction...