Melmetal kept admiring its new, bulked-up body, striking a few bodybuilding poses as it squis eyes with satisfa.

  Melmetal: "With this grown-up body, I'll be able to eat a lot more!"

  Nearby, a group of curious Vigoroth watched Melmetal. They scratched their heads, eager to get closer, but held back, wary of the new presence.

  As a mythical Pokémoal didn't o reach the Elite level to be sidered powerful—its life force was naturally at Elite, even higher than an Artio's.

  It was almost six o'clock, and Julian decided to set up camp for the night.

  He released all his Pokémon.

  As Steelix, Lucario, and Slowking appeared, Melmetal eagerly ran up to them, proudly showing off its evolved form.

  The three Pokémon quickly realized that their eammate was her than the evolved Meltan.

  Upon evolutioal had shot up to pseudo-Elite directly, now surpassing even Lucario in levels.

  Lucario watched Melmetal, who yfully paris with it, and thought it might just be able to shove an Aura Sphere into the hex nut oal's belly.

  "Alright, that's enough. Lucario, help me set up the tent. Melmetal, you go gather some firewood" Julian called out.

  Colleg firewood had always been a task for the others, but now that Meltan had evolved, it was its turn.

  Melmetal patted its chest and walked over to a nearby berry tree, giving it a strong pund knog it down.

  The nearby Vigoroth were instantly enraged, screeg at the sight of their food source beiroyed.

  The otion even roused a few Sking from their naps, who zily looked at Melmetal with half-open eyes.

  "Melmetal, get back here! Dragonite, go and gather some firewood" Julian called, recallial before it caused more trouble.

  Melmetal came back, still carrying the fallen berry tree.

  "I'll pnt new berry trees for you all, including ohat bear bananas," Julian promised the agitated Vigoroth.

  Sihey were camping on Vigoroth territory for the night, a little goodwill gesture was only fair, especially after Melmetal had taken down one of their berry trees.

  Hearing Julian's words, the Vigoroth calmed down, remembering the delicious bananas they'd just tasted.

  The Sking, reassured, also resumed their zy slumber.

  As night fell, the campfire crackled to life.

  Slowking was busy preparing dinner for Julian. Although Julian had plenty of pre-made meals stored in his system space, he was more than happy to enjoy a freshly cooked meal from Slowking.

  With Slowking's remarkable intelliges ary skills even surpassed those of a five-star hotel chef.

  Fortunately, Julian's Mega Pallet Town's physique prevented him from gaini easily. Otherwise, with Slowking's meals, he would have likely gaiera pounds by now.

  Julian also prepared food for his Pokémon.

  Lairon, who had used up a lot of energy today and just evolved, was especially hungry. It devoured a massive k h diamonds, almost as tall as itself, which quickly disappeared with each bite.

  Siheir adventure iermediate secret realm, where Julian had excavated several huons h diamonds, Lairon had already eaten through about a third of it.

  After evolving, Lairon's appetite had nearly increased eightfold pared to its previous form.

  Julian did some quick math and realized that the remaining rough diamonds might not be enough to st until Lairon evolved into an Aggron.

  Raising a Totem Pokémon was no easy task—the appetite alone was staggering.

  If an ordinary Trairied to raise an Aggron, they'd probably have no resources left to train another Pokémon. One Aggron alone could easily eat them into bankruptcy.

  The Pokémon all slept outside the tent. Even Growlithe was kicked out by Julian—its warm body was like a mini furnace, and with the current warm weather, Julian didn't want it sleeping right o him.

  The Vigoroths didn't try to disturb Juliaher. After all, none of the Pokémon around the tent looked like they were too easy to mess with.

  The only Pokémon that looked remotely harmless was the big bellied, yellow oh a goofy expression.

  Dragonite: So... the 'harmless ourned out to be me?

  With so many Pokémon on watch, Julian drifted into a peaceful sleep.

  The m, after pleting his daily tasks and a wrestling match with Melmetal, Julia his promise from the previous night. He pnted new berry trees for the Vigoroth, including a few nanab berry trees, before leaving their territory.

  This Vigoroth tribe wasn't unfamiliar with humans. They were one of the rgest groups in this advanced-level secret realm.

  Many Normal-type Trainers would visit this area, hoping to find a worthwhile Skoth, Vigoroth, or even Sking to catch.

  "Finally, something good!"

  Julian's eyes lit up as he noticed a rge red dot on his Dowsing Mae, standing out among the other dots around it.

  "Dragonite, hold this and fly straight toward the biggest red dot"

  Dragoook the ser, firmed the dire, and then fpped its wings, pig up speed.

  Ten mier, they arrived at the location of the red dot.

  In front of them was a mountain nearly a thousaers high. The treasure must be somewhere inside.

  "Metagross, check around the mountain to see if there are any caves" Julian said.

  This mountain was home to many wild Pokémoroying it would have been easy, but Julian didn't want to ruin their habitat.

  It didn't take long for Metagross to return, firming that, as expected, the mountain had many caves.

  Pokémon with Ground or Rock types teo enjoy burrowing into mountains, while others, who preferred shaded enviros, also lived there.

  The most on group in the caves were Zubat.

  Julian chose the cave o the rge red dot. It acious, standing over three meters tall and nearly two meters wide.

  As soon as they entered, a swarm of over a hundred Zubat flew out from the depths of the cave.

  Dragonite swiftly unleashed a Thunderbolt, knog down every single Zubat.

  Julian sed them with his Probing Eyes but found h qualification, so he decided not to focus on them further.

  The cave ran deep, and many more Pokémon inhabited it, including;

  Geodude, Dugtrio, Sandshrew, Marowak, etc.. most at advanced level, though not in rge numbers.

  After all, these Pokemon didn't usually form massive groups like Zubat.

  With Metagross and Dragonite leading the way, they dealt with eaon effortlessly.

  "Nidoking and Nidoqueen"

  The deeper they vehe higher the levels of the Pokémon became.

  The two Nidoking and Nidoqueen standing before them were already at the peak of advanced level.