And so, three days passed.
That day, the League personnel in charge of inspecting the situation arrived at Stonefield Town.
After reviewing the laboratory's location and speaking with the village chief and the villagers, the laboratory project was finally approved.
From there, Professor Harris and Professor Reynolds would continue discussing the details with the League personnel until the construction plan was fully defined.
Naturally, all of that no longer had much to do with Ethan at that moment.
Once the laboratory project was approved, Ethan also began taking care of the preparations for the life transition experiment.
And one of the most important points was capturing a large number of Grass-type Pokémon that could assist in the research.
In that regard, Ethan did not intend to go around randomly capturing any Grass-type Pokémon for research; rather, he wanted to specifically capture some excellent ones.
In the past, when he took the Pokémon Gym exam, he had challenged the Grass-type gym of Greenfield City. The method for cultivating flowers and plants that he had given to his mother had come precisely from Gym Leader Victoria Holt.
For that reason, when he thought of Grass-type Pokémon, he immediately remembered Leader Victoria. In addition, the Grass-type Pokémon she raised stood out greatly in the cultivation of flowers and vegetation. Ethan planned to capture some of that kind to prepare for the future sea of Gracidea flowers and the reforestation project of Stonefield Town.
On the other hand, once he arrived in the southwestern area of the League, he also planned to visit Ferraria City, the largest center for Steel-type Pokémon items in the entire League, with the intention of buying a large number of them as preparation for Meltan's possible future evolution.
...
Early the next morning, Ethan mounted Charizard and left Stonefield Town behind.
On this trip to the southwestern area of the League, he brought Cacturne, Meltan, Shuckle, Charizard, Lucario, Magmortar, and Litwick with him.
On the other hand, he had left Sandslash, Vibrava, Tyranitar, and Rhyperior inside Sandslash's Secret Kingdom.
Now that Professor Harris was in Stonefield Town, he no longer had to worry at all about the training of those four Pokémon.
On the other hand, Slowking had already transformed into "Doctor Slowking" and had begun collaborating with the two professors in the research.
"Shuck!"
Shuckle was also lying on Charizard's back.
Since it needed to continuously make Pokéblocks, Ethan had decided to always keep it with him.
However, creating mental-energy Pokéblocks was very difficult; Shuckle had still not even managed to produce mental-energy nutritious juice, so it still had a long way to go.
Whoosh, whoosh...
The wind roared as Charizard crossed the sky at full speed.
Greenfield City was located next to Greenfield Forest, and furthermore, thanks to the abundant sunlight in the southwestern area of the League, the vegetation there was especially lush. The city's streets and alleys were full of plants, making the entire city seem submerged in a sea of green. For that reason, it was also known as the Green City.
After arriving in Greenfield City, Ethan did not go directly to the gym.
Instead, he first wandered around the city, planning to observe it carefully and take it as a model for Stonefield Town's future reforestation project.
As he walked around, he finally arrived at a field of flowers, and Greenfield City's gym was located precisely in the middle of that sea of flowers.
"Ethan, so you've come."
Among the flowers, Leader Victoria was directing several Grass-type Pokémon in tending the field.
Hearing the footsteps, she turned around and saw Ethan observing from the side, smiling at him.
"Sorry for the disturbance, Leader Victoria."
Ethan smiled slightly and walked over.
To tell the truth, Leader Victoria was truly exceptional at cultivating flowers and plants.
"Come in."
Victoria made an inviting gesture and led Ethan into the gym.
Once inside, the two did not immediately begin discussing business, but first started chatting about raising Grass-type Pokémon.
Although Ethan only had a single Grass-type Pokémon at the time, Cacturne, the raising of that Cacturne had been truly extraordinary.
Leader Victoria, who had been paying attention to Ethan for a long time, had already focused all her attention on Cacturne.
"Mr. Ethan, this is my family's invitation letter. I wonder if you would be interested in visiting the family behind me."
After exchanging a few words, Leader Victoria also made that invitation.
Naturally, Ethan did not refuse and gladly accepted.
He knew that, if he wanted to capture a large number of outstanding Grass-type Pokémon, he would have to speak with the Holt family.
Only a family specialized in Grass-type Pokémon like the Holt family could gather a number of Pokémon that met Ethan's requirements.
In addition, Ethan also planned to exchange with them the training method for a move, and that was precisely one of the reasons he had brought Cacturne with him.
...
The Holt family was located in a villa in the mountains on the outskirts of Greenfield City.
"Luucaarr!"
During the journey, Ethan took out Lucario.
What surprised Lucario quite a bit was that the entire Holt family mansion gave off intense fluctuations of life energy.
"Vegetation and life energy?"
Seeing this, Ethan was not too surprised.
Grass-type Pokémon already contained intense vitality by nature.
If a large number of Grass-type Pokémon used the Grassy Terrain move together, then the concentration of life energy would undoubtedly reach a terrifying level.
The main objective of Ethan's visit to the Holt family was precisely those Grass-type Pokémon capable of using the Grassy Terrain move!
Very soon, guided by Leader Victoria, Ethan arrived at the Holt family residence and met the head of the family.
Facing someone like Ethan—a Pokémon Professor at twenty years old, a Quasi-Elite-level trainer, youth champion of the World Championship...—the head of the Holt family was extremely courteous, and the conversation between them proceeded completely on equal terms.
"Come out, Cacturne."
During the course of the conversation, Ethan took out Cacturne.
And immediately afterward, Cacturne directly used the Ingrain move right there.
The root domain it constructed left the members of the Holt family somewhat surprised.
The Holt family was very skilled in raising Grass-type Pokémon, but they had not really gone too deeply into the study of the Ingrain move.
They never would have imagined that the Ingrain move, combined with absorption-type moves, could reach that level.
"A root domain?"
"That move is truly very strong. In addition, this is our family's training method for the Energy Ball move."
After seeing the development Cacturne had achieved with the Ingrain move, the head of the Holt family nodded.
Next, he also took out a technique manual and handed it to Ethan.
Exchanging the training method of the root domain for the training method of the Energy Ball move: that was precisely one of Ethan's objectives in visiting the Holt family.
Now, Cacturne's true hidden card was the Growth move, so Ethan was not especially stingy with this.
Moreover, the effect of the Energy Ball move consisted of launching the life force gathered from nature, and sometimes it reduced the opponent's special defense.
It was evident that the Energy Ball move also constituted a form of using life energy, so for Ethan it held enormous value.
(End of chapter)