Tetsuya attached the Spell Tag to Gastly. Instantly, he felt the surrounding temperature drop a few degrees. Every now and then, a chilling gust seemed to pass by.
"You're all off today. Take the chance to recover," said Matsuba.
His decision puzzled everyone. They didn't know what he was planning, but there was no reason to object.
"Bravo~!"
The happiest by far… was Fantina.
Fantina pulled Morty along to explore Ecruteak City. The city's architecture and traditions[1]¹ in tea ceremony, classical dance, and flower arrangement were quite famous.
Raine went off on his own. With this rare chance, he surely planned to report his situation to his elders. Hopefully, they'd find a way to break through the pavilion and ritual vessel.
Tetsuya "dug out" his bicycle, unused for over a month, and rode off toward Eggseter.
Seeing all four of them leave, Matsuba shook his head. 'These four are really talented. I originally expected them to reach the fourth floor in two months, but they're already there in just half a month. Looks like I'll have to increase the difficulty…'
Matsuba headed toward Brass Tower and began "adjusting" the tactics for the fourth floor.
---◓---
Tetsuya arrived at the Pokémon Daycare in Eggseter, where Mr. Shellby was busy working.
"Shoho! Tetsuya, what brings you here? I heard you're a trainee at Matsuba's Ecruteak Gym," Shellby greeted him warmly.
Tetsuya nodded. This visit was just to check on the Ariados that Shellby had been raising.
"Truly promising. Want to take a look at the ranch? We've already selected a female Ariados and a male Beedrill for the first phase. Right now, they're working on bonding." Shellby sounded proud.
Tetsuya almost wanted to curse him… "stubborn old fool." At this pace, it would take three years to raise the first batch of third-gen Ariados.
And he was seriously letting two Pokémon "bonding" like it was a romance…?
When there were Pokémon heat stimulants available?
Shellby clearly had no business sense. No wonder he'd run a Pokémon Breeding Daycare in a small town like Eggseter his whole life.
"…No need. I just came to check. I heard you paid forty thousand for a Venipede?"
"That's right! I'm raising it very carefully, even replicating the damp climate from the Unova Region, and-"
Shellby was about to go on a lengthy explanation.
"Won't be worth more than ten thousand soon," Tetsuya cut him off flatly.
"T-Ten thousand…? That can't be!"
"Don't follow the News? Castelia City in the Unova Region just had a Venipede stampede spill into the streets. They're gathering Pokémon Trainers to capture them. Within half a month, Venipede will flood the markets everywhere, and the price will crash."
Tetsuya said no more and left. There was no point staying. Some things, after all, weren't appropriate for him to say at his current age…
What kind of picture would it be for a seven-year-old kid to hand someone a 'mating stimulant'?
For someone like Shellby, an honest breeder with no sharp business insight, there was a hard ceiling on how much he could earn.
After hearing Tetsuya's words, Shellby suddenly felt defeated, like he had wasted most of his life. A rookie kid saw things more clearly than he ever had!
---◓---
Back in Ecruteak City, Tetsuya stopped by the market and bought ten iron spikes, becoming the first of the group to return to the Gym.
He went to the training grounds alone. Gastly had already become quite comfortable with both Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb. Now it was all about polishing the execution. Ditto, as its sparring partner, had also been steadily improving in all areas.
Tetsuya laid out the iron spikes in a row. "Gastly, concentrate the force of Shadow Ball into each spike and launch it."
Gastly charged each iron spike with Shadow Ball energy and launched them one by one. But the spikes were heavy, and each one only flew about seven or eight meters.
Even so, it was already impressive. Without the Spell Tag enhancing Gastly's Ghost-type moves, the iron spikes would have only flown five or six meters at most.
Once the row was done, Tetsuya picked them up and had Gastly continue. Over and over, they repeated the motion without pause.
Matsuba happened to walk by and noticed Tetsuya's "special" training. It gradually caught his attention. This kind of training had already gone beyond what he himself had ever taught. Could there be someone guiding Tetsuya in secret?
To probe him a bit, Matsuba walked over. "…Tetsuya, who taught you this kind of training method?"
"I came up with it myself."
Tetsuya's answer surprised Matsuba. "Hm? And where did you get the inspiration?"
"Pointy things hurt more when they stab you," Tetsuya replied casually.
Matsuba laughed. Tetsuya's words were simple, but who else would have thought to apply that logic to combat?
"A kid with real ideas. No wonder you cleared the first three floors of Brass Tower so quickly. Truly gifted. It's just a shame..."
Matsuba mumbled to himself, nodding and shaking his head alternately. He couldn't help feeling that someone with Tetsuya's level of talent had the potential for far greater achievements. But without strong financial support, even the most gifted Trainer could only go as far as a League Ranger at best.
Tetsuya understood this even better than Matsuba. That's why he had a clear plan for this life: building a financial foundation was everything.
After dinner, the day's evening study session was canceled. Tetsuya returned to his room and resumed his "iron spike training", using Ditto transformed into a dagger as a flying target.
The distance was still stuck at eight meters. This kind of training only got harder with time, so Tetsuya had already prepared for it to become a long-term battle.
The other three had no idea when they'd return. How carefree they were…
Thankfully, it didn't affect the next day's special training.
The following morning, at Morty's suggestion, they decided to train every morning and challenge the tower in the afternoons. The plan suited Tetsuya perfectly, so everyone agreed.
Tetsuya's training was now locked in. The other three still didn't understand what he was doing, so they simply went off to train on their own.
---◓---
That afternoon, the four of them finally stepped onto the fourth floor of Brass Tower.
Upon seeing the Guardian Pokémon, Morty was the first to react in disbelief: one Gengar leading twenty Haunter.
The gap in power and level was outrageous. Gengar was already a final-stage evolution. On their side, only Morty's Spiritomb couldn't evolve. Tetsuya's Gastly, Raine's Duskull, and Fantina's Drifloon were all unevolved.
And even the Haunter on the other side were clearly higher level than their Pokémon.
…Not to mention they outnumbered them.
Could it be that the fourth floor was the dividing line where hell difficulty officially began?
"Let's observe their tactics first," Tetsuya said.
"Good point. Getting discouraged won't help. Spiritomb, Snarl!" Morty took the lead.
"Duskull, Dark Pulse!"
"Drifloon, Hex!" Fantina had just had Drifloon learn Hex and was eager to try it out.
Gastly's Shadow Ball flew through the air. Tetsuya observed its shape carefully. There was no visible progress yet, but it had only been one day, so that was normal.
Their side launched a powerful offensive, but the Haunter intercepted everything. Then five of them surrounded each of the four Pokémon.
This encirclement was nothing like the Duskull's. Each of their Pokémon now had to deal with five Haunter, all using Shadow Punch. And Gengar hovered overhead, watching from above. The moment it spotted an opening, it would instantly jump in to assist.
This tactic was completely different from the previous three floors. Their current strength just wasn't enough; under the coordinated assault of five Haunter each, they barely even had a chance to strike back.
•.
•.
¹. Ecruteak City is inspired by Kyoto.
[1] Ecruteak City is inspired by Kyoto