Chapter 190:
"Over ten thousand Poké Dollars worth of Energy Cubes, and young Hayashi just gives them away... How generous..."
"I agree! I've been watching all week. Out of nine challenges, three trainers succeeded. That means three people walked away with the first-floor reward..."
"It's amazing... I scraped together the money to buy some once, and the effect is truly great. After my Mime Jr. ate them for a while, its moves became much more precise..."
"Hayashi is such a good guy. A challenge like this only costs a thousand Poké Dollars..."
"It's just a shame the second floor's difficulty is so high."
"The challenge slots are also so hard to get! You can only try to book them on Sundays..."
Aogiri Town, Bluestone Trail.
A group of young trainers, looking to be about seventeen or eighteen years old, walked together under the glow of the setting sun, discussing excitedly before disappearing at the end of the newly built road.
Meanwhile, at the Breeding House.
Hayashi Kaede saw off the last young trainer who had cleared the challenge that day and let out a sigh of relief. He passed through the berry plantation and garden, arriving at the new planting area.
It had been nearly a week since he introduced the Sky Challenge. The date was now October 22nd.
These past few days, Kaede's focus had been on the "Sky Challenge" and the newly established planting area.
His work mainly involved explaining the rules, managing the arena, and helping to address any concerns, such as treating Pokémon injured during the challenges. He was dedicated to making this challenge run smoothly and formally, so it could continue perfectly even without his direct supervision.
To this end, he had even enlisted Mewtwo and Gardevoir's help.
This was to allow the Pidgetto to gradually adapt to the challenge's intensity, helping them understand what level of strength to use against different challengers.
Because during this period, three of the Pidgetto had evolved into Pidgeot.
That meant the Breeding House now had four Pidgeot and seventeen Pidgetto.
Among them, the energy level of the first Pidgeot that had followed Kaede was now around 45-48.
In fact, his efforts were not without reward.
By now, most of the Pidgetto were familiar with the first floor's difficulty.
As for the later floors, the second, third...
Even the fourth... he would wait until someone cleared the earlier ones first.
Of course, the new planting area was also steadily being developed. With Sandshrew's daily diligent work of tilling the soil and breaking rocks, most of the land had been prepared. Kaede, leading Serperior, had already planted the corresponding berries.
The priority, of course, were some special berries.
In this world, the more unique the berry, the slower its growth. So, Kaede chose to plant the special berries first, sprinkling them with some mid-grade Fertilizer.
Although he now had a considerable amount of top-grade Fertilizer, such a large orchard suddenly springing up would be far too conspicuous.
Therefore, he planned to let the brambles grow naturally first, then interplant common Oran Berries. Once the Oran Berry saplings had grown a bit, he would then apply the top-grade Fertilizer to the areas with the special berries.
It was dusk. Sandshrew had just left, taking its tamago-flavored Energy Cube.
The area was now the domain of Kaede, Serperior, and Dragonite.
He deftly took out various berry seeds from the storage ball he carried, buried them in the holes Sandshrew had dug, and used Psychic to cover them back with soil.
After repeating this process, Dragonite in the sky began precisely using Rain Dance.
The reason for choosing seeds over saplings was that Kaede felt seeds were more natural. With the "boost" from Serperior's Grassy Terrain, the potential for mutation might be greater.
Once the light rain had dampened the ground, Kaede dispelled the Psychic barrier protecting him and Serperior and looked at the elegant Serperior.
"Serperior~"
Serperior naturally knew what its Trainer meant.
As energy surged within its body, a faint green glow instantly enveloped the newly planted land.
Under the cover of this green light, sprouts about ten centimeters tall shot up from the yellowish-brown soil.
Seeing this, Kaede was taken aback for a moment before looking at Serperior.
Sure enough, Serperior's energy level had now reached 50-53—the pseudo-Elite Four tier.
"Incredible..."
"Serperior."
Serperior didn't shy away or hide it.
As more Pokémon arrived at the Breeding House, while it showed nothing on the surface, it had been quietly pushing itself internally.
First, the Pokémon coming to the Breeding House were getting stronger...
From the initial Gardevoir, to later additions like Dragonite, Goodra, Salamence, Mewtwo, Mew...
All were stronger than it.
And then there were the little ones.
It couldn't help but occasionally feel a twinge of... something sour. Yet it understood that its Trainer couldn't have only it as a Pokémon.
Out of everyone, it was most envious of Alolan Vulpix.
Then there was its role in the plantation. Without a doubt, Gardevoir held the top spot.
No other Pokémon could be so versatile: picking berries, making Energy Cubes, caring for the other Pokémon's moods... basically, it handled all matters, big and small.
Serperior knew Gardevoir could do all this because, first, its Psychic abilities were not only powerful but also extremely convenient, and second, because even with its great strength, it had diligently learned from Kaede... things like cooking techniques.
It couldn't match Gardevoir's convenient and powerful Psychic,
So it could only constantly use Grassy Terrain to better care for the plants.
Because every time a special plant appeared, Kaede would come to the plantation with it to check on the unique growth.
This meant that every time it used Grassy Terrain, Serperior did so with great expectation.
This was simply its way of wanting Kaede to spend more time with it.
However, despite all this internal activity, Serperior's expression remained completely unreadable.
This is because Dragonite was watching from the sky, it wouldn't act cute with its Trainer!
"Serperior..."
"Right, right... time to head back. Let's go, Dragonite."
Kaede glanced at the darkening sky, tidied up the area, and after ensuring everything was in order, began walking back towards the Breeding House.
Behind him, Dragonite let out a cheerful cry—its joy came from finishing work, as it was almost mealtime.
Kaede, however, was lost in thought.
Wasn't the Junior Cup scheduled to be held tomorrow?