The doors of Ecruteak Gym stood wide open to challengers from all directions.
Ever since Matsuba spread the news that there would be "no limit on the number of challengers to Ecruteak Gym," many Trainers without a full set of Badges had started gathering in Ecruteak City. Of course, most of them were rookies with no Badges at all, hoping to try their luck in the city.
But people who always rely on luck rarely succeed every time.
Ryuto had already posted the official Challenge rules in front of the Gym:
[If a challenger could defeat any one of the four Gym Trainees, they would qualify to face the Gym Leader Matsuba. Battles would be one-on-one, and both the Gym Trainees and Matsuba would be using only Ghost-type Pokémon.]
Matsuba set up the battlefields right next to the training grounds so he could step in at any moment. For this "special occasion", Matsuba had gone all out; he even temporarily hired two Pokémon doctors to station at Ecruteak Gym, ready to heal and restore the four's Pokémon at any time.
Gastly continued its special training to condense Shadow Ball. As for Ditto, Tetsuya had already sent it to Bell Tower to play "chase-and-defend" games with the Ghost-type Pokémon there.
On the first day, Tetsuya was still able to focus on his training. But from the second day onward, the number of people crowding into Ecruteak Gym grew larger and larger. Each of them had around ten battles scheduled per day.
Tetsuya didn't feel anything about it, these challengers weren't strong. They were either Bug Catchers[1] or Youngsters [2]who couldn't afford to properly raise their Pokémon, or Hikers [3]who picked it up halfway and knew nothing about Pokémon.
The Pokémon they used were mostly underdeveloped, with very limited move sets.
After a full week, each of the four had fought over seventy matches, with barely any losses. Fantina's Drifloon even evolved into Drifblim during battle.
Drifblim had the highest base "HP" -vitality- stat among Ghost-types. Combined with decent Speed and Special Attack, it was well-balanced in offense and defense. Its strength rose significantly.
That kept Fantina excited for days. Previously, she'd lost two matches, but ever since Drifblim evolved, she went undefeated.
Across over seventy battles, Gastly's most frequently used moves were Embargo, Shadow Ball, and Sludge Bomb. Both Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb had become noticeably elliptical in form when fired. The blast impact from their launches had also clearly increased.
The poisoning rate of Sludge Bomb also gradually rose with the increase in blast power. As long as it could rupture the opponent's skin, the poison would seep into their body, causing the Poison status. But when faced with tougher opponents with thick hides, poisoning became ineffective.
As its level rose, Gastly also learned Dream Eater. Unfortunately, it didn't enjoy using that move, so it ended up being abandoned. Gastly preferred the more direct method of draining the opponent's vitality.
Three more days passed. Influenced by Spiritomb's presence, Gastly also learned Dark Pulse during battle.
This was a move Gastly could naturally learn, not one acquired through a TM, so it wasn't too difficult to learn. Plus, having already learned the Dark-type move Embargo, Gastly had developed a certain familiarity with manipulating Dark-type energy.
Dark Pulse.
It emitted a wave of malevolent aura from within, sometimes causing the opponent to Flinch. It was a highly practical Special Attack move that paired well with just about anything. This type of AOE move was especially useful in the wild.
Ten days passed, and the heat around Gym challenges gradually cooled down. In those ten days, only one person managed to earn a Badge from Ecruteak Gym.
Naturally, the crowd drawn by the hype started to lose confidence, and the number of challengers dropped to about half of what it had been.
Gastly had already learned Dark Pulse. Though still not fully proficient with it, by standard move-learning metrics, Gastly should've evolved long ago. The fact that it hadn't was not only a matter of potential… it likely had to do with its current physical condition. After stimulating its Poison Core, its body had changed dramatically from before.
Evolution was one of the great mysteries of Pokémon. It was a sacred and solemn process. A major reason Pokémon were called "magical" was due to this very evolution.
For humans and most ordinary creatures, evolution could take tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years, adapting to environmental and ecological shifts. It was the survival of the fittest, only those suited to the environment would evolve and persist.
But for Pokémon, in addition to general evolutionary trends, there existed individualized evolution. This type of evolution didn't need tens of thousands of years. It occurred when a Pokémon accumulated enough battle experience and stored sufficient energy within its body, triggering physical and energetic mutation and reshaping.
Generally, when a Pokémon evolved, it grew in size and power. This was the result of interaction between the energy that triggered evolution and the internal physical mutation and reconstruction.
There had long been scholars and Professors researching Pokémon evolution. Many special forms of evolution remained undiscovered, and even item-based evolutions were still limited to examples like Vaporeon, Flareon, and Jolteon.
Take Vaporeon for example. Eevee absorbs the power of the Water Stone, and its body, infused with Water-type energy, undergoes transformation and mutates into Vaporeon.
The most prominent figure in evolutionary research was Professor Rowan from the Sinnoh region. Many unique forms of evolution were first studied and introduced by him in Sinnoh.
Tetsuya already knew all of this. In his previous life, he had hoped to use this knowledge to gain recognition from the League and qualify for League subsidies, which would've meant huge sums of money, far better than risking his life as a Pokémon Hunter.
He had once believed that evolutionary biology could change his destiny and had even taken steps toward that goal.
…But just as he submitted his first research report on Pokémon evolution, Professor Rowan filed a lawsuit against him.
It turned out Rowan had already written research manuscripts long before but hadn't yet published them. Under such circumstances, someone like Tetsuya -without connections or background- was easily labeled a thief of intellectual property.
Due to Professor Rowan's massive reputation and wide-reaching network of students and colleagues, no one was willing to believe Tetsuya. Even though there was no direct evidence proving plagiarism, he still received a formal warning.
So even if two people came up with the same research result at the same time, the one with greater fame would always be hailed as the rightful discoverer, while the other would be branded a copycat. And back then, Tetsuya had only been eleven years old. No one would believe a kid could have such academic insights.
That was reality… cold, harsh reality. And that event pushed Tetsuya even faster down the path of becoming a Pokémon Hunter.
'Professor Rowan, huh…'
In this life, if he ever felt like publishing a theory on evolution, he'd have to apologize in advance. If it hadn't been for Rowan in his past life, Tetsuya might never have been forced into such a difficult path.
[1] Trainer-type
[2] Trainer-type
[3] Trainer-type