Chapter 38: A Fresh Start

Sitting in the city of Lilycove, Darren stretched lazily as he flipped through the book "Analyzing Sound-based Moves." After Swablu joined his team, Master Shozo brought him to Lilycove City and temporarily arranged a hotel room for him. Then he hastily left to take care of some business, leaving Darren to wait for news regarding his enrollment at Crown Academy.

Darren wasn't in a rush, though. As the headquarters of the Pokemon breeding industry, Lilycove City boasted the largest library of knowledge about Pokemon in the Hoenn region. As a junior breeder, Darren was eligible to borrow some of it's resources.

Now that the breeder assessment was behind him and he had two Pokemon, Beautifly and Swablu, for his journey, his future was set at the Crown Academy. Darren began to prepare for his future development.

Training his Beautifly and Swablu was Darren's top priority, as well as laying the foundation for the upcoming Pokemon contest.

Beautifly's main moves included Silver Wind, Absorb, Electroweb, and Air Cutter.

Its support moves were Tailwind, Absorb, String Shot, Morning Sun, and Stun Spore.

Moves it had given up on were Tackle, Bug Bite and Poison Sting.

Tackle and Poison Sting were Beautifly's main moves before evolving. Tackle was no longer useful, and Poison Sting, which releases toxins from its body through a certain medium to harm the opponent, was not deadly and was considered a weaker toxin. The form of the move was also difficult to use successfully. Therefore, once Beautifly reached a certain level of maturity, Darren had it abandon this move and did not plan to use it as a regular move.

As for Bug Bite, it was Beautifly's main way of eating in conjunction with Absorb while still a Wurmple. Whether it was fruit or vegetation, Beautifly could absorb their nutrients very well with Bug Bite. However, as an attacking move, the form of "Bug Bite" was too limited, so Darren chose to exclude this move as well.

Gust used its wings to launch a fierce wind attack on the opponent. Due to Beautifly's innate race issue, this move could not exert to much power. Darren used the wind as a support move and paired it with a Tailwind air stream to enhance Beautifly's flying agility and speed.

Silver Wind was an enhanced version of Tailwind, with the addition of scales that made the wind even sharper. Darren liked to mix the move with Stun Spore, giving him more tactical choices.

String Shot was the first move Beautifly learned, and it was the only basic move that Darren had not abandoned. Many of Beautifly's other moves were built on top of String Shot. Its role couldn't be ignored, whether it was using Bug-type silk to entangle opponents to absorb their energy or creating an Electroweb with Stun Spore's properties. They all required String Shot as a carrier.

Air Cutter was an upgrade of "wind," which allowed Beautifly to further control the wind. It did not pursue range, but could more cohesively gather the power of the wind and attack in the form of a blade. In actual combat, this should be Beautifly's most powerful move.

Darren's training task for Beautifly now was thanks to the move Morning Sun. The Morning Sun technique is also a difficult move for Beautifly to comprehend. It's not something that can be learned overnight, but it still requires the Pokemon to have at least some affinity towards sunlight in order to successfully use it. It's rare for a trainer to spend several months with a Pokemon persevering to comprehend the energy of the sun. However, now the Beautifly has mastered it proficiently. Even in a cloudy weather, it can sense the energy of the sun for the purpose of restoring its physical strength.

Darren had an idea that it hoped Beautifly could use its move, Absorb, not only to absorb the strength or nutrients of other Pokémon or food, but also to plunder nutrients from "sunshine" using its own move. However, it was easier said than done, as this involved the application of a combination move, and it was difficult to accomplish without years of training. It was not as simple as mixing Stun Spore and a Gust.

For Beautifly whether it's Absorb, Mega Drain or Giga Drain, all those moves use a Bug Bite or String Shot as a medium. To absorb solar energy out of thin air and use Morning Sun to recover strength at high intensity, it is a unique way of restoring health exclusive to grass-type Pokemon, which is similar to Photosynthesis.

As Bug and Flying type Pokemon, Beautifly cannot learn Photosynthesis.

Moreover, even under the same weather conditions, different grass-type Pokemon have different perceptions of the solar energy, which affects the amount of health recovered. Grass-type Pokemon have a natural advantage in using solar energy, so even though the Giga Drain and the Morning Sun move have similar effects in theory, a grass-type Pokemon can recover health faster and more effectively than Beautifly using Morning Sun.

Therefore, Beautifly's main task now is to continue to strengthen its perception of air currents, adapt to the air in any situation, and use them to create favorable combat situations for itself.

Secondly, Beautifly needed to train the coordination between the Absorb move and Morning Sun. Although Beautifly cannot learn Photosynthesis, he can learn Solar Beam. If it does not use it as a finishing move but instead converts it into stamina during the accumulation of solar energy, it seems to have the same effect as Photosynthesis. Moreover, it is necessary to strive to maximize the proficiency of the Absorb move and elevate it from Mega Drain to Giga Drain, and further strive to become the ultimate Giga Drain.

The key point of this idea is that Beautifly's Morning Sun does not have the same high affinity, utilization rate, and attraction to solar energy as Photosynthesis. Therefore, integrating the Absorb move into it to plunder solar nutrients in the shortest possible time is the most important step.

As for other moves, they can be trained in the third tier according to the usual practice.

As long as this plan is followed and successfully implemented, Beautifly can develop its own fighting style and exhibit outstanding strength with its unremarkable race after a lot of hard work.

Compared to Beautifly, the training task for Swablu is much simpler.

Because it has just entered the growth stage, it does not require many moves to be trained. Darren mainly planed three aspects for it.

Refining its voice: training Swablu's voice through Growl, Astonish, Sing, and even making its voice a carrier for sound wave attacks in the future. This requires a lot of training experience and props, as well as nutrient-rich food, and it is a long-term job that Darren will scatter throughout Swablu's growth period.

High-speed movement: Darren requires Swablu to have perfect control over its high-speed movement, which can be achieved through step-by-step training and is relatively easy.

Feather Dance and Cotton Guard, these two moves will automatically improve in proficiency as Swablu grows, so Darren just needed to make sure that Swablu does not neglect training. The most important issue that caused Darren a headache is the nutrient-rich food problem.

Moves like Peck and Fury Attack will be abandoned by Darren once Swablu reaches a certain level of proficiency and will no longer be the focus of training.

Hidden Power and Dragon Rush, these two moves, the former is currently Swablu's strongest attack method, while the latter is too difficult to use and cannot be used as a regular move. This caused Darren headache. In addition to normal growth, Darren cannot think of a way to help Swablu quickly master Dragon Rush. After considering it, Darren decided to go to the library to look up some information.

After making up his mind, Darren put on his clothes, took his ID, hung Swablu's and Beautifly's PokéBalls on his waist, and left the hotel.

"Which library should I go to... There are several libraries in Lilycove City, and most of the first floors can be accessed for free as long as you have a Lilycove city trainer pass." Darren sighed in his heart. A Lilycove city trainer pass is not easy to obtain. Most families living in Lilycove are very wealthy, and they have the capital to at least raise a trainer, unlike in Fallarbor Town, where it takes several years to produce an outstanding trainer.

"I'll go to the 'Breeder's House library!"

After thinking about it, Darren aimed in a direction. The "Breeder's House" library can be considered the largest library in Lilycove city, owned by the Breeder's Association, with extremely high authority and accuracy, and the most abundant collection. Considering that Darren's breeder qualification certificate has limited use, Darren ultimately chose this place.

With Swablu and Beautifly's growth plans constantly flashing in his mind, Darren walked on the road without paying attention to a black shadow rushing towards him.

"Get out of the way--"

With an urgent voice coming, Darren then felt a collision and almost fell to the ground.