Pokemon: I refuse to be a supporting character!

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The chocolate incident was resolved.

However, to Li Xiang's surprise, Riolu seemed to develop a liking for chocolate as a snack. After every training session, it would happily indulge in a small piece. If it got lucky and defeated Litten in battle, it rewarded itself with an extra bite.

It looked rather amusing, especially considering how rare such self-restraint was among Pokémon.

Meanwhile, Litten struggled to maintain its composure even with something as mild as regular catnip.

Life gradually returned to normal.

The Trainer School's academics were quite easy, and the monthly tests were no challenge.

Unless it was the end-of-term exams, the school didn't organize battles between students to assess grades.

Because of this, Li Xiang's daily routine started to grow lazy, resembling his carefree college days.

Only battles and martial arts training still managed to excite him.

What puzzled him was that the school didn't seem to encourage participation in outside competitions. The Qingcheng Basic Trainer School and the association itself hadn't organized any leagues or similar events either.

Of course, they didn't prohibit students from entering such contests.

As a result, some ambitious students sought out various commercial tournaments to participate in.

Li Xiang happened to be one of these ambitious individuals.

After all, there were candies at stake.

However, school days left little room for such activities, and most events tailored for students were held during vacations.

By late September, Litten had finally started to grasp the move Fake Out. As the saying goes, once you get the hang of the first step, the second and third follow naturally. 

With more time to solidify its grasp, the move would likely be ready for competitive use in less than half a month.

Riolu, Charmander, and Porygon: Alarmed.

As Li Xiang observed Litten's development, he began to clarify its training path. He made a firm decision—Focus on Attack and Stamina.

The reason was simple. Litten didn't seem to have much affinity for speed.

Rather than dodging, it preferred to take attacks head-on. Watching its opponent's astonished reaction when their all-out move didn't have much effect seemed to excite it.

Then, it would retaliate with a brutal counterattack.

This style of fighting clearly brought Litten joy and fueled its battle spirit.

A natural tormentor.

Recognizing this, Li Xiang decided to align with Litten's personality and train it as a durable attacker.

In short, tanky yet hard-hitting.

As for Riolu, it was an obvious choice—speed with dual blades.

Riolu had a natural talent for rapid attacks, with its dynamic vision making it highly suited to an offensive, speed-based style.

With these decisions made, their diets needed to change.

In this world, a Pokémon's diet played a crucial role in determining its developmental focus.

Think of food here like the coffee shops in Black and White, offering meals that boosted effort values (EVs).

Alternatively, consider the nutritional drinks from Generation VIII, capable of maxing out a Pokémon's EVs in one go, or even the older performance-enhancing items that raised stats incrementally but had a cap.

Then there was the juice shop in X and Y, offering various drinks with diverse effects, including boosting EVs.

Beyond food, targeted training programs also effectively increased a Pokémon's abilities. Other facilities, like Pokémon beauty salons, offered numerous additional benefits.

Unlike the games, though, the effects of these enhancements weren't as immediate. Moreover, the results varied based on the quality of the food, the intensity of the training, and the skill level of the beauty salon staff.

Even a Pokémon's leveling speed could differ.

The gap between wealthy trainers and ordinary ones became starkly apparent in these aspects.

Better food, more effective training, and skilled professionals catering to their Pokémon created an insurmountable divide.

The natural disparities among Pokémon only widened.

For ordinary trainers, the only thing they had to rival this was the intangible bond they shared with their Pokémon.

As a result, there was no fear of a particular species of Pokémon becoming overly dominant.

After all, anyone could see the vast difference between the champion's Garchomp and a grunt's Gible.

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By October, Bai Ji, the senior disciple at the dojo, finally made an appearance.

It was said she had passed her lawyer certification exam and was ready to work at a law firm after graduation.

However, she seemed interested in starting her own firm, and her family fully supported the idea.

Putting that aside, Bai Ji felt guilty for not visiting the dojo sooner to meet her new junior. To make up for it, she treated her four juniors to a meal.

But since it was at a Western restaurant, the old-fashioned Duan Tianxing disapproved and chose not to join.

Bai Ji could only sigh at her inflexible master and told him she would bring something back for him.

Duan Tianxing's response was noncommittal.

After a satisfying meal, Bai Ji drove everyone home—those who needed to be dropped off at their homes went there, and those heading back to the dojo were dropped off there.

On the way, she made sure to give Li Xiang her contact information.

She told him that if he ever visited Mancheng, he could reach out to her for fun or assistance. After all, they were family, and there was no need to be polite.

Bai Ji came from an academic family. Her parents and grandfather were professors at Qingcheng University, and her maternal grandfather was even more impressive—he was the vice dean of a Business School, with a vast network of connections and numerous mentees.

Why would someone with her background, growing up under the careful guidance of such an illustrious family, take up martial arts?

With a smile, Bai Ji explained that her grandfather and Duan Tianxing were close friends, and learning martial arts had been her grandfather's arrangement.

The deeper reasons were too complex to explain in just a few words.

Li Xiang nodded while carefully storing her business card.

Lawyer's contact info: acquired.

Who knew when it might come in handy?

Now that he thought about it, Bai Ji was the first senior he'd looked into regarding their family background.

He had been surprisingly inattentive to his fellow disciples.

Even Duan Yu, who might have a unique relationship with Duan Tianxing, hadn't piqued his curiosity enough to ask.

He resolved to learn more when the opportunity arose. After all, they had been training together for a while now.

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By late October, Litten had fully mastered Fake Out and could now execute it without fail.

It had also reached level 10.

Back at level 8, it had learned the Ghost-type move Lick on its own. However, its low power made it practically useless—Crunch was far better for covering blind spots.

At level 10, it learned another move:

Roar.

This Normal-type status move forced the opponent to switch out—a game-changing technique in singles battles, often paired with entry hazards.

Li Xiang casually glossed over this and focused on its next learnable move:

Protect.

"Protect or not to protect," as the saying goes.

Speaking of Protect, one couldn't ignore the concept of "damage overflow."

Simply put, Protect had been nerfed.

In the games, only Z-moves or Dynamax moves could partially penetrate Protect and deal a bit of damage.

In this world, however, certain regular moves with excessive power could achieve similar effects.

After all, move power wasn't always fixed here.

That said, Protect was still an essential move. Blocking even part of an attack could make the difference between victory and defeat in critical moments. Moreover, most moves lacked the power to breach the protective shield.

On a related note, while Detect and Protect might seem similar in the games, their real-world applications were vastly different.

Protect involved erecting a barrier, whereas Detect was more like a semi-prophetic ability to sense an opponent's attack method and trajectory, allowing the user to dodge purely through physical reflexes.

The concepts were distinct, though Li Xiang had no trouble keeping them separate.

As for Riolu, it had barely reached level 12 and learned Counter.

To be honest, Counter was useful only if Riolu could tank hits—otherwise, it would take damage without being able to return it effectively.

Unlike Gladion's Midnight Lycanroc in the anime, which seemingly countered opponents without even getting hit. That felt unfair.

Riolu, meanwhile, was still diligently training to learn Ice Punch.

Considering its Hidden Ability, Li Xiang decided the next move for Riolu should be Swords Dance to enhance its offensive capabilities.

Moves like Coaching, Look at Me, and Helping Hand would be set aside for now, with a focus on single-battle strategies.