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After confirming Venipede's current strength, Sato put away all the Pokemon that belonged to his Tyler identity—except for Kecleon—into multi-space PokeBalls, then entered Slateport Woods with Venipede.
The advantage of multi-space PokeBalls was that, once inside, the Pokemon quickly entered a sleep-like state. In this passive state, their energy consumption slowed dramatically, so feeding them only once every few days posed no problem.
And when released, the Pokemon woke immediately from that sleep, without suffering any negative effects in battle.
Along the way, Sato had Venipede issue constant provocation signals to lure wild Pokemon. Very soon, wild Pokemon with levels similar to Venipede began appearing one after another.
A single trick can conquer the world.
With her Defense Curl and Rollout honed to perfection, Venipede only needed to start rolling smoothly—so long as the opponent couldn't fly, even wild Pokemon five or six levels higher were no match for her.
"Front attack—Rollout straight into them!"
Seeing three Ursaring rushing out from the bushes ahead, Sato immediately commanded the Venipede who was already rolling at high speed in circles across the ground.
Hearing the command, Venipede made a sharp turn and crashed directly toward the incoming Ursaring. By now, thanks to her Speed Boost ability, her velocity had already reached its peak, and Rollout's power had risen to a terrifying level.
The three charging Ursaring didn't even have time to react before Venipede smashed into them like bowling pins, sending them flying and knocking them out instantly.
"Good job. Take a break—here, eat these."
Satisfied with her clean victory, Sato praised her and handed her some water and gem-grade PokeBlocks to replenish her energy.
Including these three Ursaring, Venipede had already defeated fifteen wild Pokemon of similar level, raising her own level to 29—and she even learned Agility on her own.
And then, the evolution Sato had been waiting for finally arrived. After Venipede rested a moment following the battle, her body shone with blinding evolutionary light.
Moments later, a completely curled-up Wheel Ball—now a Whirlipede—appeared before Sato.
Compared with the larval Venipede stage, Whirlipede's cocoon form was far larger, with a diameter of at least 1.5 meters, her body now covered in steel-hard spiked armor.
Naturally, after evolving into Whirlipede, the sheer pressure she exerted while using Rollout far surpassed that of her Venipede form.
But there was a drawback. Her weight had multiplied more than tenfold, causing her initial movement speed to become drastically slower—giving opponents openings to strike her down before she could accelerate.
Still, the advantages were clear. Beyond powering up Rollout, Whirlipede's defenses had skyrocketed. Unless the opponent used a super-effective move, defeating her in one hit was nearly impossible.
The Whirlipede stage was when Venipede-line Pokemon accumulated energy. Even though Venipede had stored a lot of energy already, it was best to remain at this stage for a while.
Thus, after Whirlipede evolved, Sato gave her a small Everstone to wear, preventing sudden evolution upon leveling.
The rest of the afternoon, Sato led Whirlipede through the outer areas of Slateport Woods, challenging every wild Pokemon they encountered. Aside from flying types, Whirlipede was undefeated under Sato's command.
After over forty battles, Sato finally identified the weaknesses of Whirlipede—now level 32.
The Defense Curl + Rollout strategy seemed sharp, but it had major limitations. If the opponent could levitate or fly, the attack became useless. It was also extremely dependent on terrain; only wide, flat areas allowed Whirlipede to reach full potential. Narrow or obstacle-filled terrain greatly weakened her attacks.
To compensate for these weaknesses, Sato had Whirlipede fully embrace her Poison-type nature—using poison as a primary method of combat.
Among Poison-type Pokemon, the Venipede evolutionary line's toxins were among the strongest. Wild Pokemon with average resistance would almost certainly become poisoned after even the slightest contact.
And Whirlipede's anatomy was ideal for this. Whether Venipede, Whirlipede, or Scolipede, they all used the hardened antennae on their heads and tails while rolling.
These antennae were the perfect tools for injecting venom.
So Sato had Whirlipede attempt adding Toxic to her Rollout.
Results proved excellent—Whirlipede easily coated her two pairs of antennae with the Toxic move.
From that point on, the wild Pokemon fighting her were doomed. If she struck them even once, even if they weren't knocked out immediately, they would fall into deadly bad poisoning.
The Venipede line's toxins were no joke. Wild Pokemon struck by them would quickly suffer paralysis, then headaches, nausea, vomiting—eventually life-threatening symptoms.
Once the enemy was badly poisoned and lacked a way to detox, Whirlipede could rampage freely.
At that stage, she could kite them with high-speed Rollout until the poison finished them off—or simply smash into them once their weakened bodies could no longer resist.
As Sato continued training Whirlipede, he gradually wandered deeper into Slateport Woods. Unlike the rarely traveled outskirts, the deeper regions held many observers lurking in the shadows.
Clearly, word of Altaria's egg had spread, drawing all sorts of people—including well-known poaching groups.
Sure enough, just after Sato commanded Whirlipede to defeat a wild Zangoose, a group of uniformed poachers appeared and one of them immediately captured the fallen Zangoose with a PokeBall right in front of him.
"Black Cloud Poaching Group…"
Seeing the black-cloud emblem embroidered on their uniform sleeves, Sato narrowed his eyes and spoke quietly.
"Hehehe~ Kid, looks like you're not clueless after all. Not just anyone gets to compete for an Altaria egg. This is your only warning—get out of the deeper area of Slateport Woods immediately. Otherwise… we'll kill you."
The member who captured the Zangoose grinned as he issued the threat, his expression cold as he stared Sato down.