Booth wakes up a bit later in the morning and prepares to work on the new ancient art with Ben. It's a rainy day, but it doesn't matter much because he will be working inside anyway.
Booth arrives at the tiered trainer center with Ben and gets started.
Ben begins explaining the art to Booth, "The ancient Art we found is called Fire Lung. The steam-like energy you saw is the excess power a pokemon loses when battling. The steam does good damage, but it isn't the Art's main purpose."
"You're saying that the Art has other effects?"
"That's right. If you use the Art normally you could get the steam effect without much trouble. Getting the other effects is a little more difficult."
"Alright, so how does it work?" Booth doesn't really get it, but he decides to listen.
"Well, when you used Rebound did you notice any changes as you got better with the Art?"
Booth thinks about it briefly and comes up with an answer.
"Sure. After using the Art for a while, I was able to restore some of my power and chain attacks after successful hits."
"It's like that. Damon and I found that if you use your Arts well enough you can unlock a second stage."
"Huh…" Booth is somewhat skeptical of the new knowledge.
'I'm sure there was something like that with long term Arts, but I thought it only applied to modern Arts.'
"I thought Ancient Arts only had one stage? Are you sure this isn't something specific to Fire Lung?"
Ben shakes his head and explains himself a little more.
"It's different for modern arts, but Ancient Arts always have at least two stages. Activating the second stage requires you to use the Art in a certain way. Whether it's by adapting it to your pokemon's power, combining it with a move, or when taking or dealing damage. There are a couple conditions you need to find, though generally they are based on your speed and proficiency with an Art."
'That seems a little more believable. If his explanation was that my understanding of the art was incomplete then I would have been a little irritated. I've been working on Snakebite for almost a month now, and I feel like I know it pretty well. If it was because of other conditions that I needed to find, then it makes a lot more sense that I didn't find anything.'
Feeling a lot more interested all of a sudden Booth urges Ben to continue.
"Sounds like a lot of things to check. So what did the second stage conditions end up being?"
"To get the second stage effects you need to activate the art and fuel a move with the art's power like normal. Then you need to achieve over 80% stability or something like that with the move."
"Where did the 80% come from?"
"A rough guess. I'm not too sure about it either"
"Ah…" Booth doesn't think too hard about it and gets himself ready. "I'll give it a try then."
Booth takes out his Pansear for the first time in a while and switches on his integrator. Booth takes a couple seconds to get used to Pansear and starts forming his link.
'Alright, Pansear, try and activate Fire Lung like you did with Ben.' Booth pays close attention as Pansear starts performing the Art.
Pansear slowly changes its power into a more flexible form. Unlike Rebound, Fire Lung seems a lot less complicated. Fire Lung starts out like a small flame and flares up all of a sudden as if lit ablaze. The entire process looks brilliant.
Booth commands Pansear a second time to try launching a move with the Art.
Pansear struggles to perform his command. It creates a poor fireball and sends it forward. Steam flows from Pansear's mouth and from all over the fireball. Surprisingly, the fireball accurately hits its intended target. Booth is happy to see the flames spitting off the target again.
Truthfully, Booth can tell that the example is poor, but at least he got the gist of how the Art works. Booth tries the Art for himself before asking Ben for some help.
Ben gets out his Buizel and shows Fire Lung off a couple of times for Booth to study. Seeing that Booth is having trouble combining moves with Arts Ben gives a piece of advice.
"A common theme I've noticed with Arts is their effect on power rather than the pokemon itself like a move does. In other words, Arts directly affect your power supply. It changes your power into something different than its pure form. Of course this means the power is not pure anymore."
"Hmm, so instead of using power to fuel Arts and moves separately, I'm sharing the same power between the two..."
"I know it's confusing, but it will make more sense after thinking about it for a while. Your Arts aren't affecting your pokemon's body, but their energy. This feature means that you can combine your moves and Arts to amazing results.
While this is a great advantage, you also run the risk of your Art conflicting with other Arts and moves."
"I got it, thanks."
Booth makes massive improvements over the course of the morning and even unlocks the second stage of Fire Lung.
When activated, Fire Lung's second stage effect creates a warm stream of energy that revitalizes the user. Once the energy fills the pokemon's body, the pokemon's power flows faster and regenerates faster as well.
Overall, Booth evaluates Fire Lung as a support type Art. The first stage boosts power by a bit, but its second stage is entirely focused on sustainability. By combining the Art with strong moves or Rebound, Booth is confident he can increase his damage output beyond what he has ever done before.
Booth and Ben discuss the Art casually for a little longer before deciding to meet up with Damon for lunch.
---
After ordering their food, Damon delivers some good news to Ben and Booth.
"I finally sold the Mismagius for a good price."
"What was the price?" Ben turns to Damon and asks.
"5200 credits." Damon says proudly.
"Way to go Damon!" Hearing such large numbers naturally puts a smile on Ben and Booth's face. "With this kind of return, I'm tempted to go hunt another chieftain."
"I doubt we could find another one so soon, but I know what you mean. Right now is definitely the best time to sell pokemon." Damon seems content seeing the group as excited as he is.
"So what does that come out to for each of the shares?" Booth asks.
"Roughly 1700 credits, I can distribute the credits later. For now let's celebrate the sale of the Chieftain and Booth's first tournament victory."
While they eat their food Ben and Booth talk about the event. At the end Ben brings up a question for Booth.
"Booth, did you decide if you were going to go on the battle train?"
"Yeah, I think going on the battle train as well as going to Loup City would be a great opportunity."
"I agree. I might go to the Loup City Cup in the future, but I don't think I would want to buy a ticket for the battle train." Ben says.
"So you're thinking of entering the Loup City cup as well?"
"Yes, but I'll probably stay for the monthly tournament here in Clanton before going over."
"How about you Damon?"
"I'll probably go to Loup City with Ben. I'm curious what the pokemon domains are like there as well."
"Nice! Well I hope to see you guys there."
"Same here." Damon states. "There's still a few days until the battle train leaves, but I'm sure you'll need to prepare. So ask me if you need any help with your training."
"Since there's a couple days left until you go, I'll need a rematch before you leave." Ben smiles.
"Haha, sure thing." Booth happily replies.
---
Two more days pass and the battle train is almost in Clanton City. Booth has the morning until 1:00 to do something. Since he probably won't be coming back to Clanton City any time soon, he decides to check out his favorite stores.
When it comes to his favorites, the Arts store where he got Rebound is at the top. The owner there is quite friendly and gives good advice at any time.
He takes a trip to the store and scans a couple of the Arts starting from the front to back. When he gets comfortable he picks up a few to check them out.
The owner of the store recognizes Booth as a previous customer. "Hello partner, how did Rebound work for you."
"Hello sir!" Booth gives a positive review. "Honestly, the Art is more than I could have asked for. It took a while to learn, but I don't think I could have found a stronger Art than Rebound."
The owner seems satisfied. "Is that right. Well, is there anything you're looking for in particular?"
"Not really. I'll be leaving town today, so I thought I'd check some stores out before I leave."
"If that's the case then I might have some recommendations."
Booth agrees to look through the recommended Arts. The owner has a knack for marketing his products to trainers and gets Booth attention in no time.
"This is a guide for teaching different types of moves to your pokemon. It won't work well if the pokemon isn't compatible with the moves, but it could be very useful in the right situations."
Booth takes a look at the guide.
'The guide helps you teach a basic move similar to Hidden Power. I'm not sure about the strength of the attacks, but I wouldn't mind trying it out.'
Booth decides to buy the guide, but nothing else really interests him. He goes to the check out with the salesman.
"None of the Arts caught your eye?"
"No, I think I'm fine with the Arts I have now."
The owner nods and packs up the guide for Booth. Before Booth pays, the owner brings out a small booklet from under the counter and places it on top for Booth to see.
"It's technically unfinished but it's the next part of Rebound. I didn't want to see someone so passionate about one of my Arts being unable to finish it. There are a lot of areas you'll have to fill in yourself, but if you're smart enough maybe you can go further than I did."
"How much is it?" Booth asks curiously.
"Didn't I tell you it's unfinished. There's no way I could charge for something like this. It's free."
"Thank you."
Booth pays the owner, then puts the guide and booklet in his bag. He walks out to the train station a little earlier than expected and spends his time reading the move guide.
At about 12:00 the battle train arrives at the station. The station where the battle train stops is entirely owned by the Driggs company, so the train can stay there as long as it needs to.
The battle train is massive. The cars are almost double the width of a normal train, while the height of the train is enough for two floors. A Dark gray body with bright orange stripes paint across the side of the cars. Booth admires the cool design of the train and cracks a smile.
Not long after, some of the train's staff come to receive the passengers. Booth checks to see which car he needs to go to and boards the battle train. A thrilling feeling arises as he walks into the train.
"Welcome to the Driggs Battle Train!"
Booth feels extremely excited from observing the interior, but he holds it in.
'This looks like the start of a new adventure!'