The doors of the Ecruteak Gym were wide open, welcoming guests from all directions.
Ever since Yan announced the news of "no limit to the number of Ecruteak Gym challengers," many challengers who hadn't collected all the badges gathered in Ecruteak City. Of course, most of them were passersby trainers who hadn't obtained a single badge, hoping to try their luck in Ecruteak City.
Those who always harbored a lucky mentality could hardly succeed every time.
Early on, Leo posted the challenge rules at the gym entrance: challengers who successfully defeated one of the four apprentices of the gym would earn the qualification to challenge the gym leader, Yan. They would engage in one-on-one Pokémon battles, with both apprentices and gym trainers using Ghost-type Pokémon.
Yan arranged the battlefields next to the training grounds to facilitate instant battles. For this event, Yan spared no expense, temporarily hiring two Pokémon doctors to be stationed at the Ecruteak Gym, ready to heal and restore the stamina of the four members of Cain's team at any time.
Gastly continued its individual training to condense Shadow Ball, while Ditto had already gone to the Bell Tower to play "chase and defense games" with the Ghost-type Pokémon there.
On the first day, Cain could calmly focus on solo training. From the second day onward, more and more people gathered in the Ecruteak Gym, and about ten battles were arranged for each person every day.
Cain didn't feel much, as these people had limited strength. They were either bug-catching boys or youngsters in shorts who lacked the money to train Pokémon, or mountaineering uncles who knew nothing about Pokémon and joined halfway through.
The Pokémon they used were mostly underdeveloped, with limited skills.
After a week, everyone had fought in about seventy battles, with hardly any losses. Fantina's Drifloon evolved into Drifblim during the battles.
Drifblim had the highest HP stat among Ghost-type Pokémon, along with good speed and special attack. Its offensive and defensive capabilities were greatly enhanced.
This excited Fantina for several days, and she remained undefeated with Drifblim after having lost two battles before.
In the seventy-plus battles, Gastly used Embargo, Shadow Ball, and Sludge Bomb the most. The Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb that it launched had become noticeably elliptical, and their explosive power had significantly increased.
The poisoning rate of Sludge Bomb also gradually increased with the rise in explosive power. As long as the Sludge Bomb could break the opponent's skin, the poison would seep into the opponent's body and naturally poison them. However, it didn't work against Pokémon with thick skin and or armor.
As its level increased, Gastly also learned the Dream Eater move. Unfortunately, it didn't like using Dream Eater, so the move was wasted. Instead, it preferred to directly drain the opponent's life energy.
Three days passed, and influenced by Spiritomb, Gastly learned Dark Pulse during a battle.
This was a move Gastly could learn on its own, not as difficult to master as moves learned from TMs. Moreover, it had already learned the Dark-type move Embargo, so it had some experience in manipulating Dark-type energy.
Dark Pulse.
Emitting a terrifying aura filled with malice from within, this special attack move sometimes causes the opponent to shrink back. It's a very practical skill that can be paired with any other move, and such an area-of-effect damaging move can be very effective in the wild.
Ten days had passed, and the excitement of the Gym challenge had gradually died down. This was because, within these ten days, only one person had managed to obtain a Badge from the Ecruteak Gym. Gradually, those who came to challenge the Gym lost their confidence, and the number of daily challengers was reduced to half of the original numbers.
Gastly had already learned Dark Pulse, although it was not yet very proficient. According to the skill mastery level, Gastly should have evolved by now, but it hadn't. This was probably related not only to its own potential but also to its current physical condition. After all, its body had changed significantly since it had stimulated its Poison core.
Evolution is a mysterious aspect of Pokémon and a sacred and solemn process. A major reason why Pokémon are called "magical" has to do with their evolution.
The evolution of humans and some ordinary creatures might take tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years, depending on environmental and ecological changes. It's a process of natural selection, survival of the fittest, leaving only those that have adapted to the environment.
However, Pokémon evolution has both a general direction and individual evolution. This type of evolution doesn't require tens of thousands of years but occurs when a Pokémon accumulates enough battle experience and gathers enough energy within its body, leading to a phenomenon of energy and physical mutations.
Generally, a Pokémon's evolution involves changes like an increase in size and enhanced abilities, which result from the interaction between the energy that triggers the evolution and the physical mutations.
Many scholars and researchers have studied evolution, and many specific evolutions have yet to be discovered. Cases of evolution relying on items are still limited to Vaporeon, Flareon, and Jolteon.
For example, Vaporeon evolves from Eevee when it absorbs the power of a Water Stone, causing its body to be filled with water-type energy and undergo a physical mutation.
The leading expert on evolution research is Professor Rowan from the Sinnoh region, who has pioneered many special evolutions and first promoted them in Sinnoh.
Cain already knew about these concepts and had once thought of using this knowledge to gain recognition from the Pokémon League and receive a subsidy, which would be a large sum compared to what he earned as a Pokémon Hunter.
He had once considered using evolution studies to change his fate and had put this plan into action. However, when he published his first report on evolutionary theory, Professor Rowan sued him.
This was because Professor Rowan already had a research manuscript but hadn't published it yet. In such a situation, someone with no background or support, like Cain, became a thief who plagiarized others' intellectual achievements.
Due to Professor Rowan's great reputation, and his students and former colleagues being spread all over the world, nobody chose to believe Cain. However, they also didn't have any direct evidence to prove that he had plagiarized, so in the end, he received a warning as punishment.
Thus, even if two people simultaneously possessed the same research results, the one with the higher reputation would inevitably gain fame and success, while the other would be considered a plagiarist. Moreover, at the time, Cain was only 11 years old, and nobody would believe that a young boy could achieve such a thing at that age.
This is the reality, the naked truth. This event also accelerated Cain's journey on the path of becoming a Pokémon hunter.
Professor Rowan, huh...
In this life, if I have the mood to publish a theory of evolution, then I can only apologize to you first. In my previous life, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have had to work so hard, Cain reflected.