After leaving the Secret Kingdom, Ethan Black mounted Absol and returned to the Pokémon University of Ironvale City.
Perhaps because the new monthly ranking tournament was about to begin, the university's training grounds were visibly much more crowded than usual.
The first thing Ethan Black did upon returning was head straight to the field, where he used his resource points to open a private training room.
On this trip, besides obtaining the monthly resources from President Hamilton, he had managed to teach Cacturne the move Toxic, Absol the moves Bite, Sucker Punch, and Dark Pulse, obtained from Rachel Blake a special technique of the move Water Sport, and also collected in the Secret Kingdom a large quantity of Berries and Beedrill honey.
Now, by opening this room, his goal was to thoroughly digest all those resources obtained in recent days.
To protect each trainer's privacy, the confidentiality of these rooms was very well guaranteed. That's why Ethan Black calmly released all his Pokémon.
Then he took out from his space backpack the resources he had obtained, sorting and distributing them for each one specifically.
"Absol, this is your special food for Dark-type Pokémon. Try it."
Ethan Black placed the food in front of Absol with a smile.
Absol looked at it curiously: they seemed like simple dog kibble. He hesitated a moment, but in the end took a bite.
Immediately, his eyes lit up, and he devoured the rest with the speed of a whirlwind.
Ethan Black smiled upon seeing his partner so satisfied; as a trainer, there was no greater joy than seeing his Pokémon happy.
After distributing the food, Ethan Black took out the Berries and Beedrill honey from the Secret Kingdom.
"Shuckle."
Seeing the pile of Berries and honey, Shuckle's little eyes curved into the shape of a crescent moon. Carefully, he picked up a Berry and tucked it into the shell on his back.
"I'll leave it to you: mix all these Berries with the honey and turn them into nutritious juices." Ethan Black stroked Shuckle's small yellow head and placed him beside the mountain of fruit.
"Cacturne, you continue training your Poison Roots."
"If you manage to apply the effect of Toxic in your roots, you'll overcome your weakness to poison."
"And once you master the Poison Roots, your combat power will increase tremendously. Just imagine using roots combined with poison: a dirty, lethal combo."
Ethan Black smiled toward Cacturne, who was happily eating his food.
"Cac!"
Cacturne nodded enthusiastically, though his eyes lingered for a few seconds on Meltan before continuing to eat.
"Zzzt!"
Sensing that gaze, Meltan looked at him warily and covered his belly, as if afraid his Toxic Orb might be snatched away.
"Meltan, your battle in the Secret Kingdom was excellent, but you still haven't fully unleashed the power of the Toxic Orb." Ethan Black eyed him shrewdly.
"Zzzt!"
Hearing that, Meltan's nut-eye spun rapidly like a car at full speed.
At once, he gulped down a mouthful of his liquid metal, rushed to the center of the room, and planted himself with determination, as if saying: "Time to train seriously!"
"This little guy..." Ethan Black shook his head.
"After swallowing so much metal, it seems his body grew even more. But... when will he finally meet the conditions to evolve into Melmetal?"
His eyes gleamed with expectation. Although Meltan was a singular Pokémon, in its infant stage it didn't stand out too much compared to others.
But if it evolved into Melmetal, then everything would change: as a mythical Steel-type Pokémon, its potential would surpass even that of a pseudo-legendary.
With hope, Ethan Black shifted his gaze to Trapinch, who was still practicing the move Dig. In the battle against the Beedrill, he had already shown great mastery of that move.
"Now he can already start learning other Ground-type moves."
"In Professor Harris's Ground-type breeding manual are the methods for the moves Mud-Slap and Bulldoze."
"Too bad that moves like Fissure, those one-hit KO moves, aren't even recorded in the Pokémon Researchers' Guild. Seems it'll be impossible for Trapinch to learn it before evolving."
Ethan Black sighed silently. According to his memories, both Dig and Fissure were exclusive moves for Trapinch.
But if he evolved into Vibrava, he'd lose the chance to learn the move Fissure. A pity, without a doubt.
Even so, after reflecting, he decided not to wait any longer. He would prepare Trapinch to evolve into Vibrava as soon as possible.
Trapinch had already reached nearly his current limit. Only by evolving into Vibrava could he keep progressing.
Moreover, Vibrava would already have a certain ability to fly and, thanks to his Levitate ability, would resemble Flygon quite a bit. That way, he could begin training the methods intended for Flygon right away.
Lastly, Trapinch's innate talent for the Flying-type was very strong. Upon evolving, he'd be able to learn many Flying-type moves, maximizing that advantage.
With his decision made, Ethan Black turned his gaze away from Trapinch and focused on Absol, who was training the move Dark Pulse.
At that moment, Absol was concentrating on this move, his only long-range attack, which made it his main focus of training.
"I remember in the anime, Ash's Grotle achieved an explosive effect by swallowing his own Energy Ball."
"Could Absol achieve something similar if he swallowed his Dark Pulse?"
"Besides, with his Justified ability, he can absorb Dark-type moves to strengthen himself."
Ethan Black grew pensive. However, if the experiment failed, it would be like hurting himself... and that made him hesitate. In the end, he decided to wait and observe before trying it.
(End of chapter)