Chapter 6

It had been a week since Alex had gotten his starter pokemon. In the first few days, Alex had played with his infant Pokémon and taught it about human basics cause pokemon are born with an innate understanding of the Pokémon world and ranks but no info about human ranks like trainers or the league. He also taught Charmander when to attack, who to attack and general points to strike for maximum efficiency, and a bunch of base rules. After all, infants needed social interactions, and setting the base rules early helps with obedience.

Also, it turned out Alex's Charmander was a biological male that was on the larger side of Charmander but nothing too extraordinary. Also, Alex's Charmander wasn't legally Alex's, it was registered under oak and would be registered under oak until Alex became a trainer.

Alex's relationship with Charmander was like a wise old grandfather and his impulsive grandson who admired his grandfather which was a bit weird since Alex was only 8. Alex also figured out that Charmander loved physical contact and rubbed under his chin. Also, Charmander once snuck into Alex's bed and when Alex woke up he decided to let Charmander sleep next to him.

Of course, Alex also trained his Charmander under the guise of games. Since Charmander only knew quick attack, scratch, and leer, for now, I played tag where I encouraged him to use quick attacks in quick bursts that his body can handle and to use leer to try and make me flinch long enough to attack with scratch. This also conditions his physical body. Of course, good exercise will only be detrimental without proper food.

So, Alex fed his Pokémon the best food that anyone in his position can get their hands on, wild Pokémon. Pokémon that have lived in the wild have a large number of nutrients and proteins and other minerals in their body which is beneficial to all Pokémon. The only reason that most people didn't use this method is that it is easier to eat berries and industrial food and eating wild Pokémon corpses can cause an increase in feral behavior, especially in dragonic pokemon. Also eating the wrong part of even a normal Pokémon can be lethal, let alone a poisonous Pokémon.

Alex specially and carefully selected the Pokémon he fed to Charmander because Charmander is still not strong enough to shrug off a disease or poison. He also had to balance the diet and kill around 3-4 times Charmander body weight cause in its early stages pokemon ate a lot of food.

The only 'industrial' product Alex bought was local milk that was pretty high quality considering its price but it was a local business and most trainers did not examine their food under a borrowed microscope.

The reason Alex used this method is that with his meager funds he can only buy 3 mid-quality meals for Charmander and that was his savings for more than 2 years. Food of any lower qualities contained impurities which is something that Alex simply can't have. Wild Pokémon food has no impurities cause the parts Alex uses for food to have no impurities.

Higher quality food can also improve Pokémon's strength but the thing is that the food is not creating potential out of thin air, that food simply brings out the potential without the need to train at all but to Alex, who was going to train his Pokémon to their absolute limits, this food was unnecessary.

Also eating Pokémon builds immunity and strengthens the digestion system, plus pokemon have evolved with the need to eat wild Pokémon, even infant Pokémon are fed Pokémon by their parents so this isn't some barbaric practice among pokemon, it is only barbaric for trainers.

Although it had been only 2 days, the training had shown its results, the Charmander hadn't grown too much, around 1/5 of an inch but its attacks had gotten noticeably stronger and Charmander had started using tactics such as targeting Alex's legs and scratching the ground strategically to cause Alex to stumble.

The only problem was that Charmander was throwing around its energy without any conservation which caused a drop in power.

"Charmander come here."

Alex called Charmander with a serious expression.

"Char Char."

Seeing his trainer's expression Charmander also turned serious, almost mirroring Alex's expression on his little face.

"Charmander, what's your goal? What do you wanna achieve?"

Charmander made a scratching Pokémon and roared with a small amount of power behind it. Alex could understand what Charmander was saying pretty well so he was able to translate it to 'I wanna be the strongest.

"Hmm follow me."

Alex walked towards a small pond that was pretty close to pallet town. He pulled out a mug from his backpack. He then proceeded to fill the cup with the pond water.

"Look carefully"

Alex said as he proceeded to throw the water out of the mug.

"That water splash is like your attack, sure you are throwing the water but is all of it reaching your goal? Are you using all of your water? No. So now your training starts, we will start with control of your body. Any questions?"

"Char char?" Charmander titles its head with a questioning look on its face

"You confused about the water thing right?"

Charmander nodded as Alex sighed and walked towards the thinnest tree he saw, it was around a foot wide so pretty thin.

Alex simply punched the tree with no stance or technique and the tree shook a tiny bit and a few leaves fell but overall nothing happened.

"This is like your current attack, no control, only power."

Alex walked a few feet back and then fell into a practiced stance and every muscle in his body tensed and took off towards the tree with explosive force and put his entire body behind his fist, twisting his feet, rotating his hips, it looked as if every muscle in his body was behind this punch. Alex's fist came out the other end of the tree-covered in a few splinters but overall looking fine

"This is what I want your attacks to be. This is what I will be training you towards, understood."

This time the Charmander in question nodded as if it had understood perfectly and Alex understood that most non-physic type pokemon would understand physical examples better than philosophical ones. His previous experiences with his butterfree had some biases that he is gonna try to take into account.

"First physical control, can you make a fist." Charmander nodded.

"Can you make a claw" Charmander nodded as it performed the mentioned move?

"Can you move each finger individually?" Charmander nodded once again.

"Okay, can you move your toes individually?" This time Charmander signaled that it couldn't.

"This is a very important step. For example how I managed to move so fast when speeding towards the tree." Alex proceeded to take off his shoes and socks and show that he can move each toe individually and then proceeded to put his foot down and grip into the earth and launch with explosive speed.

"For now Charmander, you are weak, that is a fact. So in front of a strong enemy, you can't use weak attacks, to surpass them you must use every bit of power in your body and put it into one strike. So don't use 3 scratches, don't use just a quick attack, use one scratch with the power of ten and combine it with the speed of quick attack and explosive speed to defeat those who are stronger than you. To not use a 100 moves with the power of 1 but to use 1 move with the power of a 100."

Charmander listened with apt attention, not even being offended by being called weak. After all, it couldn't even kill its prey, forcing its trainer to hunt for him. Charmander was more interested in the last lines, to use all of its power in one move, one singularity, one move to match a hundred. It sounded awesome and more importantly, powerful.

Charmander felt himself shaking a bit, not out of fear but out of a primal feeling that had arisen in him, the primal need for strength. Charmander clenched its fist as he looked at his trainer with gratitude and respect but above all battle-lust.

Seeing the look in Charmander's eyes, Alex grew happy cause he had seen those eyes in the mirror too many times to count.