Early the next morning, David, having reached his recent goal, hurried off to school wearing a cheerful expression.
It was clear that he was very pleased with himself for successfully brewing the Dragon's Might Potion out of the Dragon's Will Potion.
There was a good reason David had poured so much time into the Dragon's Will Potion.
First of all, the potion suited his Salamence perfectly, and most of his Pokémon friends and family members also kept Dragon-type Pokémon, which made researching it the most worthwhile use of his time.
He had already sent one of the two finished potions to his older sister back in Magic City right after leaving the lab yesterday. Naturally, his other companions wouldn't be left out either.
This is also exactly why Trainers love befriending skilled Breeders.
High-grade secret potions and custom-made Energy Cubes are practically priceless, always in short supply, and sell out the moment they appear.
Talented Breeders have always been in extremely high demand.
Being a Breeder isn't just about raising a handful of Pokémon for other people — it's far from that simple.
A true Breeding Master has to be skilled in many different areas. Several professions branch off from Pokémon breeding altogether, such as Pokémon Stylist, Pokémon Nutritionist, Pokémon Potion Master, Pokémon Hatching Master, and Pokémon Conditioning Master. In fact, nearly every elite Breeder also doubles as a capable Trainer and Pokémon Researcher.
In a way, even something like crafting food that restores a Pokémon's stamina and boosts its energy, which David had done before, could be considered part of breeding work too.
That said, while his sister and his companions could enjoy his newly made potions right away, it was hard to say when his father would actually get any use out of them.
Potions brewed at David's current skill level would barely make a difference to a Pokémon as powerful as a Champion's.
Second, both potions had come from the same root source — products of one larger system.
Digging deeper into what made these two potions work, along with running further experiments on enhancing Dragon-type Pokémon, would also do a great deal to sharpen David's own breeding skills.
This kind of structured research tends to raise both breeding ability and research skill much faster than working at random.
David had decided that for the rest of the semester, alongside brewing potions for his other Pokémon, he would devote most of his effort to researching ways to enhance Dragon-type Pokémon.
If things went smoothly, he might even be able to sit a few professional certification exams before long.
The title of Pokémon Potion Master carried a lot of weight. In fact, the Pokémon-strengthening potions David had previously earned through the system — the ones that raised a Pokémon's base stats directly — were themselves a kind of achievement that any Potion Master would be proud of.
There were similar enhancement potions sold on the market, but their effects fell far short of what his system-given potions could do.
Even so, those market potions still came with a hefty price tag.
By comparison, the potions David brewed himself were not only excellent in quality but also remarkably "cheap."
Of course, "cheap" was a relative term. Commercial high-grade potions came with steep processing fees, and if the formula wasn't your own, you'd also have to pay for the recipe itself or for licensing rights to use it.
For David, brewing his own potions only cost him the price of raw materials. Even though those materials were high-grade, the overall cost was still much lower than buying from outside.
Compared to potions bought elsewhere, his were many times more cost-effective.
"Maybe I really could pick breeding as my university major!"
David thought to himself with a smile. If he, as a breeding-major student, ever stepped onto a stage and casually defeated a group of opponents from the Trainer major, that would be quite the sight to imagine.
"Woohoo~ Let's pick up the pace, Salamence!"
High in the air, David, riding atop Salamence, couldn't help but cheer.
These past few days, David had buried himself in his notebook, but that didn't mean his Pokémon had been sitting idle.
There was no need to even mention his dog, who trained diligently as always; even while working through the two scrolls, he kept up his daily exercise without fail. As for Kirlia, David had given it a small dose of a by-product created while brewing the Dragon's Might Potion.
This by-product had nothing to do with Dragon-type enhancement — it was the pure mental-strengthening portion alone.
It carried no special effects beyond a simple boost to mental power, but it was still a fine little by-product that had come out of David's work on the Dragon's Might Potion.
At that very moment, Kirlia had just finished absorbing the potion and was still settling its effects inside its Poké Ball.
Zorua, who had also taken a dose of the mental-strengthening potion, processed it much faster and was perched on David's shoulder as usual.
During this stretch of time, both David and Zorua himself could vaguely sense that he was close to the point of evolution — only missing one final push, one last spark.
A satisfying battle, the right evolution environment, or even some high-grade resource that matched his nature could all potentially set off that evolution.
Perhaps sensing that he wouldn't be able to perch on David's shoulder so easily after evolving, Zorua had grown especially clingy lately, sticking close to his Trainer at every opportunity.
David, who had guessed the reason, said nothing about it and simply let him stay there in peace.
As for Salamence, the one currently carrying them through the sky, he had been kept unusually busy these past few days.
Normally, after a satisfying battle and a hearty meal, Salamence would have wanted nothing more than to sleep for two straight days.
Instead, David — ever the merciless Trainer — had sent him off to flight license training, using the excuse that he had nothing else to do at home anyway.
Living up to his reputation as the Sky Overlord, Salamence passed the flight test with ease.
The only amusing hiccup was that Salamence nearly mistook the Pelipper proctor, who had been quietly tracking him during the assessment, for some kind of threat trailing him, and very nearly swallowed the poor Pelipper whole.
If Zorua, who had already absorbed his dose of the mental-strengthening potion, hadn't tagged along for the ride and stepped in to stop Salamence at the last second, a real disaster might have followed.
The staff at the testing center were left speechless, but since they hadn't explained the procedure clearly beforehand and bore some of the blame themselves, they still awarded Salamence a perfect score.
It remains unclear whether that poor Pelipper — who came within an inch of becoming the first proctor in Cloudspire's history to be swallowed by an examinee — walked away with any lasting trauma.
David's small home was only about a ten-minute walk from school, and at Salamence's speed, starting from the rooftop, it took only a few breaths to arrive.
Hovering above the school gate, David grinned, glanced at the ground still dozens of meters below, and leapt straight off Salamence's back.
Down below, students arriving for class were startled by the sight, watching wide-eyed as David fell through the air.
But just before he hit the ground, a Poké Ball on his belt clicked open on its own.
A flash of pink light followed, and David's falling figure vanished mid-air — the very next instant, he was already standing firmly on solid ground.
He then casually raised the Poké Ball and recalled Salamence, who was still circling lazily overhead.
The whole sequence flowed together so smoothly that the watching crowd was left stunned.
David had developed this particular trick himself, just to make it easier to ride Salamence around the city, since not every spot allowed a Pokémon as large as Salamence to land safely.
And honestly, in a word, it just looked cool.
"Senior David, good morning!"
"Brother David, good morning."
Once he landed, everyone nearby recognized this legendary figure from First Middle School and greeted him one after another.
After offering a brief reply, David headed straight for the classroom.