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As early as four days ago, with the experience provided by the players, Kael's level had already reached 15, 100/100.
In other words, the highest level before evolution.
Just as he had planned, Kael had not chosen to level up and evolve immediately. Instead, he remained locked at this point.
Using the players' constant challenges, he harvested and stored experience, laying the foundation for the explosive leap he would make after evolution.
After all, if Kael chose to evolve, his strength would indeed undergo a qualitative improvement.
Still, when facing player challenges afterward, the experience he could gain would no longer be as abundant as it was now.
His living environment was comfortable, there were no urgent challenges or hardships he needed to face, and staying inside the Gym gave Kael enough patience.
When these conditions are combined, they naturally become the situation now.
Although Kael had not evolved, seeing the experience stockpile on his status panel rise from 100/100 at the beginning, to 216/100 later, and then to the current 507/100, gave him a strange sense of satisfaction.
It was as if he had become a mad hoarder. As more and more experience was stored, a refreshing sense of achievement that made him want to smile gradually filled his heart.
"More... I need more."
He was not satisfied.
With the rich experience Kael had accumulated over several reincarnations, combined with the solid foundation created by system items, he could completely withstand the physical burden caused by raising more than ten levels in one go.
Right now, this was only the beginning.
Click!
Kael was distracted for only a moment before the thin, gloomy-looking man in front of him had already thrown his Poké Ball onto the field.
Creak! Creak!
The irritating sound of shell rubbing against shell rang across the grass, and a heavy orange figure entered Kael's vision.
Its appearance was similar to a hermit crab from Kael's previous life.
Its orange body looked like a strangely shaped crab, with thin shell plates covering various parts of its body.
A huge brown rock sat on its back. It could provide powerful and sturdy defense, while also serving as a temporary shelter when it needed to rest. It fulfilled two purposes at once.
Dwebble.
Kael's eyes instantly became serious. Then, as if remembering something, his expression eased slightly.
Because of Dwebble's performance in the anime from his previous life, Kael had a very deep impression of this Pokémon.
According to the scenes in his memory, although Dwebble looked like nothing more than an ordinary Pokémon with strong defense thanks to the hard rock on its back, once it used the move Shell Smash, its battle style would undergo a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree reversal.
After shedding its heavy shell, Dwebble's defense would be greatly affected.
But at the same time, after losing the burden of that heavy rock, its attack and speed would receive an epic enhancement.
In an instant, it would transform from a heavily armored tank into a high-attack, high-defense agile assassin.
That was why Kael's expression had become serious at first.
His own current battle style was actually similar to Dwebble after shedding its shell. He relied on extraordinary agility, along with both close-range and long-range attack methods, to crush his opponent in mobile combat.
For him, a slow-moving turtle-type opponent was very easy to deal with.
With the players' current level, the defensive Pokémon they raised simply could not block Kael's storm-like offense.
But if the opponent's battle style was the same as his, or even more extreme, then the result of the battle would no longer be certain.
However, after thinking about it for a moment, Kael threw that worry to the back of his mind.
He had overthought it.
For Dwebble to fully master Shell Smash, unless an experienced person spent a great deal of time teaching it the move, it would need to reach a fairly high level on its own.
Kael could no longer remember the exact level requirement, but it was at least above level 30.
In other words, the Dwebble in front of him would most likely only use a stationary, turtle-like defensive battle style.
The chance of it "shedding its shell" was close to zero.
After figuring this out, Kael still kept a trace of caution, but his heart relaxed considerably.
His gaze sharpened as he looked at his opponent. He stepped forward, preparing to rush in.
Against this kind of opponent, if he wanted to win easily, he had to make full use of his advantage in agility.
"Withdraw."
But right as the battle began, the gloomy Trainer across the field had already given his Pokémon a command first.
Dwebble moved quickly, as if its Trainer had already communicated with it before the battle.
Creak.
Very skillfully, Dwebble retracted its body into the huge rock on its back.
Thud.
The heavy dark-brown rock pressed firmly onto the ground, making a dull sound.
Since Withdraw could become an official move, it naturally was not as simple as literally shrinking into a shell.
A thin layer of blue energy surged from the top of the rock like spring water, flowing downward. Like a layer of thin plastic wrap, it coated the entire stone shell in an energy barrier.
Its defensive ability soared.
Kael, however, was unconcerned.
In his view, the moment the opponent adopted a defensive strategy and shrank in place at the start of battle, the outcome had already been decided.
Not only had the opponent given up the initiative and handed all control over the battle rhythm to him, but how did the other side even know that Kael's attack could not break through that turtle shell?
Buzz.
A light hum suddenly rang through the air.
At the same time, a dazzling white light appeared with it.
Dwebble's act of withdrawing into its shell and retreating to advance gave Kael plenty of time to charge.
During the battle against this opponent, he had more than enough time to gather a large amount of energy and prepare a decisive blow strong enough to settle the match.
"Pound."
This most basic move in the Pokémon world now shone with a different brilliance in Kael's hands.
Buzz. Buzz.
Like an alarm before danger arrived, continuous humming sounded from deep within Kael's body.
Gather.
Compress.
A vast amount of white energy was condensed onto Kael's right fist through his delicate and precise control.
The white light grew brighter and brighter, as if it were about to overshadow even the white lamps illuminating the room from above. It was like a blazing spot of light on the surface of the sun, making it impossible to look directly at while also radiating a terrifying force capable of piercing steel.
Without needing the Trainer at the edge of the field to remind it, Dwebble, hiding inside the rock, relied on its body's instinctive warning of danger and increased the defensive energy output on its shell.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
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