Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Chapter 619 - 619 – Battery Growth Log

[Magneton][Type: Electric + Steel]

[Gender: Genderless]

[Potential: 66.53%]

[Level: 32.11%]

[Ability: Magnet Pull/21.13%][Hidden Ability: Analytic/13.23%]

"That potential is pretty good."

Reiji recalled the newly evolved Magneton and checked its panel. Sixty-six potential already saved him a lot of work. From here, he only needed to push it past ninety before evolving it into Magnezone.

Potential in the nineties would be enough for Magnezone to grow into a Champion-tier Pokémon. Whether it could ever actually reach level ninety was another matter, but the ceiling would be there. If he still felt uneasy, he could always push it to ninety-nine.

Between the three original Magnemite, all three abilities had appeared: Magnet Pull, Analytic, and Sturdy.

Magnet Pull trapped non-Ghost Steel-type Pokémon, preventing them from switching or escaping.

Sturdy blocked one-hit KO moves. If the Pokémon was at full HP, it would also survive a single hit with at least one HP remaining.

Analytic increased move power by thirty percent if the user moved after the opponent.

After looking over the three abilities, Reiji dismissed Sturdy first.

It wasn't useless, but it had too many ways around it. Besides, a properly raised Magnezone shouldn't be getting one-shot in the first place. If it ever faced something strong enough to do that, then Sturdy wouldn't save the battle anyway.

Magnet Pull was similar to Shadow Tag, but it only worked on Steel-types. That made its use too narrow.

Analytic, on the other hand, could raise attack power directly. The drawback was that Magneton had to move later, which usually meant taking a hit first. It still wasn't perfect, but it was far more useful than Sturdy's one-time safety net.

For the final combination evolution, Reiji wanted Magnet Pull and Analytic to remain. If the result ended up with Sturdy, he would split them apart and try again.

Gravity was still there too. Once he saw that, he relaxed. Magneton's panel had no major issues. They could continue evolving without worry.

Reiji closed the panel and looked at Magneton.

"Can you three separate on your own after combining?"

"mite, mite, mite."

All three heads answered together and nodded.

They were held together by magnetism in the first place. If they stopped releasing that magnetic force—basically stopped discharging—they could separate.

The Magneton cut off its discharge, and the three Magnemite pulled apart again.

Good. The combination worked.

This was worth developing.

Reiji recalled the three Magnemite and checked their individual panels. Then he opened his notebook and wrote down how much potential each one had gained.

The leader, the 50-potential Magnemite, had gained 0.8.

The 51-potential Magnemite had gained 0.6.

The 55-potential Magnemite had gained 0.5.

"Same as Gengar. The lower the starting potential, the bigger the gain."

Reiji set the notebook down and checked the six Electric Gems. Three had been drained completely. The other three had each lost about ten percent purity.

He kicked the sparking power strip aside and prepared to run the test again without electricity.

Mostly because the power was already out.

The first attempt had drawn too much electricity and overloaded the villa's wiring. The breaker had tripped. If he kept doing this here, someone might come knocking.

If he wanted to keep using electricity for evolution, he needed a place where he could either steal power or buy it openly.

For now, he could run a control test.

Reiji took out another six Electric Gems of similar purity and handed two to each Magnemite. Then he had them combine again.

White light flashed.

This time, Magneton's potential rose by only 0.5 compared to the previous result. Its level barely changed. The only noticeable movement was in its Electric-type moves.

Reiji split them apart again, recalled them, and recorded the new numbers.

The leader gained 0.6 potential.

The 51-potential Magnemite gained 0.5.

The 55-potential Magnemite gained 0.4.

Without outside power, the leader's growth had dropped by 0.2 compared to the first test. The other two Magnemite had each dropped by 0.1.

The second set of Electric Gems showed the same pattern. Three were drained completely, while the other three had only lost about five or six percent of their purity.

That was enough to confirm it.

Electricity mattered.

It helped Magnemite absorb the Gems more thoroughly, and it also gave their potential a small boost. The increase was tiny, but tiny increases still added up.

Now that Reiji understood what the electricity was doing, he set it aside for the moment. Magnemite were Electric- and Steel-type, and he still needed to figure out how to handle the Steel side.

His first thought was Forretress. Could he add Water-type material to Magnemite's body the way he had used it to improve Forretress's Fire resistance?

After thinking it through, he ruled it out.

Magnemite couldn't copy Pineco's method. Pineco could mix Damp Rock powder with its own fluids, coat itself layer by layer, and seal everything beneath bark. Magnemite had no body structure that could do anything like that.

For Magnemite, the only realistic way to handle Fire was to make the body tougher. If the metal shell became hard enough, it could endure heat through raw durability.

As for a Steel-type material that simply "resisted Fire" on its own?

That was nonsense. Metal had melting points, not immunity. If it didn't melt, that only meant the temperature wasn't high enough.

The real problem was weight. More metal meant better hardness, better defense, and better heat resistance, but it also made Magnemite heavier. If he added too much, it might not be able to float properly.

Float Stone sounded like an easy answer, but the name said everything. It was still a stone. Magnemite didn't eat stone, and there was no guarantee it could incorporate it into its body.

So he was stuck with an ugly trade-off: strengthen the body and risk making it too heavy, or keep it light and lose out on defense.

Reiji hated choices like that.

If only Magnemite could fuse with Float Stone during evolution.

He took out the refined steel he had prepared for Forretress. These weren't the large pieces he had bought before, just smaller chunks. Then he pulled out several Float Stones he had found while sorting through the backpacks.

They looked like ordinary gray rocks. Without picking one up, no one would know they were Float Stones.

Reiji released Scyther and had it cut the Float Stones into smaller pieces, then grind part of them into powder. He rubbed the powder over the three Magnemite, gave them a small piece of refined steel to hold together, and placed a Float Stone fragment on top of them before starting the evolution.

White light rose, then faded.

The refined steel dropped to the floor.

So did the Float Stone fragment.

Magnemite hadn't absorbed either one.

Reiji had them separate and weighed them one by one. Their weight hadn't changed at all. Even the Float Stone powder on their bodies had stayed on the surface.

"That's not right…"

Magnezone's description mentioned its body being broken down and rebuilt at the molecular level during evolution. Maybe that only happened when Magneton evolved into Magnezone. A simple Magnemite-to-Magneton combination wasn't enough.

If that was true, then he only had one real chance to merge outside materials into the body.

The steel hadn't gone in either. Magneton was still just three Magnemite linked together. Their bodies hadn't truly been rebuilt, so foreign materials couldn't be added yet. For now, electricity was the only thing they could absorb.

No—more precisely, electricity was increasing their capacity.

Reiji looked at the three Magnemite again, and the whole problem clicked into place.

They were growing batteries.

Raising their potential meant raising how much electricity they could hold. It also affected something just as important: voltage.

A tiny battery couldn't run an induction cooker. Right now, Magnemite were more like ordinary household power at 220 volts. Electivire, meanwhile, could supply enough electricity for an entire city. The current it released was on a completely different level.

As Magnemite grew and evolved, it would move closer to that. Eventually, it could become a mobile power source with city-level output and far stronger voltage.

He had been looking at the problem from the wrong direction.

Hardness and body reconstruction could wait for the final evolution. When Magneton became Magnezone, Float Stone might be broken down and rebuilt into the body along with everything else.

For now, he needed to focus on what Magnemite could actually improve: its electrical capacity. In other words, its potential. That would decide how much power it could store and how strong its discharge could become later.

You couldn't ask a tiny battery to put out tens of thousands of volts.

That was just bullying the battery.

With the plan adjusted, Reiji opened the bedroom door and found a crowd waiting outside. Naoki and the others had returned too.

"Boss? Did the villa lose power?" Naoki asked. He had suspected something had gone wrong but hadn't dared interrupt. Now that Reiji had come out, he finally stepped forward.

"It's fine. I was evolving Magnemite and pulled too much power, so the breaker tripped." Reiji waved for everyone to relax. "Just switch it back on. Everyone else can go. Naoki, stay."

Naoki relaxed and sent the others away, then followed Reiji into the study.

Reiji had something to ask him.

"Naoki, you know Mandarin Island North better than I do. I need a place where I can either draw power quietly or buy a large amount of it. Magnemite's evolution needs a lot of electricity."

"Electricity…" Naoki thought for a moment.

Finding power wasn't hard. Plenty of plants produced more than they could sell, and some were close to shutting down because they couldn't move enough electricity. That was how abandoned power plants happened in the first place.

"Boss, do you want the safe option, or…?"

"The safe option."

Reiji needed stable power for Magnemite's next stage. He didn't want extra trouble.

"Then we should go to a power company that's almost bankrupt," Naoki said. "They have plenty of electricity no one's buying. Most of it only gets used to recharge Electric-type Pokémon. Their pollution is bad too, so fewer people want their power. They're barely holding on. A customer like you would be welcome."

"Good. Take me there."

Reiji left with Naoki. They didn't drive.

After changing their faces, they took a taxi toward the inland outskirts. There was an old coal plant out there, near a coal mine. Years ago, that area had been Mandarin Island North's heavy industrial district.

But Mandarin Island North had grown through sea trade, and the city had been pushing cleaner energy for years. Coal power had fallen out of favor, the port had become the focus, and the old industrial district had been left to rot.

The inland outskirts had become the old city. The houses were worn down, the streets were cracked, and the air stank of rotting garbage. Dirty water ran along the roads, carrying plastic bags, broken shoes, discarded toys, and whatever else people had thrown away.

There were barely any pedestrians. The wide roads still hinted at how busy the place used to be, but now they looked empty and tired.

Gangs, poaching crews, scam groups, street thugs, extremist groups, and black market operators had all settled in. An abandoned district like this was perfect for people who didn't want to be seen.

For Reiji and Naoki, it almost felt familiar.

The taxi stopped outside the old district. The driver refused to go any farther, so the two of them got out and walked.

They released their Pokémon and continued on foot. The coal plant was beyond the old city, even farther out.

They had only just entered when Reiji noticed the eyes watching them from the alleys.

Local lookouts.

He didn't need to guess who they worked for. The local gangs kept people posted around the district to watch strangers. New faces meant possible money.

If someone looked weak, the gangs might try to squeeze them. They probably wouldn't bother two Trainers who clearly looked dangerous, unless those Trainers showed up with something worth taking.

Like money for a large power purchase.

At the plant, the workers lit up the moment Reiji said he wanted to buy electricity. The place normally ran at low output and only increased production when there was extra money to be made.

Coal power was already being pushed out. Otherwise, this plant wouldn't have fallen this far.

A worker led them to a charging room for Electric-type Pokémon. Reiji chose the room with the highest voltage.

The setup was rough: two thick exposed cables and a large switch.

Crude, but usable.

Since he needed a lot of power, Reiji asked about the price first.

"You two are Trainers, right? We charge by usage here. Twenty Pokédollars per kilowatt-hour. The meter tracks how much you use, and you pay when you leave."

"Twenty Pokédollars?" Reiji leaned toward Naoki and lowered his voice. "Are they trying to scam us? Is the meter rigged?"

"If a stranger came alone, probably," Naoki whispered. "But I already talked to someone."

This place cheated people when it could, but Naoki knew the area and had called ahead.

"Good. I'll leave this to you."

Reiji nodded. He didn't care whether they charged by the meter, by the hour, or with a flat fee. He had the money. What mattered was having stable power.

[End of chapter]

[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]

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