[Ding! Become a Legend—Charizard: Raise and evolve a Charmander into a Charizard, lead Charizard to win three regional championships, and defeat three powerful Charizard owners above level 70!]
[Mission Reward: Fire God Scroll (Charizard Exclusive)—After use by Charizard, it gains the Power of the Fire God and activates a special Fire God Ability!]
On the system panel before Roy's eyes, the newly appeared mission description radiated a red-gold light.
The light was so scorching it almost seemed to overflow through the panel.
"Fire God?"
Roy's pupils contracted slightly.
His attention was completely seized by those two words.
Power of the Fire God.
Special Fir God Ability.
A Charizard with Champion-level potential, paired with the Blaze ability and the boost from Premium Charcoal, was already a top-tier configuration.
If the "Fire God" power was added on top of that... several images flashed quickly through Roy's mind.
In the finals of a future League Tournament, his Charizard would use a single Flamethrower to directly melt the opponent's Legendary Pokémon.
In the original script, Charizard had once taken down an Articuno.
If it had the Fire God power, it could take down more than just Articuno in the future.
Articuno, Moltres, Zapdos—if all three Legendary Birds came at once, he might just burn right through them.
"As expected..."
A faint smile curled at the corners of Roy's mouth.
"Choosing Charmander for the Legendary Trial was the right call."
This Charizard truly lived up to being the star of the original series' starters.
In the original script, its screen time was explosive.
From its rebellious phase to becoming obedient, from an ordinary Charizard to learning Blast Burn, and even being able to Mega Evolve into two forms.
Now that it was in his hands, its upper limit for combat power was full of possibilities.
Legendary Trial Space.
Fire God Scroll.
And this was just shortly after capturing it.
When its level got higher later on, there was no telling what even more ridiculous things could be unlocked.
However... Roy carefully looked at the mission requirements.
"Win three regional championships."
"Defeat three powerful Charizard owners above level 70."
This mission wasn't simple either.
Three regional championships.
Strategically speaking, he could target three regions with relatively weaker strength.
As long as he won that region's League Tournament championship, it would count.
The system didn't specify that it had to be the strongest regions.
But the difficulty lay in the subsequent requirement—
Defeating three Charizard owners over level 70.
Level 70, that was the threshold of the Elite level.
There weren't many Trainers in the entire world who possessed Elite-level Pokémon.
And narrowing it down to the scope of "Charizard owners"... Roy quickly ran through the original plot in his mind.
Lance, one of the Kanto Elite Four?
Leon? Alain!
It was most likely these people; they were the few Trainers who loved Charizard.
However, none of these were things to consider right now.
There was still plenty of time.
Charmander had just been caught and was only level 11.
Even with the boost from the Legendary Trial Space, evolving into a Charizard would take time.
Moreover, he had to win three regional championships.
That would be a matter for at least two years from now.
"Let's take it slow."
Roy closed the mission interface.
"Charmander's innate talent isn't low to begin with."
"Champion-level potential."
"Blaze ability."
"Plus the Legendary Trial Space, Premium Charcoal..."
"By the time it makes its debut, never mind level 70 Charizards."
"Even if it's a Legendary Pokémon..."
A sharp glint flashed in Roy's eyes.
"I'll take you down too."
...Suppressing his thoughts of imagining the future.
Roy put away the system panel.
He looked around.
He had mostly finished exploring this forest.
The Pokémon that needed to be caught were caught.
The missions that needed to be completed were completed.
"Time to get back on the road."
Roy identified the direction.
Vermilion City was to the southeast.
To catch Charmander, he had specifically detoured into the depths of this forest.
Now he needed to return to the main road.
"Let's go."
Roy threw out several poké balls.
A white light flashed.
Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Pidgeotto, Butterfree, and Squirtle all appeared by his side.
As for Charmander... Roy didn't release it.
He wanted to see exactly how much experience the [Dragon Breath Lands] in the Legendary Trial Space could provide Charmander.
After all, the description said, "Can meditate for up to 1 hour daily; level increases obtained through this method can reach up to lv60 (no actual combat required)."
It sounded very impressive.
But how effective it actually was still needed to be verified in practice.
"Let's move."
Roy waved his hand.
The team began moving out of the forest... For the next two days.
Roy spent his time traveling through the forest.
And grinding levels for the team along the way.
The levels of wild Pokémon in the forest were generally between 15-25.
For Pikachu, Bulbasaur, and the others, they were suitable targets for leveling up.
Roy adopted a rotation system.
Every Pokémon had a chance to enter battle.
Even the newly caught Squirtle was sent out for a few matches.
Although its level was low, with Roy's direction and Squirtle's own decent aptitude (Elite-level potential), it was more than enough to handle those wild Pokémon.
Two days later.
Roy checked the overall levels of the team.
[Pokémon: Pikachu, Level: lv33→lv36]
[Pokémon: Bulbasaur, Level: lv30→lv32]
[Pokémon: Pidgeotto, Level: lv32→lv34]
[Pokémon: Butterfree, Level: lv23→lv26]
[Pokémon: Squirtle, Level: lv13→lv15]
[Pokémon: Charmander, Level: lv11→lv14]
"Not bad."
Roy nodded with satisfaction.
In two days, every Pokémon had increased by 2-3 levels.
This speed was already very fast.
Especially Squirtle, which had gone from level 13 to 15, only one level away from evolving into Wartortle (level 16).
And what surprised Roy the most was Charmander.
"Level 14 already?"
Roy remembered clearly.
Two days ago, when Charmander first entered the Legendary Trial Space, it was level 11.
Now, it was level 14.
It had gained 3 levels.
And during these two days, Charmander hadn't come out to battle at all.
In other words, these 3 levels were entirely obtained through "meditation" in the [Dragon Breath Lands].
"This efficiency is pretty good..."
Roy's eyes lit up.
It was faster than battling in the wild all day.
Roy felt more and more that choosing Charmander to enter the Legendary Trial Space was an incredibly correct decision.
"At this rate, Charmander will be able to evolve into Charmeleon very soon."
"When that time comes, its strength will have a qualitative leap."
Roy calculated in his mind.
"However..."
"I can't completely rely on the Legendary Trial Space."
"Actual combat experience is also very important."
"Once Charmander's level gets a bit higher, I still need to let it out to battle."
"After all, the bond between a Trainer and their Pokémon is also built through battle."
...After walking for another half a day.
The trees in the forest began to thin out.
The light ahead grew brighter and brighter.
In the air, a faint salty, fishy smell could be detected.
That was the scent of the sea breeze.
"We're almost at the seaside."
Roy quickened his pace.
A few minutes later.
He walked out of the forest.
The view before him suddenly opened up.
A stretch of golden sand extended to the end of his vision.
The azure sea shimmered with ripples under the sunlight.
The waves beat against the rocks on the shore, making a splashing sound.
Seagulls circled in the sky, letting out crisp cries.
"Ah!! The ocean!"
Just as Roy was admiring the beautiful scenery before him.
Misty's excited voice suddenly came from beside him.
Misty had been following by Roy's side for the past two days.
When she saw Bug-type Pokémon, she still looked like she was about to die.
But now... the moment she saw the ocean, she was instantly revived.
Her eyes were frighteningly bright.
Her cheeks were flushed with excitement.
She didn't even care that Roy was still right there and directly took off her shoes.
Revealing a pair of fair and delicate feet.
Her toes were slender, her nails neatly trimmed and painted with pale pink polish.
Under the sunlight, those feet were dazzlingly white.
Her ankles were thin, and the lines of her calves were graceful.
She ran barefoot toward the beach with joy.
Her long, well-proportioned legs glowed with a healthy luster in the sun.
Looking at Misty's sudden change, Roy wondered if she had some hidden Ability?
For example, recovering a large amount of stamina when encountering water or something.
Just as Roy was teasing Misty, the sound of a mission notification came to his ears again.
[Ding! Super-Ancient Challenge—Giant Dragonite!]
Roy: "???????"
Roy looked at the new mission panel that suddenly popped up, and his whole person was stunned for a moment.
Then, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch twice.
"System, isn't your mission release a bit too jumpy?"
He couldn't help but complain in his heart.
"How far have we even gotten? I just barely put together a basic six-Pokémon lineup."
"And we're going straight to a 'Super-Ancient Challenge'?"
"Giant Dragonite? Is that something that can be touched at this stage?"
Roy felt a bit of a headache.
Wasn't this difficulty curve a bit too steep?
It was practically being air-dropped from the starter village directly to the entrance of the ultimate dungeon.
"What's the deal?" Roy continued to grumble internally. "Is another parallel world about to collapse and urgently needs me to save it, so you're rushing my progress like this just to let me restart sooner?"
He joked to himself for a bit before calming down to carefully read the full mission description.
[Super-Ancient Challenge—Giant Dragonite!]
[Special Plot Node 'The Call of Bill's Lighthouse'. The Super-Ancient Dragonite will appear on the coast shortly.]
[Challenge Objective: During the appearance of the Giant Dragonite, use up to six Pokémon to engage it in battle and endure for three minutes without being defeated.]
[Mission Reward: Super-Ancient Resonance Crystal *1—Can activate the Super-Ancient genes of a Pokémon that possesses ancient genes, causing its size and abilities to gain a massive increase.]
[high-grade rare candy *3—After use by a Pokémon below lv70, its level directly increases by 1.]
[Permanent 100% increase in Favorability from the Dragonite species.]
[Special Note: The Giant Dragonite is estimated to be around lv70, possessing special bonuses as a Super-Ancient lifeform; its actual combat power far exceeds that of a conventional Elite-level Pokémon. Please carefully assess your own strength and act within your means, Host!]
Roy finished reading word for word, and especially at that last line of bolded "Special Note," he couldn't help but let out a "Heh" laugh.
"System-bro, you really do have a 'conscience,' don't you?"
"You even know to give me a special note?"
"Heh, never mind it being 'far beyond conventional Elite-level'; even if a normal, solid Elite-level Pokémon came, with my current team, they'd just be slapped into the dirt!"
His current ace, Pikachu, was only level 36.
Against a level 70 Elite Dragonite, what difference would that little Thunder Shock make compared to a tickle?
It would probably be hard to even break its defense.
Not to mention that Dragonite's size was ridiculously huge.
However, teasing aside, Roy's finger didn't hesitate much as he directly tapped the air to accept the mission.
There was no other reason; the rewards were just too tempting.
So tempting that even though he knew there was a tiger in the mountains, he wanted to go see if he could pick up some gains.