Chapter 52: The 4th Partner Joins the Team (Patreon)

"Thanks." Renan wasn't foolish enough to turn down a reward that had come early. He took the Pokémon egg, hesitated a moment, then asked, "What Pokémon hatches from this egg?"

Seeing he hadn't been able to hold it in, Misty's lips curled upward. "I figured you wouldn't be curious. Relax, it was laid by a Gym-class Cloyster from the Cerulean Gym, and the father is a Gym-class Tentacruel. Before I handed it over, the egg was kept in an environment full of water-type energy. Its potential ceiling after hatching is Elite-class at the very least, and under normal circumstances it'll make it into Gym-class with ease."

For an ordinary Trainer, Gym-class aptitude was already something you could hope for but never count on.

In the wild, it usually took a population of a certain size, or some technique kept from the public, to produce such a Pokémon with any reliability."

some closely guarded breeding technique kept from the public"),"Of course, a Pokémon born with Gym-class talent never guaranteed that its strength would actually reach that level in the future.

Still, Misty thought highly of Renan. After all, whatever else you could say about him, an Elite Four-level Trainer stood behind him.

Renan raised an eyebrow.

How could he possibly not have heard of the Dragon-Slaying Shellder?

The Shell Smash plus Ice Beam or Icicle Spear strategy had been enough, back in his previous life's games, to string his good uncle up and give him a beating.

Misty had been watching the boy's expression the whole time. His gaze on the egg looked deep and a little vacant.

It wasn't hard to guess that he was mapping out Shellder's future development path.

The girl had been scheming to pick up his tricks all along, so she didn't hesitate now. "So how are you planning to raise this little one?"

Renan cradled the incubator, which held the egg and its nutrient fluid, and glanced at her. Over these past days of living and talking together, he had actually worked out some of what she was thinking. But since their interests didn't clash, growing closer to the future heir of the Cerulean Gym wouldn't be a bad thing in itself.

So he drew on the previous owner of this body's breeding knowledge, plus whatever he'd read online or worked out himself while playing the games in his previous life, and answered, "Once the Shellder hatches and gets through its infancy, for the early and middle stages I'll try raising it as a physical wall. It'll definitely learn Iron Defense, and I'll also trade quest points for some Metal Coat to rub onto its shell every day and boost its defense."

"But as they say, a pure defense always breaks in the end. Neither Shellder nor Cloyster is good at moving around, and to keep it from becoming a sitting duck in battle, I'll spend some time getting it to master Water Gun. The recoil from the jet of water will let it shift position along the ground, and even in the air."

"Once it learns Shell Smash later, we can try evolving it."

"The Water Stone has to be a high-quality one, no question about that. Beyond that, Shell—oh, I mean Cloyster's training focus will gradually shift to Icicle Spear and Rock Blast."

Misty froze at that. "Icicle Spear? Rock Blast? I remember both of those moves have really low power. Even if you awaken Cloyster's Skill Link Ability, you still won't land all five hits of Icicle Spear or Rock Blast on the opponent in a real battle. If you actually calculate the damage, they're nowhere near as reliable as just using Bubble or Ice Beam."

Things had gone this far, so Renan naturally wasn't going to hide the real core of his strategy. "I'm planning to have Cloyster hold a King's Rock."

Misty tilted her head. "King's Rock?"

The next second, it clicked.

She was the next Gym Leader of the Cerulean Gym, after all. Her Trainer level might be low for now, but her foundations had long since been thoroughly laid during her years of study.

Besides helping Slowpoke and Poliwhirl evolve, the King's Rock, when held by a Pokémon, added a small chance of flinching to every damaging attack it used, leaving the target frozen in place for anywhere from half a second to two seconds.

And both Icicle Spear and Rock Blast were textbook moves that traded power for attack frequency.

Put the two together, and the chance of the opposing Pokémon flinching would skyrocket.

Over the course of a whole battle, they might get locked down by Icicle Spear or Rock Blast until they dropped!

And that was only the effect when Cloyster's Skill Link Ability had barely awakened. Knowing Renan's personality as she did, Misty was sure he'd keep digging into Skill Link's potential until Cloyster could fire off 10, even 20 Icicle Spears or Rock Blasts in one go.

By then...

Misty put herself in the shoes of Renan's opponent, and a violent shiver ran through her.

"Isn't this strategy a little too underhanded?"

Renan curled his lip. "If you were me, would you use it?"

Misty gave a sheepish laugh or two, but she had already made up her mind: from here on, she'd follow Renan's line of thinking and raise a Cloyster of her own.

…

The Shellder's egg had clearly been laid some time before. On the third night after Misty gave it away,

a flash of white light swept through the room, and a purple-shelled Pokémon, tongue lolling and eyes squinted, appeared in front of Renan.

Since the first living being it saw after hatching was Renan, the Shellder didn't take the human for its parent, but it acted close enough.

It was caught in a Poké Ball without any trouble at all.

Renan took out the Pokédex and checked the Shellder's status.

The Ability gene it expressed dominantly from birth was Overcoat, but training could switch Shell Armor and Skill Link from recessive to dominant expression.

So it wasn't much of a problem.

On top of that, like Charmeleon, the Shellder had inherited two egg moves at birth.

They were Aqua Ring, which restored its own stamina, and Water Pulse, a move with respectable power in its own right.

Working backward from that aptitude, if it followed a steady training routine, the worst it could reach in the future was still Gym-class.

The Shellder was still small, and Renan wasn't a heartless Trainer.

For his last stretch of days at the Cerulean Gym, he sent the Shellder straight to its parents, the Tentacruel and the Cloyster.

He only called it out at mealtimes, and fed it himself.

A Pokémon's infancy generally lasted anywhere from a week to half a month, and by the end it would reach Level 4 or 5.

Perhaps the baby Pokémon food Renan mixed was of decent quality, or perhaps the water-type energy at the Cerulean Gym really was richer than anywhere else.

By the time Misty's three older sisters finished their performance and came back, the Shellder hadn't even fully left infancy, yet it had quietly climbed to Level 6.