The most important reason Gary had asked for Drilbur and Sandile was simple.
Excadrill and Krookodile were both Pokémon with three Abilities.
Excadrill's three Abilities were Sand Rush, Sand Force, and Mold Breaker.
The first two had to be triggered under Sandstorm weather, but that wasn't a high requirement at all. As long as Sandstorm was up, Sand Rush and Sand Force would activate together. Sand Rush would massively boost Excadrill's speed, Sand Force would strengthen its attacks, and Mold Breaker would let it ignore the opponent's Ability.
With all three working together, who could really compete with it?
On top of that, Excadrill itself had two STAB types—Ground and Steel—and both of those types benefited from Sand Force.
Originally, Gary hadn't been particularly interested in Excadrill. But after obtaining the Ability Expansion Stone, any Pokémon with three good Abilities naturally caught his attention.
Krookodile was the same.
It also had three Abilities. Intimidate didn't need to be explained; once enhanced, it would definitely be an S-tier Ability. Moxie was also excellent, and even though Gary hadn't enhanced it yet, he was sure it wouldn't be bad after strengthening.
The only less useful Ability was Anger Point, Krookodile's Hidden Ability.
That one required the opponent to land a critical hit in order to trigger. No matter how much it was enhanced, if the opponent didn't land a critical hit, then the Ability was basically the same as not having one at all.
So if he had to compare Excadrill and Krookodile, Excadrill was still a little better.
Still, that depended entirely on whether Terran's family breeding house actually had Drilbur.
"I have both Drilbur and Sandile in my family's breeding house," Terran said. "But I can't guarantee their potential."
"Can you take me to see them?" Gary asked.
"Of course. Come with us this afternoon. Stay for lunch first," Terran said.
"Sorry to trouble you."
Since Terran was inviting him to stay and eat, Gary naturally wasn't going to refuse. It wouldn't waste much time anyway.
Because of the Peat Block in Gary's hand, Terran became extremely enthusiastic in entertaining him. He called his wife to help prepare food, and he also cooked personally. Together they prepared a very generous lunch for Gary.
Gary felt slightly embarrassed.
Although he now knew that Terran's breeding house did have Drilbur and Sandile, he still had no idea about their potential. If their potential was too low, then Gary wasn't going to make the trade.
The Peat Block rewarded by the system could help an Ursaring evolve into Ursaluna and even raise its potential by one tier. If he traded something like that away for Drilbur or Sandile with poor potential, it would be a serious loss.
So Gary's minimum standard for both Drilbur and Sandile was Quasi-Elite potential. Anything lower than that, and he couldn't justify the trade.
After lunch, Terran and Yuko took Gary to their family breeding house.
The breeding house was built on a patch of sandy land outside Silvercrown Town. This sandy area had been left barren after the disaster twenty years ago, when the vegetation around Crown City withered away and some of the land gradually desertified.
Although the area had improved a lot since then, one stretch of land remained almost completely barren. Back then, Terran's father had bought this useless plot of sandy land cheaply, and it happened to be very suitable for raising Ground-type Pokémon. Over time, it became the family breeding house.
The setup was quite simple.
Because the place was already naturally sandy, all they really had to do was fence off the area and allow the Pokémon to move around freely inside.
As soon as Gary arrived, he saw several Hippowdon, a few Gligar, and some Numel. He also spotted two Sandile.
[Lv.17 Sandile ♂ / Elite-tier]
[Lv.15 Sandile ♀ / Gym-tier]
Unfortunately, neither of the two Sandile met Gary's standards.
"Dad, I'm back!" Terran shouted.
A little while later, an old man with a gray beard and a yellow breeder's uniform came out of the house.
This was Terran's father—the previous Gym Leader of Silvercrown Gym. His name was Granson. He had already been retired for several years and now managed the family breeding house.
"Grandpa!"
Yuko immediately ran over to him excitedly.
Seeing his granddaughter, Granson naturally looked happy. He patted Yuko's head affectionately and then looked at Gary.
"This young man is...?"
"Dad, his name is Gary. He's a Trainer from the Kanto Region." Terran then explained the situation regarding the Peat Block and the possible trade.
"Oh! So Ursaluna evolves using a Peat Block?" Granson looked surprised after hearing this. He knew of Ursaluna, but he hadn't known its actual evolution method. The research community had long believed that Ursaluna evolved from Ursaring, but no one had discovered the exact trigger, so it had remained a mystery.
"It should be true," Terran said.
Granson's understanding of Ursaluna was still based on older information, and he wasn't particularly familiar with the latest theories about its evolution.
"Alright. Wait a moment, I'll call out the Drilbur and Sandile."
After saying that, Granson went back inside the house and came out holding a bell. He walked over to the sandy area where the Pokémon were moving around and rang it.
The sound of the bell spread across the breeding house.
Not long after, Pokémon started emerging from the sand.
There were more Sandile than Gary had seen at first—three additional ones surfaced. But after checking them, Gary found that their potential still wasn't good. All three only had Gym-tier potential.
So Gary immediately gave up on Sandile and turned his attention to Drilbur.
Soon he found two.
[Lv.10 Drilbur ♂ / Quasi Elite-tier]
[Lv.12 Drilbur ♀ / Gym-tier]
Looking at the data of the two Drilbur, Gary shook his head slightly.
Their potential still didn't meet his standard.
"Gary, are you not satisfied?" Terran asked.
He had been paying close attention to Gary's expression. Seeing him shake his head, it was obvious that Gary wasn't pleased with the Drilbur and Sandile.
"Mr. Terran's Sandile and Drilbur are both decent. They're good enough for Gym battles. But for my standards, they're still a little lacking," Gary said honestly.
"Oh? You can actually judge the potential of Sandile and Drilbur just by looking at them?" Granson said in surprise.
Granson had taken care of these Pokémon personally for years, so he naturally knew their potential very well. Gary had only observed them briefly, yet he had still accurately judged their aptitude.
That kind of eyesight was not ordinary.
Gary was too lazy to explain how he knew and simply said, "Mr. Terran, if this is all the stock you have, then this trade won't happen."
Terran and Yuko were both surprised. They hadn't expected Gary to look down on even the Pokémon raised in their family's breeding house.
"Are you sure you don't want to take a closer look?" Yuko asked.
"No. Pokémon with only Gym-tier potential don't meet my breeding standards. I don't want to waste too many resources on them," Gary said.
Yuko was a little disappointed, but she couldn't really say anything. She had seen many Trainers in the past, and most of them were much less demanding than Gary. To them, a Pokémon with Gym-tier potential was already more than good enough to raise.