The roads of Autumn Leaf Town were bustling with people coming and going, with a continuous stream of passing trainers. In just one day, Bewear's Inn welcomed one business transaction after another.
Carver and the Clefairy were so busy they couldn't stop, and it wasn't until the afternoon that customers gradually left.
Carver wiped the sweat from his forehead and, after asking around, learned that a large-scale Contest celebration was about to be held in Autumn Leaf Town, and these passing trainers were all going to participate in the competition.
"No wonder..."
In the evening, after seeing off the last customer, Carver began counting the remaining food supplies in the breeding house with the Pokémon.
"One box of berries, half a bag of flour, five bottles of Moomoo Milk, three bags of ramen..."
"Growl!"
Growlithe pulled out a carton of eggs from under the cabinet.
"Plus one carton of eggs." Carver took the carton.
"Clefairy?" Two chef Clefairy carried out two bundles of cabbage from under the stove.
"And two bundles of cabbage." Carver looked at the ingredients before him and murmured: "There aren't many ingredients left!"
During this day, the breeding house hadn't received much business, but the inn side had become extremely popular.
With so many customers, the inn's stored food supplies had hit rock bottom, which meant that at most by the day after tomorrow, Carver would have to go to Autumn Leaf Town again for major shopping.
But the experience of riding Bewear Airlines wasn't pleasant, and the journey was quite far. If possible, Carver didn't want to travel that distance.
"It would be great if the breeding house could be self-sufficient," Carver thought to himself.
He stood up and went alone to the backyard, looking at the well-growing fields before him, feeling that he really needed to put expanding the planting area on his agenda.
The current courtyard was divided into three areas:
The herb field for growing medicinal herbs, the farmland for growing vegetables, and the berry orchard for growing berry trees.
Under Oddish's diligent care, the herbs and vegetables were growing very well. In another ten days to half a month, the first batch of vegetables could be officially harvested.
But with the increasing number of Pokémon in the breeding house, these vegetables and fruits alone were far from sufficient for self-sufficiency.
At this time, they needed to expand this garden area a bit.
Plant some crops, raise some chickens and ducks, and keep a few Miltank. This way, they wouldn't need to go to town too frequently.
Although expanding the planting area required money, fortunately, during this period, Carver had sold all the Pokémon eggs that the Hoenn League had sent over. Combined with daily business and Pokémon tutoring fees, they now had quite a substantial savings.
More than enough for expanding the planting area.
If possible, Carver even wanted to do it all at once—directly purchase two breeding Miltank for the breeding house to provide the freshest Moomoo Milk for the Pokémon there.
Unfortunately, the Hoenn region didn't have Miltank inhabiting it. To raise them, they would have to import them from the neighboring Johto region.
The next morning, Carver closed the shop and went to Autumn Leaf Town with Bewear.
They found the Machamp construction team from before. After explaining his needs, those workers and Machamp immediately brought building materials to the breeding house.
Carver caught a ride back with them.
Expanding the planting area basically meant purchasing some fencing, clearing wasteland, incorporating the outer areas into the cultivation range, and additionally building a shed for Miltank to live in.
Just like the Moomoo Farm of Whitney, the Goldenrod City Gym Leader in the Johto region.
With the help of Pokémon, work that would originally take several days was completed in just one day.
When Carver stepped into this place again, the entire courtyard had taken on a completely new appearance.
The Machamp construction team even provided additional services, helping Carver cultivate plot after plot of farmland, giving him more places to plant vegetables, herbs, and most importantly, berry trees.
The new courtyard was divided into two areas.
One was the planting area described above.
The other was the breeding area.
The sheds for Pokémon to live in stood here.
In front of the sheds was a large open space. Carver had already decided that once the breeding house had Miltank, he would scatter grass seeds all over that space for the Miltank to eat.
As for the other plots...
They were all suitable for growing crops and berry trees.
Carver had already purchased the relevant saplings and seeds.
Today he simply suspended the breeding house's operations and began large-scale planting with a group of Pokémon.
Bewear, Growlithe, the Clefairy, Oddish, Chingling, Castform—all the Pokémon in the breeding house came over to help.
Carver was responsible for planting the seeds and saplings into the soil, while Bewear used a shovel to bring dirt and fill the holes.
The Clefairy observed for a while, then began helping with the planting by copying what they saw.
Regarding this, Carver could only say that they were indeed highly social Pokémon. In just over ten minutes, the Clefairy had completely mastered this planting technique.
Oddish followed behind, constantly using Grass-type energy to help care for the seeds.
Carver looked at Oddish's stats and found that compared to the beginning, Oddish had learned several new moves.
Obviously, this was Oddish improving its control over Grass-type energy through caring for crops these past days.
It had become stronger.
Besides the farmland area for planting seasonal vegetables, Carver separately designated an area specifically for planting berry trees.
This time, he purchased thirty-six fruit tree saplings. Combined with the original six trees, there were now forty-two fruit trees total.
According to the berry trees' fruiting cycle, this time, as long as the breeding house didn't exceed two hundred Pokémon, these berries would be completely sufficient.
After Carver and everyone finished their busy work, it was time for Castform to shine.
Carver used a Wailmer watering can to simulate rain, making Castform transform into its Rain Form.
It floated above the farmland, then used the move "Rain Dance" that it had recently learned.
In the blink of an eye, dark clouds drifted across the sky, and then gentle rain began falling.
Carver took the group of Pokémon to shelter under the eaves, gazing at this vibrant scene with expressions of joy or longing.
Under the nourishment of rainwater, these seeds that he and the Pokémon had buried in the soil together would one day break through the earth and grow strong.
"Clefairy~!"
Not just Carver—even the Clefairy felt an unprecedented feeling when they saw this scene.
Although they didn't know what that feeling was, it really filled them with anticipation!