By evening, Aven had returned to Fruitvale Village.
Even from a distance, as soon as the village came into view, he could see villagers peeking out, looking his way.
"Aven, Aven's back!"
Once the villagers spotted him, cheers broke out among them.
"Everyone, don't rush."
Uncle Mike smiled as well, took the items from Aven's hands, and headed back to his house.
At Uncle Mike's home, the villagers received their first profit shares from the production of the formulated potion, bringing big smiles to the faces of the orchard workers.
Unfortunately, the Oran Berries in the orchard hadn't fully ripened yet. This had been more of a trial run, but it made everyone even more eager for the harvest once the berries matured.
After using the diluted growth fertilizer provided by Aven, the berries were growing exceptionally well.
If Aven hadn't instructed them not to overuse the fertilizer, they might've poured all of it into the soil just to watch the berries sprout like crazy.
Once the profits were distributed, Aven finally let out a sigh of relief. The beginning is always the hardest, but the rural cooperative had now taken a solid first step.
"Lil, Lil!"
When Aven arrived at the farm, he saw Petilil and the Cherubi playing together, their laughter filling the woods.
Starly stood perched on a berry tree, leisurely grooming its feathers.
Beneath another tree, a shy Oddish poked its head out, watching the others play but not joining in.
The moment they saw Aven return, the Pokémon rushed over excitedly, with Petilil diving straight into his arms.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Petilil." Aven chuckled as he gently patted the little one's head, making it squint its eyes happily.
Then Petilil hopped to the side and, all on its own, used Absorb—almost like it was saying, "See? I've been training properly!"
Aven praised it again, then walked over to Oddish, squatted down, and asked, "Why aren't you playing with Petilil and the others?"
"Dish~"
Oddish called out softly, looking unsure and nervous.
It seemed that this little one, who had wandered into human territory, lacked experience interacting with other Pokémon.
Petilil tilted its round eyes curiously and walked over to talk with Oddish.
The Cherubi soon joined in, and before long, the air was filled with cheerful laughter again. Oddish, infected by the warm atmosphere, finally smiled.
It looked like Oddish had accepted this place. Aven nodded in satisfaction. He had previously given Oddish two choices, and it had decided to stay.
That was great news for Aven, who planned to form a Oddish Guard Squad. Now, he needed to attract more Oddish to settle in the orchard.
"It's time to start preparing for triple-powder training too." Aven murmured to himself.
Triple-powder training, much like Poison training, could be aided by a special medicine called Pollen Infusion.
The ingredients for Grass-type Pollen Infusion weren't particularly rare, so Aven planned to take a trip to the edge of Black Forest to gather enough.
After playing with the Pokémon for a bit, Aven took Petilil with him and left the berry grove.
They headed toward a small secluded cabin outside the orchard to begin training the Toxic move.
Petilil looked full of anticipation and lightly tapped Aven's shoulder with a leaf, urging him to hurry up and start.
"Hold on, not so fast. I need to prepare a detoxifying potion first." Aven smiled and had Petilil rest in a fertilizer-filled flowerpot to recover its strength.
"Petilil, absorbing the Toxic potion will be painful. You need to be ready." Aven warned.
But Petilil was already fully prepared and nodded without hesitation. Pain was a necessary part of becoming stronger!
"Alright, let's begin."
Aven took out both the Toxic potion and the detoxifying potion and placed them on the wooden table.
To train the Toxic move, Petilil had to gradually absorb the energy of the Toxic potion and concentrate it into poison-type energy.
Opening the bottle, Aven carefully spread the toxic fluid on Petilil's leftmost leaf, letting the venom seep into it.
Immediately, Petilil felt a surge of energy enter its body, followed by intense pain that made it tremble all over.
Before long, the green leaf turned purple. Purple energy began to spread through Petilil's body, wrapping it entirely in a poisonous aura.
Seeing this, Aven quickly grabbed the detox potion and helped Petilil drink it.
Instantly, the purple energy on Petilil's body began to fade, and it emerged from its poisoned state.
Panting heavily, Petilil plopped down on the ground, gulping in air.
Even though it had only been poisoned for a short time, the experience drained its strength and left it mentally exhausted from the pain.
Seeing this, Aven handed it a healing potion. After drinking it, Petilil's condition improved significantly.
"Petilil!"
Recovered, Petilil insisted on continuing the Toxic training, showing no signs of fear or retreat.
"Alright, let's keep going."
Aven was very pleased with Petilil's determination. He poured out more of the Toxic potion and applied it again to Petilil's leftmost leaf.
Poison-type power required a medium. Just like Poison-type Pokémon, which had special organs to store their toxins, Petilil's best place to store toxic energy was its leaves.
This allowed the toxins to be kept in check during daily life, without harming Petilil internally.
The venom flowed slowly over the leaf, seeping in deeper and deeper. At the same time, the leaf's natural healing energy surged forth to repair the damage.
After ten minutes or so, the toxin had fully seeped into the leaf. As it was absorbed, the leaf gradually turned from purple back to green.
"How are you feeling, Petilil?" Aven stood by with the detox potion ready, just in case.
"Petilil." Petilil closed its eyes and concentrated for a moment.
A faint purple glow flickered over the leftmost leaf, then disappeared after a few seconds.
Though it hadn't yet fully mastered the Toxic move, this showed that Petilil had begun absorbing the toxic compound's energy.
"Looks like just a bit more and you'll be able to learn the Toxic move." Aven nodded in satisfaction.
This showed Petilil had a strong affinity for poison-type energy and great potential for mastering the move.
Next would be a gradual and steady training process—absorbing more of the toxic compound and storing that energy inside Petilil's body.
Of course, the Toxic potion Aven currently had wasn't the final version. If Petilil wanted to fully master the complete Toxic move, Aven would still need to gather more materials.
(End of Chapter)