⚠️ Spoiler Status (Chapter 201 - 400): Find more details on my Patreon here:
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This island, both from afar and up close, is very small, with only a few trees and no signs of life.
Cain and Slowpoke didn't stay long, allowing Slowpoke to set a psychic teleportation coordinate on the spot.
"Slowpoke, can you do it?" Cain asked after Slowpoke finished setting the coordinate.
"Yadon~~" Slowpoke nodded, indicating there was no problem.
Cain placed his hand on Slowpoke's back, channeling his small amount of psychic energy to communicate with Slowpoke's psychic abilities. This would make using Teleport a bit easier on Slowpoke's energy.
Slowpoke's body began to glow with a soft blue light, enveloping both Cain and himself. After a sudden increase in light, they instantly disappeared from the spot.
Cain and Slowpoke reappeared in the cabin of the ship. Cain was confident that his actions had gone unnoticed by others.
Due to the considerable distance, Slowpoke was somewhat fatigued after using Teleport. After drinking a glass of Miltank milk, Slowpoke entered a meditative state.
Cain took off his clothes and released all his Pokémon. They had been training all afternoon, and sometimes even sparred with each other, as certain moves couldn't be effectively trained alone, like the move Taunt.
Overall, the day's training had been quite effective.
This time, Cain didn't give them evening massages or ask them to continue training; instead, he asked them to gather around him.
Once Slowpoke recovered, he sat down next to Cain.
Cain petted Slowpoke's head and said, "Slowpoke, create a psychic barrier and wrap us all in it."
Upon hearing this, Slowpoke activated his psychic power, enveloping Cain and all the Pokémon with a barrier.
Cain took out a small glass bottle from his ring, containing a milky white liquid. It was the Geocentric Cleansing Milk he had obtained on Challenge Island. Although he had sold half of the elixir, keeping about 200 drops, Cain didn't regret having done so.
Although he had earned a lot of money, he did it out of necessity; otherwise, he would never have chosen to sell it.
Carefully, he opened the bottle, and a fresh aroma filled the psychic barrier, without escaping. As they inhaled the scent, all the Pokémon felt their fatigue melt away, instantly revitalized. They all looked expectantly at the small bottle in Cain's hands.
Murkrow and Slowpoke already knew about the Geocentric Cleansing Milk, but the other Pokémon did not.
"This is the Geocentric Cleansing Milk. Although you can't fully utilize its effects, it's very effective in healing any internal injuries or hidden damage in your bodies," Cain explained.
Although his Pokémon didn't show signs of internal injuries, some of these could be difficult to detect, even with League technology. However, consuming the Geocentric Cleansing Milk could greatly prevent these issues from emerging.
This was especially true for Pokémon like Sneasel, who had lived and fought alone for a long time; he likely had some injuries or scars that hadn't fully healed, some of which might be hard to detect or treat.
Cain administered two drops of Geocentric Cleansing Milk to each of his Pokémon, then asked them to go to sleep.
The milk would begin to work slowly in their bodies throughout the night. Even Haunter could benefit, as the milk was essentially a concentrated form of energy.
That night, except for Haunter, who was on watch, all the other Pokémon quickly fell asleep, allowing their bodies to naturally absorb the milk's benefits.
...
The next morning.
With an amused smile, Cain watched as his Pokémon lined up to go to the bathroom, showing signs of discomfort. The scene made him laugh a lot.
That day marked the start of the tournament's final phase, but first, the original sixteen qualifiers had to face the four who had made it through the losers' round.
Due to time constraints, battles began as soon as Cain received notification of his turn.
Why didn't they wait for Cain? Because no one had challenged him.
Once the judge was present and both the challenger and challenged were on the field, the battle began.
So, when everyone arrived, they realized that the four trainers who had advanced from the losers' round had already finished their matches.
Many were disappointed to have missed those exciting battles.
Of the four trainers who emerged from the losers' round, three managed to defeat the original qualifiers.
This showed that if one had enough strength, they could advance, even if they hadn't won in the first round.
Soon, the final phase officially began. Due to the reduced number of participants, it was decided to use a single battlefield for all matches, as they had the whole day.
Cain was drawn to fight in the afternoon, so he had no battles in the morning.
While among the crowd, Cain noticed a guy looking around, searching for someone. It was Jin, with whom he had previously cooperated to draw others' attention.
Upon seeing Cain, Jin ran toward him, visibly excited, but Slowpoke stopped him half a meter away.
Jin had his match in the morning, but since he wasn't up in the first round, he had been looking for Cain the whole time. Finding him, he wanted to give him an enthusiastic hug, but Slowpoke stopped him.
With a resigned look, Jin glanced at Cain, who pretended not to see him, calmly watching the battle on the field.
Realizing Cain was ignoring him, Jin gave up and joined him to watch the match.
Once he focused on the fight, Jin completely forgot about Cain's presence, showing how much he enjoyed battles.
Cain took advantage of the calm and approached the judges' area.
To motivate the participants, Yamamoto had ordered the prizes for the top three places to be displayed on the judges' table.
Unlike Takumi, who had offered money after losing, Yamamoto was prepared and had placed the four TMs as prizes, along with a stack of bills totaling 300,000 Pokédollars, forming a small pyramid to the side.
The shiny cash pyramid was even more eye-catching than the four TMs. Although most transactions were made with cards nowadays, seeing such a large amount of cash was still quite impressive.
Cain and Slowpoke stealthily approached the judges' table, where Slowpoke left a new psychic teleportation coordinate, then returned to Jin's side without him noticing.
Jin didn't show any reaction, completely engrossed in the battle.
(End of chapter)