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Not to mention Non-Chief Ash, even the other Ashes were shocked. Drawing three S-rank abilities at once was something they hadn't even heard of, let alone seen.
Thirteen draws resulting in three S-rank abilities... it really made one wonder if the Chat Group's drawing system had a bug. How else could it be this ridiculous?
Regardless of how shocked or incredulous everyone was, the fact that Ash had drawn three S-rank rewards was indisputable. They just didn't know what these three S-rank rewards actually were.
[Champion Ash: What did you draw? Show us so we can see for ourselves. We've never seen so many S-rank abilities appear at the same time.]
[Ascender Ash: Don't joke around, big shots. Although you haven't drawn S-rank abilities, the power each of you possesses far exceeds S-rank!]
The other Ashes in the group had all entered in their peak states. To put it vividly, they were all "maxed-out accounts," while he was the only "starter account."
They were already maxed out; what would they need to draw for? At most, they might need something for a side profession, but otherwise, they had no need for gacha items.
So, whether it was S-rank or not mostly just affected their mood or served as a luck test. As for the actual items—they weren't useless, but they were more like "better than nothing."
[Ascender Ash: One of the S-rank abilities I drew is called—Breakthrough Limits II. This should be for Pikachu, right?]
Ash had drawn Breakthrough Limits once before. It was a power that allowed Pikachu to break through his current level cap and reach new heights. Although Pikachu's level would briefly drop after use, the cap for all stats would be increased.
Although the level decreased, his actual strength didn't drop much, and his leveling speed would increase. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for Pikachu to reach Gym Peak in such a short time.
However, Pikachu had recently gotten stuck at Gym Peak again. He didn't know if it was the level itself or if Pikachu had reached another critical point.
[Breeder Ash: Oh~ Breakthrough Limits II. That's actually quite good. This way, you won't have to wait until you reach the next region to unlock Pikachu's power. What is Pikachu's current level?]
[Ascender Ash: Gym Peak. He's been stuck at this level for a while.]
[Breeder Ash: Theoretically, after the first stage of rebirth, one can reach the initial Elite level. However, some Ashes in parallel worlds had Pikachu undergo the next limit breakthrough at Gym Peak because they weren't in the Chat Group and didn't know Pikachu's special circumstances. But this also shows how difficult it is for Pikachu to reach Elite Four Class without the second stage breakthrough.]
[Aura Hero Ash: Yes, it's extremely difficult for Pikachu to reach Elite level. Even if the first stage breakthrough raised his talent cap, he is still a Pikachu after all. The second stage is when Pikachu's broken nature truly begins.]
[Aura Hero Ash: But then again, if you can raise Pikachu to Elite Four Class during the first stage, then when Pikachu reaches God Domain Level in the future, his strength cap and stat values at the same level will be much stronger than if he had broken through at Gym Peak.]
[Aura Hero Ash: The powerful Pikachus in the group all underwent the second stage breakthrough after reaching Elite level without exception, though everyone just stumbled into it. We would only break through after traveling through the Hoenn Region and reaching the next region, Sinnoh. For those of us who didn't know, we wouldn't intentionally stay in the Hoenn Region.]
Before joining the Chat Group, none of the Ashes knew that their Pikachu was special to this extent.
Their Pikachus were indeed different from ordinary ones, but no one could have guessed that Pikachu's talent and stat caps could increase as they traveled through more regions.
Looking at the whole world, or even all parallel worlds, only their Pikachus possessed such an ability.
Therefore, before joining the group, Ash would never intentionally linger in a specific region. Basically, he would leave for the next region right after the League Conference ended.
He wouldn't deliberately train Pikachu's level to the limit; whatever level he reached was it.
And for Pikachu to go from Gym Peak to Elite Four Class, even with one limit breakthrough, the difficulty still far exceeded that of ordinary Pokémon. One could say the transition from the first to the second breakthrough is a qualitative change. If Pikachu undergoes the second breakthrough after reaching Elite Four Class, he could easily reach Elite Four Peak.
But if he undergoes the second breakthrough at Gym Peak, then by the time he reaches the end of the Sinnoh region, he would at most be at high-tier Elite level.
One step behind, every step behind. Those Ashes who could train Pikachu to initial Elite level in the Hoenn Region were outstanding even among all parallel worlds.
And now, an even more abnormal one had appeared—one who hadn't even gone to the Orange Islands but had already raised Pikachu to Gym Peak.
In terms of talent, perhaps this new Ash was the strongest in all parallel worlds, bar none.
It's just that Newbie Ash's foundation was too low. If his foundation were a bit better, with his talent and luck, he might already have half a team of Elites by now.
Of course, the current Ash was by no means weak. Even if his foundation held him back a little, Ash's conditions were still uniquely blessed. Becoming one of the top experts in the group was only a matter of time.
[Ascender Ash: I see. So this ability needs to be used when Pikachu reaches Elite level, right?]
[Champion Ash: Yes, that's for the best. Otherwise, it will more or less affect his talent after the breakthrough.]
[Ascender Ash: Okay! Besides this ability, there's also—[Sky Dragon's Orb: Guidance]. What is this? I don't understand.]
Ash knew a bit about the Sky Dragon, but what was the Sky Dragon's Orb?
[Ash, the friend of legendary Pokémon: The Sky Dragon's Orb—if I'm not mistaken, it should be the Jade Orb. This is one of the Legendary Beast Mediums I mentioned earlier.]
A Legendary Beast Medium is similar to the rainbow wing in Ash's hand or the Seed of Life on Venusaur; they are innate items that have come from a legendary beast.
Currently, aside from the legendary beast giving them voluntarily, it's unknown if there's any way to take their innate items from them.
This is why Champion Ash said not to mythologize human technology. No matter how advanced it is, as long as humans cannot rival legendary beasts on their own, human technology will still fall short of Pokémon in terms of high-end combat power.
The prerequisite for humans to use technology to control legendary beasts is the existence of "weaknesses" shed by the beasts themselves.
Like Palkia's Griseous Orb and Dialga's Adamant Orb—those things belong to the essence of the legendary beasts, and no one knows how they ended up lost.
If these were all obtained by evil organizations, what more could be said? They were just handed over!
And the new reward Ash just drew is one of these Legendary Beast Mediums, belonging to one of the strongest legendary beasts, the Sky Dragon Rayquaza's Jade Orb!
[Ascender Ash: Jade Orb? What exactly does it do? Is it like my rainbow wing or Venusaur's Seed of Life, can it increase a Pokémon's training speed?]
If it really had the effects of those divine items like the rainbow wing, it could barely be worthy of an S-rank. But only barely; compared to the S-rank rewards he drew before, it seemed a bit lacking.
[Ash, the friend of legendary Pokémon: No, that's just the most superficial effect of the Jade Orb. Its strongest effect is—summoning Rayquaza!]
[Ascender Ash: !!!]
What? That thing can actually summon Rayquaza? That's insane!!
[Ash, the friend of legendary Pokémon: There are two ways to use the Jade Orb. One is to use it anywhere, and Rayquaza will appear to fight for you unconditionally once. As for which Rayquaza appears or whether it holds a priesthood, those are unknowns. But it's certain that the summoned one will be at least at high-tier God Domain Level.]
In other words, as long as he held the Jade Orb, it was equivalent to having a powerful protective talisman. This was like carrying a high-tier God Domain Level Pokémon on him!
In that case, it truly deserved to be an S-rank reward. It could assist Pokémon in training and summon a high-tier Tier 1 Legendary to help in battle. What more could he ask for?
However—Ash, the friend of legendary Pokémon said there were two ways to use it. One was summoning Rayquaza for help, so what was the other?
[Ash, the friend of legendary Pokémon: Besides summoning Rayquaza for help, you can also take the Jade Orb to the Sky Pillar to initiate a Rayquaza Capture Battle.]
[Ash, the friend of legendary Pokémon: However, you should note that the summoned Rayquaza can exert at least God Domain Level strength. Although it won't use MEGA Evolution to test you, even among legendary beasts, Rayquaza is a top-tier existence. At the same level, Rayquaza can exert even more powerful force.]
Rayquaza... MEGA Evolution... what a niche term. With Rayquaza's power, if it underwent MEGA Evolution, wouldn't it directly rival the Creator God?
This might only be known if Mega Rayquaza fought Arceus. However, if Arceus is truly as the big shots in the group say—able to be immune to all attribute attacks—then no matter how much Rayquaza's strength increases, it would be useless.
He was getting sidetracked. He hadn't even trained a single Champion-level Pokémon yet (Gengar and Aerodactyl didn't count as that kind), let alone thinking about God Domain Level matters. Only by taking it one step at a time could he truly reach the end.
As for summoning Rayquaza and capturing it, that shouldn't be considered for a long time. Capture Rayquaza? Even if he were tied together with a MEGA Evolution Mewtwo right now, they wouldn't be a match for Rayquaza.
The gap of a single sub-level within the God Domain Level was probably more terrifying than the gap between an Elite and a Champion. What did high-tier God Domain Level mean? Probably a single Hyper Beam could insta-kill them ten times over.
So, capturing Rayquaza was out of the question. Besides, he had only received the guidance for the Sky Dragon's Orb and hadn't actually gotten the Jade Orb yet. Thinking about those things was far too distant.
[Non-Chief Ash: Truly the chosen one. First breakthroughs, then legendary beasts. All the good things fall on you. What was your last S-rank reward?]
Non-Chief Ash was already used to his mental state breaking. "Now, no matter what you draw, I won't lose it.jpg"!!
Sometimes, when the gap is large enough, even the desire to compare disappears. The same went for luck. Non-Chief Ash no longer wanted to compare luck with Ash; he couldn't play this game at all!
[Ascender Ash: This last one... looks a bit strange. It's called [Light of Hope]. What is this?]
Following Ash's message, the entire group fell into a brief silence. Then, one by one, the Ashes spoke up, but their messages all consisted of the same three words: "I don't know."
Judging by the name, this reward should be like the "Guidance of the Chosen," a very abstract reward. To know its specific details, he would have to go out and receive the information for the S-rank reward.
The biggest difference between S-rank rewards and other ranks is that these rewards come with an "instruction manual." So as long as he returned to the real world, Ash would automatically receive the explanation for this S-rank reward and would naturally know its function then.
Additionally, besides these three S-rank rewards, Ash also drew five B-ranks, three A-ranks, and two C-ranks.
The contents were all-encompassing. Some allowed a Pokémon's specific aptitude to rise directly to B-rank, while others raised it to A-rank.
There were also some items related to breeder knowledge and the like.
Among the three A-rank rewards, one allowed a Pokémon's Speed aptitude to rise directly to A-rank, and another was a familiar reward—High-Level Smurf.
The last A-rank reward was something very strange called—Glowing Cuisine.
[Ascender Ash: Big shots, what is this Glowing Cuisine? Does it make the food you cook glow? Can this even be considered A-rank?]
[Chef Ash: Hey, young man, looking down on cooks? Wait, you're me—you can't look down on yourself! Why can't Glowing Cuisine be A-rank? Do you have any idea how hard it is to make food glow?!]
He appeared! A new Ash!
This was another Ash he had never seen before, and his name was Chef Ash. Could it be that in some timeline, he gave up his dream of being a Pokémon Master and became a chef?
