When Reiji checked Gengar’s Poison-type moves, the proficiency values were creeping upward in tiny 0.01 jumps. The corner of his mouth twitched. Just how much poison had Tai fed this thing? At this rate, even the panel’s live readout was barely keeping up.

Gengar’s Poison-type moves were improving every second, ticking upward like a clock hand. Even when Reiji had fed poison to his own Gengar, it had never shown anything this extreme.

“How much poison did you feed Gengar?” Reiji set Gengar’s Poké Ball down and lowered his voice.

“More than a hundred toxin crystals,” Tai admitted honestly. He had gone all in and fed every single one to Gengar. As for Muk, he was counting on the shiny Grimer to keep improving later, so Muk wouldn’t be using toxin crystals anymore.

Reiji gave a dry cough the moment he heard that number. He really hadn’t expected Tai to go that far.

When he had told him to use a heavier dose, he had assumed Tai might try five or ten at most. Instead, the man had dumped more than a hundred toxin crystals into Gengar in one go.

Back then, Reiji’s Gengar had gone to sleep for three days after taking half a kilo of toxic liquid. It had been lower-level at the time, sure, but this Gengar had swallowed over a hundred crystals. Even with Advanced-tier strength, it would probably stay asleep for at least half a year, maybe a full year.

“Gengar’s fine too, but you gave it way too many toxin crystals. It’ll be asleep for at least six months, maybe a year. Seven or eight at a time would’ve been enough. Dumping more than a hundred into it at once was way too much.”

“That long?” Tai blurted out. The moment the words left his mouth, he realized he’d spoken too loudly. He quickly glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention, then lowered his voice. “It’s really okay?”

“It’s fine.” Reiji shook his head, telling him not to worry. Gengar still had real prospects. Once it woke up, its potential would definitely break into Elite Four tier. But there was one problem. “You should be prepared. Your Gengar’s attributes are badly lopsided.”

“The Poison typing?” Tai caught on immediately. Gengar had only been fed toxin crystals, not Ghost-type supplements. Most of its growth had obviously gone into Poison.

“Right.” Reiji nodded lightly. He had noticed the same issue when he was raising Haunter, which was why he hadn’t let his own Gengar feed on Poison-type resources alone. He had given it Poison-, Ghost-, Psychic-, and even Dark-type resources to keep it balanced.

“Can I fix it later?” Tai asked. If not, then his Gengar would end up only knowing how to fight like a Poison-type.

“You can, but leveling it back out won’t be easy. Poison resources are cheap. Ghost-type resources are expensive. You’ll need to pour in hundreds of millions, or find a place heavy with Ghost-type energy and let Gengar train there while it absorbs enough Ghost energy to make up the gap.”

Reiji let out a quiet breath. If the Poison energy in Gengar’s body kept suppressing its Ghost energy for too long, he honestly didn’t know what kind of consequences that would bring.

A moment ago, he had been thinking too simply. If the Ghost energy stayed suppressed over the long term, then Champion tier might be out of reach entirely.

“Got it. Check this one too.” Tai put Gengar’s Poké Ball away, then took out a new one and handed it over, asking for more advice.

He had already memorized everything Reiji had said. So that was what “a heavy dose” meant—seven or eight crystals. He had gone way too hard.

He also remembered what Reiji had said last night: increase the toxin little by little until the Pokémon fell asleep. He had assumed that sleep would only last a few days. He hadn’t expected that shoving down more than a hundred crystals would knock Gengar out for that long.

Same lesson as before. He had to remember every detail and think it through again and again before applying it to his Pokémon. Next time, he absolutely couldn’t act this recklessly.

“Nidoran♂?” Reiji looked at the young Pokémon inside the Poké Ball, a little surprised Tai had caught something like this.

Every Pokémon Tai had was a Poison-type already, and now he had gone and added Nidoran♂ too. At this rate, Ground- and Psychic-types were going to torment him to death sooner or later. Not that Reiji was in much better shape himself. He had Darkrai. Tai had the big black dog.

[Nidoran♂]

[Type: Poison]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 48%]

[Level: 12.14%]

[Ability: Rivalry/7.53%]

[Moves…]

Reiji scratched his head awkwardly. It had taken a while to finally see a future Nidoking cub, and of course it didn’t even have Sheer Force.

“This Nidoran♂ is fine too. It’s just…”

“Go ahead,” Tai said. “I can take it.”

The moment he had decided to catch this Nidoran♂, he had already accepted whatever came with it.

“If you can get a high-grade Moon Stone, this Nidoran♂ has real prospects. If you can’t…”

Reiji left the sentence hanging. Tai would understand.

A Nidoran♂ with starting potential of forty-eight, plus a three-stage evolution line, plus a high-grade Moon Stone—its ceiling would be at least upper-mid Elite Four tier. If he used an ordinary Moon Stone instead, then reaching Elite Four tier at all would already be good enough.

Muk was still swallowing poison and improving nonstop. Its Champion-level future hardly needed explaining. As long as it kept fusing toxins into itself, it would reach that level sooner or later.

Gengar was weaker by comparison. It lacked Ghost-type energy, and Reiji suspected quasi-Champion tier would be its limit unless Tai found a way to fix that flaw.

As for Weepinbell, Gyarados, and Houndoom, all of them basically had what it took to break into Elite Four tier.

Whether they would end up in the upper ranks of Elite Four tier or spend their lives hovering at the lower end would depend entirely on how Tai raised them.

“I understand.” Tai drew in a long breath. Most of it matched what he had expected, aside from Gengar turning out worse than he thought.

He should have had two Pokémon that could keep breaking through their limits, but because of his mistake, Gengar had ended up lacking Ghost-type energy. Fixing that later was going to be a huge headache.

Even so, becoming an Elite Four-tier Trainer would already be enough. In a place like the Orange Archipelago, that was plenty for self-defense. It was also enough to protect his sister. He wasn’t greedy.

“Right, I need a favor.” Once Tai finished taking notes, Reiji finally brought up his own business. “You work at the power plant, don’t you? I want to catch some Magnemite. Take me around inside and let me see if there are any with decent talent.”

“No problem. Come on.” Tai didn’t hesitate. What Reiji had just told him was useful enough to last a lifetime. He was happy to help. Besides, he planned to stick with Reiji in the future anyway. That man was basically his boss now.

Muk, Weepinbell, Gyarados, Houndoom, Gengar, Nidoran♂—if he could raise all of them properly, then Elite Four tier was within reach. Once that happened, nobody in the Orange Archipelago would dare bully him again.

“Where do we start?” Reiji stood and looked toward the coal-fired power plants in the distance, thick black smoke rolling from their stacks. With that many plants around, they ought to be able to find at least one Magnemite worth keeping.

“Let’s start with Team Rocket’s plant. I know that one best, and nobody there will notice us,” Tai said as he led the way, clearly in high spirits. He knew exactly how frightening Reiji’s special ability was.

Back when they had first joined the Poison Gang and chosen their starter Pokémon, Reiji had picked out the only two with decent talent at a glance. There was a good chance Tai might get lucky again today and come away with a solid Electric-type of his own.

It wasn’t long before the two of them arrived at a storage room where the power plant kept its Magnemite. Rows of Poké Balls sat neatly on carts, ready to be taken away by whichever staff member came on shift next.

Magnemite fed on electricity, so not eating normal food wasn’t a problem. Once they entered, Reiji stared at the numbers on the carts and began running his hand over the Poké Balls one by one.

“Here we go,” Tai murmured. Watching Reiji move from ball to ball took him right back to the day they had joined the Poison Gang and picked their starter Pokémon. That was how he had ended up with Weepinbell.

And Weepinbell had never let him down. It had carried him through the hardest stretch of training. All he lacked now was a high-grade Leaf Stone to evolve it into Victreebel.

It wasn’t just Nidoran♂. For every Pokémon he owned, he wanted to use the best evolution stone possible. Waiting longer was fine. He had no intention of rushing it with some mediocre stone and ruining the Weepinbell he had raised so carefully.

“No. No. Still nothing.” Reiji checked several carts in a row. Each cart had five shelves, with fifty Magnemite total, and not one of them satisfied him.

“Nothing?” Tai watched him shake his head and couldn’t help thinking it was absurd. Out of several hundred Magnemite, not a single one with decent talent?

“Nothing.” Reiji shook his head again and looked elsewhere. More carts were lined up over there.

He checked every last one. Still nothing above fifty potential. All of them were low-potential Magnemite. He had already gone through five hundred. Was his luck really this rotten again today?

“Tai? What are you doing here?” One of the power plant workers had seen the lights on in the storage room and come over to check. He found Tai there with another worker he didn’t recognize. Well, he looked like a plant employee, at least—same uniform and everything—but the man didn’t remember ever seeing Reiji before.

“Checking whether these Magnemite still have enough charge,” Tai replied calmly, just as if this were any ordinary workday. That really was part of his cover job here, even if he usually skipped it whenever he could get away with it.

“That’s rare,” the worker said.

He pushed a cart into the room, also loaded with Poké Balls, then wheeled another cart out. In the end he swapped out five carts total, bringing in five fresh ones and taking five away.

Looks like it was shift change time for the Magnemite.

“These ones just came off rotation, so make sure you check them properly,” the worker said before fastening the five carts together and pushing them away.

“Don’t worry. They’re locals,” Tai whispered after watching his coworker leave.

Reiji looked at the Magnemite that had just come off shift and started checking them one by one again. Then, when he reached the second shelf of the third cart, his hand stopped.

He picked up that Magnemite’s Poké Ball.

“Fifty. Not bad.” Reiji sighed inwardly. After all that searching, he had finally found a Magnemite with fifty potential. But he needed three of them, which made the situation awkward.

He put that Poké Ball aside and kept going through the rest. By the end, he had checked all one thousand Magnemite here. Only one had decent potential—the one he had just found with fifty.

“Only one. Let’s go,” Reiji said. The Magnemite was a little awkward—fifty potential wasn’t high enough to feel great, but it wasn’t low enough to ignore either. Still, it was the best one here, so he would take it for now and replace it later if he found one with better potential.

“Just one?” Tai stared at him. One thousand Magnemite, and only one with decent talent? That was absurdly rare.

“Any more?” Reiji looked at him, asking whether they could hit the other power plants too. Since Tai had the perfect employee disguise today, Reiji wanted to make the most of it and visit every plant in the city.

“You still need more?” Tai had assumed one would be enough.

“Magnemite’s an evolution line built around combination evolution. Magneton is formed from three Magnemite, so…”

“I get it. I remember that Magnemite evolves as a three-part combination, with one acting as the core and the other two as support. Most Trainers only need to raise the main one carefully. Sounds like you’re planning to raise all three.”

Tai understood now. Reiji wasn’t just raising Magnemite—he was planning to raise three of them at once. It was hard not to be jealous.

He couldn’t help marveling again at what someone with a special ability could get away with. Three strong Magnemite evolving together… just how powerful would that be?

“Come on. I know someone at the plant next door. We can go take a look.” Tai wrote down the record for taking that Magnemite on the inventory board, then led Reiji out.

The power plant wouldn’t care about one missing Magnemite. As long as the reason looked legitimate, Tai had the authority to handle it.

Then the two of them headed to another power plant. Reiji once again ran his hand over each Poké Ball one by one. When he finished checking every single one, he still hadn’t found a Magnemite worth keeping.

After that, they moved on to a third plant.

“Were all the Magnemite outside already caught?” Tai asked at last, watching how seriously Reiji was taking this.

“Obviously,” Reiji said without even looking at him, his hands still moving over the Poké Balls. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be targeting the ones in the power plants.”

Then, at last, he found another one.

“Fifty-five. Nice. You’ll do.” Reiji finally smiled. This was what he called decent potential.

It was only five points higher, but those five points would save him tens of millions later. It was more work now, sure, but when the time came for fusion evolution, that extra quality would save a fortune.

He kept checking the rest and found nothing but low-potential Magnemite, so he called Tai and moved on.

Then they hit two more plants in a row and found nothing else. At that point, Reiji could only sigh and call it there. If they kept touching every Poké Ball in every power plant, people were going to get suspicious.

“Five power plants. Several thousand Magnemite. And only these two had decent talent?” Tai’s feet were numb by now. After running all over the city, even he was starting to feel worn out.

That wasn’t even the main point. Several thousand Magnemite, and only two were any good. It had completely overturned the way he thought about talent. He had never realized good Pokémon were this rare.

He had assumed that with Reiji’s ability, finding high-talent Pokémon should be effortless. Instead, even he had to work this hard for a single good catch.

That made Tai think about Houndoom, Gyarados, and the others. If all of them truly had real prospects, then his luck must have been ridiculous.

Grimer had been a random catch, and its limit depended entirely on poison. Weepinbell had come from Team Rocket’s rookie selection. Houndoom and Gyarados had been gifts from Reiji. Gengar was forcing its ceiling higher with poison. Nidoran♂ had been a lucky accident.

When he counted it all up, more than half his team had some connection to Reiji.

The man really was a mystery.

Good thing he meant no harm. Otherwise, Tai never would have dared stay in contact with him.

[End of chapter]

[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]

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