Targeted Training and Bad News

A little while later, the perfectly good chair had been riddled with Poison Sting until it looked like a Beedrill hive.

But as time went on, Weedle released the move more slowly, and its accuracy grew increasingly inconsistent.

At Weedle's current speed with Poison Sting, it should have been adequate for ambushing humans or catching them off guard.

In actual combat against physically stronger Pokémon, however, the opponent would be able to dodge it.

There was no such thing as a guaranteed hit in the real world.

A shout of "Dodge!" might actually work.

Still, this sort of problem was perfectly normal. Moves consumed stamina, and there was no need to fear the effects.

What mattered now was identifying problems, then resolving them to improve further.

Seeing Giovanni's furrowed brow, Weedle felt a little down. It thought it had not done well enough, so it tried even harder.

It simply hid its low spirits.

Thanks to the Viridian Force, although Giovanni still could not communicate directly with Pokémon through their minds, picking up on their emotions was no problem.

Weedle was still young. If something went wrong emotionally, it would be a serious problem.

Besides, it had already done very well. Its accuracy and speed both far exceeded those of ordinary Weedle.

It counted as a genius.

Giovanni's expectations were simply a little high. He wanted Weedle to become a being capable of defeating Legendary Pokémon someday.

Whether dealing with humans or Pokémon, emotional support had to be given generously, especially to these little ones.

Giovanni did not hold back his praise for Weedle:

"You did wonderfully, Weedle, far beyond my expectations. You're a genius."

He even made a point of stroking Weedle.

This sent Weedle over the moon. Its eyes narrowed as it kept rubbing against Giovanni's palm.

Giovanni brought out another chair and asked Weedle:

"Shall we see how your String Shot is next?"

"Woo!" Weedle nodded vigorously, its motivation clearly much stronger.

Giovanni clapped his hands, pointed at the chair, and gave the order.

"Begin! Bind this chair!"

As Giovanni's voice fell, Weedle opened its mouth and spat out a white strand of silk.

Although its aim was a little off, the silk still formed a white ribbon that wound tightly around the chair.

After it had spat silk for a while, its speed slowed as well, and the amount dwindled.

Unwilling to give in, Weedle wanted to continue, but Giovanni stopped it for the moment.

"All right, wait a moment."

Under Weedle's gaze, Giovanni slowly walked over to the chair, placed his hand on the silk, and gave it a hard tug. The silk snapped.

It still was not tough enough.

This was probably because it had not eaten enough leaves rich in plant fiber, leaving both the quantity and strength of the silk formed inside its body insufficient.

The solution was simple, too.

The first method was to use small amounts of String Shot and focus on toughness, making the silk denser and targeting opponents' limbs when attacking. However, this would require greatly improving its control over the silk.

Whether or not he chose this approach, it had to be added to the training plan.

The second was to eat more leaves and have Weedle spit out nearly all its silk every day, while producing large quantities of new, tougher silk in the process.

Each generation would be stronger than the last.

For this, Giovanni really had to thank Hera again. If she had not helped Giovanni exchange his points for so many leaves from Berry trees,

he and Weedle would not have had the resources for this.

It seemed she must have considered these things back then. After all, she was a veteran Trainer. Since she could manage Team Rocket's resource allocation, she probably had some talent as a Breeder as well.

It was just that Breeder had not yet emerged as an established profession.

Seeing Giovanni tear through its silk so easily, Weedle was visibly about to grow dejected again.

The reason for this was actually that Weedle had a very competitive nature.

Later, it would also work even harder to grow stronger, improving its weaknesses as much as possible and becoming a true all-round powerhouse.

Giovanni also turned to reassure it:

"This isn't your fault, so don't overthink it. It's mainly because you haven't eaten enough leaves yet, which is why your silk isn't tough enough. Just eat more from now on."

Once Weedle understood what Giovanni meant, it nodded vigorously.

At its next meal, it would try even harder!

From physical conditioning to the move training that followed,

the day's training was truly complete.

The only unfortunate casualties were the two chairs, which had been reduced to a pitiful state.

Resting, eating, thinking over the training plan, and using the Viridian Force to help Weedle recover.

The remaining time quietly slipped by, and his first day of training in the Pokémon world finally came to an end.

This day was only the beginning, the beginning of Giovanni's step-by-step climb to the very top.

Early the next morning, the familiar routine repeated itself. The Team Rocket guy delivering food rang the doorbell, waking Giovanni from his dreams.

After enjoying a good meal with Weedle, he began the day's training.

The morning remained devoted to physical conditioning and recovery.

Noon and afternoon were reserved for targeted training of Poison Sting and String Shot, respectively.

The main focus for Poison Sting was still improving speed and accuracy, but Giovanni gradually made the target smaller.

He measured the speed of Poison Sting's release as best he could to see how much faster it had become.

As for the afternoon's String Shot training, its toughness had to be improved by eating leaves. Exercise would not help with that.

So the main focus was trying to concentrate the silk more tightly and further improve its control.

Ten days of this routine soon passed.

Only four days remained until the second-stage selection.

Over those ten days, new Pokémon hatched one after another, and the youths completed the second-stage assessment in this way.

Some were also attacked by their newly hatched Pokémon. After all, every Pokémon had a different personality.

Some parents had more vicious genes and had killed humans, so their newly hatched offspring would also have genes and temperaments of that kind.

These were still only a very small minority.

Taming Pokémon captured in the wild was what carried the greatest danger.

Of course, most people's Pokémon still had not hatched.

The pressing deadline forced them to walk around constantly with their incubators in their arms every day. Their fragile nerves were stretched taut, and the slightest lapse could lead to a breakdown.

For example, among the youths sharing one room, everyone else's Pokémon had hatched except for one boy's.

Under these circumstances, he broke down extremely quickly, and sleepless nights became normal.

After all, failure to hatch meant death.

Some went to extremes and tried to smash open their incubators, but that only wasted time and made the Pokémon feel threatened, leaving them even less willing to hatch.

One development that mattered more to Giovanni, however, could hardly be called good news.

Giovanni learned that Mu Sen's Pokémon Egg had hatched. It was a Charmander, one of the Starter Pokémon.

It was very talented and could take on the three Pokémon under Mu Sen's command on its own.

This made him an even greater threat to Giovanni.

P.S. This doesn't count toward the main text. If I have time on Saturday and Sunday, I'll keep posting four updates! As long as enough people keep following along, I'll try to post four updates daily and five on Saturdays and Sundays!