"Heracross, come out."
Heracross wasn't very large, and it appeared in the middle of the Pokémon Center as Gary released it.
"Ha!"
Heracross, pitch black all over, came out and greeted Gary the moment it saw him.
[LV59 Heracross / Champion]
Gary hadn't caught many Pokémon in the Johto region, and he hadn't paid Heracross much attention since.
After the Silver Conference, Heracross had been left at Professor Oak's Laboratory. Gary hadn't expected it to reach such a high level—it was just one level away from Elite.
"Well, it looks like you've been training hard back at the lab," Gary said, giving it a word of praise.
"Ha!"
Heracross puffed up, insisting it had trained relentlessly at the lab, and that Ash's Heracross couldn't even come close to beating it.
Gary smiled.
Ash's Heracross had been caught around the same population, so they were technically from the same group. But the Heracross Gary had subdued wasn't just a different color—it was the boss of that entire group. Ash's Heracross, upon seeing its old leader, naturally wouldn't dare say a word against it.
"To reward your hard work, I've decided to strengthen you," Gary said.
"Ha!"
Was it finally its turn?
Heracross could hardly believe it. It hadn't expected the surprise to come so suddenly.
Gary reached out and placed his hand on Heracross's hard shell, silently speaking in his mind: "System, use an Ability Enhancement Stone on Heracross."
[Ding! Ability Enhancement Stone used successfully.]
[Pokémon: Heracross (Shiny)]
[Type: Bug, Fighting]
[Level: 59]
[Potential: Champion]
[Ability: Moxie (If the opponent is defeated, your confidence surges, raising your Attack by one stage.)]
[Ability 2: Swarm (When HP drops below one-third, the power of Bug-type moves increases by 1.5 times.)]
[Ability 3: Guts (When afflicted with a status condition, physical Attack increases by 50% and ignores the halving effect burns normally have on physical Attack.)]
[Moves: Tackle, Leer, Arm Thrust, Fury Attack, Aerial Ace, Horn Attack, Counter, Brick Break, Pin Missile, Megahorn, Close Combat, Reversal, Protect.]
[Tutor Moves: Dig, Stone Edge, Rest, Hyper Beam, Lunge, Body Slam, Shadow Claw, Bulk Up, Rock Slide, Endeavor, Earthquake, Swords Dance, Rain Dance, Hidden Power.]
[Friendship: 255 (max value)]
"Should I enhance Swarm?"
Gary hesitated over whether to make Heracross more complete.
He thought back to Blastoise's enhanced Torrent ability—once triggered, it had massively boosted Blastoise's power.
But that logic didn't quite apply to Heracross, because badly poisoned status worked differently from regular poison. Regular poison drained energy at a steady, slow rate. Badly poisoned status, on the other hand, got progressively worse over time. By the time Heracross's HP dropped below one-third and Swarm activated, the toxic damage would already be escalating violently. Even if Swarm triggered, the window where it would actually matter would be very short.
Gary hadn't accumulated many Ability Enhancement Stones so far—only eleven remained.
The real problem was that there were very few ways to obtain them. Defeating a Frontier Brain was one method, but Frontier Brains only existed in the Kanto and Sinnoh regions; other regions had none.
Capturing Legendary Pokémon was another way, but that was far too difficult and entirely dependent on luck.
The last method was through the League Conference, but this time, the system hadn't issued any mission tied to the tournament yet. He wasn't sure what was going on with the system.
Was it because his strength had grown too high, to the point where the League Conference could no longer trigger a mission?
After thinking it over, Gary decided to enhance two of Heracross's abilities instead: Guts and Moxie.
[Ding! Ability enhanced successfully.]
[Ding! Ability enhanced successfully.]
EX Moxie (If the opponent is defeated, your confidence surges, raising your Attack, Special Attack, and Speed by one stage.)
EX Guts (When afflicted with a status condition, physical Attack doubles, and all stat-reduction effects from status conditions are ignored.)
Gary looked over the two enhanced abilities.
"It can actually boost Speed too."
Gary had originally assumed that after enhancement, the physical Attack boost would simply increase to two stages, and maybe there'd be some additional Special Attack boost thrown in. He hadn't expected Speed to be affected at all. Even though each stat only increased by one level, having three stats boosted at once was still a significant jump.
The enhanced Guts was excellent as well—physical Attack doubled, and the negative effects of status conditions were ignored entirely. Not only did it bypass the halved physical Attack from burns, but it also ignored the Special Attack reduction from frostbite and the Speed reduction from paralysis. Very solid.
"Time to head to Lily of the Valley."
There was only a little over a month left before the Lily of the Valley Conference began.
Gary decided to actively register for the tournament to see if doing so would finally trigger a mission from the system.
After resting for a day in Sunyshore City, the next morning arrived.
Gary rode Garchomp across the sea and arrived at Lily of the Valley.
The Sinnoh League headquarters was based there.
Lily of the Valley also served as a transit point in the seas of the Sinnoh region, and it was a remarkably fertile island.
Lily of the Valley was an island covered in forest, with a few mountainous areas scattered throughout its interior. Most of the population lived along the southern side of the island.
"There are so many people."
Gary arrived at the top of the Lily of the Valley pier, where a large crowd had already gathered.
Because the Lily of the Valley Conference was being held soon, many people had come to the island both to watch the tournament and to travel.
Gary paid the crowd no mind and headed straight for the Pokémon Center to register for the competition.
There were plenty of other competitors as well. Gary landed at the entrance of the Pokémon Center, where two lines had already formed.
After landing at the entrance and recalling Garchomp, Gary walked into the Pokémon Center and looked around. He soon spotted a red Heatran standing nearby.
[LV60 Heatran / Quasi-Legendary]
"So it's true!"
Gary was surprised—there really was a Trainer participating in this year's Lily of the Valley Conference with a Heatran.
A crowd had gathered around Heatran's Trainer, a teenager who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old.
"A level 60 Heatran has already been eliminated? Did this guy run into Dakdu?" Gary muttered, confused.
A Pokémon at level 60 was more than capable of dominating in the League Conference, yet there had been no mention of this kid anywhere in tournament coverage, which meant he'd likely been eliminated in the preliminary rounds.
If Heatran had actually been used in battle, it definitely would have caused a media stir. So either this young trainer had lost without ever using his ace Pokémon, or something else had gone wrong—though the former seemed far more likely.
"Oh! Gary!"
A voice cut through Gary's thoughts.