Inside the Box

The afternoon of the same day, Nova was perusing the guild shop for TMs with Pawniard at his side, wondering which ones would be useful to buy.

The battle with Ray made Nova realize a few things about himself and his method of interacting with Pokémon. For one, he wasn't the best when it came to strategy in battle.

Because of how he carries himself and his aspirations, one would think he's exceptionally intelligent from an outside standpoint. It would be obvious to think that someone who aspires to learn everything about Pokémon would be smart, no?

But his advantage wasn't his intellect. His intelligence wasn't low, but it definitely wasn't high either. His advantage came from his point of view and his acquired knowledge.

Having an outside perspective of the Pokémon world, by being a reincarnate, gave him the gift of seeing things from an odd angle. Certain questions he would ask himself regularly weren't things that most people thought about ever.

After all, people native to the Pokémon world normally wouldn't question the fundamentals of how their reality functions. It'd be the same as asking why two plus two equals four. It just does.

However, having this perspective was also a curse. He would subconsciously see Pokémon battles and attribute it to something similar to the games. Taking turns and only using the official league standard moves.

As far as he could tell, Pokémon couldn't use two moves at the same time. But who's to say they can't use their moves in creative ways? That's what he was missing.

Nova knew he could probably break this bad habit if he tried, but he didn't have enough time for that. Plus, wouldn't that make him like any other normal trainer? So, he decided to lean into his bad habit.

If everyone is thinking outside the box, then thinking inside the box would make you the outlier instead.

Instead of rising to the challenge, making use of his moves creatively and 'growing' as a trainer, he would drag everyone else down to his level and force battles to function on his terms.

Simply put, he would control the battlefield and push his opponents into an uncomfortable position.

That's why he was searching for TMs at the guild shop, specifically looking for moves he could use in succession to cause the desired effect he wanted.

Sadly, the TMs available were mostly dark-type offensive ones and standard moves that every Pokémon can learn like Attract or Protect.

Sighing, he was about to walk away when a voice spoke out to him.

"I know, right? That's what I said when I saw this TM list,"

That deep and hoarse-sounding voice couldn't be mistaken. It was Ray, the frail-looking man with the Skorupi again.

"You again? What do you want now?" Nova exasperatedly said. He wasn't actually annoyed; he just didn't trust him. After waking up in the morning with a clear mind, he realized the reason he didn't trust him subconsciously was that he had no presence.

Even when tired Nova wouldn't just walk into someone, meaning Ray somehow put himself in his way without him noticing at all. He orchestrated every interaction they've had so far.

And even just now, he suddenly appeared next to him without any prompt whatsoever.

'The people in this guild are freaks… Wait, I'm in this guild too.' he grumbled in his head.

Ray held his hands up in surrender. "I don't want anything. I came to give you something, actually."

Nova raised an eyebrow but just made a gesture to continue speaking.

"See the only reason I'm telling you this is because, for all intents and purposes, you should've lost our battle. By a mile. The fact that you didn't lose horribly intrigues me, so I'll give you a bit of advice.

Head to 4th street in the east ward of Reaversand. Find the space between prosperity and knock twice on reality. Don't let your face be seen if you value your privacy."

And with that, he calmly walked away while Nova watched. Ray had always had an aura of mischief around him, yet the only time Nova saw a face other than despair on his face was after their battle.

'From how he looks, I wouldn't doubt it if that was the only time he smiled this year. That guy's face is like a statue. Maybe that's why he just told me that. ' Nova mused. He didn't care about Ray, but rationalizing his actions gave him peace of mind.

Shrugging his shoulders, Nova decided to not do that. Although it was sounded interesting, he just opened up the note app and typed in what Ray said before going back to the field they just battled in.

He figured it would be most likely beneficial to go there eventually but Pawniard just recovered from a battle. If a fight broke out, Pawniard would likely be the weakest one there. Mentally at least, he was physically fine after eating.

Plus, he didn't have a mask and he just didn't feel like going into town to get one.

Instead, he decided to compensate for his lack of TMs by training moves.

Although it wasn't an official system, there are 3 levels of move mastery that are widely accepted by the Pokémon training community. To test what level your Pokémon was on was very simple.

The first level, Tier 1, would simply make the move glow. For example, A Fire Punch would simply make the Pokémon's fist glow red and grow a bit hotter. The brighter it glows, the closer the Pokémon is to Tier 2.

Tier 2, obviously being the second level, would make that move's typing be physically represented. Using the same Fire Punch example, a Tier 2 Fire Punch would actually create flames on the Pokémon's fist. A weaker Tier 2 would be embers and sparks while a move that is on the cusp of Tier 3 would be a raging inferno of a punch.

This tier is also the tier that many believe the Pokémon gains a better understanding of that move's typing, allowing them to learn moves of the same type easier. In other words, learning fire-type moves would be easier if one already had a Tier 2 Fire Punch.

Finally, Tier 3. Rather than being about comprehension, this tier focuses on pushing out as much power as possible. A Fire Punch in this tier may change colors depending on how long the Pokémon has been using it.

In other words, at Tier 3 it would just get stronger and stronger until it reaches a certain limit. At this point, it doesn't matter if you train it because its power scales with the Pokémon's level.

Of course, the move itself gets stronger with each tier, but it becomes even more powerful in the third tier.

The reason this idea wasn't accepted by the Pokémon Association was that it only worked for offensive moves. Apparently, they were working on a way to measure all types of moves and didn't want to settle for measuring the power of half the moves.

To put it simply, all or nothing.

All of Pawniard's current moves were at Tier 1. Since it wasn't an official thing, the Pokégear didn't pick up on it. Nova's goal was to get it to Tier 2 so he could learn moves such as Metal Claw and Metal Sound.

"Alright, here's what we're gonna do. You stand over there and I'll throw these rocks at you. When you think they're about to hit you, break 'em apart with Iron Head." he explained.

Pawniard followed what he said, walking into the middle of the clearing while Nova set down the fairly large rocks he was going to throw. He was thinking about the best method to train Iron Head and couldn't think of anything else than this.

'It's said that Bisharp values the blade on its head immensely. If one were to chip it even a little bit, they'd retire from being the leader of a group of Pawniard. Meaning I could use the sink or swim method. Either Pawniard makes stronger Iron Heads or risks having its blade chipped.'

At the same time, this training was supposed to improve his own arm speed and muscle endurance by constantly throwing slightly heavy rocks. Not by much, but it would eventually improve day by day.

"Alright, here we go!" Nova yelled as he hurled a 15lb rock.