Vigoroth was the Pokemon of Noah. It had just recently evolved from Slakoth and it was fighting to keep itself in check. The transformation from Slakoth to Vigoroth and finally to Slaking was very interesting, to say the least.
If one were to look at sheer power, Slaking could be as powerful as legendary Pokemons like Kyogre and Groudon. However, it was restricted due to its ability 'Truant'. Unlike in the games, 'Truant' makes the Pokemon slow to gather energy to attack. It was not that it would be slow. The rage and beserkness of Slaking were very famous all over the world.
However, since it was so slow that it may only attack every other turn, it was basically useless. Nobody liked a slow Pokemon. But Axel felt that he could do something about it.
He had fought Bruno's Slaking in the league and he knew how powerful it could get.
When it was a Slakoth, it would have 'Truant' which would make it slow, when it evolves to Vigoroth, it would have 'Vital Spirit', which would make it unable to sleep and overly active and when it finally evolves to Slaking, it would again have 'Truant'.
So, why didn't Vigoroth have 'Truant' too?
"I think that the answer to my question lies here.", mumbled Axel.
He wanted to have a Slaking for the longest time but due to its ability, he had not caught it and he had still not been able to find a solution for it.
As of right now, Vigoroth is training with Primeape. Primeape also had 'Vital spirit' and it had almost mastered it. Since Vigoroth was new to this, Primeape was giving it some useful tips.
Axel didn't know why Noah caught this Slakoth. Noah was an outstanding trainer during his prime but since he got disabled, his career took a nose dive. Now, he had become healthy again. He could now walk perfectly and all these months he had been training his body to reach its ideal state. He was only 45 years old right now. 45 years may be middle-aged but in this world, the people are very active in these years too. The average lifespan of a human in this world was also around 150 years old.
But since it had been a long time for Noah to become a trainer, he was not up to date but even a kid knew that Slakoth was a very difficult Pokemon to train.
"Uncle, why did you catch this Slakoth?", asked Axel during breakfast.
"When I went to the forest, I met this poor Slakoth and it was alone. It looked like its family had abandoned it. So, I decided to adopt it and make it my Pokemon.
I went to the Pokemon center and found out that it was very sick and also inherently weak."
"Inherently weak?"
"Yes, the nurse said that somehow its potential has been blocked in some way and it would take a lot of time for it to become stronger. Even the doctor could not say why this was the case.
I started to train it slowly and after a month it evolved to Vigoroth. The doctor told me that it is at least 10 years old and for Salkoth to evolve to Vigoroth in 10 years is very late.
The doctor also said that since it was taking so much time to evolve, its family must have left it thinking that it was weak."
"Oh, that is too bad but it looks stronger than a normal Vigoroth who had just evolved. Wait!! that is it!! That is the solution I have been looking for.", shouted Axel in excitement and he started to run towards Vigoroth.
Noah didn't know what had made Axel excited as he also started to run towards Axel.
Axel had not identified Vigoroth thinking that it would just be a normal Pokemon. But now he knew that it was exceptional. He went near Vigoroth and shouted "Identity"
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Pokemon's name: Vigoroth (Age- 10 years)
Pokemon Nickname: N/A
Pokemon Rank: Common rank
Pokemon type: Fighting
Ability: Vital spirit (5%)
Hidden ability: N/A
Potential: Blue (Low)
Health: 2500/2500 Attack: F
Agility: F Defense: F
Sp. Atk: F Sp. Def: F
Moves: Yawn, Slack off, Counter, Throat chop, Crush claw, Hammer arm, Slash, Endure, Bulk up, Fire punch, Thunder punch, Sleep talk, Rest, Brick break.
---
Those were a lot of moves for a common rank Pokemon but since it was already 10 years old, that was to be expected. What Axel was most interested in was its potential which was white (low).
Axel had never seen a potential so low. Most of the time the potential of a wild Pokemon is green (normal) or Orange (normal). There were a couple of times when he found a potential of a wild Pokemon as blue (low) but never a white (low) potential but this would perfectly work for a Pokemon like Slaking.
"Axel, what happened? What did you find? Is Vigoroth okay?", asked Noah.
"Yes, and it is perfect. I noticed that its potential is lowest of low. Its potential is 'low' which is very hard to come by.", said Axel with a smile.
"So what is perfect about it? Doesn't that mean that it would grow at a slow rate? Isn't that bad?", asked Noah.
"For other Pokemons it is bad but for a Pokemons like Slaking, it is just the opposite."
"Axel, I am not understanding a word that you are saying to me."
"Haha, let me explain. You should about 'Truant' right?"
"Of course, it is one of the cursed abilities."
"Yes, it is a cursed ability but if we work things out, it would be a powerful ability.
'Truant' is basically an ability that would make a Pokemon slow in attacking dodging or doing anything. But that doesn't mean that the Pokemon could not jump all of a sudden or attack suddenly. It just takes time for the Pokemon to gather the energy to attack.
This is the effect of 'Truant'. But what is the cause of 'Truant'?
If you don't know about it, let me tell you. Since Slaking and Slakoth are the only Pokemons that have this ability, let me take them as an example.
'Truant' lets Slakoth gather energy from the world and store it inside. Slakoth would actively and passively store the energy every second of its life and store it to become powerful.
That is why Slaking is one of the most powerful Pokemon in this whole world. Yes, it lacks a lot in the speed department but no one can deny its power.
Now, your Slakoth took 10 years to become Vigoroth. This was basically due to its potential but it also means that your Slakoth had been storing energy for 10 years. Do you know what that means?", asked Axel.
"That means... that means it would be OP in the future.", murmured Noah not believing this hypothesis.
Axel always came up with a lot of hypotheses. Not all of them were true and not all of them gave results but this time, it kind of made sense.
"If what you are saying is true then why is it so weak? Normally, a wild Slakoth takes 6 months- 1 year to evolve. It took 10 years. So, doesn't that mean that it should be 10 times stronger by now? But it is only a bit stronger than normal."
"That is because of its body?"
"Why? Is it injured somewhere? The doctor did tell me to give it some vitamins and I did do it."
Axel then facepalmed himself.
"What kind of idiot doctor is it? Tell me his name and I will fire him.", shouted Axel.
"Why? Did I do something wrong?"
"Of course, you did it wrong. As per my hypothesis, Vigoroth is not much stronger due to its weak body. Since it had taken 10 times the energy than normal Slakoth, its body should also be 10 times stronger to hold that power. But it doesn't have such a strong body.
So, it could not execute so much power cause if it did, its body would explode and you have it vitamins that would increase that energy inside its body. So, isn't that stupid?"
Noah was horrified.
"Then what should I do?"
"It is simple, we just train its body. We have lots of training grounds for a lot of exercises. So, for now, it would just train its body and physical moves."
Red was also impressed to hear Axel's theory. Although there was no scientific proof of the theory, the theory itself made a lot of sense.
Axel, Red, and Noah went right ahead to discuss the training plans of Vigoroth.
"Maybe I should get a Slakoth for Axel when he reaches 5-6 years old.", said Red.
"I was thinking the same thing for Aurthur.", said Axel.
"Don't you want a Slakoth for yourself?", asked Red.
"I do but not right now. First of all, I have not solved its speed problem when it finally evolves to Slaking and as of right now, I have a lot of Pokemons for the Johto region. I will get one when I start another region."
"That is fair. So, do you want to train today or just take a rest?", asked Red.
"I just want to rest today. I have not had a good rest day for a long time.", said Axel and closed his eyes while lying in the grass.
###
Pokemon POV Starts
All of Axel's Pokemons were taking a break. Even Shedinja and Pidgeot. Both of them were training maniacs but today, they just wanted to rest. It was a rare sight.
Lucario was just meditating to control its aura. It felt a pat on its back. It turned around to find that it was Feraligatr who was disturbing it.
"Hey man, today is the rest day. Why are you still training? Just chill for today.", said Feraligatr.
"I am one of the weakest of all of us. I must train to get stronger.", replied Lucario.
"Look at Squirtle. It is the weakest but it is still lying in the grass with its sunglasses on.", said Feraligatr as it pointed towards Squirtle who was acting as if it was the owner of this place. It looked like a gangsta.
"Lucario, sometimes, we need to rest and think about the future too. This is an essential part of the training.", came a voice and it was Shedinja.
"See, even the big boss says it. Little boss is also sleeping.", said Feraligatr.
The little boss aka Togetic was also sleeping while snoring loudly.
Lucario gave a big sigh and stood up. It knew that others would not let is train today.
"Now, let's go to the lake. I want to catch some Magikarp and tell them so is the boss.", said Feraligatr with an evil smile.
Feraligatr for some reason always had a vendetta for Magikarp. It would not directly kill it but it would make the Magikarp in the sea suffer for nothing that it had done.
The Magikarp would be so injured that most of them even die after some time.
"Why do you hate those Magikarps? They had done nothing to you.", said Lucario as it just scoffed as it just wanted some peace.
"You don't know how evil they are. They might be the incarnation of Giratina itself. You are just too innocent to notice it.", said Feraligatr as it started to walk towards the sea pestering Lucario to come too.
Feraligatr would never tell it the reason as to why it hated Magikarp. It would just speak in some cryptic lines.
'Wait? I can smell an embarrassing story here.', thought Lucario, and then it suddenly saw Primeape who was also meditating with its eyes closed.
Lucario turned towards Feraligatr to say that at least one of us was training but then something happened.
A red light developed Primeape's whole body. The light was so dim that if Lucario had not been focusing on Primeape, it would not even have noticed it.
Through its heightened aura sense, it could tell that something was happening to Primeape, and in a good way. The light glowed for a few seconds and then it disappeared. Just right after that, Primeape opened its eyes and Lucario could tell that something had changed in Primeape.