Chapter 31: Artificial Lake

"Good morning, Yuli!"

At this moment, Rex had already prepared breakfast and was eating with a group of Pokémon. When Yuli came downstairs, he greeted her.

"Sorry, boss, did I oversleep today?"

Yuli walked up to Rex and bowed to him.

"Don't you remember? You fainted yesterday."

Rex reminded her, seeing that she still seemed a bit groggy.

"Oh right, I scared Akiko yesterday!"

Akiko chimed in at the right moment.

"Yeah, that seems to be the case. I forgot until you mentioned it!"

After thinking for a moment, Yuli finally remembered.

"Oh, boss, I successfully made some basic energy cubes yesterday!"

Yuli excitedly reported.

"Well, I fed the energy cubes you made yesterday to the Poliwag, and they gave positive feedback. They found it tastier than the basic energy cubes from the store!"

Rex shared yesterday's test results and Yuli's feedback.

"It's mainly because the fruit quality at Rex Farm is good. My energy cube making skills still need improvement."

Yuli objectively commented.

She knew that although she successfully made basic energy cubes, the success rate was still unstable. She needed to continue working hard to improve.

"I want to inform you seriously, if you continue to work day and night making energy cubes like before, I will consider suspending your access to the fruit mixer. Do you understand, Yuli?"

Rex was also frightened by yesterday's incident of Yuli fainting.

Although he had healing abilities, it wasn't necessary to push the employees so hard, even if she volunteered.

"I understand, boss. I won't make you worry in the future!"

Seeing Rex's serious expression, Yuli was also taken aback.

But she knew that the boss was considering her health, and thinking back to the previous period, she had indeed been a bit obsessed, as if holding her breath to make the energy cubes, not wanting to disappoint Rex.

"Well, just be careful. Everything is moving in the right direction now, isn't it?"

Rex said to Yuli.

Time flies, and time passes!

At this moment, it had been three months since Yuli successfully made basic energy cubes, and Rex had finally turned from an 11-year-old boy into a 12-year-old boy.

During this time, Yuli could easily make basic energy cubes, and occasionally even intermediate ones. So now, the food for the Pokémon at Rex Farm no longer needed to be purchased externally.

After all, the quality of the fruit produced at the farm made the energy cubes made from it tastier and more energy-rich than those bought from the store.

Moreover, in the past period, there had been another batch of fruit trees gradually bearing fruit, so Rex Farm had basically achieved fruit self-sufficiency.

Now even the Tailow mainly ate energy cubes made by Yuli, only occasionally eating some fruit when they craved it.

Rex had given a lot of fruit to Officer Jenny, Nurse Joy, and the orphanage where Yuli was located.

For Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy, it was to thank them for their help and care, and for the orphanage, it was to thank Yuli for her contribution to Rex Farm.

However, after Rex transplanted some fruit trees to the orchard one after another, the method of using the well dug by the farm to irrigate the orchard was somewhat inappropriate. Mainly because the efficiency was too low, it would consume a lot of their time.

So during this time, Rex wanted to dig an artificial lake near the orchard with the help of a group of Pokémon. After that, they could divert water from the large lake to this side, and then raise a group of Water-type Pokémon in the artificial lake to help irrigate the fruit trees.

Originally, Rex planned to let the Poliwag learn Rain Dance to irrigate the fruit trees, but later found it to be somewhat unrealistic.

Not to mention that the Poliwag had not yet learned Rain Dance, even if it did, it couldn't release the Rain Dance skill several times a day, and the range of rain was also small, which couldn't meet the growing demand of the expanding orchard.

So, Rex personally inspected the terrain, chose a relatively reasonable route, and then let the Sandshrew use Dig to dig out a wide enough water channel underground.

This didn't stump the Sandshrew, after all, its digging skills had become instinctual. It only took a few days to complete Rex's request.

The difficult part was to dig out a large enough artificial lake on this side of the orchard.

Of course, the main force of excavation was still the Sandshrew, after all, it was a natural expert at digging. But this time, it also needed the cooperation of other Pokémon. Rex needed to command them to transport the excavated soil to other places.

Rex directly treated the excavation of the artificial lake as the daily training of the Pokémon. Swellow commanded a group of its subordinates to help transport the soil in baskets to other places and empty the baskets before bringing them back, repeating this process.

The Heracross needed to help move the heavier rocks. If the rocks were too large, it also needed to use its Brick Break skill to break them before moving them away.

The Bellsprout brought some Oddish that had already learned Grass Terrain, waiting on the side to restore the condition of Pokémon that needed to recover their strength. This also deepened their use of the Grass Terrain.

The Poliwag needed to use its Water Gun skill to help water the fruit trees during this time. Of course, this task was a bit overwhelming, so Rex would also help.

As the Shiny Mareep and Gastly couldn't help much, Rex sent them to take care of Akiko.

Because during this time, he and Yuli were quite busy, and they really couldn't pay much attention to her. They were also worried about her playing alone, so they let the two Pokémon accompany her.

This project lasted for about a month. During this period, it wasn't that all the time was spent on digging the artificial lake; other things on the farm also needed to be taken care of.

Among them, the most crucial thing was for Yuli to make enough energy cubes to replenish the energy and strength consumed by the Pokémon, so as not to cause physical overdraft.

It could be said that Rex had invested more than ninety percent of the labor force at Rex Farm to dig this artificial lake.

During this period, Rex could feel that all the Pokémon had grown a lot. Among them, the Sandshrew, as the main force, had evolved into a Sandslash. This was closely related to its continuous use of Digging skills and the ample nutrition provided by Rex.

Since the Sandshrew evolved into a Sandslash, the digging speed for the artificial lake had undergone a qualitative leap, so they were able to dig out a lake that was 100 meters long, 100 meters wide, and 2 meters deep in just one month.

"Sandslash, use Crush Claw!"

"Heracross, use Crush Claw!"

Now, Rex was using the Crush Claw skill with the Sandslash and Heracross to compact the bottom and banks of the artificial lake, preventing too much silt from being stirred up when the lake was filled with water.

With the last piece of land compacted, the artificial lake was finally completed.

Rex and a group of Pokémon looked at the artificial lake in front of them, feeling proud. This was something they had dug out with their own strength, as the saying goes, with unity, nothing is impossible.

And the water channel was not like Rex's initial plan, directly from underground through a tunnel dug by the Sandslash into the river, but instead, a two-meter wide and 1.5-meter deep stream was dug out. This could benefit the land on both sides of the stream, and when planting crops later, there would be no shortage of water.

After all the work was done, there was only one final step left, that was to divert water and let it flow into the artificial lake through the water channel.

Early the next day, Rex brought all the people and Pokémon in the farm to the source of the water channel, the large lake where Rex tamed the Poliwag.

Now, all they needed to do was to dig open the separated layer of soil, and the lake water could flow into the artificial lake.

Then, under the gaze of everyone, Rex took out a shovel, dug a few times at the already thin barrier, and then saw the barrier burst under the pressure of the lake water, and the water flowed continuously into the artificial lake along the water channel, heading towards the artificial lake.

"Let's go over too!"

Then, a group of people and Pokémon followed the direction of the water channel towards the artificial lake. The Poliwag jumped directly into the water channel, and was quickly carried forward by the current, looking very excited.

When they walked to the side of the artificial lake, the lake was already full of water. In addition to the Poliwag, there were also some Poliwhirl and Goldeen brought over by the lake water.

Looking at their appearance, it was obvious that they were a bit puzzled by the current artificial lake, unable to understand why the environment had changed so much.

Your support is my motivation!

(End of Chapter)