Pokemon: Rising From The Dark

Aoki wandered around the black market for a while, mainly selling the items obtained on the Trial Island.

20 large pearls, each worth 50,000 Pokecoins, 65 small pearls, each worth 10,000 Pokecoins.

This amounted to a total income of 1.65 million Pokecoins.

Then there was an intermediate Dusk Stone, three primary Moon Stones, a primary Leaf Stone, and an intermediate Leaf Stone, all of which were evolutionary stones obtained before. Evolutionary stones of this quality were of no use to Aoki; at most, they could be exchanged for some Pokecoins.

The selling price of primary evolutionary stones was about 300,000 each, while the selling price of intermediate evolutionary stones was a bit more precious, going for about 1.5 million each.

The sale of these evolution stones brought Aoki an income of 4.2 million Pokecoins.

After selling all these items, Aoki's total amount of Pokecoins reached 15.95 million, the highest net worth he had ever achieved.

Of course, as Aoki's strength improved, this amount of money was nothing in his eyes.

A King's Rock was not something Aoki could obtain at the moment, although he had swindled one from Steven before. However, he couldn't rely on tricking Steven forever.

Even if Steven agreed, his family wouldn't allow it to happen again.

Therefore, Aoki would likely have to pay for Sneasel's Razor Claw himself.

Then there were the items needed for the training of Torchic, Poliwag, and Aron that still needed to be purchased.

Skorupi's Poison-type attributes were developing, so the use of toxic items couldn't be stopped.

Honchkrow and Slowking had successfully evolved, meaning their Pokeblock formulas also needed to be adjusted, and the value of their held items was increasing.

So even though Aoki had over fifteen million Pokecoins, if he really started spending, he could burn through it all in an hour.

By the time Aoki left the materials market in the black market, he had only 9.8 million Pokecoins left.

But the gains were significant—he had managed to buy all the highest-quality materials he could currently afford.

Then Aoki went to the TM store, not to buy TMs, but to use the ones he had obtained on the S.S. Anne for Slowking.

Using the TM learning device, Slowking learned two very practical moves: Earthquake and Surf.

With Slowking's current strength, these two moves were the most beneficial for him.

Aoki wanted to build a Water-type Gym, and Slowking would be his trump card. Strengthening him would be crucial for Aoki's Gym in the future.

Without staying too long in Verdanturf Town, Aoki left directly on his Tropius.

Instead of returning to his house in Petalburg, he headed to the back mountain.

Previously, he had planned to clear out a Beautifly swarm but was interrupted by the Kaitou. Now, Aoki intended to finish the job and continue exploring deeper into the back mountain.

In such a vast forest, it was clear that those Pokémon were not the only ones inhabiting the area.

He released his 1.2-meter-tall Skorupi, his 1-meter-tall Torchic, and his 2-meter-tall Slowking.

Skorupi and Torchic would be the main forces in clearing out the Beautifly swarm, while Slowking was present mainly so Aoki could help him practice his newly learned moves.

Surf would be easier since it was a Water-type move, something Slowking would naturally pick up faster. However, Earthquake, being a Ground-type move, would take much longer to master.

It might be similar to Flamethrower, as the Ground-type was also weak against Water-type moves.

Aoki left most of the work to his Pokémon while Slowking practiced on the sidelines. He also kept an eye on Skorupi and Torchic to ensure no unexpected issues arose.

Aoki stood still and began to focus on his psychic powers.

Last time, with Slowking's help, the originally weak psychic power in his body had surged. Aoki still wasn't sure just how much his abilities had improved.

Had he reached the level of a beginner psychic user?

He took out a box of training beads from his storage space. These were originally used to test Slowpoke's psychic strength, but now they were no longer useful for Slowking. Aoki decided to use them to test his own psychic power.

Previously, with his weak psychic abilities, Aoki could barely lift a single bead in front of him, just enough to be considered a beginner psychic. He had been the weakest among all psychics.

Staring at the beads on the ground, Aoki focused his still-uncontrolled psychic power, following the methods in the "Psychic Training Manual" to lift them one by one.

One, two, three…

Aoki felt no pressure.

Immediately, he was overjoyed.

His psychic power had increased several times. Even if he had not yet fully reached the level of a junior psychic, he was definitely close.

When the number of lifted beads reached fifteen, Aoki started to feel the strain.

But he could still hold on.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed himself further.

Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen…

By the time he reached nineteen, sweat was pouring down his face.

With wide eyes, he stared at the last bead, trying to gather all the psychic power in his body to lift it.

Bloodshot veins appeared in his eyes.

Just as he was about to give up, the twentieth bead lifted slightly but fell halfway through. Like a collapsing structure, all the beads dropped one after another.

Aoki's face was pale, but his expression was filled with excitement.

Twenty beads—the level of a junior psychic!

If he had managed to fully lift the twentieth bead, Aoki would have officially reached the junior level.

Although he hadn't fully lifted it yet, Aoki felt that his psychic power was capable. His sudden power surge had made it difficult to control.

With a little time to refine his control, he would definitely succeed in lifting the twentieth bead!

In other words, with just a bit more training, Aoki would soon become a junior psychic user.

At that point, his psychic powers would truly start to shine.

When Aoki first discovered his psychic abilities, his greatest wish had been to reach the junior level.

As long as he could master Telepathy, his abilities as a Trainer would improve dramatically.

No matter how fast others gave commands, speaking still took time. But with Telepathy, Aoki could issue commands instantly through psychic power without saying a word. The speed of Telepathy was much faster than speaking.

This would give him a huge advantage in battle.

Additionally, if he didn't speak, his opponents wouldn't be able to hear his commands, making it impossible for them to counter his strategies.