[Breeder Ash: To sum it up—if you want a Pokémon to reach the Godly Domain, you need at least three Stats with S-rank caps. Then, at Champion Peak, you have to raise at least three Stats to S-rank. Only then do you qualify to advance into the Godly Domain.]
[Newbie Ash: Ugh… that sounds so complicated. My head's spinning.]
[Unlucky Ash: Of course it's complicated! That's the absolute Peak of the Pokémon world. If anyone could just waltz into that level, and every Trainer had a Pokémon with world-shattering power, the whole world would be chaos!]
[Champion Ash: Exactly. And there's more. Once you've got a Godly Domain Pokémon, you're basically on par with the First-tier Legendary Pokémon—the ones who themselves hold Godly Domain strength. If someone evil got their hands on a Godly Domain Pokémon, you can bet they'd go after Legendary Pokémon.]
[Champion Ash: Every First-tier Legendary Pokémon has its own Divinity. If too many of them were captured by villains, the world itself would collapse into ruin. That's why ordinary Pokémon almost never make it into the Godly Domain. It leaves the First-tier Legendaries with almost no natural enemies other than each other. Maybe it's just the world's way of protecting itself.]
The group's words left Newbie Ash half-understanding, half-confused. But one thing was clear—S-rank Stats were the absolute baseline requirement for reaching the Godly Domain. Without at least three, it was impossible.
In other words, the Godly Domain was directly tied to a Pokémon's Stat aptitude. Other Tiers didn't care much about aptitude, but this one did. If your Pokémon didn't have three or more S-rank Stats, they'd never reach it in their entire lifetime.
Of course, that had little to do with most people anyway.
Forget Godly Domain—barely anyone ever reached Champion, or even the Elite Four level. For ninety-nine percent of Trainers, the difference was meaningless.
[Newbie Ash: So… that means my Ralts already meets the basic condition for Godly Domain, right?]
[Champion Ash: Heh. Godly Domain is still a long, long way off for you. Take your time.]
[Unlucky Ash: Wait. Back up. What Ralts? Let me scroll up.]
…
[Unlucky Ash: WHAT THE HELL?! Damn it, newbie, you bastard! What kind of BS luck do you have?! A Shiny six-S Pokémon?! And not just any Pokémon—it's a Ralts?! I'm gonna puke!!]
Unlucky Ash had only just tuned into the chat, seeing talk about S-rank aptitude and the Godly Domain. He had no idea what actually happened.
Now that he scrolled up and read the chat log, his blood boiled hotter with every line.
How could anyone be that lucky?!
Sure, the one-time S-tier ability had played a huge role. But drawing that ability in the first place was part of Newbie Ash's insane luck too!
And that ability was only supposed to guarantee a rare Pokémon, right? Rare usually just meant species rarity. Catching a Shiny alone was already huge. But full-S aptitude?!
Normally, a six-S Pokémon was flat-out impossible. This wasn't just his opinion—it was true across countless Parallel Worlds. Not once had a naturally-born six-S Pokémon ever been recorded.
And yet this newbie, barely started on his journey, ran into one. And a Shiny at that. What kind of cosmic joke was this?!
[Newbie Ash: Ahem… anyway, I'll log off now, seniors. I'm gonna go practice some of those breeding techniques the Breeder seniors taught me. Bye~]
Seeing Unlucky Ash raging in the chat, Ash decisively logged off. It wasn't like anyone could crawl through the internet to punch him, but still—leaving someone to stew in their own fury felt weird.
…
Back in the real world, Ash cracked his eyes open just a slit to glance at the peacefully sleeping Ralts beside him. His heart swelled with awe. Thanks to the seniors, he now had a clearer grasp of just how rare this little one really was.
In terms of rarity, only a First-tier Legendary Pokémon could compare.
In terms of potential, she wasn't any weaker than the mightiest of Legendary Pokémon either.
Why had a Pokémon like this fallen from the sky to Mt. Moon?
And why in the form of a Pokémon Egg, one that instantly drained the massive Moon Stone's energy the moment it hatched?
If not for draining that stone, she might not have been born for who knows how long.
That was the veterans' guess, and it made sense. Otherwise, the Moon Stone wouldn't have flashed and then gone dull in an instant.
Still puzzling over the mystery of Ralts, Ash slowly drifted off to sleep.
…
Time flew. By the next morning, around eight, the group woke up, ate a light breakfast, and continued on their way. By just before two o'clock, they finally arrived in Cerulean City.
True to form, Ash spent the journey battling every Geodude, Diglett, Sandshrew, and Zubat he could find, steadily strengthening his Pokémon.
But once Pokémon reached the Advanced Tier, progress slowed. Butterfree still hadn't broken into Advanced—Primary. Pikachu was steadily holding his own at Advanced—Intermediate. Pidgeotto, at least, had climbed a level to Normal—Peak.
Ralts, though… she only knew three moves: Teleport, Tackle, and Confusion. Her aptitude was sky-high, but against the mostly Normal-tier Pokémon in Mt. Moon, she struggled a bit.
On top of that, she was just born. Ash didn't want to push her into battles yet. Instead, he let her practice meditation while traveling. For now, she was still stuck at Beginner—High.
The trip from Pewter City to Cerulean City was short—barely a day and a half. With so many side events on the way, it was no surprise his team hadn't advanced much.
But by the timeline of his journey, the battle at the Cerulean Gym would only pit him against its lowest difficulty setting anyway. Even without huge power-ups, his team should be more than enough.
After all, this time he had a type advantage—not a type disadvantage.
Upon reaching Cerulean City, the group first stopped by the Pokémon Center. After greeting his mom and Professor Oak and restoring his team's HP, Ash was ready to head to the Cerulean Gym.
But at that moment, Misty said she had something to take care of. And so, the ones heading to the Gym were just Ash and Brock.