I, Gary, Want to Become a Pokemon Master

Chapter 687 - 687: Unova Pokémon Team

After getting something to eat, Gary hopped on his electric bike and rode around the backyard of Professor Oak's Laboratory to check on his Pokémon.The backyard was enormous.

It had to be.

Between Gary and Ash, the number of Pokémon housed there was already staggering, and new Trainers from Pallet Town regularly sent their caught Pokémon back here when they left on their journeys. The total population had swelled to somewhere around two or three hundred Pokémon, and Professor Oak had been forced to keep expanding the space just to accommodate them all.

Of course, not all of those Pokémon would stay forever.

If a Trainer quit and no longer wanted their Pokémon, they could either take them back to raise at home or leave them at the Laboratory. For the ones left behind, Professor Oak would eventually transfer them to the League, which would find appropriate placements for them. Only Pokémon with research value, or those belonging to active Trainers still affiliated with the Lab, were kept on a permanent basis.

Gary's Pokémon naturally fell under that category. As Professor Oak's grandson, nobody was packaging Gary's team off anywhere.

Gary first made his way toward the volcanic area to check on his Fire-types.

Charizard, Moltres, and Blaziken had all grown since he left, though not by a huge amount—each had gained roughly one level.

Gary used one Silver Crown and two Gold Bottle Caps to raise the potential of the three Pokémon, then moved on.

Next, he rode to the forest area, where his Grass and Bug-type Pokémon lived alongside several others who preferred the shade and tree cover.

He spotted Scizor immediately.

[Lv. 67 Scizor ♂ / Quasi-Legendary]

"Not bad," Gary said, patting Scizor's hard red armor. "Your strength has improved again."

The last time Gary had checked on Scizor before leaving for Sinnoh, it had been Level 66. In about two months, it had climbed to 67. That was enough to qualify for Gary's advanced-grade Rare Candy.

"Chiii!"

Scizor nodded, calm as usual. It had long since accepted that its Trainer could read its condition at a glance.

Gary immediately used three high-grade Rare Candies to push Scizor up to Level 70, then used one Gold Bottle Cap to raise its potential to the Legendary tier.

After that, Gary spent the next few hours going through the rest of his Pokémon one by one, distributing the TMs and move-teaching items he had collected in Sinnoh. He also used remaining Bottle Caps to raise the potential of Gardevoir and Salamence to Champion-tier while he was at it.

He kept three Silver Crowns in reserve.

Those were for his future Unova team.

Gary was planning to travel to the Unova Region next, and he'd need to catch some Pokémon there. That said, he wasn't planning on building a full regional team.

Honestly, Unova's Pokémon weren't particularly appealing to him visually.

There were only a handful he actually wanted, so he kept his expectations reasonable. He already had Pawniard and Drilbur to build on, and planned to add two or three more at most. A full regional team wasn't necessary.

The Unova League—the Vertress Conference—was also a bit of a headache when he thought about the competition. The level of Trainers in that tournament was frankly embarrassing.

Ash, true to form, used only freshly caught Unova Pokémon for the whole Conference—except Pikachu, who he kept benched most of the time anyway. And his result? He lost to a Trainer named Cameron who beat all six of Ash's Pokémon using only five of his own.

It was hard to watch.

The eventual Vertress Conference champion was a Trainer named Cameron's rival, Virgil, who used an entire team of Eeeveelutions—every one of Eevee's evolutions except Sylveon, which hadn't been discovered yet. He even carried an Eevee in training.

Virgil himself was a search-and-rescue worker. Not a competitive battler by trade, and not especially powerful on his own terms. The fact that he won the whole Conference said more about the general level of participants than it did about Virgil's strength.

Unova's storyline in general had always been the weakest arc to Gary's memory. The only things worth praising were the female protagonists from the games—Hilda and Nate were genuinely well-designed—and the game's overall visual aesthetic.

The anime's version of the Unova female lead, Iris, was a different story entirely. But Gary didn't feel like thinking about that.

He put those thoughts aside and moved on.

After finishing the rounds, he also raised the potential of Exeggutor, Dodrio, and Arcanine to Quasi-Legendary tier using three more Gold Bottle Caps.

That would do for now.

He had one more thing left to look in on.

He found Pawniard and Drilbur training together in a corner of the field.

[Lv. 36 Pawniard ♂ / Elite-tier]

[Lv. 18 Drilbur ♂ / Champion-tier]

Drilbur was still quite young. Gary had avoided putting it through intensive training and instead let it grow at a natural pace with Pawniard and the other Lab Pokémon. One month of gradual training had brought it to Level 18, which was reasonable for its age.

Gary planned to bring both of them with him when he headed to Unova. After all, they were his only two Pokémon from that region, and he had no real trump card there yet. There wasn't a single Unova Pokémon in his lineup above Level 40.

He immediately used one Bronze Crown and one Silver Crown to raise Pawniard's potential to Champion-tier, giving it a faster growth curve going forward.

Then he opened Drilbur's status screen to plan out its skill development.

[Pokémon: Drilbur ♂ (Shiny)]

[Type: Ground]

[Level: 18]

[Potential: Champion]

[Ability 1: EX Mold Breaker — Ignores target's Ability when using moves, and also negates the damage reduction from Reflect, Light Screen, and Aurora Veil.]

[Ability 2: EX Sand Rush — In Sandstorm weather, Speed becomes four times its base value.]

[Ability 3: EX Sand Force — In Sandstorm weather, the power of Rock, Ground, and Steel-type moves increases by 60%.]

[Current Moves: Rapid Spin, Scratch, Hone Claws, Metal Claw]

[Teachable Moves: Dig, Rest, Protect, Earthquake, Shadow Claw, Rock Slide, Hidden Power, Swords Dance, Scorching Sands, Stealth Rock]

[Friendliness: 200/255]

Drilbur's current moveset was still limited, mostly because of its level. Once it evolved into Excadrill, its moveset would expand significantly.

Gary spent some time teaching it what moves he could before putting his notes away.

In terms of timing, he figured he had roughly one to two months before Professor Oak's planned trip to the Unova Region—which, as Gary remembered, would prompt Ash to follow along and eventually stay there to begin his own Unova journey.

He needed to use that window well.

Two months to push Drilbur and Pawniard as far as possible before setting foot in Unova.