Perhaps because the Ice God resided on Ice Island, many of the Pokémon living here had undergone unusual changes.
Overall, their aptitudes were surprisingly high.
Blue aptitude was the minimum.
Purple aptitude was common.
Even Pokémon such as Glaceon, which normally required an Ice Stone to evolve, could be found naturally living here.
As a result, after encountering that Glaceon, Lorelei immediately became interested.
She released her Jynx and successfully defeated and captured the Level 40 Glaceon.
After scanning it, Aiden discovered that it possessed Gold aptitude.
More than enough to become one of Lorelei's future core Pokémon.
As the Vice Champion of the Indigo League, Lorelei naturally possessed a large number of Pokémon.
She even owned three Jynx.
One Master-tier.
One Champion-tier.
And one Elite Four-tier.
However—
She had never owned a Glaceon before.
So after capturing it, she gained a brand-new Pokémon worthy of long-term training.
Seeing Lorelei obtain a new partner, Aiden began using his psychic powers to search the island for other interesting Pokémon.
Most of the Pokémon living on Ice Island were species such as Seel, Dewgong, and Starmie.
Water-types.
Ice-types.
Strong enough.
But not particularly attractive to him.
In Aiden's opinion, a Pokémon had to satisfy at least one of three conditions:
Outstanding appearance.
Outstanding strength.
Or be an exceptionally unique individual.
Otherwise, he simply wasn't interested.
As they continued exploring, Aiden released Gabite and Porygon.
Whenever they encountered reasonably powerful wild Pokémon, he would have the two battle them using unfavorable type matchups as training.
Speaking of Porygon—
It couldn't really be considered one of Aiden's main battle Pokémon.
Originally, he had captured it largely for data collection and information storage.
Its battle talent wasn't particularly impressive.
More importantly—
Porygon itself disliked fighting.
So Aiden never forced it.
Currently, it remained only at Elite-level strength.
To evolve into Porygon2, it needed to be traded while holding an Upgrade.
Unfortunately, Aiden didn't possess such an item yet.
As a result, Porygon's evolution had been delayed indefinitely.
Gabite, however, was a different story.
Among Aiden's current team, it was his seventh Pokémon with the potential to reach Red aptitude.
Recently, he had invested considerable effort into training it.
And now—
It wasn't far from its final evolution.
Just then, they encountered a Cloyster.
Aiden immediately decided to use it as training.
"Gabite!"
"Brick Break!"
Receiving the command, Gabite roared and charged forward.
Fighting-type energy gathered around its claws.
It struck down fiercely.
Facing the attack, Cloyster immediately withdrew into its shell.
Shell Smash?
No.
It used Withdraw.
Its defensive power increased dramatically.
"Keep attacking."
"The shell is tough, but repeated strikes to the same point will eventually break through."
Hearing Aiden's instructions, Gabite roared.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Its blade-like claws repeatedly slammed into the exact same location.
Crack.
A faint cracking sound appeared.
Soon afterward—
The shell began breaking apart.
Unable to endure the continuous punishment, Cloyster finally collapsed.
"Ding!"
"Gabite defeated Cloyster!"
"Experience gained: 3,753!"
"Level increased!"
"Gabite has reached Level 48!"
As the system notification sounded, Gabite let out an excited roar.
Immediately afterward—
Its body began growing larger.
Brilliant white light enveloped it completely.
Seeing this, Lorelei smiled.
"It's evolving."
Indeed.
Upon reaching Level 48, Gabite had finally begun its evolution.
The light continued shining.
Several moments later—
It faded away.
Standing before Aiden and Lorelei was a massive dragon nearly three meters tall.
"Ding!"
"Gabite has evolved into Garchomp!"
"Ding!"
"Current Pokémon Data:"
Pokémon: Garchomp
Divine Position: None
Level: 50
Ability: Sand Veil
Type: Dragon / Ground
Aptitude: Red
Bond Evolution: Locked
Mega Evolution: Available
Moves: Sand Tomb, Dragon Breath, Slash, Stomping Tantrum, Dragon Claw, Draco Meteor, Sandstorm, Twister, Metal Claw, Dragon Pulse, Stealth Rock...
Friendship: 238
Background:
The outstanding descendant of the strongest Garchomp in the modern world. Inherited exceptional genetic talent. After meeting the host and completing its final evolution, it obtained even greater power.
Likes:
Growing stronger.
Eating dirt.
Looking at the updated status screen, Aiden smiled.
Just as expected.
Pokémon with Gold aptitude in their initial forms had a very high probability of becoming Red aptitude Pokémon after completing their final evolutions.
Now that Garchomp had evolved, its level had increased by two more levels, directly entering the Quasi-Elite Four tier.
And as a fully evolved pseudo-legendary Pokémon—
Its future growth would accelerate rapidly.
Just like Lucario.
Dragonite.
Salamence.
Metagross.
Infernape.
And the Shiny Aggron before it.
All destined to become true powerhouses.
...
Thinking about it carefully—
Among Aiden's entire roster, only Garchomp and Porygon had yet to reach Elite Four-level combat power.
Every other Pokémon he owned had already entered the Elite Four tier or higher.
Of course, that was largely because these two had joined his team relatively late.
While continuing to scan the island with his psychic powers, Aiden suddenly noticed something unusual.
"Hm?"
"There are actually Pokémon like these on the Orange Islands?"
"And there are two of them."
Hearing him mutter to himself, Lorelei became curious.
The two followed the psychic signal.
Soon afterward—
They arrived before a pair of small fox-like Pokémon.
The moment she saw them, Lorelei froze.
A look of disbelief appeared on her face.
"T-Those are Vulpix?"
Aiden nodded with a smile.
"That's right."
"They're Vulpix."
"But Vulpix are Fire-types."
"They're supposed to have red fur."
"Don't tell me these are Shiny Pokémon?"
Lorelei asked.
Aiden shook his head.
"No."
"These little ones are Ice-types."
"They originally come from the Alola Region."
"Because of the unique climate there, many Pokémon developed different forms compared to their counterparts elsewhere."
"Those environmental adaptations changed their attributes."
"It seems these two settled on Ice Island and maintained those characteristics."
"Or perhaps the environment here further reinforced them."
At this point, the two white foxes finally turned around.
Snow-white fur.
Icy blue eyes.
Elegant tails fluttering gently in the cold wind.
Standing before Aiden and Lorelei—
Were two Alolan Vulpix.
Ice-type Vulpix.
...
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