Day 8 back in the Orange Archipelago. Cloudy.
The weather was decent today. At least the sun wasn't as harsh as yesterday. It had been bright and clear yesterday morning, then rained in the afternoon. This island weather really did whatever it wanted.
Reiji slept in and only got up late in the morning. Poliwhirl and the others had woken earlier and were already doing recovery exercises by the lake.
After the final battle of the Indigo Plateau Conference, Poliwhirl and Rhydon had mostly recovered. Gyarados and Forretress still needed at least another week.
Poliwhirl would do some light movement today and settle its condition. If everything looked good, it could evolve tomorrow.
After resting for two days, Reiji also needed to visit the Gym tomorrow. The middle-aged man had looked like he wanted to say something before. Maybe there was something he needed to discuss.
Senta and Cissy had not come today either. He had no idea what those two were doing, but that was fine. It saved him trouble.
By the time he got up, the Pokémon had already eaten breakfast. Poliwhirl and the others had handed out the Pokéblocks. After yesterday's "friendly match," the cloned Pokémon should understand who managed things here.
As long as he fed them, housed them, and didn't mistreat them, he didn't ask much from them. If any of them still wanted to cause trouble after that, then he would have to handle it another way.
Once the clones got used to this place, they could even live in the wild if they wanted. As long as Mewtwo agreed, Reiji wouldn't stop them.
He made a quick breakfast and looked around for Mewtwo while eating. He hadn't seen it since last night. He didn't know where it had gone, but with its power and without the clones holding it back, no one could keep it trapped. He wasn't worried.
After breakfast, he went back to yesterday's work: evolving Pokémon.
Several of them had already built up enough energy. There was no reason to hold them back.
Today's candidates were Magby and Dratini.
Magby had been raised by Blaine, so it could evolve right away.
Dratini was different. It had been malnourished before. It had recovered somewhat recently, but it still wasn't as strong as others of its species. Evolution might help make up for that.
He could also use an Everstone to stop the evolution and let Dratini keep growing first, but Everstones came with their own limits.
Pseudo-Legendaries needed time. Dratini shed almost every day while growing, and Dragonair shed too, just less often once its body stabilized.
Shedding meant growth. It was the same as Kingler molting. A Pokémon had to grow before it could shed skin or shell.
[Dratini]
[Type: Dragon]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 48.82%]
[Level: 30.12%]
[Ability: Shed Skin / 21.23%] [Hidden Ability: Marvel Scale / 6.33%]
Dratini was already level thirty.
Pseudo-Legendaries really did grow slowly. Magby had advanced much faster.
Shedding could raise potential too, and he could see Dratini's potential still climbing on the panel. That made him hesitate. Maybe evolving it now wasn't the best choice.
If he let Dratini keep shedding, he might be able to push its potential higher first. Once it evolved into Dragonair, and later Dragonite, the only fast way he could think of to raise its potential would be Elite Four-tier items.
Those items weren't something he could buy whenever he wanted. Where was he supposed to find that many?
If he let Dratini shed until it hit its limit, then let Dragonair build up again before evolving, pushing Dragonite past 70 potential might be possible.
Using an Everstone to delay evolution gave him a real chance at raising a Dragonite that could become a serious Elite Four-tier force.
If he skipped that and evolved Dratini now, the final Dragonite would probably only be decent. After that, its only path forward would be time, like Professor Oak's Dragonite slowly aging into Champion tier.
Two normal evolutions could raise potential by around twenty points at most. Based on Dratini's current numbers, it might not even reach 70 in the end.
Given the choice, Reiji preferred the Everstone route. The key was making sure it didn't damage Dratini's future evolution. As long as Dratini built up enough and could evolve the moment the Everstone came off, that would be fine.
Once he made up his mind, Reiji took out an Everstone and called Dratini over. He put it on Dratini, planning to see how far its shedding could go.
"Tini?"
Dratini looked at the Everstone on its body. Reiji had already given it a Dragon Fang before, and now he was giving it another strange stone. Humans really did strange things.
"Dratini, don't take this stone off. Let me check how much Dragon-type energy you've absorbed."
Reiji reached for the Dragon Fang. It was still Advanced-tier, but it had almost dropped to level forty. Dratini had absorbed energy from it, just slowly.
The Dragon Fang he had given Dratini was Advanced-tier. Ever since Dratini joined him, Reiji had kept one on it. Its nest was also made with Flying Gems and Dragon Fangs, since Dragonite would gain the Flying type later.
Those were all Dragon-type items he had gotten from Grampa Canyon.
Even with so many Dragon Fangs and Flying Gems, Dratini was still growing at the pace of one shed a day. Each shed raised its potential by about 0.1.
Reiji didn't know whether that was because of the shedding itself or because of all the Flying Gems and Dragon Fangs. Once Dratini finished absorbing the Elite-tier Dragon Fang, he would keep adding more items.
It wasn't that he didn't want to give Dratini better ones. All the Dragon Fangs were for Dratini. No one else was competing for them. He simply worried Dratini wouldn't be able to handle too much at once.
After Dratini used up the Dragon Fangs in its nest, Reiji still had plenty more. Enough to last a long time.
He had two Elite Four-tier Dragon Fangs, several quasi–Elite Four-tier ones, and Advanced-tier ones made up the bulk of the rest. There were also one or two Elite-tier pieces whose energy had faded over time. Otherwise, Mega Aerodactyl would never have had Elite-tier Dragon Fangs in its possession.
Dratini was no longer as scared as before. Reiji could touch it now, and it even came over to nuzzle him. It was still timid around strangers, though.
Reiji decided to wait until Dratini could no longer shed before letting it evolve. Slower leveling was fine. Losing potential after evolution would hurt far more. For Pokémon, potential mattered more than level.
Once Dratini was settled, he let it go play. He had given it the best resources he could. The rest depended on its own growth.
Then he called Magby over.
For Magby, he had already worked out the evolution plan.
[Magby]
[Type: Fire]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 56%]
[Level: 29.99%]
[Ability: Flame Body / 25.23%]
Magby was not like Barboach or Tentacool, where one low-grade Water Stone and two Gems had been close to the limit. Its buildup was much deeper, so it should be able to absorb far more energy.
Reiji had prepared one mid-grade Fire Stone, two low-grade Fire Stones, a pile of Fire Gems, plenty of Heat Rocks, two Elite-tier Charcoal, and one Advanced-tier Charcoal.
Altogether, the materials were worth around thirty million. The Evolution Stones and held items alone were over ten million, and that didn't include the Fire Gems and Heat Rocks. Some of those had originally been Hanhan's snacks.
Worried that still might not be enough, Reiji added two more mid-grade Fire Stones. He had found plenty of Evolution Stones at Evolution Mountain, and he didn't mind burning through a few million on each one. His Pokémon mattered more than the stones.
The last thing Magby needed was a volcanic environment. That would be best for its evolution.
But where was he supposed to find a volcano nearby?
Reiji suddenly looked up at the highest bare peak on Mikan Island. It was a dormant volcano. It hadn't smoked in ages, but there should still be magma underground.
Once the thought hit him, he recalled Poliwhirl, Magby, and Rhydon, packed the evolution materials away, told the others to keep playing, and flew toward the mountain on Pelipper.
It took more than half an hour to reach the summit. The mountain had looked close from below, but distance was always misleading in the mountains. As soon as Reiji arrived, he felt the heat in the air.
This volcano wasn't completely dead. Now he just had to find the magma below it.
He sent Pelipper into the sky to check which coastline had no residents, then had Rhydon sense the heat underground and dig toward the hottest layer.
As Rhydon dug deeper, Reiji recalled Poliwhirl and Pelipper. Only Rhydon and Magby stayed with him.
The lower they went, the hotter it became. Even Reiji could barely stand the heat inside the tunnel. Hanhan and Magby, on the other hand, were completely fine.
At last, they reached an underground cavern and found a thin stream of magma. It was barely a meter wide.
They followed it downstream until they found a magma pool, bubbling steadily with hot air.
This was where Magby would evolve.
Reiji set down the materials he had prepared and had Magby stand beside the magma pool, on top of the pile of Fire-type items.
Then he backed away several steps and released Poliwhirl. He had Poliwhirl spray him with Water Gun to cool him down before calling out to Magby.
"Magby, bite down on this mid-grade Fire Stone. Hold the Charcoal and the low-grade Fire Stone in your hands. Stand on those Fire-type items and evolve."
"Mag! Mag!"
Magby looked at the heat around it, then at the magma pool behind it. The whole place felt warm and comfortable. This was the kind of environment it liked.
"Absorb as much energy as you can," Reiji said. "Take in everything your body can handle."
When he had been poor, his Pokémon's evolutions had been simple. Now that he had the resources, he would give them the best he could. Besides, he didn't have any other Fire-type Pokémon, and Hanhan would get overheated if it ate too many Fire resources anyway.
"Byy!."
Magby was still a little nervous, but when it saw Reiji encouraging it, and Poliwhirl cheering beside him, it quickly calmed down. It opened its mouth and bit into the Fire Stone.
Boom.
White light burst out and swallowed Magby whole.
Reiji instinctively stepped back. Heat rolled off the evolution, and with the magma pool nearby, the cavern became even hotter.
The heat erupting from Magby was so intense that the rocks under its feet and the pile of evolution materials began to melt.
Reiji felt his heart jump.
This was still only Magby. If it evolved into Magmar, wouldn't it be able to burn through almost anything?
Those items could still have been sold if Magby hadn't absorbed them completely. Once they melted, they were worthless. He had never expected Magby's heat to melt so many items outright.
"Mag! Mag!"
"What?"
Reiji couldn't tell what Magby was trying to say. Was it having trouble? Was it about to fall into the magma?
Then Poliwhirl grabbed the Fire Stone from Reiji's hand and threw it toward Magby.
Only then did he understand.
"So it's not enough. Good thing I prepared extra."
Reiji quickly threw the other Fire Stone, then pulled more Fire-type items out of his bag.
Low-grade Fire Stones, the remaining two Elite-tier Charcoal, and more Fire Gems. He threw them all in, leaving only a few Heat Rocks behind as snacks for Hanhan.
This second batch was worth another twenty million or so. Add the two mid-grade Fire Stones from earlier, and the total had already reached another thirty million.
Who would have thought Magby had built up this much? It had absorbed thirty million worth of Fire-type resources in an instant and still wasn't satisfied. Reiji's Fire Gem stock was gone, and he had no choice but to start using Fire Stones.
The Fire-type items he threw in touched Magby's body and immediately dissolved into white light, merging into it.
Only then did Magby cry out again.
"Mag! Mag!"
"Still more?"
Reiji couldn't understand and looked at Poliwhirl.
Poliwhirl nodded. It could hear Magby clearly. Magby was still a little short.
Poliwhirl immediately rummaged through the bag. It sensed a strong heat from one box, pulled it out, and threw the whole thing—box and stone together—toward Magby.
"Wait. That's the Sun Stone. My only high-grade Sun Stone."
Reiji hadn't expected Poliwhirl to be that good at finding things. Before he could stop it, the high-grade Sun Stone was already melting into Magby's evolution light.
At this point, Magby's evolution had burned through more than seventy million.
Reiji's heart hurt.
But he was also shaken by how much Magby had stored up. It was still glowing, now floating on the surface of the magma without sinking.
After absorbing the high-grade Sun Stone, Magby called out again.
When Reiji saw Poliwhirl trying to rummage through the bag again, he took over himself. He pulled out every remaining mid-grade Sun Stone, low-grade Sun Stone, Fire Stone, and Fire Gem, then threw them all into the magma.
By now, all he had left were some Heat Rocks, one quasi–Elite Four-tier Charcoal, and the stolen black-market bag in Gengar's stomach. Any Fire-type items inside that bag were pulled out too and thrown to Magby.
The total had reached one hundred million.
If Magby still needed more, Reiji had nothing left except the quasi–Elite Four-tier Charcoal.
He should have prepared more Fire-type items.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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