Evening.
After finishing the old man’s training course on Fire-type, Levi returned to his room.
On the cold winter night, Levi leaned against Arcanine, using it as a pillow.
Arcanine didn’t feel a thing, its massive head resting on its front paws as it slept soundly.
Levi’s Arcanine was a typical homebody who never stayed home.
It ran around the suburbs during the day, returned promptly in the afternoon, and spent the night eating and sleeping.
Most people in Celestic Town knew Arcanine, but in Jubilife City, Levi or Lucario had to keep it on a leash.
After taking a shower, Levi used the random pokémon item lottery ticket he had obtained from a side quest.
[Ding, congratulations to the host for obtaining dragon fruit * 3]
Good grief, are you a berry machine too?
[dragon fruit: A bitter and spicy yet highly nutritious berry.
When made into Pokéblock, poffin, or other Pokémon food, it can improve a Pokémon’s Special Attack ability to a certain extent.]
Although it was just a berry, dragon fruit was a valuable and rare one, so he couldn’t say his luck was bad.
Furthermore, dragon fruit was very spicy, and Lucario and Arcanine loved spicy food.
Although it was slightly bitter, it could be neutralized by seasoning with other berries.
A thought suddenly occurred to Levi, “Eh…
could I grow my own berries?”
dragon fruit wasn’t just a matter of price; it was extremely hard to buy on the market, or at least Levi had never been able to buy any.
The common berries on the market were nothing more than Oran berry, Pecha Berry, or Cheri Berry.
If he could grow them, Levi would have a constant supply of dragon fruit.
Wouldn’t that mean he could eat dragon fruit like a meal?
“No need to rush, I’ll ask tomorrow.”
Early in the morning, Levi was woken up by Lucario.
(It’s time to train.)
The morning was training time for Levi and his Pokémon.
He had gone to help Makino-nee yesterday, so they hadn’t trained.
He especially needed to formulate a training regimen for Metang, which was currently the weakest.
Levi had no interest in being a Champion or even a Battle Legend, but since he had caught the Pokémon, he had to be responsible for them.
Metang really did want to become stronger.
The reason Metang had agreed to Levi’s request was that it had realized Lucario and Arcanine were very strong.
Studying Metang’s various data was also part of Levi’s training plan.
Metang couldn’t train like Levi and Lucario using the Saitama training method.
“Punch Arcanine, with full power.”
“Bika?”
Metang used a full-power Bullet Punch!
It dealt extremely weak damage to Arcanine…
Arcanine stood there without even taking half a step back.
“Awoo~” (Is that a scratch?)
“Next is Flash Cannon, target Lucario.”
“Lucario, use Aura defense.”
Lucario pressed its arms against its chest, and its deep blue Aura Power formed a defensive shield in front of it.
This was something only a very small number of Pokémon like Lucario could do.
It was similar to the Pokémon move Protect, but not quite the same.
A silver light gathered in front of Metang, and a silver beam of light as thick as a thigh poured onto the defensive shield.
“Next is speed and stamina, run back and forth in the yard 10 times.”
Gengar, who had been cultivating immortality all night, watched Levi and Metang’s test curiously.
After gaining a basic understanding of Metang’s data, Levi had a training plan.
For now, it would mainly practice the advanced Psychic move Psychic, as well as the Steel-type move Meteor Mash.
Metang’s stamina was decent; it had to learn Iron Defense, Light Screen, and Protect, not missing a single one.
The training would be led by Lucario.
Levi’s responsibility was to provide them with suitable Pokémon food.
Although Metang’s evolution, Metagross, had a Special Attack ability far inferior to its Attack, it could still use dragon fruit to assist in training.
As long as there were enough berries, he could completely train Metagross to be a dual-attacker.
“Alright, let’s start training.”
Three hours later, Levi went to find the old man who was growing vegetables.
“Planting dragon fruit?”
“Yes, do you know how to grow this?”
The old man rolled his eyes at him, “Who are you looking down on?
But the soil in Celestic Town isn’t suitable for planting it; there’s a reason why dragon fruit is rare.
It’s hard to grow and requires specific planting times; it can only be planted from March to May, but usually, it’s planted from June to August.”
Levi asked, “Then where is the soil suitable?”
Identifying berries was also an important part of the Breeder curriculum.
The old man listed them out for Levi, “The forest in Eterna City and the mountains north of Celestic Town are both suitable.
The most important thing is the soil; it needs to be loose, breathable, and well-drained, slightly moist but not waterlogged.
It also requires 6-8 hours of sunlight daily.
In short, it’s very difficult to grow, and one careless mistake will cause the roots to rot.”
In front of the old man, Levi didn’t dare to claim he was any kind of berry expert.
The old man only then realized, “After saying so much, do you have dragon fruit?”
“I actually do.”
Levi took the dragon fruit out of his backpack.
The dragon fruit looked a bit like a pitaya.
The old man, who had been dismissive, couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows and exclaimed, “Oh?”
“Such high-quality dragon fruit…
leave one, and I’ll try to plant it in April or May.
You handle the rest yourself.”
“Alright, thank you, Grandpa.”
The old man just looked at him coldly, “Question time is over, practice.”
In the evening, Leon came to check on his son again.
His parents were completely hands-off with Levi.
Levi answered the phone, “Son, why did you suddenly return to Celestic Town?”
“I came back to learn from Grandpa.
I plan to take the Breeder certification exam.”
“Son, don’t do anything rash!
Although we do owe your uncle’s family some money…”
Levi had helped out at home before, but he had never taken the exam.
“What are you saying?
Stop, stop, stop!” Levi hurriedly stopped his father’s delusions.
“I’ve discovered that learning to cook and being a Breeder is quite interesting.”
“That’s great!”
A breeding house with a yard might be a bit too much for just Leon and Mitsuki.
Levi had previously had little interest in Pokémon breeding, so they hadn’t wanted to force him to take over or help.
Now that Levi was willing to help, it saved them money.
Plus, the family could stay together, so Leon was naturally happy.
“Son, you’ve finally grown up!” Leon covered his face, looking like he was crying tears of joy.
Levi helplessly covered his forehead, “You’re making it sound like I was very unfilial before, hey!”
The fat on Leon’s face shook with his smile, “Study hard, son, Dad believes in you!
I’m going to tell your mom this good news.”
The 16th day after returning to Celestic Town.
Levi’s knife skills were finally begrudgingly recognized by the onion instructor, and he had signed up for the Breeder assessment.
The breeding house was also undergoing renovation in full swing, and it would be open for business in less than a month.
Next, Levi was going to do something big!