Another five or six days passed, and Houndoom finally mastered control over its newly evolved strength.
It was worth mentioning that while training Inferno, perhaps because of the immense amount of Fire-type energy contained within the Move, Houndoom had managed to draw parallels and develop something new.
It could now use a Move similar to Flamethrower.
Although it wasn't quite a true Flamethrower yet, it was already far stronger than Ember.
Icarus named the Move "Small Flame."
Houndoom: I'm a dog, damn it! Not Agumon!
Of course, Houndoom had no idea who Agumon was, so it happily accepted the name anyway.
Besides that unexpected gain, its combination Move had also made progress.
Houndoom successfully improved Fire Spin. Now, Fire Spin could trap enemies while simultaneously detonating all of its fire energy at once, dealing heavy damage with a high chance of inflicting burns.
The only drawback was that if the explosion happened immediately, Fire Spin couldn't trap the opponent for long.
After all, maintaining Fire Spin itself consumed energy. If it waited too long before detonating, the remaining energy wouldn't be nearly as cost-effective as simply using the Move for crowd control.
Originally, Icarus had wanted to improve Inferno instead, but unfortunately, whether because Houndoom's strength wasn't high enough yet or because some hidden trick was involved, he simply couldn't figure it out.
As a half-baked Trainer, being able to create this "Swirling Blast" was already the product of his wild imagination.
Meanwhile, Weepinbell had finally mastered Double Team, though learning the Move had made it suffer quite a bit.
Weepinbell was already poor at movement to begin with, and Double Team relied on creating afterimages through rapid movement.
So even after secretly pushing itself through extra training every single day, Weepinbell could currently only create a single clone, unlike Pidgeotto, which could casually produce three or four at once.
Still, there were benefits.
Weepinbell could now use the acceleration principle behind Double Team to suddenly burst forward at high speed for a short period of time, though it only lasted around one or two seconds.
Even so, Weepinbell was extremely satisfied.
It felt that all the suffering from the past few days had been worthwhile. If it had known this acceleration trick back then, it would have been able to catch up to Houndour.
It still felt deeply guilty over failing to complete Icarus's command during that battle, especially since Houndour had nearly been seriously injured.
Its harsh extra training over the past few days was specifically to ensure that mistake would never happen again.
Now that it had achieved results, it finally felt relieved.
"Mhm, Weepinbell, you've learned it very well. Don't put too much pressure on yourself, alright?"
After watching Weepinbell's demonstration, Icarus gently stroked its head.
He had actually noticed Weepinbell's secret extra training several times, but he never stopped it.
Through their Mind Contract, he understood Weepinbell's emotions clearly: resentment, guilt, sadness.
He had tried comforting it twice before, but the effect had been minimal, so he eventually allowed Weepinbell to handle things in its own way.
Of course, Icarus hadn't been completely idle either.
Over the past few days, he had secretly added honey into Weepinbell's meals. Although it could no longer improve aptitude, in terms of nutrition alone, it was still top-tier.
"Moo moo~ Moo moo? ω?"
Weepinbell nodded happily, saying it understood.
"Mhm."
Through the Mind Contract, Icarus could sense that Weepinbell's mood had genuinely improved. It felt relieved and happy now.
Lastly came Pidgeotto.
Pidgeotto still served as the team's primary attacker.
Especially after learning Air Slash, its offensive power had become incredibly stable.
Icarus had specifically tested the Move, and its power was definitely among the best within the Ordinary mid-stage.
In particular, its cutting power likely already touched the threshold of the Ordinary high-stage.
Of course, the Move also consumed a tremendous amount of energy.
At Pidgeotto's current Ordinary mid-stage level, it could only use Air Slash around fifteen times.
Taking actual combat into consideration, Icarus limited its practical usage to around ten times per battle.
To obtain this Move, Icarus had paid a full 100,000 yuan.
That was already because Uncle Sam had only charged the normal rate. Otherwise, just the reputation of an Elite-level Trainer alone could easily have added another 50,000.
At this point, Icarus's bank balance had fallen to only 350,000.
Money really was easy to spend and difficult to earn.
Now that Houndour had evolved into Houndoom, and both Weepinbell and Pidgeotto had also improved considerably in strength, Icarus decided to return to his previous mission routine.
He would continue prioritizing Team Rocket missions while supplementing them with Alliance missions whenever convenient.
After all, Weepinbell's high-stage cultivation manual and Pidgeotto's high-stage cultivation manual still needed to be prepared.
His remaining ninety Team Rocket contribution points were nowhere near enough.
"Weepinbell's high-stage cultivation manual costs 250 points, while Pidgeotto's costs 320. Together that's nearly 600 points again. These Pokémon really are money-eaters."
Looking at the exchange prices on the computer, Icarus let out a bitter smile.
He still needed another 480 contribution points.
"Forget it. I'm not particularly short on money right now anyway. Until the end of the year, I'll just focus on farming Team Rocket missions."
After thinking it over carefully, Icarus realized he currently didn't have any major expenses requiring cash.
What he truly lacked right now was knowledge.
And within Team Rocket, knowledge-based resources were discounted by twenty percent. Having a large stockpile of contribution points was always beneficial.
After making his decision, Icarus immediately departed with his three Pokémon and resumed his mission-grinding routine.
Time flew by, and a little over a month passed.
Throughout that period, Icarus steadily completed contribution-point missions.
There were no lucky encounters or hidden opportunities.
Just like an ordinary grunt, even after working hard every day, he only averaged around twenty contribution points daily.
Still, after more than a month of effort, he had finally accumulated enough contributions.
He now possessed a massive 960 Team Rocket contribution points.
As for money, there wasn't much change.
His bank balance had only barely climbed back to 500,000 yuan, since raising Pokémon alone consumed huge amounts of money every day.
On top of that, he had completed more than a dozen Alliance missions over the past month, increasing his merit points from barely 700 to around 810.
"Phew~ That should be enough for now.
Next, I'll do Alliance missions with Stone and the others instead. In another month or so, it'll probably be close to the New Year, and all the major businesses in town will start holding events. I should prepare some extra money beforehand."
After removing his ID card from the self-service machine, Icarus didn't immediately exchange anything.
He was simply making preparations in advance to avoid another embarrassing situation where he couldn't afford evolution materials or plans.
He still remembered how badly he had miscalculated things while earning contribution points, almost causing Houndour to evolve during battle.
"Probably after the New Year, they'll truly be close to the high-stage. I'll exchange for the manuals then."
After making up his mind, Icarus walked out of the base without looking back.
He had already arranged to meet Airi and Stone this afternoon to complete Alliance missions together.
Their second Pokémon had successfully broken through to the Ordinary low-stage and, after proper training, had finally become true combat power in their hands.
"I wonder what kind of Psychic abilities that Staryu has?
And I heard Stone's little Sandshrew evolved directly into Sandslash. I just don't know whether Stone used resources to raise its aptitude by another grade."
Walking home, Icarus found himself genuinely curious.
After nearly two months apart, what kind of surprises would his companions bring him?
Before long, he arrived home.
Even when encountering Pokémon around the outskirts now, he simply had Houndoom scare them away. He genuinely couldn't be bothered fighting them anymore.
Icarus finally understood why stronger Ordinary-level Trainers rarely bothered hunting in the outskirts.
The money simply wasn't worth the time.
Rather than wasting effort on Pokémon that only provided a few hundred or thousand yuan in materials, it was far more worthwhile to hunt Ordinary-level Pokémon deeper inside the forest.
Once your Pokémon started costing tens of thousands to raise, a few hundred yuan no longer felt exciting at all.
"Stone, Airi, you're already here?"
The moment he reached his front door, Icarus saw his teammates waiting outside and greeted them warmly.
"Brother Icarus, long time no see!"
The two replied enthusiastically as well.
Of course, "long time no see" only referred to them not doing missions together for two months.
They had still met occasionally during that period, but none of them had time for proper conversations.
Stone and Airi had been busy training their new Pokémon, while Icarus had been focused on Houndour's evolution.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Icarus quickly shifted the topic toward their new Pokémon.
"Airi, this is your Staryu, right? It looks really energetic."
Icarus looked curiously at the golden-bodied Staryu with the ruby embedded in its center.
"Yes! This is Staryu. Hurry and greet Brother Icarus. He's the person closest to me!"
Hearing this, Airi immediately instructed Staryu to greet him.
"Heh ya Heh ya"
Staryu slightly bent its lower points, giving something resembling a bow.
"Hello, hello, Staryu!"
Icarus waved back cheerfully.
"I remember most Staryu can use Psychic abilities. Yours should be able to as well, right, Airi?"
After greeting it, Icarus immediately asked the question he was most interested in.
"Hehe, Brother Icarus, of course it can! I even taught it Confusion! Although it cost me a ton of money, T_T"
Hearing that topic, Airi instantly spoke proudly.
She had no intention of hiding anything from Brother Icarus. If he asked, she would answer honestly.
"Oh? Seems you really are a little rich girl, Airi. But Confusion really is an extremely useful Move.
Precisely because it's basic, it's something you should value even more.
I feel that if Staryu masters Confusion and becomes truly proficient with it, you could even develop different applications yourself, like Disable, psychic barriers, and similar techniques.
At the very least, learning other Psychic-type Moves in the future should become much easier."
Icarus was genuinely surprised to hear that Staryu had already learned Confusion, but he quickly began analyzing its potential.
He had always wanted a Psychic-type Pokémon himself, so he had specifically researched Psychic-types in detail.
In his understanding, Confusion was the most basic Psychic-type Move.
As long as someone fully mastered it, they could potentially derive countless applications from it.
He believed many Psychic-type Moves were simply different forms or shapes of psychic power.
And during this past period, he had already succeeded several times in shaping his own energy techniques.
Even if psychic shaping was more difficult, he believed repeated attempts could eventually succeed.
"Mhm, Brother Icarus, what you said makes sense. From now on, I'll make Staryu spend another hour every day training Confusion. It only learned the Move recently anyway."
After hearing Icarus's explanation, Airi nodded repeatedly.
Originally, she had only wanted Staryu to use Confusion skillfully.
But after listening to Icarus, she suddenly realized that many Psychic-type Moves really did seem to evolve from the foundation of Confusion.
"Heh ya Heh ya T_T"
Meanwhile, Staryu felt utterly helpless after hearing it would now need even more training.
Why were all of its Trainer's friends complete training fanatics?
The Trainer of those two Sandshrew was already bad enough, and now this person was exactly the same.
Being a Pokémon was really too hard.
"Mhm, Stone, is this Sandslash your little Sandshrew?"
After nodding at Airi, Icarus turned toward Stone and asked.
"Yes, it is. It grows faster than Big Mouse.
Even though it was never officially captured, I'm extremely satisfied with it. It's obedient, reliable, and has never made mistakes."
Hearing the question, Stone pointed toward the Sandslash beside him and smiled.
"Kuga~"
Little Sandshrew could now fully understand human speech.
Hearing its Trainer praise it, it immediately waved happily toward Icarus.
Even without a contract, in Little Sandshrew's heart, Stone was already its Trainer.
Stone had given it such a peaceful and stable life.
Because of that, it was willing to fight for Stone until death.
Its personality was honestly extremely similar to Stone's.
That was probably why Stone had managed to truly win over the little Sandshrew without relying on a Poké Ball contract.
"Hello, little Sandshrew! So what's its aptitude now? Did you use evolution resources on it?"
Icarus first greeted it before leaning closer to Stone and quietly asking the question.
"Yes, I did.
Although little Sandshrew's original aptitude wasn't particularly high, I felt a strong connection with it, so I followed the cultivation manual strictly when handling its feeding, training, and evolution resources.
However, the little guy is extremely determined.
The manual included a riskier evolution plan capable of allowing a stage-skipping evolution.
Since it still wasn't officially captured, I explained both plans and their pros and cons to it honestly.
After hearing that only the riskier plan gave it a chance to reach the Elite level someday, it insisted on choosing that route.
Fortunately, it succeeded.
Its aptitude has now risen to good lower-grade. You could say its suffering was rewarded."
Hearing Icarus's question, Stone answered honestly without trying to avoid the topic in front of Sandslash.
"That's good. Really good, Stone. Little Sandshrew definitely made the right choice following you."
After listening, Icarus patted Stone's shoulder with emotion.
This evolution plan was probably similar to Weepinbell's.
The little Sandshrew surviving the process was undoubtedly connected to its daily nutrition, hard work, and relentless training.