Caster had barely stepped into the ground-floor lobby when a young man rushed over, visibly excited.
"You're the one who..."
Caster took a few tactical steps back and quickly asked who the stranger was.
"It's me, Old Fish! I'm one of your fans! I even sent you a Great Ball gift during the stream where Pichu evolved into Pikachu..."
The young man hurriedly introduced himself, then shook his head in disbelief. "I never imagined you'd come to Seven Island.
If I'd known, I would've messaged you in advance and shown you around properly. My name's Pierce. This island is my home turf."
Caster exhaled with quiet relief, then gave the young man a sidelong glance. "I've been fishing around Seven Island lately, and I've been posting the videos too. You haven't been watching?"
Streaming was Caster's side gig, but it was his main source of income, so no matter where he went, he recorded and uploaded footage to share his life with his audience.
That said, anything touching on other people's privacy he kept off the channel. The Dragon Holy Land back in Celadon City, and Lorelei's place this time around, would never appear in any of his videos.
"Sorry, sorry! I've been going all-out on the Battle Tower lately, barely had time to scroll through anything!"
Pierce scratched the back of his head and thumped his chest. "But I promise, I'll catch up tonight. Triple-tap and leave a comment, guaranteed."
After chatting with Pierce for a bit, the other trainers nearby began drifting over one by one.
When they learned that Caster was a streamer with over a million followers, they were visibly stunned, and most made a mental note to look him up the moment they got back.
"A big streamer? Come on, I'm just a small-timer scraping by," Caster said, waving the title off with a modest smile.
Caster was perfectly humble about it, but Pierce couldn't help boasting on his behalf, chest puffed with secondhand pride.
"And get this, Old Fish only got his starter Pokémon this year. Brand new trainer. But in less than half a year, he's already collected five badges..."
The moment they heard he was a new trainer, the group was struck speechless all over again.
The shock, if anything, hit harder than learning he was a famous streamer.
Among those gathered, even the youngest had been training for two and a half years before barely making it to the Regional Conference. Some were already middle-aged.
Stacked against Caster, every one of them suddenly felt the ground shift beneath their feet.
"Mr. Fish, you're a genuine prodigy!"
"By the way, Mr. Fish, if you don't mind my asking, who did you train under? That Toxic Shellder used was unusually potent. It must have learned some kind of secret technique, right?"
After a stretch of silence, someone finally couldn't hold back.
Before Caster could answer, Pierce jumped in again.
"Hah, trained under someone? Old Fish is completely self-made. His starter was a Magikarp, of all things! I've watched him climb every step of the way, and I'd bet my life on it: he had zero connections, zero shortcuts. Every bit of it is pure talent."
A ripple of admiration moved through the group.
Caster's mouth twitched slightly. He was starting to think Pierce had missed his true calling as a hype man.
But honestly? Being hyped up like this felt pretty good.
Caster could almost feel himself going light on his feet, like he might just float off the ground.
From there, Pierce more or less appointed himself Caster's spokesperson, running through every highlight of his journey while the others listened with wide eyes and eager expressions.
The story of Caster turning Lorelei down sparked the most visible reaction among the men present, who looked at him with a kind of reverence that bordered on worship.
Male friendships have simple foundations. With Pierce as the bridge, Caster had formed an easy camaraderie with the Battle Tower crowd, and they all agreed to meet up every afternoon to spar.
At the end of it, as Caster made to leave, Pierce called after him with characteristic warmth.
"Old Fish, where are you staying? Don't tell me you're still camping out in the wild. If you don't mind a bit of humble hospitality, you're welcome at my place for a couple of nights. I'll take good care of you."
The local fans really were something else in their enthusiasm.
Not that it mattered, since Caster had Lorelei's villa to come home to. There was no reason to put a fan out.
He waved the offer off quickly. "No, no, I'm good! Thanks though."
He said goodbye to everyone and made his way back to his usual secluded spot along the shore.
"Come on out, Shellder!"
He released Shellder, then reached into his fishing space with a thought and produced an Iron, which he offered for Shellder to consume.
"Beep!"
The moment Shellder swallowed the Iron, it felt the hardness of its shell surging rapidly, almost as though it had just used Withdraw.
While Shellder was still basking in that feeling, Caster reached back in and brought out the Thousand-Year Ice.
The instant the Thousand-Year Ice appeared, the temperature around them seemed to plummet by at least ten degrees. It was like being dropped without warning into the depths of an icehouse.
"Hwa!"
Though Shellder was a Water-type, its evolved form would gain the Ice typing as well, so its affinity for ice ran exceptionally deep.
Faced with a sacred Ice-type relic like the Thousand-Year Ice, it couldn't contain itself, tongue lolling out, eyes soft and imploring, doing its very best impression of an eager pet angling for a treat.
"This Thousand-Year Ice is yours. Take your time absorbing it properly. Next time, we're going to clear the Battle Tower."
Caster rested a hand on Shellder's shell, his expression warm and indulgent.
He placed the Thousand-Year Ice directly onto Shellder's outstretched tongue.
"Hwa!"
With a strange cry, Shellder slurped its tongue back in, and a look of deep, blissful surrender spread across its face.
It could feel it clearly: the concentrated ice-attribute energy locked inside the Thousand-Year Ice was releasing itself in slow, measured waves, steadily raising both the intensity and purity of the ice energy within its body.
Perhaps because the energy was too overwhelming to absorb all at once, a thick layer of frost began forming inside Shellder, spreading outward until even the surface of its shell was encased in ice.
Alarmed, Shellder immediately dialed back its absorption rate.
Before long, the frost coating its body dissolved away, and Shellder settled back to normal.
"Beep-beep, hwa!"
Shellder opened its eyes again, its face bright with delight.
This Thousand-Year Ice was, without question, an extraordinary Ice-type treasure.
It had spent its whole life in Icefall Cave and never once encountered anything like it.
If something like this had shown up in the cave, it would have sparked an all-out brawl among the Pokémon there.
And yet, all it took was a single lick.
Let the world call it a sycophant. It knew better.
What was wrong with being eager to please?
Iron. Energy Orb. TMs. Iron again. Thousand-Year Ice.
By staying devoted, it, Shellder, had everything it could ever want.
In this moment, Shellder was profoundly grateful it had chosen to follow Caster.
In less than a day, it had already received so many wonderful things.
It didn't even dare imagine what treasures might still be waiting down the road.
The good days were only just beginning.
Caster recalled Shellder and left Seven Island, riding Gyarados back to Four Island.
When he found Lorelei again, she was stretched out in the courtyard of her home, soaking up the sun with a thoroughly unhurried air.
"How far did you get in the Battle Tower this time?" she asked as soon as she saw him.
"Stopped at the fourth floor."
"The fourth floor?"
Lorelei looked genuinely surprised.
By her estimate, Caster's team was worth more than that. With Gyarados and Pikachu, they should have cleared at least five floors, with six being possible depending on matchups.
But apparently not.
"It was me who cleared it," Caster said with a small smile, then explained, "Shellder and I went all-out and barely scraped past the fourth-floor guardian. Beyond that, Shellder would almost certainly lose, so we called it there."
"Wait." Lorelei's eyes went wide. "You mean you used Shellder for all of it? Floor after floor, and you never switched to another Pokémon?"
Caster spread his hands. "That's right."
Lorelei immediately sat up straight, her expression one of pure disbelief.
Shellder was talented, no question. But it hadn't received proper training, had grown wild in its early stages, its potential left largely untapped, which meant its raw strength had a natural ceiling.
And Caster had only caught it, what, less than a day ago?
"Does this guy have some kind of special ability, like the Viridian power, that boosts his Pokémon's combat strength in real time?"
Lorelei studied him with barely concealed suspicion, as if she could see through him if she just looked hard enough.