Chapter 41. One of the trump cards of the Dragon Clan
"Aran, where are you going?" Ryuuki's voice sounded from behind.
"Keep up." Ryū didn't turn his head, hooking the little girl's clothes pocket with his tail to lead her. Since Scyther couldn't be found for a while, he could only change his target. And his next target, he had already chosen.
The Pokémon he saw when he first opened his eyes in this life—Magikarp. To be more specific, it was Magikarp's evolved form—Gyarados. There was no need to elaborate too much on this Pokémon. Let alone those who understand Pokémon, even those who don't know much about Pokémon would have heard this name.
The condition for Magikarp to evolve into Gyarados was not difficult, only needing to reach around Lv. 20. For Magikarp, who had little offensive power, if he wanted to evolve through solo battles, it would indeed be very difficult, basically only relying on natural growth. But if Ryū took this Magikarp to gang up on others, this process wouldn't be difficult.
If there was any difficulty, that was Gyarados's violent temperament, making him unsuitable for novice Trainers to raise. "As a member of the Dragon Tamer Clan, how could I not have a Gyarados, right?" Ryū headed towards the lake in his memory, muttering to himself at the same time.
Gyarados was a regular ace for Lance, the future Champion of both Kanto and Johto. He also held a crucial main position with members of the Dragon Tamer Clan.
Taking the situation in the games as an example, in the 14 versions where Lance appeared, Gyarados occupied a spot in 12 versions, only not appearing in Black 2 White 2. To put it bluntly, this Pokémon had become one of the essential aces for members of the Dragon Tamer Clan. His status was second only to the symbol of the Dragon Tamer Clan, Dragonite. Therefore, Gyarados's potential needed no further elaboration.
However, although Gyarados's name contained 'Dragon', he did not have the Dragon type. His types were Water and Flying. Although a flying Gyarados had appeared in the game Arceus version, in other game versions, anime, and manga, he was generally considered unable to fly. The only Flying-type move he could learn was 'Storm'. It could be said that it was quite a misnomer.
"Aran, Aran, look, that Pokémon is so cute." Ryuuki's voice sounded by his ear. "Hmm?" Ryū's gaze moved over, and hesitation appeared in his eyes.
That was a Marill. Marill wasn't very famous, but his evolved form, Azumarill, was quite famous. Called the 'Dragon Slayer'. Marill was considered a backup Pokémon among Ryū's targets.
'Forget it.' After hesitating, Ryū still decided to temporarily give up on this Pokémon. Azumarill was quite famous, but not that exaggerated, and she relied heavily on the 'Huge Power' Ability. Moreover, if the opponent wasn't a Dragon-type Pokémon, then Azumarill's strength would be very limited.
In Ryū's opinion, Azumarill wasn't a particularly worthwhile Pokémon to train. At least under the current conditions where there were other better options, he wouldn't choose to take this line of Pokémon back for Liz or Ryuuki to train.
Continuing forward, he arrived at the lake unimpeded all the way. "Wait for me here." Ryū used his tail to stuff Ryuuki into the nearby bushes. He raised his head and looked around, making sure that no other Pokémon should appear in the vicinity for a while before diving into the lake.
Gyarados were not common, but Magikarp were extremely common. It was said that in ancient times, Magikarp were very powerful. For some reason, Magikarp exchanged strength for reproductive power and vitality.
Although today's Magikarp were very weak, their reproductive power was astonishing, and they could survive in any water quality, practically aquatic cockroaches. They were even described in the Pokédex as 'so numerous you'd get tired of seeing them'.
Therefore, even in this small lake, many Magikarp could be found. In fact, it was even easier to see Magikarp in this kind of lake. Because in the sea, they could only serve as food for other Pokémon. But in this lake, they could at least stand higher up on the food chain.
Ryū's gaze swept over, and he discovered about a dozen Magikarp. "You 2 will do." He quickly determined his targets. The lengths of the 2 Magikarp were 2.1 meters and 2 meters respectively. This body length was more than double the Pokédex value.
This indicated that the levels of these 2 Magikarp were already not low, and perhaps they were not far from evolving. Ryū had no intention of communicating with these 2 Magikarp. Magikarp were too dull; what they had regressed was not just strength, but also intelligence. Only after evolving would their intelligence be slightly better.
Ryū felt that even if he talked to them, it would be meaningless. It would be better to first knock these 2 Magikarp down, then feed them, thereby achieving 'capture'.
No sooner said than done. Ryū went up and unleashed 2 Dragon Tails, directly knocking out the 2 Magikarp. Then he coiled the 2 Magikarp with his tail and flew out of the lake with them.
"Aran!" Seeing Ryū fly out, Ryuuki quickly went to meet him. Soon she noticed the 2 large red fish Ryū was holding with his tail. However, she wasn't very curious. Ryuuki thought Ryū might just be hungry and wanted to eat fish. But Ryuuki had truly never seen such large fish before. Anyway, she had never eaten such large fish before.
"Come up, it's time to go." Ryū lowered his head. "Are we leaving already?" Ryuuki understood Ryū's meaning. With some effort, she climbed onto Ryū's head with her inconvenient body, then her 2 small hands grabbed the feather wings on either side of Ryū's head.
"Catching 2 today is already a lot." Ryū took off, flying towards the direction of the capital. Originally, he had thought of catching them one by one; today's plan was originally to catch a Scyther to take back. But since he couldn't catch Scyther, catching Magikarp was also fine. Anyway, they had to be caught sooner or later.
Catching Magikarp allowed him to catch 2 at once, one for Liz and one for Ryuuki. As for the act of 'feeding', it had to be done by Liz and Ryuuki themselves. If it were other Pokémon, Ryū could still make them recognize Liz and Ryuuki as their Trainers through communication. But Magikarp couldn't.
Magikarp's intelligence wasn't high; Ryū communicating with them was meaningless. It would take many days for Magikarp to remember who was feeding them and thus become fond of that person. If Ryū were to do the feeding, then the future Magikarp would be close to Ryū, rather than Liz and Ryuuki.
By then, when Magikarp evolved into Gyarados, with that violent temperament, it would be strange if he listened to Liz and Ryuuki. Ryū certainly didn't want to return after fighting on the front lines only to find that Liz and Ryuuki had been knocked out by their own Gyarados. That would be too messed up.
Another half an hour passed. Ryū returned to the Royal Palace with Ryuuki. After arriving at the Royal Palace, he first threw the 2 still unconscious Magikarp into the backyard pond. The maid busy in the backyard looked at Ryū with a confused expression, not understanding what kind of trouble this young master was stirring up again.
"Wait here." Ryū placed Ryuuki by the pond. He himself flew to the window outside the study on the second floor.
Knock, knock.
Liz in the study heard the sound of the window being knocked and turned her head in confusion. "Aran?!" Liz was startled by the large face outside the window and quickly opened it. "Shouldn't you be at school? Are you skipping classes again? Aran, you're not being good, do you want to be..."
"What school? Come here." Ryū interrupted Liz's rambling and forcefully coiled her out of the study with his tail.
"Aran~" Liz sighed helplessly. She finally understood the feeling of helplessness when the young Aran was held by them.