The thirteenth day of Desert Island Survival, overcast.
Last night, while looking at Poliwag's Proficiency Panel, Yu Hai had unknowingly fallen asleep. He had not checked Poliwag's Proficiency Panel in a long time, and Poliwag was already close to reaching Level 9 again.
After sleeping through the night, it should have already broken through to Level 9. He immediately opened Poliwag's Proficiency Panel.
[Poliwag] [Attribute: Water] [Gender: Male] [Potential: 31.01%] [Level: 9.01%] [Ability: Damp / 0.53%] [Hidden Ability: Swift Swim / 1.53%] [Mastered Moves: (Mind Reader / 0.21%) (Ice Ball / 0.31%) (Soothing Mist / 0.81%) (Bubble / 1.31%) (Hypnosis / 0.72%) (Chain Slap / 4.12%) (Pound / 0.91%) (Water Gun / 6.01%) (Play Nice / 1.61%)]
Sure enough, Poliwag had reached Level 9. It was another step closer to Level 25, and only sixteen more levels away from evolving into Poliwhirl. He was really looking forward to it.
Its abilities remained the same, without much change, but its moves had improved considerably.
Previously, Poliwag had used its tail to knock out five Caterpie, and one of them had even been struck twice.
In these recent battles, it had only used Water Gun and Chain Slap. Chain Slap had broken through from 3.1% to 4%, and even dragged its little brother Pound along with it.
And Water Gun had broken through from 5.5% to 6%. That was quite an improvement.
"Huh? Soothing Mist had secretly gone up too. Not by much, though. Did Poliwag use it without me noticing?" Yu Hai looked at Poliwag's tail and saw quite a few wounds.
They should all have been backlash injuries from using Chain Slap. They were only minor wounds, though. Soothing Mist could handle them, and if it had enough stamina, it could heal them all.
And what the heck was this Play Nice move?
As Yu Hai kept looking, he noticed an extra move in the mastered moves section. Could soaking in a water bucket also teach it new moves?
[Play Nice: A Water-type status move. Using Play Nice causes the battlefield to enter a Play Nice state, halving the power of Fire-type Moves.]
"Well, that's pretty useless." After opening the move description, Yu Hai found the move somewhat lackluster. Poliwag already resisted Fire-type Moves, taking half damage.
Halving that again would only reduce it to a quarter. Better than nothing, he supposed.
Not every Trainer was a Reverse Attribute Master who insisted on using unfavorable attributes to clash head-on with an opponent.
He was not some ten-year-old youngster who had just started out and did not even know water could conduct electricity.
As a veteran PM player, memorizing the type matchup chart was basic stuff.
Unless he had no other choice, he would never recklessly use reverse attributes.
After closing Poliwag's Proficiency Panel, he left the Treehouse. The morning set the tone for the day, and sticking to his training was his top priority now.
"Wake up, little tadpole." Yu Hai came outside the Treehouse, stretched lazily, then turned and urged Poliwag inside.
"Yoyo." Poliwag blinked, but there was still eye gunk stuck in the corner of its eyes. It felt uncomfortable, yet no matter how it blinked, it could not get it out. It had no hands, which made it terribly annoyed.
To get rid of the eye gunk, Poliwag jumped into the water bucket. Only after washing its eyes clean did it hop out to run with Yu Hai.
Before the run, Yu Hai released Xiao Lv again. Keeping it cooped up all the time would not do. It needed to be let out when it was time to stretch its legs.
He had not completely subdued Caterpie yet. This Caterpie still carried the risk of turning on its owner or running away.
If it really escaped, there was nothing much he could do. The jungle was vast, and he could not risk himself just to search for a Caterpie, even if it was the Pokémon with the highest Potential he had encountered.
Bang—
The Poké Ball opened, and Caterpie came out. It still looked aloof, raising its head at Yu Hai with an indifferent attitude. Its manner was terrible.
"Caterpie, do you want to join us? Food and lodging included, and your safety is guaranteed. You won't be eaten by Flying-type Pokémon. What do you say?"
Yu Hai knew this Caterpie was smart, so he got straight to the point and laid out his terms.
"Hmph, hmph, hmph." Xiao Lv snorted a few times, neither agreeing nor refusing.
It simply acted like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water. No matter what Yu Hai said, it would not budge. It turned its head to the side and held it high, not wanting to look at Yu Hai, that bad guy, at all.
"Yoyo, yoyo!" Seeing Caterpie refuse to appreciate kindness, Poliwag immediately got angry.
How dared Caterpie give Yu Hai, whom it liked, such an attitude? Who did Caterpie think it was? It could not stand Caterpie's behavior any longer, and the anger in its heart boiled over. It wanted to teach Caterpie a lesson.
"Wuwu, wuwu!" Faced with Poliwag's questioning, Caterpie naturally snapped back, calling Poliwag a bad tadpole too. Caterpie was the kind that feared neither heaven nor earth.
"Yoyo, yoyo!" Poliwag tended to lose its head whenever it got angry, and it immediately spoke up for Yu Hai.
"Wuwu, wuwu!" Caterpie's attitude right now was, Say whatever you want. I'm still me. I'm not listening, I'm not listening...
"Yoyo!" Poliwag got angry and wanted to raise its tail to whip Caterpie with Chain Slap.
But just as Poliwag was about to move its tail, Yu Hai reached out and stopped it. "Poliwag, don't attack yet..."
After stopping Poliwag, Yu Hai looked at Caterpie and said, "I'll give you time to think about it. Food, lodging, safety, and meat like last night with every meal..."
"Meat?" The moment Caterpie heard the word, it perked up. But when it thought about having to join these two bad guys just for meat, it refused. "Hmph, hmph, hmph..."
The temptation was great, but not great enough. It could resist such temptation. It was Xiao Lv, after all. It was not to be underestimated.
Caterpie did not care about Yu Hai's promise. It found a large tree on its own, climbed up it, and began chewing leaves while looking around for a chance to escape.
If it had the chance, it did not want to remain in this den of thieves forever. It still wanted freedom more.
Seeing Caterpie ignore him, Yu Hai did not mind. He simply began running around the Treehouse with Poliwag.
He also soothed Poliwag's anger. This was Poliwag's one bad trait: its emotions easily got the better of it.
This personality had its shortcomings, but it also had its strengths. With proper guidance, Poliwag's initiative could be brought out wonderfully.
As for Caterpie, he did not care much. If it ran away, then so be it.
If he could encounter one Caterpie like this, he could encounter a second one. Caterpie were everywhere and not rare at all.
Once the running training began, Yu Hai stopped paying attention to Caterpie. He had already invited it twice.
Whatever the outcome was, it no longer mattered.
"Yoyo, yoyo..."
But Poliwag was still upset and wanted to teach Caterpie a lesson.
"Forget it. Ignore it and focus on training." Yu Hai smiled and patted Poliwag's little head, urging it to keep up and not pay attention to unnecessary things. That would only affect its mood.
"Yoyo." Poliwag understood Yu Hai's comfort. Looking at Yu Hai's gentle smile, it answered and focused on training.
Thanks to Wan Shi Bu Qiu Ren for the two hundred and fifty Book Coins. [Good grief, it's you again, big brother. Stop tipping me, I'm begging you. Please stop, I'm scared...]
Thanks everyone for all the votes.
At six this afternoon, I received notice of the second round of recommendations. I'll keep the bonus chapters on the books for now. I won't forget.
If the second round of recommendations advances again, I'll add two more chapters. I'll keep that noted for now. After it goes premium...
Lastly, keep reading, keep reading, keep reading. Even if you're readers planning to stockpile chapters, please flip to the latest chapter. It's fine if you don't read it, the important thing is keeping up. Little Tadpole is crying and begging for you to keep reading, wuwuwu...
If you don't keep reading, I'll make Little Tadpole cry. Hahaha, just kidding, just kidding.
Before you continue