Upon arriving in the backyard, Rex saw Yuli diligently weeding around the Glacidea flowers with a small hoe, being very cautious not to harm the nearby blooms.
Yuli, focused entirely on weeding, didn't notice Rex's arrival. However, the surrounding Hoppip and Skiploom immediately flocked around.
The Hoppip, having lived on Rex's farm for some time now, had grown fond of life here.
They lived carefree lives, without worry of being bullied by other Pokémon, enjoying delicious fruits and energy cubes. Besides learning the Grassy Terrain, they were free to play as they pleased.
So when they saw Rex, who brought them this way of life, they happily danced around him.
"Oh, boss, you're back, I'm sorry, I was so focused on weeding that I didn't notice you."
Seeing the unusual behavior of the Hoppips, Yuli also noticed something was amiss. Turning around, she saw Rex smiling at her and quickly stood up, expressing her apologies.
"No problem, I saw you were focused on weeding and didn't want to disturb you."
Rex waved his hand.
"Thank you for taking care of these plants. They seem to be in excellent condition and have grown taller."
Rex praised, looking around at the plants.
Yuli had been spending a lot of time in the backyard lately, feeling it resembled her childhood garden more and more.
"I really enjoy being here. By the way, boss, is this Pokémon one you recently tamed? What's its name?"
"It's called Carbink. It's still a bit shy, but it'll get better with more interaction."
Rex gently patted Carbink's head and said.
Indeed, Rex felt that Carbink was becoming more accustomed to the outside world. It no longer hid behind him at the sight of strangers, although it still maintained some wariness towards humans other than Rex.
"Hello Carbink."
Yuli greeted Carbink with a smile.
"Also, congratulations on evolving, Haunter."
Yuli was already familiar with Haunter and was happy to congratulate it on its evolution.
After evolving, Haunter had become somewhat mischievous compared to its previous quiet nature. In no time, it was making several funny faces, which amused Yuli.
"By the way, Yuli, how are the Hoppips progressing with the Grassy Terrain move?"
Rex asked, looking at the Hoppip around them.
"They're working hard. Five Hoppip have already learned the Grassy Terrain skill, and one of them evolved into a Skiploom soon after learning."
After finishing, Yuli held the newly evolved Skiploom in her arms and stroked it.
Rex was delighted by this progress, which exceeded his expectations considering he had only been away for a week.
Apart from their outstanding aptitude, the Hoppip benefited greatly from daily exposure to the Grassy Terrain skill, which significantly accelerated their growth.
Especially the Glacidea flowers, which matured the quickest; they were now budding. At this rate, they would likely bloom and bear seeds in a short while.
Thus, Rex felt he could soon select a nearby area to specialize in cultivating Glacidea flowers.
His envisioned garden of blooming Glacidea flowers was almost becoming a reality. Though unsure if it would attract legendary Pokémon like Shaymin, these flowers could become one of Rex's farm's specialties.
He hadn't forgotten his promise to Koko's beautiful flower shop to supply Glacidea flowers, and finally, there was some progress in this regard.
After lunch, Rex took Carbink back to his room. During his time in Dewford Town, he hesitated to verify his assumptions due to potential unknown changes. Now back on his turf, he had no such concerns.
After communicating with Carbink, Rex placed his hands on it and activated his ability. A verdant energy flowed into Carbink's body.
Unlike other Pokémon silently absorbing life energy, once the life energy entered Carbink's body, the diamond on its head emitted a pink light, transforming from transparent to pink like a pink diamond.
However, the light quickly dimmed, and the diamond returned to transparency. Upon close inspection, Rex noticed a pink spot inside the diamond.
"Carbink, how did that feel just now?"
Rex asked Carbink, still immersed.
Through some gestures, Rex finally understood its feelings.
Firstly, Carbink didn't reject Rex's life energy; in fact, it felt comfortable with it entering its body.
Secondly, as its body wasn't damaged, the life energy that should have dissipated was attracted to the diamond on its head and integrated spontaneously.
Rex speculated that the fairy type energy stored in the diamond on Carbink's head attracted the life energy, resulting in an unknown change. The pink spot in the diamond was likely the product of this integration.
Subsequently, Rex input the remaining two instances of energy into Carbink's body the same way, resulting in two additional pink spots in the diamond.
Rex then tried to have Carbink sense its changes, but unfortunately, it couldn't detect anything unusual about the diamond on its head or the new spots.
Nevertheless, Rex considered any change a positive result. If inputting life energy didn't induce any change in Carbink, he wouldn't continue trying.
The appearance of pink spots in Carbink's diamond gave Rex hope to continue.
He wanted to see what would happen when the diamond on Carbink's head turned completely pink—whether it would mutate into Diancie.
Of course, this was all unknown, and at this rate, even if Rex provided life energy every day, it would take a long time for the diamond to change completely.
Moreover, Rex needed to allocate healing sessions to other Pokémon, so he couldn't provide all his life energy to Carbink.
Later, Rex attempted to have Carbink absorb life energy from the Grassy Terrain, but the effect was unclear. The Grassy Terrain was a broad skill, and Carbink couldn't utilize all the life energy.
At this rate, it would likely take over a dozen Grassy Terrain sessions for Carbink to form a pink spot.
This wasn't cost-effective at all, considering Hoppip could use Grassy Terrain a limited number of times per day, and evolved Skiploom could use it a bit more, but not over ten times.
(End of Chapter)