Chapter 404: Cultivating a Second Core
With Carbink's loyalty secured, Basalt gained another powerful "general" whose combat strength was already partially formed. Carbink's power was genuinely impressive, at the very least not weaker than Swampert's.
Basalt opened his Pokédex, and Carbink's information appeared.
Carbink
Type: Rock / Fairy
Ability: Clear Body (Prevents other Pokémon's moves or Abilities from lowering its stats)
Moves: Smack Down, Rock Tomb, Stone Edge, Power Gem, Stealth Rock, Rock Polish, Moonblast, Dazzling Gleam, Play Rough, Draining Kiss, Sharpen, Iron Defense, Magic Coat, Helping Hand, Baton Pass, Flash, Safeguard, Charm, Gyro Ball, Mystical Fire, Dig.
Six Rock-type moves, four Fairy-type moves, eight non-STAB status moves, plus three non-STAB attack moves—a total of twenty-one moves covering various categories.
With this data, who would have thought this Carbink was an economic Pokémon raised for diamond harvesting? It could only be said that Xerneas's Horn of Life was incredibly awesome. Truly worthy of a first-tier Legendary, possessing the ability to turn decay into magic. Carbink's control over Fairy-type energy had skyrocketed from weakling to top-tier. After all, it had melted Cradily's roots directly with Dazzling Gleam.
"Carb~ink~"
However, at this moment, Carbink seemed more interested in Bronzong, staring intently at the floating and flipping Bronzong for quite a while.
With its keen perception, Carbink could sense a strange, invisible, and intangible force arranged around Bronzong, changing every time Bronzong moved.
"Carbink, do you want to fly too?" Basalt raised an eyebrow.
"Carb~ink~" Carbink looked shy but nodded. Flying—what a wonderful thing! Back in the grassland, it had envied the flying Pupitar.
"It's not impossible." Basalt smiled.
"Carb~ink~" Carbink's eyes widened. Could it really fly?
As far as Basalt knew, Magnet Rise was prominently listed in Carbink's move pool. As a Rock-type Pokémon, Carbink inevitably had minerals in its body. Although not as adept at controlling magnetic fields as the Nosepass family, it could learn it with hard work.
This way, Carbink would not only gain flight capability, improving its mobility to a certain extent, but also effectively avoid its Ground-type weakness—many benefits. Although Basalt didn't have a Pokémon that knew Magnet Rise, no panic... After all, Magnet Rise was a magnetic field move. And when it came to magnetic fields, that was Bronzong's specialty.
After a month of arduous training, Bronzong had not only learned Trick Room and Skill Swap, but its Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push) and Bansho Ten'in (Universal Pull) were also showing promise.
Basalt waved Bronzong over and smiled, "Bronzong, Carbink wants to learn magnetic field moves. Please take some time to teach it. For basics, start with Gravity."
Gravity was also one of the moves Carbink could learn. Not only that, but Carbink could learn many Psychic-type moves like Light Screen, Reflect, Psychic, and Ally Switch. Although lacking the Psychic type, its move pool was not weaker than Psychic-types, somewhat like Pinsir without the Fighting type.
Most importantly, once Carbink mutated into Diancie, it could master Telepathy. In this way, Carbink would essentially become an alternative version of Bronzong. Coupled with the encounter with Hunter Jane in the grassland, where Basalt felt restricted without Bronzong, Basalt's resolve to cultivate Carbink strengthened.
He wanted to build Carbink, or rather the future Diancie, into the second crowd-control core of his Sandstorm team for group battles.
"Broonz~"
Basalt had already discussed this with Bronzong, who naturally had no objections.
Thus, Carbink began training with Bronzong. Besides normal skill training, Carbink was also required to follow Basalt for basic battle knowledge education—essentially remedial classes. Before meeting Basalt, Carbink had experienced almost no proper battles, so its combat skills and experience were nearly zero. This had to be remedied now.
Fortunately, the other Pokémon's training was on track, so Basalt only needed to keep an eye on Carbink, making the task manageable.
The night passed without incident.
Early the next morning, Basalt boarded a flight to Cloud Province with the club.
The Second Division League operated on a home-and-away system. So besides welcoming major clubs in Saffron City, Basalt spent half his time flying around the country for away games.
For example, this time, the Saints Club's opponent was the Five Venoms Club in Jin County, Cloud Province. This club had a specialized style, famous for breeding Bug and Poison-type Pokémon. Historically, Bug and Poison were inseparable. Not to mention Cloud Province in southern China housed a large secret realm called "Insect Valley." Rumor had it that Insect Valley was a paradise for Bug-type Pokémon, home to countless insect species. Even the fossils of Genesect were unearthed there.
The plane landed in Kun City, the provincial capital of Cloud Province. The group didn't stay long in Kun City, heading directly to a hotel in Jin County for a few hours of rest.
At 2:00 PM, the match between the Saints Club and the Five Venoms Club in the Chinese Second Division League commenced at the Five Venoms Club's arena.
As a Second Division club, the Five Venoms' home stadium wasn't large, accommodating at most five thousand people. As for now, there were only a sparsely scattered thousand or so fans in the audience. This was the current state of China's Second Division League: low attention, destined not to make big money, serving as a feeder for the First Division League, trying to cultivate outstanding players. When these players advanced to the First Division, the clubs earned transfer fees, which was the bulk of their income.
After all, the Chinese First Division League was one of the world's top five leagues. In scale and influence, it was far stronger than the top five football leagues on Earth in his previous life.
"Five Venoms! Awesome!"
"Saints! Boo!"
Although there weren't many fans, it was the opponent's home ground. Before the match started, Five Venoms' fans gave the Saints a hostile reception. The Saints' supporters were in the single digits, their cheers completely drowned out by boos.
Jiang Jun, Li Di, and others didn't care. Home advantage was something they were used to.
On the open-air battlefield, the head coaches led their players to shake hands with each other as a gesture of goodwill. Unfortunately, this goodwill was merely procedural. In reality, they weren't friendly at all; Basalt saw several eye-rolls during the handshakes. Especially one girl, who looked young but had dreadlocks, tattoos, a bizarre hairstyle, and was even smoking on the field, leaving Basalt dumbfounded. Pokémon battling was an Olympic event, a proper sport—was this the image of an athlete?
"Basalt, get ready to play the first match!" Jiang Jun signaled Basalt.
Usually, the first match was given to Zhang Zheng because he was the weakest among the main players but had a flexible fighting style, suitable for testing the waters. But now that Basalt had replaced Zhang Zheng, this task naturally fell to him.
"Okay." Basalt stretched his body, warming up.
Before he left, Jiang Jun reminded him, "This is your debut. Try to play beautifully, but don't have too much psychological pressure. Winning is good, losing is normal; keep a level head. Also, watch out for the opponent's poison and Sticky Web."
The Five Venoms Club ranked slightly higher than the Saints, but not by much. However, their use of poison was exceptional; carelessness was not an option.
Basalt made an "OK" gesture and strode onto the field.
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