Lian observed Axew's level, which matched his expectations—level 19. If it were an ordinary Charmander, it might have been instantly defeated by Axew's Dragon Claw.
Fortunately, Lian's quick thinking and speed advantage allowed him to evade Axew's attacks. Axew's speed was also impressive at 273, matching Lian's own speed when he was level 8.
Apart from Axew, Bronzor had reached level 16 with exceptionally high defenses, both surpassing 300 points. With its Heatproof Ability, Lian would likely need at least four Ember moves to defeat it.
In addition to Axew and Bronzor's data panels, Lian himself had achieved level 12. Having just leveled up yesterday, today's single battle meant it would take some time before reaching level 13.
Notably, Lian's special attack ability stood at 379. With such a high special attack at this level, engaging in battles against higher-level opponents became as effortless for him as eating or drinking water.
His speed ability value also reached 367. However, Lian couldn't determine Treecko's current level since they hadn't battled together recently, preventing the system from displaying Treecko's stats.
Considering Lian took a lazy day off, Treecko is likely around level 14 now, with a similar speed ability value to his own.
Today's battle highlighted the advantage of having high speed, making it an essential ability for fighting above one's level.
Next, Lian checked the final combat rating score. Although still a B-, the total points earned were nearly 1,400. Adding this to his previously accumulated Combat Points, his overall total surpassed 2,000.
Lian didn't rush to allocate the points but instead looked at the damage output section to analyze the specifics of today's battles.
Upon reviewing the detailed outputs, only Bronzor's Confusion move dealt over a hundred damage. Despite being just over a hundred, it caused Lian to lose almost one-third of his Stamina.
Reflecting back, he indeed felt injured when hit by the Confusion attack. If such a move had landed two more times, Lian would have been defeated, highlighting its considerable danger.
Apart from Bronzor, Axew did not inflict any harm. Additionally, Zach used a Revive on Axew later, restoring half of its Stamina. Consequently, defeating Axew again effectively earned Lian an additional 200+ Combat Points without much effort.
With over 2,000 Combat Points available, Lian pondered how best to enhance his Pokémon's abilities. Currently, there were no new moves, and the proficiency levels of Dragon Breath and Ember seemed sufficient, so there was no immediate need to upgrade them further.
At first glance, 2,086 Combat Points seem substantial, but if all were used to enhance Special Attack, it would only allow for seventeen increases, totaling seventeen points of Special Attack.
Adding those seventeen points to his current 379, still falls short of reaching a four-hundred-point threshold, making the impact minimal.
However, by improving other ability values that have not yet reached their maximum, each point costs only 5 Combat Points.
Considering this, upgrading other abilities is most cost-effective, with Defense and Special Defense being particularly beneficial. Enhancing these can indirectly reduce opponents' damage output, thereby increasing combat ratings.
For example, if Lian's Special Defense reaches three hundred, Bronzor's Confusion move would need at least four consecutive uses to defeat him, potentially earning him dozens more Combat Points.
Currently, his Defense Ability stands at just 153, which is significantly low compared to his Special Attack, rendering him quite vulnerable.
Lian decides to prioritize enhancing both Defense and Special Defense before focusing on other attributes. He starts with Defense.
153...163...173...183...
As Lian clicked to enhance his Defense Ability, it steadily increased, effortlessly surpassing two hundred with minimal consumption of Combat Points.
Continuing the upgrade, he stopped at 267 defense points. The increase from 266 to 267 consumed 15 points, indicating that further enhancement would reach its limit.
Reaching the maximum for defense was sufficient; exceeding it would be too costly and not cost-effective. Prioritizing special attack and speed enhancements made more sense.
Wasting those 15 Combat Points still pained Lian slightly. Unfortunately, the system did not provide advance warnings about reaching limits; one could only judge by observing the Combat Point consumption.
A Defense Ability of 267 is already quite high, considering a Level 19 Axew's defense stands at just 278.
Enhancing the defense alone consumed 580 Combat Points, which genuinely hurt Lian's heart.
Compared to defense, Lian's Special Defense was relatively higher, reaching 170 points. With only a little over a thousand Combat Points remaining, he continued to boost his Special Defense ability.
170...180...190...200...
Lian noticed that increasing Special Defense and Defense required the same amount of points. He spent 565 Combat Points to raise his Special Defense to 283. Assuming another increase would cost an additional 15 points, he decisively stopped at this point.
Although it was just 15 Combat Points, every bit saved counted. If there were a way to reverse the process, Lian would have retrieved those extra 15 points spent on Defense.
After these upgrades, he had only 941 Combat Points left. With this amount, he could enhance his special attack by merely 7 points. Calculating further, Lian estimated that reaching two thousand eight hundred Combat Points for a single upgrade would then shift the cost to 240 Combat Points per one ability point increment.
In other words, Lian could afford to boost his abilities 24 times before the cost escalated to 240 Combat Points per increment.
So, Lian devised a plan: accumulate 480 Combat Points each time to increase his special attack by 4 points, dividing the increments into six separate occasions. This way, after six enhancements, he would precisely know when the Combat Point consumption would double.
With 941 Combat Points remaining, Lian decided to first increase his special attack by 4 points, gradually accumulating more Combat Points until reaching 480 again for the next enhancement.
This approach simplifies calculations and allows him to conserve remaining Combat Points for enhancing other abilities.
Immediately, Lian spent 480 Combat Points, raising his Special Attack Ability from 379 to 383 points, leaving him with 461 Combat Points remaining.
Lian decided not to further increase special attack now, opting to wait until he accumulates more Combat Points next time.
"What should I enhance next?" Lian looked at his other ability values, feeling that improving physical attack might be necessary as well. This was primarily because Charmander would eventually learn some Fire-type physical attack moves.
For instance, Fire Fang is a Fire-type physical attack move with a significant power of 65. Although Lian's base stat for attack isn't exceptional, it's not poor either.
If memory serves, Charmander can only learn Fire Fang after evolving or reaching level 16 before evolution.
However, let's not forget that the system enables Lian to learn moves prematurely, so there's a chance he could acquire Fire Fang even before evolving.
Once equipped with Fire Fang, if the attack ability value remains too low, its damage might be less effective than Ember. But with a sufficiently high attack ability value, Fire Fang becomes significantly stronger than Ember. Until learning other powerful Fire-type special attacks, Fire Fang will be the strongest within its type category.
Lian now understood that relying solely on raw output had its limitations. Having a diverse range of moves and strategies was crucial to confront stronger Pokemon.
Without learning Dragon Breath, even encountering an Axew would have been risky for Lian, as facing a Dragon-type with only Ember would be insufficient to defeat it.
With Fire Fang, Lian could now better handle Pokemon with high Special Defense capabilities, offering some means of countering them. Countering Pokemon goes beyond just elemental attributes; some Pokemon may have exceptionally high Special Defense but weak physical defense, while others exhibit the opposite, such as Ground-type Pokemon.
Drawing from his recent experience boosting Special Defense and Defense, Lian spent 460 Combat Points to increase his Attack Ability Value to 267 points. Although still significantly lower than his Special Attack, it was no longer weak.
Finally, he had only 1 Combat Point left, once again nearly depleted. His overall abilities experienced a substantial upgrade.
While this rapid increase might lead to smaller future rewards for ability value gaps in combat ratings, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.
Lian's main concern was whether these physical changes would arouse Kalia's suspicion. He hoped there wouldn't be any significant alterations to his appearance.