Pokemon: A New Path

However, ten Miltank would require two hundred thousand Pokédollars, far beyond what he could currently afford.

The more Pokémon he had, the more they ate, and the greater their consumption became. Large Pokémon like Koraidon, Cyclizar, and Dragonite could easily eat their way through thousands of Pokédollars worth of food in a day. They needed sufficient nutrition to maintain their strong bodies and had enormous appetites.

It truly wasn't something ordinary people could afford to raise so many Pokémon.

As the saying went, the more you earn, the more you spend.

The same applied to Miltank. Berries and high-quality grass were expensive. Excluding daily expenses, it would take a long time to save enough money just relying on the productivity of the Skiddo and Nacli.

Unless the Skiddo evolved into Gogoat and the Nacli into Naclstack.

After evolution, their production capacity would also greatly increase.

However, it was still a long way off before the Nacli could evolve. Remembering what Nurse Joy had said that day, Naoki turned and left the Pokémon House, heading towards the goat pen.

The Skiddo's were lazily lying on the grass, munching on grass dumplings.

Seeing Naoki approach, all three looked over.

"Maa."

Naoki: "..."

The Skiddo's were still accumulating energy, and there were no signs of evolution yet.

Naoki continued to ponder.

Soon, he realized there might be a better way than waiting for the Nacli and Skiddo to evolve.

He could buy one Miltank at a time, then use the money earned from its milk to buy another Miltank, repeating this process until he had ten.

But he only had a little over 10,000 Pokédollars on hand, so he would have to wait a couple more days before he could buy a Miltank.

At that moment, the Skiddo were about to start their dance again. Looking at the Grassy Terrain they summoned, Naoki suddenly had an idea.

They were Grass-type Pokémon and could use Grass-type energy to help tend to the crops. This had been shown many times in the anime, and some Grass-type Pokémon could even accelerate plant growth.

Thinking of this, Naoki quickly called out to the Skiddo to stop and led them to the farmland.

After explaining how to care for the crops, the three Skiddo's went to a corner of the farmland and activated Grassy Terrain.

Green light erupted from the Skiddo's, quickly enveloping the entire farmland. Tiny blades of grass, formed from Grass-type energy, merged with the flourishing crops, swaying gently.

Naoki focused intently, staring at the crops in the field, hoping to see them grow at a speed visible to the naked eye.

However, after watching for a long time, there was no change in the crops.

"Huh? It's not working?"

As everyone knew, crops needed six major factors to grow: sunlight, water, soil, fertilizer, oxygen, and temperature.

Right now, the sun was shining, and it had just rained. He had fertilized the land earlier, the temperature was suitable, the soil was fertile, and there was plenty of oxygen.

The only possibility was that the Skiddo's didn't have enough power, or the effect of Grassy Terrain wasn't strong enough.

Naoki couldn't think of any other reason.

"If only I had a Tapu Bulu," he muttered.

Or maybe he could create a new dish that would grant the Pokémon who ate it the ability to accelerate crop growth.

Naoki waved his hand, signaling the Skiddo's to stop and go play. He then turned and headed to the shed, found the lawn mower, and started trimming the lawn in front of the house.

In the springtime, weeds grew rapidly and became unkempt if not trimmed for a few days.

While Naoki was mowing, Alcremie and Smoliv were running around him, chasing and playing with the Nacli.

On the grass nearby, Dragonite was seeking advice from Koraidon on how to use its new moves.

With Naoki around, Cyclizar no longer had to guard the ranch and could revert to its carefree self. It was attracted by the fluttering butterflies and chased them to the open space in front of the chicken coop.

Pawmi, observing Cyclizar by the river, twitched its ears.

The diligent Combee traveled between the hive and the wild, tirelessly collecting nectar. Butterfree landed on the roof, enjoying the sunshine while observing the scene below.

The spring sunshine was warm and pleasant, and everything seemed so peaceful.

Meanwhile, outside the fence surrounding the pasture, a Pokémon with light brown fur, a white crescent-shaped marking on its head, and a small brown spherical tail was hiding behind a tree, observing the ranch.

Its eyes were fixed on a Combee, watching it carry nectar back to the "nest," then leave the "nest" and fly further away to collect more nectar.

After the Combee left, the Teddiursa turned its attention to the other Pokémon on the ranch.

'A human home', Teddiursa thought.

A few days ago, it had spotted a Combee in the forest. Being a Teddiursa, it was naturally drawn to honey. To find the honey, it decided to follow the Combee.

But the terrain in the forest was complex, and the Combee could fly, making it easy to lose track of its target.

It took several days to finally find the Combee's nest.

The thought of sweet honey made Teddiursa's mouth water. It desperately wanted to snatch the honey from the Combee and lick it clean, but its instincts told it that doing so would result in being chased away by the human.

So, was there a better way?

Teddiursa pondered and a mischievous grin spread across its face. It had plenty of experience with this sort of thing. Relying on that experience, it had "liberated" vast quantities of honey from many humans.

Teddiursa had a cunning plan.

The next step was to wait for the right moment!

...

In the afternoon, while Naoki was watching TV in the cabin with Pawmi in his arms, he suddenly heard the voice of Alven, the town's postman.

He went outside to investigate and saw Alven taking a letter out of his bag. "Mr. Naoki, there's a letter for you!"

"Huh? Who sent it?" Naoki was surprised.

Alven grinned and said, "Mr. Matsuda from Three Rivers Ranch asked me to deliver it."

'Matsuda'.

The image of an elderly man with white hair came to Naoki's mind. He had once traded a piece of cheese for boiled pork slices at the Cherry Blossom Festival.

What did Matsuda want to talk to him about?

Curious, Naoki opened the envelope and read the letter:

[To Naoki:

Hello, Naoki. I'm Matsuda from Three Rivers Ranch. Have you encountered a Teddiursa recently? If you have, please disregard this. If not, I think I should warn you.

Don't be fooled by its cute and cuddly appearance! It will deliberately show up on ranches like this, then steal all the honey when no one's looking!

Many nearby ranches have fallen victim to it. That Teddiursa is a little devil! It's still roaming around, so be careful!

From Matsuda, Three Rivers Ranch.]