Petilil was radiating a faint green glow.
It had been training alongside Tangela for some time now and felt that its mastery over the Absorb move had become much stronger.
However, no matter how hard it trained, it still couldn't manage to sprout a large number of healing leaves as it wished, which left it slightly disappointed.
Maybe the training method was wrong.
I should go and ask Aven about it...
Petilil sighed, looked up at the setting sun, and decided it was time to say goodbye to the Tangela group and head home.
As it made its way home, Petilil noticed the half-processed vines scattered around the yard and felt a bit puzzled.
Normally, its trainer would always complete tasks in a well-organized manner — he would never leave work unfinished like this.
With a feeling of curiosity, Petilil entered the house.
Inside, it saw Aven and little Andy sitting at the dining table, busily preparing potions.
"Ah, Petilil, you're back!"
Seeing Petilil, Andy happily waved and greeted it. The Oddish beside him also jumped off the table to greet Petilil.
When Andy was choosing an Oddish, Aven had specifically picked a young one that had just joined the farm.
If Andy had chosen one of the older Oddish, which had already evolved into Gloom, Andy would likely have been quite distressed.
"Lil, Lil,"
Petilil greeted Andy and Oddish, then turned its attention to Aven, who was still busy preparing the potions.
At a glance, Petilil could tell that the potion Aven was preparing wasn't an ordinary healing potion — it had a much stronger healing effect.
Someone must be badly injured...
Petilil thought to itself, then glanced toward the closed inner room.
"Phew, done,"
At that moment, Aven let out a sigh of relief, lightly shaking the strong healing potion he had just finished.
Andy, noticing this, suddenly cried out in frustration.
He had originally wanted to learn how to make potions but had completely forgotten about it during the excitement, and now he could only sigh in disappointment.
"Petilil, good evening," Aven greeted with a smile.
"I'll feed the potion to Shinx first, and then I'll prepare your growth fertilizer."
Hearing this, Petilil first nodded but then suddenly became alert.
Shinx?
It remembered Aven mentioning before that he wanted to capture a Shinx. Could it be that the new one had already arrived?
No way! I have to go check!
With a serious expression, Petilil followed Aven into the inner room.
There, it saw the Shinx lying on the bed, its body wrapped in bandages.
Petilil froze for a moment. So, the potion Aven had been preparing was for this wounded Shinx?
"This is Shinx. Peter found it outside the village this morning," Aven briefly explained while carefully feeding the strong healing potion into Shinx's mouth.
Even after drinking the potion, Shinx remained unconscious.
Right now, the potion could only provide nutrition — for it to truly wake up, Shinx would have to rely on its own strength.
"Lil, Lil,"
Petilil obediently nodded, staring at the injured Shinx.
It found that it couldn't bring itself to feel angry anymore.
After thoroughly checking on Shinx again, Aven left the room with Petilil and went out into the courtyard to prepare the growth fertilizer for Petilil.
Seeing the deep exhaustion on Aven's face, Petilil sighed again and walked up, gently touching Aven's cheek with one of its leafy appendages.
Immediately, Aven felt a soothing energy flow into his body.
Startled, he glanced at the Petilil beside him.
Life Energy,
he murmured inwardly.
The energy that had just entered his body clearly had a fatigue-relieving effect, reminding him of the healing leaves Uncle Mike had given him to eat when he first crossed into this world.
But this energy had come directly from Petilil's healing leaves — even though he hadn't eaten any.
There was only one possible explanation:
Petilil had already learned to control the life energy contained within its healing leaves!
Aven was overjoyed — but also a little confused.
Normally, while Petilil could learn many recovery-type moves, those only allowed it to restore its own stamina.
Healing moves that could help others recover were very rare.
Among Grass-type Pokémon, the easiest healing move to learn was Grassy Terrain, but even that required Petilil to evolve into Lilligant first.
That was why, even though Aven knew Petilil had a high affinity for life energy, he hadn't rushed to train it in healing moves.
Yet now, Petilil had used a healing ability — and it clearly wasn't a move, but true control over life energy itself!
"Lil, Lil?"
Petilil, still unaware of the significance, looked at the delighted Aven with a confused expression.
"Petilil, congratulations," Aven said with a smile, "you've mastered Life Energy."
Hearing this, Petilil looked even more puzzled.
Life Energy?
It tilted its head and wobbled the healing leaves atop its head, asking if Aven meant those.
Aven shook his head and reached out to touch Petilil's healing leaves.
However, no life energy emerged — meaning that earlier, Petilil had activated the power unconsciously.
Thinking for a moment, Aven continued asking,
"Petilil, have you been doing any special training lately? For example, training your Absorb move?"
Absorb was itself a recovery move — a form of life energy manipulation.
In fact, healing and recovery moves shared the same foundation.
Hearing Aven's question, Petilil immediately nodded excitedly and jumped into the tub of growth fertilizer.
A soft green glow began radiating from its body — the power of Absorb.
Under the influence of the Absorb move, the nutrients within the fertilizer were slowly being drawn out.
But Petilil wasn't absorbing the nutrients for itself — instead, it was channeling them into the leaves atop its head.
The rightmost leaf began to emit a soft, gentle green light.
That's Life Energy!
Aven thought, stretching out his hand to touch the light radiating from Petilil's leaf.
Immediately, a familiar, comforting warmth flowed into his body once again.
Petilil was using the Absorb move to draw energy from the fertilizer, and then transforming it through its healing leaves into true Life Energy!
(End of Chapter)