Pokemon: A Fisherman's Tale

It was sunny on the sixteenth day of survival on a desert island.

The day's plan started in the morning, but Ryan couldn't run. After climbing out of the treehouse, he stood up slowly, leaning on a cane.

The wound on his foot was so painful that he couldn't sleep the night before, and he had been sweating a lot. He needed to clean it soon. If an infection set in, he would have nowhere to cry.

Poliwag had gotten up early in the morning for their exercise, which was just a simple run. By now, Poliwag was already familiar with the route.

Caterpie wasn't exercising; it didn't know how to train. Ryan hadn't set up a training plan for it.

"Caterpie!" Caterpie watched Poliwag running alone and couldn't help but raise its large, bright eyes to look at Ryan, asking what it should do.

"You don't need to do anything. I need you to conserve your energy…"

"Poliwag?" Poliwag stopped running when it heard Ryan's call and came over, waiting patiently for instructions.

"Poliwag, do you remember those three Krabby? I need you to save your strength for them."

Ryan reminded Poliwag of their escape from the giant crabs that day, and today was the day for revenge.

Poliwag's eyes filled with anger when it heard about the Krabby. It had been holding onto its grudge over the broken bucket for too long.

"Poliwag, go gather some seaweed and bring it back. You'll need to eat well to have the strength to fight." Ryan had been on the island for so long, yet they still hadn't eaten breakfast.

To face off with Krabby today, they needed to eat enough to gather strength.

"Caterpie! Caterpie!" Caterpie didn't understand what Ryan was saying and cried out to Poliwag, asking what it meant.

"Poliwag!" Poliwag walked away without looking back. It didn't have time to explain now, only briefly telling Caterpie that it would understand later.

Watching Poliwag leave, Ryan opened Poliwag's proficiency panel.

PoliwagAttribute: Water

Gender: Male

Potential: 31.01%

Level: 9.99%

Abilities: Damp (0.83%), Swift Swim (1.53%)

Moves: Heart's Eye(0.21%), Double Slap (0.31%), Ice Ball(1.45%),Refresh (1.01%), Bubble (1.31%), Hypnosis (0.82%), Pound (4.72%), Water Gun (7.11%), Water Sport (2.51%)

Poliwag was about to reach level 10. After today's battle, it should break through.

The Water Gun move, after yesterday's special training, had already broken past 7%.

That should be enough to handle the three crab pokemon.

Though Water Gun only did 0.5 damage, it was Poliwag's best bet.

Ryan wasn't going to use Double Slap. Poliwag probably wouldn't be able to stand up to Krabby in close combat since they had an innate advantage with its massive claws and tough shell.

They would need to keep their distance and use Water Gun. If one wasn't enough, they would just use several more.

After closing Poliwag's panel, Ryan opened Caterpie's proficiency panel.

Caterpie

Attribute: Bug

Gender: Female

Potential: 58%

Level: 4.81%

Abilities: Shield Dust (0.71%), Run Away (2.23%)

Moves: Confusion (0.64%), Tackle (0.81%), String Shot (4.15%)

Caterpie's level, Confusion, and Tackle moves had all improved slightly.

The most significant improvement was in String Shot, which had increased by 0.6 points.

Ryan had already decided on Caterpie's training focus. All the other moves were secondary; Caterpie just needed to concentrate on training its Confusion.

Once the Confusion proficiency increased, he would think about other moves.

Caterpie could evolve at level seven, so Ryan needed to be prepared. Evolution was a rare chance to boost its potential.

Compared to evolution, Ryan didn't have any other ways to strengthen or train Confusion.

Coming from a modest background, there were no special inheritance techniques available to him.

But he knew a bit about training Confusion and how to enhance it. Aside from eating something that could boost psychic power significantly, the only other method was weight training.

Using heavy objects to train the mind could gradually increase the amount that could be lifted, and as a result, the strength of Confusion would improve.

However, Caterpie's Confusion at 0.6 proficiency could probably only lift a leaf.

Aside from focusing on Confusion, evolution was the only opportunity to change an Pokemon's fate, and how that change unfolded depended on the trainer.

Evolution was the fairest thing for all trainers.

For many average Pokémon, evolution was the easiest opportunity to break through limits. It was often the only chance to surpass mediocrity.

If the trainer missed that opportunity, either the Pokémon wouldn't evolve, the trainer might spoil the evolution, or they didn't raise the Pokémon correctly.

The changes brought by evolution in base stats, form, and new attributes weren't as simple as 1+1, especially for weaker Pokémon like Caterpie.

With higher base stats, new Flying-type attributes, and stronger moves available, even a weak Pokémon could undergo a real transformation.

You could see the power of evolution from how a previously weak Magikarp could defeat its former self ten or even a hundred times over after evolving into Gyarados.

Although this Caterpie had been carefully selected, Ryan wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to make it stronger.

This made him think about the honey and Shuca berry he had spotted in the Beedrill's territory yesterday when he was sneaking around.

Both of these items were excellent for Caterpie. The honey, which Beedrill used to feed Weedle, was undoubtedly beneficial.

As for the shuca berry? It was perfect for Caterpie.

Once evolved into Butterfree, a Bug/Flying type, Caterpie would be four times weaker to Rock-type moves. If Caterpie ate the shuca berry, it would help Butterfree resist Rock-type attacks post-evolution.

Otherwise, one Rock-type hit and Butterfree would be done for.

But the consequences of stealing fruit again were severe. After yesterday's experience, Ryan knew he might actually die if he tried it again.

Since Caterpie had chosen to follow him, Ryan wouldn't treat it poorly. He would just have to wait for another opportunity to snag the Beedrill's honey and the shuca berry.

Caterpie's juvenile phase passes quickly, taking only half a month. It was one of the fastest-evolving Pokémon out there.

Ryan needed to recover from his foot injury within two weeks and find a way to get the shuca berry and honey.

He also had to capitalize on the crucial growth stages of Caterpie and Metapod to train it well.

That was part of being a trainer, a responsibility you couldn't ignore.

Only adults truly understand the weight of responsibility.

Like in the anime, where ten-year-olds would abandon their Pokémon if they felt they were too weak or hadn't evolved, incapable of defeating someone else's Pokémon.

What was the League thinking, giving such young kids starter Pokémon?

Ash Ketchum had collected so many starter Pokémon. If his name wasn't Ash and he didn't live in Pallet Town with Professor Oak as his neighbor, he would have been arrested for stealing other people's Pokémon.

In the anime, you often see Ash get arrested, sometimes even without anyone asking questions.