10 Training and Finding Berries

The sunrise illuminated the blue as if it were igniting the most perfect flame. It was a perfect morning to start training and I started cleaning myself with the water from the waterfall.

Don't know when but Sandile is already awake, maybe they sleep less as they are dark types. Most dark types hunt in the night and sleep during the day although there are some exceptions. I looked at the unusually excited sandile and said,

"Sandile, let's start our training today. I will teach you a new move and the best way to hunt your prey, so pay attention. Before that, we will have our breakfast and leave this place."

[Can't ask for more, I am excited to start the training] he said excitedly.

We had our bland breakfast and moved out of the cave, I scanned the Pokemon around here and they are nearly on the same level as Sandile. They will be decent for sandile to train but before that, I need some Oran berries so that I can trade them with the wild pokemon for a match.

So I took Sandile inside the Pokeball and started searching for berries. This place was very good for the growth of berries and I am sure I saw some Oran trees and Sitrus trees around while hunting. So I traced the path from yesterday and found a Sitrus tree, it was very big when compared with an average Sitrus tree and I am sure there will be a pokemon that guards it.

The moment I stepped closer, an electric spark came towards me. It did not hit me directly but was fired as a warning from the smallest bug you will ever see, it was a yellow baby spider. I appraised it because if such a small bug can guard a huge tree like this then it proves that it should at least have decent talent.

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Joltik(F)

Lvl: 11

Type: Bug/Electric

Height: 0' 3"

Ability: Unnerve

Characteristic: Calm

Potential: Green(Low Grade)

Moves: Electroweb, Bug Bite, Absorb

Egg Moves: Double team.

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'Ohhhhhh.' Rare talent but ability and characteristic are just ok. Unnerve might be the reason no pokemon comes here to eat the berry, Calm is a good trait to have but I would have preferred Timid or Modest. I will still catch though.

What I need now is to build connections, I need people who can work for me. What better place to hire than Trial island, I need to form my web of network. I need people to work under me, if that's not possible then joltik can be a backup. I released Sandile out for his first battle, I also need to test his moves.

"Sandile, Come on out."

"This is your first battle so listen to my commands well."

[ Don't worry bro, this bug looks puny.]

"Sandile, lesson number one: Never underestimate your opponent even if its a caterpie and don't forget you are weak against bugs."

Hearing what I said he seems unconvinced but still nodded his head and looked towards Joltik which took her battle stance.

"Hone claws first and don't let her come closer to you. She doesn't have any long-range attack that can harm you, so keep your distance and boost yourself."

"Sandile dile", his claws shined white and then he rubbed them against each other rapidly.

"Tik Joltikkkk," Joltik tried to use absorb by getting a bit closer but Sandile was fast enough to dodge her.

"Now use Sand tomb so that Joltik loses her footing, then use aqua tail."

Sandile started to turn the ground softer ans suddenly a sand tomb formed around Joltik, sadly it was very small and weak but was enough for a tiny Joltik. After that, his tail slowly got surrounded by water, then the tail expanded in size while sandile jumped up to ponce on Joltik like how Pikachu uses Iron tail.

"Joltikkkkkk," Joltik panicked as she couldn't move away from the sand tomb. Sandile delivered the aqua tail on Joltik's head and she got hit at point-blank range.

'A Critical Hit', Sand tomb did the additional damage. I concluded that it was enough and threw the Pokeball, the Joltik got pulled in and the Pokeball wiggled three times before it stood motionless.

"Good job Sandile, that was a great match but you need to work on Sand tomb. Aqua tail was a bit slow, but I am glad that Hone Claws is perfect."

[Ofcourse it will be perfect, I sharpen my claws daily since birth. That's the basic thing my father taught me.]

He did not look dejected by my negative comments on Sand Tomb and Aquatail but took the positive side of Hone Claws. I think its good that he is more on the optimistic side.

I collected Joltik's Pokeball and looked up to see the number of berries. Later, I will find a good trainer for Joltik or maybe sell him after the trial. I think the former option is the best and later option is a backup.

"Sandile, can you climb up and bring all the berries on this tree. Don't eat them, just drop them down. I have a good use for them, so no matter how tempted you are don't eat."

[Ah, that sucks. I thought you were gonna give everything to me as I was the one who defeated Joltik but I will trust you for now.]

Soon, Sandile Climbed up the tree and dropped all the berries. There were around 5 riped ones and 7 unripe, I put them in the pockets for now. Sandile can have a good number of battles with this, although l like to just leave the fainted pokemon after the battle, my instincts said not to provoke the pokemon near the pool.

After pocketing the berries, we went back near the pool as I want Sandile to battle water and grass types instead of bug types in the forest.

I want him to battle these types because on one side they are easy to talk and convince, and on the other side, it can improve his resistance towards grass and water.

"Ok Sandile lets talk while walking back, I want you to listen carefully. I will teach you the method to hunt now but before that, you need to be very proficient in Sand Tomb."

Sandile was sitting on my head, he was not huge so I did not mind as I can build some bond with him. He did not talk but was just listening, he becomes super calm when I give advises and digests them like a black hole.

"Sand tomb in itself is not a powerful attack but you can turn it into a support type. Imagine this, if you can become highly proficient you can turn the whole battlefield into a Desert. You don't need to apply the sinking part to it, you need to use sand tomb as the means to turn the ground into Soft sand. If you master it, you can even turn the sand around you soft and dig your way through the ground. On one side you will learn to dig and on the other side you will have a terrain advantage with the desert," Listening to what I said, he though for a while and then nodded enthusiastically.

[Oh Bro, that's a brilliant idea!!!!! I need to be very skilled to turn the battlefield into a desert. It takes a lot of effort but I think it's doable]

"As for the hunting part, you hunt from underground. You need to use the vibrations produced by the pokemon on the surface to predict their location and assassinate them from behind. Your main weapon until you evolve will be dig and sand tomb, you can catch any pokemon off-guard by suddenly appearing behind them from underground. So, our priority is to train for Sand tomb and Dig."

We started exchanging our strategies and after an hours walk, we reached the waterfalls. First, I started meditating, Sandile started practising Sand Tomb and was trying to turn the area under him into Soft sand.

Later, around three hours we finished our respective works and started to eat our lunch, tomorrow I will leave here and start inspecting the whole zone.

Sandile needs real battles with trainers so I need to find some people around, I am sure I will find them because luck will work in my favour.

For now, I fill find some grass and water types for practice. I stood near the pool and started examining with appraisal, there were a lot of Basculin and Tympoles around, I luckily found a level 15 Palpitoad. All the pokemon here had orange and red potentials, I couldn't find even one yellow potential pokemon, as for the grass types near the flowers were Petilil and Cottonee.

Most of them were below level 10, there were three grass types with level 12 which will be good for practice and a Basculin with level 13 can be considered a mini-boss. Palpitoad will be the final boss for my Sandile.

I went towards the group of grass types, they were wary of me at first but after I gifted them three Sitrus berries that were not yet ripe, they started dancing around me. I played with them for a while and then asked for help, thankfully they were not against it and agreed immediately.

So, I booked my three battle slots with a Cottonee and two Petilil. The same way I bribed the Basculin and Palpitoad, Basculin was very aggressive at the start, as if threatening me for more berries but the moment I oppressed it with psychic powers, it acted like a dog. Palpitoad agreed for the battle immediately, he was very eager to battle. Maybe he was too bored around here so it was easy to convince him.

All the pokemon that were battling Sandile were orange in potential, Palpitoad will battle tomorrow morning and the other four will battle today. My plan for Next two days will be battling other trainers, hunting high potential wild pokemon and then I plan to trespass the zones.

"Sandile, take rest for an hour and we will start battling after."

[Got it]

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Time Skip(7 hours)

It was late at night and Sandile worked hard in today's battles. He almost lost to Basculin as it was battling inside water, Basculin can't battle on land so Sandile had to use the lotus leaves in the pool to step on. Sandile even fell into the water once but luckily it did not hurt him much, maybe because he has a minor resistance for water due to Aqua Tail. He learnt scary face which helped him overcome the speed of Basculin.

As for the battle with grass types, it went very smoothly. Even though Sandile was lower level and had type disadvantage, he overcame it with his potential. He is still getting the hang of going underground, I think he will learn to use dig in two or three days. I finally saw the advantage of having high potential pokemon after these battles. High potential pokemon have a good battle sense and are highly clever in using their moves.

After today's repeated battles, I found out that pokemon have a faster growth rate if they fight continuously in succession without taking rest. It makes them reach their limits and overcome them.

I can't use my Items on Sandile except for Scope lens, For pokemon of three-stage evolutions, their first stage is considered as a baby stage. You should not use items like Lagging tail and Everstone. Lagging tail puts the burden on their rapid growth stage and can cause after-effects, as for Everstone, it's better to use it after he evolves into Krokorok.

The main reason for this is Sandile completely changes after evolution, his fighting style entirely changes as he turns bipedal. If he gets used to fighting in Sandile form then it will be very difficult to adapt later. Also, letting Sandile evolve will be good for his growth than to restrict him, but for his last evolution it will be different, Everstone is a must as he needs to be the peak of his Krokorok form.

Tomorrow will be a big day, we will battle Palpitoad and then go in search of other trainers. I also need to hunt high potential ground and dark types to feed Sandile, by eating these pokemon he can improve his potential when he evolves. As for later, I need a lot of high-grade poke blocks, I think I can solve them easily because I will exploit Oak after leaving the island.

Sandile was already sleeping and I was also ready for the big day tomorrow. My psychic senses are hinting me that I will be having an awful day tomorrow, I seriously hope that's not the case. Just like that, I drifted off to sleep with multiple thoughts in my mind.

---------x Chapter End x----------