Growth Direction

Sniper ability—when landing a critical hit, the attack power becomes even stronger!

If Aoki could find items to increase Skorupi's critical hit rate in the future, then Skorupi—or rather, Drapion—would become the strongest burst-damage attacker in Aoki's hands.

Especially against Pokémon weak to its attacks, if a critical hit landed, even with a five-level difference, it would be an almost guaranteed knockout.

What also surprised Aoki was that after hatching, Skorupi had inherited two particularly useful moves: Bug Bite and Knock Off. This proved that Skorupi had exceptional potential.

Its light cyan potential was also the highest among Aoki's current Pokémon. Even a single-tier difference in potential could lead to a noticeable gap in combat power at the same level.

With Skorupi's hatching, Murkrow and Slowpoke were both thrilled. They wanted to reach out and touch the little guy but hesitated, afraid they might be too rough. Their cautious excitement made Aoki laugh.

To set an example, Aoki gently touched Skorupi's shell. Since it had just hatched, its body wasn't very hard yet—slightly rough, but not rigid.

Following Aoki's lead, Slowpoke and Murkrow carefully touched Skorupi as well, but the little Pokémon was too focused on drinking milk to notice.

Before long, the bottle of Miltank milk was emptied. After letting out a satisfied burp, Skorupi climbed up Aoki's arm to his shoulder, nuzzled against his neck, and quickly drifted into sleep.

Its small pincers tightly gripped Aoki's clothes, clinging on even when he moved.

Skorupi's pincers had tiny barbs that latched onto fabric fibers well. Without forcibly pulling it off, it wouldn't fall.

After seeing Skorupi fall asleep, Slowpoke and Murkrow took one last look before returning to their basic training.

After all, Skorupi was still a newborn—a baby Pokémon that would spend most of its time sleeping. Aoki had no plans to immediately recall it into a Pokéball. For now, there was no harm in keeping it outside. It was still small, and as long as it stayed still on his shoulder, most people wouldn't even notice it was a living creature.

Before evolving, Skorupi was a Poison/Bug-type. After evolving into Drapion, its typing would change to Poison/Dark. Although its typing would shift, it wouldn't forget its Bug-type moves, which would still give it a broader range of attack options.

Bug-type moves were super effective against Grass, Dark, and Psychic-types. Poison-type moves were strong against Grass and Fairy-types. Dark-type moves hit Psychic and Ghost-types for double damage. While some of these type advantages overlapped, Bug-type moves had strong offensive potential.

As for Poison-types, they ranked among the top three most dangerous types in the Pokémon world.

Unlike in the games, Poison-type Pokémon in the real world could not only inflict poison through direct attacks but could also release toxins from various parts of their bodies at will. This could include effects like corrosion, paralysis, or worse.

In the wild, encountering Poison-type Pokémon was one of the worst situations a Trainer could face. Once poisoned, a Pokémon would be in far more danger compared to conditions like burns, paralysis, or freezing.

At first, poisoning might not seem as severe as other status conditions, but over time, the toxins would spread, gradually weakening a Pokémon's combat ability—sometimes even leading to fatal consequences.

Pokémon in this world had incredible physical endurance. They could withstand powerful attacks that should be life-threatening, yet poison-type energy could bypass their defenses and slowly eat away at them.

And for humans, who were far weaker than Pokémon?

Without immediate treatment, Poison-type energy could be lethal.

This was why Aoki always carried plenty of antidotes when traveling. However, antidotes could only handle common poisons.

Poison was a complex energy formed when Pokémon absorbed Poison-type energy and developed specialized organs to store and release toxins. Each Poison-type Pokémon produced different types of toxins—some antidotes worked, while others didn't.

Though Skorupi had just hatched, the purple mist that seeped into its eggshell was actually concentrated Poison-type energy. That meant Skorupi already had venomous potential.

And despite being young, Skorupi hadn't released any toxins yet, meaning its Poison-type energy was still accumulating. Over time, it would develop a proper poison sac. Once that happened, Skorupi's full potential as a Poison-type Pokémon would be unleashed.

Aoki had already decided on Skorupi's training path.

Since it had Sniper, it wasn't suited for drawn-out battles that relied on poison to wear down opponents. Instead, it needed to be able to release powerful toxins in an instant, striking with overwhelming force.

If Gastly specialized in slow, creeping damage like an infection, then Skorupi was like a deadly cobra—one strike, one kill.

Before Skorupi fully matured, Aoki planned to search for items infused with potent venom to enhance its toxic abilities. The goal was to minimize its toxin usage in battle until its poison sac had fully developed.

Additionally, once Drapion evolved, it would gain access to a wide range of energy-based attacks, including elemental fang moves, making its offensive capabilities extremely versatile.

With the help of Miltank's milk, Aoki was confident that Skorupi could grow out of its infancy quickly. Once it reached its growth stage, serious training would begin.

Watching as his Pokémon returned to their training after the excitement of Skorupi's hatching, Aoki smiled and kept his plans for Skorupi in mind. Everything was still under control.

He took out the Psychic Training Manual that Sabrina had given him and resumed reading.

Even though he had already gone through it multiple times, each reread gave him new insights. What once seemed like simple words now held deeper meaning when examined from different perspectives.

The author of this manual was clearly a genius. Aoki had a nagging feeling that there was more hidden within its pages. Unfortunately, this was only the first volume—it wasn't complete.

Suddenly, Aoki's thoughts were interrupted by a familiar sensation.

"System, how much longer until the analysis on rapidly increasing psychic powers is complete?"

"Due to database expansion, analysis time has been extended. Remaining time: 6 hours, 31 minutes, 42 seconds."

The system's mechanical voice echoed in Aoki's mind.

The delay was likely due to the large amount of data imported from the Psychic Training Facility.

"By tomorrow morning, I should have the results…" Aoki thought silently.