Obviously I didn't use all of my food the previous day to make that soup so I still had several days worth of food left in my bag. 'Silph co really knew what they were doing with these bags , they even have refrigerated pockets inside it.' I thought while pulling out a few vegetables and some packaged Tauros steaks. I diced it all up and put it in the wok along with some rendered Zigzagoon fat and some salt and pepper. It was basically just a nice and simple stir fried dish that I kept moving constantly over the fire.-
Vulcan smelled the food and immediately stopped what it was doing to bound across the now almost fully aerated and stirred pasture ground. The entire pasture was pretty much ready to be seeded minus a bit at the western edge the Gaia was breaking up and mixing at the moment. It would honestly not surprise me the slightest to find out that farmers all used rock or ground type pokemon with how efficient and fast she got this work done. Still with this I could focus my attention on training Sly up until Birch got me the fertilizer and seeds I needed to reintroduce plantlife to the area.-
I may not be all that happy with the creature but even I had to admit that it didn't complain or whine about the hellish but effective training I put it through which was fairly impressive considering that Gaia and Vulcan still complain about it sometimes. After eating with Vulcan I was relieved that I chose to cook early since the dark rain filled clouds were overhead and I felt the first drops of water start to fall. Gaia had finished the rest of the pasture by this time so we all headed into the cave for the day.-
There was still a few hours until the sun went down so I spent that time meditating with Vulcan minus the small pause we took to turn over the little girl to her mother that came for her. The method to train aura after you get it to the point that it can manifest outside your body , which is the journeyman mastery according to the system , was to create a single thread of the stuff that you extend away from your body. I'd be lying if I said it was easy because it very much was not.-
Manifesting aura was fairly simply since you just need to push it outside your body without any finesse or skill really involved. The creation of a thread however required behemoth amounts of willpower and control over the energy which I was sorely lacking. As it turned out being someone recovering from serious levels of apathy meant my willpower was positively dreadful. I barely had the will to live normally as I just sort of went through the motions before I came to this world but while I was recovering an actual fuck to give it was clearly not enough.-
Helpless about it I could only focus on the control aspect of the skill that was also irritatingly slow to improve. Thankfully that wasn't because a character flaw of mine but rather just because it was innately difficult to do. Still I was making slow progress so I didn't complain , much. Once the sun finally dropped I climbed Vulcan and got nice and comfortable under its mane before fading away to sleep. The night was plenty quiet as the rain fell down and soaked into the ground while filling up the pond a bit away from the cave.-
The next day I woke up to it still raining but chose to ignore it since if I stopped training due to a bit of falling water I would be wasting valuable time. I woke up my pokemon who were both very unhappy about the weather but knew how I did things and joined me in the downpour as I did my daily workout. The entire village was left speechless however when they opened their blinds and the scene of me and my mons jogging through the mud was seen. It didn't matter to me though as I put forth my best effort.-
Birch waved me over after I was done with my workout and the rain was washing the mud off of me. "Perfect weather to teach Sly about fighting in unfavorable conditions don't you think?" I asked calmly. "Aren't you worried about getting sick?" Birch asked worriedly from under his umbrella. "HA! It'll take more than a little water to make me sick." I said with a laugh. What a joke , my entire body had been overhauled and improved which included my immune system so weak diseases like a cold or flu were not even a factor anymore.-
That didn't even take into consideration that my ability to actively use aura made my body even hardier. Yeah me getting sick is really fucking hard now and I was more than willing to abuse the hell out of it. "If you say so." Birch said doubtfully while handing over the pokeball to Sly who I released immediately. The poor creature shook itself to try and get rid of the water that hit it but quickly realized that it was standing in the rain. "Zig?" It barked at me questioningly and I didn't even need to have a connection with it to translate that to "The fuck?".-
"Your training for today is not like yesterdays training. No today you are going to get a taste for what it's like to fight in less than perfect conditions. Vulcan here will be your opponent though with a few limitations since you are not even close to it's level." I said with a smirk as a look of realization set in on it's face. Birch was almost buzzing in place from excitement when I said this though I had to kill his enthusiasm a bit. "No need to get excited professor as Vulcan will only be using a quarter of it's abilities and absolutely no moves whatsoever." I said which dampened the mans spirit considerably.-
I could understand his eagerness to see a legendary like Vulcan go all out during a sparring match but that would be so overkill in this situation it bordered on a war crime. Anyways dark thoughts aside I looked at Vulcan "You got all that?" I asked and it nodded before walking away to take it's place. I then turned to the shivering but determined raccoon pokemon "You are not meant to be used in a situation where you are commanded by a trainer but rather to protect this guy here and that's what I will train you for so stop shaking and prepare to meet Vulcan in combat." I said while pointing at Birch.-
It certainly wasn't the nicest pep talk but it worked as the small creatures eye burned with resolve and it firmly walked towards Vulcan in the distance. "Needs some work but otherwise you have yourself a good pokemon there." I said to birch with a smile and he grins. "May picked him out of his litter about a year ago." he said proudly.