Psychic

After a pleasant lunch, although Miltank wasn't particularly talkative, she gradually integrated into the small team. Being the only female, Murkrow took extra care of her, and even Gastly made an effort to lift her spirits.

In the afternoon, Aoki focused on crafting Pokéblocks in his room while the Pokémon continued their indoor training.

Murkrow's weight had reached 20 pounds, which slightly impacted his speed but did not significantly hinder his combat capabilities. Slowpoke, on the other hand, continued refining his psychic control by lifting objects around the room and carefully placing them back. His precision was improving steadily.

Gastly, due to spatial constraints, couldn't train his battle techniques effectively, so he focused on physical conditioning, leaving his ghostly presence in every corner of the room. As for Miltank, she was new to structured training and not yet fully accustomed to it. However, Aoki assigned her simple physical exercises to restore her condition after being confined for some time. Additionally, she produced fresh milk to help the team recover their energy, which Aoki stored in his space ring.

Despite the rigorous training, seeing her teammates work hard motivated Miltank to push herself further.

Aoki gathered the final batch of Pokéblocks, crafted from all the available materials. These high-quality Pokéblocks would sustain the team for over a month. However, considering their increasing consumption and the number of Pokémon he might acquire in the future, making money was becoming a pressing concern.

After storing the Pokéblocks, Aoki finally had time to examine the psychic training manual Sabrina had left for him.

He had previously skimmed through the introduction, which briefly outlined how a psychic should harness their abilities. Currently, Aoki's psychic power was weak—he could barely lift a pebble the size of a thumbnail and couldn't maintain it for long. In practical terms, his abilities were almost useless.

"I hope this book contains something useful," Aoki thought as he flipped through its pages.

As he read, he became completely absorbed. A whole new world unfolded before him.

Two hours later…

Aoki let out a deep breath. Despite the manual being only a dozen pages long, it had taken him a full two hours to digest its contents.

It explained that psychics, Aura users, and Bird Keepers all had hierarchical structures, ranked from beginner to intermediate, advanced, and ultimately elite. While this book focused solely on psychic abilities, it introduced the concept of a measuring tool called a "Meditation Bead."

A psychic's rank was determined by how many Meditation Beads they could lift simultaneously:

100 beads – Beginner

1,000 beads – Intermediate

10,000 beads – Advanced

Beyond this, the criteria for an elite psychic were unknown, possibly because the author had never encountered one or the concept was purely theoretical.

"I wonder what Sabrina's level is," Aoki mused. "If even she hasn't reached the elite threshold, then few in the world probably have."

Another part of the manual particularly caught Aoki's attention—the classification of psychic potential.

Much like a Pokémon's natural talent, a psychic's ability varied, and their ultimate achievements were largely determined by their innate potential.

To even awaken psychic abilities, a person needed at least five times the mental strength of an average human. Thanks to Slowpoke's insights, Aoki knew he had barely met this threshold. If not for Sabrina's psychic stimulation, he might have never awakened his abilities at all.

A person with this lowest tier of talent required 30 years of dedicated training just to become a beginner psychic.

Upon reading that, Aoki nearly threw the manual across the room. Thirty years? That was absurd. At that rate, his psychic ability would be useless in his lifetime.

Basic psychic skills, such as Telepathy, could only be learned after reaching the beginner level. But if it would take 30 years just to get there, Aoki realized that under normal circumstances, he would never be able to use such techniques.

Continuing through the manual, he saw that those who awakened with ten times the mental strength of an average person were considered "normal" psychics, capable of reaching the beginner level within five years.

If a person awakened with twenty times the normal mental strength, they had the potential to become an intermediate psychic—though it wasn't guaranteed.

Only those born with fifty times the normal mental strength were considered reliable candidates for intermediate status, with the possibility of challenging the advanced level.

Beyond that, the book provided no further classifications.

Most of the manual detailed basic training methods, including how to move small objects with telekinesis. These were the techniques Aoki had instinctively attempted before.

Certain sections were heavily emphasized, particularly on fundamental training methods—likely the reason Sabrina had given him the book in the first place.

Aoki attempted one of the meditation exercises described but found himself unable to enter the required state of mind. He sat still for two hours without making any progress.

Frustrated, he decided to use his System.

"System, scan and record the contents of this book. Cross-reference the database and find methods for quickly improving psychic strength."

A mechanical chime echoed in his mind: "Database established. Searching for relevant data. Estimated query time: Three days. Remaining time: 2 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 30 seconds."

Three days was acceptable. Aoki then issued another command.

"System, estimate the time it will take for me to reach the beginner psychic level."

A brief pause.

"Estimated time: 31 years. Remaining time: 31 years."

"..."