The subsequent challenges of the nine individuals no longer interested Fang Yuan.
The next day, Fang Yuan stayed inside the villa.
At this moment, he was staring at the Tree Fruit inside the jade box before him, lost in thought.
This was a green Tree Fruit similar to a starfruit, and it was the resource related to Mental Power that Fang Yuan had applied for after defeating the Top Overlord.
"The Trainer Association also doesn't have any top-level resources related to Mental Power."
"This Star Fruit is the only one that's even remotely related to Mental Power, and it still depends on luck..."
"It seems Mental Power is still too mysterious."
The Star Fruit couldn't be found on Earth's internet; neither fruit encyclopedias nor textbooks had detailed records of it.
This was a rare product brought back by the Hua Nation's exploration team from the Amazon Rainforest, and the Trainer Association originally only collected seven of them, four of which had already been used.
Moreover, it had been confirmed that this kind of Tree Fruit wasn't capable of being cultivated.
The one in Fang Yuan's hand was the fifth Tree Fruit, and one of the only three remaining Star Fruits in the China Trainer Association's possession.
Fang Yuan remembered the Star Fruit; he could name more than half of the rare Tree Fruits, and he had paid special attention to them while playing the game.
In the game, although the Star Fruit wasn't particularly cherished, its description was very powerful.
Star Fruit: So powerful that it was cast out to the edges of the world, a dreamlike Tree Fruit.
Originally, fruits containing the powers of the sky, land, and sea like the Sand Scale Fruit had a high enough status, but compared to them, the Star Fruit was in no way inferior, even far surpassing them.
Fang Yuan also knew the role of this fruit in the game: it could randomly increase one of the Pokemon's Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, or Speed by two levels when it was low on Physical Strength.
Back then, the Sand Scale Fruit, which contained Sky Power and allowed Eevee to develop its movement speed and reaction speed to the current limit for winning the Little Phoenix King Cup, only increased Speed by one level when low on Physical Strength.
By comparison, the randomness of the Star Fruit was intriguing; there were two possibilities: one was that different Star Fruits brought different powers, the other was that the Star Fruit contained enormous power, but the Pokemon that ate it could only digest a part of it, hence the increase in a random attribute.
Of course, all of these were just inferences Fang Yuan made from the in-game descriptions. In reality, the information given to Fang Yuan by the Trainer Association was that the benefits each Pokemon gained from eating the Star Fruit varied depending on the individual Pokemon.
Among the Twelve Earthly Branches, a top Breeder claimed after analysis through instruments and experiments that the amount of power a Pokemon could gain from the Star Fruit depended on the Pokemon's potential rather than strength, suggesting that the power contained within the Star Fruit was all-encompassing and could fully unearth a Pokemon's inherent potential.
This potential might be physical strength, speed, Attribute Energy, or even Mental Power.
How much power could be obtained from the Star Fruit relied entirely on the Pokemon's own ability.
The value of the Star Fruit was judged by the Trainer Association to be no less than that of the Meteorite from Outside of the World.
"No matter how you look at it, it's a good thing."
Excitement kindled within Fang Yuan's heart, and he came up with a bold idea.
Fang Yuan hoped to make the Star Fruit into Energy Blocks; that way, perhaps he could create the top-level Energy Blocks!
However, Fang Yuan was a bit apprehensive, fearing a large loss if the attempt ended in failure.
After pondering for a long time, Fang Yuan still decided to give it a try, splitting the Star Fruit into pieces; he would experiment with a portion, and if successful, he would turn the rest into Energy Blocks. If it failed, he would let Eevee eat the remainder.
The reason for Fang Yuan's boldness was because he knew that some top-level Tree Fruits didn't need to be mixed with others.
In other words, without any formula, a single type of Tree Fruit could be used to create Top Energy Blocks.
The only thing left to worry about were the details.
This type of Tree Fruits included Sand Scale Fruit, Shito Fruit, Mist Lotus Fruit, Strange Mystical Fruit, Lansa Fruit, and others like the Star Fruit.
"Self-detonating Magnetic Monster!!!" Fang Yuan shouted hoarsely.
As the Self-Detonating Magnet Pokémon approached, Eevee, who was on the couch, also opened its eyes, looking eagerly at the Self-Detonating Magnet Pokémon.
Eating the Tree Fruit directly would definitely yield benefits, but based on past experience, making it into Energy Blocks would certainly enhance the effects.
It could be said that the Star Fruit Energy Block was the opportunity for Eevee to step into the Top Tier Domain. Eevee had dreamed of entering the Top Tier Domain, and that was why it agreed with Fang Yuan's suggestion, willing to take the gamble.
"..." The Self-Detonating Magnet Pokémon felt considerable pressure under Eevee's gaze; it was just a cook, could it not be looked at with such a desperate gaze?
Although Eevee had mastered Electric Moves and could make Energy Blocks on its own, it was lazy. With only a few experiences in creating Energy Blocks, self-detonating Magnemite, on the other hand, had been making them for over two years and was very experienced.
This time, Eevee chose to trust Chef Magnet Monster and entrusted the self-detonating Magnemite with the task that concerned its own life and death...
"Self-detonating Magnemite, can you do it?"
"Bwoo bwoo..."
"Magnemite..."
After self-detonating Magnemite's response, Fang Yuan, Eevee, and self-detonating Magnemite got busy together.
Half an hour later.
With an excited expression, Eevee watched as a Green Energy Block was created.
Although it was just using a Tree Fruit to create an Energy Block, self-detonating Magnemite felt as if it had lived through a century, needing 100% focus every 0.1 seconds to observe the fire, measure the quantity, and adjust the rotational speed. It was incredibly difficult.
An hour later.
Finally, hard work paid off. A Star Fruit was turned into three Green Energy Blocks.
The remaining bit of fruit flesh was eaten by Eevee, who immediately felt the changes in its body. Although beneficial, the improvement was not very significant for Eevee. It didn't care about that much, its gaze fixated on the three Green Energy Blocks.
That was the main point!
.........
A day later.
The second stage of the selection process fully ended, and four more people passed.
Up to this point, a total of 14 people had passed through the two major stages of selection, among whom five were confirmed as second-team members.
In the next few days, the remaining nine people each had one chance to challenge the five members, with the rule being a 3vs3 standard battle. During this time, Fang Yuan was challenged twice, but with his mind elsewhere, he simply sent out the Glutton each time, who took down the opponent in a one-against-three both times.
What Fang Yuan was really looking forward to was the battle for the position of The Fifth King.
In three days, Eevee completely digested the three Green Energy Blocks. What made Eevee cry was that even with the Star Peach Fruit Energy Block, its Mental Power still hadn't entered the Top Tier Domain.
The bottleneck of the Top Tier Domain was much more difficult than Fang Yuan and Eevee had imagined.
However, whether it was the effect of the Green Energy Blocks or the ineffectiveness of the Green Energy Blocks that made Eevee lose its composure, the training effect of Eevee's Soul Power drastically increased these three days.
It also indirectly strengthened Eevee's Mental Power, but there was still some gap before a qualitative change occurred in its Spirit.
Days later, due to the Star Peach Energy Blocks, Eevee's partner form made the most obvious progress, enhanced by Soul and Life Power...
Psy, Flame, Water, Thunder and Lightning, Rage, Ice, Fairy, Plant, Normal, and even Ghost... Eevee's partner moves for the many attributes all improved, and the power of the moves it could release for these attributes was almost reaching the Top Tier Domain.
In other words, Eevee now was a Nearly Top-Level Combat Power in more than ten attributes. Although Eevee still hadn't entered the top domain, Fang Yuan was very content with this progress.
"With further improvement, Eevee could possibly bring several attributes into the Top Tier Domain through the Payback Technique."
"Ordinary Top-Level Combat Power is mono-attribute entering the top domain, like Super Gengar who is dual-attribute. In the end, Eevee could achieve tri-attribute, quad-attribute, penta-attribute... even nona-attribute entry! Although this doesn't represent strength, mastering multiple attributes would give Eevee a huge advantage in creating Top Combination Skills. Such a foundation could only be possessed by Pokemon that master Life Energy."
Fang Yuan was happy, at least the Star Fruit wasn't wasted. However, compared to Fang Yuan's happiness, Eevee was unmoved and even wanted to cry.
Eevee: o(╥﹏╥)o
Its goal was to enter the top domain with three Green Energy Blocks, then quickly pick up the phone, not to master more attribute energy, which completely went against its original intention.
"Calm down," Fang Yuan said, seeing Eevee's disheartened expression, "Well... you've almost been offline for half a month now, and you haven't battled at all. How about a battle to see if a change of method could lead to a breakthrough?"
Now, Fang Yuan's second-team member position was unshakeable. Next up was the battle for the captain's position. Facing this battle, Fang Yuan extended the invitation to Eevee.
Eevee: (｡◕ˇεˇ◕｡) Battle.
Eevee nodded vigorously, very eager to vent the accumulated rage of being offline for half a month on other Pokemon.
Fang Yuan had the same idea... With Eevee offline, its power knew no bounds. With nearly Top Tier Domain foundation in ten series and mastery of various partner skills, what the competing trainers vying for The Fifth King would face, and what it meant,
Fang Yuan was all too clear about it.