By a small river in Viridian Forest.
"Come out! Arbok, Charmander, Magikarp!" Luke released his Pokémon.
As for Salamence, unless it was hungry, it was usually soaring in the sky. Luke didn't bother with it, as it wouldn't go too far anyway and there weren't any Pokémon that could threaten it.
"I plan to stay here for a while, mainly to train Charmander and Magikarp. Arbok, you can move around freely," Luke said to the three Pokémon.
"Arrrbookk," Arbok nodded, turned around and went into the forest, probably to bully wild Pokémon.
"Magikarp, you mainly need to train your body's strength, so you can evolve into Gyarados quickly!" Luke said to Magikarp in the river.
"Karp," Magikarp responded, then kept using Splash on the surface of the river.
"Charmander, you need to focus on learning new moves quickly! Keep using Ember on those rocks over there, then practice Scratch." Luke instructed Charmander.
"Charr," Charmander nodded and ran over there to practice.
And so, Luke's group stayed here for a while.
****
Half a Month Later
"Alright, stop now! Charmeleon, Gyarados, it's time for us to set off!" Luke called out to stop the two Pokémon that were training.
That's right, in half a month they had both evolved and their strength had increased a lot.
Magikarp had evolved into Gyarados under the system's nutritious food and a lot of training, its body color changing from gold to red!
Gyarados (Shiny)
Length: 15 meters
Weight: 400 kg
Type: Water, Flying
Ability: Intimidate: When entering battle or gaining this ability, lowers the Attack of all opponents in range.
Strength: Peak Gym Leader
Potential: Elite Four
Moves: Splash, Bounce, Crunch, Iron Tail, Twister, Dragon Tail, Dragon Rage, Dragon Pulse, Aqua Tail, Surf, Water Pulse, Ice Beam, Ice Fang.
Its body is twice the size of a normal Gyarados, with strength at the peak gym leader level, just needing a trigger to enter the near-Elite Four level.
As for Charmander, after swallowing Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire Seed, it evolved into Charmeleon, its body and flame color changing from red to gold.
Charmeleon
Height: 1.7 meters
Weight: 65 kg
Type: Fire
Ability: Blaze: When HP is less than 1/3, the power of Fire-type moves increases by 1.5 times! Recovers 1/6 HP at the end of each turn.
Hidden Ability: Solar Power: Special Attack increases to 1.5 times under harsh sunlight weather.
Strength: Gym Leader
Potential: Champion
Moves: Smokescreen, Dragon Rage, Dragon Claw, Iron Tail, Slash, Double Team, Flamethrower, Fire Spin, Heat Wave, Fire Pledge, Fire Punch, Thunder Punch.
Growing to about the same height as Luke, its abilities also underwent an enhancement.
Most importantly, its potential was awakened to the Champion level by the sacred fire seed!
****
Pewter City
Pewter City is a quiet town built among rugged mountains and rocks, known as the city between steep mountains.
The gym in Pewter City is a Rock-type gym, using all Rock-type Pokémon.
The current gym leader is the squinty-eyed Brock, a part-time nanny and a huge simp.
The former gym leader was his father, Flint.
Actually, "Deadbeat" would be more appropriate—a good-for-nothing who abandoned his family!
After resting for a night at the Pokémon Center, Luke arrived at the Rock Gym the next morning.
Ringing the doorbell, he entered the dim hall.
Brock the simp was sitting on the other side, trying to look cool.
The lights came on, revealing a spacious battle arena.
"A challenger? We use two Pokémon in our gym battles. Is that alright?" Brock said.
"No problem! My name is Luke! Nice to meet you!"
Seriously, why act so mysterious? You pussy-seeking man.
"Now begins the Pewter Gym challenge! Challenger Luke versus Gym Leader Brock, the rules are two-on-two. The Gym Leader cannot switch Pokémon mid-battle, but the challenger has no such restriction! The Gym Leader will send out their Pokémon first."
"Let the battle begin!"
A referee who looked about 70-80% like Brock stepped out from the side—he must be one of Brock's many younger siblings.
System: Obtained the Badge! Reward: 10 Pokémon Egg Fragments.
Pokémon Egg Fragment:Collect 100 pieces to synthesize a Pokémon egg. The species is completely random—it could be a Caterpie, or it could be a Rayquaza!
'There's this kind of mission? This is great!' Luke got excited.
"Go, Geodude!" Brock threw out his Poké Ball first.
Geodude Type: Rock, Ground
Ability: Rock Head: Does not receive recoil damage from its own moves.
Strength: Regular
"Go, Charmeleon! This battle is up to you!"
"Roar!" Charmeleon appeared on the field full of energy.
"Charmeleon, greet them with Dragon Rage!"
"Roar!" Charmeleon's mouth shot out a shockwave towards Geodude.
"Geodude, dodge the attack with Rollout!" Though surprised by Luke's Charmeleon, Brock quickly reacted.
"Geo" Geodude curled up its body and started rolling across the field, avoiding the Dragon Rage attack.
"Good! Keep up the Rollout!" Brock continued to command.
The longer Rollout continues, the more powerful it becomes.
This move of Brock's works well against rookie, but against Luke...
"Don't let it keep rolling, charge in and use Iron Tail to knock it away!" Luke immediately ordered.
Charmeleon rushed towards Geodude, its tail gleaming with a metallic sheen and swung at the Geodude that couldn't change direction in time.
"Bang!" Geodude crashed into the gym wall, then fell down helplessly, unable to battle anymore.
"So strong!" Brock's brother who was refereeing exclaimed.
"Geodude is unable to battle, Gym Leader please send out your next Pokémon!"
Given the difference in strength, type advantage and impact recoil, it's normal for Geodude to be unable to battle.
"It seems I underestimated you. The Pokémon I'm sending out next is much stronger than Geodude, You'd better be careful" Brock praised.
Luke nodded.
"Go, Onix!" This time Brock sent out the giant Onix.
Onix Type: Rock, Ground
Ability: Sturdy: Cannot be knocked out by a single hit. One-hit KO moves have no effect.
Strength: Ace
"Charmeleon, Flamethrower!" Seeing the opponent appear, Luke immediately attacked.
"Onix, use Rock Throw!" Brock decided to trade damage, after all Rock resists Fire, so he wasn't afraid.
"Maintain Flamethrower, leave your position and dodge the Rock Throw!" Luke had trained for this aspect, so its not a problem for him.
Dodging the Rock Throw, Charmeleon blasted Onix's face with flames.
Although it only did half damage, it was still enough to hurt.
'The coordination between trainer and Pokémon is quite good' Brock nodded to himself.
The duty of a Gym Leader isn't to defeat challengers, but to guide rookies into excellent trainers.
"Onix, Dig!"
Onix's body plunged down, disappearing into the ground leaving only a dark hole.
"Charmeleon, sense the vibrations under your feet, then jump with all your might!" Luke instructed the slightly panicked Charmeleon.
Charmeleon, sensing the ground with closed eyes suddenly opened them and jump up into the air, just barely avoiding Onix's attack from below.
"Good! Use Iron Tail on Onix's head!" Luke praised Charmeleon before giving the next command.
Onix, having just emerged from underground, was looking around for Charmeleon.
"Onix, watch out above!" Brock hurriedly warned.
But it was too late.
Using the momentum of its fall, Charmeleon's Iron Tail struck hard on Onix's head just as it looked up.
"BANG!" Onix was immediately knocked to the ground.
"Press the advantage, keep using Iron Tail, aim for the head!" Luke well understood the principle of striking while the iron is hot.
"Onix, pull yourself together, quickly dodge!" Brock urged.
Unfortunately for Onix, its head still reeling from the attack and he was shaking it dizzily.
Immediately another Iron Tail struck its head.
Onix let out a cry of pain, fell to the ground and fainted.
Brock watched with a twitching mouth.
Did they have to be so brutal? What if Onix was beaten into becoming an indiot?
"Onix is unable to battle! Therefore, the challenger Luke wins the match!" the referee announced.
"You're very talented! Here, this is proof of defeating our gym!" Brock walked over with a gray badge.
"Thank you!" Luke took the badge and placed it in a transparent box, then said goodbye to Brock and left.