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Kael already had extremely deep experience with wave-based moves.
Whether it had been Dragon Pulse back when he was Ampharos, or Aura Sphere in his previous life as Machamp, those kinds of techniques had both served as his main combat skills.
And all the understanding he had accumulated over his long life as a Pokémon had given him a much deeper grasp of this entire class of moves.
Compared with the Water Gun, the Water Pulse was far stronger overall, and its effective range was much greater as well.
That meant Water Pulse could now fully replace Water Gun as Kael's primary special attack.
Of course, Water Gun still had its uses in certain situations.
Its Water-type energy was more concentrated, and it could be directed precisely at a single target.
For many moments in Kael's future life as a Sobble, that would still be very useful.
In his eyes, Water Gun and Water Pulse both belonged to the category of special attacks, but in truth, they were fundamentally different.
Based on everything he had learned from using wave-type moves across multiple lives, Kael understood something very clearly.
These skills, the ones that in his old world had been grouped into their own special category, were nowhere near as simple as they looked in games or animation.
Water Pulse, Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse. These ring-shaped attacks, formed from special energy, looked at first glance like nothing more than a simple gathering of power into a circular structure.
But in reality, another, much rarer kind of force was woven into the process of forming the move.
Mental energy.
Or, more precisely, soul power.
That strange and subtle force played a huge role in determining both the casting speed and the overall power of wave-based techniques.
Unfortunately, even in the human world, where Pokémon research had advanced enormously, people still knew very little about this kind of energy. Progress in that field remained painfully slow.
Only in a few rare cases, through contact with particularly strong Psychic-type Pokémon, had humans even managed to confirm the existence of such a concept.
Because of that, neither human Trainers nor wild Pokémon had found any especially effective way to develop wave-based skills.
At most, they could increase raw energy output or improve the purity of the energy itself.
That was basically the limit.
When it came to the mental side of things, they had no real answer. Everything depended on how much soul power a creature was born with, and there was no known method of training it later.
But Kael was different.
Back in his previous life as Machamp, he had learned and mastered the power of aura under Lucario's guidance in an incredibly short period of time, thanks to the affinity boost granted by his system equipment.
Because of that, he was already highly familiar with the true source of wave-based power, the strength of the mind.
On top of that, as someone protected by the system and capable of endless reincarnation, his soul had already reached a level ordinary life could never hope to attain.
Naturally, his soul power had also been quietly growing all along.
As things stood now, when it came specifically to wave-based techniques, Kael could be called a complete genius.
His body still limited him somewhat on the raw energy side.
But based on mental power alone, he could already drive Water Pulse to a level far beyond what other Pokémon of his kind could achieve.
He casually closed the system panel, which showed no other changes, and without paying any attention to the Basculin in front of him, he immediately began testing the new move he had just learned.
Water Pulse.
A sharp light flashed through his blue eyes.
His small hand clenched tightly.
Boom!
A heavy muffled impact burst through the water, and brilliant blue light began to glow faintly from the surface of his skin, making him look like a pale blue star burning in the dark depths.
Under Kael's control, Water-type energy slowly gathered at his chest.
Pure water, distinct from the rest of the lake around him, drew together with it, while an intangible layer of mysterious mental force covered the forming attack.
A rapidly spinning blue ring of light gradually took shape.
He did not bother aiming at any specific target.
Facing the open water in front of him, Kael thrust both hands forward.
Wummmmm~
A clear, almost crystalline sound spread through the lake.
The instant the blue ring left Kael's control, it expanded sharply, becoming like a small blue sun and casting a blinding glow through the dark water.
The surge of energy shattered the stillness of the lake, stirring the water into chaos.
Vortex after vortex formed at random.
The once quiet, empty lakebed suddenly looked as if it had been torn apart by a violent underwater storm.
The force hidden within it was terrifying enough to rip steel to pieces in an instant.
Only after a good while, once every trace of Water Pulse's energy had finally faded, did the lake slowly settle again.
Kael stared at the blue points of light drifting away in front of him, his face full of surprise.
Even before releasing the move, he had already expected the underwater environment to increase Water Pulse's power.
But even so, the sheer scale of destruction it caused still shocked him.
This was completely beyond what a first-stage Sobble should have been capable of.
Under normal circumstances, he would need to reach level sixteen and complete his first evolution before he could use a move with this kind of power.
And yet now, under the amplification of his soul strength, Water Pulse had already reached that level.
At the same time, while Kael was still immersed in the result of his new move, he failed to notice that Basculin had fallen into an even deeper panic.
Its red eyes were full of alarm. Its muscular body had stiffened, and even its fins had drawn in close without it realizing.
It had no idea Kael had merely been testing a new technique.
From Basculin's perspective, this was nothing less than a deliberate display of overwhelming power meant to intimidate it.
And, in truth, it worked.
The terrifying force radiating from that blue ring was something it knew with absolute certainty it could never survive.
Defeat.
Even death.
Either would have come in an instant.
"Then why hadn't Sobble used a move like that during our fight?"
"Did he... hold back?"
In that moment, Basculin genuinely began to believe that Kael had restrained himself in battle because he feared Basculin would not survive such a devastating attack.
And under the combined weight of overwhelming strength and apparent mercy, Basculin, a Pokémon simple and honest by nature, truly submitted.
Kael, of course, had no idea what change had just taken place in Basculin's heart.
And even if he did, he probably would not care much.
A strategy built around gathering followers and using overwhelming power to recruit subordinates might be something Kael considered in a later cycle, if the world and circumstances made it worthwhile.
But at least in this world, it was not part of his plans.
What mattered far more to him was his own strength, and what this cycle of life could teach him.
A faint blue glow lit up within the large curled tail behind him.
That was the Water Stone at work.
Under its influence, a large amount of pure Water-type energy flowed into Kael's body, replenishing what he had spent on Water Pulse.
Frowning slightly, Kael crossed his arms and nodded to himself.
"The drain is pretty heavy."
"Looks like Water Pulse will have to stay as a trump card from now on."
The laws of nature were balanced.
If Water Pulse possessed such absurd destructive power, then naturally it demanded a huge amount of Water-type energy in return.
That was the price Kael had to pay to use it.
The deep water was dim and cold, silent as outer space.
Still.
Quiet.
Almost like another world entirely.
In that cool, shadowed environment, with nothing to distract him, Kael could not help drifting into thought about the future.
Right now, he was living in an artificial marine park, a place far more stable and comfortable than the true wild.
And with the tourist problem now mostly solved through his own actions, there was even less to interfere with him.
He had no idea how long he would be allowed to stay here.
But he still hoped to use this precious stretch of time to survive his weak early stage and complete his first evolution.
Once that happened, once he possessed enough strength to protect himself, he could break free from the limits of the park and begin exploring the wider world.
Truthfully, Kael was extremely curious about this virtual game world he now lived in.
There were players.
But some NPCs behaved no differently from real humans.
More than that, those NPCs had their own histories, their own cultures, their own societies.
It all felt as though this had always been a real world, and the players were merely later intruders.
Just imagining the sparks that might eventually fly between those two groups was enough to excite him.
But obviously, it was still too early to think that far ahead.
He first had to achieve his next goal.
Evolution.
Thanks to the system's data-based advantages, Kael did not need to rely on the long years of growth and natural accumulation that ordinary Pokémon required before undergoing a true leap in life.
For him, as long as he had enough experience, he could bypass time itself and achieve in moments what normal Pokémon might need years or even decades to reach.
But where was that experience supposed to come from?
Battle.
Only high-quality, high-level combat could provide Kael with the amount of experience he needed.
And in his current environment...
A bitter smile appeared on his face.
A peaceful environment gave rise to generally weak Pokémon.
Elite, leader-class Pokémon like the Basculin in front of him were rare even across the entire marine park, and the distances between them were vast.
There was no realistic way for Kael to go one by one, fighting each of them in turn.
Even leaving aside interference from tourists, the park authorities would never allow him to disrupt the park's ecological balance on that scale.
And if the park's core interests were threatened, the punishment he faced next time would not be nearly as light as it had been this time.
Besides, even that approach was terribly inefficient.
If it took five or six days, travel included, just to secure one decent fight, then it would never come close to meeting Kael's expectations.
This was exactly the downside of being alone.
Whether because of the system or simple bad luck, every time he had been reborn so far, he had started from a single egg.
No parents.
No elders of his species.
No family at all.
At first, Kael had actually liked that.
Without the oversight of older members of his kind, he had complete freedom. He could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, with no restrictions.
But now, after several lives of reincarnation, he had begun to feel the disadvantages of that far more clearly.
Take the situation now.
If Kael belonged to a mature Sobble clan, then almost every problem troubling him at this moment would simply disappear.
There would be older Pokémon to protect him while he was weak.
There would be companions of his own kind to spar with and gain experience from.
Yes, that kind of life might come with less freedom, but it would also mean he could pass through this fragile early stage much faster.
But unfortunately, in the world he had descended into now, not only had he been born without older members of his species.
Even here, in the marine park itself, Kael had not found a single sign of another Sobble.
Then again, when he thought about it carefully, that was perfectly normal.
Sobble as a species was both rare and extremely high in potential. It was not remotely comparable to the common Water-types one could find almost anywhere.
Usually, only Trainers with connections to the League and elite family backgrounds ever had a chance to raise one.
And on the rare occasions they appeared on the market, they were sold for prices so absurd that ordinary people could only stare in disbelief, while the wealthy snatched them up.
The cost was simply too high.
Under those circumstances, even a marine park backed by city officials would have almost no chance of assembling a full Sobble population.
"So what do I do?"
Kael lowered his head and thought carefully.
Then suddenly.
The corner of his eye caught the Basculin still floating quietly nearby, patiently waiting for him.
"Oh?"
A bright spark flashed in his eyes.
A new idea surfaced in Kael's mind.
"If I fight the same opponent multiple times... can I still gain experience?"
If the answer was yes, then the problem facing him now might solve itself.
At Basculin's current strength, the experience Kael could gain from fighting it was quite substantial.
"Maybe..."
Thinking that, he turned fully to face Basculin.
Looking at the other Pokémon's still-bewildered expression, Kael's lips curved into a smile that carried a rather unmistakable meaning.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
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