Changes to Pepper Breath

Agumon had now mastered the two moves available to a Rookie Digimon.

One was Pepper Breath, and the other was Razor Claw.

Pepper Breath covered ranged attacks, while Razor Claw handled close combat. The combination of long and short range was certainly decent, but that had been before. Times had changed.

The opponents Agumon now needed to fight were no longer Digimon with similarly limited movesets, but Pokémon.

In the world of Pokémon, aside from a few exceptions, almost every fully grown Pokémon could use multiple moves. Some even learned dozens, and even under the game's rules, each Pokémon could have four moves.

By comparison, Agumon's coverage was quite limited with only two signature moves.

Apart from Agumon, I haven't seen any Pokémon with a "Signature moves" field on their panel. Meanwhile, Agumon's "Learned moves" field is blank. Does that mean Agumon can learn Pokémon moves normally, just like other Pokémon?

The more Qingliu thought about it, the more likely it seemed. However, his current funds did not allow him to buy TMs to study, so he could only turn his attention to Agumon's own signature moves.

Since he could not improve move coverage anytime soon, his only option was to develop variations of those moves.

"Variations, variations..."

Qingliu sank into thought.

While he was pondering, Nurse Joy returned, pushing a cart piled with supplies.

"One box of Pokéblocks for Dragon-type Pokémon and one box of Regular Pokéblocks suitable for all Pokémon come to 350 League Coins. Six Poké Balls cost 180 League Coins, and the last four bottles of Heal Spray are 260. Those are all the discounted prices. Would this arrangement work for you?"

Qingliu did not answer immediately, instead glancing at Candice beside him.

Seeing her nod furiously, Qingliu guessed that Nurse Joy had given him a substantial discount. With genuine gratitude, he said, "That's perfect. Thank you very much."

Nurse Joy shook her head. "I should be thanking you. Without you, who knows when the next batch of Berries would have arrived? Those Pokémon would have had to wait longer for treatment, and their lives might even have been in danger."

With that, Nurse Joy took a backpack from beneath the cart.

"I noticed you didn't seem to have a suitable backpack. We happen to have a spare here, so consider it a gift."

"All right."

Qingliu did not stand on ceremony and reached out to accept it.

He really did need one. Although he had a bark backpack, its quality and durability were questionable. There was no telling when it might break, and if its contents fell out and were damaged, it would hardly be worth it.

After packing everything into the backpack and thanking Nurse Joy, Qingliu left the Pokémon Center with Candice.

"Where are you going now?"

"I've got everything Agumon needs. Next, I'll buy the things I need."

Looking around, Qingliu asked, "Do you know where the town market is?"

"Over that way."

Candice pointed diagonally ahead, toward a street crowded with people, then asked hesitantly, "Even if you're going to do special training, you don't have to rush into it today, do you?"

"I don't have anything else to do anyway, and Agumon's probably getting bored too. Oh, do you want to come with me?"

Qingliu turned his head to look at Candice.

"Not today. I want to take a bath and get some proper rest first. I worked up quite a sweat running around looking for Snover yesterday."

"Then we'll leave it at that for now."

"Okay."

After parting with Candice, Qingliu went to the market and bought a sleeping bag, a flashlight, some food that was easy to store and carry, and finally a few small essentials such as oil, salt, and vinegar. Then he left Solaceon Town.

Once he had put some distance behind him and confirmed that no one else was nearby, Qingliu took a Poké Ball from inside his clothes and gently pressed its central button.

Click!

The Poké Ball opened, red light flashed, and Agumon appeared before him.

As the red light faded, Agumon looked left and right, surveying the surroundings with a somewhat bewildered expression.

Only upon seeing Qingliu standing there did Agumon snap out of that daze, then stare intently at the Poké Ball in his hand.

"Qingliu, that thing is amazing! It's so small, but it can fit me inside. I could even see what was happening outside and knew what you were doing. You just didn't seem to be able to hear me."

"That's right. I couldn't hear you."

After briefly explaining how Poké Balls worked, Qingliu told Agumon about the special training.

To his surprise, Agumon nodded in agreement before he had even finished speaking.

"No problem."

"Have you thought it through? Wanting you to become stronger so you can challenge that Gabite, and deal with whatever else might happen in the future-those are all my ideas."

Agumon shook that little head and said, "You're my first friend, and my most important friend, so... whatever you want is what I want too.

"Besides, I don't want anything like last time to happen again. I don't even dare think about what I would have done if something really had happened to you back then. But I know that if I'm strong enough, I can help you, wherever you are and whoever you're facing."

Seeing Agumon's earnest expression, Qingliu could not help reaching out to pat that little head.

"I already told you I'm fine. Don't let it weigh on you so much."

That was what he said, but Qingliu knew that the emotional scar Aipom had inadvertently left on Agumon last time would not disappear anytime soon.

Healing it completely would take time, but there was a way to ease it-by becoming stronger.

"In that case, let's get started."

After organizing the backpack and setting it beneath a nearby tree, Qingliu led Agumon into the clearing ahead.

The clearing was fairly open, with almost nothing blocking it. The only obstacle was a rock directly in front of them.

This was the "sparring partner" Qingliu had finally chosen after carefully searching the surrounding area.

"The first goal of this special training is to blast through it with Pepper Breath."

Agumon stared at the training target for a long while before raising an arm to scratch that little head, looking troubled. "Qingliu, I know training is supposed to be really hard, but isn't this rock... a little too big?"

A massive boulder sat before them, roughly three meters across and over two meters high, its surface covered in moss and vines.

Compared with it, Qingliu and Agumon were completely dwarfed.

"It would certainly be difficult with Pepper Breath alone, so... I'm going to teach you a whole new way to unleash a more powerful Pepper Breath."