As mentioned, the entire mountain peak had already become barren.
Tetsuya still chose to train Koffing and Mamoswine on the barren mountain. After all, he still needed to eat. If he destroyed all the trees himself, would he not be cutting off his own path of survival?
He set up a "nest" within the forest at the foot of the mountain, then searched for food there, while all the training was conducted on the barren mountain.
Tetsuya had already prepared a training routine for Mamoswine. Use Curse twice, then use Amnesia once. In this way, Attack, Defense, and Special Defense would all be synchronously increased.
The training process truly was extremely difficult. After the body's strengthening, Speed would decrease. Right now, after only using Curse four times, Mamoswine could already barely move its legs, and Tetsuya quickly stopped the training.
Therefore, Mamoswine's current limit was using Curse four times and Amnesia twice. So after using those moves, Tetsuya began having Mamoswine complete basic physical conditioning.
Under such conditions, every movement was extremely difficult. This was no longer physical condition training in the ordinary sense. Every single step required mobilizing all its power to support its fortress-like body with its current towering Defense.
Right now, each of the Pokémon trained separately and also had their own goals.
Tetsuya himself only needed to bring Ditto and Gengar to explore within the forest. Right now, after establishing the [Shadow Contract], combined with his psychic powers, there were very few Pokémon that could be considered his opponents.
It also happened to be a good opportunity to train his actual combat ability. During the process of exploration, many Pokémon encountered his poisonous methods…
Humans were not necessarily easy to bully!
After the Ursaring leader hidden within the shadows was bombarded and poisoned by Gengar's Sludge Bomb, Tetsuya then tore it into pieces using psychic powers. The remaining few Ursaring also had their heads crushed apart by Tetsuya's powers and died.
'I… I… am so violent!'
Repeating this cycle over and over, after two months, Tetsuya had already thoroughly explored the entire area surrounding the mountain peak.
---◓---
Half a year had already passed since arriving on this island. Houndoom, Beedrill, and Ditto's strength all seemed to have reached a barrier, with improvement already becoming negligible.
Gengar's coordination with him had instead become increasingly tacit, while Tetsuya's own use of psychic powers had also become more proficient. Although the ability itself had not improved much, such power was already something he would never have dared dream of before.
Mamoswine's Curse and Amnesia training had only just begun, and it had not been long since its Evolution, so there was still tremendous room for improvement. However, the training difficulty was too great, and progress was exceptionally slow…
But at least there was a goal and hope to look forward to. This required continuously practicing and breaking through its own limits. If it could encounter some sort of opportunities, that would be even better.
Golurk's daily task was soaring through the sky. Not only could this train its flying ability, but it was also highly beneficial for the release of energy.
However, the speed of energy unseal had now greatly slowed down. Golurk's current body was three times larger than before, meaning the energy that originally covered its body with three layers could now only cover one layer.
Fortunately, during Evolution, there had been one massive eruption of energy, so Golurk could still maintain five layers of energy upon its body. Right now, after half a year of training, the sixth layer had only covered one-third of its chest area. The speed of advancement had also slowed down, though there was still room for growth.
Tetsuya was most experienced with raising Koffing. The forest's miasma, poisonous gas, and the decaying swamp gas from corpses were all its best food, while its toxicity was also gradually intensifying. Because Koffing had not yet entered adulthood, its growth speed was the fastest, and all aspects of its capabilities were steadily improving.
Half a year had already passed, yet Tetsuya still had not discovered the slightest clue regarding the reason for the island's destruction. He could only continue exploring after crossing the mountain.
If anyone were to appear within his sight right now, he would kill them without hesitation. In such a vast primeval forest, anyone dying would be perfectly reasonable.
And… if they happened to possess valuable Pokémon, well… that would be even better…
Those would become capital after he returned to the mainland!
If Tetsuya could find the reason for the island's destruction, then he could predict the level of danger in advance. This had major implications regarding how much "goods" he could take away.
---◓---
Bringing along several of his Pokémon, Tetsuya rampaged unhindered through the forest. After passing the barren mountain, the forest on the other side became even denser.
Each day, they could only travel a short distance. Almost all the progress forward consisted of the Pokémon chopping through trees, which could also count as physical conditioning, conveniently saving time otherwise spent on such exercises.
The further he explored, the more Tetsuya felt the trees becoming fewer and fewer, and walking also became easier. After all, they were getting closer and closer to the seaside. The salt content in seawater was relatively high, and not all trees could adapt to it.
After two months of travel, what appeared before Tetsuya were towering straight trees, each fully forty meters tall. Waves of foul stench drifted from within the forest, causing Tetsuya to quickly put on a gas mask.
'That's right!'
These were poison arrow trees. Although there were only a little over fifty trees, their towering height gave them the feeling of standing head and shoulders above the rest.
The milky-white sap of the trees contained deadly poison. Once it came into contact with a wound, death would soon follow, giving it the reputation of "death upon seeing blood."
The foul stench within certainly came from Pokémon that had mistakenly entered the forest and died from poison. Their corpses rotted under the toxicity of the tree sap, producing poisonous gas even more toxic than the sap itself. Therefore, Tetsuya put on the gas mask immediately.
However, this was absolutely a good thing for Koffing and Beedrill…
The poisonous gas within the forest was the perfect food for increasing Koffing's toxicity, while the sap of the trees could be absorbed by Beedrill.
Right now, Beedrill had already absorbed the Poison Glands of many Grass/Poisontypes, giving it extremely strong adaptability toward this kind of poisonous plant toxin. It had also now learned Toxic, so absorbing the sap was completely no problem and would only increase its toxicity.
It seemed Tetsuya had no choice but to establish a camp nearby. After assigning tasks within the posonous forest for Koffing and Beedrill, he first went to the other distant forest and set up a tent, ensuring he would not be affected by the poisonous gas.
Once Koffing entered, that gas would quickly be fully absorbed anyway.
He simply arranged for Mamoswine, Houndoom, and Golurk to all operate within the nearby forest.
Their objective was killing Pokémon, after which Golurk would throw the dead bodies into the poisonous miasma from the sky. Beedrill could pierce open the sap of the arrow trees to corrode those Pokémon corpses, producing poisonous gas for Koffing to absorb.
This way, nobody's training would be delayed.
Meanwhile, his own objective was exploring the forest. Right now, with Ditto accompanying him, he could already move unhindered through the zone.
Every day, Tetsuya continued exploring toward the direction of the seaside, returning to the tent area at night. No matter what special circumstances occurred, all the Pokémon had to gather at the tent once every three days. It was not because he wanted to inspect their training results every three days, but simply to give the Pokémon peace of mind.