Hearing Sheila say that Pryce was best at raising Swinub, Tetsuya was somewhat surprised.
He said, "I heard that Elite Four Pryce's strongest Pokémon is Delibird."
Sheila revealed a very surprised expression and said, "…You even know that? Pryce's Delibird is something he generally does not use. Its destructive power is far too strong!
That Delibird was encountered by Pryce when he was searching for Eternal Ice in the arctic region. According to Pryce, there were originally four pieces of Eternal Ice there, but that Delibird swallowed three of them by itself. Because of that, its Ice-type energy is something that even the Legendary Pokémon Articuno cannot compare to…
So when it comes to raising Pokémon, Pryce did not actually raise that Delibird. It simply possesses the power of three pieces of Eternal Ice combined with Pryce's training, and naturally became his strongest Pokémon."
Tetsuya nodded. 'So that's how it is… No wonder that Delibird's Ice-type energy was strong enough to freeze the entire Lake of Rage!'
"Pryce's second-tier Pokémon are Cloyster and Froslass. The Lapras and Jynx raised by Lorelei's family are about on par with Pryce's second tier.
The third tier is Weavile and Dewgong. The Abomasnow raised by the Snowpoint City Gym Leader can at most barely reach Pryce's third tier.
It's just that my own ability is limited. Even though I'm holding Pryce's guide, I only have the strength of a Gym Leader. The key issue is that my control over the battle situation is far too poor, and I can't reach a level of coordination with my Pokémon…"
Sheila's words were actually a very fair evaluation of herself. Even if one has powerful Pokémon, without battle guidance to match them, it is all in vain. It seemed that Sheila's own ability was the factor limiting her overall strength.
At least, from Sheila's introduction, it was completely clear that the number one Ice-type specialist in this world was undoubtedly Pryce. And being able to obtain the raising and training methods for Swinub, which Pryce was best at, meant this trip was certainly worthwhile for Tetsuya.
If he could also obtain Cloyster and Froslass, that would be even more perfect. That would form a complete Ice core.
Sheila was straightforward by nature, and the fact that Tetsuya had given such a suggestion to Pryce further deepened her friendship toward him.
After that, Sheila took out a guide. "Here, this contains the raising and training methods for Froslass and Cloyster that Pryce recorded."
Tetsuya could not help but feel delighted. With this in hand, would his "Ice-type team" not be perfect? This trip to Mahogany Gym could truly be said to be a complete success. It was just that being too direct would instead lower Sheila's "friendship" toward him.
"This doesn't seem appropriate…" Tetsuya said as he tried to decline.
Sheila directly stuffed the guide into Tetsuya's hands and said, "There's nothing inappropriate about it!
Pryce gave this to me, so I naturally have the right to give it to you. My mindset isn't as rigid and cold as Pryce's. These things only have value if more people inherit them. What use is it if they just rot away in someone's hands!?
And you young people can also innovate and improve upon this foundation. That's beneficial for the development of Pokémon as a whole. I also hope you can grow strong quickly and help Pryce as soon as possible! He's all alone in the League and doesn't even have anyone to talk to…"
As Sheila spoke, her voice grew lower and lower, and she sighed repeatedly.
"Don't worry. One day, I will definitely help Elite Four Pryce!" Tetsuya said.
Tetsuya said that, indeed, if there were a chance, he would be willing to overthrow the Johto League together with Pryce and establish a force of his own.
However, for the current Tetsuya, all of this was nothing more than pure fantasy…
---◓---
On the first night in the cabin, Tetsuya carried out the [Shadow Dagger] training with Ditto that he had not done in a long time. Fortunately, it had already been used in actual combat against Ninetales, so it did not cause any decline in skill. Within a nine-meter range, he could still maintain an accuracy of over nine rings.
After warming up his feel, Tetsuya still took out Pryce's Swinub guide as well as the Cloyster and Froslass guides that Sheila had given him.
Tetsuya opened the books and first flipped through both of them from beginning to end.
In fact, Pryce's philosophy was also very clear. It could almost be said to be exactly the same as his own philosophy when raising and training Poison-type Pokémon.
As for Pryce, his sense of justice was only superficial. His ruthlessness toward Pokémon was not inferior to Tetsuya's at all!
To obtain Pokémon with outstanding potential and talent, how could there be no sacrifices?
Taking Swinub as an example, the first step was to go through many generations of inheritance to obtain usable Egg Moves.
After the moves had taken shape, Pokémon Eggs would be bred again.
The produced eggs would be placed on an ice bed made of Never-Melt Ice, and then Ice-type Pokémon would freeze the entire ice bed and the eggs together.
For such fragile lives, most Swinub eggs could not withstand this cold, so the majority of the eggs would directly freeze to death within their shells.
The Swinub that could successfully hatch were those that were able to endure such cold. This cold would be absorbed and become Swinub's own energy, and only then would Swinub's potential be truly enormous. However, only a handful of Swinub had successfully hatched over more than ten years.
Even Tetsuya himself had no way of estimating how many Swinub had died within their shells over those ten-plus years.
The Swinub that successfully hatched were naturally the favored of Arceus and would naturally receive the best training and enjoy the highest level of treatment, but it was unknown how many family members had died behind them.
After hatching, the main direction of Swinub's raising was still focused on licking Everfrozen Ice or Eternal Ice.
This included Froslass and Cloyster as well, both using Everfrozen Ice or Eternal Ice as assistance to enhance the Ice-type energy within their bodies.
However, with the resources currently in his hands, even if he successfully obtained the Eternal Ice energy within Pryce's Piloswine, he would only be able to raise a single Mamoswine at most. As for raising Froslass and Cloyster, he currently did not have that capability either.
Moreover, the glacier falls was also an excellent location for Ice-type Pokémon training. According to Pryce's two guides, the general patterns were quite similar, but there were many methods that he truly had never come into contact with before.
'Worthy of being Elite Four Pryce!' Gravity training, Swinub freezing the waterfall, Cloyster climbing the waterfall, and Froslass concealing itself within mist were all special training plans that he had never even considered.
After roughly going through the two guides, he had still gained a great deal. After all, Pryce recorded many details extremely clearly, even down to how much food these Pokémon should eat at each stage, which periods were the golden phases for special training, and what their training limits were. Everything was recorded in detail!
Tetsuya had truly picked up a ready-made treasure.
---◓---
Haunter's psychic power training could no longer be carried out indoors, so it went alone into the forest outside the cabin. Using Ninetales's psychic power as a foundation, the speed of Haunter's psychic power improvement could only be described as advancing by leaps and bounds.
Under the influence of psychic power, only the rustling sound of leaves could be heard, along with the crisp sound of branches snapping.
Swinub always looked like it could never eat its fill. Its dinner intake alone was already three times that of Ditto's. After returning to the cabin, it would eat some Pokéfood and drink some Miltank milk from time to time, but every time it ate, it also had to lick a piece of Everfrozen Ice.
If he had not read Pryce's Swinub Training Guide, he might have thought this was abnormal.
Swinub was currently in a growth phase and needed a large amount of energy to strengthen its body.
At present, Swinub's body contained a large amount of Ice-type energy. Without a strong physique, it would be impossible to properly control this energy, so for now, Swinub needed to start with basic physical conditioning training.
Early the next morning, Tetsuya brought the three Pokémon to the glacier falls, along with a large amount of Pokéfood, because Swinub needed to replenish its stamina at any time.
Swinub's juvenile training had to include half a day of internal training, and it just so happened that he had an excellent sparring partner here.
"Ditto, Transform into Rapidash. Swinub, run along the riverbank following Ditto."
Tetsuya was indeed making things difficult for Swinub. With its short legs, it was impossible for Swinub to keep up with Rapidash's speed, but this was not straight-line running. It was simply running back and forth within the range of the mist at glacier falls. With a reference target ahead, Swinub had the desire to run.
"Haunter, try Will-O-Wisp first. Attack the waterfall."
Haunter shook its body slightly, and five small clusters of ghostly blue flames gathered around it and were flung toward the rushing waterfall. The Will-O-Wisp penetrated into the waterfall and was washed down without even making a sound.
The other moves were the same as Will-O-Wisp, dissolving into nothing within the flow of the waterfall. Psychic power attempted to change the speed of the waterfall, but the moment it came into contact with the water flow, Haunter suffered a backlash from its own power.
This was enough to show just how terrifying the impact force of glacier falls's water flow was.
From Pryce's Swinub Training Guide, it could be seen that his Swinub was able to freeze the entire glacier falls with Ice-type energy, which was simply unimaginable. Such a gap made one feel that the goal was impossibly far away…
If not for having experienced such things in his previous life, the power of an Elite Four member was something that, in the mind of a person at this age, simply did not exist as a concrete concept.
What exactly Elite Four level strength was like, and what kind of battles it would display, was completely unclear.
That was why every Pokémon Trainer who set out on a journey carried an Elite Four dream in their heart, but this was nothing more than a dream. In Tetsuya's awareness, it was sheer wishful thinking.
Strong economic support, Pokémon with outstanding potential, one's own experience and battle level were all key factors in determining success. Beyond these, one also had to put in extraordinary effort.
Here, the glacier falls was merely the place where he began to take his first steps!
What Haunter was progressing most smoothly with now was, with the assistance of psychic power, the consecutive use of Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb, and Dark Pulse.
Will-O-Wisp could only be trained separately for now, because in a single battle, using Will-O-Wisp once was enough. As long as the opponent was inflicted with Burned, that was sufficient. Moreover, Tetsuya had Haunter learn Will-O-Wisp only for the purpose of extracting the Eternal Ice cold energy from the Piloswine beneath the gorge.
If applied in battle, the Burned effect was inferior to the Poisoning effect, and in his previous life, his level of using poison had already been ingrained into his very blood, so using poison came even more naturally to him.
Of course, in this life he also needed to seek advancements for himself, such as the current Ice-type special training.
At this time, Ditto and Swinub had already completed one round of running back and forth. Ditto had trained for a period of time and had also undergone long-distance running, so this bit of distance was naturally nothing to it.
Swinub, having been born for only a little over ten days, was naturally somewhat out of breath, but as long as it ate some food and licked a bit of Everfrozen Ice, its energy would immediately recover, and it would begin the second round of running once again.
It seemed that this Ice was truly the key to Swinub's raising. He also had a piece of Eternal Ice on his person, so would the effect not be even better? Of course, that would have to wait until this piece of Everfrozen Ice had been fully licked first.
Haunter's first training target no longer required too much time. Training it once a day was enough. The most troublesome part was still the linked usage of those three moves without psychic power support, which up to now had shown no progress.
"Haunter, don't be impatient or irritable. Treat this as a three-year project to train. Naturally, your mind will calm down."
Haunter steadied its mind and used its moves step by step. Although the interval between each move still had not shortened, at least no mistakes occurred…
Each move was successfully used in sequence, over and over again without interruption, continuously launching moves into the waterfall.
This was the training task from every morning until noon. No matter the wind or rain, it could not be changed. After finishing the simple arrangements, Tetsuya also ran along the riverbank together with Ditto and Swinub, carrying out physical conditioning training.
After lunch, the afternoon training was naturally adjusted.
Ditto had already transformed into Lapras, receiving the "baptism" of icy water beneath glacier falls.
Haunter used its psychic power to support Night Shade and also received the impact of icy water beneath glacier falls.
It had to be said that the glacier falls truly was an excellent location for special training. The waterfall scoured Ditto's body, not only providing excellent training effects for its physique and willpower, but more importantly allowing it to better deal with ocean waves in the future.
As for Haunter, using Night Shade supported by psychic to resist the impact force of the glacier falls was indeed the best place to train psychic power and the defensive effect of Night Shade.
As for Swinub, Pryce had very clear records in the guide. First, Swinub's body had to adapt to the massive Ice-type energy stored within it.
The current Swinub did not yet have a level. Although it possessed many Egg Moves, many of these moves could not be used. For example, Fissure, Body Slam, and Curse were three moves that, before evolving into Mamoswine, could not be used due to bodily limitations.
The power of Avalanche lay in striking after the opponent.
If Avalanche was used after receiving an opponent's attack, the damage dealt to the opponent would be doubled. However, with Swinub's small body, it definitely could not allow the opponent to attack it, so during the Swinub stage, it was better to use this move sparingly.
Even Pryce's Swinub rarely used Avalanche, because it could not bring out Avalanche's true power. If it evolved into Piloswine and gained a certain level of endurance, then Avalanche would have its value in use.