Pokemon: Trait Master

"Catching Pokémon is something we can take our time with along the way. But Serena, I want to tell you something." 

"When you're feeling lost, just take action. Even failure has its rewards—nothing you do will ever be in vain." 

"If you had challenged a Gym earlier, even if you lost, I know you would have gained valuable experience." 

"And for new Trainers, that is the most precious thing of all." 

"The so-called Gym Badges are nothing more than proof of victory. The real rewards? They exist right here." 

As Ash spoke, he pounded his fist lightly against his chest, right over his heart. 

This was a belief he held close—while it might not be completely right, one thing was for sure: taking action was never a mistake. 

Both Serena and Misty nodded thoughtfully. 

Every day spent traveling with Ash brought new lessons to learn. 

— 

Time passed quickly, and seven days had already gone by. 

During that time, the trio only passed through one small town. 

After restocking on supplies, they continued their journey. 

When Misty joined the team, Ash had already bought an extra tent back in Viridian City. 

Now, when camping outdoors, Misty and Serena shared one tent, while Ash had his own. 

Thanks to spending every moment together—day and night—Misty and Serena had grown as close as sisters. 

Ash had also ordered Frogadier's new weighted training gear, which was sent to the Pokémon Center in Vermilion City. 

By the time it arrived, they probably wouldn't even be there yet. 

But that was just how journeys worked—while destinations mattered, 

the real beauty of traveling was in the experiences along the way. 

One notable event was that, on Ash's suggestion, 

Serena finally caught her second Pokémon—a Oddish! 

Both of its final evolutions—Vileplume and Bellossom—were strong, beautiful Pokémon. 

That was one of the reasons Ash had suggested Serena capture it. 

The other reason? 

This Oddish had Gym-tier potential! 

Pokémon with Elite Four or Champion-tier potential were incredibly rare, 

sometimes appearing only once in tens of thousands of Pokémon. 

Having a Gym-tier Pokémon was already top-tier for an average Trainer. 

As for Ash? 

Every single one of his Pokémon had at least Elite Four-tier potential. 

Honestly, that was just pure luck… 

Or, more accurately, it was thanks to his Trait System. 

Even a trash-tier Pokémon could become a dragon under his training! 

Serena's Oddish only had two Purple traits, 

but since she didn't have a Trait System, it didn't really matter. 

Traits were only crucial if they were Gold-tier or higher— 

those could passively exert their effects, even without a Trait System. 

Besides Serena's new capture, everyone's Pokémon had grown stronger over the past week. 

Pidgeotto broke through its bottleneck and reached Advanced Low-tier. 

More importantly, it had learned a massive number of new moves! 

Compared to its level increase, 

the real achievement was the variety of moves Pidgeotto had mastered. 

To make this possible, 

Ash had spent a fortune buying Move Discs in both Pewter City and Viridian City. 

Unlike in games where a TM instantly teaches a move, 

Move Discs had to be integrated into a Poké Ball, 

allowing the Pokémon to watch and study the move repeatedly inside. 

However, there was a time limit— 

each disc only allowed one hour of learning. 

If a Pokémon learned the move, great. 

If not? Buy another disc and try again. 

Still, Move Discs boosted learning tenfold compared to natural training. 

High-tech was amazing… but also ridiculously expensive! 

Even a weather-based move disc cost at least 300,000 Pokédollars… 

Honestly, if Ash hadn't helped with Professor Oak's research since childhood and earned quite a bit of money, 

he would never be able to afford to raise a Pokémon as costly as Pidgeotto. 

If he hadn't had the money, 

Pidgeotto would have been forced to rely solely on its talent to learn moves. 

Pikachu's level hadn't changed much, but his strength was steadily improving. 

It wouldn't be long before he could break into the Elite Four level. 

Butterfree had also reached Advanced Low-tier, 

while Frogadier was close to the Elite level. 

Misty and Serena's Pokémon had improved as well, 

though their levels hadn't changed much. 

Serena, in particular, was a little envious that Froakie had already evolved into Frogadier. 

After all, aside from Pikachu, 

both Froakie and her Fennekin had been caught around the same time. 

Yet now, Froakie had already evolved, 

while Fennekin's evolution was nowhere in sight… 

But that was understandable. 

Froakie's dedicated training and natural talent for rapid growth meant it was inevitable that it would evolve quickly. 

Fennekin? Catching up to it would be nearly impossible. 

Of course, the journey wouldn't be complete without random Trainer battles. 

After traveling for another day, 

Ash's group ran into a Trainer named "Beast Master Min", 

who had a 98-win streak. 

At first, Ash thought the guy must have been strong. 

But then… Frogadier one-shot him. 

Apparently, a 98-win streak in the middle of nowhere wasn't worth much. 

Still, there was some good news— 

defeating him dropped a Purple trait! 

And with all the random trait drops Ash had been collecting, 

he finally gathered enough ten Orange traits to upgrade Pikachu's "Master of Acting" trait! 

[Master of Acting (Red)] 

Effect: When battling a higher-level Pokémon, Pikachu will slowly raise his own level over time to match the opponent's level. 

With the upgrade to Red-tier, the probability-based effect was completely removed. 

Now, as long as Pikachu was in battle, his level would inevitably increase over time. 

Both the minimum and maximum effects were now guaranteed! 

Since Ash hadn't fought a Pokémon higher-leveled than Pikachu yet, 

he wasn't sure how long it would take for the boost to kick in. 

But regardless, this was a huge improvement over the Orange-tier version. 

Probability-based traits were too unreliable— 

if they didn't activate, they were as good as useless! 

After defeating Beast Master Min and upgrading Master of Acting, 

the trio eventually arrived at a Pokémon Academy. 

When Ash saw the massive academy building deep within Foggy Forest, 

he couldn't help but complain: 

"Who the heck decided to build a school in the middle of a freaking forest!? Who even comes here to study!?"