Pokémon: Sandstorm Sovereign

Chapter 32: Rapid Growth

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another two weeks had passed.

Thanks to Drilbur's diligent training, its strength was also improving at a rapid pace.

First, in terms of size, Drilbur had grown another 5cm, reaching a height of 0.4m, and its body had become much sturdier. Its large claws, in particular, had become thicker and shinier. Beneath the white keratin layer, there was now a faint metallic luster. This was the effect of the Metal Coating.

In addition, perhaps due to practicing the move Scratch for long periods, Drilbur's arms had become very muscular, and its attack power had surged. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the help of the Gravity Machine. By now, Drilbur could move freely under 1.7 times super-gravity.

Besides its physical condition, Drilbur's greatest improvement was in its skills.

First was Rapid Spin. After Drilbur's extra practice, the little mole had mastered Rapid Spin in just twelve days. The duration of the spin had also been greatly extended; it could now spin for three minutes straight without any problem. And hey, it wasn't even flushed or out of breath.

Drilbur's rate of progress had greatly surprised Coach Miles. He had originally set a one-month training schedule, but the little mole had cut that time by more than half. Basalt, however, estimated that this was likely related to Drilbur having consumed the Smooth Rock Crystal. The crystal had not only improved its constitution, making it more attuned to the Rock type, but the pure energy within was also constantly nourishing the little mole, causing its stamina to skyrocket and its recovery rate to become astonishing, far surpassing other Pokémon of the same level.

And a surge in stamina allowed the little mole to devote more time to training. A normal Pokémon might get winded after ten minutes of training and need to rest for ten minutes to continue. Drilbur, on the other hand, would train for twenty minutes before taking a break, and the key was that it only needed five minutes of rest to recover its stamina. The difference in training efficiency was immediately apparent.

A Pokémon that is more talented than you, more efficient than you, and trains even harder than you—how could you not be afraid?

Basalt didn't know if others were afraid, but he certainly was. He felt that if this training continued, he would have to quit his phone addiction, as all his time would be spent on training.

"I'm probably the first trainer in the world to be forced by his Pokémon to quit his phone addiction, right?" Basalt would often mock himself during his free time.

If you don't take the initiative to change, the little mole will force you to change! This was his Drilbur, truly terrifying.

As Drilbur gradually absorbed and digested the energy from the Smooth Rock Crystal, its proficiency with Rock Tomb also improved by leaps and bounds. Seriously, it didn't even need to practice it deliberately. As its affinity for the Rock type increased, the power of Rock Tomb increased on its own, and the rate of improvement was ridiculously fast.

By now, Drilbur no longer needed to hold back. When it used Rock Tomb, it would immediately unleash five head-sized rock projectiles, which would crash down with ferocious power. A while ago, the class president, after specifically training her Pidgey's reflexes and speed, had sought Basalt out for a rematch, hoping for revenge. Unfortunately, Drilbur's progress had clearly outpaced Pidgey's. One full-power Rock Tomb, and Pidgey was once again one-shotted, almost sending the class president into a state of depression.

Drilbur had also been training its Mud-Slap. In addition to its increased proficiency and more effortless execution, now that it had met both basic requirements for combination moves, it had already begun to try and integrate Mud-Slap into its Rapid Spin. However, in the spinning state, Drilbur's Mud-Slap was affected by centrifugal force, causing its trajectory to change from a straight line to an arc, and the little mole couldn't quite get the hang of the aim yet. So, its combination move still needed a lot of practice.

As for Sand Tomb, although it hadn't changed as dramatically as its other moves, it was still steadily strengthening. Its range had now increased to a 3.5m diameter.

In terms of Metal Claw, after half a month of training, Drilbur could already sense Steel-type energy and, under Ms. Anya's guidance, was attempting to condense that energy onto its claws. But the Steel-type energy it could gather was still not condensed enough, and the power of its Metal Claw was very weak, even weaker than Scratch. Not only that, its execution of Metal Claw was hit-or-miss; it couldn't be said to have been fully mastered. It seemed Drilbur's accumulation was still insufficient.

But even so, Ms. Anya thought the little mole was remarkable. Her original estimate was also one month. For Drilbur to be able to sense and condense Steel-type energy in just half a month had greatly exceeded her expectations. In any case, there was still plenty of Metal Coating left. As long as it spent a little more time, it was a sure thing that the little mole would fully master Metal Claw.

Besides these overt skills, Drilbur had not slacked off in its development of the move Sandstorm. However, compared to its other moves, developing a weather move was clearly much more difficult. Even with the help of the Smooth Rock Crystal, Drilbur's progress was slow. According to Basalt's speculation, the reason was probably that Drilbur was still too small. Its body couldn't contain too much energy, causing it to digest the Smooth Rock Crystal very slowly.

As of now, the range of Drilbur's sandstorm had only increased a little bit, probably covering a radius of about 1 meter. Its intensity was still very low, not even enough to have a weakening effect on an opponent. Basalt had once tested it with his mom's Poliwag and found that when the small grains of sand hit its body, the tadpole felt no discomfort.

However, compared to the damaging effect of Sandstorm, Basalt was currently more focused on the activation effect of the Sand Rush ability for his sandstorm team. Fortunately, although the intensity of the sandstorm hadn't increased much, the speed boost from Drilbur's Sand Rush ability had increased from the original 30% to 40%.

What did a 40% speed boost mean? Based on Drilbur's base speed stat of 68, after a 40% boost, it had effectively reached a speed of 95. At this stage, among his peers whose Pokémon had not yet evolved, as long as Drilbur activated its Sand Rush ability, its speed could basically look down on all others.

Unfortunately, Basalt had never once let his little mole activate it in a battle, beautifully calling it "keeping an ace up his sleeve," which the little mole was quite displeased about.

"Hey brother, interested in a friendly match?"

In the Meteor Club, just as Basalt finished his special training and came out of Coach Miles's private instruction room, he was stopped by a young man with thick eyebrows and large eyes.

"Hmm? You are…"

Basalt looked up and met the young man's gentle smile. After hanging out at the club for half a month, Basalt had gotten to know most of the regulars, but he found that he seemed to be seeing this young man for the first time.

"My name is Lucas. I'm a freshman at Jiangnan University. I'm also from Seaside County and used to train at this club a lot, but I come less often now that I'm at university," the young man, Lucas, introduced himself, then added, "I saw you coming out of Coach Miles's room, so your skills must be pretty good. My hands were getting itchy for a battle."

"Jiangnan University?" Basalt was slightly surprised. That was one of the top universities in the country, a Top 3 institution. And listening to his tone, it seemed he was also trained by Coach Miles during his high school years. No wonder he could get into such a top-tier university.

"But…"

On second thought, as a student from a top-tier university, he was probably already at the Intermediate trainer rank, right? For a Novice-level trainer like himself, going up against him would be like serving himself up on a platter. Basalt didn't want to get himself beaten up.

Seeming to notice Basalt's hesitation, Lucas laughed heartily. "Don't worry, I won't bully you. The Pokémon I'll be using in this battle is one I've just started raising. In terms of strength, it's only at the Novice level."

"A Novice-level, you say? In that case, sure!"

Basalt nodded, eager to try. After training hard for half a month, he was also in need of a battle to test the results of Drilbur's training.