Pokemon: A New Path

The next morning, Naoki woke up early, had a simple breakfast, and got started on his daily chores. He fed the hens and collected their eggs, refilled the trough of the Gogoat with fresh hay, poured the milk from the Miltank into buckets, gathered the rock salt produced by the Nacli, and bottled the honey collected by Combee the day before.

After setting aside what he needed, he placed the rest next to the shipping box, ready for Zack to pick up later in the afternoon.

Once he finished, he noticed Dragonite by the farmland, having just completed its task of watering the crops. The remaining water droplets in the air caught the sunlight, forming a delicate crescent rainbow. Dragonite and Butterfree were admiring the rainbow, looking content and happy.

"Ah." Naoki exhaled deeply, dusting off his hands. His thoughts quickly returned to Glaceon as he hurried back to check on it.

When he pushed open the wooden door to Glaceon's cave, a cold breath greeted him, making him shiver. The cave had been completely transformed. The soft earth was now covered with a smooth layer of ice, with small piles of unmelted snow in the corners. The cave walls were also glazed with ice, giving the place the appearance of an igloo.

The Ice Stone sat in the middle of the cave, and Glaceon was comfortably lying on it, as if it were its bed.

"It seems like you've settled in nicely!" Naoki praised. "This place looks beautiful—you're amazing!"

Being praised for the first time, Glaceon felt a little embarrassed. Though it didn't show it outwardly, it lowered its head slightly and looked away, thinking to itself that it was no big deal.

Naoki glanced down at the plate he had brought the previous day, now empty. He walked over, picked it up, and asked, "Did you enjoy yesterday's food?"

Glaceon hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly, "Bu-yi."

'How can I help?' Glaceon wondered, recalling what Alcremie had said the night before about how everyone helped Naoki with the ranch.

But Naoki was unaware of Glaceon's thoughts. He simply took the plate back to the kitchen, fetched some fresh food from the refrigerator, and brought it back to Glaceon.

"Eat up! You can go for a walk outside when you're done. I still have work to do, but don't worry—it's safe here. No Pokémon will attack you," Naoki reassured Glaceon. "If you have any questions, just look for Alcremie or Koraidon. You remember Koraidon, right? The red Pokémon you saw yesterday."

Glaceon nodded, "Bu-yi."

Satisfied, Naoki smiled and said goodbye, leaving Glaceon to enjoy its meal.

As soon as Naoki stepped outside, he saw Pawmi looking a bit impatient.

"Just a moment," Naoki said to Pawmi.

He returned the plate to the kitchen and then headed to the utility room with Pawmi at his side. Inside, the power generation facility stood quietly against the wall.

In the Pokémon world, Pokémon are invaluable resources. Pokémon with different abilities can bring various benefits to human life.

Fire-type Pokémon can create flames, Water-type Pokémon can irrigate crops, and Grass-type Pokémon can tend to plants. In a similar vein, Electric-type Pokémon can generate electricity for human use.

For example, a single Electivire could potentially supply all the electricity needed to power a large city's buildings for an entire year. This is why Pokémon like Magnemite and Electabuzz are often employed at power plants, working alongside humans.

In recent years, scientists have even developed a variety of machines to harness electricity from different Electric-type Pokémon. For instance, there are hamster wheel generators designed for Pikachu. However, only a few generators require the Pokémon to expend its physical strength. Most generators are energy storage devices, where Electric-type Pokémon input enough electricity in advance, allowing the stored energy to be used during power outages.

The generator Naoki purchased from Kora was one of these energy storage types. It had a sleek silver shell with a metal ring on top designed to absorb electricity. According to the manual, all Naoki needed to do was place an Electric-type Pokémon inside and have it use its Electric-type moves. The machine would then automatically absorb the electricity generated.

With this in mind, Naoki picked up Pawmi and said, "I need some of your electricity."

'Electricity'? As an Electric-type Pokémon, Pawmi could naturally generate electricity, and it was eager to help.

"Pawmi~" Pawmi nodded enthusiastically, indicating its willingness.

"Good boy," Naoki said, patting its head as he placed it in the metal ring. "Don't be nervous—just use your best Electric-type moves!"

"Pawmi~" Pawmi responded cheerfully. It stood up and began vigorously rubbing its tiny, undeveloped electric sacs on its cheeks with its paws. Slowly, a small spark of electricity was generated through the friction.

"Pawmi!" With an excited cry, Pawmi released a small beam of electricity from its paw.

The generator detected the electricity and automatically began to operate, with the metal ring continuously absorbing the electrical energy produced by Pawmi. The move seemed to be a simple "Thunder Shock," not very powerful but the strongest move Pawmi had mastered so far.

Naoki thought about how, in the games, Pawmi's Thunder Shock was at level 3—indicating that Pawmi was indeed quite weak, even smaller and less developed than the Cyclizar on the ranch.

Before Pawmi had fully mastered its abilities, it had been separated from its parents and ended up at the ranch alone.

Soon, the Thunder Shock was completely absorbed by the generator.

Naoki glanced at the generator's energy bar and noticed that it had barely moved, sitting at less than 1%.

"It looks like I need to start a training plan for Pawmi," Naoki thought, realizing how much work lay ahead.

Naoki also remembered that Kora had mentioned that once fully charged, this generator could supply electricity to the ranch for nearly half a year. Currently, the ranch relied on electricity from a nearby power plant. 

Today was just a test to see if the generator functioned properly, and it seemed to be working fine so far.

Naoki had a rough idea of how things would go in the future, but as he glanced at Pawmi, he noticed it sitting in the machine with a sad expression. Pawmi felt disappointed in itself for only being able to produce such a small amount of electricity.

Naoki, however, wasn't too concerned. He gently comforted Pawmi, "It's okay. I'll make some special dishes for you later to help nourish your body."

He thought about creating dishes like green grass dumplings that could enhance electrical energy. However, ingredients related to thunder and lightning were not easy to come by.

Using a Thunder Stone was an option, but considering its hardness, it might end up breaking Pawmi's teeth.

"Hmm, this is going to be a tough challenge."