Pokémon: Starting with a Pokémon Ranch.

Chapter 105 The Flying Mantis Stumbles into the Back Mountain

After Uncle Yang's explanation, Su Yu understood why the forest ranger might have come knocking on his door.

It turns out that in addition to preventing poaching gangs in the forest, forest rangers also need to maintain the natural balance of the forest.

In other words, they can't have too few Pokémon in the forest, nor can they have too many.

Therefore, when Pokémon are scarce, forest rangers will appropriately discourage trainers from coming into the forest to try their luck and catch wild Pokémon, in order to protect the forest's ecosystem.

Su Yu's current actions are, to some extent, disrupting the natural balance of the forest.

After all... you've essentially lured all the Pokémon from the forest to your ranch to work for you, and you've lured several at once. This kind of behavior is bound to attract the attention of the forest rangers.

If you didn't know better, you'd think Su Yu was forcing these Pokémon to work, making them do unpaid labor for him.

This kind of behavior can easily lead to misunderstandings.

However, Su Yu did not think so. He explained:

"My so-called employment is actually quite lenient. These Pokémon are still in the wild, and they can leave whenever they want."

"Here, they are simply using their labor to earn food. I do not persecute them, and I welcome any trainers who wish to tame them."

Upon hearing this, Uncle Yang nodded and said:

"That makes sense. But from the ranger's perspective, he can't be sure that you're treating these wild Pokémon well, nor can he guarantee that your actions are exactly as you say."

"So you'd better explain it to the forest ranger. There's no point in telling me this."

After saying these words, Uncle Yang drove the one-horned rhinoceros away, leaving Su Yu alone, lost in thought.

What Uncle Yang said makes a lot of sense.

However, Su Yu has nothing to fear if he is upright. When the forest ranger arrives, he will let the ranger see for himself whether he is truly consistent in word and deed.

……

……

Meanwhile, on the other side...

Scyther has been quite idle these past few days, with almost nothing to do.

Su Yu said it was there to help harvest the mature crops, but the crops in the field had only been harvested by Su Yu not long ago, so there were hardly any crops left for the flying mantis to harvest.

With nothing else to do, the Scyther spent the last few days playing with the Drummers. But gradually, its novelty wore off, and it started to not want to play with the Drummers anymore.

"Sigh—" Never mind, I'll just go back to training.

As a Pokémon skilled in battle, Scyther often maintains strict self-discipline and good training habits when it is in the forest.

It left the lakeside and returned to the back mountain alone. Just as it was looking for a good place to train alone, Scyther suddenly heard a noise coming from somewhere in the back mountain.

Seeing this, the mantis immediately flew up and rushed to the source of the commotion. When it arrived, all it saw was chaos.

This appears to be a training ground for some Pokémon. Many of the surrounding trees have been felled and are simply piled up haphazardly. In the open space in the middle, the ground is also marked with various cutting marks left by different moves.

There appeared to be traces left by Air Slash, in addition to electric nets, leaf blades, and Iron Tail, with all sorts of moves carving the ground into a pitted mess.

In the center of the open space, a green caterpillar was sitting there. It seemed to be trying out some kind of trick, manipulating the surrounding wind, and the caterpillar kept trying to fly.

But each attempt failed; it seemed its control over the wind was still insufficient. Every time it tried to take flight, it couldn't control the surrounding wind.

Having finally managed to control the wind and seemingly on the verge of taking flight, the surrounding wind once again went awry, causing the green caterpillar, which had just begun to float, to crash heavily to the ground.

After falling to the ground this time, the caterpillar seemed to sense something. It got up and came face to face with the flying mantis.

"Sha..."

Suddenly, the flying mantis felt as if it had seen something it shouldn't have, and it had the idea of ​​running away.

But after a moment's thought, it awkwardly stepped forward, scratching its head, and said:

"Sha..." What move were you practicing just now?

"Hiss." Upon hearing this, the caterpillar nodded.

It frankly told Scyther that it was practicing the move "Fly". It had already learned the move "Tailwind", but the move "Fly" seemed to be much more difficult than "Tailwind", so Caterpie had not been able to learn it yet.

As for why it told Scyther... Caterpie figured that since it was a Bug-type Pokémon like itself, it could surely keep its secret, right?

Upon hearing what Caterpie said, Scyther was stunned for a moment. What? The [Fly] move?

Can a caterpillar learn this move?

However, seeing the caterpillar's confident demeanor, the mantis was unsure whether it was just the caterpillar's imagination or something that was actually true.

Seeing the strange look in the Scyther's eyes, the Caterpie asked in confusion:

"Hmm?" What's wrong? Is there a problem?

"Shh..." No, nothing.

The flying mantis immediately answered.

However, such an answer seemed rather impolite. After all, he had just spied on their training session.

As a dual-type Flying/Bug Pokémon, Scyther believes it has considerable experience with Flying-type moves. Perhaps it can help Caterpie.

Thinking this way, Scyther expressed its idea to Caterpie. Perhaps it could teach Caterpie how to use Flying-type moves?

Upon hearing Scyther's description, Caterpie's eyes lit up. The ranch wasn't without Flying-type Pokémon; Tropius was clearly one of them.

However, compared to Flying-type moves, Tropius seems to excel more in Grass-type moves. Therefore, Caterpie can't learn much from Tropius.

Now that a Flying/Bug type Pokémon like Scyther has appeared, it's no wonder Caterpie is so excited. And since it's also a Bug type Pokémon, Scyther's Flying synergy should be a better fit for Caterpie, right?

Thinking this, the caterpillar immediately nodded.

What it lacks most is a teacher to guide it. Learning moves isn't difficult for it. What troubles it more are the new moves it has to discover on its own.

Since there's no one to guide you, you have to explore and learn all the methods yourself, which naturally leads to slow progress.

Now, with Scyther's guidance, it may soon learn to use the "Fly" move.

If you learn this trick, then even an ordinary green caterpillar like this can learn to fly!

(End of this chapter)