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Sato ignored the people who came to test the waters and directly released Swampert and the rest of his Pokémon to stand guard like gatekeepers.
Seeing this, the expressions of those people instantly stiffened, and they backed away without daring to approach. In the end, one by one, they left with reluctant and unwilling looks.
Sato knew full well that these people were likely subordinates of either Ailes or Rin. Their purpose was simple—to probe him for information and see whether he had formed an alliance with Tomoki.
In truth, Sato was quite pleased that he had managed to forge a cooperative relationship with Tomoki. This was undoubtedly the best possible choice for him in the current ruin expedition.
He was already on bad terms with both Ailes and Rin—especially the latter, whose attempt to kill him had turned them into mortal enemies.
Thus, there was no way Sato could ever join forces with either of those two. He had originally planned to go it alone and form his own faction, but Tomoki's unexpected offer had surprised him.
No matter how he looked at it, this was shaping up to be a dream-like start to the ruins expedition. Being part of Tomoki's team gave him a high level of security. Moreover, after revealing his status as a novice psychic, he was certain to receive special protection from the group.
Unnoticed, the time had passed. It was now past six in the evening. The sun had set, the sky darkened, and soon the vast, cloudless sky was lit with a canopy of dazzling stars.
At the moment, Sato and Thomas had set up a makeshift camp near the oasis lake. They were carefully preparing dinner for their Pokémon and making thorough preparations for the final day of the island expedition.
The main dish for tonight's dinner was fish. The oasis was enormous and home to a special species of fish—not only large in size, but with incredibly tender, flavorful meat.
With the help of Gyarados and Swampert, they had hauled in several large baskets of fish. The grill at the camp was working overtime, and under the expert hands of Thomas—the team's professional barbecue chef—the mouthwatering aroma of grilled fish was wafting throughout the oasis.
Shiny Gyarados still preferred raw food, so it had already eaten its fill in the lake earlier. Now it was lying at the bottom of the lake, fast asleep, its loud snoring creating ripples that echoed out and kept the local aquatic Pokémon on edge.
Most of the delicious grilled fish ended up in the bellies of Swampert, Arcanine, and Flygon—the three biggest eaters of the group. The rest of the Pokémon had already eaten their fill and were now playing around joyfully.
Among them, Bulbasaur, the youngest and most energetic member of the team, was being doted on by her older "brothers and sisters." She was having a blast, laughing in delight, her sweet giggles ringing through the air.
This Bulbasaur, whom Sato had brought back from the secret garden, had not undergone any training yet. As a result, she was still only at level 8.
The reason Sato hadn't started training Bulbasaur was simple—she hadn't yet finished absorbing the blessing she received from the secret garden.
The gift she received was a drop of extremely rare Essence of Life—a treasured substance produced by the high Elite Four level Venusaur (level 83) after absorbing vast quantities of life energy from the garden. This drop greatly enhanced Bulbasaur's physical constitution and laid a solid foundation for her future growth.
That high Elite Four level Venusaur had specifically instructed Sato not to subject Bulbasaur to intense training until she had fully absorbed the essence. Sato had faithfully honored that promise.
The Essence of Life was the main material used to craft the precious item Life Orb. Typically, it only formed in places where life energy had gathered to extremely high concentrations.
Alternatively, aged normal Elite Four level Grass-type Pokémon could also create it by drawing in tremendous life energy from nature—but at a cost: the surrounding environment would suffer large-scale vegetation die-off and be unable to recover for some time, and the Pokémon itself would become severely weakened.
The Venusaur had been bold enough to create this drop only because of its immense power and because the secret garden's life energy far surpassed that of the outside world, ensuring it wouldn't become barren.
Of course, such forcibly condensed Essence of Life was nowhere near as potent as the kind that formed naturally over thousands of years. At most, it had only one-tenth of the effectiveness of a natural one.
Even so, thanks to this weakened version, Bulbasaur's body was constantly being nourished by life energy. Her constitution was continuously being refined and strengthened.
As a result, she was growing rapidly in size.
When Sato had first met Bulbasaur, she had been about the size of a volleyball. Yet within less than a week, she had grown to the size of a basketball.
Despite the size increase, Bulbasaur's speed hadn't decreased at all. In fact, her physical fitness had steadily improved alongside her growth.
Thanks to her Chlorophyll ability, she could even keep up with Arcanine for short bursts under sunlight.
Unless something unexpected happened, Sato planned to develop Bulbasaur into the team's tank—its MT (main tank) in fact. He believed she would eventually become an exceptional MT, and one with high mobility at that.
Soon, their happy dinner came to an end. The night deepened, and the oasis gradually fell into silence. All living creatures drifted into sleep.
By the time the clock struck past 2 AM, it was the dead of night.
And yet, Sato remained awake. He was still sitting in front of the campfire, which hadn't yet gone out.
He sat cross-legged, eyes half-closed like a meditating monk, completely motionless. Gentle waves of psychic energy occasionally pulsed from his body.
That's right—Sato hadn't gone to sleep because he was still engaged in meditation training. Ever since becoming a Beginner psychic, he had noticed a dramatic increase in his energy levels, as if his body brimmed with endless vitality.
His recovery rate had also improved several times over. Whereas he previously needed seven or eight hours of sleep to feel refreshed, now he only needed two or three.
Because his energy was so abundant, Sato found it difficult to fall asleep. With nothing else to do, he chose to settle into his first session of focused meditation since awakening his psychic abilities.
Unfortunately, his psychic aptitude was poor, and this being his first attempt, the results were less than ideal. He had great difficulty maintaining a deep meditative state, and even minor disturbances from the environment could snap him out of focus.
"Another failure... It's just too hard to sustain deep meditation. My efficiency is terrible. After nearly two hours, I only managed a single cycle of spiritual circulation—that's slower than the slowest case recorded in the book."
"As I thought, with my talent, I'll never develop my psychic strength quickly without external help. Becoming an intermediate psychic through meditation alone? I'd be old and gray before that ever happened."
After completing his first full spiritual cycle, Sato slowly exited his meditative state and opened his eyes with a bitter smile, clearly a bit disheartened.
"Come out now, friend. If you have something to say, how about facing me directly?"
Suddenly, Sato's expression changed. He turned his head sharply and used telepathy to address someone hiding in the shadow of a large tree about ten meters ahead.
He had no idea how this mysterious figure had managed it—but somehow, they had crept this close without alerting Crobat, who was on night watch.
If not for a stray ripple of psychic power he'd released that picked up on something odd, Sato might never have realized they were there until it was too late.
The person hidden in the shadows was clearly surprised that Sato had detected them. But since they'd been exposed, they made no further attempt to conceal themselves.
Suddenly, a pair of crimson eyes appeared within the shadow of the tree. A faint distortion rippled across the air, and the figure of a person dressed in dark night gear emerged from the darkness without warning.