On the other side, after sending the trio away, Terrance calmed down.
He wasn't ready for the Grand Festival yet, and he needed to give Ninetales some special training, mainly focusing on its control over Ice-type moves.
Of course, Ninetales was already very skilled in Ice-type moves, but it hadn't reached the top level yet.
Terrance and Rotom Pokédex speculated that if Ninetales' affinity for Ice-type could reach a higher level and it could master Snowy Weather perfectly, its Ice-type abilities might break into the top tier.
To train his Pokémon, Terrance planned to rent an open-air training ground in Saffron City. The training ground was similar to a battle arena, with an artificially simulated environment.
Inside, the terrain could be changed to Icy Terrain, Rocky terrain, or similar types, so the rent wasn't cheap.
But compared to training in the wild, it was clearly quieter and more comfortable here. Since Saffron City, as a major city, offered this service, Terrance didn't mind spending the money.
A day later, inside the training ground.
Feeling the chill in the air around him, Terrance nodded in satisfaction. "This is it. Let's rent it for seven days."
"Alright, registering for you now," the staff replied, skillfully handling the rental procedures for Terrance.
After finishing all the paperwork, Terrance watched the staff leave. For the next seven days, this place would be his. Although it wasn't as cold as the Seafoam Islands' cave, the icy terrain here was pretty good. At least from Ninetales' reaction, it seemed quite satisfied with this place.
"Next…"
Looking at Ninetales, Terrance took out the Never-Melt Ice.
This wasn't Ninetales' first time encountering Never-Melt Ice, but… it was its first time touching a Hundred-Year-Old Never-Melt Ice.
Compared to Thousand-Year-Old or Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Never-Melt Ice, Hundred-Year-Old Never-Melt Ice might sound inferior, but even Hundred-Year-Old Never-Melt Ice was a rare treasure, and getting hold of a piece wasn't easy.
The energy contained within this Never-Melt Ice far surpassed the Flame Orb that Blaine had given him.
"Ninetales, get a feel for this." Handing the Never-Melt Ice to Ninetales, Terrance let it start comprehending it on its own.
Although the Ice-type energy inside Never-Melt Ice was tightly sealed due to its unique structure, it was very easy for an Ice-type Pokémon to use a move to draw out the energy from Never-Melt Ice.
The older the Never-Melt Ice, the more complex its structure might be, making it harder to draw out its energy, but for Ninetales, none of this was an issue.
However, simply using the energy inside Never-Melt Ice to strengthen Ice-type moves wasn't Terrance's main goal. Using it like that would be a waste.
After observing Ninetales for a while and seeing a change in its expression, Terrance smiled.
"You probably already know how to use this special Never-Melt Ice for training, right? Did you feel the astonishing energy inside?"
"Ninetales~" Ninetales nodded vigorously. It had already done Snowy Weather training with Castform, so it naturally knew how to make the most of treasures like Icy Rock and Never-Melt Ice.
Using them directly as consumables would have some effect, of course. When a Pokémon absorbs the energy from a treasure to boost its moves, it also receives a subtle baptism of that energy itself. Though it is very faint, it ultimately benefits the Pokémon.
But doing it that way was too inefficient. The energy would all be released with the move, so it didn't have much effect on enhancing the Pokémon's own strength.
That's why Terrance came up with a method to convert the energy within the treasure into the Pokémon's own strength, namely the four weather-based secret techniques.
The key lay in the four weather-changing moves:
Rain Dance, Hail, Sunny Day, and Sandstorm.
If moves like Blizzard or Ice Beam are techniques where the Pokémon uses its own power to unleash them, then weather moves are techniques where the Pokémon uses its own power to communicate with nature and borrow its strength.
The reason Castform is praised as a Pokémon that can wield the immense power of nature is precisely because it can learn all four weather-based techniques.
And because of Castform's unique traits, it can use weather-based techniques more easily than other Pokémon.
Although Ninetales can't control as many types of weather as Castform, thanks to its Ability, Snow Warning, it's second to none when it comes to controlling Snowy Weather.
"Snow Warning and Hail are both techniques that use your own energy to communicate with the ice and snow energy in nature. What you need to do now is to use these two abilities to connect with the energy inside the Never-Melt Ice. Treat the Never-Melt Ice as a microcosm of nature itself, and transform its internal ice and snow energy into Snowy Weather…" Terrance explained.
In this way, not only could the special structure of the Never-Melt Ice reduce the waste of its energy, but throughout the process, Ninetales' will would continuously be tempered by the ice and snow energy, increasing its own affinity for this energy. It would also indirectly train its proficiency with Snowy Weather.
This was one part of the six-link Snowy Weather secret technique. The other five links involve the Icy Rock, Ice Gem, some peculiar materials, and even air current techniques. Only when all six links are integrated into a whole do they form the top-tier Snowy Weather secret technique created by Terrance. For now, relying on the Never-Melt Ice alone could only achieve this limited training effect.
However, it was really difficult to find compatible materials like Icy Rock or Ice Gem that can match the Hundred-Year-Old Never-Melt Ice. At least in the short term, it was impossible. So Terrance gave up on that idea. The Hundred-Year-Old Never-Melt Ice contained vast energy; perhaps it could be highly effective on its own. Also, during the training process, although it wouldn't consume the Never-Melt Ice's energy as quickly as using a move would, it would still accelerate the depletion of its energy. As for how long this piece of Never-Melt Ice could last, Terrance wasn't sure. But with the massive amount of energy inside, it should be enough for Ninetales to take its affinity for ice and snow, and its mastery of Snowy Weather, to the next level.
Of course, not just anyone could use Never-Melt Ice for this kind of special training. First, the Pokémon's control over energy had to be exceptional, otherwise it would damage the structure of the Never-Melt Ice and waste its energy. Second, simulating the operation of Hail and the transformation of Snowy Weather inside the Never-Melt Ice was not simple.
It required complex preparatory training and other methods, which, of course, Ninetales had already practiced with Castform.
Once Ninetales' training was set up, Terrance used the remote to change half of the Icy Terrain training ground into Rocky terrain for Pupitar, Kirlia, and Carbink to train.
Kirlia and Carbink, of course, would follow Altaria to accumulate Fairy energy. Meanwhile, Kirlia also had to split its focus on meditating to train its psychic power. As for Pupitar, Terrance was just about to assign it a training plan when he suddenly received a message from Mr. Sam…
"Sabrina… agreed?" Terrance glanced at the message, delighted. It seemed Sabrina wasn't so unreasonable after all. Jointly studying the true nature of Float Stone would benefit everyone. After receiving the message, Terrance planned to visit Saffron Gym right away.
If the true nature of Float Stone really was psychic power, that would be interesting. Terrance could use this insight to further improve Steven's Float Stone training method and make his future Tyranitar even stronger!
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