CH95 (225), Using Pressure To Train (1)

After mom and dad came back from the gravesite, I proposed that Mothra/Butterfree should help Emerald/Butterfree and Cyan/Butterfree learn Teleport.

Since being able to easily learn moves did not automatically translate to being able to teach them as easily, I asked Horus/Xatu to help/assist her. Mom and dad sent Cell/Magnezone and Star/Starmie over as well to participate in the Teleport lessons since they could learn the move as well.

Seeing them doing that I told Optimus/Butterfree and Luna/Clefairy to join in as well, which turned it into a full-blown Teleport class. Since that was the case the teacher roles got switched with Horus being the main teacher and Mothra being the assistant.

Still, since her experience would be helpful for the Butterfree in attendance she still got to enjoy her role as Mothra-sensei. The rest of us enjoyed the show or did our own thing.

Obviously, they did not manage to learn the move in one session, and even at the end of the next day, they had not learned the move. This morning before mom and dad left, we agreed that we would have them continue during their visit on the weekend.

Nonetheless, that did not mean that I would stop the lessons for Optimus and Luna, not at all. I was planning to have them keep at it for the whole week.

Anyway, after our morning training, I decided to update my priority list, so I went around and checked everyone's status to see who was the closest to a breakthrough.

All forms of breakthroughs were considered in this, whether it was a full breakthrough from a stage to the next or a soft breakthrough from a sub-stage to the next. For example, (mid) bronze to (high) bronze.

The list turned out to be not as short as one would expect. 10 of my Pokemon were "close" to a breakthrough, full or soft. Well, one could reduce that to 8 if one wanted to be fussy since the last two only recently joined the "close" group.

However, this was still roughly a quarter of my Pokemon, which was a considerable portion. After considering the status/situation of all 8 candidates, I decided to first focus on the two that were the closest to a full breakthrough.

Those two were Saphira/Swablu, who was close to breaking through to the bronze stage, and Hashirama/Ivysaur who was close to breaking through to the silver stage.

'Name: Saphira

Species: Swablu

Gender: Female

Age: 3+ years

-

Type: Normal, Flying

Potential: Deep Blue (81.38%) -> (85.87%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Keen Eye, Natural Cure, Cloud Nine

Talents: Climate Control

Affinities: Normal, Flying, Fairy (budding)

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Iron Stage (high)

Vitality: SS

Strength: SS (+)

Endurance: SSS (+)

Agility: SSS (+)

Energy Capacity: SS (+)

Energy Density: SSS (+)

----

Immune:

Ghost

-

Resistance:

Grass (Minor), Bug (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Electric (Minor), Ice (Minor), Rock (Minor)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Neutral E. Manipulation (Beginner),

Flying/Air E. Manipulation (Beginner)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

Natural Gift

-

Novice:

N/A

-

Beginner:

Growl, Peck, Safeguard, Dragon Pulse (+), Refresh (+)

-

Proficient:

Mist, Disarming Voice, Round, Play Rough, Sing, Cotton Guard, Fury Attack (+)

-

Advanced:

Dragon Breath

-

Mastered:

N/A'

The number one spot on my priority list went to Saphira. We already managed to raise all her parameters except for her Vitality once, so she only needed to increase her Vitality, Strength, and Energy Capacity once to SSS for her to complete her limit breaking.

Furthermore, I was positive that her Vitality would do just that pretty soon and I believed that she could achieve that for the other three parameters as well within the next 3 to 4 months of our regular training.

While the focus of her training had been more on her parameters for the last few months, we did not completely neglect her moves. She first learned Refresh in case she somehow got afflicted with a status condition.

Afterward, she used her expertise with Dragon Breath to learn Dragon Pulse. It went pretty smoothly, and she kept at it, directly raising it to beginner mastery in one fell swoop.

Refresh followed Dragon Pulse's footsteps and was elevated to beginner mastery as well before we decided to focus on Fury Attack since it was one of her few physical offensive moves. Due to that, I wanted her to be at least proficient with the move.

As for the last few weeks, she was working on learning Natural Gift. It was one of the moves that was part of the Swablu-line's natural move pool, but if it were not for Saphira's talent I would have honestly not bothered with it simply because it was dependent on an outside source, in this case, berries.

As I said I gave the move a chance because of her Climate Control talent. Since the move used an outside source, here berries, to change its typing according to the berry, I was speculating that she could use her ability to use the energy of the climate to trigger the same effect.

If she succeeded then Sunny Day/Sunlight could turn Natural Gift into a fire-type move. Rain/Rain Dance could turn it into a water move, and a thunderstorm would result in an electric move.

Hail would end in ice, and Sandstorm could result in either rock or ground, not sure about that one yet. There might be more options, but if my theory was correct then Natural Gift would become quite the versatile move independent of outside resources.

As for the strength of the move, I surmised that its mastery and her control over her talent would be the main factors that influenced its strength. Still, the severity of the weather could play an important role as well.

Anyway, Saphira was undoubtedly the closest to reaching a new stage, and I was planning to speed that up even more. I planned to use the pressure from real battles against strong opponents to stimulate her in hopes of elevating her parameters during or after the battle.

The reason I considered this possible despite the whole gaining experience points through beating foes being not a thing was that the resources I invested in her and all my Pokemon.

All of my Pokemon consumed a huge amount of supplements/resources during their training and everyday life. Obviously, not all of those got utilized to the fullest.

While part of the excess got discharged, another part settled deep within their bodies, and I was thinking of stimulating exactly that dormant part in hopes of elevating their/her parameters.

That was also why this method could only be used once in a while and only after a sufficient amount of resources/supplements have been consumed.

Hashirma was also one of those I hoped would benefit from this method. The second place on my current priority list belonged to him after all.

'Name: Hashirama

Species: Ivysaur

Gender: Male

Age: 5+ years

-

Type: Grass, Poison

Potential: Deep Blue (81.13%) -> (89.76%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Overgrow, Chlorophyll

Talents: None

Affinities: Grass, Poison

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Bronze Stage (high)

Vitality: SS

Strength: SS

Endurance: SS

Agility: SS

Energy Capacity: SSS

Energy Density: SSS

----

Resistance:

Grass (Major), Water (Minor), Electric (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Fire (Minor), Ice (Minor), Flying (Minor), Psychic (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Psychic (in-progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Grass Energy Manipulation (Proficient) -> (Advanced)

Poison Energy Manipulation (Novice)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

Sleep Bomb, Poison Bomb

-

Novice:

Growl, Take Down, Sweet Scent, Worry Seed

-

Beginner:

Tackle, Double-Edge (+), Giga Drain (+), Sleep Vine, Poison Vine, Sweet Vine

-

Proficient:

Vine Whip, Growth, Leech Seed, Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Mega Drain (++), Solar Beam (++), Sunny Day (++)

-

Advanced:

Razor Leaf, Synthesis, Seed Bomb (+)

-

Mastered:

N/A

-

Combo:

Sleep Vine, Poison Vine, Sweet Vine, Sleep Bomb (in-progress), Poison Bomb (in-progress)'

It has been roughly 30 months since he reached the (high) bronze stage, and since then he raised his parameters quite a lot. Currently, he only needed to raise his Vitality, Strength, Endurance, and Agility once to SSS to complete his limit-breaking training.

That would not only pave the way for his breakthrough to the silver stage, but it was also the point I was going to give him the go-ahead for his evolution to Venusaur.

The evolution would happen before the breakthrough to make use of the limit-breaking parameter bonus. Due to Venusaur's superior racial values, the bonus would result in Hashirama having higher starting values than he would have as an Ivysaur.

Anyway, I was confident that Hashirama would have completed his parameter training within the next 6 to 7 months of regular training, but I was hoping that the pressure method would shorten that time to a month or two. At least, that was the plan.

Now, during these 30 months, Hashirama had done his best to cover more than just his parameters. He managed to improve his grass energy manipulation to advanced mastery. This was heavily linked to his progress with his moves.

He successfully learned Mega Drain and elevated it to proficiency. After that I had him learn Sunny Day, which was useful/necessary for Solar Beam and his Chlorophyll ability. Then he alternated between both moves until he became proficient with both Sunny Day and Solar Beam.

At that point, I thought that it was time to focus on something new, so I had him use Mega Drain as the basis to learn Giga Drain. That went pretty smoothly, and Hashirama kept at it until he raised it to beginner mastery.

Shortly after that his Double-Edge also got raised by a grade, but he did that on his own during his free time. Since I had an idea regarding a combo move, I asked him to focus on Seed Bomb and the move became his third at advanced mastery.

Currently, we were working on my combo idea, which was to infuse/combine the powder moves Poison Powder and Sleep Powder with Seed Bomb. The idea of damaging the opponent while simultaneously inflicting a status condition was pretty appealing, so we were working on both variants. I let him work on whichever one hit his fancy.

Unfortunately, unlike his great progress parameter-wise and with his moves, his resistance training was lagging behind. I was doing my best to support him through supplements and the methods I had access to but it just took its time despite all my efforts.

Regardless, we were keeping up the effort and I believed that he would succeed at some point. Hopefully, that would happen within a year or two.

Anyway, now that I had determined who I should focus on for the foreseeable future, it was time to act on that information. Now, where would be the best training area for Saphira and Hashirama.

It had to be in the wild since the kind of pressure was most abundant in unregulated battles. All I was planning to ensure was their survival, which thanks to Utopia was possible as long as they were not dead or too fatally wounded.

The most obvious choices to me were Mt.Moon and the Viridian Forest. However, while Mt.Moon would be pretty challenging for Saphira due to the abundance of rock types, that was also the reason why Hashirama would benefit less from that area.

Viridian Forest, on the other hand, had an abundance of flying types that would be good for Hashirama's training. The numerous bug would be a good challenge as well. Unfortunately, those same Pokemon would be less useful for Swablu.

Well, it seemed like I would have to switch between both areas. Swablu and Hashirama would have to suck it up whenever they are in the less fortunate area for them.

I might even catch some Pokemon if I came across something tempting enough. It did not even have to be main-team material, it could also be some really rare species or one I thought would be a good addition to my resource group.

So, I went to my room and changed into hiking appropriate gear before doing my routine check-up on Eggy. As soon as I was done, I left the house and locked the door. Then I called out Horus to take the Horus Express to Pewter City and from there to the outer perimeter of Mt.Moon.

-----------------------------

Advertising plug-in:

Help me stay motivated.

patreo*n/Azrail93