057: "Skill Proficiency" Module Activated!
"Froakie, we only have about half an hour left. We can't afford to waste time we're training next," Ash said, his tone firm.
"Froaa~" Froakie responded without hesitation, nodding earnestly in agreement.
Ash scanned the forest floor and soon spotted a thick, fallen tree branch. Under Froakie's curious gaze, Ash picked it up and snapped it into several manageable segments.
"Froakie, half an hour isn't enough for a full battle simulation, so let's focus on improving your precision with Bubble and Bubble Beam attacks first."
"In a moment, I'll toss these sticks into the air. Your job is to track and strike them down. Got it?" Ash explained, brandishing one of the broken branches.
"Froa!"
"All right, let's begin. Start with Bubble." Ash flung one of the sticks into the sky.
Whish
The broken branch arced through the air, and Froakie's eyes tracked it instantly, leveraging his species' excellent visual reflexes and amphibian depth perception.
The move Bubble had already been practiced extensively. Froakie's proficiency in it was high nearing mastery. With a focused breath, Froakie puckered its mouth and launched a series of pressurized, hollow water spheres with rapid-fire precision.
Pop-pop-pop…!
CRACK! One of the bubbles, as solid and swift as a rubber bullet, collided perfectly with the flying stick, splintering it in midair.
"Ding! Skill Bubble proficiency +1."
Ash blinked when the familiar system prompt rang clearly in his mind.
"Huh? The proficiency for Bubble actually increased?" he murmured with surprise. But soon after, a wave of realization washed over him. This was the long-dormant third core feature of the Mega Trainer System the "Skill Proficiency" module.
The system defined five skill mastery tiers: Unfamiliar, Beginner, Proficient, Perfect, and Master.
Proficiency represented how deeply a Pokémon had internalized and refined a technique its form, timing, execution, and control.
The stronger the proficiency, the more powerful and reliable the move became. Not only did damage increase, but accuracy, energy cost, and release time were improved. High skill proficiency was also the foundation for executing advanced tactics or "showtime" maneuvers in competitive battles.
Without proper mastery, even strong moves could go to waste poor aim, misfires, or delays would make it easy for opponents to dodge or counter.
So, when judging a Pokémon's battle strength, the first metric was its level. The second? Its moveset and how proficient it was with those moves.
Even though Ash's Mega Trainer System was still marked as critically damaged, its three core functional modules remained intact: Leveling, Skill Learning, and Skill Proficiency.
Ash was already familiar with the Skill Learning function. Just days ago, while at Professor Oak's lab, he had used physical contact duplication to store several common and rare techniques. Just recently, this had allowed Froakie to learn Aqua Ring a skill normally exclusive to select Water-type Pokémon like Milotic and Kyogre.
But now, something even more exciting had occurred. While Froakie was honing his aim with Bubble, the system's proficiency module was suddenly triggered.
"Wait, so I can increase skill proficiency just by focused training?" Ash muttered, immediately checking Froakie's stat panel.
Sure enough, Bubble had gone from (36/1000) to (37/1000).
After the "Proficiency Module" was activated, Ash received detailed system feedback outlining its function. Every skill now had a numerical proficiency rating, and progress could be made through repetition, concentration, and precise execution.
It seemed simple, almost like a background feature but now that Ash understood how it worked, he realized this module was immensely powerful.
It meant that with effort, any ordinary skill could one day become elite-tier.
Pokémon training under normal circumstances can also increase skill proficiency, but that improvement varies depending on how the training is structured some practice sessions count as effective effort, while others result in negligible gains.
Not every single training instance leads to a deeper understanding of a move; the growth in skill proficiency is often inconsistent, especially without focused feedback or intentional repetition of technique something seen with Red's Pikachu in Pokémon Adventures, where Thunderbolt becomes stronger through refined, repetitive use during battles.
However, the "Proficiency Module" of the Mega Trainer System acts like a highly advanced analytical engine. When a Pokémon practices a move, this module activates automatically, functioning like a combat simulator in the Kalos Battle Institute it gathers data in real-time.
Each time a Pokémon performs a move, the system breaks it down into its mechanical framework, analyzing factors like trajectory, energy control, and timing. It then feeds the refined understanding directly into the Pokémon's consciousness, quantified as a +1 in skill proficiency.
Since the system assists with comprehension, there's no such thing as wasted training time. So long as the Pokémon is focused and completing full movements similar to how Froakie (Bubble Frog) practices its aim like in Kalos's Trainer Schools the module successfully analyzes the effort and awards proficiency accordingly.
The understanding is then directly relayed to the Pokémon via neural reinforcement, just like how Sabrina's Alakazam rapidly evolves psychic control in the manga through mental honing. From now on, as long as Froakie trains diligently, it can rapidly improve its control over existing moves, unhindered by natural bottlenecks.
"No wonder even those with mediocre talent can close the gap with natural geniuses once they receive system plugins," Ash muttered.
"And the Mega Trainer System I have is still heavily damaged. If not for being attacked by the World Will during my dimensional crossover, who knows how powerful it might've been?"
"If I had received a complete starter gift pack... maybe I'd have been handed a Mewtwo or Rayquaza beat the Elite Four with one hand, crush Champions with the other, and dominate the whole Pokémon world before hitting ten years old."
Closing the system interface, Ash smirked to himself.
Still, though he was filled with wild thoughts, he wasn't truly disappointed. After all, he had already died once in his previous world just the chance to start over in the Pokémon universe was a miracle in itself.
He now had a kind and doting mother, latent Psychic ability, the Wave Aura passed down in the Lucario lineage, and access to a Mega Trainer System.
What more could he ask for? A wise person knows to be content.
"Froakie, let's continue. This time we'll practice with the Bubble Mousse." He tossed another dead branch into the air.
"Quack~" Froakie's frog-like eyes locked onto the spinning twig. Reaching toward the back of its neck, it pulled out two sticky foam balls and hurled them with pinpoint accuracy smashing the target midair.
Yet this time, the system remained silent.
Bubble Mousse isn't a true move; rather, it's a naturally secreted foam from Froakie's frubbles. The substance is highly adhesive similar to the Sticky Web move used by Galvantula and can immobilize targets, offering powerful battlefield control.
But the key point is that Froakie merely threw the mousse. It wasn't executing a registered skill, and so no system analysis or proficiency increase occurred.
Still, Ash wasn't discouraged. At this stage, Froakie's skill level and discipline already placed it among the elite compared to other beginner Pokémon distributed to students at Pallet Town's Trainer Academy.
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