Alex, who had successfully "convinced" Sophie, to say nothing about the Flygon, was very pleased with himself.
He simply stood there with a faint smile, watching the battlefield and waiting to see if any more wild Pokémon would wander into his area.
During the next 30 minutes, only a few Pokemon did.
Every couple of minutes, one or two Pokémon would appear, usually injured, and disoriented. None of them posed any real threat, and they were dealt with quickly.
As time passed, even those weaklings became rarer. The gaps between encounters grew longer, until eventually, nothing came at all.
That was enough for Alex to conclude that the Pokémon raid was coming to an end. With nothing immediate to focus on, his attention shifted to the battlefield itself. More specifically, to the large number of Pokemon corpses scattered across it.
His eyes lingered on one in particular. The S-rank late elite Cacturne which alone was worth around three million.
The other S-rank elite Pokémon, both low and mid-Elite level, weren't far behind in value. Each of them could fetch a Similar price, even if they didn't quite reach the same level as the Cacturne.
In contrast, the A-rank elite Pokémon were noticeably less valuable.
Most of the ones here were low elite level, and even mid-elite A-rank corpses rarely cost more then 300,000 Pokedollars.
The majority of the battlefield, however, was filled with Pokémon below the elite level. And those… were barely worth anything.
Without high potential or levels, their market value dropped sharply. Even if he collected all of them and sold them together, the total would likely not exceed 1 million.
Not a small amount but not enough to justify the time and effort—for Alex, at least.
A faint smile appeared on his face. He already had a better use for them.
After a few more minutes passed without any new Pokémon appearing, Alex turned his head slightly toward Sophie, making sure she could hear him.
He said casually, "Sophie, since you were so helpful to the team and disciplined enough to stay at your place... I'll let you take all the dead Pokémon below the elite level as your reward."
Sophie froze for a brief moment. Then she forced a slightly nervous smile and replied, "Yes… thank you very much."
Alex didn't give her the money just to keep her quiet, but because he had given Sophie a position where she couldn't collect any loot, so it would be unfair if he didn't give her anything.
Although he could have done that, there was no reason to, and Alex always preferred to use a combination of stick and carrot to influence people more then to only use fear to do it.
For Sophie, it wasn't a huge amount of money, but it also wasn't something she could easily earn.
For low-level elite trainers, it's difficult to make a lot of money in the wilderness. Not because there aren't opportunities, but because most opportunities are extremely dangerous for "weak" trainers. At any moment, a mistake could cost you your life.
Truly rich trainers were usually late elite or Champion-level trainers, the ones who could move through the wilderness with a certain level of safety.
Alex watched as Sophie collected the corpses with her Pokédex and did the same with his TRH device, which was basically a modified Pokédex.
Even now, he was still impressed by how much space a Pokédex had and how many objects could fit inside it.
He had once read that the internal volume of a Pokédex was roughly comparable to the length of two football fields and could stack up to a height of around ten meters.
There weren't many elite-level corpses, so it didn't take long for Alex to collect them all.
After that, Alex and his Pokémon remained where they were, waiting for the city staff to give them permission to leave.
He wanted to leave earlier, but he knew that such behavior wouldn't be accepted by the Alliance, and he didn't want to risk provoking them unnecessarily.
Gardevoir, who stood next to Alex and the others, suddenly noticed something.
She turned slightly toward him and said mentally, "Father, I feel that the human Sophie is very strange."
Alex's expression didn't change, and he pretended not to react, but he replied telepathically, "Oh, you feel that too? I was starting to think I was just being paranoid."
Gardevoir answered calmly, "No, she is definitely strange. Her emotions don't match the personality she shows. I sense fear, guilt… and desire."
She hesitated briefly before adding, "Sexual desire."
Alex couldn't help but feel a moment of surprise, but he quickly suppressed it. he asked mentally. "To whom? Me?"
Gardevoir focused for a moment before replying, "…No. She only feels those emotions when she looks at dead Pokémon. She doesn't feel them as strongly when she looks at living ones."
Alex couldn't help but shake his head, thinking, 'Why do so many people want to have s*x with their Pokémon? And why do they all have some other weird fetish on top of that?"…?'
Jasper had his own issues. (incestuous)
That guy who had written a love letter to Gardevoir when she was still a Kirlia had been another problem. (pedophile)
And now this. (Necrophilia)
Alex had expected Sophie to be part of some criminal organization or something similar, but not this.
Gardevoir sensed his thoughts and said softly, "I'm sorry, Father, if this information was unnecessary. I just didn't want to overlook anything."
Alex replied with a faint, slightly bitter smile, "No problem. It's not like we've lost anything. Keep telling me things like this, even if you think they're useless."
Gardevoir nodded lightly, while Alex's gaze drifted back toward Sophie, now just a little more cautious than before.
*******
if the story total of 100 powerstones in 24 hours, I will upload 1 bonus chapter tomorrow.
-----
If you want to see the next chapters (40+ chapters) earlier or just want to support me
https://www.--patreon.com/alex02373