Lying on the bed as he read through the information provided by the Dragon Clan, Silas wore a pained expression.
"What am I supposed to do? Raising Dragon-type Pokémon is so expensive and I have two pseudo-legendaries. This is going to be rough."
His fingers flew across his phone as he sent the same message to more than a dozen different group chats.
The pain of one person was immense, but if it was shared with friends, it wouldn't hurt quite as much. Who said humans weren't Pokémon? Wasn't this basically the Normal-type move Pain Split in action?
Unfortunately, his friends in the group chats had no intention of sharing his "pain."
"Haha. Hope you go bankrupt."
That was Yezo's warm greeting.
"That expensive? It doesn't seem too bad."
That was Silph Hiroki's honest opinion, accompanied by a cheerful smiling emoji.
"Show me tomorrow."
That, of course, was Brock.
"You're all just jealous. Completely and utterly jealous," Silas replied without the slightest concern. "Once my little treasures fully realize their potential, you'll all be waiting to get beaten into the ground by me."
Although his friends dearly wanted to beat up the smug fool, they couldn't deny he had a point.
Who knew why the Dragon Clan had actually allowed him to obtain not one, but two Dragon-type Pokémon and both were pseudo-legendaries.
His ordinary Pidgeot and Blaziken were already absurdly powerful under his training. If he raised two Dragon-type pseudo-legendaries to the same standard.
Wouldn't they end up steamrolling practically everyone?
"Speaking of which, one is Garchomp. What's the other one?"
Someone finally asked the question everyone had been wondering.
"Secret~"
The moment Silas sent those two words, every friend still awake clenched their fists.
That jerk!
Even for people of their backgrounds, the existence of the Dreepy line remained something of a secret.
After all, none of them were yet qualified to participate in the Dragon Clan's selection process for regional pseudo-legendaries.
Still, once the Galar region's Pokémon were officially revealed in the future, most of them would probably figure out what Silas's second pseudo-legendary was.
None of them were fools.
Right now, however they only wanted to beat Silas up.
"I'll take the lead. Once I finish this mission and come back."
As the only person who could barely compete with Silas in hand-to-hand combat, Shiba volunteered to organize the operation.
Under his coordination, several of their friends quickly gathered in a new group chat to secretly plan their revenge.
Completely unaware of what they were doing, Silas simply noticed that everyone had suddenly stopped talking.
"Well it's already late. Makes sense."
After saying goodbye, he happily closed every chat window.
"Dree..."
Having finished exploring every interesting thing in the room, Dreepy floated behind Vulpix and hopped onto the bed.
"Vulpix! Vulpix!"
Vulpix proudly stood upright on its hind legs before pointing toward Silas's right side with one forepaw.
Dreepy blinked its large eyes and obediently nodded.
With a flick of its tail, it curled itself into a ball exactly where Vulpix had indicated.
Satisfied, Vulpix wagged its tails before curling up beside Silas's left arm.
Silas couldn't help laughing at the little fox's behavior. It had recruited a new subordinate incredibly quickly.
Even more surprisingly.
Dreepy had accepted the arrangement without any hesitation.
Could this be some sort of instinctive dominance based on typing?
Feeling the cool air coming from both sides, Silas contentedly narrowed his eyes.
With both an Ice-type Pokémon and a Ghost-type Pokémon beside him.
Who needed an air conditioner?
The Next Morning
Blackthorn City Pokémon Restaurant
Freshly awake, Silas yawned while enthusiastically recounting yesterday's heroic adventure in Dragon's Den to Brock.
Brock rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"So basically you stalled long enough for the guardian Dragonite to arrive."
He effortlessly identified the key point and summarized the entire story.
Cough! Cough!
Silas nearly choked on his food before hurriedly washing it down with a drink.
"Actually even if Dragonite hadn't shown up, I still could've held them off."
His voice lacked confidence.
Those two experimental Pokémon had not been easy opponents.
Fortunately, the two Pokémon poachers hadn't released them immediately because they couldn't fully control them.
Otherwise silas felt he would have chosen to run as far away as possible.
Ignoring Silas's obvious bragging, Brock continued.
"Duraludon and the Ghost Dragon, Dragapult. As expected of Blackthorn City's Dragon's Den. That's truly incredible."
His admiration was completely sincere.
Pewter Gym also possessed a special area dedicated to raising Rock-type Pokémon.
Otherwise, it wouldn't qualify as one of Kanto's eight official Gyms.
However, that facility had been entirely man-made. It couldn't compare with a natural sanctuary like Dragon's Den.
Forget making money, simply breaking even on annual maintenance costs would already be considered a success.
"If you're really short on money..."
Brock casually continued while eating.
"I can lend you some."
Silas looked up with a grin.
"Don't worry. If I really run into financial trouble, I definitely won't be polite about asking."
"But for now, everything's still fine."
"As long as the Bug Catching Net business keeps operating normally, there shouldn't be any problems."
"That's good."
Brock nodded calmly.
"So when are you leaving Blackthorn City?"
"After the Gible Egg hatches?"
"Yeah."
"I'd rather not carry a pseudo-legendary Egg everywhere."
"I'll stay here and wait. About two weeks."
Silas didn't consider two weeks particularly long.
Besides, he needed that time to purchase supplies from the Dragon Clan and prepare detailed training plans for both Gible and Dreepy.
The two continued chatting over breakfast.
"Big Brother Silas!"
A young boy's excited voice suddenly called from behind them.
Silas turned around.
"Oh! Paul!"
He waved with a smile.
Standing beside Paul, as always, was Reggie, whose expression looked just as unpleasant as ever.
The fact that his younger brother idolized his greatest rival was something Reggie still found difficult to accept.
Speaking of which, Reggie had also qualified for the Rising Dragon Trial.
Unfortunately, he hadn't even managed to pass the Trial of Three Dragons, failing at the third stage.
Paul had been the one to tell Silas that.
When he mentioned it, his face had been filled with undisguised disappointment toward his older brother.
"Big Brother Silas!"
"What Pokémon did you catch in Dragon's Den? Was it a Dratini?"
Paul asked excitedly.
"It was a Gible."
Silas gently patted Paul's head as he answered.
Paul's eyes immediately lit up.
As someone from Sinnoh. Although he liked Dragonite very much.
Garchomp was undoubtedly the true symbol of strength in his heart.
"Really? Really?"
"Can I see it?" he pleaded eagerly.
Reggie nearly wanted to drag his embarrassing younger brother away on the spot.
This was simply too humiliating.
Naturally, Silas wasn't about to refuse.
"It's still inside its Egg."
"Once it hatches, I'll let you see it."
"How much longer?"
"About two weeks."
"Ah..."
Paul's face immediately fell.
"But my brother said we're leaving Blackthorn City tomorrow."
Like Silas, Reggie's goal was this year's Silver Conference.
That meant collecting Gym Badges was an urgent priority, so there was no reason for him to stay in Blackthorn City for long.
"I see."
Silas thought for a moment before grinning.
"Then I'll show it to you at the Silver Conference, when I'm beating your brother."
"Okay! Okay!"
Paul nodded enthusiastically.
"Big Brother! What are you doing? Let go of me!"
Unable to endure any longer, Reggie darkened his face, grabbed Paul, and dragged him out of the restaurant.
Silas and Brock exchanged a glance before bursting into laughter.
Over the next two weeks, both of them worked toward their own goals in Blackthorn City.
Every day, Brock trained his shiny Magikarp in the rivers around Blackthorn while also improving the teamwork between himself and Ninetales.
According to Silas's observations, the golden Magikarp's Level had indeed increased.
However, it was still a very long way from evolving into Gyarados.
Whether Brock would become the first Rock-type Trainer to own a Red Gyarados remained to be seen.
If he actually succeeded, it would certainly be an astonishing sight.
As for Silas rather than gains, his biggest achievement over the past two weeks could only be described as expenses.
Without exaggeration, he was practically broke now.
Aside from a few hundred thousand Poké Dollars he had left for traveling expenses, every last cent had been spent on Pokémon training materials.
Not just for his two pseudo-legendaries.
But for all of his partners as well.
The biggest reason was that Clair was simply far too persuasive.
Even now, just thinking about it made Silas want to put on a mask of pain.
How could a Gym Leader who was already at least Elite Level be so talented at doing business?
Couldn't Trainers focus on actual training instead?
Even so, the discounts Clair and the Dragon Clan had offered him were absolutely genuine.
Otherwise, someone as careful with money as Silas would never have spent so much to fill three entire Space Backpacks with supplies.
Fortunately, the Space Backpacks had been complimentary gifts from the Dragon Clan.
Otherwise, Silas seriously doubted whether even his remaining few hundred thousand Poké Dollars would have survived.
He might even have needed to borrow money from Brock.
"Dree..."
Dreepy lazily lay on top of Silas's head, basking in the warm sunlight.
Silas silently sighed.
After two weeks of raising it, he had finally realized just how long it took to train Dragon-type Pokémon.
Despite pouring an unbelievable amount of resources into it, Dreepy had only managed to rise from Level 10 to Level 12 over the course of fourteen days.
Even ignoring the fact that leveling became progressively slower, if it continued advancing at one Level every seven days..
It would only barely reach around Level 50 after an entire year.
Realistically, considering the increasing difficulty, Silas estimated it would probably take at least a year and a half.
For comparison in a year and a half, Blaziken and his other partners could very well reach the peak of Elite Level, if not beyond.
And that estimate already assumed Dreepy possessed Champion-level potential and received Silas's full financial support.
Without those advantages the required time could easily double or even triple.
The most frustrating part was that gaining two Levels hadn't noticeably increased Dreepy's strength at all.
At most it had gone from being able to defeat two Magikarp to defeating three.
Its combat ability was still practically nonexistent.
Even increasing that by fifty percent didn't make much difference.
"Piplup."
Nearby, Prinplup diligently practiced manipulating Water-type energy.
Although two weeks wasn't particularly long, it was the perfect growth period for a Pokémon that had only recently evolved.
Putting its Level aside, its control over water had become several times more refined than before evolving.
Creating a shield from water had already become effortless.
Recently, Silas had been considering ways to train Prinplup to compress Aura Sphere-like Water Pulse attacks.
Simply put he wanted Water Pulse to function similarly to Aura Sphere.
After all, fundamentally speaking, pulse-based moves shared many similarities.
Boom!
A loud explosion echoed through the area.
Silas wiped river water from his face.
The only problem was that Water Pulse remained extremely unstable.
It exploded far too easily.
"It's okay. Keep trying."
"You've already improved compared to yesterday."
Silas encouraged.
Prinplup nodded seriously before gathering Water-type energy once more.
"Speaking of which..."
Silas gently stroked the deep-blue Gible Egg resting in his arms.
"You should be coming out soon too."
During these two weeks, Professor Elm had repeatedly urged him to head to the Pokémon Marine Research Institute.
Apparently, a minor incident had occurred there that required Silas's assistance.
The Trainers responsible for guarding the facility simply weren't strong enough.
The Pokémon inside the Egg seemed to sense Silas's thoughts.
The entire Egg suddenly trembled slightly.
The next instant brilliant white light enveloped Silas completely.
"Pidgeot!"
"Blaziken!"
"Gallade!"
The partners training nearby all turned toward the dazzling light.
They knew the little one everyone had been waiting nearly two weeks for was finally about to hatch.
"Waaah!"
A cry resembling that of a newborn baby echoed through the area.
As the white light gradually faded.
An extremely tiny shark-like Pokémon appeared in Silas's arms.
Its body was primarily dark blue, while its lower jaw and belly were crimson red.
Light-blue stripes decorated both the fin on its back and the protrusions on its head.
A massive dorsal fin rose proudly from its head.
Inside its enormous mouth nearly half the size of its body, rows of razor-sharp teeth gleamed faintly.
Before Silas could even react.
The newborn Gible suddenly opened its mouth and bit down firmly on his hand.
"Ow! Oww! That hurts!"
Silas cried out instantly.
Although the newborn Gible was tiny, its mouth was still large enough to clamp firmly around his hand.
He could clearly feel its razor-sharp teeth scraping against his skin.
"Waaah~"
Completely unaware of what it had done, Gible happily grinned at Silas with a wide smile.
Silas didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"You little rascal..."
"You've certainly given me one heck of a surprise."
[Gible
Category: Land Shark Pokémon
Type: Dragon / Ground
Height: 0.34 m (Species average: 0.7 m)
Weight: 12.8 kg (Species average: 20.5 kg)
Ability: Sand Veil (Boosts evasiveness during a sandstorm.)
Hidden Ability: Rough Skin (Inflicts damage on opponents that make direct contact.)
Moves: ...
..
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