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Ash thought for a long time but couldn't understand what 'First Rebirth' meant. Pikachu's condition wasn't good, and since they had snuck out, he needed to restore Pikachu's health first to avoid suspicion.
This kind of injury would probably take longer to recover in a Pokémon Center than in his hands, so Ash chose to help Pikachu recover himself.
After Pikachu had recovered, Ash would go to the group chat and ask what 'First Rebirth' meant.
The injuries caused by the drop in level took about ten minutes to recover, but Pikachu's fallen levels would have to be trained back slowly by himself.
Furthermore, what realm Pikachu could reach now would depend on what realm he got stuck at next. At the very least, it should be at the peak of the Gym level, right?
Ash let Pikachu adapt to his current level for a moment, while he returned to the group chat to report his good news to the Big guys and ask about the parts he didn't understand.
[Newbie Ash: Big guys, I've already applied that one-time exclusive ability to Pikachu. Pikachu was in great pain at first, and finally, after dropping two minor levels, he gained an increase in ability values, and his potential should have advanced further. But what exactly does 'First Rebirth' mean?]
[Champion Ash: Because every time Pikachu enters a new region, his level decreases and his potential increases, just like a phoenix being reborn from the ashes. So we call this behavior of Pikachu 'Rebirth', and because Pikachu can undergo multiple rebirths, his current state is an abbreviation for 'First Rebirth', or 'First Rebirth'.]
[Breeder Ash: Because this term was already defined in the group chat a long time ago, your Eye of Insight saw the status indicator next to Pikachu's name. Before joining the group chat, I actually didn't have a definitive term for Pikachu's status. The status bar that appeared in my eyes would show 'leveled up several times', but 'Rebirth' sounds much better in comparison.]
Rebirth was just a term that arose because of Pikachu's situation. If Ash wanted to call it something else, he just had to silently think of another term in his mind, and the small text next to Pikachu's name would change.
In short, there's no need to worry about it, as long as you know what state Pikachu is in now.
[Newbie Ash: So, Big guys, what realm did your Pikachu reach after the First Rebirth? Gym level?]
[Champion Ash: For me, it was Gym Peak.]
[Breeder Ash: Gym Advanced.]
[Aura Hero Ash: Gym Advanced.]
[...]
Some of the lurking Big guys in the group chat also came out to speak. After their Pikachu's First Rebirth, they were generally from Gym Intermediate to Gym Peak, with not a single one exceeding Gym Peak to reach Elite level.
This essentially confirmed that the limit for a First Rebirth Pikachu was the Gym level, but this level should be sufficient for Ash.
If he could reach Gym Peak, with Pikachu's burst power, clashing with an Elite Peak would definitely not be a problem.
By that time, he should have reached Johto... Oh, speaking of Johto, the Big guys in the group chat seemed to have mentioned something before.
[Newbie Ash: Big guys, you seemed to have said before that going to the Johto region wouldn't cause Pikachu to change, right? Why? Isn't the Johto region considered a second region?]
According to Pikachu's logic, if going to another region could trigger a Rebirth, then his journey to Johto should also allow Pikachu to complete a Rebirth. Why wasn't the Johto region effective? Was it being treated differently?
[Breeder Ash: Because the Johto region is quite special. It's almost connected to the Kanto League. Another point is... the Kanto League doesn't have a Champion, and half of its Elites are from Johto, so Kanto and Johto are considered one region.]
[Breeder Ash: But it's not that the Johto region has no effect on Pikachu at all. There is still an effect, but compared to a normal Rebirth, the effect is much weaker, perhaps only able to increase the upper limit by one to two minor stages.]
[Newbie Ash: Eh~ Kanto is so lacking in prestige, even though its Gym Leaders are so strong.]
[Champion Ash: Haha, no choice, Kanto is a bit in a transitional period. But if you can become the Champion, you should be able to directly revive the entire Kanto region. The important task of revitalizing Kanto rests on your shoulders!]
[Newbie Ash: When you put it that way, I feel a bit overwhelmed~]
...After chatting with the people in the group, Ash also exited the group chat, then returned to the hotel with the fully recovered Pikachu.
At this time, Misty and the others were still not awake. Compared to the energetic Ash, Misty and Brock were normal people. They had gone to bed in the dead of night yesterday, so it would be a miracle if they were up before eight in the morning today.
Seeing this, Ash went downstairs and used the hotel's video phone to call Professor Oak's lab.
"Hello, this is Oak... Hmm? Ash, why are you calling so early today?" Professor Oak only realized it was Ash calling after greeting him. He subconsciously glanced at the time. It was only a little past eight in the morning. Why was he calling him so early?
"Good morning, Professor Oak, how's my gem collection coming along?"
"Hey, I thought you were calling early in the morning to check on me, but it turns out you're looking for gems. You're really breaking my heart~"
"Alright, alright, I know you're sad, so how many have you collected?" Ash didn't care in the slightest about Professor Oak's crocodile tears.
Early in the morning, if he didn't have something important to talk to him about, would he be calling because he was bored? Was he really calling to ask if Professor Oak had eaten breakfast?
"Tsk, you kid... Here, they're all here, take a look." Professor Oak clicked his tongue, then left the video phone's range. Not long after, he walked back, holding a rather large box.
When Professor Oak opened the box, the colorful MEGA Evolution Stones inside almost blinded Ash!
Inside the box were five large gems, identical in appearance to the ones Ash had given Professor Oak before, except for the patterns in the middle.
These gems were indeed MEGA Evolution Stones, and they were all MEGA Evolution Stones that they didn't have. He wondered how many of these Stones he could use.
Ash silently memorized the patterns of the several Stones, then said to Professor Oak with a beaming smile: "You're really something, Professor Oak, to have collected so many ME... cough cough, so many gems in such a short time. I'm truly impressed!"
Professor Oak rolled his eyes, not taking Ash's praise to heart. He put away the MEGA Evolution Stones in his hand and casually placed them aside, then asked with some curiosity: "What do you need me to collect these stones for? I checked them, and there is indeed a unique power within these stones, but ordinary methods can't activate it at all."
"And even if activated, the power within isn't particularly strong. It can't be used as an amplifying force at all. Even if extracted with great effort, it wouldn't have much use."
Out of a researcher's curiosity, Professor Oak had indeed studied the gems Ash asked him to collect, but he couldn't figure anything out. Although some power resided within these gems, it was essentially impossible to mobilize.
Even if mobilized, these powers seemed to be specific. If it wasn't for a specialized Pokémon, there was no way to use the power on them. And even for specialized Pokémon, they wouldn't actually get much of a boost.
Therefore, Professor Oak was very confused as to why Ash was collecting these things. Was it just for aesthetics?
"Hey, don't worry about that. These things have a great use for me. They'll definitely surprise you at the Indigo Plateau Conference!"
"Oh wow~ Then I'm a bit excited. It's not an easy thing to surprise me."
"Don't worry, don't worry... Speaking of which, Professor Oak, where did you get so many M... gems? These things shouldn't be easy to find, right?"
Ash's repeated near-slips of the tongue didn't arouse Professor Oak's suspicion, or rather, Professor Oak simply didn't take it to heart. As a scholar and the former Kanto Champion, he had seen all sorts of storms.
Although Ash was hiding something, it wouldn't be too far beyond his expectations. If Ash really had something that could shock him to the point of cursing, he would be happy.
So Professor Oak didn't care about Ash's secrecy. He directly answered Ash's question: "Where did they come from? Of course, I 'borrowed' them from Steven. For you, I specifically went to the Hoenn region to find him. Steven has quite a collection of stones, and he had a lot of these gems you wanted, about ten or so. I directly took nearly half."
Professor Oak said nonchalantly.
If you were to ask who in the entire League had the largest collection of gem-like items, everyone would immediately think of the Hoenn Champion, Steven. Professor Oak was no exception.
Rather than slowly searching himself, it was better to go directly to Steven. Although his friendship with Steven wasn't particularly deep, they were both on the same level. If he asked for something from Steven, Steven wouldn't refuse, as long as it wasn't too valuable.
And favors are meant to be exchanged. This time, Steven helped Professor Oak, so in the future, if Professor Oak needed help, he would do so without hesitation.
But in reality, Steven didn't even care about the things Professor Oak wanted. In Steven's eyes, those gems only had some collection value, as for practicality... there was almost none.
Therefore, this favor wasn't actually that big, both sides thought so... And the knowledgeable Ash, upon hearing that Professor Oak had directly taken half of Steven's MEGA Evolution Stones, couldn't help but twitch his mouth twice.
Good heavens, half of the MEGA Evolution Stones! You've emptied Steven's home!
And Steven probably even gave these Stones away with a smile. If Steven were to know the true purpose of these MEGA Evolution Stones in the future, he would probably be green with regret.
Especially if there were any among these Stones that he could use, he would probably want to find Dialga to travel through time and slap his past self on the head.
"Ahem, I'll be playing on Cinnabar Island for a few days and then I'll be ready to go back. After challenging the Viridian Gym, I'll come to your place to get those stones... Oh, besides those stones, Professor Oak, have you collected another type of gem?"
The gem Ash was referring to was the other item needed for MEGA Evolution—the Key Stone!
Compared to Key Stones, the number of Stones could even be described as abundant. In other parallel worlds, many people had MEGA Evolution Stones, but none had Key Stones, making MEGA Evolution impossible.
Although MEGA Evolution Stones have species restrictions, their number is indeed much greater than Key Stones. As for Key Stones... in other parallel worlds, the total number of people with Key Stones probably wouldn't exceed one hundred.
The number of trainers worldwide is not in the tens of billions, but there are definitely one billion, and among so many trainers, only fewer than one hundred possess Key Stones. This ratio has already reached one in ten million.
So Ash didn't hold out much hope that Professor Oak could get Key Stones. However, Professor Oak silently walked out of range of the phone, and when he returned, he already had two colorful stones in his hand.
Ash's pupils constricted when he saw the Key Stones in Professor Oak's hand, and his palms trembled uncontrollably.
Good heavens, you're truly all-powerful, Professor Oak. You even got two Key Stones. Is there anything you can't do?
"Here, these are the other gems you wanted. However, Steven has very few of these, only five in total, and I took two. These things are not only beautiful in appearance, but the hidden power within them is also stronger than the previous gems."
"There is a powerful life force within these two gems, and Steven said that he once extracted the life force from them using special methods, but it surprisingly restored itself shortly after. It's truly amazing. If the method and efficiency of extracting this infinitely providing life force were higher, it would definitely be a priceless Darling."
Professor Oak shook his head and sighed, seemingly regretting that he couldn't freely extract the life force from the gems.
The life force within this gem also required a very special method to extract, and only about one-tenth of the extracted life force could be preserved. So, even though this was a gem that could infinitely restore life force, it actually didn't have much value.
This was also why Steven was willing to give him two such gems. After all, although this thing was extremely rare, its practicality was indeed not very good. Compared to his favor, giving away something like this was just giving it away.
And Ash, upon hearing Professor Oak and Steven's strange explanation of the Key Stones, couldn't stop the odd expression on his face.
So, in your eyes, Key Stones are just gems that can repeatedly extract life force? Aren't you curious why this thing can recover after having its life force extracted? Aren't you curious what kind of gem this is to perfectly unleash the life force within?
Perhaps they also knew these questions, but Steven must have had these gems for a very long time, and after so long without any progress, he simply gave up.
It was precisely because of this that Ash was able to take advantage of Professor Oak to pick up this Darling.
'Sorry, Mr. Steven, please don't hit me in the future...'