Chapter 36: Evolution! A Double Blessing!
"Boss Sakaki, should I lead the troops and conquer the Dragonite Kingdom in one fell swoop?" Ares asked, his gaze burning as he looked at Sakaki, his eyes filled with a fiery battle lust. He looked like a true warmonger.
"Don't underestimate the Dragonite Kingdom. Besides, we need to handle our own internal affairs first," Sakaki said, shaking his head dismissively.
The Dragonite Kingdom had begun to command beasts long before the Silph Kingdom had. Moreover, his own Kingdom of the Land had been greatly weakened by the civil war five years ago, and there were still remnants of the old regime hiding among the populace. Sakaki was still in the process of hunting these people down. He didn't want a bunch of traitors stabbing him in the back or leaking intelligence to the enemy when a major war broke out.
In terms of military strength, the Kingdom of the Land was certainly not stronger than the Dragonite Kingdom. The only thing he was sure of was that his own personal strength was definitely greater than that of the Dragonite Kingdom's queen. After all, he had heard that she had only started raising her own Pokémon a little over a month ago.
"Heh heh," Sakaki couldn't help but chuckle at the thought.
She had started raising Pokémon nearly twenty years later than him. On what grounds could she possibly contend with him? Sakaki even dared to boast that if he gave Liz another five years, he could still crush her with ease. Such was the confidence of the King of the Land!
"Alright. Then what about Mt. Silver?"
"Send more teams in. Just maintain the friction with the Dragonite Kingdom, but don't let a major conflict break out."
"Yes, sir."
"You may leave."
Watching Ares depart, Sakaki stood up and walked to the window. The sky outside was a hazy gray, and specks of white light were falling from the dark clouds.
"Beedrill," he said. "It's snowing."
...
Dragonite Kingdom, Primal Beast Academy.
Today seemed to be another unremarkable day. But only Will knew that this day was anything but ordinary.
A month had passed since the day Liz had decided to conquer the Kingdom of the Land. During this month, his leveling speed had dropped sharply, his progress becoming extremely slow. Especially after reaching Lv. 30, he had gone through at least thirty or forty battles but still hadn't leveled up. It was as if he had hit a bottleneck.
Will couldn't figure out the reason for the sudden drop in speed. From his perspective, his daily routine hadn't changed at all, and his little tool, Iris, had always been available. In the end, he could only attribute it to his body "accumulating" the energy required for evolution.
"I haven't molted in three days. It should be today."
Will lay quietly in his small lake. Iris had a lot of lessons today and wasn't by his side. Otherwise, with her personality, she would have been following him around like a shadow.
Ever since he had stopped molting three days ago, he sensed that he was on the verge of evolving. And the feeling of internal heat he remembered from before his evolution into a Beedrill had suddenly appeared when he woke up this morning.
"The water temperature has dropped quite a bit."
Suddenly, Will noticed that the lake's temperature seemed to have fallen. He curiously surfaced and poked his head out to look. Unfortunately, with the tree canopy above, he couldn't see what the weather was like.
Will crawled out of the lake, slithered to the plains outside the small forest, and looked up at the sky, momentarily lost in a daze.
"It's snowing," Will said, a puff of white, cold air gently escaping his mouth. It was the first time he had seen snow since coming to this world.
Suddenly, a shiver ran through Will's body. As a human, he quite liked snowy days, but as a Dragon-type Pokémon, his body did not seem to share the sentiment.
"Ah~"
Will's mind decided to fight against his body's instincts. Not only did he not retreat into the lake, but he instead opened his mouth wide and ate the snowflakes falling from the sky.
After about five seconds.
"Pfft, what am I doing?" Will was amused by his own actions and couldn't help but shake his head.
But the next moment, his eyes widened. He felt an icy sensation in his throat, as if a large mass of cold air had suddenly appeared there. However, before he could even spit out the cold air, his body began to transform.
A pure white light began to radiate from all over his body. Then, the very shape of his body began to change. Not only that, but most crucially, his body, now covered in white light, began to float into the air.
"Ying!!!"
A beautiful, song-like cry echoed across the sky. An elegant, magnificent, and even somewhat divine-looking Pokémon appeared in the heavens.
"I've finally evolved! Ahaha... pfft-pfft-pfft!!"
Realizing what had happened, Will was overcome with ecstasy. But halfway through his laugh, the cold energy gathered in his throat suddenly erupted. A spray of frosty white mist, filled with tiny ice crystals, shot from his mouth, instantly coating the grass below with a thin layer of frost.
"This is..." Will didn't think twice and immediately opened his personal status screen.
[Dragonair]
Potential: Purple
Level: 31
Type: Dragon
Ability: Shed Skin
Height: 9m
Weight: 38kg
Moves: Focus Energy (Inherited), Wrap, Leer, Twister, Thunder Wave, Dragon Tail, Agility, Slam, Icy Wind
"Not only did I evolve, but I also learned a new Ice-type move! I'm practically a god!"
In that moment, Will was happier than he had ever been. Over two long months! No one but him knew how frustratingly he had passed these last two months! Today, that small lake could no longer confine him. The world was vast, and he could go anywhere!
"Ying-ying-ying~~"
Will happily used the power within him to manipulate the weather, soaring freely through the sky and letting out a series of joyous cries. A Dragonair flies by using this very power to command the wind.
After about two minutes of joyful frolicking, Will gradually came to a stop.
"Wow, I'm huge."
He stared blankly at the body data on his status screen. The Pokédex stated that a Dragonair's length and weight were 4 meters and 16.5 kilograms, respectively. He was more than double that; it was simply absurd. At this length, he could completely rival that giant Onix from the plains.
"That's right, I have to go show Liz! She'll be so happy," Will thought, and immediately flew out of the Primal Beast Academy.
Now that he had the ability to fly, he could go wherever he wanted. So what if he was clumsy on the ground? He could fly!
Along the way, Will didn't fly very high, so many people witnessed his flight. When the two scholars at the academy stared blankly as he flew out, their minds couldn't even process it for a moment.
"Do we have a beast like that at our academy?"
"I don't know, it's my first time seeing it. But... don't you think its form and color look a lot like Lord Lan?"
"Could it be..."
"Lord Lan has evolved!!!"
The two scholars' eyes widened. When they looked up again, Will's figure had already disappeared. Thinking back on the beautiful form they had just seen, they were filled with an indescribable shock.
"Her Majesty Liz has such a good eye."
"Indeed. So cute as a baby, and still so beautiful after evolving. And... it looks so powerful."
The two scholars' voices and eyes were filled with envy. But they didn't take any particular action. There was no need. They knew that the news of Lord Lan's evolution, and his beautiful new form, would soon spread throughout the entire Dragonite Kingdom.
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