The Solrock Professor Cozmo released was colored differently from an ordinary one. Its body was red, and the rocky protrusions jutting out around it were all an olive green rather than the usual saffron.
Damn!
Gary wanted to curse, but for the sake of the Salamencite, he held it in.
Having owned the Shiny Charm for more than two years, Gary knew the odds of Shiny encounters well. The Shiny Pokémon he ran into weren't necessarily wild—they could just as easily belong to someone else.
So every time he saw a passerby with a Shiny Pokémon, Gary wanted to slap himself, silently cursing himself for looking around when he had nothing better to do. And now he'd run into one again.
He'd already estimated he was due to encounter a Shiny Pokémon around this time, and here was Solrock.
Gary also finally understood why Cozmo had felt the trade was in his favor.
Shiny Pokémon were extremely valuable. If someone truly loved the species, trading a Salamence for one was entirely possible. And Professor Cozmo was, after all, a man devoted to the cosmos.
Solrock was said to come from outer space. In Cozmo's mind, the value of a differently colored Solrock far exceeded that of a pseudo-legendary Pokémon.
"So it was a Shiny Solrock. No wonder you were willing to trade your Salamence for it," Gary said, his heart aching a little.
"This Mega Stone was a birthday present from my father when I turned eighteen. Unfortunately, my Salamence has already been traded away, so I have no use for it anymore. Consider it a thank-you gift." Cozmo handed the Mega Stone to Gary.
"Then I won't be polite."
Gary took the Salamencite at once. When it came to things like this, the more the better—it didn't matter if it was a duplicate. He could always ask Steven to trade for a different one.
"I hope to see your Shelgon make a name for itself someday. If you can earn a good ranking, I'll be very happy," Professor Cozmo said.
"Don't worry, Professor Cozmo. I'll definitely reach the top," Gary said.
...
"Today's a good day, a windfall's come my way~"
Back at the Pokémon Center, Gary was in high spirits. He hadn't expected to get the Salamencite for free. What a great day.
In the days that followed, Gary stayed in Mossdeep City to wait for his delivery. He supervised his Pokémon's training every day, and in the afternoons had his Hoenn team run live combat drills against Tyranitar. His schedule was packed.
After three days of sparring against Tyranitar, Gary also had Blastoise and Scizor transferred over to run combat training with his Hoenn Pokémon.
Since he predicted the system would have him use only Hoenn-region Pokémon for the Ever Grande Conference, Gary had to strengthen his newly caught team—otherwise, what would he do in the later rounds?
Ash was an honest battler, but if he actually ended up facing Gary, there was still a chance he'd bring out his old Pokémon.
Ash's veteran Pokémon were all somewhere between semi-elite and Elite level. Gary's current team, aside from Latios, was only at Gym Leader level, without a single semi-elite among them.
Gary did have plenty of Rare Candies, but they still had to be saved, because a certain legendary man was waiting at the Lily of the Valley Conference in the Sinnoh Region.
If the system issued the same kind of mission as in Hoenn—only Sinnoh-region Pokémon allowed at the Lily of the Valley Conference—that would be a real headache.
Ash had used all of his old Pokémon against Tobias and only managed to defeat two of his team.
From that, it could be judged that Tobias's strength was close to Elite Four level. Nobody knew what his remaining four Pokémon were, or whether there were even stronger ones among them.
Gary figured he'd need at least three Champion-level Pokémon prepared to feel safe facing Tobias. The specifics could only be worked out once they actually met.
Half a month passed.
Under Gary's brutal training, his Pokémon had grown considerably.
Current levels: Breloom LV42, Sceptile LV46, Aggron LV50, Slaking LV39, Blaziken LV42, Gardevoir LV44, Swampert LV39, Shelgon LV40.
Marshtomp had successfully evolved into Swampert. Except for Swampert and Slaking, the rest of the team had reached Gym Leader level.
Aggron had even entered the quasi-elite level, since Gary had used three Intermediate Rare Candies to raise it.
Swampert's level could still be raised before the Ever Grande Conference, but Slaking's couldn't.
Because Slaking needed three days of rest for every day of training, it had only gotten four days of actual work in over the past half month. The rest of the time was all rest.
At this pace, Gary estimated it would take Slaking three or four years just to reach the peak of Gym Leader level—never mind that leveling up only got harder the further you advanced.
At the Elite level, it might take half a year to gain a single level. Where other Pokémon needed half a year per level, Slaking would need two. That rate of progress was far too slow.
Gary decided he'd catch a Pokémon that knew Gastro Acid, since Gastro Acid could put a target into a state of having no Ability at all. That meant Slaking could shake off the constraints of Truant and train normally—but that was a matter for the future.
Breloom had in fact awakened Worry Seed, which could change a target's Ability to Insomnia, but unfortunately it was useless against a Pokémon with Truant.
Today, Gary finally received the express delivery from Samson Oak. It was time to leave Mossdeep City.
He picked up the package from the Pokémon Center's front desk and opened it. Inside was a black bracelet—exactly the Z-Ring Gary needed.
"...Uncle's so stingy. He only sent the Z-Ring and didn't include any Z-Crystals," Gary complained.
He'd thought Samson Oak would throw in a few Z-Crystals as well. They weren't particularly valuable in the Alola Region anyway—the key point being that the Tapu guardians could also produce Z-Crystals, so they could practically be mass-produced.
Well, if he didn't want to give any, so be it.
Gary took the Z-Ring and set the Z-Crystal the system had rewarded him into the Sparkling Stone slot. Only then could the power within the Z-Crystal be triggered.
A Z-Crystal could only be used for one Z-Move at a time. To use it again, you had to wait for the crystal to fully recharge.
Recharging a Z-Crystal was fairly simple—it just needed to absorb enough light. The stronger the light, the faster it charged. Under sufficient sunlight, it could be fully charged in an hour.
Z-Moves were a bit weaker than Mega Evolution, but their advantage was that they were quicker to deploy.
In the games, choosing Mega Evolution meant the Pokémon had to hold its Mega Stone and couldn't carry any other item. With Z-Moves, however, a Pokémon could still hold an item in battle, making it that much stronger.