Over the course of a month, not only had Steven, Cynthia, and Lance experienced great improvements; in fact, the one who had progressed the most among them all was Cain.
This was not only because he himself was an Advanced-level breeder, capable of evaluating his Pokémon more accurately and making more precise adjustments, but also because the number of Pokémon he possessed was the highest among everyone.
Moreover, he was the one with the most low-level Pokémon, and in this environment their rate of growth was extremely high, so in terms of overall strength, his improvement had been enormous.
Not everyone was like Cain, who practically took all of his Pokémon with him every time he went out. If that were the case, many people in the Pokémon world who make a living running daycares would surely be left without work, losing a large number of clients.
Furthermore, most people could not, like Cain, take care of all their Pokémon every time they went out.
For each additional Pokémon a trainer brings along, the difficulty increases by more than one level. When the number of Pokémon is large, it is no longer a matter of traveling to train; they would probably be so busy taking care of them that it would be impossible to move forward even a single step.
It is no coincidence that the League stipulates that each trainer may carry a maximum of six Pokémon.
And reality shows that most daycares have their own advantages. Pokémon that are not carried around can live freely in daycares, which only brings them benefits.
Moreover, once they charge a fee, they naturally have to provide a corresponding return. Daycares, by raising Pokémon according to the money received, often do a much better job than trainers who take them along and cannot care for them properly.
Of course, for people with the strength of Steven, Lance, or Cynthia, their Pokémon would never be sent to a daycare. Even if they were not their main Pokémon, even if they were only from their second or third lineup, they would still be extremely rare and valuable, something an ordinary daycare could not accept.
Many daycares, if they receive Pokémon with exceptionally high talent, although they would not openly do anything harmful to them, know that Pokémon with great potential have a high probability of producing equally talented offspring. And if some unscrupulous daycare were to focus on that point...
It would only take adding a bit of medication to the Pokémon's food and forcing it to mate excessively for one night; its vital energy would be severely damaged. After a brief rest, on the surface nothing might seem wrong, and when the trainer discovered it, they would not be able to blame the daycare.
Meanwhile, those daycares would earn a considerable sum by selling high-quality Pokémon born from those "induced offspring."
These are the kinds of shady things many daycares do in secret. For a powerful family like Steven's, it would obviously be impossible to send their Pokémon to such places, but second- and third-line Pokémon, when not taken out for training, are also not carried along; most are raised in exclusive daycares owned by the family itself.
In the case of someone like Wallace, even ordinary gyms usually have their own daycare, and even more so the Sootopolis City Gym, with nearly a hundred years of history, considered an "ancient" gym.
Even Phoebe had her Pokémon together with Juan's, with the League taking charge of their training through specialized personnel.
Thus, among everyone present, the only one who went out carrying absolutely all of his Pokémon was Cain.
First, because he had the ability and the time to train so many Pokémon; and second, because Cain did not have anyone he could truly trust to leave his Pokémon with. As for others, Cain could never reach one hundred percent trust, and even with Steven, Phoebe, and Wallace he still maintained a certain degree of caution.
The difference lay only in the degree of trust.
If he were in the Pokémon world, Cain could leave his Pokémon on his newly expanded island-farm; however, since entering this space, the connection between the system and Porygon2 had been cut off, so Cain had no choice but to carry all of his Pokémon with him.
And the facts proved that this decision had yielded excellent results. The resources of wild Pokémon here were extremely abundant, and their level of strength was quite high, whether it was Pokémon like Gengar, who were only one step away from the first Champion-level threshold, or like Lucario and Venusaur, who were still some distance from the Intermediate Elite Four level.
With such abundant resources and constant battles, the pace of improvement of the Pokémon practically had no limitations of any kind.
That day, after having finished his guard duty yesterday, Cain went out once more to battle, bringing his Pokémon with him.
At his side walked a very robust-looking Venusaur; however, its color was lighter than that of other Venusaur. It was none other than Cain's Shiny Venusaur.
Farther away, among the trees of the forest, a blue-and-black Pokémon moved nimbly back and forth. Its flexible and vigorous figure was not affected by the complex terrain of the forest and did not halt its advance.
To adapt to the movement speed of both Cain and Venusaur, it seemed to move with complete ease, as if it were strolling along carefree.
If one observed closely, it could be noticed that this Lucario carried a small backpack made of hide on its back, and on its wrists and ankles there were similar objects, like small bulges, making it look as if it were adorned with special accessories.
But that was not the case. All of those objects were weights that Cain had specially prepared for Lucario. Carrying loads distributed across the entire body did not negatively affect its growth; aside from a slight limitation on its movements, there were no hidden aftereffects.
For both humans and Pokémon, the use of loads is something that requires great care; it is not enough to place them arbitrarily.
If done incorrectly, there are major risks and even injuries: in the best case, simple muscle tears; in more serious situations, deformations in muscles and bones due to poorly distributed loads; and in the worst case, even total paralysis of the body.
Fortunately, Cain had extraordinary control over Lucario's physical condition and knew exactly how much load it should carry at each stage, as well as which parts of the body were most appropriate for placing it.
Lucario had been carrying these loads for an entire month already. At first, its body would completely deform and all of its attacks and movements were uncoordinated. But now, after a month, even if it stepped on a branch as thick as a thumb, it could move as if walking on flat ground.
And that was without ever removing the load. Since it began training in this way, it had never experienced the sensation of fighting without additional weight.
Even so, most of the Pokémon that tried to block Cain's advance were repelled by Lucario's steel fists. Very few could withstand even a single one of its blows.
And not only Lucario: if the number of wild Pokémon was large enough, before they could even get close to Cain, Venusaur would already show them why flowers are so red. Two thick green vine whips, as wide as thighs, would lash them without giving them any direction at all.
(End of chapter)