Inside the small park next to their home, Lin Fan and Beedrill found a secluded spot, free from dancing grandpas and grandmas, and began their extra night training.
Facing Beedrill's curious gaze, Lin Fan began to explain the content of this training session: "Do you remember the fusion skill Uncle Su mentioned during the day?"
Beedrill suddenly understood.
It certainly remembered, after all, the oppressive feeling Machamp brought it was too strong, making it yearn for the so-called fusion skill.
"Screech!"
So, are we here to train a fusion skill tonight?
Glancing at Beedrill's excited look, Lin Fan nodded with satisfaction.
His mind was finally not entirely filled with peach fruit.
Without saying the words that would make Beedrill furious, Lin Fan continued: "Uncle Su said your Silk Thread carries Poison-type energy, which is the basic condition for a fusion skill—energy fusion. But from what I know of you, this thing is 100% because the Silk Thread inherently carried Poison-type energy when it was produced from your body, not a product of your unintentional fusion."
Beedrill scratched its head sheepishly.
See through it but don't say it, right?
"And for the String Shot skill, I really can't think of any skill that can perfectly complement it. After all, you are a hornet, not a spider, and String Shot is not your strong suit."
Originally, Lin Fan had wanted to maximize the String Shot skill to give Beedrill strong crowd control abilities, but only now did he realize that doing so would not yield much benefit for Beedrill.
After all, as he said, Beedrill is not a spider, and Beedrill's combat style should lean more towards extreme speed attacks. Strengthening its crowd control abilities would truly be putting the cart before the horse.
Of course, this doesn't mean the String Shot skill is completely scrapped; it just needs to be temporarily put aside for a while until a more suitable way to use it is found.
Pausing, Lin Fan continued: "However, you now have two skills with extremely high compatibility, which should have the potential to develop into a fusion skill."
Beedrill instantly understood Lin Fan's meaning, raised the twin stingers in its hands, and continuously stabbed the nearby tree four times.
Bug-type Double Needle and Poison-type Poison Sting!
Here lies the huge difference between the game and reality. For the same Poison Sting skill, after Weedle evolves into Beedrill, the single stinger on its head turns into two stingers. The base power of Poison Sting remains unchanged, but it can sting the enemy one more time, effectively doubling its power.
And in this way, if one doesn't look at the energy radiating from the outside, the Double Needle and Poison Sting released by Beedrill are almost identical.
Lin Fan couldn't think of any skills that would be easier to develop into a fusion skill than these two.
However, he also understood that a fusion skill is definitely not as simple as crudely combining two skills; instead, it should achieve an effect where one plus one is far greater than two.
Just like Focus Energy's effect is to increase critical hit rate, and Calm Mind's effect is to strengthen special attack and special defense, the fusion skill formed by the two in Machamp's hands has the effect of mental suppression.
But considering Beedrill's current strength, as long as it can grasp even the basics of a fusion skill, it would definitely be a huge improvement and could serve as a trump card.
"You've already trained very hard during the day, so this extra training doesn't need to be too strenuous. Just make a slight attempt and that's enough."
Lin Fan instructed, and Beedrill touched its twin stingers, indicating that it would slack off even if he didn't say so.
Lin Fan rolled his eyes, ignoring this fellow who always talked big but always trained with all his might. He looked around and pointed at a tree with a diameter of half a meter: "That tree will do. Continuously use Double Needle and Poison Sting on the trunk, one after the other. Let's first improve your switching speed between the two types of energy."
According to Lin Fan's own understanding, to master the so-called fusion skill, the original boundaries between the two skills must first be infinitely weakened.
Just like those MOBA games, when Pokémon release skills, there is also a short period of wind-up and cool-down. This is because they need to mobilize the energy within their bodies when releasing skills, and the so-called wind-up and cool-down represent the speed at which they mobilize energy.
And the speed of mobilizing energy between different types of energy will be more difficult than mobilizing energy of the same type, just like Beedrill using Double Needle twice in a row is slightly faster than using Double Needle first and then Poison Sting.
Only when Beedrill can smoothly switch between the two types of energy might it be able to touch the threshold of energy fusion.
If you can't master it, how can you talk about fusion?
Beedrill looked at the familiar tree in front of it and couldn't help but fall into contemplation.
If it remembered correctly, when it practiced Bug Bite, it continuously bit a tree of similar thickness to this one.
It poked the corner of its mouth with its hand, and the pain seemed to still linger, instantly invigorating Beedrill, which then furiously stabbed the tree repeatedly with Double Needle and Poison Sting.
Thump thump thump—
The extremely fast stabbing speed caused the sound of the twin stingers colliding with the tree trunk to form a continuous line. Lin Fan nodded with satisfaction, lamenting that Beedrill was truly giving its all as always.
Under the dim yellow light, Beedrill strictly followed Lin Fan's instructions, stabbing the tree again and again, shaking down countless fallen leaves.
Time passed, and half an hour quickly went by.
Lin Fan checked the time and called Beedrill to a halt.
"How was it? Any progress?"
"Screech!"
Beedrill shook its head. Evidently, this training method hadn't yielded much effect, which was also partly due to the short duration.
Lin Fan nodded, with no disappointment in his eyes.
It was just a shallow attempt to begin with; failure was normal. No one succeeds all the time.
Patting the somewhat dejected Beedrill, Lin Fan smiled: "The daytime training was already hard enough. Half an hour of practice at night is sufficient. Theoretically, my plan should be feasible, but I thought of it suddenly, and many parts are too rough. Tomorrow, let's ask Uncle Su how to improve it. For today, let's stop here."
Hearing this, Beedrill nodded, a hint of regret in its eyes.
Although Lin Fan had already said it was just an attempt, it actually still hoped to achieve what Lin Fan had envisioned.
Though usually carefree, it actually didn't want Lin Fan to feel even the slightest disappointment.
Lin Fan patted Beedrill's head and tossed it two peach fruit. Each of Beedrill's two arms impaled one, like small pink fists, obscuring their sharp edges.
Returning home with Beedrill, drowsiness set in. Lin Fan yawned, turned off the lights, and in the darkness, softly said goodnight before falling into a sweet dream.
Beedrill's eyes flickered as it lay in its small nest, wondering what it was thinking.
After a while, hearing Lin Fan's even breathing, Beedrill quietly opened the window, flew out silently, and returned to the tree it had used for training earlier.
Looking at the dense stab marks on it, Beedrill took a deep breath, its gaze firm.
Continue with the extra training!