Chapter 29: Ginger is still spicy with age

"hiss?"

Caterpie put down the branch and looked at the old village chief with confusion.

Although it is a little stupid, it shouldn't be difficult for it to learn to count, right?

You have to know that the owner has been teaching it for almost a day, and it already had the concept of numbers before. Numbers often appear in human language, so over time it understood some of them. 

 The only problem is that it is now learning to count backwards, and it feels like its brain can't figure it out, so it can't get it right.

While Caterpie was still thinking, he saw the old village chief take out the Poké Ball.

Along with a red light, a sturdy fighting-type Pokémon appeared, which was the old man Aaron's super power. 

Old Man Aaron looked at Raticate and said, "Check the number. It has to be more than twenty."

Raticate scratched his head and without giving it much thought, he followed his master's instructions and started counting.

Unlike the strong force and arm strength before evolution, the evolved strange force not only has a stronger body, but also has two more arms on the back.

This directly doubles the statistical range of the strange power. 

I saw the strange creature fiddling with its twenty fingers, muttering to itself, and when it realized that the number was not enough, it quickly sat on the ground and started fiddling with its four toes.

Although Raticate has five fingers on his hands, he only has two toes on his feet.

Just like that, as he counted to twenty-four, his strange power suddenly froze and he fell into a state of confusion similar to a brain crash. 

Old Man Aaron looked at the strange man sitting on the ground and bending his toes, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and then he turned his head to look at Mark's Caterpie.

This is a Caterpie!

Although it has strong limbs and a simple mind, it is not inferior to a Carterpie.

Old man Aaron, who has been running Caterpie breeding base in Chear Creek Village for many years, has a deep understanding of the intelligence of Caterpies.

Saying that the Caterpie's intelligence is equal to that of Magikarp is an insult to the Caterpie, but even if the Caterpie's intelligence is stronger than that of Magikarp, it is not much stronger and is far below the average IQ of Pokémons.

Suddenly, Old Man Aaron noticed something. He saw the pattern that Caterpie had written on the ground with a wooden stick not long ago.

Although they look crooked, these patterns are clearly digital symbols.

Not only did he learn to count, he also learned to write numbers?

Is this a Caterpie?

Old Man Aaron took a breath of cold air unconsciously.

He did notice that Mark's Caterpie was smarter than ordinary Caterpie, but he never thought it would be this smart.

Considering Caterpie's excellent [impact] skills in the yard a few days ago, plus its larger and stronger body than an ordinary Caterpie, and the fact that Mark took Caterpie Clear Creek Forest every day and trained hard like an ascetic.

The three elements of right time, right place and right people are all in place.

As long as it continues like this, this Caterpie will definitely have a promising future.

Even if Mark fails to enter the Pokémon Academy in the future, when this Caterpie evolves into Butterfree, Mark can easily join a Bug-type gym of a small town level, and then naturally become a formal trainer.

Although it is impossible to compare with Amy and Alden, Mark's life is already guaranteed.

Mark didn't notice that Old Man Aaron was thinking in a complicated way. He just thought that something was wrong with his approach.

He walked up to Old Man Aaron, who had been in a daze for a while, and asked doubtfully, "Village Chief, is there any problem if I let Caterpie learn mathematics?"

Old man Aaron came back to his senses and wanted to give him a good compliment, but after thinking it over he gave up.

At Mark's age, it is time to be cautious about arrogance and impatience. If he is praised too much, it will easily have the opposite effect.

He rubbed the stubble on his chin and said,

"Problems... No, for now. You can continue with your method, but be careful about the intensity of the actual combat training. Don't let your Caterpie overdraw its body or suffer any permanent damage. As for how to teach Caterpie to count backwards, you have seen my strange strength. In fact, this is also an area I am not very good at."

A few meters away, Raticate, who was still counting on his fingers, heard something and looked at his master in a daze, and saw Old Man Aaron raising the Poké Ball.

A red light flashed, and the strange power was absorbed into it.

Caterpie came over with a curious look on its face, staring intently at the Poké Ball containing supernatural power.

Old Man Aaron raised his eyebrows slightly, thinking of something, and touched Caterpie's head and said, "Do you like Poké Balls very much?"

"Hiss!"

Old Man Aaron smiled and said, "Since you like it so much, well, if you can learn to count backwards, I will help your master finance half of your Poké Ball. However, when I say count backwards, I don't mean just counting. You have to write it on the ground with a wooden stick like you did just now, and it can't be written crookedly."

"Hiss!"

Caterpie excitedly jumped onto Old Man Aaron's shoulder and rubbed his cheek.

Mark glared at the complacent Caterpie and walked up to Old Man Aaron. "Village Chief, you don't have to be like this. Regarding Caterpie's Poké Ball, I can do it myself..."

Before Mark finished speaking, he was interrupted by Old Man Aaron waving his hand.

Old Man Aaron frowned, patted the lost Caterpie twice with his hands and said:

"Raising an Pokémon is like raising a child. My words just now have given it expectations. You directly dispel its expectations like this. Do you know how much negative impact it will have on it?

It's settled, as long as it can figure out how to count backwards and write with a stick, I'll pay for half of its Poké Ball.

Caterpie, do you have confidence? "

"Hiss!!"

Caterpie jumped down from Old Man Aaron's shoulder, first made a determined gesture, then immediately picked up the small wooden stick, wrote and drew on the ground, and entered a state of hard study.

Old man Aaron glanced at Mark, rubbed his chin stubble lightly, and showed a half-smile.

Although Mark's performance gave him the feeling that a new generation was replacing the old, Mark obviously still lacked a lot of experience in cultivating Pokémons.

Old Man Aaron said, "I'm not very good at teaching Caterpie to count backwards, but you can learn this method of motivating the spirits. I can see that your Caterpie is very sensible, but you must also take advantage of the situation and use a different mindset to learn and exercise. The results are often very different."

Mark glanced at Caterpie writing and drawing on the ground, and then looked at the experience bar on the Spirit Master's panel that was constantly rising.

After Old Man Aaron's encouragement, the rate at which Caterpie's experience bar increased by studying mathematics increased by at least 30%.

Mark nodded solemnly and said, "I understand. Thank you for your advice, but the Poké Ball is still..."

Mark's words were interrupted again by Old Man Aaron waving his hand.

"Even if I'm supporting you and Caterpie, I'm the village chief of Clear Creek Village. Shouldn't I help young people with potential in the village?

In fact, if I wasn't afraid that you would become dependent on my support, I could directly support Caterpie with a Poké Ball once he fulfilled the conditions.

Well, we have wasted quite a bit of time. I guess you and Caterpie haven't eaten anything. Let's just have a quick meal and then report to the village school.

By the way, speaking of eating, the more you eat, the better.

Eighty percent... no, seventy percent full is enough..."