"Alright, thank you very much."
Silas accepted the half-day's earnings from the staff at Transaction Counter #2 of the Bounty Hunter Center.
As usual, he left a positive review before returning to his room at the Pokémon Center to rest.
"Ahhh!"
He threw himself onto the soft bed, stretching his tired body.
Two weeks of monotonous tasks had completely worn him out.
"I must be getting old," he sighed. "Back when I trained at Seaside Cape, I could keep it up for over a month."
Of course, part of the reason was that he now had more Pokémon to train.
Back at Seaside Cape, the only one who truly needed his full attention was Blaziken, back when it was still a Combusken.
The other two didn't require as much care.
His Pidgeot only needed steady development, and Roggenrola just needed to consume minerals regularly and train occasionally.
But now, none of them could be neglected.
Over the past three weeks, Pidgeot had advanced smoothly into the quasi-Elite tier, but that was still far from enough. It needed to further refine its strength beyond that level.
The flying skills and move proficiency that once made it outstanding among Advance-ranked Pokémon no longer stood out against opponents who were also at the quasi-Elite level.
Especially in tournaments, where many Pokémon had been stuck at that tier for years.
These Pokémon might lack the talent to break into the Elite Four tier, but within the same rank, their battling power was formidable.
Years of persistence and training had paid them back.
His Gigalith needed to train its energy concentration, resistances, and control of its Sand Force ability. That was its current developmental focus.
Most importantly, though, it needed to raise its overall energy level.
That was the biggest difference between it and Pidgeot.
Pidgeot relied on speed, maneuvering, and guerrilla tactics to wear down opponents. Its physical power and energy reserves were helpful but not critical—it wasn't meant to fight like a brute-force warrior.
Gigalith, on the other hand, was all about overwhelming force.
To put it simply, it only needed to do two things: endure the opponent's attacks, and then hit back hard enough to knock them out.
That required both immense energy reserves and physical toughness.
As for Blaziken, its training combined the styles of both—it needed mastery of techniques while also strengthening its body.
This was dictated not only by its outstanding potential but also by its own choice.
Silas had asked its opinion. Choosing to focus on either technique or raw power first would have been a solid strategy, even giving it stronger short-term battle performance.
But Blaziken insisted on developing both in parallel.
Silas agreed. After all, if it wanted to reach Champion level, fully unlocking its potential was inevitable.
And with the training plan he'd devised with Zero, they avoided the pitfall of being a jack of all trades but master of none.
The price, however, was even harsher training.
Currently, Blaziken's daily workload was about 1.5 times greater than Pidgeot's—a huge difference.
Servine wasn't spared either. It had two tasks: deepen its grasp of Grass-type energy to better use its moves and abilities, and quickly store energy to evolve.
Its performance had been excellent.
Its hard work matched its pseudo-Champion-tier potential.
Despite being a pampered little "princess," in these two weeks it had never once complained about the grueling training.
"Mm, a little lighter… right there."
Silas lay face-down, directing Servine as it massaged him with Vine Whip.
Smack.
Snervine flicked him lightly with the vines, clearly annoyed.
"Ow, ow, ow! That hurts!" Silas cried dramatically.
Servine rolled its eyes. It knew its Trainer's antics well by now.
"See? Using Vine Whip for massage also helps you train your control. Look at how far you've come—you couldn't control your strength at first, but now you can adjust it perfectly. That's big progress."
Silas smiled contentedly, enjoying the little princess's service.
As for another little one, he sighed inwardly.
His Togepi still showed no signs of evolving. He knew it wouldn't happen so soon, but he couldn't help feeling a little anxious.
Judging from the timeline, if Togepi didn't evolve within the next month, it definitely wouldn't be a reliable battler in the Indigo Plateau Conference.
At most, it could appear in the preliminary rounds.
If that happened, it would be a real regret.
After all, Togetic and Togekiss fought in a completely different way from Togepi—it wasn't a transformation one could adapt to overnight.
It wouldn't even be wrong to say that Togepi during that stage was more like a mascot.
Fortunately, Togepi's energy level advancement hadn't slowed down.
Being a little glutton, it followed its meal plan every day, so its growth was naturally not slow.
All of this progress, however, was built upon his rapidly dwindling savings.
The Poke dollars he earned daily through bounty tasks and selling Pokémon materials were completely insufficient to support the needs of his five rapidly improving partners.
Luckily, during an Alliance mission two weeks ago, even though his contribution rate wasn't the highest, it also wasn't low.
The Alliance never shortchanged its direct-line trainers.
Overall, his savings could still barely support him until the end of the tournament.
After all, he still had one average-quality Leaf Stone and four Soothe Bells lying idle.
Especially the latter.
According to Professor Rowan, who had recently chatted with him, the concept of friendship evolution was about to be officially announced.
Once the effect of Soothe Bells in increasing the bond between humans and Pokémon was discovered, their price would definitely not stay low.
After all, those Pokémon that required high friendship to evolve were all on the cute side.
Even if they were permanent and reusable, unlike evolutionary stones that were single-use consumables, the price still wouldn't be cheap.
But then again, all this was based on him still having just five Pokémon.
Silas strained his neck and glanced at the incubator placed on the bedside table not far away, and at the pink egg inside.
When this little one was born, there would be another major set of expenses.
Putting aside other things, at the very least, it needed a held item, right? A Magnet, which boosts the power of Electric-type moves, was absolutely essential.
After all, Ampharos, the final evolution of Mareep, was a powerhouse when it came to energy-based attacks.
If he didn't strengthen it in that area, it would be wasting its natural potential.
Then there was the matter of high-quality evolutionary stones.
In the past, he hadn't had the ability to afford them, and his first three partners had reasons preventing them from using evolutionary stones to improve their aptitude.
But now it was different. Since both Servine and Togepi had benefitted, then the future Ampharos had to as well.
That meant that, in this regard, at least a nine-digit Poke Dollars expense was waiting for him.
Rounded up, that was basically his entire net worth.
"So painful~" he wailed inwardly, burying his head.
As for meal plans and nurturing costs, compared to this requirement, at least in the short term, they were almost negligible.
Moreover, he had a plan — to use the Power Amplifier developed by Roseanne to help Mareep make faster progress early on.
This would also cost quite a bit.
He couldn't let Professor Rowan or Sister Roseanne keep footing the bill for him; he had to at least cover the basics.
"Let's calculate… Mareep's incubation period is twenty days, and it's been nineteen days already. Normally, it should hatch tomorrow.
That means tomorrow's plan to go out and earn money has to be canceled. It wouldn't be safe to leave while it's hatching."
Silas calculated carefully, completely unaware that the Pokémon egg within his blind spot was already glowing with white light.
"Tap, tap."
Servine noticed.
It called out several times in a row, but when its clueless Trainer still didn't react, it promptly gave him a good smack with its Vine Whip.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch." Silas cried out — this time, Servine had actually used some force.
When he looked up, just as he was about to ask what Servine was doing, he saw the pink Pokémon egg gradually radiating a soft white light.
A small sheep Pokémon, covered in fluffy light-purple wool with dark blue skin, blinked at him in confusion.
Its ears and tail were striped black and yellow, and at the tip of its tail was a round orange orb.
The small tuft of wool on its head curled and trembled with each shake of its little body, making it look utterly adorable.
"Welcome to this world, Mareep." Silas got up from the bed, walked over to the little Mareep, and stretched out his hand.
"Mie~"
Mareep bleated softly. Like all newly hatched Pokémon, it instinctively viewed the first being it saw as its kin, so it immediately felt strong affection for him.
Without hesitation, it wobbled on its unsteady legs and threw itself into Silas's arms.
"Tap~"
Servine extended a friendly Vine Whip toward its new partner in greeting.
It looked like another companion had joined the group to share in the hardships.
Silas gently explained to Mareep and then, with ease, returned it into the Luxury Ball he had already prepared.
After all, he was a veteran trainer by now. Helping a new Pokémon hatch was no problem at all.
With Servine perched on his shoulder, he then walked out of the room.
"Hello, Nurse Joy. This is a Pokémon that just hatched. It emerged a day earlier than expected, so I'd like you to give it a proper check-up."
Silas handed Mareep's egg to Nurse Joy.
"Of course, please wait a moment."
Hearing his words, Nurse Joy immediately accepted it. Baby Pokémon always needed extra care.
With Chansey in tow, she quickly ran into the examination room.
.....
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