Join my p@treon for more chapters

[email protected]/Tempest_29

The two of them finally squeezed into a store, escaping the awkward atmosphere outside. Nina calmly straightened her wrinkled clothes, and they both tacitly avoided mentioning what had just happened.

To hide her embarrassment, Jacob could only pretend to examine the merchandise around the store.

This establishment was luxuriously decorated, spanning three floors in total. The first floor displayed various items and props, the second floor showcased Pokémon eggs, and the third floor housed Pokémon for sale.

The display cabinets on the first floor were filled with various high-quality items. Compared to the small vendors outside, those who could afford physical storefronts obviously possessed greater expertise. The props in the store’s display cabinets were noticeably of higher quality, with correspondingly higher prices.

Jacob’s attention was immediately drawn to the most conspicuous item placed at the center of the store.

“S-level Light Stone, price…”

Looking at the series of 9s in the price tag, Jacob realized the store owner obviously had no intention of selling these items at reasonable prices. The markup was astronomical. They merely kept them as showpieces to enhance the store’s prestige. Of course, if some wealthy individual took a fancy to them and was willing to pay the exorbitant sum, the owner wouldn’t refuse the sale.

Jacob had no interest in such expensive items, so after walking around the display cases twice and finding nothing worthwhile, he proceeded directly to the second floor.

Compared to the first floor, the second floor contained far more Pokémon eggs. Thousands of eggs were placed together somewhat haphazardly, without even labels. They could only be identified by the patterns on their shells.

“The Pokémon eggs here are all top-quality,” the night shift attendant skillfully explained to Jacob. “You can pick one for 10,000 Pokédollars. Choose whatever catches your eye. Pay and take it home. Some lucky customers have found Starter Pokémon eggs and made hundreds of thousands or even millions. Egg hunting depends on luck and a keen eye.”

Jacob directly used his system to check. Almost all were Bug-type Pokémon such as Caterpie, Weedle and Spinarak,. There were also a few Rattata and Pidgey eggs. Basically, their potential ranged between ordinary, rare, and elite levels.

The advantage here was the sheer quantity. With thousands of eggs, there were bound to be some gems hidden among them. Jacob was not in a hurry to examine them one by one.

During his search, he spotted several lord-level and overlord-level Pokémon eggs, and even one with Gym Leader-level potential. Finally, near the end of his search, Jacob discovered a quasi-king-level Pokémon egg.

Snom.

In the games, Snom was one of the four Pokémon with the lowest base stat totals. These four were Sunkern, Wishiwashi, Nincada, and Snom.

Among them, Sunkern was genuinely underwhelming, though its evolved form, Sunflora, was marginally better, especially Sunflora with the Solar Power ability, which had some utility. Its Special Attack was decent, and its damage output wasn’t terrible, but overall, Sunflora remained a subpar Pokémon with slow speed and fragile defenses.

The second was Wishiwashi, which actually didn’t belong on this list. Wishiwashi with its Schooling ability could achieve a base stat total of up to 620, higher than many Legendary Pokémon.

Finally, two Bug-type Pokémon, Nincada and Snom, completed the list.

Although Nincada was quite weak, its final evolution, Ninjask, was excellent. It was one of the few tanky-shield Pokémon in the Bug type, and its strength was quite impressive. It also had access to the extremely powerful move Sticky Web.

Lastly, there was Snom. In its pre-evolved form, Snom was very weak, but its evolved form, Frosmoth, was quite powerful. Its Ice Scales ability was one of the top abilities in the game, but unfortunately, its typing was problematic. The Bug/Ice typing gave it a quadruple weakness to Fire and Rock-type moves, meaning it could be easily knocked out.

However, one advantage of Snom was that it evolved through friendship, which was extremely valuable in reality as it could save a lot of resources.

Jacob didn’t particularly care about these drawbacks. He wasn’t going to use this Pokémon himself. He had chosen it for his father who, as the leader of a Bug-type Gym, still needed some quasi-king-level Pokémon to maintain his reputation.

After spending ten thousand Pokédollars to purchase this egg, Jacob proceeded upstairs. The third floor was filled with hatched and adult Pokémon. Many were obviously recently hatched and kept in cages. The Pokémon here were relatively expensive.

Jacob merely glanced around without much interest. He descended the stairs holding his newly acquired Pokémon egg. First, there were no Pokémon with strength above the King level. Second, most of the Pokémon sold here harbored hatred toward humans. It would take considerable time to change their attitudes, and what Jacob lacked most was time.

As Jacob walked downstairs, Nina looked at the Pokémon egg in Jacob’s arms and frowned slightly. It was nearly impossible to find a high-quality Pokémon egg in such a store. She couldn’t understand why Jacob wanted to buy one. Although the pattern on this egg was somewhat unique, it didn’t resemble the egg of a Dragon-type Pokémon.

“Did you buy it?” Nina asked.

“Yeah. I plan to send the eggs back home to my dad,” Jacob replied.

Hearing that Jacob intended to send the egg back to his hometown, Nina stopped questioning him.

“Let’s go look at other stores.”

…

Jacob and Nina continued to stroll through the enormous underground black market. Along the way, Jacob discovered three quasi-king-level Pokémon and a king-level Cottonee.

Cottonee was a rather special Pokémon. Its raw strength wasn’t particularly impressive. It wasn’t exceptional in terms of offense or defense, but it had always been one of the most popular Pokémon in double battles.

This was because its evolved form, Whimsicott, was one of the strongest support Pokémon in existence. The reason? It possessed the top-tier ability Prankster. It was also the only Grass-type Pokémon with the Prankster ability. Combined with its wide movepool, it firmly held a position as a tier-one level support.

The Cottonee before him had the Prankster ability. Although its potential was only at the King level, with this ability, the combat effectiveness it could demonstrate would definitely far exceed others at the King level. This was especially true in double battles, where it would produce an effect greater than the sum of its parts.

However, in reality, Cottonee also had a disadvantage: its evolution required a Sun Stone, which wasn’t easy to obtain.

“Hey, hey!” Jacob was pondering the Cottonee when he was suddenly addressed by the vendor in front of him. “Brother, do you want to buy it for 5,000 Pokédollars?”

“I’ll take it. Here’s five thousand Pokédollars,” Jacob paid without hesitation. How could he pass up a king-level Cottonee with the Prankster ability for just five thousand Pokédollars?

Although he couldn’t train this Cottonee for the time being, he could give it to someone else. Looking at this king-level Cottonee, Jacob felt that his Dragon Master mission was becoming quite restrictive.

While the rewards were considerable, the difficulty and restrictions of the tasks were also substantial.

Jacob was contemplating what to do with this Cottonee. He definitely didn’t want to give it away. When this Cottonee matured, it would certainly be no weaker than a King level Pokémon. However, due to the limitations of his mission, he couldn’t capture it himself.

Could he exploit system loopholes?

Perhaps have someone else help train it, or train the Cottonee himself but not capture it in a Poké Ball. Jacob wasn’t sure whether these workarounds would lead to mission failure, and he didn’t dare to gamble.

He had captured four Dragon-type Pokémon and only needed two more.

Jacob was hesitant. He didn’t want to give up the Cottonee, but he was also reluctant to abandon his mission. He found himself in a dilemma.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep