After saying goodbye to the Clefairy, Ash and the others walked a bit farther through the cave and finally emerged outside.
Originally, they'd planned to cross over Mt. Moon—a journey that, by their estimate, would take at least three days. But the cave the Clefairy had led them through turned out to be a shortcut. Once they came out, the path was already leading downhill. Considering they'd just been at Mt. Moon's mid-slope, this was incredible.
At this pace, they figured they'd be past Mt. Moon by around noon tomorrow. From there, just a little more walking would bring them to Cerulean City.
No question about it—the Clefairy had given them far too much. Not only had they shown them the shortcut cave, they'd also led Ash to capture an extraordinary Pokémon, handed them three top-grade Moon Stones, and now saved them half their travel time. By tomorrow noon, they'd already be in Cerulean City.
All of this was thanks to the Clefairy.
"Come to think of it… Clefairy probably didn't plan on taking us to their ritual site at first, right? I mean, sure, they seemed to like Ash and weren't too shy around strangers, but that was still the place where their whole clan held a mysterious ceremony. No way they'd just invite outsiders in like that. It really feels like we only got in thanks to those three idiots."
Sitting by the campfire, Misty recalled their first encounter with the Clefairy, as well as the three guys who'd left such a bad impression.
Once they thought it over, it hit them—yeah, the reason they got all these benefits was because of those three troublemakers.
If they hadn't tried to capture Clefairy, then Clefairy probably wouldn't have brought them into the prayer site. And without that, everything they gained today would've been gone.
So in a way… those three did a good thing?
"Sometimes, all the scheming in the world doesn't beat a fool's lucky blunder. Those three are the bad-and-dumb type. They went through all that trouble to do something nasty, but in the end, they only helped us." Brock chuckled.
Holding a top-grade Moon Stone of his own, Brock was in a great mood. Even if he had no immediate use for it, he could always sell it. With millions in profit, he wouldn't have to worry about funding his Breeder studies for a long while.
"Still, bad guys are bad guys," Misty said firmly. "Just because they accidentally did some good doesn't make them any less rotten." Her pale hand picked up a piece of Pokémon food and offered it to Ralts, who Ash had let out earlier.
To win over the little one, Misty pulled out every trick in the book—feeding her, cracking jokes to make her laugh, and showering her with affection. Slowly but surely, the newborn's pure little heart warmed up to her.
Now, Misty could feed her and even touch her lightly without any resistance.
As for Brock… well, his earlier reckless move still had her wary of him. He was firmly kept at arm's length.
"Man, I wanna feed her too," Brock muttered enviously. The newly joined Ralts had instantly become the team's darling.
Pikachu had been knocked down a notch from his "team mascot" throne, but he didn't mind. He was a total Ralts fanboy himself.
Who wouldn't want to hold and pamper such a little sister?
Still, the one Ralts clung to most was, of course, Ash—her Trainer.
After some playtime with Ralts and picking up a few tips on raising Psychic-type Pokémon, the group slipped into their sleeping bags.
Pikachu and Ralts curled up on either side of Ash. Just like Pikachu, it seemed Ralts would be staying outside her ball permanently.
Ash looked asleep, but in truth, he was busy sharing his joy about his new Pokémon in the Chat Group.
…
[Newbie Ash: Seniors, seniors! I figured out what Chosen Radiance does!]
[Champion Ash: Oh? It's already activated? I've been wondering myself what a one-time S-rank ability could do.]
Even Champion Ash, one of the group's veterans, had never seen a one-time S-rank ability. It wasn't any ability he'd ever heard of among the members either. Naturally, he was curious—what exactly did "Chosen Radiance" do?
[Newbie Ash: The description said it would let me meet a super rare Pokémon within three days, with a high chance of capturing it. And today I really did—one that literally fell from the sky…]
Newbie Ash recounted the whole day to the group, from running into Team Rocket to obtaining the Moon Stones.
The surreal tale left everyone amazed.
[Aura Guardian Ash: As expected of a one-time S-rank ability… to actually make you encounter a one-in-a-million Pokémon. It's called Chosen Radiance, but it might as well be called "Heaven's Blessing for the Luckiest Bastard Alive."]
[Champion Ash: Your luck's off the charts. In terms of luck, you might be the strongest one in this group.]
[Newbie Ash: Heh, I never thought I'd be this lucky either. But hey, seniors—you mentioned before that S-rank aptitude has special qualities besides higher Stat caps. What exactly are they?]
[Champion Ash: I figured you wouldn't be catching an S-rank aptitude Pokémon so soon. Barely two weeks on your journey and you've already caught a full-S? Still, even now, the special qualities of S-rank aptitude are something you won't be using anytime soon.]
[Tactics Master Ash: Exactly. You don't need to worry about it for now. But since you asked, I'll tell you. Normally, a Pokémon's Tier progression depends on its aptitude—some rise faster, some slower. But unlike Stat caps, there's no hard ceiling.]
[Tactics Master Ash: There is, however, one exception. The Godly Domain. To break into Godly Domain, you need to meet a requirement: at Champion Peak, at least three Stats must have S-rank caps. Only then do you have a chance of advancing into the Godly Domain. That's the standard path.]
The Godly Domain stood at the pinnacle of the Pokémon world, unlike any other Tier. To even enter, you needed a ticket—and that ticket was S-rank aptitude.
Every other Tier could, in theory, be reached with enough time and effort. Even Champion. It was just a matter of years, maybe decades.
But if a Pokémon didn't reach Champion during its Peak, once age caught up and its body declined, the chance was gone. Pokémon lived long lives, but not forever.
Godly Domain was different. Put simply—if you didn't have at least three S-rank Stats, then no matter how long you lived, no matter how much effort you poured in, you could never reach that level.
That was the difference between gods and mortals.