That night, moonlight spilled across the green grassland.
Oddish began emerging from the ground one after another, the leaves on their heads glowing faintly.
By absorbing the power of moonlight, these Oddish were able to grow more quickly.
Meanwhile, in the backyard of the Pokémon Breeding House, a group of Pokémon was gathered around a pitch-black stone.
As night fell and moonlight poured down from the sky, that black stone also began to emit a faint white glow.
"Odd~"
No. 7 stood before the Moon Stone, bathed in the white light it emitted, a look of intoxication on its face.
It was deeply familiar with this energy—it was the power of moonlight. But compared to the moonlight from the sky, the energy emanating from the Moon Stone was far stronger.
As it absorbed this energy, it could feel the power within its body growing more and more concentrated.
Then, suddenly, a brilliant white light burst out from No. 7's body, startling all the nearby Pokémon.
They all instantly recognized this familiar light—it was the signature glow that accompanied evolution.
Just as they assumed No. 7 was about to evolve from an Oddish into a Gloom, the white light on its body slowly began to recede.
If No. 7 truly wanted to evolve, it could have done so long ago. But since it had already decided not to, it held firm to its choice.
"Oddish…"
Aven looked at the Oddish #7 suppressing its evolution with a worried expression.
Most Pokémon long to evolve, but some choose not to for various reasons.
In his breeding facility back in the future, there were Pokémon like that too. He recalled one Oddish in particular that refused to evolve simply because it disliked the look of its evolved form.
This Oddish, however, had a different reason—it wanted to keep its Run Away ability.
Some Pokémon change abilities after evolving, and a Pokémon's ability can greatly influence how it survives.
For example, Oddish with the Chlorophyll ability love sunlight, while Oddish with the Run Away ability prefer the moonlight and have a stronger affinity with it.
"Odd-dish~"
No. 7 let out a low hum as the white glow continued to withdraw into its body.
At that moment, it could feel the surge of power within. It gathered the energy into the leaves on its head, preparing to release it.
Though the external light had vanished completely, its leaves suddenly radiated an even more dazzling white glow.
Then, a pink energy orb formed in front of the leaves atop Oddish's head. It floated silently in the air, releasing intense waves of energy.
"Ralts~"
Ralts's eyes lit up the moment it saw this.
From the energy orb, it could sense a strong Fairy-type aura!
"Lil lil! Lil lil!"
Petilil was shocked. It raised its hand and formed an energy ball.
It glanced at its own energy ball, then looked over at Rhydon and Luxio before finally turning to Ralts.
It remembered that Ralts had once secretly tried imitating its energy ball and Luxio's electric orb. The move Oddish was now using… was it the same one?
"That's Moonblast."
A smile appeared on Aven's face. This move was indeed a manifestation of Fairy-type energy.
Moonblast attacks the opponent using the power of the moon and has a chance to reduce the opponent's Special Attack.
It also helps a Pokémon enhance its control over Fairy-type energy—similar to how Earth Power, Ancient Power, or Energy Ball work.
Boom!
Oddish hurled the Moonblast.
When it hit the ground, the energy orb exploded with a powerful blast, leaving a deep crater.
While the other Pokémon could pull off a move like that with ease, it was still extremely impressive coming from an unevolved Oddish.
"Odd~"
No. 7 beamed with joy upon seeing the power of its own move.
It vaguely felt as though its body had changed again—grown even stronger.
"Oddish, congratulations," Aven praised.
Now that Oddish had mastered Moonblast, its efficiency in absorbing moonlight energy would also improve significantly. This was critical for its development.
With Moonblast, Oddish might not even need to evolve in order to rapidly grow in level and strength.
While evolution generally boosts a Pokémon's potential and power, there are cases where a non-evolved Pokémon, using the right methods, can match or even exceed its evolved counterparts.
For example, if Oddish evolved into Gloom, its affinity for moonlight would actually decrease.
And if it evolved into either Vileplume or Bellossom, its affinity would shift more toward sunlight, with little to no connection to moonlight.
So, if the goal was to grow by absorbing moonlight, staying as Oddish was actually the better path.
"Looks like I should continue training Oddish's Fairy-type moves."
"Moonblast won't just help # 7. It could also be a huge help to the rest of my Oddish group."
"With Moonblast, I can drastically speed up the training of my Oddish army."
Aven narrowed his eyes. Right now, his Oddish army included over 200 Gloom and 800 Oddish.
In the current Safari Zone, there were still thousands more untrained Oddish. He could definitely use Moonblast as a way to quickly train them.
Then he suddenly thought of the Nidoking Valley—that place had the strongest concentration of moonlight energy.
If the Oddish could train in the Nidoking Valley, their growth would far exceed expectations!
"Lil lil! Lil lil!"
The other Pokémon came over to congratulate Oddish as well.
"Plume~"
Vileplume's expression grew complicated.
Earlier, it had tried to sense the moon energy, but didn't feel much of anything.
Its affinity for moonlight was now quite low, so learning Moonblast would be almost impossible.
It glanced at Petilil and Cherrim.
Right now, its main training was focused on Energy Ball and Solar Beam, but the results weren't great.
On the other hand, its Poison-type moves were progressing well—it had already mastered Acid, Toxic, and Sludge Bomb.
Ralts also came over to Oddish.
Over the past few days, it had become completely integrated with the other Pokémon on the farm and was very happy to have found such warm companionship.
It had originally left its own group after being rejected by others of its kind, but here, it had finally found true friends.
"Ralts~"
Ralts stood beside Oddish and began to communicate.
Being a Fairy-type Pokémon itself, it naturally wanted to learn Moonblast too.
"Odd Odd Odd~"
Oddish made no attempt to hide its experience and shared all it knew.
During their conversation, Ralts closed its eyes—it was activating its Telepathy ability to directly link its mind with Oddish's.
Soon after, Ralts suddenly opened its eyes, raised its hand, and conjured a pink energy orb—Moonblast!
It had clearly used its Telepathy to fully experience the process of using Moonblast, just as it had previously learned Meditate from Aven.
"…That Telepathy ability really is like a cheat code."
Aven was stunned by what he saw.
Learning a move like this… felt a bit like cheating!
Then he suddenly thought—
If Ralts could learn a move through Telepathy, could it use the same method to help other Pokémon learn as well?
Or go a step further—use Telepathy to link two Pokémon so they could share move experiences with each other?
"That… might actually work."
"If so, I'd only need to teach one Pokémon the move, and the rest could learn it much faster."
Aven's eyes lit up.
His energy was already stretched thin just managing the Pokémon on his farm. But now, with Ralts's help, he could significantly increase the number of Pokémon he could train!
"Wait… not just moves—even techniques might be teachable."
Suddenly, inspiration struck Aven, and he turned his gaze to Rhydon nearby.
If Ralts could link his mind to Rhydon's… could he directly transfer the technique of making Poké Balls from apricorn into Rhydon's mind?
"Rhy Rhy Rhy…?"
Rhydon was lifting stones to train its strength when it felt Aven's intense stare—it shivered slightly, sensing something ominous was about to happen.
Whoooosh—
Just as Aven was about to talk to Rhydon, a sudden gust of wind picked up.
He looked up and saw a figure with four wings descending rapidly from the sky.
Startled, he finally saw that it was Ranger Matthew, being carried by Crobat.
Matthew's face was grim. As soon as he saw Aven, he rushed over and said:
"Master Aven! The Oddish have spotted Nidoking!"
"The Nidokings from Nidoking Valley?" Aven raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, them! They've invaded the territory of Mothim!"
"Crobat already scouted the area—those Nidoking and Nidoqueen have mobilized almost their entire forces. After leaving the valley, they've been heading straight toward us!"
Aven's expression darkened.
The Mothim territory was located on the edge of the Black Forest, dangerously close to its outer region.
"Are they targeting us?"
"But why? Could it be… for the Moon Stone?"
He looked down at the glowing Moon Stone with a serious expression, lost in thought.
Oddish's face also turned pale. If the Nidoking were coming for the Moon Stone, wouldn't it all be its fault?
Matthew stood quietly at the side, hesitating for a moment before suggesting:
"Master Aven… Should we return the Moon Stone?"
Hearing that, Aven looked up, paused, then shook his head.
He picked up the worried Oddish in his arms and said,
"They're definitely not here for the Moon Stone."
"According to what you said, the Nidoking group is heading directly toward us, as if they've already locked onto the Moon Stone's exact location."
"But that's impossible. From this distance, there's no way they could sense it so precisely."
"If they were looking for the Moon Stone, they would have searched the surrounding area first. And they definitely wouldn't mobilize all their forces."
"So that's not it. If my guess is right—they're here for one of their offspring."
"The Nidoking line has a natural ability to sense the location of their young!"
Drawing on his knowledge as a breeder, Aven quickly formed a hypothesis.
Because of their strength, Nidoking species were frequently targeted by trainers and poachers.
In the future world, there were many cases of Nidoking going berserk after losing their young.
And every time, they were able to pinpoint their offspring's general location and launch large-scale attacks on human territory.
Later, after much research, scholars confirmed that the Nidoking family indeed had this unique trait, though the mechanism behind it was still unknown.
"Their child!"
Matthew's expression changed again.
(End of Chapter)