Chapter 376: Changes "Can’t we stop this?" Julian was not heartless—he couldn’t just stand by and watch a million Pokémon die just to bring forth a Poison-type treasure. A million Pokémon, it wasn’t just a number—it was a million living beings. Celebi: "You can stop it, all you have to do is destroy the Poison-type treasure forming at the center of the swamp." Hearing this, Julian immediately prepared act, he didn’t want to waste even a second. After all, every extra second meant an additional tens of thousands of Pokémon. But then, Celebi added: "But a few years from now, the treasure will begin forming again, and this scene will repeat itself." "Even if you stop it now, the Pokémon that have already died won’t come back." "And in a few years, another million Pokémon will die anyway." "This is simply how the rules of this secret realm operate, the most you can do is delay it, but you can never stop it." "F***" Hearing this Julian cursed in anger. Against the laws of nature, human strength was far too insignificant. Celebi tilted its head: "So, do you still want to stop it?" Julian shot it a glare: "After what you just said? What the hell would be the point?" If it couldn’t be stopped, then there was no point in trying. If the Poison-type treasure 'had' to be born, then the best thing to do was take it for himself. Julian was no fool. Since the situation was inevitable, then it was the most sensible choice to put his own interests first. How long would it take for a million Pokémon to commit suicide? He didn’t know the answer to this before, but now he did. Half an hour. In just thirty minutes, the swamp had swallowed a million Pokémon. Seeing the swamp devour a million Pokémon with his own eyes, Julian's expression changed from shock at the beginning to unbearable to numb and now expressionless. To a certain extent, he could already be regarded as someone who had seen the "bigger world". 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮 After the swamp devoured the last Poison-type Pokémon, its muddy, putrid surface suddenly began to harden at a speed visible to the naked eye. The once vast purple swamp was shrinking. Or rather, it was compressing—condensing the energy it had gathered from itself and from the million Pokémon it had swallowed. By the next day, the swamp had already shrunk by half. By the third day, only a quarter remained. By the fifth day, the once-massive swamp had been reduced to the size of a soccer field. During this time, more people had arrived. Originally, there had been only six of them. Now, four more had shown up, bringing the total to ten. And judging by the surroundings, it was highly likely that even more trainers were hidden nearby, watching. At this moment, ten people hovered above the now soccer-field-sized swamp, each keeping a distance of five hundred meters from one another. Everyone knew that the treasure at the heart of the swamp was reaching its final stage. Perhaps the treasure would emerge tonight—perhaps tomorrow. So no one dared to leave, and among the four newly arrived trainers, Freddie recognised one. "Julian, he is at the peak of Elite," Freddie said solemnly. Among the over five hundred Elite trainers in Drakoria, only a few dozen had reached the peak stage, their numbers were scarce. No one had expected to encounter one here. The arrival of a peak-tier Elite trainer naturally drew the attention of all the others. It was no exaggeration to say that a single peak Elite Pokémon could easily take on three late Elite-tier opponents. Unless you were someone like Julian—who could defy logic and defeat peak Elites even as a early-tier Elite. Under normal circumstances, even late Elite trainers struggled to defeat someone at the peak. The trainers present were wary of the peak Elite, but they were even more wary of Julian. Not because of his strength—his identity was the real problem. If they actually hurt him, he could simply walk out of the secret realm and tell his Champion-level grandfather. John Walker was famous in Drakoria for being fiercely protective of his grandson. If you injured Julian—especially since you were from the older generation—his grandfather would absolutely come looking for payback the moment you left this realm. So, it was best not to mess with him. This guy was more troublesome than a peak Elite trainer. They couldn’t kill him. Ideally, they shouldn’t even injure him. Yet, they still had to compete for the Poison-type treasure under these conditions. The difficulty level was practically hell. And even if someone did manage to seize the treasure, unless they used it on the spot, they’d definitely get hunted down the moment they left the secret realm. And even if they did use it, if they weren’t strong enough to protect the Pokémon that absorbed it, they’d still end up losing in the long run. So what was the best strategy? The simplest solution was to eliminate everyone—if no one was left alive, no one would know who took the treasure. But that wasn’t a realistic option. Unless a Champion-level trainer arrived—one with an overwhelming ability to control the field—there was no way to pull that off. Otherwise, there was a high chance that one or two would escape. The peak Elite trainer, despite his calm appearance, was clearly wary of Julian. Julian’s track record and background spoke for themselves. And if they fought one-on-one, he might really not be able to defeat Julian. Even if he did manage to win, he wouldn’t dare to kill him—unless he could kill everyone else present here too, but that was impossible. So once again, he was back to square one. The best option now was to stay silent and see how things played out. "Julian, be honest with me, how many peak Elite Pokémon can you deal with?" Freddie asked in a low voice. "Six," Julian said. In truth, it was more than six, after all, he still had Celebi, and Celebi was a proper mid-tier Elite. Freddie gave him a look. 'I’m seriously asking you a question, and you’re messing with me?' "I’m serious," Freddie huffed. Julian: "So am I." Freddie’s expression shifted, his gaze flickering with doubt, Julian didn’t look like he was lying, but his claim sounded unbelievable. Because he was simply too young. If he had said three, Freddie would have believed him—after all, Julian had already used three Pokémon to defeat his great uncle. "After Mega Evolution," Julian clarified. Without Mega Evolution, only Metagross could push beyond its limits to defeat a peak Elite opponent as a pseudo-Elite. But with it—Aggron, Lucario, and Steelix would all break into Elite-level themselves and be able to hold their ground against peak Elites. Plus his guardian Pokémon, the peak Elite Alakazam, along with his early Elite Dragonite and Metagross, and that made exactly six. So, Julian wasn’t lying. "Mega Evolution only works on one Pokémon at a time," Freddie scoffed. Julian could sustain two Mega Evolutions at once. Three? He hadn’t tried—but he was fairly sure it was possible. The issue was, if he pushed for three at once, he’d probably only be able to maintain it for about ten minutes at most. Worse, he’d have to concentrate so hard on controlling the evolutions that he’d barely be able to pay attention to anything else—leaving himself wide open for an ambush. That was why, under normal conditions, it was a dangerous thing to perform Mega Evolution in the wild. With no rules in play, a trainer focusing on Mega Evolution—if they weren’t protected—could easily get taken out by an opponent waiting for the perfect moment to strike. ***** Upto 30 chapters ahead on patreon :- /ReduxMagister