Chapter 60: Advanced Tactics for the Poison Guardian

After two rounds of modifications, Hu Yang had slept for a total of thirteen hours and now felt completely refreshed. Instinctively, he wanted to find Yaya to check on the progress, but after scanning the bedroom, Yaya was nowhere to be seen.

Not only Yaya, but Roserade and Gengar were missing as well, leaving only Magikarp and Rowlet sound asleep.

“How strange…” Hu Yang’s mind was full of questions. He got out of bed, slipped on his slippers, and walked to the living room, where he found several Pokémon gathered at the bathroom door, engaged in some unknown activity.

“What are you all doing?” he asked, puzzled.

Roserade, leaning against the doorframe, glanced back hesitantly.

Hu Yang approached and saw Yaya lying in the basin of the sink, looking utterly pitiful.

The sink was quite high; he had no idea how Yaya had climbed up there.

“What’s wrong?” Hu Yang picked Yaya up and asked.

Yaya touched the color of the skin on its little belly with its claws, appearing completely dejected.

Hu Yang understood what had happened.

He had modified Yaya’s shiny appearance merely to test the feature, but since Yaya didn’t like it, he would change it back. Besides, if a Pokémon suddenly changed color, it would be hard to explain to others outside.

After apologizing to Yaya, Hu Yang led his Pokémon back to the bedroom, lay down again, and after a few instructions, activated the shiny modification once more.

The next moment.

Hu Yang: zzzzz...

Gengar: ...

A white light shone from Yaya’s body, and within the glow, its colors rapidly changed back to the original dark green.

With nothing else to worry about, the Pokémon returned to their nests and resumed their sleep.

An hour later, Hu Yang woke up again.

This time, he didn’t disturb Yaya and the others and quietly sat down at his desk alone.

He pulled out the notebook recording wild Pokémon ecology observations and wrote down two rules:

First, the modifier isn’t harmless— the greater the modification, the more it consumes from the user.

Second, the modifier requires a certain level of strength from the Pokémon— the stronger the Pokémon, the broader the scope of possible modifications.

This world, like the anime, divides trainers by rank, but not Pokémon. They believe Pokémon are creatures of infinite potential.

To better distinguish Pokémon’s power levels, Hu Yang categorized them according to trainer ranks:

New trainers correspond to Novice level, Junior trainers to Junior level, Elite trainers to Elite level, Gym Leaders to Leader level.

Ace Trainers to Ace level, Champions to Champion level, Masters to Master level.

Beyond that are Demi-Legends, Third-tier Legends, Second-tier Legends, and First-tier Legends.

Hu Yang recorded these in his notebook, twirling his pen as he looked back at Rowlet, peacefully asleep against a Pikachu plush in its nest.

Rowlet possessed three modifier templates: individual values, abilities, and base stats.

Like Hu Yang, Rowlet consumed energy when using these modifications. That day, after modifying Yaya’s ability, Rowlet had clearly fallen into exhaustion.

The modifier’s features also have tiers.

The lowest, identification, is effortless; the intermediate shiny modification requires an hour of sleep; the advanced move modification demands twelve hours.

So, do ability, base stats, and individual values rank even higher than these three?

Rowlet is so powerful, yet modifying an ability left it exhausted— if the highest-level base stat modification were used...

Hu Yang watched Rowlet under the lamp. As it slept, the silly bird was quiet, with no trace of its usual foolishness.

He then drew a big X on the notebook page for base stat modifications.

Unless absolutely necessary, it was best not to use this function that could send Rowlet into a deep slumber.

Though he didn’t know how long Rowlet would need to sleep, Hu Yang sensed it wouldn’t be resolved in a day or two.

His mind drifted back to what happened during the gym challenge.

He had always known Rowlet could sense his thoughts, but since its ability wasn’t Telepathy, how did it do so?

Hu Yang considered one possibility:

Through the modifier shared in their minds.

“If only I had superpowers, Evergreen Force, Aura, or the Power of Overcoming,” Hu Yang mused silently.

Then, he could communicate directly with Rowlet.

...

Three hours later, daylight filled the sky.

Hu Yang, as usual, took Yaya for a morning run along the river behind the school.

Roserade was practicing the four moves Hu Yang had taught it in the forest.

Now that the move modification function was available for Roserade, Hu Yang devised two battle strategies.

The first was a conventional approach using the combination of the three powders and Seed Bomb for control, then capitalizing on the control time to finish with Solar Beam and Magical Leaf.

The second was a very interesting tactic:

Grassy Terrain + Giga Drain + Ingrain + Leech Seed + Aromatherapy + Toxic + Substitute + Protect

By utilizing the healing effects from Grassy Terrain, Ingrain, and Leech Seed, Roserade could endlessly use Substitute, paired with Protect. In ordinary battles, most trainers would find this strategy unbreakable.

Even if Feint could bypass Protect, it couldn’t breach the Substitute’s defense.

Combined with Toxic and Magical Leaf, Roserade could turn the entire battlefield into its domain, making opponents little more than playthings.

At breakfast, Hu Yang explained these two strategies to Roserade, instructing it to focus on proficiency with the moves in the combo.

As for opponents sending out Fire-type Pokémon...

That wasn’t an unsolvable problem.

Roserade could now learn Water-type moves, but due to its limited strength, it could only master two: Water Gun and Water Sport.

Water Gun counters Fire-types, while Water Sport dampens the surroundings, reducing the power of Fire-type moves.

However, Roserade found Water-type moves much harder to master than Grass-type ones.

Hu Yang tested it— for moves not matching its type, Roserade needed three times, or even longer, to practice before it could use them smoothly.

This was Roserade’s current special training regimen.

As for Yaya...

Hu Yang looked at Yaya diligently practicing Dragon Dance, its clumsy movements awkward no matter how you watched.

“Thud!”

Midway, Yaya slipped and fell to the ground.

Hu Yang: ...

Yaya blushed shyly. “Ya...ya...”