After a couple of hours of sitting with each of his Pokémon individually, he came up with a training regiment. He started with Crash. Firstly, Percy wanted to start with the basics. Attack, Special Attack, Special Defense, Defense, Speed, and HP.
These were the most basic forms of understanding Pokémon. Pokemon generally have similar stats when they're the same species. But any pokemon can work to increase a stat, although there was no way to exactly measure the difference.
This is what made trainer pokemon and wild pokemon different. Wild pokemon didn't work out like trainers would work out their Pokémon. They just got their strengths and stats through survival. So Crash needed to work on his stats more.
As much as Percy wanted to train these guys 8 hours a day straight, that simply isn't possible. They would train four hours a day. Crash could work on his speed, HP, and Special attack in 1-hour blocks. And the last hour would be spent practicing moves for mastery.
So Crash would focus on increasing the rank of a few moves. Protect reaching [E] was still a slow process, but it was steady. Crunch and Ice Fang were the other moves he needed to upgrade. Percy and Crash had spent a minute deciding between Ice Fang and Ice Punch, but eventually stuck to what Crash was best at. Biting.
Fúria was next and didn't require much thinking. Percy had gone through a couple of ways to decide which stats each Pokémon should work on. First, he considered having them work on their weakest stats. That would create less weakness and balance a Pokémon out.
Then Percy thought, why would he take the strengths and weaknesses of each species and force them to do the thing they are worst at? The genetics have strengths and weaknesses for a reason. So his next idea was to lean into these strengths. Work the stronger stats significantly more and create a Pokémon that can do incredible things, but has glaring weaknesses.
Percy knew the power of having strengths, but he knew the fear of having weaknesses. So he ended up training all of his pokemon on a three stat training cycle. For a month, they would work three stats. Then the next month, they'd switch in the unworked stats. For now, Percy chose random stats and would adjust if anything was made to be an apparent problem in the future.
He was learning how to be a trainer. There was bound to be a lot of trial and error. He sprinkled in at least one weak stat into each training cycle to give a decent challenge. Fúria was assigned Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. The moves she was working on were Bulk Up, Protect, and Cross Chop. She had just gained Cross Chop after defeating the Beedrill. It was a powerful move, but it was seemingly slow for her to make progress. It was also hard for her to land the attack.
Next was Pharaoh. He worked on Agility, Swords Dance, and Protect. Pharaoh was already a fundamentally sound Pokemon. The stats Percy chose were Defense, Special Defense, and Attack.
Next was Jormun. She was still young and hadn't had much time to work all of her stats. Percy decided that she didn't need any move training. She had leveled up quickly since hatching and hadn't had the time to do training like her older siblings. Percy just told her she would work out for her for four hours using 40 minute blocks. She would train every stat for 40 minutes at 95 percent. The intensity would make up at least a little of the time she didn't have.
Percy, of course, was setting the 4 hour standard because he believed his Pokémon easily had enough time to do that amount and continue on to have some energy for the rest of the day. Having too many mandated work hours just wasn't good for the Pokémon. He didn't want them to burn out.
But they have all this extra time during the day to do whatever they want. Most of the time, they were training anyway in their free time. Then, when they didn't want to, they didn't. Percy believed a fair bit of self governance was necessary to raise the best Pokémon.
Jormun loved training more than any of his other Pokemon. She would do well just knowing she needed to focus on the basics. Percy was happy to pull some weights out of his Pokédex and put them on her in her free time.
Percy was on Dustox now. He checked his new stats with the Pokedex before starting.
Pokémon: Dustox
Level:13
Abilities: Shield Dust, Compound Eyes
Gender: Male
Potential: Blue
Moves: Tackle, String Shot, Poison Sting, Harden, Bug Bite, Gust, Quiver Dance (Inherent Move), Moonlight (Inherent Move), Leech Life (Inherent Move)
Percys eyes widened when he saw the moves. Yes, it had very impressive potential, but the moves were good. Since pokemon don't get their Inherent moves until they reach physical adulthood, Percy hadn't considered what he wanted Dustox to look like in the future.
Now he could begin seeing a vision. All of these moves pointed toward a fighting style that used survivability to outlast an opponent. Moonlight would heal Dustox as well as Leech life. Quiver Dance was simply a great move for a bug type. It increased three stats at once.
In order to start catching up, Dustox needed to both work on his stats and get his inherent moves to [E]. Once he did that, there was an opportunity for some specialization. Dustox was still a young pokemon with a great future.
There was no need to push for something that would come when he was ready. As Percy finished up Dustox's plan, the large moth crashed into Percy. He had been learning to use his wings, but was clearly not good enough. Percy yelped as he fell off the branch he was sitting on. Fúria quickly grabbed his collar and pulled him back to safety. "Thanks." He said and began to grill Dustox on what his training regiment was.
Next was Shroomish. Shroomish was definitely the most timid of all his Pokémon. Percy didn't take the strong approach he used with all his strong willed Pokémon. Instead, he used a gentle but firm explanation. Shroomish listened attentively as Percy outlined her schedule. All the other Pokémon were so excited to hop into the training that she had started to get excited.
Shroomish already had a lot of experience in defending herself in the wild. So Percy just put her on a tough but doable 4-hour schedule, the same as everyone else. She had a similar schedule to Jormun that focused on working on their physiques rather than her moves. Percy would alter their schedules as he saw fit and would make changes in a month for the sake of change.
Half of them were only training half of their stats, while the youngest ones caught up. The only pokemon left was Noctowl, who was on her watch shift. She would come back in the night, and Percy could break it down for her then.
Realizing something, Percy turned to Pharaoh, who was resting on a branch next to him. "Hey Pharaoh, would you mind training at night? I want someone to be training at the same time Noctowl is. I wanna make sure she doesn't feel alone. I'm gonna contact some people, and we're gonna get you a firestone. Crash is close to evolving, and I won't let him get much farther ahead without you getting your own boost." Percy said. Pharaoh accepted the night training and began napping while curled up next to Percy.