Unfortunately, the moment Silas picked up Pidgeot from the lobby of the Poké Mart, he knew very clearly that there was a huge difference between dreams and wishful thinking.
Pidgeot's level was still stuck at Level 59, the boundary between pseudo–Elite and true Elite.
Trying to cross the massive gap from pseudo–Elite to Elite with nothing more than a bit of insight was simply far too optimistic.
If it were that easy, Elite level Pokémon and Elite–level Trainers wouldn't be so rare.
That said, Pidgeot confidently expressed that it believed it would break through to the next stage very soon.
"Let's leave it at that for today. Tomorrow, you and Ampharos can tell me what the two of you learned."
Silas lazily stretched and returned Pidgeot to its Poké Ball.
Adequate rest was the foundation of progress.
Today's gains could wait until tomorrow—after all, they weren't going anywhere.
After arriving at the Pokémon Center resting point and restoring his partners' conditions, Silas also booked a room for the night with Nurse Joy.
Thankfully, his trainer clearance level was relatively high.
Otherwise, in a wilderness Pokémon Center like this, there wouldn't be nearly enough rooms for all Trainers.
Saving where he could mattered—over time, accommodation costs during a journey could become a considerable expense.
Sleeping on the street was out of the question.
Officer Jenny would politely wake you up and tell you not to affect the city's appearance.
In a Pokémon world with extremely comprehensive welfare systems, being powerful might not be something everyone could achieve, but living decently was never a problem.
"Well then, good night, everyone."
Inside the small room, Silas lay on the bed and softly spoke to the six partners gathered in a circle around him.
"Oh, right."
Silas, who had just closed his eyes, turned his head again toward the incubator on the bedside table.
"And you too, little one good night."
The blue-and-white Pokémon Egg, faintly glowing in the darkness, trembled slightly, as if responding to him.
"Mm… looks like this summer is going to be pretty cool~"
Half-asleep, Silas thought hazily.
He was already looking forward to hugging an Alolan Vulpix to sleep.
That had to be a wonderful experience.
The Next Morning
At the Pokémon Center's training grounds.
Silas lazily basked in the rising sun while holding the incubator containing the Vulpix Egg.
"Ampharos, lower the output of Thunderbolt a bit. Don't let the power spill over."
With eyes half open, he carefully observed each partner's morning training.
Compared to before, the other Pokémon naturally hadn't changed much in just a day or two.
But Ampharos and Pidgeot were different.
Especially Ampharos.
After breaking through to the pseudo–Elite last night, it was having some trouble controlling its Electric-type energy.
This was a side effect caused by breaking through earlier than expected.
Fortunately, it wasn't difficult to fix—more practice and familiarization would be enough.
This was, in a sense, a happy problem.
After all, practicing energy control at the pseudo–Elite stage was far easier than doing so at the Elite stage.
No Trainer would ever be unhappy about their Pokémon growing stronger.
From his earlier conversation with Ampharos, Silas learned that Amphy had only taught Ampharos one thing last night.
That was how to activate and control the two red orbs on its tail and forehead.
The Ampharos line possesses an innate ability, the red orb on its tail can emit light that travels great distances.
This is precisely why people value them so highly.
However, as for the identical red orb on the forehead, most Ampharos are unable to make it glow even once in their entire lives.
Amphy was one of the rare few Ampharos capable of doing so.
The reason the two Pokémon talked for so long last night was because Amphy patiently broke the entire process down step by step and explained it to Silas's Ampharos.
This was something that could only be achieved through Amphy's immense strength and extensive experience.
Of course, Silas also believed his Ampharos's intelligence played a crucial role.
Otherwise, how could it have broken through so quickly?
Simply put, the two red orbs on Ampharos's body weren't merely for illumination.
They represented Ampharos's core power sources.
Much like Pikachu's red electrical pouches on its cheeks and its lightning-bolt-shaped tail used for conducting electricity.
Pikachu's strength is often manifested through those features.
The difference is that while Pikachu often has to discharge electricity due to excess buildup in its cheek pouches, Ampharos's forehead orb is naturally sealed.
In other words, most Ampharos are unable to use the power contained within the forehead orb.
For the vast majority of Ampharos, the tail orb is their only usable power source.
Silas speculated that this was related to the fact that in the previous evolutionary stages—Mareep and Flaaffy—only the tail possessed a colored orb.
The red orb on Ampharos's forehead only appears after evolving into its final form.
Perhaps during earlier evolutions, the tail orb had already been "opened" by evolutionary energy.
That, in turn, led to Ampharos's strength.
The suddenly appearing forehead orb didn't receive the same treatment, which was why it remained relatively sealed.
If Silas remembered correctly, Mega Ampharos's most notable changes were also related to these red orbs.
Aside from regaining portions of its flowing white wool, the additional red orbs extending from its tail were the most eye-catching feature.
"Then… could that wool exist to protect Ampharos as well?"
Silas fell into deep thought.
Pokémon were incredibly fascinating creatures—unscientific, yet not entirely mystical.
At the very least, most of their abilities were based on their physical traits.
Just like Vine Whip not every Grass-type Pokémon could learn it.
According to his theory, the multiple additional power sources that appeared during Mega Evolution would undoubtedly place a heavy burden on Ampharos's body.
Even if its body was nearly an insulator, that still applied.
So-called insulation merely meant the current wasn't strong enough, extremely high resistance, nothing more.
The power released during Mega Evolution would likely exceed the limits its body could naturally withstand.
At that point, the white wool capable of weakening and absorbing Electric-type energy, would become the perfect buffer.
"Maybe strengthening the body first, then gradually reducing the buffering effect, could allow Ampharos to become even stronger after Mega Evolution."
Silas's theory continued to take shape.
…Wait.
He suddenly froze.
Wouldn't that mean the strongest possible Mega Ampharos would be bald?
Uh oh.
Silas suddenly felt uneasy.
Sure, that unknown bald guy who could defeat enemies with one punch was absurdly strong but in Silas's vision, Ampharos should still look cool.
Winning or losing was temporary.
Being stylish was for life.
The flowing white wool of Mega Ampharos gave it a sense of elegance few Pokémon could match.
Then Silas laughed at himself.
Right now, all he had was a Key Stone required by Trainers for Mega Evolution.
The Pokémon-specific Mega Stone wasn't even in sight.
Compared to Key Stones, Mega Stones were far rarer and far more valuable strategic resources.
Who knew how long it would take before Ampharos could Mega Evolve at all?
"Forget it. Let's focus on fully developing the forehead orb first."
Silas reined in his wandering thoughts.
As for how to develop it—
Before, it was because he didn't understand the underlying principle.
Now that he did…
He looked at the blue screen that only he could see and smiled.
"Zero, max out the training plan."
Silas refused to believe that his own talent, plus just a tiny bit of cheating, would lose out to the natives of this world.
Ampharos was meticulously training on the field according to the schedule its Trainer had laid out.
Thunderbolt, Charge, Discharge, Thunder Wave, various moves flowed naturally under its control.
Yellow arcs of electricity writhed wildly across the field like giant pythons.
The other five Pokémon all instinctively kept their distance from the currently unstable Ampharos.
None of them wanted to experience paralysis firsthand.
Before Ampharos broke through, it was manageable, at least Blaziken, Gigalith, and Serperior could endure it.
In fact, weak currents could even stimulate their bodies.
But after the breakthrough, things were different.
Especially now that Ampharos's control had a minor issue.
A weak current one moment could turn into a powerful shock capable of electrocuting a Pokémon the next.
Even if the injury wouldn't be too serious, no Pokémon wanted to experience a forced wake-up call first thing in the morning.
Seeing that Ampharos was progressing well, Silas shifted his gaze toward Pidgeot, which was circling high in the sky.
As the big brother of the team, Pidgeot had also made significant progress after yesterday.
Judging by level alone, that progress wasn't visible.
But the other stats didn't lie.
The most obvious improvements were in Pidgeot's speed and agility.
Silas's expression turned slightly strange.
Because according to Pidgeot, all it had done was fly a bit more "freely" than before.
Its posture and technique hadn't changed at all.
Silas couldn't really understand what it meant by "freedom."
After all, humans and Pokémon thought very differently.
And to him, this sounded a bit too idealistic.
If wanting freedom made you fly faster, then if he wanted to fly, could he do it too?
In that case, who couldn't fly?
Fortunately, his considerate little partner Togekiss offered a clearer explanation after listening to Pidgeot's insight.
With Blaziken's Aura translation, "freedom" roughly meant this.
Instead of deliberately matching the rhythm of the wind, one should listen to the body's own choices.
Perhaps it was the classic saying, forcing things never leads to sweetness.
Under the guidance of Walker's Pidgeot, what Silas's Pidgeot needed to do now was change its flight style from adapting to the wind to merging with the wind.
Much like when using the move Hurricane.
Even then, however, Pidgeot had mostly been dodging rather than truly merging with the wind.
This wasn't something that could be accomplished overnight.
According to Walker's Pidgeot, complete fusion wasn't necessary, once it reached a rough level of integration, it would be able to break through to the Elite level.
Yes, Pokémon progress bars really were that abstract.
Silas had already given up hope regarding Pidgeot's claim of "very soon" from last night.
Six or seven months, even eight, he could accept that.
As long as it wasn't one or two years, anything was fine.
"Pii—!"
A slightly panicked cry came from above.
Silas expressionlessly pulled out a Poké Ball, recalled Pidgeot, and released it again.
During the process of merging with the wind, even a Flying-type Pokémon, even a king among avian Pokémon like Pidgeot, could lose balance.
That couldn't be helped.
The power of nature was far more terrifying than people imagined.
But progress was progress.
Despite the awkward moments, Pidgeot's speed was slowly increasing through repeated attempts.
For a Pokémon that already specialized in speed, even the smallest improvement was extremely difficult to achieve.
Yet every tiny increase made a noticeable difference in battle.
Sometimes, victory was decided in less than a tenth of a second.
Training continued in full swing.
The only slight downside was that the gains made by Ampharos and Pidgeot this time offered little reference value for the other four partners.
At most, Togekiss could learn a bit from the flying experience.
But that wasn't its development focus anyway.
That was the price of choosing the path of a multi-attribute Trainer.
If this were an attribute-specialist Trainer instead, today's gains would've had them grinning ear to ear.
After finishing morning training and breakfast, Silas said goodbye to Genjiro, Jasmine, and the others, then left the resting point on Route 32.
He was preparing to head toward Azalea Town, which wasn't far away.
Of course, "not far" was relative.
After walking all morning and through noon, Silas finally saw the outline of Azalea Town in the distance at a little past one in the afternoon.
There were Slowpoke everywhere.
Whether in the anime he'd watched in his previous life or the travel guides of this one, Silas knew there was one thing you absolutely must not do in Azalea Town.
That was bully a Slowpoke.
Elsewhere, it might not matter.
But in Azalea Town, Slowpoke were revered like totem deities.
Legend had it that long, long ago, a terrible drought struck.
The area around Azalea Town was scorched by the blazing sun for months without a single drop of rain.
The town was on the brink of drying up completely.
Then one day, a Slowpoke appeared.
It lifted its head and let out a huge yawn.
The next moment, dark clouds filled the sky.
Torrential rain poured down instantly.
Azalea Town, on the verge of extinction, was saved.
From that day on, the locals worshipped Slowpoke like gods.
Of course, this was just a legend.
According to modern Pokémon researchers, Slowpoke does not activate Rain Dance by yawning.
Most likely, the slow little Pokémon just happened to appear on a day with good weather.
Or that passing Slowpoke was strong enough to be Elite Four-level or even Champion-level.
But Silas felt the former explanation was far more likely.
That said, he had no intention of challenging a region's customs.
Especially now, when wild Slowpoke were being heavily hunted elsewhere—Azalea Town had almost become the only place where large groups of Slowpoke still lived.
The people here genuinely protected Pokémon.
That alone was enough to earn the respect of Trainers everywhere.
"Hm?"
Silas's eyes were suddenly drawn to a fleeting figure at the corner of the street.
He narrowed his gaze.
That was.
..
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