On this day, a Miltank came to inform Yuga that a pair of Milotic living in the Lake Island had started laying eggs. So, Yuga eagerly headed there.
By the time Yuga arrived, the Milotic had finished laying their eggs, and the female Milotic was carefully protecting her offspring.
There's a significant difference in the way artificially bred Milotic and wild Milotic treat their offspring.
Wild Milotic tend to abandon their offspring after birth, allowing them to fend for themselves without parental care.
However, Feebas, due to their incredibly tenacious vitality, can survive quite well even without parental care.
This is why people often see Feebas in the wild but rarely encounter Milotic nearby.
Of course, wild Milotic are exceedingly rare, and most Feebas are born from other Feebas. This is one of the important reasons why it's challenging to spot Milotic and Feebas together.
Wild Milotic's treatment of their offspring isn't because they're cruel or vicious by nature.
It's because they know that by doing so, the chances of their offspring evolving into Milotic will be greater.
Even so, the chances of Feebas evolving still don't increase significantly.
However, artificially bred Milotic don't exhibit this behavior.
Since they've never been abandoned by their parents, they don't abandon their own offspring. Instead, they mimic the attitudes and behaviors of other Pokémon parents, nurturing their own offspring.
Yuga's Milotic were all evolved from Feebas bred long ago, so their attitude toward offspring is no different from regular Pokémon.
The pair of Milotic laying eggs were both of yellow potential, and their offspring would also have yellow potential.
green potential Milotic have faster growth in strength compared to the yellow potential ones. So, when choosing partners, it's rare for them to be interested in yellow potential Milotic.
Therefore, this pair of yellow potential Milotic paired up on their own.
This largely avoided the issue Yuga worried about: failed genetic selection.
In Pokémon Day Care, they always avoid pairing low potential Pokémon with high potential ones because it's detrimental to the genetic selection of Pokémon.
Only after many generations of genetic selection do the excellent genes of Pokémon gradually become fixed, and the potential of the Pokémon offspring increases and stabilizes.
This is also why emerging Pokémon Day Care can never compete with the well-established ones.
After years of operation, the Pokémon Day Care have Pokémon seeds that have undergone many rounds of genetic selection, which newcomers can't match.
Yuga usually pays close attention to training the Pokémon in the Ecopark, so the green or higher potential Pokémon grow quickly in strength.
By the time they choose their partners, the stronger, high potential Pokémon naturally find it hard to be interested in the yellow potential ones who can't keep up with them.
This can be seen as Yuga's strategy.
He doesn't want to overly influence the Pokémon's choice of partners, but he does want to optimize their genes. So, he can only raise their standards when selecting partners.
However, this method isn't absolute. Sometimes, a few high potential Pokémon just happen to like lower potential ones, and Yuga can't do anything about it. He has to let it happen naturally.
But, overall, this method is very effective. Most Pokémon select their partners based on their own strengths.
This method isn't very evident in small groups like Milotic but becomes quite clear in large groups like Gligar, Flygon, and Clauncher.
After visiting the Milotic that laid eggs, Yuga suddenly noticed two Slowpoke lying leisurely by the lake, lazily swishing their tails.
He suddenly became interested.
How about breeding these two Slowpoke into a Slowking and a Slowbro, respectively?
Saying it, Yuga started preparing as soon as he left the Ecopark.
Cultivating a Slowking and a Slowbro just by two Slowpoke isn't enough.
To Evolve Slowpoke to Slowking and Slowbro, he will need Shellder as well as a King's Rock. Shellder can be use to make Slowpoke evolve into Slowbro, while King's Rock paired with Shellder can make it Evolve into Slowking.
In the Ecopark, there were two Cloyster, but there were no Shellder.
Obtaining the King's Rock wasn't a challenge for Yuga; he could easily buy it from the League Store despite its high price, thanks to his ample merit points.
But obtaining two Shellder was proving to be a headache for Yuga.
He didn't want to randomly capture two Shellder with ordinary potential.
Yuga didn't have experience breeding Slowking and Slowbro, but based on the information he had researched, the potential of the Shellder paired with Slowpoke could influence the final potential of Slowking and Slowbro.
However, the extent of this influence remained unclear to Pokémon Professor.
Two Pokémon might both have green potential but possess different talent, even though they share the same potential. There could still be subtle differences.
Unlike Yuga's Insight ability, which could gauge the strength of same potential Pokémon by their aura, the Pokémon world's potential assessment devices couldn't reveal the nuances in the potential of Pokémon.
This wasn't to say that researchers in the Pokémon world were unaware of this. The profession of Trainer had existed for a long time, and this sort of thing was noticed.
Although the impact of the Shellder's potential on Slowking and Slowbro wasn't obvious on potential assessment devices, differences could still be detected in unseen areas.
So, Pokémon potential were truly mysterious, an area that Pokémon professor had been diligently researching.
Yuga intended to do it right and not be irresponsible with the two Slowpoke.
Finally, he thought of a place where he could seek help: the Sootopolis Gym, one of YoYo Day Care's current partners.
As a well-known Water-type Gym in Hoenn, and even in the entire Pokémon world, acquiring two Shellder with decent potential shouldn't be a problem.
YoYo Day Care had a very close relationship with Sootopolis Gym now, thanks to their cooperation involving the Beautie and Extender Pokéblocks. YoYo Day Care had provided significant assistance to Sootopolis Gym.
Furthermore, YoYo Day Care hadn't publicly disclosed the existence of the Beautie Pokéblock yet. They only cooperated with Sootopolis Gym, which earned Mr. Juan's profound gratitude.
Now, Sootopolis Gym's Gym Leader was Wallace, who had taken over the business-related collaborations with YoYo Day Care after the transition, so Yuga was quite familiar with him.
Yuga called Wallace and expressed his desire to acquire two Shellder through Sootopolis Gym's channels, and Wallace readily agreed to his request.
Note: The descriptions of Milotic's behavior in this story are fictional and do not necessarily reflect the official Pokémon lore. Additionally, in this story, the breeding and evolution of Slowking and Slowbro are portrayed with certain liberties and do not align with the established Pokémon lore.