Although Nathan had enough energy cubes, Grovyle couldn't last much longer in battle.
"Eevee~"
Just as Nathan was feeling troubled, Eevee jumped out of its Pokéball, standing determinedly in front of him.
"You want to battle too?"
Nathan looked at Eevee in surprise.
"I want to fight! You promised to help me grow stronger. You didn't let me battle last time—are you going to stop me again this time?"
Eevee spoke unhappily.
Nathan was momentarily stunned. This Eevee of his really was something special.
The last time there had been a large-scale Pokémon riot, and this Eevee was only level 17 at the time. Letting it fight in that chaos would have been too dangerous, so Nathan kept it out of battle.
But he didn't expect that Eevee would still be holding a grudge over that.
"Alright, alright. Last time the enemies were too strong and too many. You can go wild this time, okay?"
Nathan said helplessly.
However, the Mareep here were all around level 30. Nathan still felt uneasy.
"Ampharos, can you have your weaker offspring battle against my Eevee?"
Nathan walked up to the Ampharos and pointed at Eevee.
Ampharos looked at Eevee, then nodded.
But when it selected the weakest Mareep among the group, Nathan realized even the weakest was still level 22.
Even with that kind of level difference, Eevee didn't back down—in fact, its fighting spirit only grew stronger.
Pokeblocks were handed out one after another, and both Eevee and Grovyle rapidly gained experience.
It wasn't until both Pokémon were completely exhausted that Nathan ended the training session.
By then, Grovyle had reached level 34, while Eevee had only leveled up to 20.
"Geez… You little guy, why are you so different from your kind?"
Nathan looked at the utterly exhausted Eevee beside him and couldn't help but joke.
Eevee's unique ability could easily create fear in its heart.
Even humans, if they had that kind of ability—being able to sense danger in advance—might be so afraid that they wouldn't dare to leave their house.
By comparison, this Eevee had nerves of steel.
Nathan had watched the entire battle closely. Eevee had made full use of its ability.
Its "Anticipation" trait was a double-edged sword.
On one hand, it allowed Eevee to accurately sense incoming danger and avoid injury.
On the other hand, this very ability could cause Eevee to hesitate during fights due to fear of injury.
Yet, during the battle, Eevee had even exchanged hits twice—taking damage to deal damage.
This kind of tactic was something Nathan had only seen in human martial arts battles, but it was rare among Pokémon fights.
"Eevee..."
Eevee was clearly worn out from the battle and didn't feel like responding to Nathan.
Seeing Eevee's tired expression, Nathan didn't bother it any further and instead began searching for evolution stones.
…
Compared to Nathan's leisurely pace, Joe was having a much worse time.
He had originally entered the mystic realm to take down Nathan, but he hadn't even found him yet when he accidentally wandered into the territory of the realm's guardian.
A large group of Electabuzz surrounded him. In the chaos of the forced battle, Joe even lost his supplies.
Fortunately, the Electabuzz didn't chase him too far. Once Joe fled a certain distance, they stopped pursuing him.
"Damn it! Why is my luck so bad?!"
Joe looked irritably at the small backpack he had left.
Inside it were only a few essentials and his Pokéballs—he didn't even have a tent left for sleeping at night.
"Looks like I'll have to find someone and steal some supplies."
Joe said with a vicious look in his eyes.
He searched for half a day—from daylight to dusk—but luck was not on his side.
He only came across one group of people, and it happened to be a team of over ten people.
How was he supposed to rob them?
Left with no choice, he ate some dry rations and found a tree to sleep under.
But before he could fall asleep, a few elite-level Pokémon came out hunting.
Joe, who hadn't eaten well or slept properly, had to spend the whole night running away.
It wasn't until dawn that he finally managed to sleep.
…
Meanwhile, after feeding his Pokémon some pokeblocks in the morning, Nathan resumed his search for mega evolution stones.
As he was walking, he suddenly noticed someone lying beneath a tree up ahead.
He approached and saw that the person was still breathing but looked extremely disheveled.
"Tsk tsk, how does someone end up this messed up just entering a mystic realm?"
Nathan shook his head and sighed before turning to leave.
That person, of course, was none other than the just-fallen-asleep Joe.
He was so exhausted from everything that had happened the day before that he let his guard down entirely.
Had he woken up the moment Nathan arrived, he would've realized his target had delivered himself right to his doorstep.
But there are no "what ifs" in this world.
More than two hours after Nathan left, Joe finally regained some strength and opened his eyes to search for him—
—but he ended up going in the exact opposite direction.
…
After walking for a while, Nathan also encountered some Electabuzz.
Like with Joe, the Electabuzz attempted to drive Nathan away.
But how could Nathan leave so easily? This was a goldmine of experience points!
After offering some pokeblocks, he successfully lured the Electabuzz into cooperating.
One particular Electabuzz, instead of eating the pokeblock immediately, took it and left.
It brought the pokeblock back to its nest and gave it to another Pokémon.
"Elekid?"
"Buzz buzz!"
The two Pokémon exchanged a few words, and the larger and smaller one then headed in Nathan's direction.
Just as Nathan was enjoying the thrill of grinding experience, he suddenly felt a strong aura approaching.
Volcarona instantly appeared at Nathan's side in response.
It was the aura of a Champion-level Pokémon!
The noisy Electabuzz suddenly quieted down as they too sensed the powerful presence.
But they didn't flee—because the aura was very familiar to them.
"Electivire!"
Soon enough, the Pokémon appeared before Nathan, and he finally saw the source of the overwhelming pressure.
"Hey, human. You can battle my offspring, but don't even think about doing anything else."
Electivire warned Nathan directly upon arriving.
Level 69 Electivire!
When Nathan saw the level of this Pokémon, he was stunned.
With that kind of power, there was no doubt—it was the guardian of this mystic realm!
"Don't worry. I just want your kin to spar with my Pokémon. I'll also heal them afterward."
Nathan said gently.
After all, this mystic realm was filled with mega evolution stones, and he planned to return frequently.
He couldn't afford to have a hostile relationship with its guardian.
But a near-Master-level Pokémon like Electivire wasn't so easy to reason with.
The only reason it hadn't attacked Nathan outright was likely because it didn't want to fight Volcarona.
Despite being lower level, Volcarona's powerful aura was on par with Electivire's.
Even so, Electivire clearly didn't fully trust Nathan and continued watching its offspring like a hawk.
The training continued, but Nathan had already begun to set his sights on Electivire itself.
After two days of searching, he had only found fewer than ten evolution stones—and they were all poor-quality ones.
But what if he had a local… no, a local Pokémon helping him search?
With that thought, Nathan walked directly toward Electivire.
Seeing him approach, Electivire grew visibly more alert.
"Electivire, how about we make a deal?"
Nathan said, taking out a pile of pokeblocks.
"What do you want, human?"
Electivire asked, tempted but not entirely swayed by the offer.
Nathan grinned. That response meant the deal was possible.
He casually tossed an evolution stone to Electivire.
"Have your kin help me search for stones like this. If it's the kind I'm looking for, I'll trade you these pokeblocks in return."
To Electivire, evolution stones were no different from regular rocks.
But this human was actually offering valuable pokeblocks in exchange?
Electivire couldn't help but suspect—was this human out of his mind?
"Fine. These stones should be easy to find. But… do you even have enough pokeblocks?"
Electivire asked suspiciously.
(End of Chapter)