Chapter 211: The Alliance Makes its Move
While the Alliance was busy digging a massive pit, just waiting for other countries to jump right into it, Basalt was still training hard in the Cinnabar Sanctuary, completely oblivious to the outside world.
It wasn't until Director Morningstar personally came to the sanctuary to borrow his Lileep, intending to truly reveal it to the world, that Basalt finally realized what was happening and quickly went online to check the news.
"Chief, you guys are really something else!" Basalt gave him a thumbs-up, his form of address for Morningstar changing from "Director" to "Chief."
The Alliance's whole scheme couldn't help but remind Basalt of a certain famous strategist from an old legend on his old world, Earth. "They even look a bit alike," Basalt mused, "just a matter of one having a beard and one not."
However, because they were still in the "strategic deception" phase, Basalt's name and the name of Dr. Martin's "Friend" were not revealed to the public.
Instead, the "Life Energy Research Admin" was the name appearing constantly in major news headlines. They couldn't have kept a low profile even if they wanted to.
...
Time flew by, and three months passed in the blink of an eye.
In these three months, the Alliance truly broke onto the world stage.
First, they announced they had cracked "Fossil Revival" technology by successfully reviving Lileep.
Then, under the leadership of Dr. Martin's "Friend" and the combined efforts of countless researchers, they finally repaired the "Fossil Revival Machine." They began hitting world headlines weekly, reviving one new species of Pokémon after another.
In the first week after the machine was repaired, the Alliance revived the Rock/Flying-type Pokémon, Aerodactyl.
Aerodactyl had a gray body, purple sections on its wings, four sharp claws, and serrated teeth. As the ancient king of the skies from millions of years ago, Aerodactyl's revival created a shockwave far greater than the seemingly soft and cute Lileep.
Furthermore, the revived Aerodactyl was truly powerful, possessing Professional-level abilities right from its revival.
Rumor had it that this Aerodactyl had already caught the eye of the Alliance's Champion and was being prioritized for intensive training. Its future potential was limitless.
In the second week, the Alliance cooperated with its northern allied region to revive the Rock/Ice-type Pokémon, Amaura.
Amaura had a dinosaur-like body, light blue in color, with blue eyes and large, wing-like membranes above them. Its belly was white, and it had diamond-shaped gems on each side of its body. It had a long neck, a relatively short tail, and walked on four legs.
According to legend, Amaura once inhabited ancient, cold lands and possessed the ability to control snowfall.
No one knew what price the Alliance's northern neighbor paid, but the whole world knew that this Amaura was captured by their Champion, who also planned to train it extensively.
After all, Amaura and its evolution, Aurorus, were the only Pokémon with the Ice/Rock typing. To expand their tactical coverage, training an Amaura was absolutely essential.
What's more, this first revived Amaura had the Ability "Snow Warning"—a rare weather-setting ability on par with "Sand Stream," "Drought," and "Drizzle." The northern Champion was ecstatic after catching it, feeling that the cooperation with the Alliance had been an incredibly wise choice.
In the following weeks, the Alliance continued to reintroduce ancient Pokémon like Omanyte, Kabuto, Anorith, Cranidos, and Shieldon to the world, causing the Alliance's international standing to climb steadily.
At the same time, this put immense pressure on other nations, forcing them to bite the bullet and invest heavily in their own life energy research. They knew they absolutely could not let the Alliance be the only one in the spotlight.
Of course, none of this had anything to do with Basalt. He just wanted to increase his strength as quickly as possible and prepare for his upcoming enrollment in university.
That's right, as time passed, the annual September start of the school year was just around the corner. Basalt was finally about to step into a new chapter of his life.
Although National University, Capital University, and Saffron University had all called him, Basalt ultimately chose "Centralis University." There were three main reasons.
First, Centralis University was located right in Centralis City. Not only was it close to home, but it was also close to the Cinnabar Sanctuary.
The Cinnabar Sanctuary, at this point, was pretty much Basalt's personal base, courtesy of the Weather Bureau's special treatment. Besides the guards, almost no outsiders ever came to bother him. Basalt was living a very happy life there!
Besides, the powerful "Mega Venusaur" also lived there, which gave Basalt a great sense of security.
Second, the benefits and resources offered by the other top universities weren't any better than what Centralis University offered—in fact, they were slightly less. That made the choice simple.
Third, and most importantly, was Centralis University's research project on quicksand in the "Takla Desert." Basalt had been eyeing that for a long time.
Originally, Basalt had planned to go to the Takla Desert project before school even started, but unfortunately, Professor Mogan wouldn't allow it.
The reason was that Basalt's strength was still too low; he simply didn't have the ability to survive in the Takla Desert. As everyone knew, the Takla Desert was the largest and most dangerous of the Alliance's eight great deserts.
Therefore, even though the research team had its own security trainers, Professor Mogan flatly refused, citing Basalt's insufficient personal strength.
"Unless you advance to the Advanced-rank, I will not let you go to the Takla Desert. You can just forget about it!"
Those were Professor Mogan's exact words, and his attitude was resolute.
Basalt had no choice but to roll up his sleeves and train even harder to raise his strength.
Fortunately, his core team didn't disappoint him. After this period of training, all of their strengths had undergone earth-shattering changes.
First was Excadrill. Not only had it made great strides in all areas, but its use of compressed energy orbs was now flawless and fully applicable in actual combat. It was currently practicing applying the "energy compression technique" to its Drill Run, though it hadn't succeeded just yet.
Bronzong was no slouch either. Its development of the move Gravity and its Levitate Ability had progressed significantly.
As of now, Bronzong could just barely manage normal flight using only its Levitate Ability, at a speed similar to its pre-evolution. However, to move quickly, it still needed to activate Reverse Gravity.
In terms of raw power, both Excadrill and Bronzong had firmly stepped over the threshold into the Advanced-rank.
Unfortunately, to pass the Advanced-rank Trainer Certification, a trainer must have three Pokémon at the Advanced-rank. This was a hard requirement.
Basalt was frustrated that he couldn't pass.
This wasn't to say Lileep's strength was lacking.
On the contrary, under the guidance of the Mega Venusaur and with the help of the Life Energy Bureau's abundant resources, Lileep's power had increased dramatically.
When it came to recovery, its abilities were enough to make Basalt's own scalp tingle.
Seriously, if an opponent's Pokémon couldn't inflict extremely high damage on Lileep in a short amount of time, it was highly likely they would collapse from exhaustion at Lileep's feet first.
This was because Lileep had Ingrain, Photosynthesis, Mega Drain, and Leech Seed. With all four working in tandem, its HP and energy recovery speed was just terrifyingly fast.
As a turret, Lileep was clearly outstanding. Insane attack power plus insane recovery power—who wouldn't be overwhelmed by that?
The only unfortunate part was that Lileep had very little actual combat experience.
Therefore, Basalt planned to arrange more practical battles for Lileep in the next phase.
But this, in turn, created a new problem.
Although the Alliance was now reviving fossil Pokémon in batches, and in theory, it wouldn't be a huge issue for Basalt to show off Lileep...
The problem was that Basalt was just a university freshman. Wielding a fossil Pokémon—currently even rarer than a pseudo-legendary—felt a bit too conspicuous.
"Sigh, having a Pokémon that's too rare and too talented is also a problem, huh!" Basalt sighed, activating his humblebrag.
"Oh well, forget it. I'll go register at the university first, then find a way to pass the Advanced-rank Trainer Certification. After that, I'm heading straight to the Takla Desert."
Basalt plotted in his mind, snickering. "Being a model student? Not a chance. I'm not spending this lifetime stuck in a classroom."
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