But once he exerted strength through his arms, it wasn't only the extremely intense pressure that the restraints on his wrists had to withstand—such weight was definitely not something a weak individual could lift.
Coupled with the turbulent water flow, raising his arms under the waterfall's impact was incredibly difficult. What kind of relative strength would he have to expend just to lift his paws upward? Simply doing so already exhausted his physical stamina tremendously.
Not to mention that he also had to control his body to avoid the objects falling from high altitude. If possible, deflecting these things seemed even more difficult than dodging them with his body—it consumed far more energy.
But if he could gain even a little bit of comfort, even the slightest ease, through this kind of training, then everything he was doing would be meaningful.
Although his body wasn't particularly weak, his movements looked quite labored, like someone who had just gotten out of bed. Although somewhat slow, at least he was still moving and could still function properly.
After getting accustomed to such pressure and gravity, his body also began moving more quickly.
Although the stones and wooden pieces in the sky fell down one after another like scattered petals, coupled with the rapid impact of the water, those ordinary objects gained extraordinary momentum. Combined with the fierce force of the water, even small items became powerful projectiles under the combined effect of these various forces.
Lucario wasn't afraid of getting injured, because he had a master. He wasn't afraid of dying, because he had a master. He believed in everything about his trainer, and he also believed that no matter what state he found himself in, his master would spend any cost necessary to restore him to normal.
Since that was the case, why couldn't he push himself to gain more power so that he could properly protect his master when needed?
Everyone desired powerful strength. Since people in this world were trainers who commanded Pokémon with formidable power, then each of them should be confident. Even if they didn't say it aloud, everyone knew they desired to be the strongest. Whether a Pokémon performed exceptionally or followed obediently, as long as they could demonstrate their own abilities or possessed strong combat capabilities, they held value and meaning.
Lucario knew he could be swept away by the powerful current into the stream below.
But he would never allow himself to suspend training because of injury. That would be a waste of time and would interrupt his training progress.
He could lose battles, but he absolutely could not fail himself.
Although the stones and debris falling from the sky didn't hit Lucario directly, he still avoided some of the objects heading toward him.
If there was no way to dodge, he would predict such trajectories in advance, then use his own power to deflect those objects about to strike him. Only by doing this could he remain in this position without making any large movements.
This wasn't the first time they had conducted this kind of training.
Even the Pokémon positioned above the waterfall had their own standards—at the very least, they would never use methods that made things unnecessarily difficult for their companion below.
The current training methods involved just throwing down some stones and wood. If they truly wanted to achieve more advanced training results, they would directly replace the debris and small stones with energy-based attacks using their own moves. The threat that could bring would be even greater.
But they hadn't reached that point yet, and wouldn't resort to such aggressive attack methods prematurely.
Roy was also looking forward to seeing what Zeraora would bring. Although Zeraora needed to retrieve some treasure, the value such a treasure could hold—if it was truly useful to Roy, then Zeraora could obtain what it wanted from him. If it was judged as something without value, Roy could still give it a corresponding number of small cubes.
After all, it was necessary to use such small incentives to completely capture Zeraora's interest from the very beginning. So no matter what kind of item was obtained, or whether such an unusual item had any actual effect or value, Roy would give the energy cubes to Zeraora.
Of course, this didn't conflict with Roy's curiosity about what kind of treasures Zeraora would bring to him.
A day passed, and beneath the night sky, a golden flash gradually approached Roy's location.
Zeraora arrived before Roy.
Roy looked at Zeraora expectantly, hoping the Mythical Pokémon would reveal what kind of treasure it would present to him.
"What I'm doing is nothing more than a simple barter exchange. Of course, whether this item is a treasure you value depends on how you interpret such a thing, or whether you can even understand where this object in my possession comes from and what kind of function it serves."
Before revealing the item, Zeraora had already built up the suspense.
"No matter what kind of treasure or what kind of item it is, you need to show it to me now so that I can understand how valuable this thing is to me."
Zeraora then retrieved the special item hidden within its fur, holding it carefully on its paw pad.
At first glance, it looked like a rough but strangely shaped stone.
But when examining this item more closely, it appeared quite extraordinary. Although its actual composition and material were just the simplest and most common stone, the shape of such a stone seemed to represent something Roy couldn't quite recall.
"I found this item in a certain cave. Although it looks very strange and even follows certain patterns, I believe it should be a treasure of some kind."
While looking at such a stone, Roy wanted to confirm whether this stone was indeed some kind of treasure. He took the stone that Zeraora offered him and placed it before his eyes, carefully observing it.