Pokémon: Starting with a Pokémon Ranch.

Chapter 83 Secretly Practicing at Night

That evening.

Seeing that it was time to sleep, Su Yu urged Pokémon to turn off the TV and go inside to prepare for bed.

Upon hearing Su Yu's urging, the Pokémon immediately turned off the TV and lay down in their usual sleeping spots.

This naturally included the Squirtle that had just arrived at the ranch. Su Yu told the Squirtle to find a place to sleep on its own first, and that he would go to town the next day to buy a suitable nest for it.

Squirtle was very cooperative. It found a spot in the house, spread out its own sheet, lay down on it, and seemed to fall asleep quickly.

"You fall asleep so quickly... I'll go to sleep too."

Su Yu turned off the lights and lay down on the bed. However, Su Yu didn't know that Squirtle wasn't actually asleep. Its supposed sleep was just a pretense.

After noticing that Su Yu's breathing was gradually stabilizing, Squirtle poked its head out of its shell and quietly glanced at Su Yu.

Seeing that Su Yu seemed to have really fallen asleep, Squirtle immediately got up. It was only a few o'clock; for Squirtle, this was far from bedtime.

Why go to bed so early? Of course, we have to get up and have fun!

At this time of day, Squirtle would normally be running and training on the fire station's training ground. For Pokémon, there's no such thing as training late at night harming their health.

"Squirtle, Squirtle..." Squirtle rubbed the muscles on his shoulders and thought for a moment. Tonight's training... I'll just do a light three-hour training session.

It's only a little past eleven o'clock now, I'll go to sleep around two or three o'clock.

As Squirtle tiptoed out of the house, it didn't expect that its light movements would still disturb some of the Pokémon inside.

"Hmm~?" What are you doing out so late?

Caterpie's sudden appearance startled Squirtle. Fortunately, Squirtle quickly calmed down, patted its chest, and said with lingering fear:

"Jenny, Jenny..." Nothing much, just increasing today's training volume.

"...Hiss?" Why are you going to training so late?

The caterpillar glanced at the time on the clock next to it. It was time to go to sleep; it had to get up early tomorrow.

However, Squirtle's response was... "That's something you just don't understand."

Training secretly late at night can be surprisingly effective!

"Hmm...?" Really?

I'm from the mountains, don't try to fool me.

Seeing Squirtle's mysterious demeanor, Caterpie immediately urged Squirtle to reveal the reason for its late-night training.

In response, Squirtle said that the reason for secretly training late at night was simply to enjoy the thrill of his companions resting while he was secretly "cramming" in.

The behavior itself is meaningless. But Squirtle believes that the thrill of sneaking away while others are resting is a driving force that motivates him to keep striving forward.

"Jenny, Jenny~!" Back then, it was this kind of thrill that kept me working hard until I became the captain of the fire brigade.

Squirtle stood tall, chest puffed out, hands on hips, and said...

"Hiss~?" Really?

Caterpillar is skeptical of this. After all, why not get proper rest in the middle of the night and instead go against normal sleep patterns to become a "curling king"? Is this method really effective?

"Jenny Jenny~" Try it and you'll see, do you want to give it a try together?

"Squirtle said in a seductive tone."

Upon hearing this, the caterpillar pondered for a moment, then, in a moment of madness, nodded. "Let's give it a try," it thought, "who knows, it might actually work?"

"Hissing." I'll trust you this once.

The two Pokémon reached an agreement, and Squirtle quietly opened the door. The two Pokémon slipped out of the hut and went to one end of the ranch away from the hut.

"Jenny, Jenny~!" Here we are, let's begin.

As he spoke, Squirtle took out a dumbbell from his bag and began to work out the muscles in his arms.

Caterpie watched from the side; it had already seen Squirtle pull a lot of things out of its bag that day.

For a moment, it was also very curious about how much stuff Squirtle had in its bag, and how it could pull out anything.

However, Squirtle had already tightened the bundle again and tied it to its body. Seeing this, Caterpie had no choice but to give up.

After training his arms for a while, Squirtle seemed to feel that the training intensity of just one dumbbell was not enough, so he supported himself on the ground with one hand, exercised with the dumbbell in one hand, and did one-handed push-ups with the other hand.

While doing push-ups, Squirtle also focused its attention on Caterpie not far away.

Since arriving at this ranch, Squirtle has been amazed by the people and Pokémon here countless times. From ordinary little sheep as mounts to tropical dragons strong enough to challenge Gym Leaders.

Every Pokémon on this ranch made Squirtle feel like his worldview was being violently shaken.

Squirtle had a feeling about this caterpillar. This caterpillar might not be as simple as it seemed on the surface.

After all, how could an ordinary caterpillar possibly catch the eye of the ranch owner? Therefore, Squirtle was already prepared.

—Alright, I already know that the Pokémon in your ranch are no ordinary creatures. Come on, bring it on!

I've already prepared myself mentally. This time, it won't shatter my worldview like before, right?

Even though he was prepared, Squirtle was still dumbfounded when the moment actually arrived.

Seeing that Squirtle was training so diligently, Caterpie felt it wouldn't be right for it not to train as well. So, Caterpie went to the lake.

It thought about it and realized that it didn't actually know many moves. It only had a few moves: Vine Whip, Electric Net, Silk Spit, Leaf Blade, Iron Tail, and Air Slash.

These moves, while impressive compared to other Caterpie Clan members, were not all that great. Its ambition lay far beyond that; it wanted to evolve into Rayquaza.

To evolve into Rayquaza, its current abilities are far from sufficient. Let alone comparing it to Rayquaza, it's not even close to being compared to the Tropius or the Moogle in the ranch.

After some thought, Caterpie focused its training on Air Slash. After all, Su Yu had previously stated that Dragon-type and Flying-type energy were key to its transformation into Rayquaza.

By practicing Air Slash to feel the energy of Flying-type attacks, Caterpie can also deepen its understanding of Flying-type attacks.

At the same time, this can also improve its proficiency with the air slash move, which can be said to be the most valuable training route at present.

With that thought in mind, Caterpie closed its eyes and sensed the Flying-type energy around it.

While Squirtle was working out with dumbbells and doing one-handed push-ups, it also kept an eye on Caterpie not far away.

At this moment, the surrounding environment also gave Squirtle a strange feeling.

Because it seems like the wind has picked up all around.

As the wind picked up, the green caterpillar that had been standing there quietly finally made a move. It leaped into the air, flicked its tail, and unleashed a silver-white wind blade.

The silvery-white wind blades flew out and gradually rose into the distant sky. This scene was quite ordinary for Caterpie. But for Squirtle, it brought a small shock to its worldview.

Seeing this, Squirtle was completely stunned. It even forgot to do a push-up, just standing there frozen, supporting itself on one hand, muttering to itself:

"Jay, Jayne Jayne...?" Is that... an air slash?

Caterpie, it can actually learn Air Slash?

How come I remember... the vast majority of Caterpie only know three moves: Tackle, Bite, and Thread. At most, only a few exceptionally gifted Caterpie can learn the Electric Net move.

Could it be that those Pokémon scholars accidentally overlooked a move for the Caterpie family, that all Caterpie Pokémon can actually learn Air Slash?

For the first time, Squirtle began to doubt the conclusions of the Pokémon scholars, after all, what the scholars said wasn't necessarily all correct.

Perhaps, like Magikarp, the Caterpie clan once had a glorious past?

The author is clumsy, please wait a moment, I'll add another chapter later...

(End of this chapter)