Greatest Pokémon Trainer

"Big Brother Baishi, do you know if the breeding house has a Vine Monster spirit egg?"

As he walked, Fang Yuan suddenly asked. To his own surprise, the most suitable Pokémon for his cultivation scheme turned out to be the Vine Monster.

"Vine Monster?"

Facing Fang Yuan's question, Baishi who was leading the way, paused slightly, recalling that the breeding house's brochure and official website didn't provide details on the Vine Monster. First, because they were fairly rare, and second, these Pokémon mainly populated the south.

The Vine Monster was both unpopular and uncool—why would this kid named Fang Yuan be interested in it?

Baishi was perplexed.

"Well... we don't seem to have that here, but if you reserve now, I think we could deliver it within a week," Baishi said after some thought.

"No worries... let's take a look at the other spirit eggs then," Fang Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. It was better this way, to avoid any dilemma; he didn't really like Vine Monster anyway.

Aside from the Vine Monster, Fang Yuan kept considering which Pokémon to choose as he walked. If there were no Vine Monsters, Weepinbell and Walking Grass would be viable alternatives.

However, Fang Yuan had other ideas.

Although he had spent a fair amount of effort over the past half month devising a cultivation scheme for Grass-type spirits, Fang Yuan felt a bit anxious.

He had zero experience in cultivation and was a pure newbie. Real-life Pokémon cultivation couldn't possibly be as simple as "leveling up by defeating monsters." It had to be done with more rigor. So instead of experimenting with his hypothesis on the very first Pokémon, Fang Yuan wanted to wait until he had gained enough experience and scientifically validated the cultivation method before implementing it.

Therefore, besides Grass-type spirits, Fang Yuan considered other Pokémon as well.

He singled out three categories of Pokémon.

The first was the Grass-type spirits suitable for his own cultivation scheme, like Vine Monster, Walking Grass, Weepinbell, and others.

The second was Bug Type Pokémon whose evolution would enable them to use psychic abilities, such as Caterpie, Fur Ball, Stingtail Worm, and so on.

Such Bug Type Pokémon also had low cultivation difficulty and short growth cycles. Within a year's time, they could complete their natural evolution and possess a certain amount of strength.

And psychic abilities...those were rare abilities.

However, it seemed that real-life Bug Type Pokémon like Beautifly, Venomoth, and Dustox rarely had psychic abilities. Unlike in games where they could learn moves by leveling up, this aspect was a risk. If these Pokémon didn't have psychic abilities, they wouldn't have much of an advantage, and Fang Yuan wasn't confident in training them to develop such superpowers.

Baishi led the three of them around the spacious room, carefully introducing each Pokémon and offering appropriate advice.

"This is a Nidoran spirit egg..."

"This is a Meowth spirit egg..."

"This is an Eevee spirit egg..."

"Eevee, as a General Series Pokémon, is known for its exceptional adaptability."

"Furthermore, it is one of the Pokémon we highly recommend. Eevee has a docile nature, is easy to breed, and it has four attribute evolutionary branches: Thunder, Water, Fire, and Grass. Its strength significantly increases after evolution. If you're considering the high school entrance exam battle scores, choosing it can maximize the pass rate."

"We also sell the accompanying Evolutionary Stones here, which you can use on Eevee during its growth period. If you buy it together with the spirit egg right now, you can enjoy a 5% discount," Baishi said with a smile.

"Eevee, huh..."

Fang Yuan's gaze fixed intently, not concerned about the discount. Eevee was the third category of Pokémon he had picked out.

To his knowledge, Eevee had at least eight evolutionary branches.

Currently, The Pokémon Alliance had officially listed 702 Pokémon species, and Eevee's other evolutionary forms such as the Ice Spirit, Solar Spirit, Moon Spirit, and Fairy Spirit were not included in these 702... This was something Fang Yuan had already verified through extensive online research.

Pokémon had only been integrated into modern society for a few decades; it was not surprising that their secrets had not been fully explored.

Apart from the evolution branches of Eevee, there were other examples.

For instance, the Bullfrog King and the Dumb King, which had also not been discovered.

The evolution method of the Dumb Hippo remained a mystery to this day.

How exactly Feebas evolved into Milotic hadn't been disclosed either.

The secrets unknown to humans were those of ordinary Pokémon, whereas information about legendary Pokémon had been obtained from ancient murals in some secret locations.

...

The price of an Eevee was actually not expensive because its docile nature made it unsuitable for battle; its role in the eyes of the public had always been that of a pet, with the expensive part being the Evolutionary Stone.

Even the Evolutionary Stone of the poorest quality was several times more expensive than the price of an Eevee.

Eevee could reproduce, but Evolutionary Stones were non-renewable resources, extremely rare, only produced in secret locations, and there were serious issues with monopolization; each stone's price had been inflated to a high cost, and the situations like those in animations where they were casually gifted to others would at least not occur to ordinary people like Fang Yuan.

This breeding house was clearly also in the business of selling Evolutionary Stones, and without a doubt, Eevee and Evolutionary Stones were sold as a bundle, which most families would have been tempted by if their finances allowed.

But if everyone's understanding of Eevee was limited to the notion that it could only grow stronger through Evolutionary Stones, then Fang Yuan could be sure that Eevee was definitely one of the most underestimated Pokémon!

Other evolution conditions that didn't need Evolutionary Stones, like Solar Spirit, Moon Spirit, and Fairy Spirit, had potential that was no less than other evolution branches.

Perhaps because Fang Yuan lingered in front of the Eevee Spirit Egg longer than he had in front of any other Spirit Egg, Father Fang and Mother Fang exchanged glances.

"What do you think about Eevee?" asked Father Fang.

"It's very good, it can be said to be the optimal choice, but ..." Fang Yuan pondered, in comparison with Grass Type Pokémon and Bug Type Pokémon, Eevee was indeed more stable, easier to breed, docile in character, adaptable, with huge potential, and seriously underrated. It seemed as if it were specifically left for some lucky person to stumble upon a bargain.

"Then that's fine, don't worry about anything else, our family can still afford the cost of an Evolutionary Stone," Father Fang said, patting Fang Yuan's shoulder.

Fang Yuan looked up in confusion, it wasn't because of this... oh well, it's hard to explain, if he chose Eevee, he certainly wouldn't let Eevee evolve along the five branches of Fire, Thunder, Water, Ice, and Plant; that would be too extravagant.

But Fang Yuan always felt that things wouldn't go so smoothly, and besides, explaining why he picked Eevee to his parents would be troublesome...

He simply couldn't outright tell them about Eevee's other evolution branches.

The problem had become a classic 'choose one out of three'.

Before coming to the breeding house, Fang Yuan hadn't made a decision, but now that he was here, he could no longer hesitate.

"I want to look around some more."

Fang Yuan requested Mr. Baishi to guide him around once more, especially to take a closer look at the Spirit Eggs of these three types of Pokémon.

Bug Type Pokémon's, Grass Type Pokémon's...

And the Eevee's Spirit Egg with a white base and harmonious brown patterns like clouds that made one feel at ease.

When making the choice, Fang Yuan originally thought he would be rational, but he found the most decisive factor that caused bias in his heart turned out to be aesthetics.

Whether it was the aesthetics of the Spirit Egg or the looks of the Pokémon that hatched from the egg, it was Eevee that moved Fang Yuan's heart more...

Indeed, beauty is justice...

Looking at the Eevee Spirit Egg, Fang Yuan announced his final decision:

"This one."