The next morning.
Lorze's mother had gone out early for work, while Lorze didn't drag his ass out of bed until around 9 AM.
Snuggled tightly in his arms was the adorable little Ralts. The little girl had actually woken up a long ti ago, but it had been so damn long since she last enjoyed the feeling of sleeping in a warm embrace that she was still lingering in bed.
Or rather, lingering on him would be more accurate.
Ralts shrank tightly into Lorze's chest, absolutely absorbed in this profound sense of security, unwilling to let go for even a second.
However, Lorze couldn't just let her cling to him forever. The morning sets the tone for the day, and their training regin had to start today.
Whether it was to live up to his mother's massive expectations, to help Ralts find her mom, or simply to be a responsible fucking Trainer, slacking off on training was absolutely out of the question.
After a quick, simple breakfast, Lorze used his map app to scout out a decent, isolated area nearby, designating it as their training ground.
"Ralts, starting today, we're going to dive into our training. It might get pretty fucking grueling, but I hope you can push through it. And of course, I'll be right by your side the entire ti." Lorze gently set the Ralts down from his arms and advised her patiently.
"Ralt!" Ralts nodded firmly. As long as she could stay by Lorze's side, she wouldn't complain about being exhausted.
"Perfect. Our plan is to grind your 'Confusion' proficiency during the day, and do ditation training at night. We'll push hard to upgrade your Confusion into a full-blown 'Psychic' attack as soon as possible. As for training your Trace Ability... we don't have a suitable sparring partner right now, so we'll just have to put that shit on hold," Lorze explained.
In the end, he chose not to ask his classmates to help them spar. He wasn't really close with anyone in his class; they were just acquaintances. To prevent so loudmouth from seeing his Shiny Ralts and blabbing about it to the whole fucking world, it was better to lay low for now.
Once Ralts mastered Psychic, and ideally figured out how to Teleport away while carrying soone, they'd have a solid counterasure against danger. Only then would he even consider exposing her existence.
Lorze then dug through his closet and found an old "Swablu Onesie" he used to wear as a kid for Ralts to put on. This onesie had a bird-beak hood that effectively concealed her ultra-rare pure white hair.
Next, he grabbed a backpack, tossed in the necessary Pokémon food and Potions, and started jogging toward the small woods.
Ralts had to run alongside him, taking the opportunity to build up her physical stamina.
Granted, a Pokémon like Ralts relied primarily on ntal energy. As long as her ntal power was fully charged, even if her physical stamina bottod out, it wouldn't severely impact her mobility. Raw physicality wasn't exactly crucial for her.
But considering she was currently in a period of rapid infancy growth, Lorze believed a balanced physical developnt was absolutely necessary.
He wasn't expecting her to get swole enough to physically brawl with Fighting-type Pokémon, but she couldn't be pathetically frail either, right?
And so, the two jogged and paused along the way. Ralts's tiny little legs couldn't run very fast, so whenever she got tired, she'd hop into Lorze's arms for a breather, resuming the run once she recovered. It took them about 20 minutes to reach the secluded woods.
Obviously, physical training was quite a struggle for the little Ralts, but what was incredibly rare was that she didn't bitch, complain, or back down. Whatever training task Lorze assigned, she executed it diligently.
"Alright, let's take a ten-minute ditation break. I'll test your move proficiency in a bit to figure out the best training protocol." Lorze picked the panting Ralts up, gently stroking her head.
"Ralt."
Ralts nodded. Even though it had just started, she already felt the dull, grueling nature of training. But if she didn't get stronger, she'd never be able to search for her mother. Hell, maybe even Lorze would eventually abandon her. She absolutely never wanted to wander the streets alone again.
Therefore, she had to train, and she had to get fucking strong!
Ralts buried her tiny face in Lorze's chest, closing her eyes and beginning to ditate.
The "ditation" here didn't refer to the stat-boosting move "Calm Mind," but simply a basic technique to focus and replenish her ntal energy.
"Calm Mind" was a massively powerful buffing move. A newborn Ralts obviously couldn't master it yet, unless she was lucky enough to have it passed down as an Egg Move.
Speaking of which, did this Ralts happen to have any sick Egg Moves?
He'd make sure to test for that later.
The ten-minute break flew by, and Lorze began testing the moves Ralts currently had in her arsenal.
First up was Teleport. Lorze pointed at a tree in the distance and ordered Ralts to teleport to it.
In the literal blink of an eye, without any casting animation or wind-up, Ralts instantly materialized right in front of the tree.
Looked like her proficiency was already completely maxed out.
But given that a Pokémon like Ralts usually only spamd Teleport when running for her fucking life, it was hard to say if having such high proficiency was actually a good thing.
However, there was a glaring flaw in Ralts's Teleport: while her actual body teleported perfectly, the Swablu onesie she was wearing got left completely behind.
It seed she couldn't take physical objects with her during a teleport just yet. She'd have to slowly master that too.
Next was the Confusion test. Lorze told Ralts to use her telekinetic power to snatch the Swablu onesie out of his hands.
This instantly proved her proficiency with this move was pathetically low. She first had to concentrate intensely, firing a faint blue telekinetic wave toward Lorze. Only after the psychic wave latched onto the onesie was she able to pull it over and put it back on.
The process wasn't exactly slow, but honestly, even he—a squishy human—could probably dodge that telekinetic wave. In an actual high-speed Pokémon battle, it would be completely fucking useless.
Fortunately, Confusion was an innate ability for Ralts. As long as they grinded hard enough, she could master it rapidly.
There are no shortcuts in training. It was ti to drastically crank up the intensity.
"Ralts, here's the drill: Teleport back to , then imdiately use your telekinetic wave to catch the onesie before it hits the ground. Keep looping this process until you physically can't take it anymore," Lorze laid out the strict training demand.
"Ralt? (But what if I miss? The onesie will fall in the dirt and get ruined!)" Ralts voiced her worry. She obviously cherished the onesie, as it was basically the very first gift Lorze had given her.
"If you don't want it to get dirty, then you'd better get good at it real fucking fast." Lorze didn't show a shred of rcy.
"Ralt. (Okay...)" Though she felt a bit reluctant, Ralts obediently kicked off the training.
First, she used a tiny bit of telekinesis to levitate herself higher into the air, giving the onesie more drop-ti before it hit the ground.
Then, she focused for a mont and triggered Teleport. The second she materialized perfectly in Lorze's arms, she frantically spun around to spot the falling onesie left behind, hastily firing off a telekinetic wave.
This ti, the speed of her cast was noticeably faster... but, our little Ralts clearly didn't understand the concept of leading her target. The psychic wave completely missed the falling pajamas and blasted a fucking tree instead.
"Ralt!" Ralts let out a panicked yelp. Seeing the onesie about to hit the dirt, she knew she didn't have enough ti to cast a second wave, so she just abruptly Teleported over and caught it with her bare hands.
Staring at the rescued onesie in her arms, Ralts let out a huge sigh of relief.
Lorze just smiled faintly, not bothering to stop Ralts's little "cheat." Even though she didn't catch the clothes with her telekinesis, didn't it essentially train her ability to precisely chain back-to-back Teleports in a split second?
You had to realize, this forest was densely packed with trees. If her teleportation coordinates were even slightly off, who knows if she'd end up clipping into a solid fucking trunk?
At the sa ti, Lorze had no idea what the physics of a Pokémon clipping into a tree looked like, and he absolutely wasn't about to test it out.
So grinding Ralts's spatial precision was actually incredibly vital.
If Ralts couldn't guarantee 100% pinpoint accuracy, he'd never dare let her teleport him around in the future. Because if she accidentally teleported him halfway into a concrete wall, even if she survived, he'd be violently and gruesoly killed.
Anyway, back to the fucking grind.
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