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The Kanto starters, Pikachu, and Gardevoir—these five Pokémon currently form Ash's first-tier team. However, with only five Pokémon, the last one to become a main force is—Lucario!
Originally, this spot should have belonged to Pidgeot, but Lucario, during the last 'Heaven-Defying' training, forcefully elevated its strength to the Superior Level, directly putting it on par with Pidgeot!
And in these nearly two months, it has further elevated its strength to the peak Superior Level. Although Pidgeot is also at the peak Superior Level, if the two were to battle, Pidgeot would actually lose to Lucario, as there is no type advantage between them, yet Lucario completely overwhelms Pidgeot in terms of ability values across the board.
Pidgeot's only advantage is its ability to fly, but Lucario has Aura Lock-On. If these two were to battle, the former would be completely countered by the latter!
No matter how fast Pidgeot flies, once it is Lock-On by Aura, it is effectively finished. Only Psychic Pokémon can temporarily evade Lucario's Lock-On through their Psychic powers. However, if Lucario is prepared, even Psychic Pokémon cannot evade its aim.
Just like when Mewtwo battled Lucario back then.
Now, in terms of combat ability, Lucario is undoubtedly the main Pokémon, and Pidgeot can only retreat to the second line, becoming the leader of the second team.
Excluding Gengar and Aerodactyl, which are not used much, Ash also has Muk, Tauros, Butterfree, Kingler, plus Primeape, which is on the verge of evolution.
This constitutes Ash's second-tier team.
Aerodactyl and Gengar belong to an exceptional category because, in terms of level, they are the highest in the entire team. Aerodactyl was at the Gym Leader Level when first caught, but now it has already reached the Elite level... That's right, Aerodactyl is already an Elite!
Although it is only an Elite at the initial stage, it is still an Elite Level!
As for Gengar, he has reached the peak Elite level. According to him, if he had a worthy opponent to battle, he would likely be able to advance to the Champion-level. He is only a little bit of pressure away from becoming a Champion.
These two Pokémon might not be the first or second in combat power within the team, but their levels are the highest and second highest in the team.
Besides them, Ash does not have a third Elite Level Pokémon.
Ash also plans to field these two Elite Level Pokémon at the Indigo Plateau Conference. After all, this is an annual conference, and having gone through countless hardships to reach this competition stage, Ash naturally intends to let all his Pokémon participate and show their faces.
It wouldn't make sense not to send them out just because their levels are high, would it? That would be too unfair to them. Is it their fault that their levels are high?
And to be honest, facing the people at the Indigo Plateau Conference, it actually makes no difference whether Aerodactyl is used or not. Even if Charizard and the others are on the field, it would still be a complete rout.
Gym Leader Level existences are already beyond what they can handle, let alone Gym Leader Level Pokémon that can battle across tiers. So, sending out Elite Level Pokémon is not an issue; it's a rout either way, isn't it?
Among the second-tier Pokémon, Pidgeot naturally serves as the team leader. Butterfree, as one of Ash's veteran Pokémon, despite Ash's best efforts to help it improve, is limited by the inherent talent and potential of Bug-type Pokémon.
It's just that Ash's Butterfree is exceptionally talented among all Butterfree, otherwise, it might not even have reached the Superior Level by now.
Butterfree's level is mid-Superior, which is quite a significant gap compared to Pidgeot. The difference of two minor levels within the Superior tier would take Butterfree about a month to catch up, so their progress is quite far apart.
It's important to note that Butterfree's level was originally higher than Pidgeot's, but now it has been surpassed. This is the drawback of Bug-type Pokémon: fast improvement in the early stages, but slow in the later stages.
But then again, if those bug-catching youths knew about a mid-Superior level Butterfree, they would probably kneel and beg Ash to reveal how he trained it.
How strong or powerful rare Pokémon like Charizard and Blastoise can become has nothing to do with bug-catching youths, but Butterfree, they really do have!
Besides Butterfree, they have many other Bug-type Pokémon. If they could discover the secret to improving Bug-type Pokémon, that would be the moment for the vast number of bug-catching youths to rise!
Unfortunately, the vast number of bug-catching youths don't know that there's a bug-rearing expert in Pallet Town.
When Muk was first caught, it was only at the initial Advanced stage. However, its talent is very high; this high talent isn't focused on its six-dimensional abilities, but rather on its stench.
The fouler the scent emitted by a Pokémon like Muk, the stronger its inherent aptitude!
This cannot be reflected in the six-dimensional abilities.
Ash's Muk can be said to be unprecedentedly smelly! Professor Oak stated that he has encountered countless Grimer and Muk in his life, but none have been as smelly as Ash's Muk!
This is enough to show how high Ash's Muk's talent is. After Ash caught it, Ash almost only trained Muk when he returned to Pallet Town. Normally, Ash would just teleport Muk over, check its condition, customize a training plan, and then teleport it back.
Ash also admits that he has indeed been quite negligent with Muk. After catching it, he rarely looked after it or visited it, and he hasn't even used it in a single battle.
However, Muk didn't mind at all. Although its affection for Ash isn't profound, it still regards Ash as its Trainer and is willing to obey Ash's commands. Besides Ash, its affection for Professor Oak is also very deep.
Whenever he sees Professor Oak, he has to pounce on him and play around. Although Professor Oak also dislikes the smell of Muk, he doesn't reject Muk. After a while, he got used to the smell.
So, what is the current level of Muk, which was only at the initial Advanced stage when it was first caught?
Elite peak!
This level increase has far exceeded Ash's imagination. Muk was caught before reaching Fuchsia City, which means after he had traveled for about three months.
For about a month after catching it, he didn't personally train Muk. It wasn't until a month and a half after returning to Pallet Town that he started personally training Muk.
But besides Muk, Ash has over a dozen other Pokémon to train, plus he has to give Blastoise special training. Under these circumstances, for Muk to reach Elite peak, isn't that astonishing?
In terms of improvement speed, Muk is among the top in the entire team. Although its actual strength might not be ranked high within the team, if it continues to improve at this rate, Muk might just contend for the leadership position of the second team in Ash's roster.
Besides Muk, Primeape, who has been consistently mentored by Gengar, is now also at the peak Superior level. He should actually be able to reach the Superior level by now, but Primeape chose not to raise his level.
Because he is currently at a very critical moment: another type of power is being born within his body!
Knowing that Primeape had the potential for a higher evolution, Ash had always intentionally nurtured it in that direction. The reason for having Gengar train Primeape was precisely this—to use a Ghost-type to guide the birth of Ghost-type energy within Primeape's body.
Now the results are also good. The Ghost-type power within Primeape's body is slowly growing. As long as it can grow into a complete Ghost-type, that will be the time for Primeape to evolve!
But Ash has always felt very strange: why is Primeape's evolution so troublesome?
Primeape isn't the only Pokémon that gains an additional type after evolution. Without looking too far, consider Charizard and Lucario: one gained the Flying type after evolution, and the other gained the Steel type.
Both of these Pokémon gained new types after evolution, but they were nowhere near as troublesome as Primeape, which requires cultivating the power of a specific type within itself before it can evolve.
Regarding this question, Ash asked the big shots in the group, and Champion Ash gave Ash an explanation that he vaguely understood: Primeape's evolution is not allowed in this world.
The name of Primeape after evolution is Annihilape, and Annihilape was only discovered when the Paldea region appeared. Currently, the Paldea region has not appeared in Ash's world at all, which means that the rules for Primeape's evolution are temporarily not allowed.
For Primeape to evolve now is akin to defying the heavens, which is why it appears so difficult.
To put it bluntly, even if the Ghost type is born, Primeape may not necessarily be able to evolve. This feeling of being on the verge of success is the most difficult time.
But if Primeape can evolve, the benefits will definitely be enormous, because it will be the first Primeape in the world to evolve into Annihilape, and it will be an evolution that defies the heavens.
The more difficult the evolution, the greater the benefits. The most obvious is that after evolution, Primeape's level increase will absolutely not be like that of ordinary Pokémon, which only increase by one minor level. In addition, Primeape's aptitude will also receive a blessing from the heavens due to being the world's only evolutionary form, thereby gaining an improvement.
Ash doesn't know what a blessing from the heavens is, but he understands that the level will greatly increase after evolution.
So, after returning, Ash's goal in training Primeape was to have Primeape put in its full effort and successfully evolve.
For this, he even poured the power to raise its level into the Ghost-type attribute. The Ghost-type attribute was indeed growing daily, but no matter how much it improved, it was always just a little short of forming completely!
This is far from Ash's original prediction that it would only be a little bit short of evolving. Ash recently also plans to have Primeape break through to the Superior level first, and the matter of evolution can be discussed later.
Just as the big shots in the group said, Primeape's evolution is an act against the heavens, and it won't be easy to achieve. Moreover, the probability of failure is not small, so let's put evolution aside for now; improving its level is more important.
Finally, there's the situation with Tauros and Kingler. Tauros's situation is similar to Muk's; Ash never used him in battle after catching him, and didn't even train him much.
It was only after he returned to Pallet Town that he began to personally train Tauros, and their bond quickly deepened.
When it comes to treating Pokémon, Ash is absolutely beyond reproach. However, he has too many Pokémon and can't use cloning techniques, so he naturally can't take care of them all. Thus, Tauros only progressed from initial Advanced level when caught to mid-Superior level, which is still less of an improvement compared to Muk, and can only be described as average.
Lastly, there's Krabby. This was the last Pokémon Ash caught, and when it was caught, it was only at the mid-Normal level. However, Krabby's dedication to training is second only to Charizard and Gardevoir among all the Pokémon.
Charizard and Gardevoir are known as the team's overachievers. Don't let Pikachu's higher level fool you; in reality, Pikachu's training time and intensity are not as high as those two Pokémon.
Even Krabby's training intensity and time are stronger than Pikachu's!
It's not that Pikachu isn't hardworking; it's that they are too hardworking!
To use Pikachu's own words—who can out-compete them!
He just needs to follow his normal rhythm. If he were to compete as hard as them, he would probably be so tired he'd question his existence as a mouse.
However, Krabby, in order to prove itself, to repay Ash's kindness of recognition, and to make up for its inherent talent deficiencies, trained with extreme effort, ranking among the top three in the team.
This also led to Krabby evolving into Kingler within these short two months!
Its level also reached initial Superior, which is a jump of a whole major tier and two minor tiers!
Although Kingler's level in the team is not high, and its ability values are not among the top, Ash believes that he will showcase his style at the Indigo Plateau Conference and make the world remember his name!
...After the roll call, Ash had no intention of continuing training. He thought about relaxing for the next two days, as he would be departing for Indigo Plateau tomorrow. During this time, he would let the Pokémon move freely, and he would just play around with them.
It's not good to be too stressed.
"Ash, the research results for that black dumbbell are out!" Just as Ash was about to dismiss them, Professor Oak suddenly arrived in the backyard with the black dumbbell.
Gengar casually glanced at the black dumbbell and then looked away, but the next second, he suddenly fixed his gaze on the dumbbell in Professor Oak's hand, then instantly floated to Professor Oak's side: "Ash, is this dumbbell yours?!"
"Uh... yeah, what's wrong?"
"Give this to me, it's of great use to me!"
"You can, but what's your use for it?"
"Heh, haven't you been troubled about how to bring forth the Ghost-type attribute within Primeape? If you use this thing, and your Primeape's Ghost-type attribute still doesn't emerge, I'll chop off my head and let you kick it like a ball!"