Arbok stared blankly at the shattered Poké Ball in Cain's hand; that mysterious sensation he had felt earlier disappeared completely.
At that moment, an emotion difficult to describe arose in his heart.
Was it joy? It didn't quite feel that happy.
Was it sadness? It wasn't that either.
It just felt sudden. Yet he had already been prepared for it, so he accepted everything calmly.
Not only because he could no longer provide much help to Cain, but also because he had already grown accustomed to and fond of the life in this place.
"Shaah!" Arbok slowly straightened up and used his body to push Ekans toward Cain.
Ekans did not resist; it simply looked at him with curiosity.
Though, to be honest, being stared at like that by a snake was not exactly a pleasant experience.
"You want me to take him? To find him a suitable trainer?" Cain understood Arbok's intention.
Although Trial Island was large, it was still only an island. And having once been a trainer's Pokémon, Arbok knew how much having a trainer could help a Pokémon.
He did not expect Cain to accept his child, only that he would find him a good trainer.
Cain nodded. "I understand."
Then he took out a new Poké Ball and captured that level fifteen Ekans, with Light Blue color quality.
With Cain's current strength, that Ekans certainly did not catch his interest, but that did not prevent him from finding it a good owner.
Seeing Cain take Ekans away, Arbok's wish was fulfilled. He slowly retreated into the depths of the jungle. Thus ended the reunion between Arbok and Cain.
Cain was also able to see Arbok's strength: peak Quasi-Elite level.
He could dominate that region, but he could not approach too close to the center of the island, as there were also areas dangerous to him.
The two main objectives of Cain's visit to Trial Island had already been completed: exploring the Dark Cave and freeing Arbok.
What remained was to continue exploring the island systematically. With the cooperation of Lucario and Venusaur, as long as an Elite-level Pokémon did not appear, the two together could defeat almost any opponent.
However, within the island there still lived some Pokémon that had been there for a very long time and had surpassed the Quasi-Elite level.
Even so, once Cain summoned Salamence, all those problems ceased to be problems.
Practically the entire map of the island was illuminated in the system.
The territory of the island was large and the variety of Pokémon abundant, even though Team Rocket periodically sent people to clean it up.
Enough pressure had to be applied to the aspirants, but things could not be allowed to become completely unbalanced.
As for those Elite and Quasi-Elite level Pokémon, they did not actually affect the aspirants; their function was to maintain order and the ecosystem of the island.
At the absolute center of the island lived those who could be considered the Kings of the Island: a Nidoking and a Nidoqueen of Elite level.
But after being defeated head-on by Cain's Salamence, the title of King of the Island officially changed hands.
And Cain managed to take control of the heart of the island.
Knowing Jessie and James's personalities, if they were to truly understand the cruelty of this world, they needed to spend more time fighting and surviving among the aspirants.
Cain did not give Viper any special orders to look after them, so Viper did not know Cain's reason for coming nor that those two were people under Giovanni's special protection.
However, given the luck those two had, carving a path among the aspirants would be quite difficult, especially since they only had a talking Meowth who could not fight. Even so, losing their lives would not be easy either.
A bit of hardship would also help educate them better in the future.
Cain did not have the time to be like Giovanni and keep an eye on them.
In his view, if they wanted a better life, they first needed to have sufficient strength.
Many things in this world seemed predestined, but Cain wanted to see whether Jessie and James could, under his deliberate guidance, obtain a decent level of strength.
At the very least, he did not want them to end up like the trio from his memories.
Jessie had inherited her mother's qualities; in fact, she had considerable potential as a trainer, and if she seriously devoted herself to training Pokémon, she could even become an elite officer.
But compared to Jessie, Cain had even greater expectations for James.
James had a sincere and affectionate heart toward Pokémon; he treated them with genuine dedication, which was why all his Pokémon liked him, even if his way of expressing it was somewhat exaggerated.
This was especially evident with his Grass-type Pokémon: almost all of them attacked him when they came out of their Poké Balls, and that was their way of showing affection.
In short, both had potential; they were just lacking proper values and an appropriate way to train.
Perhaps also due to the mentality inherited from Team Rocket, or the habits formed on Trial Island, whenever they saw someone else's Pokémon, their first thought was to steal it.
It wasn't that this idea was absurd; after all, other people's Pokémon were often stronger.
To correct this way of thinking from the root, they needed to raise their own Pokémon until they were good enough that they would not envy others'. Over time, the habit would be corrected.
After thinking everything through carefully for a while, Cain reached that conclusion on how to handle and guide Jessie and James.
Setting that matter aside, Cain called his Pokémon, preparing to train them there for a time.
Meanwhile, he sat down to study how to help Darkrai recover from his current state.
Unlike other Pokémon, Darkrai did not need to fight to increase his strength, since his power was affected by the erosion of Ghost-type energy.
The only way to strengthen him was to eliminate the damage caused by that energy.
Although Darkrai could still train a bit; after so many years maintaining that state, his body, no matter how strong, must have become "rusted," and a bit of exercise would help his recovery.
Moreover, Darkrai's combat style would surely differ greatly from Cain's battle philosophy. If possible, Cain hoped that Darkrai, as a member of his team, could gradually adapt to him.
That process would be long, but inevitable.
Cain already had some ideas on how to help him; he could not restore him completely, but at least he had some solutions.
And all of it was thanks to the red plants that Slowking had found.
(End of chapter)