Soaking in the steaming hot spring, Silas let out a long sigh of relief.
That's right, there were hot springs in this area.
In the Pokémon world, finding hot springs was actually fairly easy. Quite a few Pokémon possessed abilities related to locating them.
For example, one of the most common Pokémon found in snowy regions of Johto: Swinub.
They were especially skilled at locating underground water sources, particularly hot springs. This was likely thanks to their extraordinary sense of smell, and many hot spring businesses relied on them to discover new spring sources.
Of course, not every Trainer who came to White Snow Mountain was lucky enough to enjoy a hot spring.
Aside from the outdoor public baths, there were only five rooms equipped with private hot spring pools.
As a result, Trainers often battled one another for temporary usage rights to those five rooms.
In the sacred world of Trainer battles, where anything could be wagered, nothing couldn't be settled with a battle.
And if one battle wasn't enough, then another one would do.
Naturally, Silas didn't need to bother with that.
Because he had privileges.
Thanks to Nurse Joy's special treatment, he was allowed direct access to the highly sought-after private bath.
And honestly, it felt amazing.
Both the Trainer and his Pokémon simultaneously let out satisfied sighs.
Gigalith stood alone beside the hot spring, hesitating for quite a while before ultimately deciding not to enter.
For most Rock- or Ground-type Pokémon, even drinking water came with the subconscious fear of getting splashed.
Actually submerging their whole bodies in water was on an entirely different level.
Although Gigalith's strength meant the water likely wouldn't affect it much, the instinctive discomfort remained deeply ingrained.
After thinking about it, Gigalith walked into a corner and reverted to its resting rock-like state.
Meanwhile, Blaziken comfortably soaked in the hot spring this time, with only its small head sticking out above the water.
According to Blaziken:
"If anything goes wrong, I'll just evaporate the entire hot spring."
It could only be said that the phrase all fear comes from insufficient firepower truly made sense.
If you couldn't eliminate fear, then eliminate the thing causing the fear.
Although the Ice-type Vulpix wasn't particularly fond of high temperatures, it absolutely loved playing in water, so it didn't mind the hot spring at all.
Splash!
Floating on the surface, it slapped the water hard with one paw.
Water splashed everywhere, droplets hitting nearly every companion's face.
"Vulpix! Vulpix!"
The Alolan Vulpix seemed extremely fond of this activity, continuously smacking the water and sending splashes flying.
Pidgeot yawned lazily and casually rolled over, unintentionally creating what looked like a massive tidal wave from Vulpix's perspective.
Pwah!
Emerging from underwater, the Alolan Vulpix spat out a mouthful of freezing hot spring water. Its blue-white gradient eyes sparkled with excitement.
Vulpix! Vulpix!"
It moved beside Pidgeot, hoping for another wave.
Pidgeot cared deeply for its youngest teammate, so naturally it indulged the request.
The next moment, the peacefully relaxing Karrablast was swept underwater by the current.
"Karrablast?"
Karrablast floated back up with a completely confused expression.
Was there a flood just now?
Gallade, however, didn't experience any of that.
On one hand, it was much taller.
On the other, thanks to its psychic powers, the waves calmed down several centimeters before reaching it.
Unfortunately, it failed to notice that Serperior and Togekiss had already quietly approached.
The two longtime troublemakers exchanged a glance and instantly understood each other's intentions.
"Serp~"
Gallade had barely closed its eyes when it suddenly felt psychic power enveloping its body.
Before it could break free, several vines shot up from underwater and wrapped around it.
With a tug from Serperior, Gallade was dragged beneath the water.
"Serp!"
"Tokekiss~!"
The perfectly coordinated pair high-fived, one with vines, the other with wings.
Splash!
Gallade burst out of the water, blue-purple psychic light flashing intensely in its eyes.
An even larger wave surged toward Serperior and Togekiss.
The two Pokémon cried out in alarm and immediately fled toward Pidgeot.
Thus, an intense water fight began.
Silas lazily lifted an eyelid at the noisy commotion nearby but didn't bother interfering.
"So relaxing…" he sighed again.
If every mission could be this easy, life would truly be wonderful.
Unfortunately, that was clearly just wishful thinking.
Yes in Silas's opinion, nearly every part of this mission had unfolded exactly as expected.
The only thing he couldn't determine beforehand was Team Rocket's climbing speed.
If they had defeated Articuno before he arrived, then no matter how confident he was, he wouldn't have been able to handle the situation.
Unless every one of his partners had broken through to Elite level on the spot.
Thankfully, the worst-case scenario never happened.
The native Pokémon of White Snow Mountain had greatly delayed Team Rocket's ascent.
By the time Silas arrived, they had only just encountered Articuno.
Under those circumstances, Silas truly couldn't imagine the mission failing.
Of course, he also knew this was largely thanks to Articuno's overwhelming strength.
If Articuno hadn't immediately wiped out most of Team Rocket's forces upon appearing, Silas would've had a serious headache.
"Ice-types really are incredible for battlefield control…"
Recalling Articuno's attacks, Silas subconsciously looked toward the Alolan Vulpix currently hiding behind Pidgeot while launching water attacks at the others.
He wondered when the little one would become as powerful as Articuno.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, Silas slapped the water surface.
"How did I forget to ask Articuno for some items suitable for Alolan Vulpix?!"
Wasn't it perfectly reasonable for a Legendary Pokémon to reward its savior?
Silas reflected on himself.
He was still too inexperienced.
His thinking simply wasn't comprehensive enough.
"In situations like this, I really should fleece Legendary Pokémon first."
Silas nodded thoughtfully at his own conclusion.
Still, it wasn't a huge issue.
Alolan Vulpix was still young, so there was no rush for it to comprehend Legendary-level power.
At worst, after the baby Articuno was born and grew up a little, he could visit White Snow Mountain again.
Rounding things up a bit, Silas felt he had technically saved its life too.
Getting a few gifts in return wasn't excessive, right?
There was no helping it, Ice-types simply had too few Legendary Pokémon.
It wasn't as though he could casually seek out Regice or the ice legend among the Tao trio, Kyurem.
Not only were those two difficult to find, but their temperaments weren't exactly pleasant either.
Especially Kyurem.
According to ancient legends, Kyurem held deep hostility toward both humans and Pokémon, abducting and devouring them from villages.
Whether those stories were true remained questionable, but Silas had no intention of testing them personally.
As the strongest member of the Tao trio, Kyurem was even sometimes called the strongest Dragon-type Pokémon.
Rayquaza strongly disagreed and wanted a fight.
Meanwhile, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, and Complete Forme Zygarde were all getting eager to join in.
From Silas's perspective, there were two possible origins for Kyurem receiving that title.
The first possibility was tied to legend itself.
According to the myths, the overwhelming freezing energy within Kyurem had even frozen its own body, sealing away a power far beyond that of Reshiram and Zekrom.
Only when both Reshiram and Zekrom fused with Kyurem at the same time might the true Original Dragon finally appear.
The second possibility was similar to the earlier comparison between Lugia and Kyogre.
Compared to the other elusive Dragon-type legendary Pokémon that almost never appeared before humanity, Kyurem, whose legends often spoke of destroyed cities and ruined nations, naturally inspired far greater fear in people.
Under those circumstances, giving it the title of the strongest Dragon-type Pokémon was understandable.
Viewed from that angle, it also seemed to support the rumors that Kyurem possessed a particularly violent temperament.
"Splash!"
A massive wave of water interrupted Silas's train of thought.
"Drip… drip…"
Water droplets slid down from his messy hair as he clenched his fist.
"So you guys have forgotten who the boss is, huh?!"
Silas grinned wickedly and pulled out a water gun.
"Prepare yourselves!"
"Wait, Ampharos, I wasn't talking about you!"
Suddenly, panic filled his voice.
"Pharos!"
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
A short while later.
After simultaneously enjoying both hydrotherapy and electrotherapy, Silas lay weakly on the bed.
"Pharos…"
Ampharos stood obediently beside the bed with an expression that clearly said "I didn't mean to."
"It's fine, if I get shocked enough times, I'll eventually get used to it."
What else could Silas do? He could only force out something between a laugh and a grimace.
Ampharos nodded seriously, deciding that next time it would hold back a little.
Ding-dong.
The sound of his Pokégear notification rang out.
Silas weakly lifted his wrist to look at it.
The next second, he shot upright from the bed.
"Hello? Senior Chuck? Yeah, it's me. I'm fine, perfectly healthy. The mission went smoothly…"
Ampharos stared in shock.
Silas continued smiling as he reported the results of the mission.
"I see, alright. I'll inform Nurse Joy later then.
Mm-hmm, the gains this time were pretty good. Blaziken also broke through during the battle.
Yeah, there was some kind of machine. I took pictures, but the core was taken away by Articuno."
"So it took it away…" Chuck sounded helpless from the other side of the call. "Then there's nothing we can do. Still, we already expected something like that."
"Oh right, those Fire-type materials used for activation…"
Silas casually brought it up.
"You brat." Chuck laughed and cursed lightly. "They're yours. I'll notify the higher-ups later."
"Nice!"
Silas instantly broke into a huge grin.
From this moment onward, those items truly belonged to him.
He trusted Chuck completely.
If a Champion-level Trainer didn't even have enough influence to settle something this minor, then Chuck might as well quit working for the League.
With this, until Blaziken reached Champion level, there would be no need to worry about expensive cultivation materials anymore.
Only berries would need replenishing, and those were cheap.
The two chatted briefly afterward.
Chuck mentioned that Lance had disappeared again sometime after noon, probably off infiltrating undercover once more.
Silas honestly couldn't understand why Lance enjoyed infiltration so much.
With his strength, he could simply storm straight through the front entrance.
After thinking about it, Silas figured there were only two reasons:
First, Lance's personal sense of justice required him to gather proper evidence.
Second, as someone born directly into the League's core bloodline, Lance had access to information networks and intelligence channels far superior to Silas's own.
At any rate, although Silas disliked Team Rocket, he had never intended to wipe them out completely.
Checking the time, Chuck finally said:
"Alright, they're probably already waiting for you over there. You should head off."
"Got it."
Silas nodded eagerly.
After hanging up.
Seeing Ampharos staring directly at him from nearby, even Silas felt a little nervous.
"I was just too excited, alright? Sometimes human potential gets stimulated in moments like that."
He desperately tried to explain himself.
Ampharos proved its disbelief through action instead.
Yellow electricity flashed throughout the room.
With his hair blown into an afro, Silas opened his mouth and released a puff of black smoke.
"Aba…ba…"
His tongue had gone numb from the shock, leaving him unable to speak properly.
Ampharos happily swished its tail before returning to its own small room.
"Karrablast!"
Watching from the side, Karrablast eagerly jumped onto Silas's shoulder.
It knew this was finally its turn.
Still twitching occasionally from residual electricity, Silas rubbed Karrablast's horn before bringing it out of the room.
Joking around was one thing, but there was still business to handle.
Arriving at the front desk, Silas sporting his unique hairstyle endured everyone's astonished gazes while speaking with Nurse Joy.
"A machine for trade evolution?"
Nurse Joy nodded in understanding.
"Our Pokémon Center does have one. I'll take you there."
"Sorry for the trouble."
Silas thanked her.
Although Bill's research had already entered a rapid development phase, machines capable of enabling trade evolution were still far from widespread.
Still, compared to the pitifully small numbers in the past, the current situation had improved significantly.
Some of the rarer trade evolutions were gradually becoming known even among lower-level Trainers.
Trade evolution was not something to underestimate.
Take Machamp and Machoke, for example.
At the same level, a Machoke that had not undergone trade evolution was completely outclassed by Machamp.
And Machoke certainly weren't rare, many construction sites employed them regularly.
The improvement in overall strength was enormous in every regard.
Led by Nurse Joy, Silas quickly arrived at a small room.
Inside, a machine was already operating.
After Nurse Joy left the room, Silas immediately used the machine to place the call Chuck had given him.
"Hello, I'm Mr. Alder's Breeder assistant. You must be Trainer Silas Alaric?"
A middle-aged man appeared on the video screen.
Seeing that it wasn't Alder himself, Silas couldn't help feeling slightly disappointed, though it was within expectations.
"Yes, that's me. Sorry for the trouble."
"Understood. Please return Karrablast to its Poké Ball first, then place it on the designated platform."
The man gave instructions calmly.
He had noticed Silas's disappointment, but that was perfectly normal.
Silas quickly took out the Friend Ball, recalled Karrablast, and placed the Poké Ball onto the machine.
The assistant on the other side did the same.
As the button was pressed, electrical waves repeatedly jumped between the two Poké Balls across an immense distance.
The white glow of evolution gradually enveloped both Pokémon.
The forms of Shelmet and Karrablast began to change.
...
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