It was three or four in the morning.
On a nameless island in the middle of the ocean.
After advancing a bit, Cain stopped.
The previous night, he had stayed awake to prevent a surprise attack from Team Aqua and hadn't slept at all.
This unknown island could harbor many dangers, so to have more energy during the day, Cain decided to get some sleep first.
The beach environment was too humid, and at night, the sand became very cold, which wasn't ideal for sleeping.
After venturing into the forest, Cain found a large, ancient tree.
It wasn't clear how many years it had been growing, but its trunk was large enough to serve as an improvised bed.
Haunter was designated to keep watch during the night, and Cain, exhausted from the previous night, soon fell asleep.
...
At noon.
After finishing lunch, Cain and his Pokémon began to explore the island in earnest.
There had been several attack attempts by wild Pokémon, but Slowpoke and the others took care of them.
Cain noticed that the Pokémon on this island were relatively high-level.
The first to attack was a level 23 Dustox. Although it wasn't exceptional in terms of development, it was decent in other aspects.
However, being a Bug and Poison-type Pokémon, it couldn't withstand the combined attack of Slowpoke and Murkrow, and it soon lost its life.
Then, Cain threw the Dustox's body to one of the green-quality Grimer he had bought in Vermilion City.
These green-quality Grimer were at a lower level than Dustox, so the energy within it was quite substantial for them.
Also, since Cain had bought them, they hadn't eaten anything, and they even seemed to have shrunk a bit.
As Cain delved deeper into the island, he realized that all the Pokémon he encountered were native to the Hoenn region.
Since the island was located between the Kanto and Hoenn regions, it was possible to find Pokémon from both regions.
However, so far, Cain had only encountered Hoenn Pokémon on this island.
Most of the Pokémon he'd seen were Dustox, Beautifly, Swellow, and Wingull.
There were a few other types of Pokémon, but most belonged to these species.
Although the island wasn't very large, it took Cain the whole day to explore it.
He discovered that the Pokémon on the island were mostly at levels above 20, and in some larger groups, there were even Pokémon at level 30 or higher.
For instance, in the forest on the southern end of the island, there was a group of Seedot and Nuzleaf, led by a level 35 Shiftry.
To Cain's surprise, Shiftry is a Pokémon that needs a Leaf Stone to evolve. Could this mean there were Leaf Stones on the island?
On the western side of the island, there was a small hill, where a large group of Shroomish lived. Their leaders were two Breloom, a male at level 34 and a female at level 33.
The Breloom group and the Shiftry group were the two strongest forces on the island, and they seemed to be at odds with each other, in a state of hostility.
In the northern part of the island was the territory of the Dustox, and in the eastern part, the Beautifly's.
Although both groups descended from the same species, they despised each other and were in constant conflict.
Cain had entered the island at the border between the Beautifly and Dustox territories, which was why he had encountered both Pokémon at the same time.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have found Dustox in Beautifly territory.
These two Pokémon were natural enemies, like Beedrill and Butterfree.
This place turned out to be a perfect training site. Not only were there no other humans to interrupt, but the wild Pokémon were high-level, which was ideal for training Cain's Pokémon.
For this reason, although he had initially planned to leave if he didn't find anything interesting, he decided to stay on the island for a while.
After all, he had already planned to survive in the wild for a while, so he could start here.
As for heading to the Hoenn region, Cain was in no rush.
These high-level wild Pokémon provided considerable experience for his Pokémon.
Cain also discovered that there was a freshwater lake in the center of the island.
Many of the island's Pokémon had likely survived thanks to this lake.
So he decided to set up a small camp by the lake.
Just as Cain was about to start building his camp, a large shadow covered the sky above him.
If it hadn't been for the quick reaction of his Pokémon, who used the move Protect to block the impact, Cain might have been in serious danger.
Finally, thanks to Slowpoke's Teleport move, Cain and his Pokémon managed to escape.
Back on the beach where he had initially landed, Cain used seawater to wash the mud and dirt from his face and body.
"I didn't expect such a powerful Tropius to be on this island," Cain said, with a grim expression.
The appearance of the Tropius had been so sudden that, if it weren't for Slowpoke, things could have gone very badly.
At the moment the shadow appeared, Cain instinctively used his system to obtain data on the Tropius.
Pokémon: Tropius (Light Green)
Gender: Male
Level: 40
Type: Grass + Flying
Ability: Chlorophyll
Held Item: None
Egg Moves: Leech Seed, Dragon Dance, Synthesis
Basic Moves: Leaf Storm, Leer, Gust, Growth, Razor Leaf, Sweet Scent, Stomp, Magical Leaf, Whirlwind, Leaf Tornado, Natural Gift, Air Slash
Learned Moves: Tailwind, Dragon Pulse
TM Moves: None
Seeing Tropius's level, Cain understood that this was the true king of the island.
The strongest Pokémon of all!
Although Tropius had the word "dragon" in its name, it wasn't a Dragon-type Pokémon, as it lacked that type.
However, like Charizard, which was Fire and Flying-type but had dragon blood in its veins and could learn some Dragon-type moves, Tropius also had some dragon blood.
If one of Tropius's parents was a Dragon-type Pokémon, it would be able to learn some moves of that type.
The fact that this Tropius had Dragon Dance as an egg move indicated that one of its parents was likely a Dragon-type Pokémon.
This significantly boosted both its combat power and its value.
(End of Chapter)