I Have a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon System in a World with Pokemons

The next morning after the guild's morning assembly, Dante and Pikachu were about to head to the second floor and accept a task when Chatot stopped the two of them.

"Ehem! Wait a minute, you two. I have a different task for you to do today."

Dante and Pikachu were curious. Even when they joined for the first time, Chatot only chose tasks from the Job List Board as their initiation to the guild. What task could it be that Chatot will personally commission them?

"Before I give you this task, I presume someone from the guild already told you the first part of training?"

"Yup! Bidoof told us. Something about buying and using items."

"It is 'Ensure that you have everything and then make use of everything you have!'"

"Ohhh yeah, Bidoof did say it like that."

"Yes, it is LIKE THAT. Now, after seeing your performance this past couple of weeks, I have decided that it is time for the two of you to start the second stage of training."

""OOOHH!!""

Dante and Pikachu were surprised and delighted after hearing Chatot's words. Even Dante, who played the original Mystery Dungeon game, had no clue about what the training program of the guild is. He was really curious about what it was about.

"Calm down you two! Now, the first part of the training is essential for every Exploration Team to learn in order to ensure that they can survive every dungeon exploration."

"But in order to progress further in their Exploration career, different paths for advancement are presented in front of every Exploration team." 

"Relying on their elemental types, the team only takes on dungeons in which they have a type advantage."

"With their innate abilities, they further hone and use it to conquer increasingly difficult dungeons."

"Through synergy between the members, the team further enhances their strength and possess no obvious weaknesses."

"And lastly, by increasing their basic strength, they will be able to achieve a much smoother progress."

"Ideally of course, everyone wants to advance in every path. Sadly, reality is cruel, and we can't have everything we want."

"By specializing in one type of dungeon, you're already limiting your progress, especially since high rank dungeons have a wide variety of types of Pokemon inside."

"Not every Pokemon is born equal. Some will have strong Abilities that makes them a natural born Explorer while others can have abilities that even hinder their progress!"

"Achieving synergy with your teammates is something that naturally comes with time. Therefore, increasing the basic strength is the only path which everyone can do. And that…is the focus of the second stage of the training plan."

Dante fell into contemplation after hearing what the focus of the so-called second stage of the training plan is.

'Increasing the basic strength, that's what we're already trying to achieve by leveling and collecting Gummies for Spinda's Cafe. Then…isn't this so-called second stage of the training useless for the both of us?'

"I'm sure you've already experienced this yourself, but the strength of Pokemon in the dungeon and those of us outside are very different. As I've told you when you just joined the guild, Pokemon in the dungeon can only grow to have a certain amount of strength before they can make no further progress."

"For Mystery Dungeons that are ranked S and below, this feature of the dungeon limits the strength of the Pokemon compared to if they were to live outside. However, 1 star and above dungeons are different."

"Here, the dungeon's feature of limiting the strength of the Pokemon, has now allowed some Pokemon there to break past their limits easily! And this problem becomes more and more prevalent the higher the rating of the dungeon."

"And unlike them, we have limits to how much our strength can grow from training. Except for the Guildmaster, of course! The Guildmaster has already broken past the limits of normal Pokemon."

"Luckily for us, another method exists that can temporarily raise our strength to a higher level, and even permanently as long as you've practiced long enough!"

Both Dante and Pikachu's eyes widened after hearing this. Dante was already starting to lose hope with the second stage of training, thinking that it was nothing more than basic strength training.

"I'm sure that with your current capabilities, you've both already learned moves that can boost an aspect of your strength, am I right?"

Seeing the two of them shaking their heads in denial, Chatot's following words got stuck in his throat.

"Y-you mean to tell me, after all this time, you guys haven't even learned moves like Howl, Agility, Hone Claws, Swords Dance, Bulk Up, or anything of that sort?"

The duo nodded their heads in confused agreement to Chatot's question. Seeing this, Chatot had to visibly take a deep breath to calm himself down.

"I see. Tell me, have the both of you been using moves that bring down the strength of your enemies?"

"Yes? Is there something wrong with what we're doing?"

"Urgh! There's nothing wrong per se. Now, how should I explain this to you two."

Chatot started walking back and forth a few times before continuing.

"While exploring the dungeons, you have to rest at least every couple of floors to recover your energy, correct?"

Dante and Pikachu nodded their heads in agreement to Chatot's words. Nonsense! Except for in low-level dungeons, everyone needs to rest after battling tens or hundreds of Pokemon.

"During dungeon explorations, it's not just enough to defeat the attacking Pokemon. At the same time, we must also ensure that we have enough energy to reach the end. Therefore, energy management is extremely important."

"And now, which do you think can save more energy? Weakening the opponent's defenses everytime so you can take them down in one hit? Or boosting your own attack once to achieve the same result?"

Hearing this, Dante finally realized what Chatot meant. Pikachu always uses Thunder Wave or Electro Web to slow the enemy down so the both of them can defeat their opponents and remain unharmed. He had to do it multiple times on a single floor, especially in Mt. Bristle.

However, they can use something like Agility once every floor. It'll still make their speed untouchable to those same Pokemon, and Pikachu won't have to spam Thunder Wave and Electro Web as much. Maybe it'll even also speed up their dungeon exploration with the increase in movement speed. 

Of course, all of this is under the assumption that a move like Agility only uses a little amount of energy. They can only try the feasibility of this strategy after learning any self-boosted moves.