"Master Hamir, would it be possible for Mothra, that's my Butterfree, to watch the lesson? She's been pretty interested in seeing a Frenzy Plant with her own eyes ever since she heard it was considered an ultimate move," I politely inquired, hoping to give Mothra a chance to witness the lesson since her talent only worked if she was actually present.
If we were lucky enough, Mothra might learn the move before Hashirama/Venusaur, and while I was sure that it would frustrate Hashi a tad bit, he would get over it since everyone in our family knew how broken Mothra was. That Mothra then would be able to help him speed up his own training through demonstrations and maybe some tips would naturally help as well. Still, to even have a chance at this, Master Hamir would have to agree first.
If it had been possible to have her included by paying or to get Mothra her own lesson, I would have done so, but she was not among the Pokemon that could apply for the lessons since it was usually impossible for Butterfree to learn this move. Halls did not work on the "it's your money your wasting principle", so I would have to prove without a doubt that Mothra could learn the move which would be laborious. Not to mention that it would reveal the full extent of Mothra's brokenness, which I did not want to do.
Anyway, Master Hamir only seemed to briefly consider the issue before he said "Sure, I don't mind". "That's great. Thank you," I returned before calling out Chibi Mothra, who gave Master Hamir and his Venusaur a happy wave before settling on my head to watch the lesson. After that little episode, Master Hamir gave his Venusaur an order, "Frenzy Plant". Venusaur raised his right front foot and slammed it down, and a few seconds later giant roots/vines broke out of the ground and whipped around for roughly 15 seconds before breaking up.
"Impressive display isn't it," Master Hamir asked and Mothra nodded happily on top of my head. "Frenzy Plant is, without doubt, the mightiest grass-type move in existence and I am convinced that it is also superior to Blast Burn and Hydro Canon. While those two moves might be just as powerful as Frenzy Plant, they can only be used to attack and are limited in their range. Meanwhile, Frenzy Plant can restrain its target on top of attacking it, and due to its nature, it can attack a wider area compared to Blast Burn and Hydro Canon. So while the power of the three moves might be similar, its versatility surpassed them by far. Still, it is also due to this that Frenzy Plant is harder to learn than either Blast Burn and Hydro Canon," Master Hamir explained with a proud tone.
I somehow got the feeling that he was looking down on Blast Burn and Hydro Canon, but I had to admit that Frenzy Plant was indeed more versatile and maybe useful, though I was pretty sure that Blast Burn was the most destructive among the three ultimate moves, at least within a limited target area. Still, I naturally kept that to myself and just said "Impressive indeed".
"Right," he affirmed with a nod. "Let's talk about the execution of the move. There are generally three ways to perform Frenzy Plant, though one could probably group two of them together. The first one, and the one we will be focusing on, relies purely on the resources of the Pokemon carrying out the move, be that energy and, or any parts of its body. The second and third methods both rely on the presence of roots, seeds, and vegetation already present in the area. The difference is that the second method focuses the energy purely into the ground, while the third also spreads the energy into the plants above the ground through their roots," he took a breath at this point and checked if both Hashirama and I were following what he was saying. Seemingly satisfied with our focused looks, he continued his explanation.
"We focus solely on teaching the first method to those who have yet to learn Frenzy Plant. This method is not reliant on outside aid and can be performed nearly everywhere. Moreover, while its experience can be utilized to swiftly learn the other methods, it does not work the other way around," he made another stop at this point and continued after Hashirama and I nodded to convey our understanding.
He then explained how the first method could be divided into two approaches as well, with the first relying purely on the Pokemon's energy, while the second relied on certain parts of the Pokemon such as Venusaur's vines or Torterra's tree. However, in that case, the number of Frenzied Plants was limited to the outgrowth of that piece of vegetation. Meanwhile, the energy one has no such hard limit and depends entirely on the Pokemon's mastery over Frenzy Plant.
He then focused on how Venusaur used Frenzy Plant and how it related to the moves Vine Whip, Leech Seed, and Growth. Leech Seed was necessary for the energy-based method and built the core of the move. Not only was that how the energy for the move got condensed but the growth of a usual Leech Seed was also how the energy seed could create the Vine Whip and consequently Power Whip that grew out of the Energy Seed. Growth was what ensured the enormous growth and might of the vine/root that grew out.
I already knew that but he had his Venusaur demonstrate each step multiple times which was exactly why I had hired him. They then had Hashirama give a try, and kept giving tips as well as pointing out what he did wrong or could do better. When our 2-hour session ended, I asked for a moment to head back to the reception to extend our time by another two hours.
After I came back from paying for the second session, Master Hamir's Venusaur continued guiding Hashirama while occasionally demonstrating the individual steps. It also showed the proper Frenzy Plant a few more times, and eventually, the second session ended as well. Unsurprisingly, 4 hours were not enough for Hashirana to learn the move, and neither of us had expected that to be the case. Yet, Master Hamir seemed to feel the need to assure us that actually learning the move would take months, but that we now could work on it on our own, if we wanted and he was right.
After 4 hours of one-on-one guidance, with tens of demonstrations for each individual step, and 9 demonstrated Frenzy Plants, Hashirama had taken a step in the right direction. His status sheet confirmed that he was in the process of learning the move, and with that being the case, I saw no need to book another session. At least I didn't until Mothra told me that she wanted to see a few more demonstrations of Frenzy Plant since she felt like she was on the cusp of grasping how to use the move herself.
I directly checked her status sheet and saw Frenzy Plant being displayed with the notation that it was a work in progress. Still, having already gone through 2 sessions/4 hours, I decided to stop for now since I had no idea how many demonstrations it was going to take for Mothra to learn the move. Instead, I told Master Hamir that I would be returning tomorrow for another lesson before wishing both him as well as his Venusaur a good evening. After leaving Hall 12, I headed for the reception and asked for the list of available Hall trainers so that I could choose some to challenge.
Hashirama and Jade were currently the only grass types in my main team, but I had three more in my reserve team, Bounsweet, Tangela, and Exeggcute. I was planning to challenge trainers that had members of the same species as my Pokemon and stipulate that they use them against mine. We would start with Pokemon that were just as strong as mine, before upping the difficulty.
I knew from experience that this kind of challenge would prove quite beneficial to my Pokemon since it showed them a bunch of fighting styles that fit their species while also giving them fighting experience. It would also grant them insight into ways of facing their species and hence show them how others, at least as far as grass types were concerned, might try to face them.
A quick check confirmed that there were multiple trainers available that had Bounsweet, Tangela, Exeggcute, and Venusaur in their teams. It was unfortunate but not surprising that no one had a grass-type Gyarados, though I did have an alternative for that. I would have her face Serperior instead since it was the only other serpent-shaped grass-type Pokemon, which made it the closest possible match for my plan.
Unfortunately, with Serperior being a royal member of a region on another continent there were only three Hall trainers with Serperior available. Out of these 3, only 2 were eligible as Jade's opponent since the last one belonged to the Hall master, who I was told, would not be willing to use Serperior against me unless my Pokemon was at the platinum stage.
Anyway, knowing that Jade would attract quite a bit of attention, I decided to leave her for last and began challenging the Hall trainers for the others first. I started with Tangela and worked through the other two reserve members first before moving on to Hashirama. I even skipped dinner and ate two sandwiches instead to keep challenging Hall trainers, though I made sure to hand out dinner to my Pokemon.
By the time I felt everyone had fought enough, it was already 9:20 p.m., so I finally challenged the first trainer with a Serperior. Predictably, the man was taken aback when he saw Jade, though he was professional enough to stay focused on the battle. That changed once Jade had managed to take his Serperior down. As soon as the battle was over, the Guy rushed up to me and began to ask the usual questions about Jade.
I stuck to my usual luck story and refused any offers he made for Jade. I naturally also refused the offers he made to have Jade produce a progeny for him to purchase. Predictably, the second battle went similarly, or at least the reaction of the lady I was facing did. She tried to make offers for Jade or a child of hers as well, but I refused them as well. Still, when I left the battlefield, enough time had passed since the local reveal that I got approached by a few Hall trainers who began questioning me about Jade, so I knew that it was time for me to beat a retreat, and that was what I did.
I did not even bother with fake platitudes and slipped away after distracting them using the oldest trick in the books. I pointed to the right and asked if that was the Hall Master. While they looked to the right, I hurried away, cranked up my "don't-bother-me-field", and left the Grass Hall. It was dark enough that once I was outside, I went to the corner of the building and directly entered Utopia.
My Pokemon greeted me and I let the grass team out of their balls. We spent the next few hours talking about what they had done while I was out, as well as what they thought about the Frenzy Plant session and the Pokemon battles. I called it a night when I saw Squirtle yawn, which was not all that surprising since it was already close to 1 a.m.
The next morning we held our usual morning training session after breakfast, and I noticed that Utopia had finally produced enough Ocean Shells for me to create the two Superior Shell Bells that I was planning to give to my parents. The question was if I should do that first or if I should head to the Grass Hall first instead.
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