Growl and Ingrain

After the initial joy, Lin Huo quickly calmed down.

His emotions had been too agitated just now, causing him to overlook certain details. Only after collecting himself did he realize where the problems lay.

Growl's effect was indeed powerful. A simple howl could reduce a target's strength.

But using Growl did not come without a cost. That heartfelt howl just now had drained a full tenth of the Soul Power in his body.

A tenth of his Soul Power—even using a spark powerful enough to scorch a rock black would not consume anywhere near that much.

Still, Growl's weakening effect was not hard to understand.

After all, if he could weaken an enemy's strength without conditions or cost just by shouting, then even the seat of the God Realm's God King ought to be his.

Unfortunately, his fantasies were beautiful, while reality was cruel. Skills from the Pokémon World were ultimately somewhat ill-suited to the Douluo Continent.

Growl consumed too much Soul Power. In the future, he could only use it as a strategic skill.

For the sake of rigor, Lin Huo conducted several more experiments with training dummies of varying strengths and made a new discovery.

The Soul Power consumed by Growl varied greatly depending on the target.

Based on the Soul Tool dummies, Lin Huo determined that the stronger the target's Soul Power, the more Soul Power Growl consumed.

The good news, however, was that Growl's final effect remained unchanged regardless.

As long as it was successfully used once, it could reliably reduce the target's strength by roughly thirty percent.

Though it came with many restrictions, that did not diminish the skill's formidable effect.

The several uses of Growl had nearly exhausted Lin Huo's Soul Power. Even with recovery and rest between them, he currently had only two-tenths remaining.

"Looks like I can't test many more skills today. I'll try one last skill, then go back and meditate."

Having made up his mind, Lin Huo turned his eager anticipation toward Ingrain.

In the game, Ingrain prevented a Pokémon from being switched out in exchange for restoring its health every turn.

Lin Huo had no idea what that effect would look like in reality.

However, if Ingrain retained its ability to restore health, then even if the negative effect was as severe as being unable to move after rooting himself, he would still be completely satisfied.

Switching his possessed Martial Soul to Bulbasaur, a faint green phantom appeared over Lin Huo's body, while Bulbasaur's signature green bulb emerged behind his back.

Fortunately, the green bulb floated behind him rather than taking root in his back.

At least it would not make Lin Huo look like some garlic-backed turtle and ruin too much of his looks.

This good news made Lin Huo breathe a sigh of relief.

Having his whole body, including his head, turn green was already irritating enough.

If he had to carry a green bulb on his back as well, people would surely laugh at him as a green-headed turtle.

Fortunately, once Bulbasaur evolved again, the bulb on his back would become a flower bud. With a flower bud floating behind him, his image would naturally become something entirely different.

Smiling helplessly, Lin Huo shook his head and cast aside the jumble of thoughts before focusing completely on using Ingrain.

The process of using skills had already become second nature to Lin Huo, and activating Ingrain did not take long.

Countless plant roots sprouted from beneath his feet, breaking through the packed dirt floor of the training ground and spreading deeper underground.

In Lin Huo's perception, the roots reached their limit after spreading through an area roughly one meter around him underground, then settled firmly into place.

Of course, Ingrain was still far from reaching its true limit. Lin Huo's pitiful total of sixth-level Soul Power simply could not sustain it any longer, forcing him to stop.

He had nearly exhausted his Soul Power just to make the roots barely fill a space of about one cubic meter.

Lin Huo tried moving his foot and found that his range of movement had also been restricted to within one square meter.

The moment he stepped beyond that range, the connection between his body and the roots broke. The disconnected roots began turning translucent, clearly on the verge of dissipating.

"Hmm, so the effect of being unable to switch Pokémon has become being unable to leave the roots' range in reality..."

The roots spreading underground quickly drew streams of energy into his body, making Lin Huo feel warm all over, as if he were soaking in a hot spring.

This phenomenon interrupted Lin Huo's thoughts, but it also gave him more ideas.

"Could this be the nutrients—or rather, life force—that the roots draw from the earth?"

Staring at his arm, Lin Huo hesitated. After struggling for a moment, he still took out the small knife he carried with him.

"Just a little. I'll only make a tiny cut."

He lightly drew the sterilized blade across his forearm. After a faint sting, tiny beads of blood quickly seeped out.

Lin Huo stared without blinking and wiped away the blood obstructing his view with his thumb.

"There it is!"

After wiping away the blood, Lin Huo saw intact skin reappear before his eyes, and his excitement reached its peak.

Whatever energy the roots drew from the earth, Ingrain had indeed given him the ability to recover from injuries.

After a while, through further experiments, Lin Huo obtained more information about Ingrain.

First, Ingrain's recovery effect did not restore a fixed one-sixteenth of his health as it did in the game.

According to the feedback from the roots, its exact healing capability basically depended on how many roots were created with Soul Power, as well as the amount of nutrients contained in the earth.

In other words, as long as he had sufficient Soul Power and a patch of nutrient-rich land, he could recover from injuries at an extremely rapid pace.

Simply put, he would no longer need to worry about hidden injuries caused by intense training. He would only need to find a nutrient-rich patch of land, root himself there for a while, and fully restore his condition.

At this moment, Lin Huo began to feel fortunate that Blazing Fire Academy had been built on a volcano.

The volcanic ash accumulated in volcanic regions over countless years was rich in natural nutrients.

It provided an excellent environment for plant growth and was the second-best place for Ingrain to display its power.

As for the best place...

Lin Huo's thoughts could not help drifting to the Douluo Continent's number-one must-visit spot, the Icefire Yin-Yang Hotpot in Sunset Forest.

After all, when it came to environments best suited for plants to take root, even the richest land in all the Douluo Continent was not worthy of carrying the hotpot's shoes.

"Only, what a pity..." Lin Huo shook his head and sighed helplessly. That treasure of a place was not yet something he could covet.

Dugu Bo was holed up there like a guardian spirit beast beside some heavenly treasure in an immortal cultivation novel.

Without either the strength to directly crush the spirit beast or a way to solve the problems plaguing it,

there was simply no way to pry even a bit of treasure from that precious land of the hotpot.