Two sharp icicles shot out from in front of Swinub. When it fired the third one, Swinub was already a bit unsteady on its feet.
The Icicle Spear that were fired had absolutely no accuracy at all. Not to mention the circle Tetsuya had drawn on the tree; they did not even hit the tree itself!
Just as expected. For a Swinub that had only been born for a little over ten days, there was still no concept of battle or move usage in its mind.
What was needed at this time was the guidance of a Trainer.
Ninetales and Golem were both very powerful Pokémon. For Pokémon like these, he might not need to spend much time training them himself, but to catch powerful Pokémon, one must have Pokémon even stronger than them to subdue them. In the end, it still came down to raising powerful Pokémon himself.
There was one advantage to Pokémon that were raised from a weak stage… and that was loyalty! Because they were raised by him and their growth was witnessed by him, such Pokémon would regard him as family.
Pokémon were mostly pure at heart, and once they regarded you as family, they would give everything for you, even their lives!
In the development history of the Pokémon world, many humans had taken advantage of this "weakness" of Pokémon to attack other Pokémon, causing Pokémon to slaughter one another and gradually forming human forces.
For Tetsuya, loyal Pokémon were even more important than powerful Pokémon. For someone like him, encountering a disloyal Pokémon would be fatal!
In regulated competitive battles, if a Pokémon disobeyed, at worst it meant losing a match, but in wilderness survival… a single mistake could cost him his life!
When it came to raising Pokémon, he had always adhered to the principle of combining kindness and authority.
If there was only kindness without authority, Pokémon would become spoiled and slack in training, and their strength would not improve at all.
If there was only authority without kindness, Pokémon might improve quickly in strength, sure, but resentment would accumulate in their hearts, and at a critical moment they could betray you, leaving you dead without even knowing how it happened.
"Swinub, fire Icicle Spear one shot at a time. Pay attention to aiming at that circle. Tonight, you rest only when you hit that circle."
Tetsuya's words were resolute. Swinub felt somewhat aggrieved, but did not dare to disobey.
Icicle Spear began to be aimed. Using just a single Icicle Spear was still no problem for Swinub, but it still could not properly control the direction of the icicle.
After training continuously for an hour, Icicle Spear could be guaranteed to hit the tree trunk every time, but it still could not hit the circle.
"Rest for a bit first." Tetsuya had an excellent grasp of Swinub's emotions. Just as Swinub's Icicle Spear finally hit the tree trunk, he placed Pokéfood and Everfrozen Ice in front of Swinub.
Swinub hesitated for a moment…
The grievance it had felt just now instantly dissipated, replaced instead by a sense of being moved. It devoured all the food in one go, then licked the Everfrozen Ice, and immediately became full of energy.
After resuming training, Swinub was even more passionate than before. The momentum of the Icicle Spear it fired became stronger!
With its concentration further improved, Swinub only took about half an hour to hit within the circle.
Tetsuya glanced at the time. It was only a little past eight o'clock.
"That's enough, Swinub! Today's training ends here. You completed the task ahead of time, good job. Haunter, let's go. Because of Swinub's effort, we can wrap up special training early today."
Tetsuya's words made Swinub feel very shy. In any case, Swinub had now gained a basic understanding of the direction of its training.
Pryce had given instructions that Swinub had to sleep in the cave within the glacier falls, so after settling Swinub properly, Tetsuya took Haunter and Ditto back to the cabin.
---◓---
This kind of training continued for an entire week.
The progress of Ditto and Haunter was gradual and subtle. Their stamina, willpower, endurance, and Haunter's psychic power were all steadily improving. Of course, these things could not be achieved overnight. What was needed was long-term, persistent training.
Swinub's progress was the most obvious, as if some hidden pathways had suddenly been opened and everything began to make sense.
Now Tetsuya finally understood why Pryce had so much confidence in this Swinub…
Running along the riverbank every day together with Ditto, accepting the "baptism" of glacier falls, Swinub had even licked off a corner of the Everfrozen Ice!
More than half a room of Pokéfood had already been eaten by it. Fortunately, Pryce had informed Sheila in advance about Swinub's appetite and provided Tetsuya with sufficient food. Otherwise, raising such a Swinub would have cost him a tremendous amount of money.
'A pig was a pig after all…' In just one week, Swinub had already grown noticeably rounder.
After a week, Swinub was already able to consecutively use five Icicle Spears, all of which could accurately hit the target.
Next was letting Swinub flexibly apply the Ice-type energy and Ability within its body. Once this step was completed, Swinub could be allowed to participate in some battles to gain experience.
The training of Ditto and Haunter had basically reached a stable point. Haunter also had no new moves to practice, and there was essentially no need for Tetsuya to supervise them closely anymore.
The only thing left to do was to observe their physical reactions under the waterfall every afternoon and call a halt in time. As their strength increased, the number of times he needed to stop them grew fewer and fewer.
Being able to see one's Pokémon improve every day was also a very fulfilling thing for a Trainer.
On the morning after one week had passed, Swinub finished its training of running along the riverbank together with Ditto.
"Swinub, starting today we're going to begin a new type of training, and that is your Ability. First, you need to learn to release the Ice-type energy within your body, condensing the moisture in the air to form Hail."
Relatively speaking, this was quite simple. It only required releasing a portion of the Ice-type energy within its body. It was even more direct than using Freeze-Dry.
Swinub shook its body slightly, and the surrounding temperature began to drop. The area around the glacier falls was already cold and humid to begin with, and before long, pellets of hail began to fall from the sky, mixed together with snowflakes.
Maintaining this kind of "Hail" weather continuously required Swinub to keep releasing the Ice-type energy within its body. If nothing else was done and the Hail weather was simply maintained like this, it would naturally pose no problem for Swinub, and there would be no need for training.
However, battles were not just about maintaining weather. Battling also had to take place within Hail weather. This involved multitasking. Swinub needed to maintain the release of Ice-type energy to sustain the "Hail weather".
The Hail did not need to be particularly strong, it only needed to be sufficient to activate Swinub's Snow Cloak Ability. At the same time, it also had to attack and defend.
"Swinub, first run within the range of the Hail weather. Make sure to maintain the Hail at all times."
Within the Hail, as Swinub began to run, its figure started to blur, appearing and disappearing.
The Snow Cloak Ability increased evasion during Hail weather, making attacks more sudden and defense more flexible.