Chapter 103: Skills Gushing Like a Spring

After a ravenous, storm-like feeding.

Boulderdash and the other two Pokémon glanced at the spotless empty bowls, then looked up at Baimu with eager, pleading eyes, clearly wanting another serving.

Even Chansey expressed its longing so openly, which spoke volumes about just how delicious the miraculous glowing cuisine was — Baimu himself was equally won over, and he held back the urge to lick the bowl with great emotion.

After all, having only browsed the memory once, he was far from grasping the essence of glowing cuisine; many seasonings in the kitchen were insufficient, and the crucial wok and roaring-fire stove were nowhere to be found.

But these things could be improved eventually.

The regret was that he simply didn't possess the Chef's formidable talent, so it was highly unlikely he could branch out into dessert courses, soup courses, steaming courses, and the like — equally unbelievable glowing cuisines — which was truly a shame.

"No, hold back. Small frequent meals."

Baimu wagged his finger, ignoring the three Pokémon's pitiful gazes, and refused their request for more rice.

The Chef normally fed them following the small-frequent-meals principle too — Golduck and Snorlax were no exception. Don't be fooled by how much they ate in one sitting; in fact, they could digest it all in no time.

And Baimu knew only too well how easily Boulderdash and the others would get indigestion if they ate too much.

"Wuu…"

The three Pokémon were deeply dejected, but their attention quickly shifted elsewhere.

"Roar~"

Boulderdash rolled its shoulders and shook its head, excitedly indicating that its body had suddenly become much lighter. Originally, even though it had been training while playing with Mawile and the others, it still felt somewhat fatigued even after a nap.

But after this one bowl of rice, its body quickly became warm and toasty, and it didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

It looked at Mawile and Chansey; the latter two also felt that joy from the bottom of their hearts, expressions of comfort spreading across their faces.

"Chido~"

"Lucky~"

The medicine took effect this quickly… no, wait — the glowing cuisine started producing results this quickly?

Baimu had once speculated that miraculous glowing cuisine was beneficial to Pokémon growth.

Although he hadn't received an accurate response from the narration, the Chef's Pokémon had indirectly confirmed this point.

Including later, the Chef's training mainly aimed to strengthen his Pokémon's battle awareness; he hadn't put in great effort regarding levels or moves, at least not the high-intensity training that Skirt did.

From this, it wasn't hard to see that this cuisine did indeed have some positive effect on Pokémon growth.

As for the specifics…

There were many reasons that could cause a Pokémon's growth curve to rise, making quantification extremely difficult.

Compared to quantified data, Baimu cared more about the "principle" behind this thing.

Could a world where idealism held sway simply ignore reason?

A pile of utterly ordinary ingredients, under the blessing of culinary technique, produced results that could be called miraculous — simply magical.

Hmm—

Camping curry rice?

Baimu couldn't help but think of this special interactive feature in Sword and Shield, where the curry rice segment happened to have effects similar to glowing cuisine.

Moreover, curry rice came in different qualities — from Charizard-grade down to Koffing-grade — each possessing buffs from high to low: things like restoring stamina, increasing experience, raising affection, curing status conditions, restoring type energy, and the like.

The Chef's innovative dishes were practically a parallel counterpart of curry rice.

"In short, a huge bargain!"

Baimu nodded with absolute certainty.

Mawile, finding that there really was no way to get another bowl, turned around dejectedly and went back to its room.

Boulderdash, meanwhile, stared regretfully at the big rice basin in front of it, pawing at it like an orange cat that hadn't eaten in three minutes, making clattering noises as if doing so could somehow conjure rice out of it.

"Cut it out — don't you know that's terrible manners?"

Baimu knocked on its massive iron head, picked up the rice basin and bowls, and went to the kitchen to wash them.

Chansey hurriedly chased after him, proactively helping wash the dishes as usual, but during the process kept turning its head to glance at Baimu, who was tidying the stove, seeming to want to say something yet holding back.

"I know you want to learn. I'll teach you, don't worry."

He understood exactly what Chansey meant and smiled, patting the latter on the head.

"Lucky!"

Chansey broke into a smile and happily went off to wash the dishes.

Baimu watched its back, thinking that he would definitely teach it, but absolutely couldn't teach it too quickly — at least not before Boulderdash and Mawile got used to the taste of glowing cuisine, he couldn't just teach it casually.

Otherwise, given how soft-hearted Chansey was, it would surely satisfy every one of their requests, and the healthy small-frequent-meals plan would be gone forever.

——

Night.

Baimu accompanied Boulderdash and the others in training while taking stock of his current reward inventory.

On moves: five Technical Machines of designated types — one 【String Shot】, one 【Roost】, one 【Psychic】.

On levels: five level-ups available for anything below Lv. 70.

On Pokémon leads: two leads with designated types, one of them marked as excellent.

On simulated subject memories: Skirt's boxing memory and the Chef's cooking memory, both re-viewable.

That was about it.

Psychic could actually be given to Chansey right away, but Baimu worried that if he rashly let Chansey learn a strong and effective attacking move, it would push itself.

As its Trainer, he could see the changes in Chansey's mindset. Once it gradually accepted indirect attacks, direct attacks wouldn't be far off — there was no need to pull up the seedlings to help them grow.

He'd save it for later.

Mawile and Boulderdash couldn't learn it anyway.

Additionally.

Baimu planned to use two Technical Machines — this thing should be used when needed; hoarding them and just looking at them was pointless.

For typing, he chose Fighting and Psychic.

Many Fighting-type moves can be learned by all three Pokémon, so the chance of a loss is very small;

and Psychic-type has an abundance of varied moves—Light Screen, Agility, Reflect, Magic Coat, Ally Switch—these are all dream moves.

Based on the results of these two moves, he'll decide whether to open a third.

"Come on."

All Baimu took a deep breath and tapped open a TM.

The original entry was blurry; the next second it transformed into an entirely new appearance.

【Move — Submission (selectable Pokémon may use)】.

Hmm?

Submission?

This thing's great! Aggron can learn it and the power's high too! Not bad, not bad at all!

Although it's not the one he wanted most, being able to expand Aggron's coverage is still extremely good.

He hurriedly opened the second one.

【Move — Gravity (selectable Pokémon may use)】.

Another "force"?

Ah! This move's great too! A move that can deal heavy damage to Pokémon with the Levitate ability or of the Flying type!

All Baimu's team has limited mobility; once Mawile leaves the field, it's very hard to deal with those ranged-attack Pokémon that can fly and are fast.

If Chansey learns this, no matter how high they fly, they'll have to come down!

Very worth it, very worth it.

He looked at these two moves with unusual satisfaction, and couldn't help glancing at the TM again.

Aggron and Chansey both got new moves, but Mawile didn't—there's a bit of a "gain here, lose there" feeling to it; better open one more TM.

So what move to choose? Open 【Play Rough】 for Fairy type? Or grab 【Swords Dance】 or 【Protect】 from Normal type?

After much thought, the probability of getting Play Rough from Fairy type is honestly not high; it's more likely to yield a move he can't use for now.

In contrast, Normal type has many more possibilities.

All Baimu nodded and chose Normal type.

【Move — Baton Pass (selectable Pokémon may use)】.

Baton… Pass?