Axel had truly underestimated the passive move 'Intellect mind' of Staraptor. Its mind and intelligence were far higher than any king-ranked Pokemon let alone a rare-ranked Pokemon.
"What you have said does make sense. I think that is the only way we can hope that it will be a steel/grass type Pokemon in the future. But there are also risks involved. I have never thought of changing the typing of Pokemon before. So, first we must ask Lairon if it is ready to do it."
'Don't worry. I know it will agree. It is currently training on the training ground.', said Staraptor.
Axel and Staraptor decided to visit Lairon and have a conversation with it.
###
Tonight may be the most frightening night for Lairon. First, its plan was busted by Staraptor, and then it saw both Axel and Staraptor coming towards it.
'What should I do? Axel would definitely punish me now. I should have never trusted Gandiva.', thought Lairon.
But its surprise didn't end there. Instead of getting a scolding, Axel praised it for working hard.
'Maybe I was wrong. Boss is truly the greatest.'
"Lairon, you are about to evolve, but now your training period will increase. You will not only try to upgrade your steel-type moves but also equally concentrate on grass-type move.
You will learn the move 'Leech seed' and 'Grassy terrain', and then you will also create a new grass-type move. Coupled with upgrading the steel type moves, these will be your evolution condition.
Also, try your best, you can upgrade 'Grass field' to Stage III. But don't put so much pressure on it."
After saying this, he told both of them to rest and prepare for tomorrow.
Currently, in the morning till afternoon, Lairon would focus on steel-type moves, and from afternoon to night, it would focus on grass-type moves. Oni was a great helper on this, but as of right now, Axel was thinking about another important thing.
The intellect of Staraptor had raised an alarm to Axel. He didn't want such a talent to go to waste. So, he immediately hired Staraptor as his personal intelligence head. This was a position that he came up with on a whim.
"I want you to know that I planned for everyone here to train for 4-5 years, and then we will go to the main world. But as of right now, we don't have the means to go to the main world. Only hell rank tribe could do it. So, I want to make a friendly relationship with God Nedes, who is the leader of hell rank tribe.
I want you to plan step by step on how we are going to achieve it. Currently, I want this tribe to stand out, so we can be noticed by God Nedes. That is why I am training all of them to the limit.
So, make plans on how you will do it if you are thinking from my perspective."
The result was immediate.
Staraptor proposed a range of suggestions. First of all, it said that they had not fully explored this place. Also, God Nedes was not the only way for them to get out of here. There was a high possibility that this God Nedes could not be trusted, and they should have a backup plan. Finally, it said that since there was an entity that wanted them to come here, they should make sufficient preparation for it, too. They didn't know when or where they would be attacked by this entity.
Talking with Staraptor gave Axel some fresh perspective. He knew about these things, but since he had so much to think about, he had forgotten about it.
Axel looked at the description of 'Intellect mind'
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Intellect mind:
Stage I: The user has a high level of intellect and is very creative. Has a problem-solving mind and doesn't trust too easily.
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Moves like this were especially hard to upgrade. If it were a special type or physical type moves, he knew that training and improving it slowly would improve it. But 'Intellect mind' would just let Staraptor have a high level of intellect. So, the best way to upgrade it was to give Staraptor puzzles like this, so that it could upgrade it in the future. This was the only thing he could think about for upgrading this passive move.
After training for days, Axel had a firm grasp on his new aura core. He could still not use the core to overpower himself, but he was satisfied that his manipulation of aura had increased. He could now cover his whole body with aura coat and then fight for destructive power.
Yet, he could only do so for 4 minutes, and he would run out of gas. With the rank up of Togekiss, Axel had a new plan to explore the place. So, he talked with Oni about it.
"It would just be you, me, and my team. With you being a master rank Pokemon, we will be safe. I just want to explore this new realm."
This time, Oni could not say no to him. Togekiss might had just ranked up to king rank status but it was already a tier 2 king rank Pokemon. Axel believed that this was purely due to the full consumption of 'Fairy dew'.
Togekiss had also created a new fairy-type attacking move called 'Nature wrath', which heightened its power to a whole new level. When it ranked up and reached tier 2 king rank, Togekiss manipulation of fairy-type energy had increased by a great margin. Also, the capacity of the seals had increased a lot.
This had not only made it able to fight under the enhancement of 'Nature wrath' for 10 minutes, but now the refinement of its fairy clone and Rage clone of Primeape started to go an accelerated pace.
Axel had thought that it would take a few months for Primeape to evolve, but now it turned out that it might not take that long.
"Ok, we will go and explore? But where should we go?", asked Oni.
First, we will explore this whole forest. We need to know about our competition and places where we can gain more power. After that, we will extend our exploration beyond the forest.
Axel realized that the forest was really too big. He had told Staraptor to fly high and see the end of the forest, but even with its enhanced vision, it could not see the end of it. Nobody knew how vast the forest really was. So, his initial plan was to explore the forest.
Lairon was now on a training spree. After days of training, it had finally learned 'Grassy terrain' and 'Leech seed'. It was also thinking about upgrading these moves to level 40 and creating another move.
But its steel type training had not regressed. Oni was a very strict trainer, and its requirements were very high. After training for a long time, its mastery of its hidden ability had been raised. This was especially good for a Lairon because its hidden ability increased its weight while fighting.
It had also upgraded 'Iron defense', 'Heavy slam', and 'Iron head' to level 40. It had also learned a new move called 'Gyro ball'. Unlike the name of the move, it was not a special attack move but a physical attack move. The user would tackle the enemy by spinning. The slower the user, the higher the attack power.
Oni also wanted Lairon to learn the move 'Anchor shot'. Now, 'Anchor shot' was the signature move of a Pokemon called Dhelmise. Normally, a Pokemon should not be able to learn this move other than Dhelmise.
But with high mastery of steel-type energy, it was not impossible. Even Oni knew this move, and it had helped Oni a lot in battle.
But due to not having a steel-type core, even with all the hard work, Lairon could not learn it, yet.
So, Oni had been repeatedly training it for the passive move 'Greater shield'. With the upgrade on 'Greater shield', Oni believed that even if it reached uncommon rank, it would be able to beat a rare rank Pokemon. The potential of this move was very high.
After a week, Lairon was finally able to upgrade the move 'Greater shield'.
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Greater Shield:
Stage I: With each increase in its health and defense stats, its overall physical defense would double in increments. A soft metallic aura would always cover its body.
Stage II: After sitting in the meditative position, the user will enter the state called 'Heart of steel' where its mastery over steel-type moves would slowly increase. The metallic aura covering its body had become thicker, and now its special defense will also increase with its each increase in health and special defense stat.
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"Hurray!!!"
Oni was the most excited of them all. It didn't care about the special defense part, but the part called 'Heart of steel'. With this, Lairon's steel type mastery would rapidly increase. It might also be able to learn its signature move 'Steel warrior', in the future.
No, it would learn this move. Oni had now found its second successor.
After a week, Lairon was finally able to learn its new grass type move too.
---
Grass shield: The bulb of grass-type energy covering the user's body would harden, increasing its weight and also its overall defense.
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The thing that Axel was most worried about was its special defense stat. Aggron would have a relatively low special defense stat compared to its defense stat. So, if it were hit by a special attack, it might be vulnerable in the future.
But now with the stage II of 'Greater shield' and 'Grass shield', the problem would slowly go away.
Yet, this was not the only change that happened to Lairon. It had fulfilled all the conditions for evolution, and with this, a bright glow covered its whole body.
The process of evolution, which should not have taken more than 4-5 minutes, went on for nearly 10 minutes.
Axel could hear grunts and the painful noise of Lairon. This was expected as its whole body was changing, but the pain of evolution should not be so much.
'Is it because it trained in grass-type move a lot?'
Axel was worried about this. But right now, he could not do anything except wait.
Its body started to get taller and bigger, and with a loud roar, the process of evolution ended.
ROOOOARRR
Axel looked at the final form of Aggron. Aggron was incredibly tall, around 7 feet, but his Aggron was at least 8-9 feet tall. This showed that Aggron had a solid foundation. Aggron looked a bit different. The outside edges of its body were covered in a green hue mixed with grey color. It didn't look as strong as Steven's Aggron, so he was a bit confused.
He had used all the resources that he could find, and the resources that Lairon consumed were of higher quality and quantity than Steven's, but why did it look so… not intimidating?
So, he decided to look at its status page.
"This is….."