Haunter was still practicing when Unown A teleported onto Growlithe's head. With a look of frustration, it stuck out a slanted leg and pointed at Growlithe's forehead.
'Growlithe! What are you barking about again?!'
The dog raised its eyes instinctively. They were extremely clear, and foolish.
'You can't even do something as simple as using Ember to strengthen Flamethrower!' Unown A nagged nonstop, just like a teacher scolding a poor student. 'In the future, you'll have to fuse Flamethrower with Fire Blast, and Flame Wheel with Flame Charge. How are you supposed to learn that?!'
"Growl?"
Growlithe understood only half of it and spat out another small burst of Ember.
'Ugh!'
Unown A felt like it was about to split apart. But when it looked at the other Pokémon, it finally relaxed.
Corviknight turned out to be quite talented at move fusion. It could already barely combine Air Cutter and Air Slash.
Bewear, although it looked clumsy, had its moves well mastered. It could also understand instructions and knew what it was supposed to do.
Drakloak was progressing the fastest. Whether it was due to its clan's inheritance or pure talent, it managed to fuse Shadow Ball and Hex as soon as it understood the principle. It was now firing wildly at targets for fun.
'Sigh…'
Unown A glanced sideways and noticed the Vibrava in the corner.
This bug was lazy and sluggish. It still lacked combat experience and had not even broken through to the Gym-level.
It really deserved a beating.
With a thought, Unown A grabbed Vibrava and dragged it in front of Growlithe. Then it shouted at Growlithe.
'Hit it! Use Ember plus Flamethrower. Follow the steps I taught you! It's fine if you go slow…'
Vibrava stared blankly at its companion. Growlithe hesitated for a second, then spat out flames without hesitation.
One blast would not kill it anyway, so why not.
"..."
Shiro was at the edge of the training room, practicing his psychic abilities according to the method.
He had to admit that after being strengthened by Mesprit, his talent and psychic power had both improved by a huge margin.
Now, his training speed was probably on par with that of an ordinary psychic.
At least, that was how he saw it.
Training for one hour now was equivalent to training for one hundred days before. In another one or two years, he might even be able to use Teleport on his own.
With that expectation in mind, he finished his psychic training for the day. He glanced at the Pokémon still training, then began his physical conditioning.
It was not just about psychic power. His body also had to be strong enough to beat ordinary wild Pokémon.
If he could not even compare to a rookie like Ash, how was he supposed to raise Pokémon?
If a newly caught electric mouse got angry and lost control, and ended up electrocuting its trainer to death… that would be far too dramatic.
Shiro soon became drenched in sweat. By noon, he fed the Pokémon again, ate himself, and returned to the training room.
Whenever he thought of other trainers, others of the same age, like Leon, Lance, and Cynthia, who all had better resources and kept training nonstop to grow stronger, he felt a sense of urgency.
* * *
After a day of training, around five in the afternoon, Shiro ended the session.
He then took out the backpack he always carried and began sorting through the supplies and money inside.
Regarding Pokémon, aside from the few he had personally trained, the rest were various Water-type Pokémon obtained from Nathan. All other Pokémon had already been dealt with.
The Water-type Pokémon included one Gym-level Wailord, two Gym-level Starmie, three Advanced-level ones, and eight other Advanced-level Water-types.
As for money, all the Pokédollars he had on hand were in cash. Added together, it totaled a bit over eighty-six million.
He had asked the crew before. Pokédollars were universal. There was no such thing as needing to exchange Galar money into Kanto money.
Aside from cash, his backpack also contained a large number of perfect-quality Pokéblocks of various types. They were taken from Macro Cosmos. Using them for about a year would not be a problem at all.
There were also all kinds of medicine, clothes, and outdoor survival gear.
Shiro had bought many classic red-and-white Poké Balls. He also had more than a dozen high-end balls.
He had replaced the balls for Corviknight and the others with Ultra Balls. Judging from their feedback, they were indeed more comfortable than the classic ones.
There was also a Larvesta egg in the backpack, twenty-five Intermediate-quality Fire Stones meant to be used as consumables, and thirty kilograms of Charcoal.
Other Pokémon items included one perfect-quality Fire Stone reserved for Growlithe's evolution, one perfect-quality Linking Cord reserved for Haunter's evolution, eight Everstones, two Mystic Water, one Miracle Seed, one Dragon Fang, and one pair of Black Glasses.
The remaining items were the Rusted Sword and Shield, his League Card, a communication device, and a strange metal symbol W taken from Felix.
Both Unown A and Mesprit had examined this W-symboled metal. They did not know its purpose. It seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary decoration.
After organizing everything, Shiro took out the Dragon Fang.
This was loot he had seized before and forgotten about all this time. It was perfect for Drakloak.
The Dragon Fang increased the power of Dragon-type moves by ten to twenty percent.
He called Drakloak over and tossed it the Dragon Fang.
Drakloak caught it happily. After playing with it for a while, it simply held it in its mouth and then dove into Shiro's shadow.
As for the other Pokémon items like Mystic Water and Miracle Seed, they were all loot he had gathered over a long time. After killing so many people in Galar, getting only this much equipment felt rather meager.
Moreover, aside from the Dragon Fang and Everstones, most of the items did not suit his current Pokémon at all. To him, they were pretty much useless.
"Better than nothing..."
Shiro was not worried about being looted for money, nor did he plan to sell these useless items.
He had money, time, and strength now. Taking things slowly was enough.
After packing his backpack and putting it on, Shiro left the training room.
The sky was already growing dim. He ate something casually, then returned to his bedroom to rest.
After washing up, Professor Rowan suddenly called.
"Corviknight... Shiro, has your current route already deviated from the original course?"
"It probably has. What do you mean by that?" Shiro asked, sitting on the bed.
"I suggest you hide in a safe place as soon as possible!" Rowan sounded anxious. "The captain of the S.S. Anne has received a mission from the central League. The ship is heading to a pirate nest!"
"I know," Shiro replied calmly.
"No, it's not just that the ship is going..." Rowan took a breath, then added, "Once it enters the Triangle Sea, those pirates should take action on their own. In one or two days, they will likely find the S.S. Anne!"
Shiro frowned and thought for a moment, then asked, "How strong are those pirates? Do you know?"
"Well..." Rowan hesitated, then said uncertainly, "A pirate crew's leader should have at least one or two Gym-level Pokémon, right?"
**
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