After enhancing his Fire-Type Mastery, Lian felt highly satisfied. Finally reaching this milestone, he anticipated a significant leap in his combat strength. If Zapdos agreed to battle him, his chances of victory would greatly increase.
However, Lian still had a weakness with Electric-type attacks, putting him at a slight disadvantage against Zapdos. For now, he hadn't obtained any berries providing electrical resistance.
He decided to address it later. Once he brought the little Zapdos back to reality, Kalia and Julian might seek out Zapdos, as Julian knew its whereabouts.
At that time, Lian could attempt challenging Zapdos, although he expected it wouldn't be easy.
Despite effortlessly defeating Genesect, it's important to note that Genesect was a genetically modified legendary Pokémon, not a true orthodox legendary. Its original form was an ancient Bug-type Pokémon.
Lian's primary goal for battling Zapdos, aside from the bonus multiplier for legendary Pokémon, was to gauge his own strength after achieving a 70% Control Rating.
Lian estimated Zapdos to be around level 60-70. Based on the previous encounter where multiple high-level trainers teamed up against it, Zapdos should be approximately level 60.
However, a level 60 Zapdos is significantly stronger than Genesect at level 70. Genesect lacks post-evolution effort points and sufficient control rating.
In contrast, Zapdos, as an established legendary Pokémon for many years, possesses exceptional innate talent with Electric-type moves. Lian suspected that Zapdos likely has a Control Rating above 70%.
Such a high Control Rating can easily compensate for any difference in levels. Despite Genesect's higher level, in a one-on-one battle, it would not stand a chance against Zapdos.
"It's time to visit the Dream World and inform Zapdos."
Lian opened the gateway to the system space, entering the Dream World. Zapdos had been staying there quite alone, although Lian frequently visited, his time was limited each day.
Zapdos had expressed its desire to leave the Dream World multiple times. Now with the Lunar Feather, Kalia could enter the Dream World, making it the right time to devise a plan for Zapdos' departure.
As Lian's strength increased, his range of movement within the Dream World expanded significantly. He had repeatedly explored and determined his location within this realm.
Currently, Lian's level in the Dream World was nearly equivalent to that in reality, allowing him swift movement and mastery over Speed Burst.
It took Lian considerable time, but about a month ago, he finally located the cottage where Kalia first entered the Dream World, inhabited by Haunter.
The Dream World lacks sun and moon, remaining perpetually hazy, yet there are still ways to determine directions.
Lian relied on Nosepass as his reference point. Many real-world Pokemon exist in the Dream World, including Nosepass—a Rock-type Pokemon known for always facing north due to its unique ability.
Relying on this knowledge, Lian confirmed his direction and spent considerable time locating the small cottage where Kalia had entered the Dream World, also determining its exact position.
From the cottage's location, by flying southeast continuously through a forest and over several mountain peaks, he could reach the point where Lian initially entered the Dream World.
With the Lunar Feather, there was ample time before it depleted. During this period, Lian planned to guide Kalia towards the southeast, ensuring they would swiftly find Zapdos. Once located, he intended to capture Zapdos using a Dream Ball, allowing them all to exit the Dream World together.
Lian quickly found the young Zapdos. After significant growth over time, the little Zapdos had become remarkably strong. They engaged in battle once; although Lian emerged victorious, enduring a single Thunderbolt attack was incredibly painful.
The little Zapdos possessed exceptional talent, particularly for Electric-type moves. As creatures once known as the Thunder Gods, controlling lightning came as naturally to Zapdos as breathing or drinking water.
***
The next day, Lian woke up and released himself from the Poké Ball, ready to start a new day.
He had already discussed with little Zapdos the previous night that he might take it out of the Dream World for a few days. He explained that at times, it may need to enter a Poké Ball temporarily, but this was not to capture it permanently; rather, just to facilitate its departure.
In Kalia's Pokémon lineup, having an Electric-type Pokémon could be quite useful, especially if Ninetales became incapacitated or during Rain Dance negating Sunny Day conditions.
Switching back to Sunny Day under such circumstances would be challenging, requiring Lian to personally intervene and cast Sunny Day again. However, with an Electric-type Pokémon like Zapdos, they could employ Thunder, effectively countering the opponent's Water-type Pokémon.
Despite this advantage, Lian felt there wasn't much necessity to capture Zapdos. Firstly, although Zapdos is a legendary Pokémon, its base stat total is only 580 points. Among the three Legendary Birds, Zapdos is considered the strongest, yet it still falls short compared to others.
Of course, it would depend on Kalia's intentions and whether Zapdos is willing. Lian recalled that Zapdos seemed to have a stronger affinity towards Julian, so it remained uncertain.
Regarding Kalia's fifth Pokémon, she had casually mentioned before that she definitely needed to capture a more developed Pokémon, as starting from scratch would take too much time.
Although Kalia was young with ample time for training, considering Lian and Sceptile were continuously growing stronger, acquiring another weak Pokémon could create a significant power gap among her five team members.
For instance, the disparity between Lian and Blaziken was substantial; Blaziken had just evolved, while Lian could already face legendary Pokémon head-on.
Therefore, capturing weaker but high-potential Pokémon would be impractical for Kalia, given there wasn't enough time to wait for their development.
While starting to train Pokemon from their weaker stages could unlock greater potential in the future, it required significant time investment. Consequently, despite having five Pokemon, Kalia would effectively only rely on four as her primary team.
However, Lian had the system, and with ample Combat Points, he could compensate for any potential limitations of a Pokemon.
He genuinely hoped that Kalia could acquire a powerful Pokemon, rather than needing to divide her focus to separately train a fifth member like she did with Torchic before its evolution into Blaziken, which took considerable patience.
Ideally, capturing a well-developed Pokemon with substantial potential would be best; preferably, a Pseudo-Legendary species.
Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon are rare, mostly found in their juvenile stage. Mature individuals are scarce, either already captured by Trainers or living within tightly-knit groups. Dealing with a clan of Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon is highly challenging due to their inherent hostility towards outsiders, making capture virtually impossible.