Snow was falling outside, and in the middle of the bitter winter cold, Ash did not ride Pidgeot outside for his usual roaming meditation.
Instead, he simply sat quietly in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the hotel room and immersed himself in meditation.
He listened to the sound of snow falling outside.
His Aura spread outward, sensing everything around him. The information gathered by his Aura was then reconstructed as scenes and images upon the landscape-like canvas within his Psychic mental space.
After two hours of cultivation, the Aura energy within Ash's body had increased considerably.
However, as his cultivation grew stronger, the rate at which his Aura increased had inevitably slowed.
Even though the [Listening to All Things] meditation method remained extremely effective and active—even in this unfamiliar environment—the speed of his improvement was no longer what it had been before.
He could no longer advance two or three levels every single day like he once had.
Fortunately, Ash had already experienced something similar with the [Viridian Force], so he had anticipated that this day would eventually come.
He neither felt disappointed nor surprised.
Cultivation was inherently a process of accumulating progress day after day, like water slowly wearing away stone. It was impossible to achieve everything overnight.
Besides, Ash was only seven years old.
He was still very young, and he had plenty of time ahead of him.
By the time his cultivation session ended, it was already past eleven o'clock.
After sending goodnight messages to Serena, Clarissa Joy, and Misty, Ash quickly climbed into bed with Pikachu and went to sleep.
He had promised Alain that he would visit Professor Sycamore's laboratory tomorrow morning, so Ash naturally had no intention of breaking his word.
Moreover, most of the important matters he had come to Kalos to deal with had already been taken care of.
Starting tomorrow, his online clinic might not immediately resume operations, but the training of his Pokémon definitely needed to return to its original routine.
After all, training was just like studying.
Learning was like rowing a boat upstream—if you did not advance, you would inevitably drift backward.
Ash certainly did not want to come all the way to the Kalos region just to celebrate his girlfriend Serena's birthday, only for all his Pokémon to collectively lose a large chunk of their strength.
Outside the window, snow continued falling softly from the sky.
Inside the room, there was only the steady rhythm of peaceful breathing.
The night passed without incident, until dawn approached and the first faint light appeared in the eastern sky.
Since Ash had already decided to restore his normal training schedule, he did not allow himself to become lazy.
He quickly washed up, got dressed, and then took his Pokémon out of the hotel.
"Brrr..."
Snow had fallen throughout the previous night.
At a glance, everything outside the hotel was covered in a vast blanket of white.
A cold morning breeze blew directly toward them.
Pidgeot and Fearow instinctively hunched their necks and shivered.
Pikachu, perched on Ash's shoulder, also shifted its body and pressed closer against Ash's neck.
Pidgeot and Fearow were both Flying-type Pokémon, which meant they were naturally disadvantaged against Ice-type attacks. They also had relatively poor tolerance for cold.
If a Dragon-type Pokémon had been standing here instead, it probably would not have fared much better than Pidgeot and Fearow.
Pikachu's fur was relatively thin as well, so its ability to withstand the cold was not particularly impressive.
Venusaur, being a Grass-type Pokémon, also appeared quite uncomfortable in such frigid surroundings.
Greninja, Gyarados, and Milotic, on the other hand, possessed the excellent cold resistance associated with their Water typing and did not appear particularly bothered by the weather.
However, all of Ash's Pokémon possessed extremely strong wills.
Whether they were naturally afraid of the cold or not, none of them complained even once about the freezing weather.
In this respect, their personalities had clearly been influenced by Ash himself.
Under ordinary circumstances, everyone could happily play together, and they could be as spoiled, mischievous, or dramatic as they wanted.
But the moment serious work began, it did not matter how difficult the conditions were.
They would overcome them.
"Move your bodies around a little and you'll warm up."
"Our destination is the same little park we went to the other day. Everyone, keep up with me~"
With that, Ash took the lead and started running forward.
"Pika!"
"Greninja!"
"Pidgeot!"
"Fearow!"
"Gyaaah!"
"..."
"..."
The Pokémon behind him responded one after another before either flying or running after Ash.
Before long, the Trainer and his seven Pokémon arrived at the same small park they had visited a few days earlier.
For some reason, however, Alain was nowhere to be seen today.
Ash did not dwell on it.
He quickly assigned everyone their training tasks and began exercising together with his Pokémon.
Because they were outside, Ash was worried about exposing his Aura, so he did not practice any techniques involving Psychic-type energy.
Instead, he started with ordinary physical conditioning.
Running.
Frog jumps.
Squats.
After warming up his body, he moved on to practicing the techniques of Jujutsu and Laijutsu.
Although his proficiency in both Jujutsu and Laijutsu had already reached the Grandmaster level, there was no such thing as an end to learning, nor was there an end to martial arts.
The system interface might no longer provide him with any additional realm or level prompts, but Ash himself could clearly feel that his techniques were still improving.
...
When someone concentrated completely on a single task, time always seemed to pass quickly.
His one-hour morning training session ended before he knew it.
Afterward, Ash led his Pokémon back to the hotel.
He took a quick hot shower to wash away the sweat produced by his training.
By the time he came out, Serena, Clarissa Joy, Misty, and the others had also gotten up and left their rooms.
After everyone had finished getting ready, they headed downstairs to have breakfast.
As they rode the elevator down, Shauna—who had only just discovered that Ash went out for morning training every day—looked at him in surprise.
"Ash, you actually went out to exercise even though it's this cold outside? You really are hardworking."
"Strength is built up through day after day of hard work," Ash replied with a smile. "There's no shortcut to becoming stronger. Since I've decided to pursue a professional career as a Trainer, I can't afford to slack off."
"Is that so?"
After hearing Ash's words, not only Shauna but several of the others around him also fell into thoughtful silence.
Ash was roughly the same age as them, yet he was already so outstanding.
Outsiders only knew that Ash possessed extraordinary talent as a Trainer.
They did not know how much effort stood behind that talent.
But those few words Ash had just spoken revealed something deeper.
The mindset behind them was something they had not yet possessed.
After realizing this, the others looked at Ash with even more admiration and respect.
At the same time, they also felt a faint sense of embarrassment when they looked inward and compared themselves with him.
Compared with Ash, they all had their own professional ambitions and goals.
But if they honestly examined themselves, they had to admit that they simply were not working hard enough.
Ash, however, had no idea what his friends were thinking.
After all, he had never had the habit of using his Aura to eavesdrop on the thoughts of his friends.
Besides, the reason he had said those things just now was simply because they were all good friends.
Otherwise, he could not be bothered to waste his breath preaching to other people and risk making himself annoying.
"..."
"..."
After breakfast, Ash and the others took a taxi to the most famous and best-selling Lumiose City Lumiose Galettes shop.
They bought some cookies as a gift before taking another taxi together to Professor Sycamore's laboratory.
The previous afternoon, Alain had passed along Professor Sycamore's invitation and asked Ash to visit the laboratory.
The invitation had come after Ash's performance battle with Wikstrom that morning, when Pidgeot's Mega Evolution had been revealed.
The moment Ash received Alain's invitation, he already understood why Professor Sycamore wanted to meet him.
There was only one obvious reason.
Pidgeot's Mega Evolution.
After all, Mega Evolution was precisely the field Professor Sycamore had devoted himself to researching.
And now, a young Trainer had appeared before him with a Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution—and not just any Mega Evolution, but the Mega Evolution of Pidgeot.
For a scholar like Professor Sycamore, this was far more than a simple curiosity.
It held enormous academic significance.
And that was exactly why Ash was about to step into Professor Sycamore's laboratory.