Riding on the Charizard, brothers Jacob and Asher soared through downtown, past the jungle west of Starlight City, and finally landed halfway up Mount Zenith.

“What are you doing here?” Asher looked at Jacob curiously.

“I want to capture a Pokémon,” Jacob replied honestly, not bothering to hide his intentions.

“Come to a place like this to catch Pokémon?” Asher laughed incredulously. “This area has been thoroughly explored several times already. There are very few Pokémon with good potential left. If you really want a starter Pokémon, I can give you one. Although it’s a bit late to start your journey, there’s still a chance.”

“No need, brother. I know what I’m doing,” Jacob firmly declined his brother’s offer and walked toward the cave entrance midway up the mountain.

“Suit yourself.” Asher didn’t push any further. His younger brother had always been headstrong since childhood. Besides, with him and their father as the two Gym Leaders, even if Jacob accomplished nothing and simply enjoyed life as a wealthy heir, he could still live comfortably without worries.

Stepping into the cave, they were met with pitch darkness. For safety, Asher summoned his Volcarona, whose brilliant flames illuminated the entire cave entrance.

Jacob looked at the Volcarona with envy in his eyes. Once, he had a Larvesta with Gym Leader-level potential right in front of him, but he hadn’t appreciated it. He didn’t regret his decision until after he lost it.

If it weren’t for this cursed system, he would have already possessed a Volcarona and would be defeating everyone by now.

Walking deeper into the cave, the bat Pokémon hanging upside down were occasionally awakened by the flames from the Volcarona and swooped toward the two brothers, Jacob and Asher.

“Volcarona, get rid of these Zubat,” Asher commanded.

Zubat is an extremely common Poison/Flying-type Pokémon. Its body is entirely dark blue, with cochlea and wing membranes in different shades of purple. Four white teeth can be seen in its wide-open mouth, and it has no eyes.

Zubat detest sunlight and spend most of the day sleeping upside down in caves or under the eaves of old buildings. When awakened, they attack intruders.

In caves like this one, Zubat numbered in the hundreds, potentially thousands. Jacob spotted a few rare specimens among them, but no evolved forms were visible.

Although the Zubat were numerous, they were disorganized. Additionally, the narrow terrain combined with Asher’s Volcarona’s strength created a scenario where a single Pokémon was effectively holding back thousands, completely stopping the Zubat swarm.

“Just three hundred meters more,” Jacob said, checking the disposable Pokémon Detector. Being only three hundred meters away from the Pokémon with King-level potential made Jacob quicken his pace.

After wading through an underground river, Jacob and his brother reached an open area that appeared to be a Zubat nest. Jacob saw densely packed Pokémon eggs within.

“We’re here.”

Jacob’s eyes lit up with joy. The location displayed by the detector matched exactly with the nest before him, which meant that among the cluster of Pokémon eggs ahead, there was one with King-level potential.

“Brother, there are so many Pokémon eggs here. I’ll take one.”

“It’s your choice. These eggs are mostly from the Zubat family. While not particularly powerful, if trained into a Crobat, they can be quite formidable.” Asher glanced at the Pokémon eggs without much interest. He was currently preparing to become a Pokémon Champion. Ordinary Pokémon held no interest for him—he was only interested in Pokémon that could become Championship material.

Jacob crouched down and identified the eggs one by one using the system’s identification ability.

[Pokémon Egg]

Zubat

Gender: Female

Type: Poison/Flying

Potential: Elite

Ability: Inner Focus (Through mental training, one will not flinch from the opponent’s attacks)

Moves: Unknown

Not this one.

While Jacob searched for the Pokémon with King-level potential that he so desperately wanted, a loud howl suddenly echoed through the cave.

A purple figure flashed like a ghost and lunged toward Jacob.

“Volcarona, Fiery Dance!”

Heat waves surged as Asher noticed the purple figure immediately. He ordered Volcarona to release a vortex of blazing flames, sweeping toward Jacob to protect him.

“Charizard, stop it!” Asher simultaneously took Charizard’s Poké Ball from his belt and summoned the Fire/Flying-type to deal with the suddenly appearing Crobat.

[Crobat]

Gender: Male

Type: Poison/Flying

Potential: Overlord

Ability: Infiltrator (Can penetrate the enemy’s barriers to attack)

Moves: Absorb, Gust, Supersonic, Hypnosis, Bite, Air Cutter, Cross Poison, Air Slash, Leech Life, Poison Fang, Mean Look, Scary Face, Protect, Haze, Venoshock, Wing Attack, Confuse Ray

With so many moves, it didn’t seem like a Pokémon that grew up in the wild, but rather one that had been carefully trained by humans.

After missing its attack, the bat flew back to its nest at the opposite end of the cave. Its red eyes kept watching Charizard and Volcarona, not rushing to attack again.

“Scree!”

The Crobat’s voice was sharp, continuously emitting high-pitched ultrasonic waves that propagated through the cave entrance.

“Hey, Jacob, have you made your choice? This Crobat is already calling for reinforcements. If too many Zubat arrive later, I might not be able to handle them all.”

As Asher’s warning faded, the sound of flapping wings came from cave entrances in all directions. Thousands of Zubat rushed out from the openings and descended upon Asher and his brother.

“One moment!” Jacob was becoming anxious too. However, there were too many Pokémon eggs before him. He felt overwhelmed and couldn’t immediately locate the egg with King-level potential. “I’m almost there, just give me a few minutes.”

“Hurry up,” Asher said with resignation. In truth, this swarm of Zubat posed almost no threat to him, but there were so many that if he was careless, one or two might slip by and attack Jacob.

Jacob didn’t waste any more time and continued searching. Finally, in the last area he checked, he found the egg with King-level potential.

[Pokémon Egg]

Noibat

Gender: Male

Type: Flying/Dragon

Potential: King-level

Ability: Telepathy

Moves: ???

Found it!

Jacob barely glanced at the Pokémon egg. After ensuring he had the right one, he immediately cradled it in his arms and retreated to his brother Asher’s side.

The moment the Crobat saw the egg, it let out a high-pitched screech of unmistakable anger and flapped its purple wings toward Jacob.

“Charizard, Flamethrower!”

A blazing stream of fire erupted from Charizard’s mouth, intercepting the approaching Crobat.

“Have you chosen?”

Asher didn’t look at the Zubat but at Jacob. His eyes fell on the Pokémon egg in Jacob’s arms. The pattern on this egg was slightly different from the others, and from appearance alone, it didn’t resemble a Zubat egg.

“Yeah,” Jacob nodded.

“Now that you’ve made your choice, let’s get ready to leave.” Asher positioned himself protectively in front of Jacob and commanded Volcarona, “Volcarona, use your most powerful Heat Wave!”

The scorching hot wind rushed forward, and the instantaneous heat wave forced all the Zubat back. Large groups of Zubat couldn’t withstand the powerful Heat Wave and fell to the ground.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep