Chapter 177: The Trials of Magikarp

With Rex's permission, over the next few days, whenever they had time, Arisa and her friends would come to Rex's Farm to train their Pokémon.

In gratitude for the black belt now worn by Machoke, Rex provided the group with some Pokémon training knowledge and had Yuki Terada prepare some energy cubes for their Pokémon.

Whenever they had time, Yui and Karen would also have their Swellow and Taillow spar with each other's Pokémon. Although Yui and Karen hadn't had their initial Pokémon for long, their Swellow and Taillow were of good quality and often sought advice from the large Swellow. Thus, their battles against Arisa's group's Pokémon were almost one-sided.

This result left Arisa's group somewhat disheartened. They knew that Yui and Karen had only received their Pokémon eggs from Rex after becoming employees of Rex's Farm and had no prior knowledge of the Trainer profession.

Arisa's group had graduated from a junior Trainer school and had seriously trained their initial Pokémon for several months, yet the results were devastatingly one-sided.

This blow finally made them realize their true strength. Previously, despite encountering a pack of Mightyena, they thought their Pokémon's ability to defeat so many Poochyena meant they were quite strong and had only been in danger due to being outnumbered.

However, comparing themselves to Yui and Karen made the disparity clear, shattering their pride.

Awakened by reality, they gave up their immediate plans to travel and decided to at least train their Pokémon to be able to defeat Yui and Karen's Swellow and Taillow before reconsidering their plans.

Recently, Rex shifted his focus back to Milotic and Magikarp. Milotic was still in a rapid growth phase after evolving and had recently learned the moves Rain Dance and Hydro Pump.

Milotic naturally learned Rain Dance by watching Politoed use it to water the rare fruit trees, and it grasped Hydro Pump while practicing Water Gun.

Milotic had almost fully mastered the moves it learned after evolving, making further short-term improvement difficult.

Thus, Rex planned to change Milotic's training regimen. After explaining his idea to Milotic, she eagerly agreed.

Next, Rex called over Magikarp, which had grown significantly in size, now over two meters long, and its gaze had become quite sharp.

Seeing the now wise-looking Magikarp, Rex couldn't help but remember the weak, vacant-eyed fish he had once caught by the beach; the transformation was astonishing.

For Rex, both a hidden genius and a rising star were indispensable. Now that the rising star had evolved, it was time to intensify the training of the hidden genius.

Given Magikarp's current size and its body covered in hard scales, the Poliwags could no longer move it. Thus, Magikarp often played alone by ramming into rocks.

Magikarp was like an impure iron block needing a good hammer to become refined steel, and the newly evolved Milotic was perfect for this role.

Rex decided to have Milotic use Dragon Tail to hit Magikarp, improving Magikarp's physical strength while Milotic trained her tail and skills.

Milotic readily agreed, having long wanted to give Magikarp a good beating, not just because she often lost to Magikarp's tackles before evolving, but also because after evolving, Magikarp had grown distant.

Before evolving, Milotic and Magikarp were inseparable despite frequently injuring each other during training, a necessary cost for changing their fates.

But after Milotic's evolution, everything changed; Magikarp avoided her, focusing on smashing rocks alone.

When training began, Milotic gathered Dragon-type energy in her tail and struck Magikarp, sending it flying over ten meters.

Rex jumped onto Milotic's back and rode to Magikarp, finding it unconscious with blood flowing from its broken scales.

Seeing Magikarp gravely injured, Milotic looked pitifully at Rex, hoping he would heal it.

"Milotic, use Life Dew on Magikarp."

Rex decided not to intervene, instructing Milotic to heal Magikarp herself.

Remembering her healing move, Milotic conjured a life-energy-filled water orb and sprinkled it over Magikarp, healing its injuries and repairing its scales.

Due to the severity of Magikarp's injuries, Milotic used Life Dew twice to fully heal it. The restored Magikarp now looked at Milotic with a hint of fear.

Witnessing her companion's evolution had deeply affected Magikarp, making it feel like a clown in front of Milotic, hence its avoidance.

However, Magikarp understood the benefits of this training. Compared to ramming rocks, Milotic's strikes were more effective despite the pain. To evolve into Gyarados, Magikarp was willing to endure anything.

Seeing the training's effectiveness, Rex established this routine, encouraging Milotic to alternate between Dragon Tail and Iron Tail, which she quickly learned on the second day, making training even more effective.

Magikarp's resilience grew, now needing two strikes to be knocked out. It even developed a serpentine dodging move, occasionally surprising Milotic with Tackle, a low-damage but humiliating attack.

With both understanding their roles, Rex left plenty of energy cubes for them to replenish their strength as needed, frequently checking on their progress.