Natural Gift

The forest contained many wild plants and Berries. Some were edible, while others were not, but compared with Earth, this world's crops were much safer.

Terrance was walking through a forest on Mt. Chimney.

Just moments earlier, he and Swablu had had the misfortune of running into a Nuzleaf. Compared with Seedot, Nuzleaf was much fonder of playing pranks.

Fortunately, this one wasn't too ill-tempered. After Terrance gave him a little food, he managed to send him on his way.

"This is it." Terrance's eyes lit up as he caught a red fruit Swablu had pecked loose. He picked it up and held it close for a sniff. After making absolutely sure, he looked delighted.

"Let's keep going." With that instruction to Swablu, Terrance got back to work with her.

Terrance didn't pick many of the red Berries, only three or four, before they headed elsewhere. Cheri Berries weren't his only goal. He needed more Berries he could use, and the more the better. He hadn't paid close attention to the kinds growing in this area before, so he needed to check again.

"Is this a Nanab Berry? Too bad it's not much use." Upon finding another kind of Berry, Terrance shook his head.

To be honest, although there were plenty of Berry varieties in an undeveloped wilderness like this, they grew in a haphazard distribution, leaving very few suitable ones for Terrance to find.

After all that work, Terrance had picked only four Cheri Berries, three Chesto Berries, three Lum Berries, and two Haban Berries.

He carefully packed the twelve Berries in his backpack as if they were precious treasures. Only then was he satisfied, and he set off back in good spirits.

There might have been more of what Terrance needed in the forests around Mt. Chimney, but these were all he had found in this area for now. He hadn't picked all the Berries, either. Some remained, and he had noted their locations, so he could naturally come back for them when he needed them.

"With a Cheri Berry, the pit is the most important part. The flesh is secondary. The pit contains abundant fire elements, so if you want to learn a Fire-type move, it's a pretty good option. But we're not trying to teach you a fire move. We're going to have you use this pit to unleash all of its energy in a single burst."

Terrance spoke to Swablu as he ground the Cheri Berry's pit.

Terrance worked quickly. He had read about this subject in books and studied it in considerable depth. All he lacked was practice.

With that knowledge behind him, although he struggled at first, his movements gradually went from clumsy to skillful.

Grinding a pit without damaging its structure required particular aids and techniques. Terrance worked with great care to avoid any mishaps.

"Natural Gift is a move that takes a very clever shortcut," Terrance said.

Swablu stared at him wide-eyed, not understanding.

Terrance patiently explained the principles behind Natural Gift, and Swablu listened attentively. Compared with learning a new move, Natural Gift was undoubtedly a better choice for Swablu as she was now.

The advantage of this move was that once a Pokémon basically understood how it worked, it could use it quite easily. Proficiency wasn't an issue, either; the core of the move depended entirely on the Berry itself. As for its power, although that was closely tied to the Pokémon's strength, Natural Gift had relatively little room to grow compared with other moves. On the other hand, its base power was relatively high among most moves.

A Pokémon attacked using power obtained from a Berry. Different Berries gave the move different types and power.

The type was simple enough: it represented the Berry's properties. The power depended on three factors: the Berry's age, how much processing the Trainer had done-its so-called energy utilization rate-and which of the Pokémon's own moves served as the carrier.

A Cheri Berry contained a core of Fire-type energy. Once Terrance had processed it, Swablu could store that energy all at once, then unleash it in a single burst when necessary, forming a new move: the so-called Natural Gift.

A Cheri Berry could imbue a carrier move with the Fire type, while the other Berries Terrance had picked-Chesto, Lum, and Haban Berries-could produce Water-type, Flying-type, and Dragon-type effects respectively.

Terrance was already quite satisfied to have found these.

After about half an hour, Terrance finished processing a Cheri Berry pit. Swablu could now directly use the energy within it.

After processing one Berry, Terrance didn't immediately begin practicing with Swablu. Instead, he continued processing the others.

The pit was the key part of a Cheri Berry. Some of the other Berries were the same, while others were different. Terrance prepared each one according to its particular principles, and with the experience from his first attempt, the rest went considerably more smoothly.

In the meantime, Terrance had sent Swablu off to resume her basic training.

Time passed quickly. When Terrance finally looked up from his work, Swablu was flying, using Peck to attack the Feather Dance she had created.

Cotton-like feathers drifted through the air, and Swablu seemed to be weaving through a sea of clouds. At last, the feathers floated down bit by bit. Pecked to pieces, the Feather Dance fell like a shower of cotton, a sight of breathtaking beauty.

"Why don't you take a break?" Terrance said with a smile.

The training Swablu was doing now focused on coordinating moves, and it was also a basic part of Pokémon Contests. From the beginning, Terrance had intended for Swablu to pay attention to these things too. He believed that even Pokémon Contests had a reason to exist. Coordination and transitions between a Pokémon's moves could play a crucial role in battle as well. That was why, under the rules of Pokémon Contests in most places, the final round took the form of a battle: it tested whether a Pokémon could put the spectacular moves from its performance to effective use in actual combat, rather than leaving them as an empty display that could only be admired.

That was also why Coordinators were known as Coordinator Trainers.

Not everyone agreed with this view, however. Most Coordinators placed great importance on the performance of Pokémon moves while largely neglecting battle, but with the Contest rules as they were, they couldn't really complain.

In fact, not everyone was passionate about Pokémon battles.

The rule that the final stage of a Pokémon Contest had to be a battle held back many excellent contestants who loved spectacular Pokémon move performances but disliked fighting.

But none of that had anything to do with Terrance. Although he greatly respected Trainers who were passionate about performing-Little Rina, for example, disliked battles between Pokémon-that didn't mean he would reject battle himself. As far as Terrance was concerned, either way was fine; subjective emotions could rarely influence him anymore. He naturally felt no aversion to battle.

After all, Pokémon battles and the most traditional Trainers were the mainstream of this world.

Perhaps, after a long period of development, a sizable competition focused exclusively on pure performances by Pokémon and Trainers would emerge one day, but that wasn't something Terrance concerned himself with...