The two Pokémon immediately began training after receiving their assignments.
However, Weepinbell's task was simply to lie in the sun and absorb energy after eating.
On the other hand, Pidgey's life was much harder. It had a full schedule of weighted flight training, daily claw and peck exercises, and studying wind-based moves.
Meanwhile, Icarus kept reading the "Exercise Techniques" after completing his basic physical training each day, then practiced according to the diagrams and notes in the book.
It was worth mentioning that this kind of basic cultivation manual explained things in great detail. As long as a person had reached a certain level of physical fitness, an ordinary person could understand it and practice on their own.
All he needed to do was exercise his body according to the annotated diagrams and maintain proper nutrition so that his body could reach a certain level of self-sufficiency. That would count as the initial entry point. The next step would be using the body's energy feedback to gradually strengthen the "Qi."
In order to sense Qi as soon as possible, Icarus had been eating snake meat over the past few days. After all, Pidgey definitely couldn't finish it all, so there was no reason to waste it.
Of course, whenever Pidgey was studying wind-based moves, he would accompany it to analyze them. He used the knowledge and thinking from his previous life to examine the essence of the problem and slowly experiment together with Pidgey.
Soon, five days passed. Icarus clearly noticed that Weepinbell had grown slightly larger, and its two large leaves had become greener.
"I wonder if it's because it gained weight or if its aptitude really improved."
Holding Weepinbell's Poké Ball, he still felt uneasy.
When he arrived at Uncle Sam's office, he entered and came back out within five minutes. Unlike his earlier nervousness, his face was now filled with joy.
"All hardships are rewarded! All hardships are rewarded! Weepinbell really reached high-level good aptitude! The pain worse than death wasn't in vain!"
Since it was a working day for Uncle Sam, Icarus didn't bother him for too long. He simply borrowed the Pokédex to test the aptitude, thanked him, and left.
"However, judging from Uncle Sam's expression, he might try it as well. After all, it's a good aptitude. I just don't know whether it will work."
On the way back, recalling Uncle Sam's surprised expression and his hesitant attitude, Icarus knew that Uncle Sam had definitely been tempted.
However, Icarus himself was not optimistic about it. If this plan could be endured casually, then a good-level aptitude would not be so valuable.
He had never heard of anyone in the gym having a Weepinbell with such high aptitude. Since this plan had been given to him, it probably wouldn't be difficult for the gym's apprentices to obtain it as well.
The reason he succeeded was because Bellsprout had grown up with him, and the two of them had experienced life-and-death situations in the wild from an early age.
Since childhood, he had constantly given Bellsprout psychological guidance and encouragement, strengthening its belief in becoming stronger.
The strong bond and belief between them were the main reasons Bellsprout had survived.
"Forget it. He can do whatever he wants. Whether he succeeds or not has nothing to do with me."
Shaking his head, Icarus understood that in this world there was no such thing as generous help without reason, especially for a commoner like him who had nothing.
Just like Uncle Sam's investment in him—it was limited to basic knowledge and information. Anything slightly more valuable required an exchange.
The trade involving the "Exercise Techniques" manual was a perfect example.
After returning home, he began having Weepinbell practice energy control training again. This was not too difficult for Weepinbell, since it had already mastered a portion of it before evolving. It only took a few days to fully digest and control its strength.
It also brought Icarus three pleasant surprises.
The first surprise was that after mastering its energy control, Weepinbell's strength smoothly advanced to the mid-stage of the Normal rank thanks to the evolution. At the same time, Icarus's own physical fitness improved slightly as well.
The second surprise was that Weepinbell had learned a new move—Knock Off, a Dark-type move.
Icarus remembered that in the games, this move knocked away an opponent's held item, dealing more damage if the opponent had one.
However, he wasn't sure how it would work in reality.
So he asked Pidgey to carry a berry and tested it.
He discovered something interesting. The Dark-type energy of the move seemed to automatically track energy items on an opponent that did not belong to them, accurately striking the item and knocking it away.
But for Pidgey, who wasn't carrying any energy items, the power of the move seemed very small—smaller even than the Vine Whip used by Weepinbell.
So it clearly wasn't suitable as a primary attacking move. However, since future enemies might carry items, it could still be very useful.
The third surprise was that Weepinbell's Vine Whip had upgraded. Perhaps due to the effects of the evolution plan, its Poison-type energy had increased significantly.
Now it could infuse poison energy into its vines, turning the move into a poisonous thorn whip.
Even better, the attached toxins could be adjusted freely, meaning the effects of the three powder moves could be switched at will. This surprised Icarus greatly.
Of course, Pidgey, who had trained for nearly ten days, did not disappoint him either.
Pidgey's energy growth had gradually slowed down, and it was estimated that it would evolve into Pidgeotto soon.
Secondly, the wind-based move it had been studying for a long time had finally made some progress. Pidgey could now consciously control Flying-type energy and attach it to a specific stream of wind.
In other words, Pidgey's Gust was no longer randomly distributing energy. It could now concentrate more energy into the wind that would definitely hit the enemy.
The force of the wind generated by its wings had also become much stronger, and the range could be controlled—either expanded or compressed.
Icarus guessed that once Pidgey learned to compress the wind further, learning Air Cutter—or at least a weaker wind blade version—would not be far away.
For Pidgey, which lacked strong offensive moves, this would greatly enhance its combat ability.
Finally, there was Icarus himself. After several days of practicing the "Exercise Techniques," he still hadn't developed Qi yet, but his physical fitness had improved significantly. Correspondingly, his appetite had also grown a lot.
The dozens of pounds of snake meat had been eaten by him and Pidgey together.
Nearly ten days of training had greatly benefited both Icarus and his two Pokémon. Feeling that it was time, he decided to contact Ashu again to take on another mission together.
After all, he still needed to earn evolution resources for Pidgey. As long as Pidgey could reach the top level, Pidgeot wouldn't be far away.
He immediately took out his phone and called Ashu.
"Beep… beep… hello!"
After the ringing tone, the call connected, and Ashu's familiar loud voice came through.
"Hey, Ashu, it's Icarus. I've finished my work here. I wanted to ask if you want to continue doing missions together."
After confirming the call had connected, Icarus explained his purpose directly.
"Oh! Icarus, Bellsprout evolved successfully? Congratulations! Of course you're welcome to come! There's also a big mission this time!
Same as before—meet at the city gate at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. I'll explain everything then! I've still got something to do, so I'll hang up now. Bye!"
"Beep… beep…"
Hearing the call disconnect, Icarus put his phone away.
"A big mission? What could it be?"
You can guess what the big mission is! Revealing it can be considered the turning point where Icarus truly begins to rise.
(End of Chapter)
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