"Has he always been like this?"
Inside a newly built villa at the Camp, the four members of the First Squad—along with Aisa and Himeko—sat together for a lively dinner.
This meal was both a welcome banquet for Himeko, and a celebration for the success of their operation.
Everyone chatted and laughed around the table, the atmosphere warm and bustling. The joy of surviving a disaster still kept their spirits high.
But Teruo and the others couldn't help stealing glances at Shiko, who was lying off to the side on a blanket, resting.
Seeing this dragon-beast up close…
That powerful, muscle-packed body.
That hard, sharp, armored helmet.
And that terrifying, almost tangible aura leaking out…
It hit even harder at this distance.
"He's always like this," Himeko said, nodding as she took a sip of tea.
Even she thought it was ridiculous.
From the time she brought Shiko back from the Pokémon Center until now, the thing he did most every day was sleep.
And sure enough—after returning from Dragon Valley earlier, Shiko had immediately sprawled out and started snoozing lazily.
The problem was…
No one had ever seen him train.
Yet he just kept getting stronger every single day.
A situation that completely violated common sense.
Even Himeko couldn't figure it out, no matter how much she thought about it.
"Then that really is insane talent!"
The others exclaimed in amazement.
Not working out at all—just sleeping—and still becoming that strong…
That talent…
It was genuinely jaw-dropping.
"Does he have a name?" someone asked again.
"GeoGreymon," Himeko replied, nodding.
GeoGreymon…
They silently repeated the name to themselves.
"Great name!"
"Majestic and domineering—fits perfectly!"
"Seriously!"
It really did match Shiko's current image.
He looked like an upright tyrannosaur of destruction—overflowing with raw power and oppressive pressure.
"Thank you, Greymon!"
"If you hadn't helped today, who knows what would've happened to us."
Kantaro was a little tipsy. Holding a wine glass, he walked over to thank Shiko.
Shiko narrowed his eyes.
Those massive dragon eyes swept over Kantaro with a calm, indifferent glance.
The instant that gaze passed over him, Kantaro sobered up on the spot.
He reflexively thought he'd done something rude—bringing alcohol over like this—and that Shiko was angry.
But then Shiko snorted two streams of hot breath and gave him a small nod.
Only then did Kantaro finally relax.
After that brief look, Shiko closed his eyes again and went back to resting.
Back in Dragon Valley, when he tossed the two poachers to Drampa, he'd struck a deal with the two Drampa.
Two poachers…
In exchange for a treasure Drampa had found during the recent unrest in the valley.
A Dragon-type energy crystal the size of half a fist.
It was a crystal formed after the purest energy had been compressed and solidified.
In both value and sheer energy content, it was several times stronger than a Dragon Gem.
The moment Shiko got it in his hands, he'd already felt a powerful aura—pleasant, gentle, and soothing.
That pure, vast Dragon-type energy continuously stirred the Dragon-type energy already inside his body.
It triggered an intense sense of craving.
The Dragon-type energy crystal he obtained still had plenty of dirt stuck to it.
It had clearly been unearthed not long ago.
And judging from the fracture marks along its edge…
The crystal's original size should've been far larger than the half-fist piece in his hands.
What he had was only a fragment.
Before leaving, Drampa confirmed Shiko's guess—and also gave him an extremely useful piece of information.
Not long ago, these crystals had been spewed out from a mountain peak deep in the very bottom of the entire valley.
That day, a huge number of pure Dragon-type crystals rained down.
Every Pokémon drawn to the phenomenon had rushed in and split them cleanly.
But most Pokémon only managed to grab a tiny piece—no bigger than a fingernail.
The truly large chunks…
All ended up in the hands of the valley's overlords: the Elite Four-level Dragon-type Pokémon leaders of each tribe.
Drampa had gotten a share too.
But compared to the other Elite Four-level Dragon-type Pokémon, Drampa's temperament was gentle, so what he received was the smallest piece among them.
And over the past few days, all the unrest throughout Dragon Valley had been caused by Pokémon fighting each other to seize these crystals.
After hearing all that, Shiko's interest skyrocketed.
To compress energy into a crystal…
Just how strong, how enormous, would the Dragon-type energy have to be?
And from Drampa's description, it was obvious—
The main crystal's original body should've been massive.
That only made it more astonishing.
Type-boosting gems were formed when pure elemental energy attached itself to minerals near the surface.
They were already rare enough.
But a pure energy crystal like this…
Was even rarer.
Pure energy crystals were not easy to preserve in nature at all.
At minimum, only after a Champion-level Dragon-type Pokémon died—its energy dispersing and then condensing—would it be possible for a small fragment of crystal to form.
For something this large to appear…
If it was created by a Pokémon's post-death energy overflow…
Then just how strong was the Pokémon that died?
Shiko fell into deep thought.
He had a strong feeling that beneath that mountain peak…
There was an even bigger secret hidden there.
And the energy crystal he held had already pushed his Dragon's Law absorption progress sharply upward.
After all—
Just this half-fist fragment, about the size of a typical type-boosting gem, contained such terrifying energy…
That it boosted his Dragon's Law by a full 1% in an instant!
Bringing it to 2% total.
No.
He had to make another trip into the valley and see what was really going on.
But right now, his strength had only just stepped into the Gym-level tier—still not enough.
Even though his innate Dragon might already allowed him to suppress and intimidate those Elite Four-level Dragon-type Pokémon…
If a real conflict broke out…
He absolutely wouldn't be a match for those wild Elite Four-level Pokémon.
So—
Raising his strength as fast as possible and becoming stronger…
That was the top priority.
"Everyone's here!"
"The test report just came out! Guess what I found!"
Boo-sensei's voice rang out from outside the door.
He strode in with a paper report in hand, face flushed with excitement.
The moment he saw Shiko sprawled in the living room, sleeping like always…
The smile on his face grew even brighter.
As soon as Boo-sensei entered, he drew everyone's attention.
Especially Teruo and the other long-time First Squad members.
They weren't meeting Boo-sensei for the first time.
They never expected this normally cold-faced, sharp-tongued Boo-sensei to look this delighted.
Teruo pulled over a chair for Boo-sensei to sit.
Boo-sensei was practically vibrating with excitement. Pointing at the report, he began reading out the data line by line.
"GeoGreymon's attributes after evolving—and the elemental energy contained in his body—are truly shocking."
"From his body, I detected four types of elemental energy in total: Fire, Ground, Dragon, and Steel!"
"And every single one is powerful!"
"Especially Fire, Dragon, and Steel!"
"It's reached an exaggerated level!"
"These three attributes can all reach the level of being primary attributes!"
Boo-sensei eagerly shared his discovery.
But the moment those words left his mouth…
Everyone present froze.
They stared at Boo-sensei in disbelief.
A foundational principle accepted across both the Trainer world and the Pokémon research world was simple:
A Pokémon can have at most two attributes.
One is the primary attribute.
The other—slightly weaker—is the secondary attribute.
These two attributes not only determine a Pokémon's strengths and weaknesses…
They also determine what categories of moves it can learn and use.
Of course, in reality, many Pokémon can use moves outside their own attributes.
That was normal.
After all, energy has overlapping pathways—like Water and Ice, or Ground and Rock.
Even so…
Those third or fourth kinds of energy—derived from the primary and secondary attributes—
Were always on a completely different level from the original two in terms of accumulation.
But Shiko was different.
Not only did he have four kinds of attribute energy inside his body…
The density and accumulated intensity of Fire, Steel, and Dragon were almost identical.
Only the Ground energy was slightly weaker.
Meaning—
Fire, Steel, and Dragon could all be treated as his primary attribute.
Ground would count as his secondary attribute.
A Pokémon with four attributes…
This was a discovery that shattered the basic rules of the entire world.
Seeing everyone's stunned expressions, Boo-sensei tossed out a second bombshell.
"Even more ridiculous—his externally expressed attributes are only Ground and Dragon!"
"In other words, his only fatal weakness is Ice!"
"But!"
Boo-sensei abruptly shifted tone, his expression filled with shock and excitement.
"The powerful Fire energy hidden in his body lets him easily smash through most Ice-type moves!"
"In other words—GeoGreymon practically no longer has that fatal weakness!"
A sharp intake of breath sounded around the table.
From a single Fire attribute…
To evolving into a dual-attribute Pokémon of Ground and Dragon…
And even hiding the original primary attribute…
That kind of evolution was already outrageous.
Now—
Because of that hidden Fire attribute…
He directly neutralized and bypassed his biggest weakness.
This was practically exploiting a bug.
The group couldn't help turning their heads to stare at Shiko, resting on the floor.
Their faces were filled with awe and disbelief.
So this was what it meant to be the Creator God's favorite child.
GeoGreymon really was the ultimate favorite.
"Also—there's something even more ridiculous after this."
"This part is confidential. It involves my current research. You are not allowed to leak it!"
Boo-sensei looked thoroughly satisfied with their reactions.
Because when he'd first received this report…
His reaction had been just as intense.
Now that he was fired up, he decided to share everything with them.
"My lips are sealed—don't worry!"
"Boo-sensei! Stop teasing us—hurry up and tell us!"
"Yeah, yeah! Please!"
"I'm dying of curiosity!"
Their curiosity was instantly hooked.
One after another, they stared at him with pleading eyes, waiting for the confidential information in his hand.
"Fine."
Boo-sensei grinned.
He leaned forward, glanced back to make sure no one was eavesdropping outside…
Then raised his hand, motioning for everyone to lean in.
"This GeoGreymon… should still be able to evolve one or two more times."
"The evolution factors in his body are still extremely scattered. They haven't fixed into a stable form. There's essentially infinite possibility."
"You have to understand—each time a Pokémon evolves, the gene chain and evolution factors become more orderly."
"But the chaotic, disordered state inside him… makes it hard for me to believe he evolved from Charmeleon."
"Because judging by how it looks… it's even more excessive than Charmander."
"So I suspect that during his evolution, he may be like a Pokémon we already know—Eevee."
"At the same evolution node, there may be multiple possible forms."
Boo-sensei's words made everyone present almost stop breathing.
This…
He could still evolve!?
A single GeoGreymon was already absurd enough!
Aisa even felt that if this Greymon could grow to its peak…
It might be able to go head-on with some third-tier Legendary Pokémon.
But if it could evolve again…
Aisa's scalp tingled.
This was beyond what she could understand.
The others were the same.
They couldn't imagine what kind of monster Shiko would become after evolving again.
Meanwhile, Shiko—half-asleep, half-awake—heard every single word from Boo-sensei.
So this old man really did have skill.
No wonder he was a senior expert in the research world.
To be able to analyze things to this extent…
It was genuinely impressive.
It was also a bit of a headache.
Shiko couldn't help laughing quietly.
He wanted to keep listening—
To see what else Boo-sensei could dig out.
After giving everyone a moment to digest the information, Boo-sensei continued and revealed another brand-new discovery.
"Do you know—when I did the preliminary tests earlier—this GeoGreymon actually had four Abilities!"
"Tough Claws! Pressure! Blaze! Magic Bounce!"
"It completely refreshed my understanding!"
The moment he finished speaking, everyone's expressions locked up in shock.
Kantaro and Teruo even sprayed out a mouthful of wine.
They stared at Boo-sensei like he'd gone insane.
It wasn't that they didn't trust Boo-sensei.
It was that this information was too horrifying.
Too unexpected.
It overturned everything they thought they knew.
Across the entire Trainer world, one thing was universally accepted:
A Pokémon can only have one Ability.
And that research result—
Had been personally proposed by Boo-sensei himself, after massive amounts of practical testing and field investigation.
Now, the very person who established that objective rule…
Was standing right in front of them…
And overturning it with his own hands.
The absurdity of it was almost unreal.
"And you still dare to doubt me? This isn't fake!"
Boo-sensei widened his eyes and chuckled, completely unbothered.
"My data report can't be wrong. GeoGreymon really does have four Abilities."
"Not four."
"Atop that… there's one more."
At that moment, inside everyone's minds—
A strange, unfamiliar voice suddenly rang out.
(End of Chapter)
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