Half an hour later, all the Pokémon had finished resting.
Haunter and Corvisquire looked much more refreshed as they came over together. Growlithe followed soon after, casually trotting up with Trapinch dangling from its jaws, gripped by the neck.
The little Pokémon swayed back and forth, seemingly unfazed. Its limbs hung limply without any reaction or resistance.
"Coorv!"
Corvisquire flapped its wings and flew up to land on Shiro's shoulder, watching as he stood up.
"Let's go," Shiro said and walked over to a row of alloy Pokémon training dummies in the room and clenched his fist.
He glanced at his own hand, then at the dark, gleaming alloy targets. After a moment of thought, he opened a nearby cabinet and took out a pair of gloves, slipping them on.
He didn't want to risk smashing his own hands before the dummy even got damaged.
"Huuh..."
With everything ready, Shiro took a deep breath. Corvisquire lifted off his shoulder and glided over to perch atop the closest training dummy, its eyes fixed on him.
Shiro pulled his elbow back, gathering strength, then punched the dummy in front of him with all his might.
Boom!
The dummy shook three times. In Haunter's wide-eyed stare, a clear dent appeared where the punch had landed.
"Hiss..." Shiro quickly retracted his hand and clutched his aching knuckles, inhaling sharply through his teeth.
"Hauun!"
Haunter floated over. With Corvisquire, Growlithe, and Drakloak watching in surprise, it unleashed a full-powered Shadow Ball, aiming directly at the dummy that bore Shiro's fist mark.
Fwoosh!
The ghostly energy sphere, nearly as tall as Shiro, burst apart on impact and scattered in all directions before vanishing.
"Haun?"
Haunter hovered back and forth, looking around the impact site, hoping to see some trace of damage.
But to its disappointment, there was nothing. These alloy dummies were made with top-tier materials and designed to resist all types of attacks. While the Shadow Ball might have seriously injured a regular Pokémon, it didn't leave a scratch on this thing.
"Phew…" Shiro exhaled and rubbed his knuckles again. Once the pain faded, he turned to his Pokémon. "You guys try hitting it with your full strength too."
"Cooor!"
With a sharp cry, Corvisquire was the first to take action. It soared into the air, then dived straight down, using the most basic Flying-type move—Peck.
Its body moved like a flash of lightning, striking the dummy in a blur. It looked light and effortless, but at the exact point of contact, a small hole a few inches deep appeared.
Corvisquire was level 33, while Haunter was only level 28. There was a clear gap in their overall strength, and the power of their moves showed it. The Flying-type's beak was also the hardest and sharpest part of its body, tougher than most metals. So piercing through the dummy wasn't hard for it at all.
"Growl!"
Growlithe stepped up next, opened its mouth, and bit into the dummy from the side. But its teeth bounced right off, and it yelped in pain as it backed away.
"Traaap..."
Trapinch moved slowly. Seeing that everyone else had taken a shot, it figured it should too. A surge of Dark-type energy spread across its jaws, and it lunged forward to bite down hard.
Thunk!
Two neat rows of bite marks appeared at the base of the dummy. They were shallow, but still more impressive than the damage caused by Haunter and Growlithe.
"Draaak!"
Drakloak, excited by what it saw, raised its tail and looked ready to slam it down.
"Wait—don't," Shiro called out, quickly stopping it.
Drakloak was too strong. If it attacked, the dummy might break clean in half.
After calming down the dragon, Shiro stepped closer and crouched beside the dummy, comparing the dent left by his punch to the bite marks left by Trapinch. They looked surprisingly similar in depth.
"I'm about as strong as Trapinch now?" he muttered to himself.
It was a rough estimate with no real basis, but at least in terms of raw attack power, they weren't too far apart.
Still, when it came to physical qualities, like the hardness of limbs, he was clearly no match for Trapinch. Shiro pinched the skin on his arm, noticing it did feel tougher, more resilient than before, but it was still not far from that of a normal human.
If he ever fought a Pokémon head-on, he'd take more damage than he gave.
"I'm still too weak," he murmured, pinching his arm again. With a sigh, he recalled all his Pokémon.
He had a rough idea of his own strength now. His level was probably just above thirty, but he hadn't mastered any moves, and his defense was still lacking.
'Maybe I could take on a base-form Ditto one-on-one?'
With that thought, he swiped his card at the door and left the training room, stepping into the elevator outside.
...
The next morning.
Shiro had already eaten breakfast and fed his team. He now sat on the couch and opened his long-unused laptop.
Several days had passed since he made his post on the academic research site. He was curious to see if there had been any reaction. He also had many unanswered questions about Galar's tech scene and hoped to find some answers online.
In the Pokémon world, raising a Pokémon's strength mainly came down to leveling up and learning new moves.
Galar had plenty of resources for leveling. But when it came to helping Pokémon learn moves, the so-called Technical Machines, Shiro hadn't seen a single one.
He'd asked the merchant in the black market about it once. All he got in return was vague advice about relying on natural talent and letting the Pokémon train themselves.
Shiro wasn't sure if this world just didn't have TMs, or if it was only Galar that was this way.
And there was also Dynamax, a unique battle mechanic in Galar. The Dynamax bands were probably already in early development. He just didn't know when they'd be leaked or made available for testing.
"Hmm... Professor Oak's Lab..." Shiro typed in the site name bit by bit, then clicked to enter.
Buzz~ Buzz~ Buzz~
A series of vibrations caught him off guard as several white notification boxes popped up on the screen.
[You have received 12 new messages from Professor Rowan. Please respond as soon as possible.]
"Professor Rowan?" Shiro blinked, quickly closing the notifications. He entered his personal page and found the paper he had posted before under Rowan's major evolution topic.
He scrolled fast, all the way to the comments section. To his surprise, it was packed with replies—lines upon lines of feedback and urging from researchers all over.
He went to the very bottom, then scrolled back up to start reading from the beginning. The first few messages were mostly doubts and criticisms, especially about Galar, where he was based.
"A researcher from Galar? That's rare. Is 'Corviknight' your real name? Sounds more like a Pokémon."
"To be honest, I don't believe someone from Galar could write something this valuable. Everyone knows researchers there just keep their findings to themselves."
"Exactly. That's why I always block out Galar when I share my papers. Is that region even a part of the League? This paper's probably plagiarized."
Shiro kept scrolling. After a dozen or so negative replies, the post seemed to have gained traction.
Then, Professor Rowan finally appeared with a comment of his own, in support of the theories proposed in the paper.
**
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