Gengar had finally evolved!
The road of Evolution could not be described as anything but arduous. Aside from Beedrill, whose Evolution cycle was short, it was also the first among his Pokémon to complete its final Evolution from its initial form.
At this moment, everything from the past surfaced before his eyes…
Inside Ecruteak City's Bell Tower, he had encountered this special Gastly capable of absorbing vitality…
Because of it, he established a foothold in Ecruteak City…
Because of it, he swept through the challenges within Brass Tower with unstoppable momentum…
It was also because of Gastly's outstanding performance that he gained Pryce's favor, which later led to obtaining Swinub.
Inside the Matsuba mausoleum, he had even obtained the raising tome for this kind of Gastly that absorbed vitality.
He and Haunter had also separated and reunited three times.
The first time, Raine threatened him and confiscated Gastly's Poké Ball.
The second time, when Tetsuya brought Piloswine to Battle Park training and the Mt. Silver Elite Four challenge, he left Haunter behind at glacier falls for training.
They had only just reunited when, for the third time, it was kidnapped by the Shadow Team. That separation lasted for half a year.
During those six months, Tetsuya had almost already given up all hope regarding Haunter. Yet unexpectedly, relying only on the faint clue he had left behind, Haunter crossed the ocean and found him here…
After sharing life and death hardships together, even establishing the [Shadow Contract] no longer raised any concerns.
Along the way, Tetsuya had slaughtered countless Poison-type Pokémon without even blinking, all because this was a Pokémon loyal to him…
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After evolving, Gengar could both walk on the ground and Levitate through the air. Although its Ability had become Cursed Body, as long as it levitated, Ground-type moves were still ineffective against it.
Gengar was still adapting to its body, using each of its moves once. Their power had increased tremendously compared to before, and every aspect of its abilities had significantly improved. Although its weight had increased, its speed had actually become faster, something truly difficult to understand. This kind of weight also made obtaining momentum much easier.
Especially its poison. Not only had it naturally learned Toxic, but the toxins within Sludge Bomb had also risen to [Badly Poisonous]¹[1]. A single Sludge Bomb could corrode even rocky ground, forming a poisonous puddle.
Aside from himself, this terrifyingly Gengar was probably something no one except a Poison Elite Four could possibly raise. Of course, Tetsuya still had to thank the Matsuba Family for some of the "inspiration".
Now the entire poisonous miasma in the forest had disappeared, leaving only the cave before them. Most of the miasma had gathered inside the cave.
Tetsuya brought his Pokémon to search all around the mountain for more than a week, yet they never found an exit to that cave.
In other words, this cave had gathered most of the miasma from the entire forest, along with the frigid aura from Piloswine's Blizzard. In that case, there was no longer any need for him to continue exploring it.
Even the "Poison King Swalot" did not dare enter the cave, which showed just how terrifying the concentration of poisonous miasma inside truly was.
Even if the Poison-type Pokémon within were not poisoned to death by the miasma, they would still have been frozen to death by Piloswine's Blizzard.
It was already June now. At the end of this month, the third elimination round would arrive, and afterward, the summer solstice of this year would come in mid-July. On that day, he would establish the [Shadow Contract] with Gengar…
No matter how powerful Pokémon became, they still could not compare to his own strength!
Tetsuya did not possess Psychic powers, nor did he possess the monstrous physique capable of fighting Pokémon directly, much less special powers like Viridian Power or Aura. Therefore, he needed this [Shadow Contract]!
Borrowing Gengar's power to strengthen himself… although he still did not know exactly how it would strengthen him, from Matsuba IV's records it was already very clear just how powerful he would become.
At that time, he would become a source of danger, capable of silently killing anyone around him…
There was still one month remaining. Tetsuya also needed to undergo "systematic training" like his Pokémon.
Now that the forest had been cleared by him, entering the mountain areas became much more convenient. Tetsuya arrived at his old location, the mountain's shaded side.
There was still no one here. This kind of environment was exactly what he wanted!
The training routine remained the same as before. Ditto entered the sea, while the others continued their previous training.
Of course, the newly evolved Gengar had now become Tetsuya's primary focus. Its psychic power had also become stronger. It could now rely on it to battle evenly against Piloswine's Blizzard, a power that left the other Pokémon unwilling to approach.
Piloswine and Houndoom trained together, and their training contents were also identical, physical conditioning and the coordination between moves.
This cheater Piloswine possessed Eternal Ice, so even training for only that amount of time each day allowed it to use its moves more proficiently than Houndoom, with even greater power.
Although Houndoom's potential and innate talent were both quite good, and through its own acquired effort it could already dominate the forest, in Tetsuya's eyes it was still nowhere near enough.
Houndoom itself also clearly understood that the gap between itself and Piloswine was becoming bigger and bigger. Therefore, Houndoom could only secretly work harder on its own. While its physique continued strengthening further, it could already use [Blazing Howl] twice within a short period of time, and its attacks would increase even more accordingly.
This was the key point Tetsuya truly cared about.
All Pokémon boosting moves were based on physique. Without a sufficiently "robust" body, it was impossible to fully obtain the boosting effects of those moves.
Since Pokémon research began, all buff-type moves could provide at most six-stage multipliers, and those effects could only be maintained for a very short period of time. Afterward, the boosting effects would gradually decline until returning to normal.
Pokémon capable of obtaining six-stage multipliers were not common. It had to be built upon years upon years of physical training, and not every Pokémon could accomplish it. For example, Bug-type Pokémon like Beedrill could not develop muscles throughout its entire body like Houndoom could, so using Swords Dance twice was already Beedrill's limit…
Golett's training still took place at night, only now the continuity between move usage had been increased. After that, it continued its rolling training, because there was still extremely powerful energy within Golett that had not yet been unsealed. Now the third layer of energy had already begun, and the only thing Tetsuya could do was accelerate the release of that energy.
Beedrill's training had entered a crucial stage. Its Speed was already perfect now, and using Double Team had also become much more natural. Now came the second practice of "integration", the intense focus of the mind and the speed and suddenness of attacks.
Tetsuya had Golett leave ten fist marks at different positions across the mountain wall. The ten fist marks were still separated by certain distances, and each was assigned a number.
Beedrill had to maintain intense mental focus and constantly pay attention to all ten fist marks. After Tetsuya shouted a number, it had to rapidly locate the corresponding fist mark and then instantly launch an attack against the target.
First was the degree of mental focus, second was the speed of instantaneous attacks. These two aspects could determine the results of Beedrill's training.
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¹. As I explained at the beginning of the book, "Badly Poisoned" is a more, mmm, extreme, status condition than just "Poisoned". Because of that, it's harder to inflict the "Badly Poisoned" status on a pokemon. However, in his past life (or future self), Tetsuya managed, by "sacrificing" many pokemon, to create a special line, or variant, of Poison‑types known as the [Badly Poisonous] (simple bro). These practically guarantee the chance of poisoning, whether it's the regular "Poisoned" status or the more severe "Badly Poisoned" status.
[1] As I explained at the beginning of the book, "Badly Poisoned" is a more, mmm, extreme, status condition than just "Poisoned". Because of that, it’s harder to inflict the "Badly Poisoned" status on a pokemon. However, in his past life (or future self), Tetsuya managed, by "sacrificing" many pokemon, to create a special line of Poison‑types known as the [Badly Poisonous] (simple). These practically guarantee the chance of poisoning, whether it’s the regular "Poisoned" status or the more severe "Badly Poisoned" status.