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Lian realized that Z-moves did not require activation like regular moves; this was because he already mastered the underlying move, and Z-moves merely enhance it through Z-power.
He noticed 100 units of progress points behind each Z-move, similar to improving proficiency for standard moves. Once reaching 100 points, the Z-move is expected to unleash significantly greater power, potentially with additional special effects.
In battle, a Z-move can only be used once due to its substantial Stamina consumption from both the Pokemon and the Trainer. While Pokemon can withstand it, ordinary Trainers cannot handle the immense drain required for a second use of a Z-move.
Apart from Z-moves, there were no other significant changes; the interface just became more streamlined and visually appealing.
"Finally, I can utilize my Combat Points!" After thoroughly reviewing all his combat data, Lian exclaimed excitedly. He had been waiting for this moment, feeling restrained by the sight of over fifty thousand unused Combat Points. Now, with the system upgrade complete, he could spend them freely.
Although tens of thousands of Combat Points might seem insignificant to Lian now, having 57,000 still felt substantial.
"Let's start by increasing Control Ratings." Currently, the easiest to enhance were undoubtedly the Control Ratings. Ignoring Fire Element Mastery for now, as boosting it to 60% would require 80,000 Combat Points, which was currently unfeasible.
However, other Control Ratings could be attempted, such as Flying Type Mastery, which stood at only 20%. Lian could easily raise it further with relatively fewer Combat Points consumed.
After a moment, Lian spent 10,000 Combat Points to increase his Flying Type Mastery to 30%. This significantly improved his control over flying-type moves.
Air Slash remained highly useful, and if its power could be enhanced or additional applications developed, Lian believed it would prove invaluable.
With the increased Flying Type Mastery, Lian's remaining Combat Points dropped to 47,390, still leaving ample room for further enhancements.
For now, Lian decided against instantly upgrading Rock Resistance. To increase it to '1' required 40,000 Combat Points, and doing so all at once would limit improvements in other areas. He had several more abilities he wanted to enhance.
One example was Normal Type Mastery, which had already risen to 12% due to mastering some normal-type moves. Feeling unsatisfied, Lian promptly spent another 4,000 Combat Points to directly boost it to 20%.
With over 40,000 Combat Points remaining, Lian turned his attention to Z-Moves. For now, he decided not to further enhance abilities, as increasing the Special Attack base stat by just 10 points required more than 70,000 Combat Points. He opted to save up before making additional enhancements.
Z-Moves were a new feature introduced after the system's upgrade. Lian planned to test the waters by improving them gradually, noting that each Z-Move had a total of 100 proficiency units. Based on the system's typical behavior, he anticipated that the consumption of Combat Points would steadily increase with each enhancement.
Considering Z-Moves are akin to ultimate attacks, it was unrealistic for their power to be easily boosted. The system wouldn't make it simple for Lian to enhance the proficiency and strength of Z-Moves.
Lian clicked on Inferno Overdrive and pressed the plus sign once, increasing its proficiency by one point. Checking the Combat Points, he found the cost reasonable at only 10 points.
However, following the pattern of increasing consumption, future enhancements would become progressively pricier, but at least early improvements didn't require excessive expenditure.
Lian initially increased the proficiency by 20 points. The first 10 points consumed only 100 Combat Points, which was negligible, but raising the proficiency from 11 to 12 directly cost him 20 Combat Points.
Following this pattern, upgrading Z-moves proficiency would consume significantly more Combat Points compared to ordinary moves. To reach 100 proficiency for a Z-move, at least one hundred thousand Combat Points would be required.
This indicates that mastering a Z-move will yield exceptionally high benefits, far surpassing those of normal moves, potentially achieving unimaginable power.
Unfortunately, such potent Z-moves can only be used once during a battle, primarily due to the Trainer's insufficient stamina.
Perhaps as Kalia develops and her overall physical attributes strengthen, she might eventually attempt using it twice. However, employing two Z-moves in a single battle could inflict substantial damage on the Trainer, possibly outweighing the advantages.
Having reached 20 proficiency points, Lian didn't stop there. With over forty thousand Combat Points earned today, he planned to spend them all. Currently, accumulating Combat Points was essential, knowing soon enough he'd have to resist spending them again for some time.
In one go, Lian boosted the proficiency to 70, consuming a total of 12,700 Combat Points. The earlier stages were relatively easy to upgrade, but they likely wouldn't greatly impact the Z-move; merely enhancing its proficiency. It seems only reaching 100 proficiency may trigger a significant transformation in the Z-move's effectiveness.
Lian wasn't in a rush; reaching 70 proficiency was already quite high. Essentially, Inferno Overdrive functioned as a powerful ultimate move, usable only once before depletion and susceptible to being guarded against.
Although Protect could only block part of the Z-move's power, it rendered the Z-move largely ineffective. Thus, the impact of Z-moves was not as significant as initially anticipated.
It essentially served as an enhanced version of a standard move, suitable for critical moments but not decisive in determining the outcome of a battle.
The key factor remained one's inherent ability values; stronger abilities directly translated into more potent moves.
After achieving 70 proficiency, Lian decided not to continue further. With around 30,000 Combat Points left, he planned to enhance his ability values.
Both Special Attack and Speed ability values required substantial amounts of Combat Points, with each increase of 10 base stat points costing tens of thousands. Lian opted to wait until accumulating more points before upgrading these attributes.
Instead, he aimed to boost his Physical Ability Value, feeling somewhat lacking in stamina during battles.
Speaking of enhancing physical stamina, while Lian's offensive output was sufficient during daytime battles, managing Solar Power's side effects proved challenging. Against strong opponents, any sustained attacks risked rapid Stamina depletion due to Solar Power, potentially leading to loss of combat effectiveness.
Lian had been pondering whether it was possible to gradually reduce the side effects of his Abilities through training.
He clicked on the link next to Solar Power, realizing that previously he only focused on the system's surface-level combat data and attributes panel. However, the system actually recorded much more complex information than he initially imagined.
This included detailed battle statistics, comprehensive explanations of moves, and intricate descriptions of various abilities. All these details were accessible via the links, but Lian hadn't bothered with them before.
Now, as he reviewed the extensive explanation for Solar Power, although he couldn't use Combat Points to mitigate its side effects, he discovered a crucial piece of information:
When activating Solar Power, Special Attack increases by 1.5 times, continuously draining Stamina until exhaustion renders you unable to fight.
Realizing that if activation is possible, deactivation must also be feasible, Lian hypothesized that mastering the technique to turn off Solar Power could prevent him from constantly enduring its side effects. Instead, he would only need to activate it when using specific moves.
With this approach, the impact of side effects on Lian would significantly decrease, eliminating concerns about losing combat capability due to such drawbacks.