This was the information that manifested in Salamence's body, and Cain observed it all clearly.
Although all of that was important, the first thing Cain focused on was the issue of quality.
A Pokémon's quality is the comprehensive manifestation of all its aspects, the most complete overall metric.
Salamence's original quality was Light Black. After absorbing not long ago the Dragon-type energy contained in Giratina's Reverse Scale, its quality had increased quite a bit. Although it failed to directly break through to Black, as long as it found a good opportunity, it was very likely that it could ascend to that level in one leap.
Cain had just been thinking that this would happen at the next opportunity, and he did not expect it to come so quickly. If Salamence was lucky this time and used all the Dragon-type energy from the shells to strengthen its internal draconic lineage, perhaps it really could ascend to Black quality!
With a feeling similar to opening a surprise box, Cain looked at the quality column in the data chart obtained after the system scan.
The color was much deeper; it was no longer that faint black from before, but a darker one, as if some kind of power were hidden within that color.
Black!
Cain's heart leaped: Salamence's quality had finally reached Black.
Only Black quality can be considered the true quality of true Legendary Pokémon with a divine office. From the very origin, possessing this quality means truly having the potential to become a Pokémon with a divine office.
As long as they encounter a sufficiently great opportunity, have the proper luck, and also improve their own abilities through effort, ordinary Pokémon can come to harbor the quality of a Legendary Pokémon with a divine office.
That Salamence managed to raise its quality to Black was, in Cain's eyes, closely related to the opportunities it had encountered, but it was undeniable that it was also tightly linked to its constant training.
Without that grueling training, it would not have reached its current strength nor been able to harbor so much Dragon-type energy.
Without that demanding training, it would not have developed such a powerful body, with enough potential to be exploited, nor would it have been able to withstand the transformation that so much energy imposed on its body.
This was the combined result of opportunity and Salamence's own effort.
Without effort, even if opportunity arrives, it cannot be seized. Only when one has the ability to grasp it can it be called an opportunity; otherwise, it is nothing more than watching without being able to do anything.
Although Salamence's quality reaching Black greatly surprised Cain...
In reality, what he cared about most were the changes in the patterns of its scales.
He did not know why, but Cain felt that those patterns on Salamence's scales were anything but simple.
Giratina also had similar patterns on its body, yet there were still certain differences.
What made Cain attach such importance to them was that he had never seen those special patterns on any other Salamence.
In fact, among all the Dragon-type Pokémon he had known, none displayed anything like it.
Not even Drake's Salamence, which was about to break through the second barrier of the Champion level, had shown anything like this.
"This shouldn't be a change caused solely by reaching a certain level of power. It's most likely due to its quality ascending to Black, or perhaps because, after absorbing the Dragon-type energy of those three Legendary Pokémon, it obtained a portion of their origin power," Cain thought silently.
Fortunately, the changes in the patterns of Salamence's scales could only be clearly distinguished if one got very close to observe them.
And even if someone did see them, it would not have much impact: how many people would be capable of understanding that information?
When the bodily tremor ended and Salamence's changes stopped, it felt a deep exhaustion throughout its body and only wanted to close its eyes and rest.
Cain knew this was due to a long period of high mental concentration, combined with the physical transformations that had caused a certain level of fatigue. After resting for a while, it would fully recover.
He took a special medicine from his pocket that helped a weakened body recover quickly and poured it directly into Salamence's mouth.
After watching it drink it down in one gulp, he patted it on the head, signaling it to rest well. Salamence lay directly on the ground and fell into a deep sleep.
With Salamence's matter resolved for the moment, only Tyranitar remained.
As it ate more and more of the shells, Tyranitar's teeth seemed to have adapted to that hardness; it chewed them with great ease, practically no different from eating diamonds.
However, its eating speed gradually slowed. At first, it stuffed large chunks into its mouth, crushed them, and swallowed them immediately; now it ate them as if they were potato chips, bite by bite.
At the same time, Tyranitar seemed to have entered an almost obsessive state: in its eyes, only those now energyless shells existed, extremely pure.
"Even a Legendary Pokémon like Dialga only has the shell of one egg to eat... and now Tyranitar is eating three at once... Among my Pokémon, probably only its body can withstand the impact of three divine-level shells," Cain thought, narrowing his eyes as he observed the changes in its statistics.
At first, Cain had considered letting Aggron help Tyranitar share those shells; after all, with Aggron's dentition, eating them would not be a problem.
But after thinking about it a bit, Cain felt that perhaps concentrating everything on a single Pokémon would allow the best effect to be obtained.
If it were split between two, both could greatly improve their strength, but...
What Cain needed now was not a balanced increase in overall power.
After absorbing Dialga's Steel-type energy and fully digesting it, Aggron should not be far from the first barrier of the Champion level.
With that level of strength, it fit perfectly into Cain's tactical system. Once it mega-evolved, it would directly become a mobile fortress before which all enemies would retreat.
What Cain needed now was the extreme power of a single Pokémon.
Both Darkrai and Gengar were already at the peak of the first barrier of the Champion level. What Cain needed was for one of them to break through the second barrier of the Champion level: an enormous qualitative change.
But regardless of whether it was Darkrai or Gengar, neither could digest those shells. Let alone digest them; they could not even ingest them.
(End of chapter)