Not Being a Trainer This Time

Chapter 866 - 435: Land of Dragons Completed, Hidden Trial in the Ranch

Naoki took the opportunity to greet Milotic and the others.

"How is it? Are you getting used to living here?"

"Woo～"

Milotic let out a melodious cry, expressing its fondness for this fairy-like place.

At this moment, Milotic deeply appreciated that it took the bait back then.

Meanwhile, the Tatsugiri, petite and sushi-like in appearance, were bouncing on the grass, trying to get Naoki’s attention.

"Meep!"

Naoki smiled and asked, "And how about you guys?"

"Meep!"

Seeing that Naoki finally noticed them, the Tatsugiri bounced even more joyfully.

They eagerly described their dreams to Naoki.

"Meep, meep!"

Calyrex casually helped translate, "They said they want to become sushi shop managers in the future and run a sushi shop diligently."

"What?" Naoki was almost taken aback, looking at the three Tatsugiri with a peculiar expression: "You want to be sushi shop managers?"

"Meep!" Tatsugiri nodded excitedly.

Naoki: "...Well, you better be careful not to stand next to the sushi, or else a customer might mistake you for sushi and eat you."

After all, Tatsugiri’s appearance looks exactly like sushi, especially the orange Tatsugiri, which looks just like a salmon sushi.

"Meep!"

Tatsugiri quickly shook their heads, indicating they wouldn’t!

Naoki thought to himself that they hadn’t even seen sushi yet... but the specifics could wait until the sushi shop actually opened!

Right now, he was more curious about this Slowpoke in front of him.

After a long while, seemingly realizing its position had changed, Slowpoke finally turned its head slowly.

Its turning movement was very slow, and its gaze remained vacant.

"Poke?"

Naoki heard Slowpoke’s call.

"Poke?" he repeated Slowpoke’s call.

But Slowpoke didn’t respond, its vacant gaze meeting his.

Naoki: "..."

He felt that if he sat here without moving, Slowpoke could continue staring at him like this for three days and nights.

Placing Slowpoke by the lake, Naoki reached out to touch its curled ears.

Speaking of Slowpoke, one must mention its two evolutionary forms.

Slowbro and Slowking.

Even among Pokémon around the world, Slowpoke’s evolution method is very special.

Unlike other Pokémon that evolve independently, Slowpoke needs another Pokémon named Shellder to evolve.

When Shellder bites onto Slowpoke’s tail, the two Pokémon combine to evolve into Slowbro.

And when Shellder bites onto Slowpoke’s head, combined with the evolution item King’s Rock, it can evolve into Slowking.

Slowking, as the name implies, is the king among Slowpoke.

Once, researchers discovered that Slowking’s intelligence is very high, reaching levels comparable to top scientists worldwide.

Wild Slowking would even compete in intelligence with Oranguru, often resulting in a draw.

Thinking about this, Naoki’s interest was piqued.

He had always wanted to hire a high-intelligence Pokémon to open a shop here and had even given the Heroic Expedition Team a commission to find an Oranguru.

But it seemed that encountering Oranguru was proving difficult at the moment.

So the question arose: Could he help this Slowpoke evolve into Slowking to take over the work of an Oranguru?

However, for Slowpoke to evolve into Slowking, aside from needing a Pokémon named Shellder, it also requires a special item, the King’s Rock.

Neither of these evolution items was available on the ranch.

After thinking it over slightly, Naoki decided to search online later to see if he could buy a King’s Rock from someone else.

As for Shellder, that was much simpler.

As long as he took Slowpoke to a coastal area with Shellder presence, Shellder would eventually nibble at its head or tail, forming a symbiotic relationship with Slowpoke.

*

In the afternoon, Zack called to inform him that he had already made contact with a fry aquaculture farm.

After hanging up the phone, Naoki went with Zack to a fry aquaculture farm located south of Porto Marinada Town and spent a sum of money to buy a large batch of fry.

Bass, yellow croaker, saury, and so on.

Afterward, Naoki took a trip to Porto Marinada Town and purchased a batch of Berry seedlings from Elo Seed Store.

After accomplishing all these tasks, he took Dugtrio and Calyrex and headed to Dragonite Island where the Dragonite resided.

The next steps were much simpler.

Naoki had worked with Dugtrio lots of times; marking out the designated area so Dugtrio understood.

They burrowed underground, using Dig to transform the area into soil suitable for growing fruit trees.

Some Dragonite were attracted and stood by curiously to observe.

While Dugtrio was tilling the land, Naoki rode his Dragonite and started releasing the fry into the waters.

Finally, he found the somewhat older Dragonite and the gigantic Dragonite on Dragonite Island and said to them:

"I’ve already released the fry into the sea water, it won’t be long before you can eat fish here."

The older Dragonite was very pleased, and the gigantic Dragonite was also filled with gratitude.

Naoki smiled, continuing: "However, it’s important to remember, you cannot eat them before they’ve grown up, otherwise if they’re all eaten, there won’t be any more fish left in this area of sea."