Time flew by, and five days passed in the blink of an eye.
In the Dragon's Sanctuary, the land was covered with beautiful flowers, grass, and trees, a sight to behold.
By the lakeshore, a tall, straight-backed young man sat on a large bluish-gray rock, fishing rod in hand, quietly fishing.
Whoosh!
The bobber suddenly plunged underwater.
Caster quickly pulled up his rod and caught a Seadra, its body covered in sharp spikes, its tail curled into a spiral.
But there wasn't a ripple in Caster's eyes, because his cheat ability's notification hadn't appeared.
This meant that this Seadra was one Caster had caught before.
"Lately, this repeat catch rate just keeps getting higher and higher."
Caster sighed and let the Seadra eat its fill before leaving.
A few days ago, Caster had the Pokémon line up to bite the hook. That scene was truly spectacular, the fishing efficiency was high, and the rewards came pouring out nonstop until his hands were sore from collecting them.
But Caster also discovered something: the mouths of powerful Pokémon like Gyarados and Kingdra in the lake seemed rather picky.
Caster's bait didn't attract this batch of Pokémon strongly enough. It could only lure in mid-stage evolution Pokémon like Horsea and Seadra.
This left Caster quite disappointed!
After all, the more powerful and rare the Pokémon, the more generous the rewards when caught.
Besides that, the consequence of rewards coming until his hands went numb was that fish that normally could have sustained fishing for ten days to two weeks were basically all caught by Caster in just three days.
And after most of the Pokémon in the lake had been caught by Caster once, it became much harder for him to harvest rewards now.
Basically, for every four or five Pokémon he caught now, only one hadn't been caught before and could successfully yield a reward.
"Forget it! Let's call it a day!"
Shaking his head, Caster put away his fishing rod and sank his consciousness into the fishing space.
Inside the space, countless rewards floated about, emitting a faint glow.
These were all Caster's haul from the past few days.
Energy Orbs were the most numerous. Even after infusing several into Gyarados and Pichu every day, he still had over a hundred left.
Adding the hundred-plus Energy Orbs harvested from the Goldeen fishing competition, the number was even more impressive.
He couldn't use them all!
There was simply no way to use them all!
Next were the TMs:
7× Dragon Dance
7× Dragon Breath
5× Dragon Claw
4× Dragon Tail
3× Outrage
3× Rain Dance
As for TMs with single quantities, there were even more, covering an extremely broad range with all types represented.
Finally were the item rewards: Muscle Feathers, Ability Capsules, Dragon Scales, X Attacks, Dragon Bones, and more. All extremely good stuff.
Without exaggeration, as long as Caster fully absorbed this batch of rewards, Gyarados and Pichu's strength would absolutely skyrocket by a huge margin.
Thinking of this, Caster glanced at Gyarados, who was still training under the waterfall in the distance, and said with a smile, "But Gyarados has been training with full enthusiasm these past few days, and its physical condition has improved noticeably.
I'll hold off on giving it this batch of rewards for a bit longer!"
Ever since being crushed and defeated by Feraligatr, Gyarados had been determined to learn from its shame.
It trained extremely hard, and the effects were naturally visible to the naked eye.
To keep Gyarados in this passionate state, Caster hadn't taught it the TMs he'd obtained over the past few days.
He only made sure the daily Energy Orbs never ran short.
No choice, he was worried Gyarados would get proud and lazy!
Watching Clair's Magikarp following Gyarados up the waterfall, Caster's heart stirred.
"Well, since I've pretty much caught all the fish, it's time to arrange Magikarp's Bounce training.
Clair even came this morning to ask about the progress. But teaching Magikarp the Bounce move in five days, Clair should be satisfied with that pace."
With that thought, Caster called out loudly, summoning Clair's Magikarp.
"Karp~"
Clair's Magikarp was indeed exceptional. Its physical condition was extremely robust, and its gaze was bright and spirited, completely lacking the dull-wittedness of ordinary Magikarp.
"Not bad!"
Caster patted Magikarp's dorsal fin and said with a chuckle, "Magikarp, your foundation has passed the test. You've met the requirements for mastering the Bounce move. So from now on, I'll be coaching you."
"Karp~"
Magikarp's eyes lit up, extremely excited.
Was it finally time to officially enter the move-teaching phase?
Move Tutor, I'll work hard!
"First, close your eyes, clear your mind of distractions, and pay attention to my guidance."
In a trance, Caster seemed to transform into an enlightened monk, his words full of profound mysteries as he patiently guided, "Magikarp, can you feel the movement of the water?"
"Karp~"
Magikarp closed its eyes and carefully sensed the direction and speed of the water flow, as well as the turbulence of the currents nearby.
Magikarp was a Water-type Pokémon. Sensing water was easy as pie for it.
"Very good!"
Caster nodded and continued guiding. "Now then, carefully sense the movement of the wind. This is the key to whether you can master the Bounce move..."
"Karp~"
Hearing the word "key," Magikarp's expression immediately became solemn.
...
At the same time, several hundred meters away in a clearing, Clair was instructing Wyatt's Pokémon in their training.
Besides Gyarados and Charizard, Wyatt had also brought Kingdra, Altaria, Flygon, and Tropius.
Although not all of these Pokémon had Dragon typing, they all had dragon bloodlines and had all mastered the Dragon Dance move.
"Too stiff! I've told you how many times, when using Dragon Dance, don't just spin in place.
Your movements need to be flexible and varied, so you can power up while dodging your opponent's attacks.
If you get hit by an enemy attack, your Dragon Dance loses all meaning..."
Clair was like a stern teacher, her dragon whip constantly cracking through the air.
Secret moves were specialized forms of techniques!
Take the Dragon-type move Dragon Breath as an example.
Conventional Dragon Breath training meant constantly improving skill proficiency, enhancing move power, shortening execution time, increasing the trigger rate of additional effects, and so on—three effects advancing together in balanced fashion.
But if it was a secret move, then you'd abandon the broad approach and instead choose one particular quality of the move for targeted enhancement and improvement.
This way, the training difficulty would be much lower.
And the Dragon Tamer clan's Dragon Dance secret move enhanced the technique's flexibility, pursuing both power-ups and dodging opponent attacks simultaneously.
Because all stat-boosting moves had always been targets of strict enemy defense.
After all, once a Pokémon completed its power-ups, it could really sweep entire teams. You had to guard against it.
"Clair-nee, let's take a break!"
Watching his exhausted Pokémon, sweat appeared on Wyatt's forehead.
"All right! Everyone rest for half an hour!"
Clair nodded and put away her dragon whip.
The Dragon Dance secret move required tremendous effort to have any hope of mastering. This wasn't something that could happen overnight.
As soon as she finished speaking, Wyatt's Pokémon immediately collapsed to the ground.
Wyatt quickly rushed forward to feed them Pokéblocks while massaging them to relieve fatigue and ease his Pokémon's training stress.
When he saw Caster still leisurely sitting by the lake, Wyatt felt a surge of irritation. "It's been five whole days! At his age, at this stage, how can he just fish with a clear conscience?"
With that thought, Wyatt stomped over to Clair's side and casually asked, "Clair-nee, how's Magikarp's Bounce training coming along?"
At his words, Clair pressed her lips together and said nothing.
Magikarp had been training with Caster for five days now, but as far as Clair knew, Caster didn't seem to have done any actual move-related instruction.
On the contrary, Caster himself just fished all day, thoroughly enjoying himself.
This morning, Clair had even made a point of finding Caster to ask about progress, but Caster had confidently declared that "everything's going smoothly, Magikarp should master Bounce very soon."
This response left Clair somewhat at a loss.
It was just that the agreed-upon time wasn't up yet, so Clair couldn't very well make a fuss.
Seeing Clair's expression wasn't great, Wyatt immediately said no more.
But just then, a large fish suddenly leaped from the distant lake, soaring over a hundred meters into the air.
"Is that... Bounce?"
Clair stared at the scene in a daze, then said in delighted surprise, "Magikarp learned Bounce?"
Wyatt's jaw dropped, and he muttered, "It really learned it??"
High in the air, Magikarp reveled wildly.
This fish has made it!!!
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones