I, Gary, Want to Become a Pokemon Master

Chapter 729 - 729: Catching Duraludon

"Okay, then we'll do it your way."Seeing that Garke also agreed with Gary's proposal, Nick could only go along with it — two against one.

So the three of them waited patiently in the rocky pit.

After being treated, the Duraludon didn't sleep for long. About half an hour later, it woke up.

"DURA!"

The Duraludon opened its eyes. The moment it saw Gary and the others, it shot up in shock, but immediately felt weak and wobbly on its feet.

The Full Restore had only repaired the damage to its body. Its stamina still needed to be recovered through rest or by taking a stamina-restoring potion.

Gary naturally wasn't going to give the Duraludon a stamina recovery potion. If he did, the Duraludon would want to fight the moment it woke up. That would be troublesome, and he'd inevitably have to beat it up again.

"Don't be nervous. As long as you don't try anything, we won't attack you," Gary said.

Duraludon looked at Gary suspiciously. For some reason, it had hated the human in front of it before it blacked out, but now, after waking up, why did he seem so pleasant to look at?

The Duraludon shook its head hard as if it couldn't believe it, then looked at Gary again. He was still pleasing to the eye — in fact, there was even a hint of fondness. It was really strange. Did it have Stockholm syndrome?

The Duraludon then looked at Eevee. Although Eevee was very cute, the terrifying display of power it had unleashed in battle was still fresh in Duraludon's memory.

Seeing that the Duraludon had no intention of fighting, Gary continued, "We're strangers, I know. But as long as you listen to me from now on, I'll help you keep getting stronger."

"DURA?"

The Duraludon was full of suspicion. It didn't believe Gary could actually do that.

Seeing that the Duraludon didn't believe him gave Gary a headache. If Nick and Garke weren't right there, he would have loved to let this Duraludon take a good look at his own movepool. That would have been plenty to convince it.

Left with no other choice, Gary had no option but to take out a piece of Metal Alloy from his backpack — layers of different-colored composite metal stacked together.

"DURA!?"

Upon seeing the Metal Alloy in Gary's hand, the Duraludon was visibly startled. The cells in its entire body were screaming wildly that this thing would be a huge help to it.

"This is a Metal Alloy. As long as you have this, you can evolve into Archaludon. Maybe your potential will even improve," Gary said enticingly.

Garke and Nick were both confused. They didn't understand why Gary would have a piece of Metal Alloy in his backpack, as if he had prepared it in advance.

Both of them thought Gary was really trying to bluff his way through this. It was true that evolutionary items had a chance of raising a Pokémon's potential, but that was generally only effective for Pokémon with low potential.

Although the two of them couldn't see the Duraludon's potential and level, judging from the battle between the Duraludon and Eevee, they knew very well that this Duraludon wasn't weak at all. It was definitely not inferior to the Pokémon in Nick's team.

And now he was talking about improving its potential? It had to be a scam!

"Duraludon, as long as you're willing to be my Pokémon, this is yours. If you don't want to, I won't force you — I can let you go right now," Gary said.

Although Duraludon was relatively rare, it wasn't impossible to find. Especially this Duraludon right here — with only Elite potential, it was definitely past its prime in terms of age.

If Gary wanted to, he could go to the Galar Region and find a much younger Duraludon to raise. With the highest-grade Metal Alloy he had, any Duraludon with potential below Champion level would have its potential raised to Champion after evolving.

If Duraludon knew what Gary was thinking right now, it would be furious. Dragon-type Pokémon naturally had long lifespans.

Even if Duraludon didn't live as long as Dragonite, living for a hundred years would be no problem. It was only in its thirties this year. Based on a Duraludon's lifespan, it was still a young dragon under eighteen.

"Grah! Grarah!"

The Duraludon cried out a few times, as if it were trying to negotiate conditions.

However, Gary didn't have a translation-capable Pokémon with him, so he couldn't understand it.

Fortunately, Eevee helped by acting out the translation. After a good deal of effort, they finally understood what the Duraludon was trying to express.

In short, the Duraludon had recently run into a powerful enemy. It wanted to defeat that strong enemy first, and only then would it follow Gary.

After piecing this together, Gary and the others realized that the changes in the Rock area were most likely related to the powerful enemy Pokémon the Duraludon had mentioned.

"Then do you know where that Pokémon is?" Gary asked.

"DURA."

The Duraludon nodded.

"Alright, then lead the way. Take us to find that Pokémon, and I'll help you defeat it," Gary said.

"DURA!"

The Duraludon immediately shook its head in refusal. It wanted to be the one to defeat that Pokémon itself, and no one else.

Gary was surprised. He hadn't expected this Duraludon to be so proud — insisting on defeating that Pokémon by itself.

Although Gary could understand how Duraludon felt, he was almost certain that the Pokémon it had encountered was very likely a Paradox Pokémon.

If the other party was willing to stay in one place, that was fine, but he was afraid that after a whole night, the Pokémon would be gone and they wouldn't be able to find it anymore.

"Alright, I promise I'll let you defeat that Pokémon yourself. So you can evolve now," Gary said, handing the Metal Alloy to Duraludon.

"DURA!"

Seeing Gary hand over the Metal Alloy so readily, Duraludon felt a little touched. It didn't stand on ceremony, took the Metal Alloy, and put it straight into its mouth.

The material inside the Metal Alloy immediately triggered a reaction in the cells throughout Duraludon's body, and the light of evolution shone brightly, enveloping Duraludon completely.

Duraludon's body continued to grow. Its frame became thicker and sturdier, and its height shot up to over two meters, looking just like a living steel bridge.

When the light faded, Duraludon had evolved into Archaludon — boasting a Base Stat Total comparable to a pseudo-legendary Pokémon.

"ARCHA!"

Because its height had suddenly increased so much, Archaludon could feel that its perspective on the world was completely different now. It was a bit uncomfortable at first, but it could clearly feel that its strength had been enhanced by more than just a little.

Garke and Nick were both completely stunned. They never imagined they would get to witness such a scene while out on an investigation mission.

Nick was feeling a little sour. Archaludon was an extremely strong Pokémon, not in the slightest inferior to the pseudo-legendaries from other regions.

Luckily he specialized in Fire-type Pokémon, otherwise he would have been really envious.

"Let's head back."

Since he had already promised that the enemy Pokémon would be left for Archaludon to deal with on its own, the only option now was to return, restore Archaludon's strength, and then come back to see what kind of Pokémon was actually behind all the chaos in this area.

The three of them rode their Pokémon and hurried back to the first observation station.

Klawf, who had been standing guard outside the observation station, immediately spotted the three of them returning and called out to alert the people inside.

Gary and the others landed at the entrance of the observation station, and Professor Sada and the rest of the team all walked out.