Chapter 65

After Qing Wu rushed out of Ghost Mountain, he looked awful as he hurried to the nearby lakeshore. He stripped off his slime-covered black robe and had Magmar burn it to ashes.

"Thank goodness I was wearing a black robe that covered my whole body." At that moment, only Qing Wu's wrists were smeared with the disgusting slime.

The slime had to be washed off as soon as possible. Otherwise, the germs in it might enter the body through broken skin, and could even cause a blood disease.

Golbat had it much worse. Nearly a quarter of its body was covered in slime.

Golbat was disgusted beyond belief. It scrubbed itself in the lake more than a dozen times before finally washing the slime away.

However, Golbat still gave off a nauseating stench.

Qing Wu had no choice but to take an Orange Fruit from his backpack and use the citrus scent from its peel to mask the smell.

Qing Wu knew that the stench clung like maggots to the bone. It would not dissipate in less than a week.

Qing Wu comforted Golbat for quite a while before finally calming it down.

This was the final trial. Qing Wu believed it would involve a tough battle, so he needed to decide on the direction in which to train his Pokémon.

"Everyone, come on out." Qing Wu released the remaining three Pokémon: Magmar, Squirtle, and Deino.

Although Magmar was somewhat unruly, under Qing Wu's carrot-and-stick education, it had become quite docile.

It would attack wherever he pointed. Qing Wu had originally intended to train Houndoom as his dark-side Pokémon.

However, since he had yet to find a Deino with sufficiently good aptitude, he was using Magmar as a temporary substitute.

Once he obtained a Deino, Qing Wu would send Magmar to the Nurturing House to serve as its guardian Pokémon.

After all, having only Gardevoir and Gallade in the Nurturing House was far from enough.

"Magmar, your use of skills is truly terrible. Your training task today is very simple." Qing Wu snapped his fingers. Golbat immediately used Air Slash on a dead tree, splitting it into countless small wooden bowls. This demonstrated Golbat's precise control over Flying-type energy.

"Magmar, you need to learn to use your flame techniques to boil the water in the wooden bowls. However, you must not leave even the slightest scorch mark on the bowls." This was the training technique Qing Wu wanted Magmar to master.

It would learn to employ Fire-type energy delicately by boiling water.

"Your weakness is that you rely too heavily on the power boost from magma and the Flame Orb. Without those external aids, you're like a toothless tiger. At most, you can fire off a few Flamethrowers before running out of stamina. That's why you need to learn precise control over Fire-type energy." Qing Wu's analysis was exceptionally thorough.

After thinking it over, Magmar felt that Qing Wu was right. Without the amplification from the Flame Orb and magma, it always felt as though it ran out of steam.

That was because whenever it used Fire-type skills, it always charged forward recklessly, without knowing how to control its energy consumption.

Its Flamethrower was more powerful than those of other Fire Pokémon, but it also consumed more energy.

In the past, it had relied on the Flame Orb's endless support to throw its weight around. Now that the Flame Orb was gone, it was a poor peasant. It had to learn frugality and live within its means.

Seeing the expression on Magmar's face, Qing Wu knew it had taken his words to heart. He then assigned Squirtle its task.

"Squirtle, you need to start training too. Let's begin with something basic. From this distance, fill these wooden bowls with water. Be careful not to spill any." Qing Wu brought Squirtle three meters away and drew a line in the grass with a branch.

Qing Wu indicated that Squirtle could not cross the boundary line. This method would improve its shooting accuracy.

In his previous life, Qing Wu had once seen a Trainer whose Blastoise had a hundred percent hit rate even before undergoing Mega Evolution.

After Mega Evolution, with the boost from the Mega Launcher ability, Mega Blastoise was practically godlike.

Qing Wu had once struck up a conversation with that Trainer and asked how Squirtle should be trained. The Trainer had given him one answer first: there was no trick to it—practice made perfect.

The Trainer had then explained the general process of raising Squirtle to Qing Wu.

Starting when Squirtle was young, it underwent precision training. A bowl was placed three meters away, and Squirtle had to use Water Gun. It had to release exactly the right amount of water to fill the entire bowl, without letting it overflow.

At first, Squirtle could not properly control the amount or force of its Water Gun. Sometimes it put too much water in the bowl, sometimes too little, and sometimes it blasted the bowl cleanly in half.

Once Squirtle could control the distance and force of its Water Gun perfectly, the bowls were replaced with freely moving targets. The difficulty increased gradually, constantly improving Squirtle's shooting accuracy.

Eventually, that Blastoise never missed in battle. Whether it was a Flying-type Pokémon soaring through the sky, a Normal-type Pokémon sprinting across the ground, or a Pokémon moving at high speed through the water—

Once Blastoise made a move, it never missed. Every attack struck its target.

"Keep it up, Squirtle. You can do it." Qing Wu rubbed Squirtle's smooth little head and encouraged it.

"Kecleon, you've already mastered your Rock-type skills. Now, you need to focus more on using Steel-type energy." Qing Wu spoke to Kecleon sternly.

After all, Aggron, Kecleon's evolved form, was an extremely powerful Pokémon. As one of the strongest Steel-types, Qing Wu did not want to waste Kecleon's aptitude.

"Today, use Steel Claw on the lake water a thousand times, and Iron Head a thousand times." Qing Wu had his reasons for making Kecleon use its skills against the lake.

Kecleon was naturally afraid of water, so this would reduce its aversion to it.

Secondly, Kecleon's Steel Claw was extremely powerful, and there were not nearly enough stones for it to wreck.

Moreover, by having Kecleon attack the lake water, Qing Wu wanted to see whether it could comprehend how to overcome strength with softness.

Although Kecleon inwardly expressed intense resistance to water after being assigned its training task, it still obediently and meticulously carried out Qing Wu's orders.

"As for Deino..." Qing Wu looked at the "one-move wonder" before him, Deino, which exhausted all its stamina after using one Dragon Pulse.

"Then start by running a hundred laps around this tree." Qing Wu looked at the lakeside tree that would take five or six people to encircle. One lap was probably � meters.

A hundred laps would amount to at least � kilometers. Qing Wu would first strengthen Deino's stamina before beginning skill training.

Dragon-type Pokémon already had very long growth cycles, so Qing Wu was in no hurry.

"Golbat, that leaves only you." Qing Wu looked over Golbat's skill list. It still had not learned Steel Wing or Wing Attack.

Qing Wu had always trained Golbat to excel at ranged attacks, so it had not learned many skills involving close-range contact.

"Golbat, see if you can learn Wing Attack." Qing Wu explained the principles behind Wing Attack. Golbat thought about it. Wasn't it simply infusing Flying-type energy into both wings and then using them to attack the enemy?

Having learned Tailwind, Golbat had no reason to be unable to learn Wing Attack.

Flying-type energy quickly flooded Golbat's wings. It shot toward a tree that would take two or three people to encircle, but failed to cleave the trunk in two.

It merely slammed into the tree, making it rustle loudly. Countless leaves fell to the ground, and even a Caterpie tumbled from the branches before hurriedly wriggling its way back up.

"Golbat, did you notice that your Flying-type energy became less stable just before you struck the trunk? Instead, it dispersed the instant you collided with the tree." Qing Wu immediately saw the problem.

"Screech." Golbat nodded in agreement. It had indeed felt its Flying-type energy disperse the moment it hit the trunk.

"Keep practicing. You'll get it after mastering it a few more times. Oh, and don't neglect your Shadow Ball training either." Qing Wu patted Golbat's head affectionately.

He suddenly remembered that he still had some unused Poffins in his backpack. Just as he was about to take them out, he noticed that many of the Poffins were missing.

"That's strange. I remember I didn't use that many Poffins. Where did my memory go wrong?" Qing Wu remembered clearly that he had stored many Ghost-type Poffins in his backpack.

He had used some at Ghost Mountain, but nowhere near that many.

"Luckily, there are still some Poffins in the Wristband." Qing Wu hurriedly checked the Wristband. The Poffins inside were still completely intact.

Qing Wu did not dwell on such a minor matter. He was now devoting himself entirely to preparing for the trial.

Qing Wu remembered that this trial was held with considerable fanfare. Not only had the Four Generals come, even Sakaki had rushed over.

If he could take first place, it would be the perfect chance to soar to the heavens and rise rapidly through the ranks...