In the sky.
Charizard's figure advanced at full speed.
When they were already about to reach Stonefield Town, Meltan's Poké Ball suddenly opened.
"Zzzt!"
"Zzzt!"
"Zzzt!"
After appearing in the air, Meltan began to let out excited cries.
"Huh?"
"It seems there are some pretty good things among this batch of Steel-type resources."
Ethan narrowed his eyes and ordered Charizard to fly even faster toward Stonefield Town.
In the temporary laboratory in Stonefield Town, Professor Reynolds was organizing the Steel-type resources sent by the Pokémon Researcher Guild.
All kinds of materials could be seen placed neatly by category. And among all of them, the most eye-catching were three golden nuts placed on a table.
"Zzzt!"
Outside the laboratory, Meltan rushed in full of excitement.
Then, as soon as it saw the nuts on the table, it threw itself toward them and hugged them in one go.
The nut on its head rubbed against the ones on the table, creating a rather funny scene.
"So they really are Meltan nuts. Although I only mentioned it in passing, I never thought the guild would actually manage to find three."
Looking at the three Meltan nuts on the table, Ethan was surprised again, and then a smile appeared on his face.
Until that moment, he had still felt that Meltan's evolution plan had certain imperfections, that it had not yet reached perfection.
But now, with those three Meltan nuts, the success rate of Meltan's evolution would increase tremendously, already approaching near perfection.
"Meltan, don't rush to absorb them yet."
Ethan spoke to Meltan, who seemed ready to swallow the nuts in one bite.
Meltan hesitated for a moment. But in the end, it nodded and reluctantly let go of the nuts in its hands.
"Ethan, you're finally back. I've already organized all these Steel-type resources for you. By the way, what do you need so many Steel-type resources for?"
Professor Reynolds set aside a Metal Coat and spoke to Ethan.
"These resources are for Meltan. After absorbing them, Meltan will be able to complete its evolution."
A smile appeared on Ethan's face as he explained it to Professor Reynolds.
"Meltan... can still evolve?"
Hearing that, Professor Reynolds was very surprised.
In itself, Meltan was already extremely strong; if it could evolve, one would think it should have done so long ago.
"Could it be that Meltan's evolution requires a special method?"
Professor Reynolds looked at Ethan, remembering his identity as a Pokémon Professor specialized in evolution.
"Yes. Meltan's evolution is a little special. When the time comes for its evolution, I'd like to ask you to help record the data."
Ethan nodded and smiled as he extended the invitation to Professor Reynolds.
Since he had already decided to evolve Meltan, naturally there was no longer much point in continuing to hide it.
When the time came to use Melmetal, the secret of its evolution could no longer be kept.
Instead of waiting for the two professors to discover it on their own, it was better to speak about it directly and allow both of them to observe Meltan's evolution process.
That also served as a sign of the trust Ethan had in them. Besides, as perhaps the only evolution of Meltan in the entire world, it constituted extraordinarily valuable observation material.
On the other hand, as the only Mythical Pokémon capable of evolving, Meltan's evolution would surely be different from that of any other Pokémon. Perhaps they could even discover some secrets related to legendary Pokémon.
"Really? That would truly be wonderful."
Professor Reynolds immediately answered with joy.
As a scholar specialized in Steel-type Pokémon, and with a Pokémon like Meltan, of which only a single specimen had been discovered in the entire world, she naturally felt immense curiosity.
After speaking a little more with Professor Reynolds, Ethan stored all the Steel-type resources present and began preparing Meltan's evolution.
At the same time, Professor Reynolds also went to make her own preparations to study Meltan's evolution.
When he returned to his room, Ethan took out Meltan and also the evolution plan he had previously prepared for it.
According to Ethan's initial idea, he wanted to have Meltan absorb a large amount of Steel-type energy and, immediately afterward, use the move Substitute to create several battle doubles equivalent to itself. After that, the original Meltan would absorb those "Meltan," thus completing its final evolution.
Now, in addition, he had obtained three extra Meltan nuts. That would allow it, when Meltan's energy reached the critical point of evolution, to absorb the three nuts and thus culminate its definitive transformation.
However, besides ensuring that Meltan could complete the evolution, Ethan still had many more things to think about.
For example, the changes Meltan would undergo after evolving into Melmetal.
One of the most important points was that Meltan's Magnet Pull ability, upon evolving into Melmetal, would transform into the Iron Fist ability.
For a Meltan whose tactical core had always revolved around the development of its Magnet Pull ability, that would have an enormous impact.
What Ethan had to do now was find a way to guarantee that, even after Meltan evolved, it would still retain its mastery of magnetism and, with that, most of its current abilities.
On that point, Ethan had been reflecting for a very long time.
Once it lost the Magnet Pull ability, the only way for Meltan to continue handling magnetism would be to rely on its own ability to generate magnetism from electricity.
In that aspect, Meltan, who could already use electromagnetism to levitate magnetically, had a very solid foundation, although reaching a level comparable to its former Magnet Pull ability would still be extremely difficult.
Because of that, after thinking it over again and again, Ethan decided to focus on electromagnetism, wanting Meltan to further develop the move Thunder Wave in order to fully exploit its electromagnetic properties.
In addition, the Electromagnetic Cannon, Magnetic Levitation, and magnetic field control were also abilities intimately related to electromagnetism.
Although Melmetal could not directly use those three moves, it could begin from the move Thunder Wave to master electromagnetic power and thus imitate similar effects.
For Meltan, which already mastered the conversion of electricity into magnetism and was also a Mythical Pokémon, that was something completely possible.
Those were Ethan's ideas based on Meltan's abilities and moves.
On the other hand, if he wanted to rely on external elements to achieve a capacity similar to magnetic control, Meltan could also absorb a large amount of magnetic minerals to reproduce an effect similar to the Magnet Pull ability.
Besides that, Ethan also planned to act on Meltan's evolution environment itself, having it evolve in a place with a special magnetic field.
Among Pokémon, Magneton evolved into Magnezone precisely thanks to a special magnetic field environment. The same was true for Nosepass and Charjabug.
From that, it could clearly be seen that a special magnetic environment had enormous importance in the evolution of certain Pokémon.
If Meltan also managed to evolve within a special magnetic environment, perhaps that would allow it to preserve its former magnetic ability to a certain extent, as well as make Meltan perceive magnetism better and be able to master it.
(End of chapter)