In the secret base, Guroguro was still sweating, constantly striving for faster and stronger goals. As his trainer, Xia Huhnao felt a bit strange.
The system told him that to improve Special Attack effort values through practice, it would take thousands of repetitions. So, for the remaining over two hundred points of Special Attack effort values, it would require at least over two hundred thousand special attacks.
Fortunately, the system quickly changed its statement: "My mistake, my mistake, it's not in thousands, it's in hundreds."
Xia Huhnao was startled: "How many times have I made Guro use Pound? System, do you have any idea?"
The system pretended to count on its fingers: "Ninety-seven or eighty times, I think. Ever since you got Bubble, you haven't used Pound as your main attack much. You primarily use Growl for type conversion, so the first effort value hasn't been achieved yet."
Xia Huhnao breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good. Guro is level fifteen now, right? System, show me Guro's move list."
Xia Huhnao decided to replace Pound as soon as possible. Status moves wouldn't affect effort values no matter how they were used, so Growl could be kept for another two days.
Before level fifteen, Guro could learn Quick Attack, Lick, and Water Pulse through leveling up. Quick Attack was immediately ruled out. Lick was a Ghost-type move and could add a bit of offensive variety, but since it was a physical move, he had to reluctantly give it up. This left only Water Pulse for Guro to learn.
For Xia Huhnao, who had been training for a while, Water Pulse was much simpler than Bubble. He immediately stopped Guro's training and sat in the bathtub with Guro, remaining still.
Guro was not a Pokémon that could stand boredom, but without Xia Huhnao's command, he sat there obediently.
Xia Huhnao stared at the water surface, reached out, and gently tapped the water with his middle finger. Ripples spread out from the point of contact. Xia Huhnao looked at Guro sitting in a wooden basin on the water and asked, "Do you understand? Water Pulse."
Guro tilted his head: What are you saying? You tapped the water once and expect me to understand Water Pulse?
Seeing Guro still confused, Xia Huhnao scooped up some water with his left hand, dipped his right index finger into it, and brought it before Guro: "Guro, look at this water droplet."
Guro and Xia Huhnao both stared at the water droplet in his hand. As the droplet fell, Guro's gaze followed it to the water's surface. Watching the ripples on the water, Guro seemed to be pondering something.
"Guro, let's try to use Water Pulse now."
Guro raised his two hands, gathered some water-type energy, and then, it exploded, drenching Xia Huhnao's face.
Xia Huhnao wiped his face: "Guro, let's be a bit gentler. What you did can't be called Water Pulse; it's more like Water Blast..."
Guro tried a few more times, but always missed the mark. Xia Huhnao watched the diligent Guro and asked the system: "System, do you think it would be more effective if I took Guro out to watch raindrops fall into a pond on a rainy day?"
The system thought for a moment: "Your idea makes sense, but it's impractical. Where would you find the time to wait for rain? It's January, and there's only snow, no rain..."
Xia Huhnao realized that it was true. It rarely rained in Jinghai City during winter in recent years, so it would be difficult to catch a rainy day.
"I'll see if I can find a Pokémon that knows Rain Dance. Or, I could just find a Pokémon that already knows Water Pulse."
The system looked at Xia Huhnao: "Oh, are you willing to spend money this time?"
Teaching Pokémon moves was always an exceptionally profitable business, especially when you knew a move with high rarity. You could essentially name your price. Moves like Water Pulse, though not extremely rare and known by many, were still sold at high prices, and there was nothing you could do about it.
What kind of person was Xia Huhnao? If he didn't want to spend money, no one could get a single cent out of him. But if he entered a supermarket, he definitely wouldn't leave without spending some money.
After much deliberation, Xia Huhnao decided against buying a Water Pulse TM.
If it doesn't rain, then we'll make it rain. The best way to simulate rain at home is by using the shower. Xia Huhnao turned on the shower head, letting the water sprinkle into the bathtub.
"Guro, watch carefully. Observe the ripples on the water surface, and then try again."
Guro watched the ripples on the water in the bathtub. They were dense and interfered with each other, completely lacking any pattern. After watching for a while, Guro heard Xia Huhnao's command: "Guro, use Water Pulse!"
Guro jumped up from the wooden basin, gathered water energy between his hands, and then, it exploded again...
This time, the explosion was even more outrageous than before. If the previous scene was like a single firecracker, this was like a thousand-firecracker display, with immense power.
Xia Huhnao wiped the water from his face again: "I think it would be better to control the water flow. If it keeps exploding like this, I'm going to have a hard time."
Xia Huhnao adjusted the faucet to a smaller flow and watched the fine droplets of water descend. He nodded: "This should be about right."
Guro continued to observe the water ripples. Compared to the previous downpour, this gentle drizzle had more rhythm, and Guro's observation was simpler.
Xia Huhnao quietly asked the system: "System, what's the description of Water Pulse?"
"It attacks the opponent with water vibrations, sometimes causing confusion."
"Water vibrations?"
Xia Huhnao murmured the description of the Water Pulse move. He had a not-so-mature idea in his mind: tie a mobile phone to Guro's back, and then throw Guro and the phone into the water together. He wanted Guro to experience what water vibrations were like through the phone's vibration.
However, this idea was too outlandish. First, it was not good for Guro's health, and second, Xia Huhnao's phone was quite expensive.
But Xia Huhnao wasn't without a slightly more basic solution: simply put Guro into the water and let him feel the vibrations of the water while watching the ripples spread.
With this in mind, Xia Huhnao said to Guro: "Guro, get in the water first."
Guro got into the water. Xia Huhnao continued to let the shower water fall into the bathtub: "Guro, feel the vibrations from the water around you, and think carefully about how to create such vibrations."
Guro soaked in the water, letting the surface around him constantly ripple. After an unknown amount of time, Guro jumped out of the bathtub, and a water ball formed between his hands.
Guro threw the water ball, and after flying for a while, it didn't explode. Instead, it spread out, transforming into ripples.
Seeing this, Xia Huhnao smiled knowingly: "Excellent, now you've learned Water Pulse. But System, what move did Guro forget?"
The system looked at Guro: "If a wild Pokémon learns a new move, it will forget the first move it learned among its four existing moves. Pokémon with trainers can sense the trainer's will and forget moves the trainer deems unnecessary."
Xia Huhnao understood after hearing this. Guro had replaced Pound with Water Pulse. But what kind of mechanism was this?
The system advised him: "Why do you care about the mechanism? Don't get too hung up on things you don't understand. If you can't figure it out, don't think about it, or you'll get too tired."
Xia Huhnao nodded: "You're right."
...
Guro learning Water Pulse was something worth celebrating, even though it wasn't in Xia Huhnao's final move set plan...
"Guro, let's practice Water Pulse more. You need to master this move."
As he spoke, Xia Huhnao took out a stack of frisbees from a nearby cabinet and threw one out: "Guro, use Water Pulse."
Guro looked at the frisbee in the air, brought his hands together to form a water ball, and then threw it towards the frisbee. Xia Huhnao watched the scene: "Why do I feel like Guro is conjuring a Rasengan?"
Xia Huhnao shook his head: "He's a ninja, what's strange about conjuring a Rasengan?"
Guro's Water Rasengan flew through the air and spread out, but it was still quite a distance from the frisbee. Seeing the result, Xia Huhnao picked up a second frisbee: "Guro, don't get discouraged. Let's try a few more times, and you'll get better with practice."
After a long period of training, Guro's Water Pulse became incredibly skillful. Xia Huhnao took out three frisbees and threw them all at once. Guro locked onto them with his eyes, jumped up, gathered a water ball, and struck. The water ball accurately hit the middle frisbee and then instantly spread out, hitting the other two frisbees as well.
Xia Huhnao nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, let's leave Water Pulse at this level for now. It's not always good to just hit stationary targets. I need to find some targets that react faster."
Xia Huhnao pondered and thought of Rotom. There was no better target than Rotom. Rotom could fly, was small, and although not very fast, its unpredictable flight could add variation, making it a top-notch target.
He called Rotom out and whispered a few words to it. Then, Rotom crackled with electricity: "No, Rotom won't do it, Rotom! You're oppressing Rotom!"
Xia Huhnao placed his hands on his hips: "Rotom, I'm being very patient in discussing this with you. I don't want to force you, and I hope you'll consider carefully..."
Hearing the threatening tone in Xia Huhnao's words, Rotom wanted to cry. Was this the tone of someone discussing things with a Pokémon? It was simply hooligan behavior!
"I have an idea. Go train with other Pokémon in the wild, Rotom."
Seeing Rotom stubbornly refusing, Xia Huhnao thought, maybe he should go out for some special training for a while? It would be a good opportunity to grind effort values and such...