A faint green light suddenly rose from the soil and wrapped around Petilil's little body.
A tender sprout grew from the top of its head, rapidly stretching out and maturing. Before long, it had become a full-grown leaf.
Originally, Petilil had three leaves, but one had been picked by Uncle Mike. Now, with the help of the growth fertilizer, it had regrown.
"The absorption is working really well."
Aven nodded in satisfaction from the side, clearly pleased.
The absorption efficiency of the growth fertilizer was determined by a Pokémon's aptitude, and Petilil's aptitude seemed to be quite good.
With that, Aven could use the growth fertilizer to quickly cultivate Petilil and help it develop some basic combat ability.
Everything was progressing much more smoothly than he had expected.
That night, Petilil curled up quietly in its flowerpot and fell asleep.
It was the warmest bed it had ever had, and even as it slept, there was a smile on its face.
Several times during the night, it woke up and glanced toward Aven, sleeping soundly on the nearby bed, afraid that everything would vanish if it let down its guard.
——
The next morning.
Aven and Petilil woke up at the same time.
Even though they had only been officially bonded for a few days, their rapport was already quite strong.
"The growth fertilizer really is working well."
After carefully inspecting Petilil's growth, Aven nodded with satisfaction.
Over the past few days, he hadn't made Petilil do any formal training. He had only wanted it to build a solid foundation first.
"Petilil~"
Petilil affectionately rubbed a leaf against Aven's shoulder, eyes full of hope.
'You want to start training already…?' Aven paused in thought, then shook his head. "It's still not time yet."
Seeing this, Petilil looked a little disappointed, continuing to use its actions to ask: "Then when can I start training?"
"Once you've learned your first move." Aven smiled and patted Petilil's head. "Don't worry, it won't take long."
'A move…' Petilil tilted its head thoughtfully.
Suddenly, a faint green glow emerged from its body and then vanished in an instant.
"That was… Absorb?"
Aven's eyes lit up. For Petilil, Absorb was indeed one of the easiest moves to learn.
And it had learned it through its own effort — that was a sign of talent and potential.
After successfully forcing out the move it had just learned, Petilil let out a breath of relief, looking eagerly at its… well, Trainer — that was the word, right?
"Alright, got it. I'll set up a training plan for you shortly."
"Absorb is definitely a move worth focusing on in early training."
Aven smiled and nodded as he recalled the information about the move.
As the name implied, Absorb drained an opponent's vitality and replenished the user's health.
And the "opponent" wasn't limited to other Pokémon — in fact, Absorb could also be used on things like trees or soil.
So, while training Absorb, Petilil could also use energy from the surrounding nature to recover its stamina.
If Petilil had learned a high-consumption move like Growth or Tackle, Aven wouldn't have let it train just yet.
Burning through energy without any way to recover it would lead to overtraining, which could harm the Pokémon more than help.
Although the growth fertilizer could replenish Petilil's energy, it was limited in supply — not nearly enough to support heavy training sessions.
——
Later, in the back garden of the farm.
Petilil lay snugly in its flowerpot, comfortably burrowed into the soil.
After a full day of Absorb training, it still had energy to spare, but mentally it felt a bit drained. It needed proper rest.
"Today's training went really well."
"But Absorb doesn't offer much offensive power. While it's great for recovery, it can't really hurt opponents."
At the wooden table, Aven twirled a feather quill in his hand, sketching out Petilil's future training plan on a sheet of paper.
Petilil's base stats were mainly focused in Special Attack — which would be the main direction of its training.
Every species of Pokémon had different base stats, distributed across HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed.
The goal of training was to tap into a Pokémon's natural potential. Focusing on a Pokémon's best stats made the training process much more effective.
"Special Attack focus, and absorb-type moves…" Aven pondered.
Absorb-type moves referred to those that stole an opponent's vitality and used it to heal the user.
Absorb was the basic form. From there, it could develop into Mega Drain and Giga Drain.
There were also variants like Drain Punch, Draining Kiss, Strength Sap, and Leech Seed.
"Absorb, Mega Drain, and Giga Drain… The power of those moves scales with the Pokémon's Special Attack."
"Right now, Petilil is still too weak to bring out the full power of these moves."
"That means I need to have it learn some status moves — like Sleep Powder, Stun Spore, Leech Seed… and Toxic."
After some thought, Aven had a rough plan in mind.
Status moves were considered support-class moves in battle. They were essential tools for winning against stronger opponents.
Even elite-level Pokémon could lose a lot of effectiveness if hit with a status condition.
If that condition was Toxic, then with enough time, even a Champion-level Pokémon could be in real danger.
Toxic… Aven's eyes narrowed as he recalled the importance of that move in Pokémon studies.
Hundreds of years ago — in the era Aven had lived in — a certain ninja had developed a unique poison that allowed nearly all Pokémon to learn the Toxic move.
Thanks to Toxic, that ninja had become a legendary Poison-type master, elevating the entire Poison-type category to a new level.
Over the centuries, Toxic's power became integrated into Pokémon genetics and passed down as a natural talent.
It was a true man-made move, and one that had deeply influenced the study of moves for generations.
"We're a thousand years in the past. Even though this world is clearly different from the one I knew, Toxic probably hasn't been invented yet."
"That means no one will be prepared for it. Especially since Toxic never misses — it could be a devastating surprise."
After weighing everything, Aven finalized Petilil's next training goal.
However, gathering all the ingredients needed to teach Toxic would be a bit of a challenge.
"Lil, lil?"
On the other side, Petilil had just heard about Toxic from Aven.
After setting the plan, Aven left the final decision up to Petilil — and that feeling of being respected warmed its little heart.
Even though it had heard the training process for Toxic would be painful, Petilil didn't hesitate at all and nodded firmly.
It wanted to become stronger — strong enough to protect its Trainer.
The pain of training was a necessary trial on the path to true freedom!
"Alright, then next we'll gather the materials needed to make Toxic." Aven smiled, satisfied, and began mentally reviewing the recipe.
Oran Berry, Pecha Berry, Tamato Berry, and Haban Berry — along with venom from a Poison-type Pokémon and a few other supporting ingredients.
This was the complete recipe for Toxic. After the League's improvements in the future, other toxins could be substituted for one of the Poison-type berries.
However, the quality of the resulting Toxic move would be slightly lower depending on the strength and nature of the substituted poison.
They already had an Oran Berry. The remaining three berries or some kind of Poison-type venom still needed to be found.
As for the other supporting materials, they weren't rare — most potion makers kept them in stock. But they weren't cheap.
'Looks like I'll need to find a way to make some money…'
Aven fell deep into thought.
(End of Chapter)