"One million...?"
"For now, I'd better focus on feeding Sandshrew properly."
Ethan Black sighed lightly to himself.
After that, he didn't stay any longer in the Pokémon store. After buying a large bottle of Miltank milk, he left the place and headed toward the Pokémon Nightstar Club.
After paying 300 Pokédollars for the night fee, he was able to enter the underground training facilities without issue.
The training area was equipped like a gym: full of all kinds of machines. In addition, around the place there were individual training rooms, where both trainers and Pokémon could exercise or rest.
As soon as he arrived, he released Sandshrew. After a good rest, it had already recovered some of its energy.
"Sandshrew, this is Miltank milk. Let's see if you like it."
At the sight of it, Sandshrew's eyes sparkled with excitement. It nodded repeatedly and extended its small hands to grab the bottle.
"Wash your hands first."
Ethan Black took out a bottle of mineral water from his backpack.
"Sha?"
Sandshrew looked at the bottle of water, then at the milk, tilted its head with a confused expression, as if asking: Why wash my hands if I'm not going to use them to drink?
"Then at least rinse your mouth," Ethan Black said after thinking for a moment.
Sandshrew: "(°_°)"
After Sandshrew obeyed and rinsed its mouth, Ethan Black finally handed over the Miltank milk.
Interestingly, despite being a Pokémon afraid of water, it showed no fear at all when drinking the milk, which made Ethan Black start to think of something.
What if I mix Miltank milk with water?
After finishing the whole bottle, Sandshrew was completely revived, running around the training room with amazing energy.
After playing for a bit, Ethan Black led it to a high-speed spinning machine.
"Sandshrew, what we're going to train now is the move Rapid Spin."
"This is a Normal-type move. It works to attack by spinning around yourself, and it can also be used defensively..."
"It's quite similar to the move Rollout, except it's Normal-type, and the spinning direction is horizontal, not back and forth..."
Ethan Black explained in detail to Sandshrew how to train this technique. Since Sandshrew already mastered Normal-type moves: Scratch and Defense Curl, controlling Normal energy wouldn't be difficult for it.
The next step was to coat the body with Normal-type energy and activate it together with the spinning. With the previous experience in training Rollout, this shouldn't be too hard.
"Sha~"
Upon hearing that it had to train again, Sandshrew immediately lost enthusiasm.
"If you train well today, tomorrow morning I'll treat you to a big breakfast. What do you think?"
Ethan Black smiled. For a glutton, nothing was more motivating than food, and besides, since they had won a prize, they deserved a reward.
"Sha sha sha!"
Sandshrew's eyes shone like stars. It nodded quickly, climbed onto the spinning machine, and, as usual, used the move Defense Curl to roll itself into a ball.
"Let's begin..."
Once ready, Ethan Black activated the machine, making Sandshrew spin rapidly.
"Sandshrew, remember the feeling of using Defense Curl, feel the Normal energy, and try to make it spin together with your body..."
Ethan Black guided it patiently. He was quite confident in this training method.
Following his instructions, Sandshrew repeatedly used Defense Curl, coated its body with Normal-type energy, and tried to make it spin with the help of the machine. This way, little by little, it would manage to perform Rapid Spin on its own.
When Ethan Black saw that Sandshrew already had its body covered in Normal energy, he stopped the machine and let it try spinning alone.
In fact, the method turned out to be very effective. Thanks to the previous experience with the move Rollout, Sandshrew managed to perform Rapid Spin in just a few attempts, which left Ethan Black impressed with its talent.
From now on, they only needed to keep training steadily, and in no time, the move would be completely mastered.
...
The next morning, Ethan Black and Sandshrew slowly woke up in the training area's room. They had trained until late at night, and both had fallen asleep from pure exhaustion.
"Sandshrew, get up, wash your face, and let's go get breakfast!" Ethan Black said with his eyes still half-closed.
"Sha~!"
At the mention of breakfast, Sandshrew jumped up, fully awake. It remembered Ethan Black's promise perfectly well! A feast!
Ethan Black got up shortly after. Checking his phone, he saw that it was already 6 in the morning.
"Two hours left?"
"How about we train the move Rapid Spin a little more?"
"Sha~"
Unmotivated. I want breakfast first!
After a bit of morning exercise, Ethan Black took Sandshrew out of the club, and they ran straight to a restaurant.
As a true glutton, food was its greatest motivation to train.
And so, to fulfill last night's promise, 500 Pokédollars disappeared in the form of food, which left Ethan Black's heart in pieces.
However, remembering Sandshrew's effort during training, he felt comforted.
"It's a new day full of energy. Today we'll rest a little... How about going to a construction site to play with sand?"
Leaving the café, Ethan Black already had the day planned out. Since they had earned 1,000 Pokédollars, he decided to take the day off and enjoy the time with his Pokémon.
And why go to a construction site? Because there could be sand there, and it would also be a place isolated enough to train Sandshrew freely.
"Sha?"
At hearing the word "play," Sandshrew got excited. Playing with sand was one of its favorite activities!
After getting its approval, Ethan Black returned it to its Poké Ball and happily ran toward a nearby construction site.
In fact, he had already observed that place for some time. It seemed to be on pause, so sneaking in wouldn't be a problem.
(End of chapter)