11 days later in Saffron City (one day before meeting Giovanni).

Alex, lying in his bed, woke up due to the morning sun rays stroking his face. ​​

He twisted his body with a drowsy tired face and lazily got out of his bed.

Alex was fatigued after these relatively troublesome 11 days. Not only did he train his Pokémon, but he also went to every black market in Kanto and sold all of them straight away, just like he did in Hoenn.

He noticed that this method is relatively safe if not used too often. Although this method is a bit less secure than the old one, it is many times more effective. He should use this only when he needs to make money quickly.

Alex had bought 206 Silver Pokémon in 3 days and sold them immediately, just as he did in Hoenn.

11,309,803 Pokédollars were earned after these exhausting days. (AN: Who can guess how I came up with this number? Calculator needed)

Unfortunately, Alex's daily expenses are really huge.

He pays around 15,000 Pokédollars for Pokémon food and approx 20,000 Pokédollars for healing items and recovery items every day in order to be able to train effectively.

That means that Alex has to spend at least 35,000 Pokédollars on basic expenses every day. In comparison, his personal costs or the costs of an expensive hotel are a joke.

Though 35,000 Pokédollars doesn't sound like a lot considering that Alex earned it in 3 days, it's a ridiculous amount of expenditure even for the most Elite trainers.

For 35,000 Pokédollars, one can buy a (cheap) Silver Pokémon. And Alex spends that much on training and food only in 1 day.

That's 1 million Pokédollars a month. Alex was really glad that he has the system, or he would have to try to earn money like all other trainers.

But Alex knows that one reason that his Pokémon are leveling up so fast is that he invests so much money behind them every day. And he isn't intending to stop because it costs a 'little' more than others.

During these 11 days, Alex noticed that it was getting really difficult to climb even 1 level without training in the wild.

Along with the fact that it was getting more and more difficult to climb even 1 level on the Elite rank, its progress had begun to slow down for Pokémon like Gardevoir, Crobat, and Scizor.

That had nothing to do with potential either, but the fact that it is generally challenging to level up on the Elite rank without training in the wild against strong Pokémon.

For example, it took Steven's Metagross 40 days to level up from 47 to 48. Although it may seem that Metagross made a not easily visible jump, the level climb is still relatively slow. (for example, from LV 47 with 1% to 99% of LV 48. Simply put)

Although Alex considers the progress slow, he knows that many Elite trainers need years for a few level-ups because of their Pokémon's poor potential making it increasingly difficult for them.

How Ditto slowly started leveling at level 35. Before LV 35, it had managed not to be easily overtaken by Gardevoir even with its Silver potential. But as soon as it reached level 35, its leveling speed started to get slower and slower with each level up.

According to Alex's estimation, the Deep Gold will start to slow down after reaching LV 55 or LV 50 at the earliest. So it won't be a problem for a while.

Maybe only poor Ditto will suffer from this problem if Alex can't find a Legendary item for Ditto.

To explain the leveling up problem in simpler terms, there are two reasons why Pokemon start leveling more slowly.

Reason no. 1 is that after each level, it becomes more difficult to reach the next level since one will need a greater amount of exp.

Reason no. 2 that the potential of the Pokemon has reached the soft limit, and it is now leveling slower than other Pokemon on the same level.

The reason no.1 cannot be prevented, but the reason no. 2 can be as long as the soft cap is kept on being increased.

Alex's Pokémon current status:

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Pokémon: Crobat

LV: 43

Type: Poison/Flying

Ability: Inner Focus

Gender: Male

Potential: Deep Gold

Moves:

- Absorb, Supersonic, Astonish, Bite, Wing Attack, Confuse Ray, Swift, Haze, Leech Life, Mean Look, Venoshock

- (Innate Talent) Shadow Ball [E], (Innate Talent) Fly [E], (Innate Talent) Cross Poison [E]

- (TM) Protect, (TM) Toxic [E], (TM) Sludge Bomb, (TM) Facade, (TM) Taunt [E], (TM) Roost, (TM) Substitute

-------------------------------------------------

Pokémon: Scizor

LV: 43

Type: Bug/Steel

Ability: Technician

Gender: Male

Potential: Deep Gold

Moves:

- Leer, Quick Attack, Focus Energy, Double Team, Feint, Fury Cutter, Wing Attack, Agility [E], Slash, Razor Wind, Iron Defense, X-Scissor

- (Innate Talent) Roost [E], (Innate Talent) Metal Claw [E], (Innate Talent) Brick Break [E]

- (TM) Protect, (TM) Toxic, (TM) Thief, (TM) Facade, (TM) Giga Impact, (TM) U-turn, (TM) Sandstorm, (TM) Substitute, (TM) Swords Dance [E]

-------------------------------------------------

Pokémon: Gardevoir

LV: 43

Type: Psychic/Fairy

Ability: Telepathy (Hidden Ability)

Gender: Female

Potential: Deep Gold

Moves:

- Growl, Confusion, Double Team, Teleport [E], Disarming Voice, Lucky Chant, Magical Leaf, Heal Pulse, Draining Kiss, Psychic [E], Imprison, Future Sight

- (Innate Talent) Disable [E], (Innate Talent) Calm Mind [E], (Innate Talent) Dazzling Gleam [E]

- (TM) Protect, (TM) Shadow Ball, (TM) Will-O-Wisp, (TM) Thunderbolt, (TM) Thunder Wave, (TM) Helping Hand, (TM) Focus Blast

-----------------------------------------------

Pokémon: Ditto

LV: 41

Type: Normal

Ability: Imposter (Hidden Ability)

Gender: Genderless

Potential: Shallow Gold

Move: (Innate Talent) Transform [E]

-----------------------------------------------

Pokémon: Bastiodon

LV: 41

Type: Rock/Steel

Ability: Sturdy

Gender: Male

Potential: Deep Gold

Moves:

- Protect, Tackle, Metal Sound, Take Down, Iron Defense, Swagger, Ancient Power, Block, Endure

- (Innate Talent) Rock Polish [E], (Innate Talent) Sleep Talk [E], (Innate Talent) Flamethrower [E]

- (TM) Taunt [E], (TM) Rock Slide, (TM) Rest, (TM) Earthquake, (TM) Flash Cannon

--------------------------------------------

Pokémon: Combusken

LV: 37

Type: Fire/Fighting

Ability: Speed Boost (Hidden Ability)

Gender: Female

Potential: Deep Gold

Moves:

- Growl, Scratch, Ember, Sand Attack, Peck, Double Kick, Flame Charge, Quick Attack, Bulk Up

- (Innate Talent) Attract [E], (Innate Talent) Sunny Day [E] , (Innate Talent) Overheat [E]

- (TM) Protect, (TM) Flamethrower, (TM) Rock Slide, (TM) Will-O-Wisp [E], (TM) Poison Jab

---------------------------------------------

Pokémon: Eevee

LV: 40

Type: Normal

Ability: Adaptability

Gender: Female

Potential: Gold

Moves:

- Growl, Tackle, Tail Whip, Quick Attack, Double Kick, Sand Attack, Bite, Swift, Take Down, Double-Edge [E], Helping Hand, Charm, Baton Pass

- (Innate Talent) Rest [E], (Innate Talent) Sleep Talk [E], (Innate Talent) Work Up [E]

- (TM) Toxic, (TM) Shadow Ball, (TM) Facade, (TM) Protect, (TM) Attract

---------------------------------

Pokémon: Alolan Vulpix

LV: 17

Type: Ice

Ability: Snow Cloak

Gender: Female

Potential: Gold

Moves:

- Powder Snow, Tail Whip, Roar, Baby-Doll Eyes, Ice Shard, Confuse Ray, Icy Wind

- (Innate Talent) Hex, (Innate Talent) Howl [E], (Innate Talent) Blizzard

--------------------------------

Pokémon: Shuppet

LV: 17

Type: Ghost

Ability: Cursed Body (Hidden Ability)

Gender: Male

Potential: Gold

Moves:

- Knock Off, Screech, Night Shade, Spite, Shadow Sneak, Will-O-Wisp

- (Innate Talent) Curse, (Innate Talent) Phantom Force [E], (Innate Talent) Destiny Bond

-------------------------------------------------

Although Crobat, Scizor, Ditto, and Bastiodon have all gone up a level, Crobat and Scizor only did so yesterday, so it can't really be compared. Alex was sure that Gardevoir was about to level up and wouldn't need much more to get to level 44.

Compared to the Pokémon on the Elite rank, Eevee and Combusken have progressed faster. In particular, Eevee has managed to raise two levels. On the first day out of 11, Eevee turned LV 39, and yesterday only she turned 40.

The two newcomers have changed the most by far. Vulpix and Shuppet have both progressed more than 10 levels, and both trained a move to the Expert rank.

They also learned a lot of new moves.

New Vulpix moves: Roar, Baby-Doll Eyes, Ice Shard, Confuse Ray, Icy Wind

New Shuppet moves: Night Shade, Spite, Shadow Sneak, Will-O-Wisp

The major progress made in these 11 days was that Crobat, Scizor, Gardevoir, and Eevee training a new move on the Expert Rank. That was, of course, not because their move mastering speed is very fast, but because they started training their moves before 11 days ago, thus they had more time than the rest for the training.

Crobat had trained the move [Taunt] on the Expert rank on the 9th day and then immediately started training the move [Venoshock] according to Alex's instructions.

Scizor had trained the move [Agility] on the Expert rank on the 10th day and then immediately began training the move [Focus Energy] according to Alex's instructions.

Gardevoir had trained the move [Psychic] to the Expert rank on the 4th day and then immediately started her training of the move [Focus Blast] according to Alex's instructions.

Eevee had trained the move [Double-edge] on the Expert rank on the 9th day and then immediately started to train the move [Facade] according to Alex's instructions.

...

Alex went to the kitchen and started preparing breakfast for himself and his Pokémon when he noticed that he had received a message.

He opened his TRH device since he was bored. But his boredom soon blazed away as he saw that Maria asked if he was in Saffron City and if he had time today.

Alex, who saw this message, could briefly not believe that this message came from Maria.

"Did Maria just ask me out for a date?" thought Alex as he tried to process this unlikely thought.

----------------

...cringe

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