Master Craftsman of the Pokémon World

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"New stock has arrived."

After Charizard left, Hikaru more or less finished his tasks for the day.

He produced several additional carvings—mostly stone sculptures, with fewer wooden ones. But for the newly listed wooden carvings, he added a note offering custom orders.

Then he took photos, uploaded them to his store, and added the new products.

Hikaru designs these sculptures based on the Pokémon he's encountered or those belonging to his customers, though he also introduces new items.

Those he's encountered—or that his customers represent—include Charizard, Charmander, Dragonite, Scyther, Gengar, and Xatu.

New items are Slugma, Lairon, and Dratini.

Together with the previously made Snorlax, these sculptures are up for sale.

Hikaru plans to watch which pieces sell well. If something does well, he'll make more. If it doesn't move, he'll stop producing it and develop new designs instead.

Of course, he won't forget to list the Arceus sculpture—though presumably hardly anyone knows that Pokémon... There are three stone versions in total and one wooden version.

Additionally, regardless of whether the sculpture is of an evolved or unevolved Pokémon, if the carving style, materials, and technique remain the same, the resulting effects are somewhat similar.

He noticed this pattern from the Charmander and Charizard statues:

Handicraft: Small [Ancient Statue] — Shinto Ruins Style

Description: A statue carved in an ancient style, modeled after Charmander. Some collectors may pay a high price.

Effect: Warm Air – The surrounding air becomes noticeably warmer.

Meanwhile, the Charizard version has the following effect:

Effect: Burning – Flames burn more vigorously.

Hikaru hasn't forgotten Doublade either. Although the patterns on Doublade's scabbards are a bit tricky, the finished product looks quite nice.

First, he made a stone carving, placing it beside Petilil's sculpture.

He purposely gave it a "sword in the stone" design by adding a rock base into which swords could be inserted. Because Doublade consists of two blades, he set them diagonally so they form an X.

Handicraft: Small [Ancient Statue] — Shinto Ruins Style

Description: A statue carved in an ancient style, modeled after Doublade. Some collectors may pay a high price.

Effect: Harvesting – Nearby chopping/cutting/gathering efficiency +10%.

"Oh, so it's a carving for chopping wood or splitting logs? If used together with Petilil's statue, maybe you get a rapid-growth timberland?"

"It can also be used for cutting stone or trimming cloth—an excellent work-support statue."

It now seems that Ancient Bracelets are for teaching Pokémon moves, whereas these Ancient Statues offer various small buffs.

As for the Ancient Jar and Ancient Crown, Hikaru still isn't sure what abilities they might have. In the games, the items linked to crowns and jars include things like King's Rock and Dire Hit's "Urn"…?

But many King's Rocks are naturally occurring stones, not forged. Though examples of man-made ones do exist.

And Silver Crowns or Gold Crowns look more like bottle caps with a crown motif.

"Huh, maybe a forged Ancient Crown would turn out to be the Crown Tundra's Calyrex's 'head' or something."

Next is the wooden carving:

Handicraft: Small [Ancient Wood Carving] — Shinto Ruins Style

Description: A sculpture carved in an ancient style, modeled after Doublade. Some collectors may pay a high price.

Effect: Wishmaking

By repeating certain tasks, you have gained new knowledge.

"Carving Expert": +20% to carving efficiency and technique.

Hikaru hands the Ancient Wood Carving to Doublade.

"Alright, pray to the carving. It will show you power. But it's best not to pray for extra speed. Even when you evolve fully, your inherent Speed won't be all that high."

"In terms of first priorities—whether attacking first or overall mobility—Speed isn't what you need right now."

Doublade seems rather confused.

Swords, after all, are usually most effective at higher speeds, right? You swing, and before the opponent notices, you've struck them down!

Plus, it can use "Lighten Body" to greatly increase Speed—and now it has two blades. If it maximizes that Speed…

"Yoop? Yooo? (⊙╰X╯⊙)~?"

So why not pick Speed?

Hikaru listens to Doublade's protest, and his mind drifts to Ash's Torterra.

Mmm, the so-called "fall guy" Tortoise... But personally, Hikaru kind of wants to capture a Torterra himself one day.

Ash's Torterra was really fast before it evolved, focusing all its strengths on Speed. But after reaching its final form, it became heavy and had to expend extra energy for top-speed movement, leading to a big stamina drain.

In real-time battles, a Pokémon's stamina is something you can't ignore. Even if HP remains, dwindling stamina reduces both offense and defense by a lot.

That Torterra had relied on speed moves since its Turtwig days, neglecting defensive training, so once it evolved, its weak defense became glaringly obvious. Whenever it took a direct hit, it couldn't handle it.

However, at that time, Ash didn't have a tool like Loaded Dice available.

In later eras, Torterra could learn Shell Smash, enabling an aggressive Speed-based approach.

Pairing Shell Smash + Loaded Dice + Bullet Seed + Headlong Rush, the Torterra could fully abandon defense, adopt a do-or-die style, and rapidly defeat its opponent.

For Doublade's final evolution, Aegislash, it's usually best to attack after the opponent. You rely on high endurance in Shield Form to tank a hit, then switch to Blade Form to strike back. If you act first, you'll shift straight into Blade Form and get hammered.

Though real-time battles aren't turn-based, its Ability, Stance Change, and the related stat differences still apply. Blade Form is extremely fragile, but don't worry—defense is handled by the priority +4 move King's Shield.

Once Hikaru obtains more rare wood in the future, raising Doublade's Speed IV might not be a bad idea.

"In realistic terms, it's like giving up your natural talents to work on what you're weak at, which yields half the results for double the effort."

"We need to fully tap into our strengths. Once those are well-developed, we use our remaining time and effort to shore up any weaknesses."

Hikaru explains these ideas to Doublade and Petilil, then continues:

"After all, once you've improved your weaknesses, your opponent may misjudge you—thinking this Pokémon shouldn't be that fast, or shouldn't have that kind of power. Combining those shored-up weaknesses with your strong innate talents is the secret to becoming truly formidable."

It's like in the earliest generations of Pokémon games (Gen 1 and 2), where the maximum Effort Values weren't 252 but a whopping 65,000.

In this real-world setting, a Pokémon's diligent effort is surely rewarded. There's no such "252 limit." Indeed, we previously saw mention of "maxing out an IV," but no specific numbers were given.

Using game terms, maybe the maximum IV is 31. But if it's the real Pokémon world…who knows! In the very first generations, the maximum IV was just 15!

IVs are natural talent; EVs are hard work. True greatness combines talent, sweat, and a bit of luck.

"Yooo!"

"Peti!"

Doublade and Petilil both understand Hikaru's reasoning. They focus intently on the wooden statue. Doublade floats forward, closing its two eyes, recalling scattered memories from long ago.

Doublade once stayed in some ancient kingdom and seems to hold a special regard for the word "ideal." Seeing Petilil fight so earnestly, it quickly acknowledged her—that might be a kind of chivalric spirit… even though "Honedge" itself was not a knight back then.

The wooden carving begins to glow brilliantly, once again shining like a tiny sun!

[The Ancient Wood Carving responds to the Pokémon's wish, revealing its power.]

[Power revealed: Doublade's Attack IV has reached its maximum!]

"Yoop! Yooo!"

Doublade feels its blades growing sharper!

"And there's also the Arceus statue…" Hikaru recalls the Arceus stone sculpture.

Stone carvings can let a Pokémon learn a move that normally requires evolving first, and they can also help with egg-hatching. But since this isn't a Daycare, that second function isn't useful here.

Maybe he needs to wait a bit longer, until Doublade and Petilil grow stronger, before having them interact with the Arceus statue.

Speaking of which, if Doublade were to learn King's Shield… Actually, that little shield it has right now still isn't complete, so it can't really block anything yet, according to the Pokédex description—it's not sturdy enough to endure attacks.

While indoors, Doublade already noticed the stone carving and attempted to touch it, but Hikaru stopped it.

Meanwhile, he also carved a new wooden Arceus statue out of a large piece of lumber. Unfortunately, while the stone version had instantly upgraded to a premium piece, the wooden one didn't undergo any changes.

Perhaps the wooden statue needs special materials and brand-new techniques—just like how the ancient stone statues require Ruins Stone or Ancient Rock.

So for now, that wooden statue is basically useless.

It would exhibit power for Arceus, but where is Arceus anyway? And does Arceus even need a wooden carving to gain more power?

"If I post this for sale online, people are bound to complain it doesn't work—accusing me of fraud."

"Maybe I'll just sell it to Volo, pull one over on him for some cash?"

"Tomorrow… I'll head into the forest to collect lumber and Tough-Tough Ore."

(End of Chapter)

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