Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Calcium Tablets and Ideas
Read upto 25+ advance chapters exclusively on my Patreon ahead of everybody else - www.patreon.com/Sniperwoof
------------------
"Thank you so much for your help." Seeing that Zubat's injuries had fully healed, Sato felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders. He immediately bowed in gratitude to Fiyali and Clefable.
"There's no need to thank us; we just did our job. Alright, you can leave now and let the next patient come in," Fiyali replied with a slight smile, accepting Sato's gratitude while preparing to usher him out.
"Cle... Clefable.." Clefable nodded in agreement and waved at Sato and Zubat, signaling them to hurry along.
Understanding the hint from the two doctors, Sato was quite perceptive. After all, he knew there were many more patients waiting for treatment outside, and the doctors had heavy workloads every day. He nodded and turned to leave with Zubat.
"By the way, do you have any calcium tablets here? You know, the kind that costs one point each in the exchange system? I'd like to buy two bottles." Just as Sato was about to push the door open, he suddenly remembered the calcium tablets and casually asked Fiyali, who had resumed her work.
Since this was a hospital, calcium tablets were surely available. There was no need to exchange points in the system; he could just buy them directly.
While waiting in line for treatment, Sato had received 1040 points from the earlier wager, plus additional 225 points from selling 50 medium quality Pokeblocks. Now, with 1265 points in hand, he had enough points to buy the two bottles of calcium tablets without any issue.
"Calcium tablets? Yes, we have those! Clefable, go get two bottles for him," Fiyali said, slightly surprised at Sato's request. She raised her perfectly groomed eyebrows and instructed Clefable.
"Cle..?" Hearing her order, Clefable looked confused, glancing back at Fiyali.
"Don't you remember? I'll go get them myself," Fiyali said, noticing Clefable's bewildered expression, and then headed into the pharmacy to retrieve the tablets.
A few seconds later, Fiyali emerged from the pharmacy with two bottles of calcium tablets. After Sato transferred the points to her designated account, she handed the tablets to him and continued to urge him to leave.
When Sato confirmed that the two bottles looked exactly like the pictures he had seen in the points exchange system, he had no reason to doubt Fiyali. After transferring the points, he took Zubat and exited the examination room.
"Clefa, Clefable." After Sato closed the door behind him, Clefable pouted at Fiyali, clearly displeased.
"What's the big deal? Those calcium tablets don't really do much for you anyway. They're just a little extra money for me. Alright, alright, I know! You can have the points; I'll use them to buy you your favorite Spicy Poffins, okay?" Fiyali said to her partner, trying to appease Clefable's displeasure.
Upon hearing that her trainer would use the points to buy her delicious Spicy Poffins, Clefable finally broke into a smile and nodded in agreement.
In reality, the calcium tablets Fiyali had given to Sato were new-style calcium tablets developed by Team Rocket a year ago. However, due to Sato's lack of access rights, they did not appear in the points exchange system.
Through testing, it has been proven that this new type of calcium tablet is much more effective than the ones available in the points exchange system and has no side effects. Fiyali's Clefable grew to its current size thanks to these special calcium tablets.
However, it seems that every Pokémon has some specific limit to its growth; they cannot keep growing indefinitely. After taking these special calcium tablets for about a year, Clefable's growth stopped.
According to Fiyali's estimation, this phenomenon of halted growth likely resulted from Clefable's body developing a resistance to the special calcium tablets.
Therefore, the value of the calcium tablets Fiyali gave to Sato was significantly higher than that of the ordinary calcium tablets in the points exchange system.
As for why Fiyali would give such special calcium tablets to Sato, the reason was simple: she took a liking to Sato and wanted to make a small investment in him. Additionally, these calcium tablets were given to her for free by her superiors, and since her only Pokémon, Clefable, no longer needed them, she figured she might as well earn a little extra.
After Sato left the examination room, he stored the healed Zubat in its PokéBall and exited the medical room, then started heading toward the public market.
This initial battle had a significant impact on Sato, making him aware of many of his shortcomings. Apart from needing to further enhance Zubat's stamina and proficiency in various skills, he also had to make time to improve Zubat's evasion abilities and his own understanding of Pokémon battles.
Currently, the most effective way to improve Zubat's stamina was through weight training. Sato didn't need to change his training method for stamina just yet. Regarding skill training, he decided to temporarily halt the slow progress in mastering Protect and instead focus on improving Zubat's training with Shadow Ball.
From the previous Pokémon battle, Sato realized that Shadow Ball had a long-range attack distance in real combat, with a range of at least 20 meters. If Zubat had a better grasp of this skill, it could have defeated the Ekans much earlier with its successive attacks.
Knowing the advantages of Shadow Ball, Sato immediately shifted his training focus. While mastering Protect was indeed an effective defensive skill, its flaws were evident. It was difficult to master, and its use in intense battles was awkward, making it only suitable as a one-time survival skill.
Thus, Sato believed that just getting somewhat proficient in Protect was sufficient. To quickly enhance Zubat's combat abilities in a short time, it would be better to train other more practical offensive skills, and Shadow Ball was a great option.
As for training Zubat's evasion abilities, Sato had ideas about having Zubat practice avoiding various attacks. However, he currently lacked a Pokémon that could meet these requirements, so he planned to use machines as substitutes for the time being.
Now, Sato had some ideas about the type of machines he would need. Since the Team Rocket underground base in Pewter City had a free public training ground, there would surely be paid training grounds where he could find the equipment needed for Zubat's evasion training.
Finally, for improving his understanding of Pokémon battles, Sato thought of two methods. The first was to find opponents for practice battles, quickly enhancing his understanding through real combat. The second was to observe battles, collecting useful data to steadily improve his knowledge of Pokémon battles.
Currently, Sato had two objectives for visiting the public market: the first was to see if he could find any Pokémon he needed, and the second was to check if anyone was selling DVDs that recorded numerous Pokémon battles.