President Beckett's efficiency was extremely high.
After confirming that Cacturne had indeed changed abilities, he immediately called for an urgent meeting.
During the meeting, the Pokémon researchers kept looking back and forth between the article on hidden abilities and Ethan, unable to calm the excitement they felt.
"Ethan, your points are already enough for you to advance to the rank of Elite-level Pokémon Researcher, and you could even become a Pokémon Professor directly."
Alex Baxter sighed as he looked at Ethan. He knew Ethan's main profession was being a trainer, and that research was merely a secondary pursuit.
But now, even in his "secondary field," Ethan had already far surpassed many veteran researchers, leaving Alex with emotions difficult to describe.
Being an Elite-level Pokémon Researcher is not truly an official rank, but rather a title used to describe those whose points have already reached the standard of a Pokémon Professor, yet who have not fulfilled the essential requirements of the title.
To become a Pokémon Professor, aside from having enough points, one must make an indelible and groundbreaking contribution to the world of Pokémon or trainers.
For example, Professor Harris became a Pokémon Professor thanks to his fundamental contributions to the study of Ground-type Pokémon: he discovered training methods and techniques that revolutionized the field.
As for Ethan, although he already had enough points, these came from various scattered studies. And to become a Pokémon Professor, points were not what mattered most—it required a truly historic contribution.
Although his article "A New Direction for Pokémon Evolution" could be called revolutionary, it still was not enough to reach the summit directly, unless Ethan was able to summarize concrete rules of evolution rather than merely propose a new direction.
Thus, Ethan was an Elite-level Pokémon Researcher, but not yet a Pokémon Professor. However, as more special evolution methods continued to be discovered, his contributions would keep accumulating; it wasn't impossible for him to ascend directly one day.
Ethan simply smiled; Pokémon research had never been his specialty.
As for points... there could never be too many. After all, the guild had many valuable items that could only be obtained through points; and now, with so many accumulated, he could redeem quite a few treasures.
After a round of deliberation, the guild decided that those in charge of researching hidden abilities would be Professor Harris and Professor Vega, whom Ethan had met briefly.
Professor Vega was the guidance trainer of the university team of Duskwell City's Pokémon University. Ethan had met him during the inter-academy tournament of the League's Universities.
Additionally, he was an expert in Water-type Pokémon, famous for his research on rainy weather, which was already in its final phase. The success of Professor Harris's research on sandstorm weather had deeply inspired all weather researchers.
Of course, it was also natural for Professor Vega to be responsible for studying Cacturne's Water Absorb ability, given his expertise in Water-type Pokémon.
For researchers dedicated to weather studies, like Professor Harris and Professor Vega, researching abilities was also essential; many abilities were closely linked to weather conditions.
Now they needed to investigate the conversion of Sand Veil → Water Absorb, so the duo of Professor Harris (expert in sandstorm-related abilities) and Professor Vega (expert in rain-related abilities) was ideal.
"We meet again, Ethan."
Professor Vega smiled; he had never forgotten the young man who had crushed the entire Duskwell City Pokémon University.
"Hello, Professor Vega." Ethan smiled somewhat awkwardly.
"Don't be so tense. There's no grudge between us. Besides, thanks to your article 'A New Direction for Pokémon Evolution,' we were able to discover the existence of Slowking, Politoed, and Kingdra. For those of us who study Water-type Pokémon, we owe you a tremendous favor."
"Especially Politoed and its Drizzle ability, which has been vital to my research."
Professor Vega noticed how uncomfortable Ethan was and joked to ease the mood. Immediately, the atmosphere became much friendlier.
Professor Harris also joined the conversation, and soon the three of them began discussing Cacturne's ability conversion.
After that, they quickly headed to the research site: Professor Vega's specialized rainy-weather laboratory.
The laboratory was located next to a lake, with extremely dense humidity—an ideal environment for studying rainy weather.
Once inside, Ethan noticed that most of the Pokémon were training the move Rain Dance. There were mostly Water-type Pokémon, but also some Grass-types.
While the assistants prepared the research equipment, Professor Vega took the opportunity to consult Professor Harris about methods for training weather-related moves. This was undoubtedly one of the reasons why the research on Cacturne had been assigned there.
Seeing this, Ethan began observing the training, wondering whether his Slowking could also learn the move Rain Dance.
Professor Harris seemed to guess his thoughts. During his explanation of how weather moves were executed, he asked Ethan to release Slowking and applied his theories using the Pokémon as an example.
Professor Vega, noticing that Professor Harris was intentionally helping Ethan, showed no displeasure whatsoever; in fact, he smiled, making Ethan feel quite happy.
If Slowking managed to learn Rain Dance, the team's tactical repertoire would expand greatly, allowing them to handle a wider range of situations.
After all, Ethan's goal had always been to explore all kinds of Secret Kingdoms, where anything could happen. Having more strategies was never a bad thing.
However, Professor Harris's teaching method indicated that, to learn weather moves, a Pokémon needed to understand the energy corresponding to the weather.
For example, abilities like Sand Rush, Sand Stream, Sand Veil, etc. For rainy-weather energy, examples included Swift Swim, Water Absorb, etc.
In that regard, Slowking —whose ability was Regenerator— had no advantage. They could only hope that its species' natural affinity for water would make up for this disadvantage.
Ethan recalled that the Slowpoke family was known for learning Rain Dance with relative ease.
Even in the anime, many people performed rituals worshipping Slowpoke to ask for rain.
(End of chapter)