Pokemon: I'm a Farmer

Now that the Pokémon League was aware that only Celebi and Victini had been residing at Rex Farm, their attention naturally diminished once those two mythical Pokémon left.

Even though they knew Celebi might return one day, it was treated differently—after all, to a Pokémon capable of time travel, the concept of time wasn't the same as it was for humans. From their perspective, Celebi's next appearance might not be for many years.

Of course, what they didn't know was that it had only been less than six months since Celebi's last departure from Rex Farm.

In the following days, Rex focused most of his energy on working with Carbink to explore the possibility of creating diamonds.

Rex had taken time to study the methods of synthesizing diamonds, and thanks to the advanced technology of this world, man-made diamonds could now be mass-produced.

In lab conditions, making diamonds from carbon required 2300°C heat and pressure between 150,000 to 180,000 atmospheres. A small natural diamond would be used as a seed crystal.

Around this seed was a liquid metal solution, with graphite layered above. Under extreme pressure and heat, carbon atoms from the graphite would align and crystallize around the seed, forming new diamonds.

However, the molecular structure of diamonds produced this way wasn't the perfect octahedral structure found in natural diamonds. The size was also limited.

That was just the human approach. Diancie, as a mythical Pokémon, could directly compress carbon in the air into diamonds. The gems it created were indistinguishable from natural ones.

Like Carbink, Diancie was a Rock and Fairy-type. Its Rock-type affinity allowed it to sense airborne carbon, while its Fairy-type energy could generate a compressed space-like field that forced carbon atoms to crystallize instantly into diamonds.

That was Rex's personal theory, at least. But it gave him a foundation. He planned to have Carbink work toward this concept—maybe it would yield unexpected results.

Right now, Carbink was already capable of sensing carbon in the air. Its move, Ancient Power, worked by harnessing Rock-type energy to gather carbon from the atmosphere and condense it into a solid, energy-infused rock.

The problem was that Carbink could only attract carbon passively while activating the move. It couldn't yet do so through conscious intent.

So Rex instructed Carbink to continue training its Ancient Power until it could use the technique with complete control, eventually learning to gather carbon without relying on the move.

In terms of Fairy energy, Rex had Carbink continue practicing Dazzling Gleam to improve its command of Fairy-type power. The ultimate goal was to understand and learn Misty Terrain.

Misty Terrain, like Grassy Terrain, was a field move. It transformed an area into a sealed space saturated with Fairy energy.

Rex's idea was this: once Carbink mastered creating a Fairy-infused field, that space could become a "womb" for diamond formation. If it could then pull carbon into that space and apply pressure, diamond synthesis might be possible.

Based on this theory, Rex developed a structured training plan for Carbink.

He knew, of course, that Carbink still had a long way to go in mastering both Rock and Fairy-type energies. It would take time, effort, and repetition before they saw results.

But Carbink had full confidence in itself. Now that it had a clear goal, it was no longer confused. In its heart, it had never been more determined to evolve into Diancie.

With Carbink's plan in motion, Rex then turned his attention to Swellow.

Ever since witnessing Mega Garchomp's overwhelming strength, Swellow had reverted to its old Taillow mentality. Every day, it pushed itself to the brink, training until its body was covered in wounds before coming to Rex for healing, hoping to accelerate its growth.

The issue was that Swellow was already near the peak of its species' potential. Due to its base stats, its growth had slowed significantly compared to when it was still a Taillow.

In short, even with enormous effort, Swellow might only make a small gain in power—this was a common bottleneck for many Pokémon who approached their limits.

That's why most Pokémon, once they hit a certain threshold, gave up on further training and instead started enjoying life. It wasn't something that could be changed through the trainer's will alone.

Swellow's body was now over twice the size of an average Swellow. Compared to it, the rest of its flock looked like juveniles. Its massive frame was key to its current strength.

The rest of the flock had also been subjected to grueling training during this time. Standard drills were no longer effective, so as their leader, Swellow had them attack it daily in brutal, almost wild-style sparring.

To minimize casualties, Rex assigned a few Jumpluff to patrol Swellow's territory and provide first aid to the injured members of the flock.

Even Swellow itself was often badly injured from these brawls, but it only accepted treatment from Rex personally to maximize training benefits.

This was crucial to Swellow's continued progress. Without this, its growth might have already stalled.

Rex was fully aware of Swellow's determination, and he admired it. But he had no shortcut to offer. His only hope now was that Alola's Totem Aura could help Swellow break through its biological limits.

That's why Rex had already begun planning a trip to the Alola region. But since he didn't know how long it would take Swellow to awaken the Totem Aura, he still needed to make arrangements for Rex Farm first.

Swellow was excited after hearing Rex's plan but didn't slack off. For it, any opportunity to grow stronger—even through pain—was worth it.

Though Machamp had technically won against Lucario, it knew the margin was razor-thin. One misstep and Lucario could've taken the match.

And the overwhelming presence of Mega Garchomp had left a deep impression on Machamp, too. It realized it still had a long way to go.

These days, Machamp had entered its own intense training regimen. In addition to muscle conditioning, it regularly sparred with Heracross and Combusken.

Yes—at its current level, only by fighting both Heracross and Combusken together could Machamp face enough pressure and take real damage.

Unlike Swellow, Machamp still had room to grow before hitting its limit. For now, it could continue powering up steadily until it reached the ceiling of its potential.

(End of chapter)