Learning Aqua Ring

After two rounds of matches, the number of competitors had dropped sharply, and it was becoming clear who their biggest rivals would be. In Xiao Ran's group, four people warranted serious attention from him and Lan Yanxi. Two were fellow students from Class One, while the other two belonged to other classes.

As the situation became clearer, the teachers in charge of the matchups also seemed to be deliberately keeping the strongest competitors apart. None of them faced each other throughout the matches, and both Xiao Ran and Lan Yanxi advanced to the next round with ease. With that, the first day of competition finally came to an end.

After dinner at the cafeteria, Xiao Ran did not return to the dorm with Jiang Cheng and the others. Instead, he headed for the training ground. He had already arranged for Qiu Yuxuan to help train his Pokémon that evening—primarily Popplio and Feebas, of course.

For Popplio, there was one particularly special Water-type move: Aqua Ring. It was a recovery move that created a veil of water around the user and steadily restored its health. However, in his previous life, Popplio could not learn it through training; it could only inherit it.

That was why Xiao Ran wanted to test whether, in this real world, moves that a Pokémon could not learn according to the game data could still be acquired through training. In theory, it ought to be possible. After all, there were even Pokémon that had learned human speech.

Feebas was in a similar situation. Before evolving, it could not learn Aqua Ring, yet once it evolved into Milotic, it could learn the move naturally. This puzzled Xiao Ran. He wanted to see whether an unevolved Feebas could learn through its own efforts a move that, according to the books, it should not be able to acquire.

"Aqua Ring is a move that gathers the water element in the air. Only when you can truly gather that moisture and absorb it have you mastered Aqua Ring," Qiu Yuxuan told Xiao Ran after calling out her Dewgong.

Aqua Ring created a veil of water around the user to restore its health. Merely producing the water veil without absorbing it did not count as a true Aqua Ring.

"Right, but Popplio and Feebas are still a little too young. Their control over the Elements isn't very strong yet. Even using the Egg Move Life Dew is still a struggle," Xiao Ran said with a nod.

After two months of practice, Popplio had not made much progress with Life Dew. It was, after all, a move that required genuine control over the water element, and it was still a little too difficult for a Normal Class Popplio.

"An Egg Move? Life Dew?" Xiao Ran's words made Qiu Yuxuan pause. She had been compiling information on several students' Pokémon over the past few days, but as someone focused solely on being a Pokémon Trainer, she had not paid much attention to Egg Moves. She had never expected this Popplio to have inherited such a rare move.

"Well, look at you. Our campus beauty really does have a few things up his sleeve. A rare Popplio that even inherited Life Dew, an ugly but incredibly rare Feebas with the potential to evolve into the most beautiful Pokémon, and then there's that Eevee you're holding. Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Qiu Yuxuan rubbed her smooth chin out of habit, eyeing Xiao Ran like an outright lecher.

"How could I have the nerve to be your student if I didn't have something going for me?" Xiao Ran replied without batting an eye. After several days of Qiu Yuxuan teasing him, he had gotten used to it.

"Hehe, fair point! My star pupil certainly knows what to say!" Qiu Yuxuan laughed in approval.

"Then, Ms. Qiu, how long do you think learning Aqua Ring and Life Dew will take? And do you have any good advice for evolving Feebas?" Xiao Ran asked freely, unashamed to seek guidance. His breeding skills were good, but when it came to knowledge as a Trainer, he was a complete novice. He still needed to ask what he did not know.

"There are no shortcuts to learning moves. It depends on how well the two Pokémon grasp them. As for evolving Feebas, with your ability as a breeder, do you really need to ask me? You're qualified enough to teach at Nanjing University," Qiu Yuxuan said with mild exasperation.

"Hehe!" Xiao Ran gave an embarrassed chuckle. He did have some ideas about evolving Feebas; he simply wanted to see whether this real world offered a better method.

"But evolving Feebas isn't easy. You could say it's even harder than evolving Magikarp. What will you do if it never evolves in its entire life?" Qiu Yuxuan suddenly asked, looking at him. Many people wanted to raise a Milotic. Though Feebas was rare, wealthy people could still obtain one. Getting one to evolve, however, was something that might not happen even once in decades, leaving many people's dreams unfulfilled.

"If it can't evolve, then it can't. If it wants to leave, I'll find somewhere to release it. If it doesn't, I'll keep it in a fish tank at home. But since it's become my partner, there's no reason to just abandon it, is there?" Xiao Ran said with a shrug.

"A partner? In a Pokémon Trainer's hands, they're nothing more than tools of war!" Seemingly reminded of something, Qiu Yuxuan gave a self-mocking smile.

"No! Maybe the earliest Pokémon Trainers thought that way. After all, back then, they really did need to use every means available to survive. But for people today, Pokémon are absolutely more than tools. They're our best partners."

"A Pokémon Trainer might have many Pokémon, but to each Pokémon, its Pokémon Trainer is the one and only person in its life. They'll give everything for their Pokémon Trainers, even their lives. That makes them worth giving our all for, too."

Feeling the little Eevee in his arms and watching the two sea lion Pokémon in the distance, Xiao Ran spoke earnestly.

His words made Qiu Yuxuan turn to look at him, only to be struck by the conviction in his eyes. She had never expected this handsome young man to say something like that. Perhaps these were his true feelings, she thought as she turned back, but they were somewhat at odds with this world.

"That's a good way to think. I hope you can always hold on to it," Qiu Yuxuan said softly.

To most people, Pokémon were either pets, treated kindly when their owners were in a good mood and casually beaten or scolded when they were not, or tools that served as stepping stones in their pursuit of power and influence.

Very few people truly regarded these intelligent creatures as equals. In fact, many Pokémon were no less intelligent than humans. They were simply more loyal to those they loved and better understood how to cherish them.

In recent years, however, as life grew more stable, quite a few people had begun calling for peaceful coexistence with Pokémon. Those calls were especially strong among the younger generation. After all, young people had never endured the hardships of pioneering the wilderness; they had always lived peacefully alongside Pokémon in cities.

But those voices still carried far too little weight. Combined with the ambitions of those at the top and the threats from the wilderness and Secret Realms, few people could truly accept such ideas.

In their eyes, anyone making such appeals was undoubtedly an outsider. Yet both Qiu Yuxuan and Xiao Ran were among the rare people who could genuinely accept and embrace this way of thinking.

"Heh, I will!" Xiao Ran said with a faint smile, gently stroking the Eevee in his arms and feeling a reality he could scarcely have imagined in his previous life.

With common topics and shared beliefs, the two talked at length over the rest of the evening, discussing relationships with Pokémon and changes in the world. That night, Qiu Yuxuan truly came to know her student for the first time, lifting a corner of the mysterious veil surrounding him.

And for the first time, Xiao Ran learned just how heretical this new philosophy seemed to the world. It might not be obvious at school or among ordinary people, since most people there kept Pokémon as pets, but in the eyes of true Pokémon Trainers, such thinking was unacceptable.

To them, Pokémon were tools that made them powerful. Asking them to treat Pokémon as family and give everything for them was clearly inconceivable. Training Pokémon with that mindset would also be difficult. If a tool broke, they could simply replace it. But if it were a relative, a loved one... could they still harden their hearts and train them without regard for their lives? Obviously not.

Maybe this is why evolution through friendship hasn't been discovered yet! Xiao Ran thought. Among the Pokémon currently known to the public, those that evolved through friendship were almost never seen. It was also a possibility humans had never considered: energy was not the only thing that could bring about evolution. Bonds could, too.

By the time they left the training hall, it was already midnight. The Eevee in his arms had long since fallen asleep, while Popplio and Feebas were utterly exhausted. With no strength left in their bodies, they had been recalled into their Poké Balls. After a full day of battles followed by an entire evening of training, even Pokémon with their exceptional physiques had no energy left.

"Thanks for all your hard work, Popplio, Feebas!" Xiao Ran said soothingly to the Poké Balls in his hands.

"Mmm..." The two drowsy Pokémon looked dazed, but they could still sense their Pokémon Trainer's feelings. They were simply too exhausted and soon sank into a deep sleep.

"All right, I'm here. You should head back and get some sleep, too. Remember to message me when you reach your dorm. And do your best tomorrow!" After insisting on walking Qiu Yuxuan to the staff dormitory, Xiao Ran heard her speak through a yawn.

"Thank you, Ms. Qiu!" Xiao Ran said.

"It's a teacher's duty. Now hurry back and get some sleep!" Qiu Yuxuan waved a hand, said nothing more, and walked toward her dormitory building without looking back.

Only after Qiu Yuxuan disappeared into the stairwell did Xiao Ran turn and head for his own dorm. Meanwhile, a glimmer of clarity flashed through the eyes of Qiu Yuxuan, who stood on the stairs yawning repeatedly. As she watched his receding figure through the stairwell window, an inexplicable emotion seemed to stir in her heart.