Pokémon Moves

Five days later.

"Weedle, Bug Bite!"

In the training grounds, Weedle suddenly lunged at a well-developed Squirtle, its jaws clamping viciously onto Squirtle's tail.

"Squirtle!"

Pain shot through Squirtle, and tears nearly spilled from its eyes.

"Stop!"

At the Pokémon Trainer's command, Weedle quickly released its bite and trotted back to Xia Yan's side.

"Let's call it there for today. Your Weedle is outstanding—the best Weedle I've ever seen. Thanks for being my sparring partner." The trainer recalled Squirtle and spoke to Xia Yan.

"Thank you."

Xia Yan nodded and crouched down, letting Weedle climb onto his shoulder.

"I never expected the Weedle at the Silph Pokémon Battle Club to be so strong. No wonder it's the biggest club in Goldenrod City."

The trainer sighed in admiration and left the training room.

This was Xia Yan's client for the day, the target of his sparring session.

The chuunibyo teenager Kenji still had to attend school, so he spent his days there. From time to time, other club members would choose Xia Yan as their sparring partner.

But most of them chose him because, in their minds, Weedle was a very weak Pokémon.

Only after battling Xia Yan's Weedle did they gradually change that view.

"Weedle!" Weedle held its little head high.

He said I'm the best Weedle.

Xia Yan smiled and flicked its head. "Don't get too proud. He only said you were the best because he hasn't seen many other Weedle. You're still a long way from the truly strongest ones."

Giovanni's Beedrill had left far too deep an impression on him.

"Weedle~~"

Weedle had already grown used to Xia Yan reminding it not to get too proud whenever it became pleased with itself.

Likewise, whenever it felt dejected or blamed itself, Xia Yan would comfort it.

As a sparring partner, Xia Yan and Weedle had faced quite a few Pokémon and Pokémon Trainers. Weedle could not handle every opponent with ease, and losses were far from unheard of.

Whenever they lost, Xia Yan never blamed Weedle. Instead, before resting each night, he would go over the reasons for their defeat and Weedle's shortcomings with it, striving to avoid such problems in the next battle.

However, most Pokémon Trainers who selected Weedle as a sparring partner were not particularly strong, so Xia Yan and Weedle won far more often than they lost.

"Your Bug Bite follow-up just now was still a little stiff, and its power hasn't reached the strongest level you're currently capable of. That's a weakness, and you need to keep improving it." Xia Yan recalled the previous battle and gave his assessment.

"Weedle, Weedle~~" Weedle nodded, looking at him eagerly.

"You little thing."

Understanding what it meant, Xia Yan laughed and scolded it lightly. He took a crystal-clear Energy Cube from his pocket and held it out before Weedle.

"Weedle!"

Weedle cried out happily, curled its tail around the Energy Cube, and began eating it. Every now and then, it hummed a little tune it had picked up somewhere, looking extremely pleased with itself.

"Go ahead and eat. Once you're done, if there aren't any clients, we'll continue training."

As he spoke, Xia Yan walked to the corner and picked up the thick book, <Bug-type Pokémon Move Development and Battle Move Connections>, beginning to read.

As far as he remembered, Weedle could not learn many moves. Aside from String Shot, Poison Sting, and Bug Bite, there should only be one difficult move left—Electroweb.

How to train Weedle until it learned that move had troubled Xia Yan for quite some time.

At present, Weedle could only weave the silk it spat out into a net, but it could not grasp Electric-type energy at all.

Making a Bug-type and Poison-type Pokémon develop an Electric-type move really was asking a bit too much of it.

Take it slowly. Xia Yan silently told himself, The priority now is still mastering its existing moves. Weedle's String Shot and Poison Sting are nearly at the proficient level, while Bug Bite can only be considered practiced.

Through reading, Xia Yan learned that Pokémon Trainers divided a Pokémon's command of moves into several stages based on move proficiency and how smoothly moves were linked together in battle.

[Learned], [Practiced], [Proficient], [Mastered], [Master].

A Pokémon's energy was limited, while there were especially many moves it could learn and comprehend. It was impossible to train every move to the Master level.

Therefore, choosing a few moves from among them that best suited a Pokémon's traits and battle style was a responsibility Pokémon Trainers had to bear.

And once a move reached the Proficient level, it could generally be used very effectively in real combat.

Fortunately, Weedle did not have the problem of knowing too many moves. It could learn very few moves to begin with, so naturally it needed to train and master every one of them.

Besides that,

after this period of training and battles, Xia Yan had confirmed that Weedle's Ability was Run Away rather than the common Shield Dust. It was a Hidden Ability.

Abilities were special powers possessed by every Pokémon, similar to passive skills in many games.

If this were a PM game, the Run Away Ability would have very limited use. It would merely guarantee a one-hundred-percent chance of escaping when encountering wild Pokémon.

But here, the Run Away Ability gave Weedle a considerable increase in speed.

It was a fairly good Ability, even if the speed increase was not particularly large.

Night fell.

Xia Yan and Weedle saw off the chuunibyo teenager Kenji and his Bulbasaur.

Before leaving, Kenji repeatedly emphasized that Xia Yan needed to make time the day after tomorrow so they could adventure together in Densewood Forest.

After five days of training and battle coordination, Xia Yan and Weedle's teamwork and strength had improved significantly. Densewood Forest was already under Pokémon League control, so there should not be too much pressure.

So Xia Yan readily agreed.

Just as he was preparing to have one final round of training with Weedle before going back to sleep, Anna, who handled reception as well as sparring assignment arrangements, came to find him.

Over the past few days, Xia Yan had interacted with Anna quite a bit, and they had become fairly familiar with each other.

"You're still training this late? You really are a lunatic."

Anna entered the training room and saw Xia Yan and Weedle drenched in sweat. The admiration in her eyes deepened.

She had seen many powerful Pokémon Trainers, but there were not many as hardworking as Xia Yan and Weedle.

Xia Yan stopped moving and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Is something wrong?"

"Here, this is your payment for today." Anna handed him a stack of bills.

Thanks to Kenji's patronage and the occasional daytime sparring assignments, Xia Yan's daily income over the past few days had been around 400 to 500 Poké Dollars. In five days, he had saved over two thousand more Poké Dollars, barely enough to keep Weedle supplied with Energy Cubes.

But it was still not quite enough.

"Thank you." He wiped his hands on his clothes, accepted the money, and carefully put it away.

"There's one more thing. It's important, and the supervisor instructed me to tell you. It may be an opportunity for you." Anna continued.

"Oh?" Xia Yan paused.

Anna explained, "Two days ago, the club received an assignment from Els Pokémon School in Goldenrod City. They hope our club can send several people to clear out Densewood Forest outside Goldenrod City tomorrow. Since the difficulty is low, the supervisor decided to send Beginner sparring partners."

Xia Yan's expression became somewhat strange.

Densewood Forest?

Anna seemingly failed to notice the change in his expression and continued.

"The supervisor's meaning is that each of you will be responsible for one area, clearing out any Pokémon there that may be dangerous or aggressive. You'll carry a special recording device, and the club will tally the Pokémon you defeat and drive away."

Perhaps feeling that she had not mentioned the most important point, she added, "This assignment will likely be related to the promotion of your Beginner sparring partner titles. If you want to earn more money, make sure you seize this opportunity."

So this was how title promotions worked?

By completing assignments for the Silph Pokémon Battle Club?

"Densewood Forest is within Pokémon League jurisdiction, and the Pokémon there aren't very strong, so you don't need to worry."

"Got it." Xia Yan nodded.

It seemed that one Densewood Forest could let him earn money twice over?

"And this is a map of Densewood Forest, along with the area you'll be responsible for." As she spoke, Anna handed him a document.

"Thank you." Xia Yan took the document.

"Oh, and there's an assessment of you and your Weedle inside. You can take a look—it might be helpful. Get some rest early tonight. The assignment begins tomorrow morning."

With that, she turned and left.

I got a site message. The contract was sent out today, and the status may change tomorrow. Anyone who wants to invest should hurry.

Lastly, please give me some recommendation votes~~ Support a newcomer~~