The Pokémon that were charging toward Cain and his group at that moment were none other than a swarm of Beedrill. It was unclear whether Cain had become their prey or whether he had simply invaded the Beedrill's territory; in any case, the opponent's offensive was fierce, and at a glance, they did not seem willing to negotiate.
Cain briefly observed the Beedrill at the forefront and discovered that they had grown in an exceptional manner. Probably thanks to the environment of this place and the protection of the entire group, they had not experienced too many threats. With abundant resources, even their size was much more robust than that of ordinary Beedrill.
Beedrill are Pokémon that live in groups and generally have quite a violent temperament. Unless they encounter Pokémon that counter them or their natural predators, wild Pokémon rarely dare to provoke them actively.
If the temperament of Beedrill could be a bit more stable and they did not insist on seeking death of their own initiative, Cain estimated that, with their reproduction speed, this group could eventually become a dominant power in the Pokémon world.
Cain once again unfastened his belt and threw two more Poké Balls.
"Grrooaarr!"
"Garrddeerr!"
Cain summoned Salamence, which countered them with its Flying type, and Gardevoir, which suppressed them with its Psychic type. Added to Lucario and Venusaur, dealing with this group of Beedrill would pose no problem at all.
After all, the Beedrill leading the attack was only slightly above level sixty.
Given the generally low aptitude of Beedrill and their short life expectancy, in the Pokémon world—where the human footprint is very pronounced—it is truly difficult for them to grow to the Elite level.
Not to mention the Intermediate Elite level or the Advanced Elite level; even reaching the Quasi-Elite level is already extremely rare.
But here, simply walking at random, he encountered a group of Beedrill whose leader already possessed the Elite level, and it was not even certain that it was the true chief of the swarm.
According to the normal structure of a colony, the leader rarely goes out to fight personally unless facing an extremely powerful enemy. This meant that it was very likely that the true leader was not present in this group, and yet a Beedrill responsible for leading a squad already had the Elite level. In that case, the real leader of the swarm would probably be at the Advanced Elite level, or even higher.
That a group of Beedrill could grow to such an extent clearly demonstrated the level of power that wild Pokémon on this continent could reach.
That was why it was not strange that the people chosen to enter here possessed, at the very least, Elite Four–level strength. Otherwise, they might not even be able to face the wild Pokémon, let alone collect resources or aspire to great treasures.
Nevertheless, according to Juan's explanation, groups with similar strength and scale should be relatively rare on this continent. After all, it was not that there were no Pokémon capable of restraining their development. Without a stable biological chain and ecosystem, this continent would have already deteriorated completely long ago.
This swarm of Beedrill, despite its numerical advantage, was no match for Salamence and the others.
After resolving the confrontation, Cain continued advancing in that direction.
Since the psychic mark he had left on Steven and the others could not perform its function, there was no choice but to rely on traditional methods to find them. Fortunately, Cain had made duplicate preparations from the very beginning: if psychic power did not work, then they would gather at some of the points marked on the map that Juan had provided.
Due to the enormous size of the continent, Cain and the other three had marked a total of eight locations on the map with special signs, relatively safe, to use as waiting points.
Cain, as the leader of this expedition and the person with the greatest ability to survive in the wild, was responsible for gathering the group. The others only needed to find the nearest marked point and wait for Cain to locate them.
This method was the safest and most convenient, preventing everyone from wandering aimlessly like headless flies.
Therefore, Cain first needed to find some clearly recognizable location that would allow him to determine his current position. Only then could he locate the nearest marked point. After all, this environment was not only dangerous, but could also conceal unknown threats. It was best to reunite with Steven and the others as soon as possible to concentrate their forces.
Although no one had told them whether there were other benefits on this island besides powerful wild Pokémon and valuable rare materials, ever since arriving here, whenever Cain raised his eyes toward the highest point, he could see, among the clouds, a towering mountain—vague but clearly present.
It was very likely that there were numerous treasures on that mountain. Cain even suspected that in the early days, when Dialga and Palkia were going through their "honeymoon," both Pokémon had lived at the very top, leaving behind possible relics.
Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina are three powerful Dragon-type Pokémon born from nothing, representatives of time, space, and antimatter respectively.
The laws they govern are extraordinary; anything they have left behind could greatly benefit trainers and their Pokémon.
No matter how numerous the Beedrill were, they could not seriously hinder Cain's advance.
After having fought against Koga's Toxicroak, Salamence, just as Cain had anticipated, showed even greater passion and obsession for combat. Its character, forged from a young age by its environment and life experiences, had given rise to a tenacious and unyielding will. Precisely because he understood this, Cain decided to have Salamence face Champion-level opponents earlier, using them as stimulation for its growth.
Of course, every Pokémon requires a different training method; one must teach according to aptitude.
Pokémon like Lucario, which had grown up without too many setbacks since childhood, were not weak, but they also had not gone through great adversity. If they were suddenly made to face Champion-level Pokémon like Toxicroak, the result could be counterproductive.
Not only Lucario; Gardevoir and Venusaur would probably find themselves in a similar situation.
As Cain's strength increased, the Pokémon he captured and trained later rarely faced truly harsh battles.
When an opponent appeared that they could not handle, there was always some stronger senior or veteran who stepped in to resolve the situation. This reduced the threats they faced, but at the same time weakened their ability to withstand setbacks, far from cases like Salamence, which grew stronger the harsher the defeats were.
Therefore, during this period, Cain deliberately made them participate in battles. If possible, it was best for them to fight wild Pokémon stronger than themselves, pushing through difficulties. This would be of great help in allowing them to aspire to even higher levels of power in the future.
Pokémon like Tyranitar and Blaziken achieved their breakthroughs naturally precisely after countless battles and confrontations with stronger opponents, forcing themselves to surpass their limits time and time again.
If Lucario and the others did not want to remain stuck for a long time at the threshold of the Elite Four or Champion level, they had to gradually get used to fighting true strong opponents.
No strong individual becomes powerful solely through resources!
(End of chapter)