Poison Sting at the Proficiency Tier

The opportunity I could seize in the near future was the Ekans Egg that would appear in half a month. From the Pokémon Scripts of Chen Li and the other two, it was clear that Nidoran♂ had eaten the Ekans Egg, so Weedle definitely had a chance as well.

The only thing Shu Tong was worried about now was Wu Hongzhen, the leader of the school bullying clique. He was one of the school's top students and received professional guidance and special training from the teachers at school. Under normal circumstances, he was not allowed out, with only one day off each week.

Yet on that one day every week, that bastard Wu Hongzhen always went to wager battles to rake in money for raising his Pokémon. His Persian was one of the few Pokémon at school that had completed its final evolution.

After returning home, Wu Hongzhen indeed called. Shu Tong knew perfectly well what he wanted to say. He had less than a month left.

Shu Tong answered the call.

"Shu Tong, you even dared to hit Chen Li and the others. Looks like I didn't beat enough fear into you last time. If you've got guts, come with me this week," Wu Hongzhen said.

"No time."

"Last month, you said you wanted to become the world's number one Trainer. Why are you chickening out now?" Wu Hongzhen continued with his provocation. It might have worked on some ten-year-old brat, but against someone like him, who had mixed in society in his previous life, it just seemed unbelievably childish.

"Heh. We'll run into each other during the monthly assessment battles anyway. What, are you scared? Scared I'll surpass you in a month?" Shu Tong's tone was caustic, every word cutting to the bone.

"Fine. Keep talking tough. Don't blame me for being ruthless in this month's assessment battle." Wu Hongzhen hung up after saying that.

After hanging up, Shu Tong immediately ordered five bottles of Nine-Flavor Rehmannia Pill online.

In less than a month, he had to push himself hard. He would take Nine-Flavor Rehmannia Pills like crazy and make sure Weedle fully absorbed the energy of Poison Sting.

After dinner, Shu Tong and Weedle sat on the bed.

"Let's begin." Shu Tong took out the box containing Poison Sting.

Weedle's gaze was solemn. It first drank two bottles of Moomoo Milk to bring its body to peak condition, then began licking Poison Sting again. This time, Shu Tong directly sent Viridian Force into Weedle's body to help it absorb the Poison type energy.

It feels much better than yesterday. Shu Tong felt it deeply. He had already used Viridian Force for a while and was at a critical point where it neutralized the energy of Poison Sting.

It had been nearly five or six minutes before Shu Tong began to feel drained, a clear improvement over yesterday.

The instant Shu Tong began to feel drained, the Poison type energy inside Weedle started swelling, instantly expanding its body.

He quickly swallowed a handful of Nine-Flavor Rehmannia Pills. The drained feeling eased, and his Viridian Force strengthened along with it.

That night, Shu Tong took Nine-Flavor Rehmannia Pills eight more times before finally reaching the point where his body could no longer take any more supplementation. He had no choice but to stop, and Weedle also stopped absorbing Poison type energy.

After it was over, Shu Tong did not even check the time before lying down and falling asleep.

The next day, it was already noon when Grandma came to call them for lunch. Only then did Shu Tong and Weedle get up.

"What have you and Weedle been doing in your room at night these past two days? Why do you both look so listless?" Grandma asked with concern.

"Oh, it's nothing. We were just doing some special training," Shu Tong said.

"What kind of special training has to be done in your room at night?" Grandma asked in surprise.

"Anyway, it's special training to make Weedle stronger, so don't worry so much about it."

"There's no need for us to meddle in young people's affairs. Let's eat. Weedle, want to have a drink with Grandpa?" Grandpa now poured Weedle a cup whenever he filled his own wineglass.

Shu Tong had also noticed that after Weedle drank alcohol, its energy circulated faster. It greatly promoted the development and use of energy absorption.

That afternoon, they continued training skill proficiency.

As for Moomoo Milk, Weedle could drink as much as it wanted now. Its physical condition was visibly improving, especially with the added protein making its silk tougher. Through constant practice, it had gained a certain foundation in several ways of using String Shot: flinging, striking, entangling, winding, and binding.

In truth, Moomoo Milk was a basic necessity for wealthy families. Shu Tong did not have much of an advantage in that regard, because Trainers with great strength generally came from well-off families.

Many Trainers who raised Pokémon such as Beedrill or Butterfree did not value strengthening String Shot, because after evolving into Beedrill or Butterfree, they would gain many more practical moves. As a result, this move was practically abandoned, especially for fast-attacking Pokémon like Beedrill, where using String Shot instead reduced offensive efficiency.

The main reason for strengthening String Shot was evolution. When Weedle evolved into Kakuna, it essentially expelled all its silk to form a Sturdy cocoon shell. During the Kakuna stage, it could not eat and could only rely on absorbing the energy contained in its cocoon shell. Once that energy was exhausted, it would break out of the shell and evolve into Beedrill.

The more energy contained within Kakuna's cocoon shell, the greater its potential after evolving into Beedrill. That made the silk used to form the shell especially important.

Now that he had the means, Shu Tong would give Weedle a massive amount of protein to ensure it had sufficient energy after evolving.

If String Shot training was meant to lay a solid foundation for the future, then Poison Sting was its main combat method, and it would remain so going forward.

Of course, what was truly advancing by leaps and bounds was its Poison type affinity, along with its steadily increasing innate talent.

By directly absorbing the energy of Poison Sting, Weedle was absolutely the first of its kind. Today's Poison Sting training was another major leap compared with yesterday.

Yesterday, its Poison Sting could only be considered "mastered," meaning it could use the move quickly while maintaining a certain hit rate.

Weedle could now complete yesterday's training task with ease.

Naturally, today's training task had to be increased in difficulty.

The moment Weedle opened its mouth, gathering Poison type energy and firing Poison Sting happened almost in one smooth motion. It could fire twenty or thirty Poison Stings at once, which counted as an area attack. Against fast opponents, it could use it this way to ensure its hit rate.

Using Poison Sting in the same way, Weedle could also easily meet the requirement Shu Tong had set yesterday: it could concentrate all the energy of twenty or thirty Poison Stings into a single Poison Sting, maximizing that one attack and striking the target precisely. This was suitable for opponents with high defense but lower speed, concentrating its attack power to inflict the greatest damage.

By that measure, Weedle's Poison Sting had fully reached the "proficient" level. This meant that, while retaining a fixed method of using the move, it could use it in various forms on top of having mastered it.

For example, Weedle still used Poison Sting by gathering Poison type energy in its mouth, but it could unleash an area-wide rain of Poison Stings or a piercing Poison Sting that condensed all its energy. It was also faster to use than at the "mastered" stage.