Chapter 208: Meals and Pets

This was the most talkative Galar Sun Coral had been since being captured.

Unfortunately, the conversation partner was Chansey.

Baimu watched the whole thing from the side without understanding a single word, sitting cross-legged with his chin propped on his hand, waiting for them to finish chatting.

And Galar Sun Coral seemed to have said something extraordinary, because Chansey's eyes quickly welled up with tears.

156n.

He assumed the former had shared some kind of misfortune — how tragic its death had been, or something along those lines — but the next moment Chansey's tears froze as if time had stopped, then, along with her tightly drawn face, swiftly retreated back into her eye sockets, turning into a thoroughly speechless expression.

"Lucky?"

"Throat…"

"Lucky!"

"Throat…"

"Lucky…"

The exchange between the two ended there.

Galar Sun Coral turned its head and glanced at Baimu, as if sizing something up, then leisurely floated toward the living room.

Chansey rubbed her face, wrestling with her thoughts for a good while. Facing the expectant gaze of her expectant trainer, she began gesticulating wildly.

Because the content being conveyed was too complicated, even though the two already had a certain rapport, they chatted for ages without sorting it out. Only when Galar Sun Coral flew back with a satisfied look on its face did it finally end.

Sensing Baimu's gaze shifting over, Galar Sun Coral's satisfied expression instantly morphed into a depressive one, reverting to that utterly listless Sun Coral.

"This guy…"

Baimu twitched the corners of his mouth.

The exchange between the two just now included Galar Sun Coral's origins —

This one wasn't a native Lental-region Sun Coral that had transformed after death, but came from a far more distant land — exactly where, it didn't know either.

It only remembered that a Kingler had inexplicably attacked it; while counterattacking, it accidentally fell into an underground river, was swept all the way to the sea, then latched onto a migrating pod of Wailord and Wailmer, and finally drifted to the seas near the Lental region and went dormant.

God only knows how long it was before Baimu fished it up from the sea floor.

During the days since waking, its head had been foggy and sluggish, still in power-saving mode, having lost most of its ability to think, only capable of mechanically auto-counterattacking against outside attacks.

Fortunately, yesterday's little shock had jolted it back to its senses to some degree.

Baimu, hearing this, didn't know where to even begin his complaints.

Where did some Demon King come from? And normally when others break free from a seal, they lose their strength — how come the only thing you lost was your IQ?

Put simply, it was really just three words: slept itself stupid.

But if one thought that Galar Sun Coral snapping out of it meant it would become diligent, that would be a grave mistake.

Despite repeated egging-on, Galar Sun Coral consistently declared that sleep was the only thing it currently enjoyed, and refused many of Chansey's proposals.

Chansey then asked it about eating.

Galar Sun Coral fell abruptly silent.

Fine, it had to admit that Baimu's cooking was delicious enough that even while out of its mind, it still woke up on time every day, on the dot, to eat.

So after its IQ returned, Galar Sun Coral couldn't help stealing a few extra glances at this guy — he clearly looked about the same as all those other guys, so how was he so impressive?

And under Chansey's earnest coaxing and persuading, Galar Sun Coral grudgingly accepted the proposal of setting aside part of each day to help Baimu battle, but only on the condition that it was guaranteed plenty of free sleeping time.

In exchange, Baimu had to provide tasty food and petting services.

"What the heck is a petting service."

He twitched the corners of his mouth; Chansey bashfully lowered her head, her face flushing, rubbing her little hands together while letting out a sheepish low chuckle.

The returning Galar Sun Coral, regardless of whether Baimu had agreed to these terms, leisurely floated up to him, closed its eyes, and dropped into his arms.

Come on, start petting!

The four-limbs-up Galar Sun Coral unmistakably conveyed exactly that meaning.

"Lucky?" Chansey scooted closer, wearing an expression that said "want me to take over?"

"I'll do it."

Baimu said with a sigh.

——

From that night on.

Baimu gained a new shoulder accessory.

To ensure it could sleep peacefully at every moment, Galar Sun Coral basically, whenever going out, clung to his shoulder and refused to come down. If the left shoulder wouldn't let it perch, the right shoulder; if the right shoulder wouldn't allow it either, then it would simply squat on the top of his head.

Fortunately, its body weighed barely a pound.

Including the white-smoke-formed horns, it was only a little over fifty centimeters; the raw-stone body itself was only a little over thirty centimeters tall, so it didn't put too much burden on Baimu's shoulder.

Of course.

More importantly, there was the battling side of things.

Although there wasn't much passion to speak of in battle, at least it was willing to fight, didn't show much resistance, and carried out Baimu's commands very accurately.

So even though it lost more than it won, the latter didn't say anything, just quietly thought about how to maximize Galar Sun Coral's combat power.

It is worth mentioning.

Baimu realized that among his team, there were quite a few Pokémon with low base Speed stats, yet he mostly used them as mid-speed Pokémon — charging head-on into the opponent's attacks to strike, or actively charging in to strike.

This combat method could be executed perfectly by Aggron, Mawile, and Chansey. Especially Mawile — Magnet Rise gave it extraordinary explosive power, and Chansey's Minimize also made its movements incredibly nimble — but it was obviously something that couldn't be replicated on Galar Sun Coral.

This guy's speed was genuinely slow; without Trick Room, it was hard for it to move nimbly.

Forcing it to fight according to his usual method would only produce a result like Ash's Torterra — a strong ace reduced to cannon fodder.

He had to change his combat habits.

It wasn't just about making the Pokémon adapt to his rhythm; he also had to adapt to the Pokémon's rhythm. Mutual accommodation was the only way to go further.

At the same time, in order to maximize Galarian Sun Coral's combat power, All Baimu went to a shop on the Love Goddess Milotic that specifically sold Pokémon-related goods, and successfully found a second Evolution Stone.

The price was somewhat steep, a full five hundred thousand, but the moment he thought about asking for the Evolution Stone back from Chansey and possibly seeing its disappointed expression, he gritted his teeth and paid up.

Money to burn! Acting on a whim!

Having received the Evolution Stone, Galarian Sun Coral showed no reaction at all, simply tossing it into the Kong Dong on its back and calling it done.

As a Ghost-type Pokémon, its interior is almost entirely hollow, with only a smoke-like spirit body serving as its true self. When it evolves, this spirit body will rapidly expand and blast apart the round stone shell, forming a translucent Ghost Coral.

Speaking of which, level thirty-five — All Baimu vaguely recalled that this level shouldn't be far from Galarian Sun Coral's evolution.

But given its lazy personality, it might not necessarily be interested in evolving.

Out of curiosity, he went and asked Galarian Sun Coral, and sure enough received the standard answer that evolving was no fun.

... Fine then.

For a Pokémon like it, evolving might not necessarily be stronger than before it evolved, even though its base stats had risen quite a bit.

And after a long voyage, the Love Goddess Milotic finally arrived in the Hoenn region, preparing to dock at the port of Petalburg Town for resupply.