After temporarily repelling the Dustox, Cain and his Pokémon retreated from the Dustox forest.
This time, the collaboration of his Pokémon led to the elimination of a large number of Dustox.
Skorupi even managed to find concentrated energy crystals within the bodies of the Dustox.
However, the most important thing was that Cain's Pokémon levels rose once again.
Originally, on the S.S. Anne, after a long period of training, they were already on the verge of leveling up.
Now, with the defeat of over a hundred Dustox with an average level of around twenty, each Pokémon gained a substantial amount of experience.
Among them, Slowpoke benefited the most, due to his type advantage and the assistance of other Pokémon allowing him to attack without restraint.
He single-handedly took down nearly half of the Dustox.
However, during the tournament on the S.S. Anne, Slowpoke had already leveled up, so this time he was the only one who didn't level up, though he accumulated a lot of experience.
Murkrow reached level 25, Haunter reached level 26, Miltank reached level 23, Sneasel also rose to level 26, and Skorupi, despite defeating fewer enemies, due to the large level difference, rose the most, reaching level 16, going up two levels.
This was due to the accumulated experience from previous training, and after such an intense battle, they naturally leveled up.
Next time, leveling up wouldn't be as easy.
Overall, his Pokémon's strength had increased a bit more.
There were still countless Dustox in the forest, and Cain didn't plan to give up now.
After resting for a while, he was ready to return to the Dustox forest.
Whether to gain more combat experience for his Pokémon or to obtain more energy crystals, the Dustox had become his target.
Before returning to the forest, Cain observed several Beautifly flying peacefully around the forest.
"Dustox have energy crystals inside them, but do these Beautifly have them too?"
Now, Cain saw wild Pokémon as if they were walking energy crystals.
During the rest, in addition to giving his Pokémon Pokéblocks to restore energy and Miltank's milk to recover strength, Cain took out a Poison-type energy crystal and gave it directly to Skorupi.
Although Haunter was also interested in the energy crystals, he hadn't fully absorbed the poisonous gases yet.
Cain decided to wait until Haunter consumed those gases before giving him Poison-type energy crystals.
As for Skorupi, there was no problem, and since he was the one who found the crystal, Cain gave it to him as a reward.
If any adverse effect was noticed, he simply wouldn't use it again.
After all, it was just a small energy crystal, and any side effects would quickly dissipate.
"System, monitor Skorupi's body data in real time and calculate the effects of using the energy crystal, along with any changes in his stats," Cain mentally ordered.
After Skorupi consumed the Poison-type energy crystal, he closed his eyes and lay down on the ground.
Although there were no visible changes, Cain could monitor Skorupi in real time through the system.
In the data graph provided by the system, one could see how Skorupi's internal energy fluctuated, especially in terms of Poison-type energy.
Even his physical condition improved to a certain extent.
After about ten minutes, Skorupi opened his eyes after completely digesting the crystal's energy. When he looked at Cain, his desire for more was evident in his eyes.
Although he didn't know exactly what changes had occurred in his body, he could feel that his internal energy was very charged, and he felt that consuming more could help him evolve further.
For Pokémon, this is perceived as evolution, but for Cain and the system, it's simply a level increase.
Cain reviewed the real-time scan results provided by the system and was very surprised.
A small Poison-type energy crystal, yet its effect was remarkably good.
The system calculated that if Skorupi consumed about ten more energy crystals, he could level up again.
Although Skorupi was relatively low level and needed less energy, it couldn't be ignored that he had just leveled up.
Could energy crystals help accelerate a Pokémon's growth?
Moreover, it seemed there were more benefits. After consuming the Poison-type energy crystal, Skorupi's total amount of Poison-type energy had increased slightly.
The increase wasn't very noticeable, Skorupi probably didn't even realize it, but the system captured it perfectly.
Could this energy crystal enhance a Pokémon's abilities to a certain degree?
However, the improvement was quite small. For Skorupi, he would need to consume around ten thousand crystals to improve his Poison-type talent.
This assumed he wouldn't develop resistance to the crystal and that the amount of energy would increase evenly with each crystal consumed.
Cain also wondered what would happen if a Pokémon of a different type consumed an energy crystal that didn't match its type.
But he wasn't willing to experiment with his own Pokémon.
Also, as far as he knew, not all wild Pokémon had energy crystals, so each one he found was valuable and should be used with caution.
As he explored the island further, Cain's interest in it grew.
Since the wild Pokémon on the island were quite high-level and provided considerable experience, he decided to continue exploring with the aim of collecting more energy crystals.
If he found any Pokémon with good potential, he might even capture it.
However, he didn't know when he might return to the human world, and capturing too many Pokémon could become a burden in terms of food.
Therefore, Cain decided he would only consider Pokémon with at least a light green potential.
After resting for half an hour, and with the help of Miltank's milk to recover energy, his Pokémon were back to full strength.
However, it couldn't be denied that the powders in the Dustox forest were very annoying.
But Miltank, as the team's support, turned out to be very reliable. Her Heal Bell move was already well-trained.
Although she wasn't fully proficient, in non-urgent situations, her effectiveness was quite good.
This was one of the main reasons Cain could take his Pokémon directly into the Dustox nest.
They didn't have to worry about the interference of Dustox powder, allowing them to attack freely.
However, Cain noticed that in each battle, he felt that a large protective shield was missing at the front and that his Pokémon's safety wasn't fully guaranteed.
(End of chapter)