Chapter 267: Another Day Deeply Hurt by a Rich Lady

Just as described in the Pokédex, with increased strength, Pokémon can even alter terrain; without even entering Mega Evolution, relying solely on Swampert exerting 80% of its power, Mudsdale 15%, and the 5% of stamina Luo Mu consumed while using the Z-Move.

Before nightfall, through the efforts of Luo Mu, Swampert, and Mudsdale, the tunnel connecting the entire farm was already dug.

Halfway through their shock, the foreman called the workers to prepare for electrical wiring; as they left, disbelief still lingered on their faces—was the work that would have taken them several days really finished by just two Pokémon?

Perhaps feeling awkward about calculating the wages saved from those few days, the foreman generously tallied the costs for those days and granted Luo Mu a reduction.

It wasn't much, only tens of thousands of yuan, but it was very sincere.

That was how Luo Mu saw it.

Time passed just like this, amidst the farm's construction and the frequent training sessions held within Grandma Ju Zi Academy.

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.

Geeta, seemingly considering external influences, specifically found an independent training hall for the four students so they could focus on their special training and Luo Mu could teach with peace of mind.

Here, they could train and battle to their heart's content without any disturbances.

Mudan was the type who could barely squeeze out a few words when unfamiliar, yet could communicate normally once close; as their relationship progressed, the "sense of distance" she maintained naturally faded away.

However, among Mudan's team, only three Eevees could be counted as combat-ready: Sylveon, Flareon, and Glaceon; although Mudan had already determined different evolution paths for the other three according to their wishes, there was still some time before they would evolve.

She seemed to get along really well with Piper; after half a month of getting used to each other, Mudan could now call Piper "Sister Piper" without batting an eye, and when Penny called her "Little Dan-Dan," she would scare him off with a sharp glance.

During this period, besides teaching the four students basic battle knowledge and techniques, following Teacher Tyme's suggestion, Luo Mu often had Mudan and Piper, as well as Penny and Hearing Hearing Nimo, form teams to conduct practical exercises between the two squads.

During this time, besides closely monitoring their double battle coordination, Luo Mu also spent considerable effort improving Penny's foundational strength.

As for the Shellder that Penny caught together with Luo Mu, that Shellder possessed unexpectedly good strength as a wild Pokémon; for the most part, Luo Mu still had Penny work on building rapport and getting along with it.

Third, Luo Mu hesitated for a while, wanting to award it to Penny, but looking at his two babies and the Ao Ao Jiaofu carrying the burden alone, then comparing Mudan's Sylveon, whose strength was nearly equal to Ao Ao Jiaofu's yet held a type advantage, he could only, under Penny's slightly aggrieved expression, relegate him to fourth place.

Naturally, the second strongest in comprehensive strength was Piper; whether it was the deep bond between Piper and her ace Annihilape, no less than that between Hearing Hearing Nimo and Pawmot, or the team accumulated as a senior student, she was the most reliable teammate.

Pawmot, as Hearing Hearing Nimo's ace, was deeply trusted by Hearing Hearing Nimo, just like Luo Mu's Luxray.

As for Hearing Hearing Nimo, there was no need to mention her; Piper's perseverance in training allowed her to improve rapidly, while Mudan, having been immersed in a great environment since childhood, possessed extremely solid foundational knowledge through constant exposure.

After half a month, Luo Mu also gained a very clear understanding of the types and strength of the Pokémon held by the four students.

Unexpectedly to Luo Mu, Mudan possessed the largest number of Pokémon among the four; in her words, "If I'm not surrounded by my Eevees, I can't even fall asleep"; indeed, she was now raising six Eevees in total.

Fortunately, Penny's Greedent was already on the verge of evolution; by tempting it with food to train hard, it completed its evolution in less than a week of special training, becoming a Dudunsparce.

In terms of the time elapsed since receiving a Pokémon to become a Trainer, Hearing Hearing Nimo had the shallowest seniority, yet relying on her terrifying talent as a Trainer, her comprehensive strength and ace strength were the strongest among the four.

As for Penny, the main issue was that his talent as a Trainer still lagged behind the other three girls; his Greedent and Shellder had not yet formed sufficient combat power.

After all, the trust between a Trainer and their Pokémon determines whether the Pokémon will hesitate upon receiving commands; battle situations change in an instant, and once one fails to react in time, the rhythm will fall into the opponent's hands.

Moreover, Penny's interests lay more in cooking and cuisine; as a Trainer who started halfway through, achieving this level already counted as him being very hardworking.

While focusing on cultivating the four students, Luo Mu would occasionally call his former students together for a special training session.

The second Pokémon was Ursaring, the third was Sliggoo, and the fourth was Tauros; they were clearly on the verge of forming a complete team.

The second Pokémon was Toxicroak, and the third was Breloom, both experts with dual types capable of expanding their coverage.

Looking at the world scope, Eevee is considered a very popular and rare Pokémon; for a student with no income to raise six Eevees purely based on personal preference, it shows that Mudan's family conditions are also very good.

As the batch of students he initially taught, there was naturally some emotional bias.

May 20th, inside a quiet training hall at Grandma Ju Zi Academy.

"Final strike, Tauros, Close Combat!"

The girl, wearing the Grandma Ju Zi Academy summer uniform with her hair tied in a ponytail, wore a face full of fighting spirit; as her energetic voice fell, the Aqua Breed Tauros, clad in aura flaring up from Fighting-type energy, launched a fierce combo attack against Piper's Breloom, which inexplicably exuded a sense of exhaustion, with an unstoppable momentum.

The double battle ended with a dull thud of falling bodies; as for the other two people, their Pokémon had long lost the ability to battle and were currently squatting in the corner of the training hall watching.

Piper first flashed a grateful smile at the Comfey floating over lazily to heal her Breloom, then looked at Hearing Hearing Nimo and sighed with emotion: "It's hard to imagine that just a few months ago you weren't even a Trainer, Hearing Hearing Nimo, yet now in battles between us, I'm losing more than I'm winning."

Hearing Hearing Nimo, reluctant to stop, wiped a thin layer of sweat from her forehead caused by excitement; facing Piper's praise, she humbly replied: "Battling against you, Sister Piper, has also benefited me greatly; I really enjoy this feeling."

"By the way, there's still some time before dinner, and Pawmot and the others should have recovered mostly; why don't we have another round..."

Hearing Hearing Nimo, clearly still wanting to continue the Pokémon battles she loved, found that double battles were a new domain for her, yet their charm was no less than single battles, making her look forward to special training time every day.

Hearing this, Piper's peripheral vision subtly fell upon Mudan and Penny, who looked exhausted and were slacking off, and she smiled gently: "Hearing Hearing Nimo, everyone has been battling the whole afternoon; it's better to rest moderately."

Although in terms of battles, Hearing Hearing Nimo often became so fanatical that she unconsciously ignored the feelings of the Trainers battling her, she wasn't so low-EQ as to not understand Piper's hint.

Glancing at Mudan and Penny, Hearing Hearing Nimo said apologetically: "Ah, sorry, I seem to have gotten a bit too carried away with excitement."

Piper patted her shoulder and chuckled lightly: "I don't mean to condemn you; it's just that you're growing too fast, and everyone is struggling just to keep up with your pace."

"Of course, this doesn't mean you must stop to match our pace."

Hearing Hearing Nimo nodded lightly, a look of contemplation on her face: "I understand, Sister Piper."

Seeing Piper successfully defuse the crisis, Mudan and Penny exchanged glances, both displaying expressions of having escaped disaster; thankfully, the reliable Sister Piper handled this crisis in a way that wouldn't hurt Hearing Hearing Nimo's feelings.

Mudan tilted her head back and let out a long sigh: "It seems there's no need to establish the 'Victims of Hearing Hearing Nimo Association' for now."

Meanwhile, Penny looked left and right, puzzled: "Why hasn't Brother Luo Mu returned yet?"

Mudan raised her eyebrows slightly: "He should be back soon; the Mesagoza Pokémon Center has a Poké Ball transmission device; it's most likely that the signal over in Wang Guan Snowfield isn't very good."

That's what she said, but Mudan felt it was most likely her father dropping the ball again; however, with Sister Jacq watching him, it should be fine... right?

Recalling how she confidently told Penny to hand the Shellder over to her father, if something really went wrong, how would she explain it to Penny?

Fortunately, Luo Mu didn't let Mudan's sweaty-palmed state last too long; just before mealtime, the four of them, who had been squatting in the corner of the training hall in a daze, finally saw Luo Mu's arrival.

Penny was the first to stand up and asked concernedly: "Brother Luo Mu, how is Shellder?"

Luo Mu, who had rushed back, curled the corners of his mouth upward: "We should probably call it Cloyster now."

With those words, Luo Mu placed a Poké Ball into Penny's palm.

The corners of Penny's mouth stretched almost to his ears; he couldn't wait to press the button on the Poké Ball: "Cloyster, come on out!"

Accompanied by Cloyster's excited cry, its body, several times larger than during its Shellder period and having grown a hard double shell, appeared.

Cloyster was clearly in an excited state at this moment, happily sharing its joy with Penny.

Mudan walked over at this point and asked with an unusual expression: "Teacher Luo Mu, my father shouldn't have done anything shocking over there, right..."

Watching Papaya interact with the Cloyster, Luo Mu's smile faltered, replaced by an expression that was hard to describe: "Uh, Mr. Peony is a very talkative person; he dragged me into chatting for a long time, which is why I returned late."

Only then did the anger-suppressing expression on Mudai's face dissipate; thankfully, that stinky old dad hadn't done anything to drop the ball, otherwise she would definitely refuse to answer his calls for a month.

Luo Mu: (=ω=;)

He completely dared not mention that under Sada's disgusted expression, Peony had dragged him into chatting for an hour about amusing anecdotes from Mudai's childhood.

Speaking it aloud truly felt like it would plunge that already precarious family relationship into an abyss.

After seeing off the excited Papaya and the trio of Hearing Nimo and the others departing together, Luo Mu locked the pitch-black training hall and, taking advantage of the setting sun, walked toward the academy gates.

Half a month had passed incredibly quickly; the matter of Papaya's Shellder evolving had been planned ever since he built a good relationship with the Shellder and learned it had been longing to evolve.

A Shellder's method of evolution is to reach a suitable level of growth and then use an evolution item called a "Water Stone" to complete the process.

Some Trainers, in order to rapidly gain combat power, disregard a Shellder's future potential and forcibly use a Water Stone before it has fully developed; Luo Mu strongly disapproves of such behavior.

Fortunately, when Papaya caught the Shellder, it was already a mature individual, so after some bonding, there should be no issue with disobedience; the only thing to consider was the source of the Water Stone.

The two Professors already possessed modest wealth, so purchasing a Water Stone posed no problem, but this matter was overheard by Hearing Nimo and Mudai, who had already become familiar with the other three.

Hearing Nimo directly and generously stated that her family happened to have purchased an entire Water Stone mine vein near Artazon, and if Papaya needed it, he could go and pick whatever he liked.

Mudai mentioned that her father and older sister had discovered small veins of Water Stones and Ice Stones outside a certain ruin in the Crown Tundra, and if he didn't mind, they could use the Pokémon Transmission Device to send the Shellder to the Crown Tundra to complete its evolution.

One was a rich lady, the other the daughter of a former League Champion; Luo Mu found himself envying Papaya's good fortune.

Finally, under Luo Mu's suggestion, Papaya chose to have the Shellder complete its evolution in the Crown Tundra.

This was solely because Luo Mu guessed that the ruin found by Peony and Sada was very likely related to the legendary Ice Giant, Regice.

Perhaps it was the leakage of power from the sealed Regice that formed the small veins of Ice Stones and Water Stones outside the ruin.

Since ancient times, water and ice have been inseparable; anyway, since a Water Stone is used for evolution, Luo Mu felt that taking a gamble was more worth attempting.

As for how much improvement the Cloyster would gain after completing its evolution in the Crown Tundra, it was late in the day today, so testing would have to wait until tomorrow.

Seeing the winking and eyebrow-wiggling expression on Peony's face during their contact, Luo Mu always felt there would be an unexpected surprise.

After riding Dragonite back to the farm, Luo Mu happened to bump into the Machamp construction crew finishing work and preparing to clock out.

The foreman, upon seeing Luo Mu, spoke with great enthusiasm: "Boss Luo Mu, today we have paved the farm's main roads with stone slabs; we should be able to complete the project by the end of the month. Just like before, please make sure to instruct your Pokémon not to approach that area for these few days, okay!"

Luo Mu patted Dragonite's back, telling it to wait in the sky for its Dragonair to leave, then waved to the foreman in the vehicle, responding, "I understand, take care on your way!"

As the sound of the engine gradually faded into the distance, Luo Mu looked at the gray stone slab road with its simple patterns at the farm entrance, and a smile emerged on his face.

The wiring for the entire farm had been completed; next, once the stone slab roads were finished, they could install streetlights to illuminate the farm environment, never again having to patrol the farm in the dark with a flashlight.

Next, after digging out the ice cellar and assembling the power generation and storage equipment, they would be able to smoothly get through the approaching summer.

Oh right, Ice-type Pokémon also needed to be prepared, as the summer ice cellar would require them to maintain the temperature.

Recently, he could keep an eye out for suitable candidates.

(End of Chapter)