Back when battling at Lampur, Gary's ace Pokemon, Wartortle, was at Advanced Peak level. It's been more than half a month since then, so it's not impossible for his Wartortle to have evolved into Blastoise.
In the early stages, Pokemon that can undergo multiple evolutions have a significant advantage. As long as they're trained well, they can generally level up after evolution.
Some people even use this method to break through a Pokemon's bottleneck by suppressing their evolution with an Everstone, then removing it when they get stuck at a certain level to allow them to evolve.
For instance, Sabrina even actively suppresses her Pokemon's form to hone their skills.
However, Sabrina's method can only be accomplished by someone who has mastered superpower like her.
If Gary evolves Wartortle into Blastoise, its level should be comparable to his current Charizard and Gardevoir, although his ace Pokemon, Pikachu, still outshines it!
Thinking about this, Ash felt slightly relieved. After all, it would be too much if he couldn't even compete with Gary despite having a bit of an edge.
He has guidance and training strategies from countless bigshots. If he weren't short on resources, he could enhance his Pokemon even faster...
"By the way, Professor Oak, how are Primeape and the others doing?"
"They're doing well. I didn't expect that Gastly... oh, now it's Gengar, to be so skilled at breeding Pokemon! Butterfree and Primeape have improved quite quickly under your Gengar's tutelage. If that guy were to go independent, it might be a breeder among Pokemon. You've really brought back a treasure!"
Professor Oak spoke of Gengar with such amazement.
He's seen plenty of battling Pokemon, but a Pokemon that can help a Trainer breed other Pokemon—this was the first time for sure!
Since returning from Saffron Gym, Gastly has stayed in its Gengar form, saying it's too lazy to shapeshift, and Gengar is a good state to be in, having arms and legs.
Later, it became clear that Gengar was passionate about teaching Ash's two Pokemon in the backyard—Butterfree and Pink Butterfree.
With limbs, it's easier to teach, and under Gengar's guidance, Butterfree has reached Advanced Level and Advanced Junior Level.
For Bug Type Pokemon like Butterfree, their progress is relatively slow due to repaying their early rapid growth. So even when Pidgeotto reached Advanced Peak, Butterfree was still at Advanced Intermediate.
Only recently, with Gengar's guidance, did Butterfree upgrade to Advanced Level in the past two days.
While Primeape's level is still at Advanced Peak, it's seemingly being guided by Gengar to tap into another power within...
"To tell you the truth, Ash, you might not believe it. There's actually another attribute within Primeape..."
"Ghost Type, right?" Ash directly revealed Professor Oak's mystery.
Professor Oak looked astonished, "How did you know?!"
"Why else would I entrust Primeape to Gengar for training?" Ash rolled his eyes, as if it were obvious, and then he commented.
"But I didn't expect that, besides being able to draw out Primeape's Ghost Type power, Gengar could also teach Butterfree... Professor Oak, Gengar loves noodles. Please have my mom make some noodle dishes for it."
Professor Oak's instant noodles were truly inadequate. Although Gengar had been around for thousands of years, it had been confined to Maiden Gorge and hadn't ventured out, so it didn't know what instant noodles were, only using them to fill its stomach.
It's neither delicious nor bad, but compared to Delia's cooking, it's indeed garbage.
"Hey, so you don't like my instant noodles... Fine, I'll have Delia make me some as well. I've gotten a little tired of instant noodles lately," Professor Oak muttered to himself.
"As long as my mom agrees, that's fine. Well, if there's nothing else, I'll hang up now. Please take care of Gengar and the others, Professor Oak."
"Leave it to me, don't worry." Professor Oak made an okay gesture.
After hanging up the phone, Ash and his friends continued to sit in the Pokemon Center for a while. Firstly, their Pokemon hadn't fully recovered, and this recovery was taking longer than usual, indicating that their previous battle with Charizard and Gardevoir had left them completely exhausted.
Another reason was to plan their route for the next Gym.
With three badges left, Ash could enter the Quartz Conference, but deciding which Gyms to challenge for these badges was a difficult decision for Ash.
For ordinary Gyms, Ash's current strength didn't require much effort. After all, he could already rival the Professional Level, and even in a three-on-three Professional Level match, he had over a 50% chance of winning.
And generally, the highest level in regular Gyms is Professional Level.
Moreover, Ash's journey had been nearly two months; as long as he didn't ask to challenge at a higher difficulty, the distributed challenge difficulty would be the first or second class.
Same level matches—frankly speaking—he's unbeatable!
Therefore, Ash was contemplating whether to increase the difficulty for himself.
"Do we really have to go to that Gym next? It's hailed as one of Kanto's four major Gyms. Are you planning to use Gengar in battle again, Ash?" Brock discouraged Ash upon hearing his decision for the next Gym location.