By evening, Aiven returned to Orange Fruit Village.
From a distance, as soon as he spotted the village, he saw the villagers peeking out from its outskirts.
"Aiven! Aiven's back!"
When they saw Aiven's figure in the distance, the villagers cheered.
"Everyone, don't rush."
A smile spread across Daby's face. He took the things from Aiven and headed toward his own home.
At Uncle Darby's house, the villagers received their first share of the profits from preparing potions, bringing smiles to the fruit farmers' faces.
Unfortunately, the Orange Fruit in the orchard hadn't fully ripened yet. This had been a trial run, which only made them look forward even more to the profits they would earn once the fruit matured.
The trees had grown very well after being irrigated with the diluted Growth Fertilizer Aiven had provided.
If Aiven hadn't warned them not to use too much fertilizer at once, they would have poured all the potions onto the trees, eager to watch the berries shoot up.
After distributing the profits, Aiven breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was hard at the beginning, but the Rural Cooperative had taken a solid first step.
"Doll, doll!"
When Aiven arrived at the farm, he saw Petilil and the Cherubi playing together, laughter filling the grove.
Mukkuru stood on a berry tree, leisurely preening its feathers.
Under another berry tree, Walking Grass peeked curiously at the Pokémon playing in the grove, but didn't join them.
When they saw Aiven return, the Pokémon all hurried over. Petilil threw itself straight into his arms.
"Sorry for the wait, Petilil." Aiven smiled and patted the little one's head, making it happily narrow its eyes.
Then the little one hopped aside and used Absorb Technique on its own, as if to say, "I've been training hard!"
Aiven praised it a couple of times, then walked over to Walking Grass and crouched down. "Why don't you go play with Petilil and the others?"
"Nyeh..."
Walking Grass called out timidly, looking a little lost.
It seemed this little one, having wandered into human territory, didn't have much experience getting along with other Pokémon.
Petilil turned its round, bright eyes toward Walking Grass, then came over and started talking with it.
The Cherrim gathered around, too. Before long, the little ones' happy laughter rang out, and Walking Grass, caught up in their excitement, smiled.
It seemed Walking Grass had accepted this place. Aiven nodded with satisfaction. Earlier, he'd given Walking Grass two options, and the little one had chosen to stay.
That was good news for Aiven, who planned to form a Walking Grass guard squad. Now he just had to attract more Walking Grass to settle in the orchard.
It's time to start preparing for Triple Powder training, too, Aiven thought.
Like training for Deadly Poison Technique, Triple Powder training could be assisted with a special potion called Flower Dew Potion.
The ingredients for Flower Dew Potion, which was used by Grass Attribute Pokémon, weren't especially rare. Aiven planned to find some time to explore the outskirts of the Black Forest; he should be able to gather enough ingredients there.
After playing with the Pokémon for a while, Aiven left the Fruit Grove with Petilil.
They headed to the secluded little wooden cabin outside the orchard to train Deadly Poison Technique.
Petilil looked eager, brushing Aiven's shoulder with a leaf to urge him to start training.
"Don't rush. Before we begin, I need to prepare a bottle of Antidote Potion."
Aiven smiled, then had Petilil climb into the flowerpot filled with fertilizer to recover its strength.
"Petilil, absorbing the Deadly Poison Potion will be painful. Be ready for that," Aiven warned.
Petilil was already fully prepared. It nodded without hesitation. Pain was a trial it had to endure in order to grow stronger!
"Good. Let's begin."
Aiven took out the Deadly Poison Potion and Antidote Potion and placed them on the wooden table.
To train Deadly Poison Technique, Petilil had to absorb the power of the Deadly Poison Potion little by little, allowing it to gather Poison Attribute Energy.
After opening the Deadly Poison Potion, he carefully smeared the poison onto the leftmost leaf on Petilil's head, letting it seep into the leaf.
Petilil immediately felt energy enter its body, followed by a sharp pain that made it tremble all over.
Before long, the green leaf turned purple. Purple energy coursed through it, beginning to eat away at Petilil's body until it was entirely enveloped in purple.
Seeing this, Aiven quickly grabbed the antidote intended for use with the Deadly Poison Potion and gave it to Petilil to drink.
At once, the purple energy around Petilil began to fade, bringing it out of the Poisoned State.
Huff, huff...
Petilil plopped down on the ground and began panting heavily.
Even though it had only been Poisoned for a short time, it had still expended a great deal of strength. The pain had also left it mentally exhausted.
Seeing this, Aiven immediately handed it a bottle of Healing Potion. After drinking it, Petilil quickly seemed much better.
"Doll!"
Once it had recovered, Petilil again asked to train Deadly Poison Technique. It hadn't backed down at all despite the pain.
"Good. Let's continue."
Aiven was very pleased by Petilil's determination. He poured out some more Deadly Poison Potion and spread it over the leftmost leaf on Petilil's head.
Poison needed a vessel to be stored in. Poison Attribute Pokémon, for example, all had special organs that stored poison.
For Petilil, the best place to store Poison Attribute Energy was the leaves on its head.
This way, the poison inside its body wouldn't affect it too much under normal circumstances.
The poison flowed over the leaf and steadily seeped inside. At the same time, the healing energy in the leaf welled up and continuously repaired it.
More than ten minutes later, the poison had completely seeped into the leaf. As it was fully absorbed, the leaf gradually changed from purple back to green.
"Petilil, how do you feel?"
Aiven stood nearby, holding the Antidote Potion and ready to treat it at any moment.
"Doll." Petilil closed its eyes and concentrated on sensing the energy.
A faint purple glow appeared on the leftmost leaf, then vanished a moment later.
It still couldn't use Deadly Poison Technique, but this showed that Petilil had begun absorbing the energy from the Deadly Poison Potion.
"It looks like you'll learn Deadly Poison Technique after absorbing a little more of the potion's energy." Aiven nodded with satisfaction.
This showed that Petilil had a good affinity for Poison Attribute Energy and plenty of potential to learn Deadly Poison Technique.
Next, they would train gradually, having Petilil absorb more Deadly Poison Potion and convert it into energy to store in its body.
Of course, the Deadly Poison Potion he had now wasn't the final version. To learn the complete Deadly Poison Technique, he still needed to gather more ingredients.
Before you continue