After defining the training plan for Sandslash and Shellder, Ethan Black turned his attention to the ones left: Cacnea, Shuckle, and Meltan.
He looked at Cacnea, reflected for a moment, and then set it aside to focus on Shuckle, who had practically not received much training.
In fact, Ethan Black had already thought before about a development route for Shuckle, but in the real world, moves like Power Split, Power Trick, or Guard Split simply have no method of learning. To master them, unless given a special and extraordinary opportunity, one could live a whole life without learning them.
Therefore, in that situation, aside from continuing to have Shuckle practice the moves Acupressure and Helping Hand, Ethan Black had no more effective training plan.
However, after the trip to the mine dimension, Ethan Black discovered Shuckle's greatest problem: its physical stamina was very low. Just using the moves Acupressure and Helping Hand a few times was enough to drain almost all its energy.
That's why Ethan Black decided to start by training its stamina, devising a plan focused on improving it.
After all, Shuckle's greatest utility in the team right now was to provide great support with the moves Acupressure and Helping Hand. What it needed to do was increase its endurance to be able to use them more times.
"Shuckle, the moves you know are: Sticky Web, Withdraw, Constrict, Bide, Rollout, Acupressure, and Helping Hand."
"If we want to train your stamina... we're not going to make you crawl, right? It looks like we'll have to start with the move Rollout."
After thinking for a moment, Ethan Black quickly defined the method: roll a lot and move more; that way, stamina would naturally improve.
"Meltan, you are a Mythical Pokémon. Don't you have some species heritage or something like that?"
After finalizing the plan for Shuckle, Ethan Black looked at Meltan, who was happily munching on a piece of iron ore at his side.
"Zzzt zzzt zzzt!"
Upon hearing him, Meltan rolled its eye in a very human-like way and continued eating its ore.
"If there's no data, we'll have to imagine it..." murmured Ethan Black. "I suppose Meltan's training plan I'll have to gradually perfect little by little."
Ethan Black sighed. In his previous life, he knew very little about Meltan.
He wasn't even clear on all the moves it could use, so much less could he design a specialized training regimen.
Even so, he knew Meltan was a Steel type and had already mastered the moves: Headbutt, Harden, Thunder Wave, Thunder Shock, Thunderbolt, and Flash Cannon, as well as its ability Magnet Pull. With this, Ethan Black decided to take as reference the breeding method of Magnemite for initial training.
Moreover, Meltan's body was very special: its structure was like mercury, highly malleable, capable of changing form depending on the environment. This opened the door to creating unique training plans.
Lastly, there was the matter of its evolution. Meltan would only reach its Mythical form by evolving into Melmetal.
Unfortunately, when Ethan Black traveled to this world, the Sun & Moon anime had only reached about episode 130, so he never got to see whether Ash's Meltan evolved or not.
Because of that, he was still unsure of the real conditions for Meltan to evolve into Melmetal.
In the games, Meltan needed to eat 400 Meltan Candy to evolve, but in the real world obviously there were no such "candies."
"Meltan, tell me, how is it that you grew so much?"
Ethan Black looked at it carefully.
His Meltan was nearly twice the size of a normal one. Perhaps the reason for its growth hid the key to its evolution.
"Zzzt zzzt zzzt!"
At the question, Meltan swiveled its eye and suddenly pointed at a bottle of metallic liquid on the table, gazing at it eagerly.
That metallic liquid was a supplement made with special metals, like a nutritional juice designed for Steel-type Pokémon.
"Do you mean that you grew this much because you ate large amounts of metal?"
Ethan Black narrowed his eyes, unsure whether Meltan could really grow and evolve like that, or if it was just this little rascal's excuse to eat more.
"Fine, from now on you'll have enough food... but if I discover that you can't grow with this method, I'll cut your portion in half." Ethan Black set the rules.
Meltan hesitated for a moment and then nodded quickly. In reality, it had indeed grown by eating more than usual.
"It should work..." thought Meltan doubtfully.
"Very well, I've finished preparing the training plan for all the other Pokémon."
Ethan Black turned to Cacnea and took a deep breath: "Cacnea, are you ready to evolve?"
Hearing this, Cacnea nodded firmly. It had waited a long time, and the moment had finally come.
"Let's go, then. Let's finish your evolution."
Ethan Black smiled, put his five Pokémon back into their Poké Balls, and left the room.
Upon arriving at the wide plaza, he saw several Pidgeot flying leisurely.
He approached one and greeted it. When he showed it the Poké Ball that President Beckett had personally given him, the Pidgeot recognized it and descended to let him mount.
"Thank you, Pidgeot. Take me to the desert testing grounds."
Ethan Black handed it a bottle of nutritional juice and indicated his destination.
Pidgeot nodded, let out a sharp cry, and, flapping its wings, quickly rose into the air toward the designated place.
During that time, Ethan Black took the opportunity to practice his riding skill a little. Although he wasn't as skilled as Professor Harris and the others, he had mastered the basics.
Moreover, Pidgeot was well-trained, so the journey was quite smooth. They soon arrived at their destination.
"Wow... what a huge artificial desert."
Standing before the vast stretch of sand, Ethan Black couldn't help but be amazed.
He had never imagined that, for research purposes, the Pokémon Researchers Guild would be capable of creating an entire desert inside the Secret Kingdom of the Sky.
Truly, when scientists go crazy, they can be terrifying.
(End of chapter)