246. ?

This is another of the extra chapters I promised.

Hope you like it.

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Days passed day by day, and soon more than two weeks passed.

The start of the Pokémon Contest in Slateport City was very close, and the whole city was filled with an atmosphere of anticipation as many Pokémon Coordinator began to arrive one after another.

In the past half month or so, May, Ash and Drew also battled several times to get a better grasp at their abilities. Although Drew was a bit venomous, he was quite easy to get along with everyone as time passed. With this time, he had established a well enough friendship the group.

With the guidance of an experienced person like Ash, May has made rapid progress as a Pokémon Coordinator. Although she has to compete with the two of them on the same stage, she was much more confident about her abilities as a Coordinator than before.

It's not just May who has made progress, Ash's gains in this half month were just as impressive.

Recently, there has been talks about a Trainer that has been challenging everyone in the Slateport City Pokémon Center, and all new or old Pokémon Coordinators were challenged by him.

But fortunately, all the battles were quick and easy. After the victory, he would also give some coaching and encouragement to the losers, which were very pertinent suggestions. So later, Trainers found Ash one after another and asked for a battle and get his knowledge and experience.

Therefore, Ash had earned a lot of his Exchange Points before the Pokémon Contest started.

Dratini has completed his molting again. He kept eating energy cubes specially for Dragon-type Pokémon's that Ash exchanged from the System every day. Now his body length has reached 2 meters.

Ash was really looking forward to what an amazing size it will be when it completes all of his 7 molts and evolves into a Dragonair!

Ash will transform his future Dragonite into the strongest Dragonite in the world.

He wants to train him to the point where he could even beat Lance's whole team alone.

Mudkip has reached the edge of his evolution. Its original level was not low to begin with, and after a period of training under Ash and a lot of battles recently, it was going to be his time to evolve soon.

The same was true for his Aron. He ate a lot of high-quality iron ores produced by his System every day, forming an amazing indestructible steel armor. With the addition of his Heavy Metal ability, he had now become a small tank.

Ash was just waiting for the moment when it evolves. When the little guy evolves into a bigger guy like Lairon, his strength will be turned upside down.

The one who has gained the most is of course his Ralts. For the next Pokémon Contest, she has received intensive training. Now she has even learned the move Teleport, which means her combat effectiveness has greatly increased because of the increased speed and ability to dodge.

Ash was going to make her his Ace for Pokémon Cintest team.

However that didn't mean that he wouldn't have them participate in the Gym Battle tho; he will just train them a bit more to have more graceful and beautiful way of battling.

His little Growlithe has also grown strong in the past few weeks. After all, Ralts helped him grow stronger every day. Because she was hatched by Ash himself, the compatibility and Bond Value were very high from the beginning.

Now Ash was thinking about sending her back to the Lab to be trained in his Entei's and Houndoom's way of training, and then use the highest quality Fire Stone he had to complete the evolution in the future.

Although he wanted his Typhlosion to help in here too, he knew his Typhlosion didn't like young Pokémon's like Growlithe.

And not to mention his Charizard, the last time he called Liza was a month ago when he heard that his Charizard is now ruling the whole Charicific Valley after their old Kind decided to retire.

No matter what, Ash wanted his future Arcanine to have the majestic appearance of an Entei mixed with the coldness of his Houndoom!

In addition, other Pokémon that Ash had captured in Hoenn Region have also been exchanged several times in the past half month for training and bonding. Everyone's progress was very obvious to the naked eye.

Especially his Corphish, Ash don't know what his Slowking had said to him but now he is very well-behaved and trains hard everyday, but he may become a lot more ferocious after it evolves into a Crawdaunt.

"Come back, Aron!" Ash won another challenge from a middle aged Pokémon Coordinator, "Your Aggron is well developed and the armors was also polished nicely by you, but it lacks the ferocity it should have as an Aggron."

That's right, Ash had just commanded his Aron to defeat its final evolved form, an Aggron!

"Ferocity?"

"That's right, Pokémon Contests are not just about showing the appearance of a power of a Pokémon, but also the true inner beauty they possess. Each Pokémon has its own unique charm to it. It all depends on how you, as their Trainer, decide to show it!"

After finishing his battle, Ash had received some more Exchange Points, made some random remarks that sounded reasonable to him, and returned to the Pokémon Center for a scrumptious breakfast.

They were at the hotel before but since they needed to heal imul genie Pokémon's, they spent most of their time here other than the private beach.

Ash and his group only go to their hotel if they need to rest up for the day.

May had already eaten five sandwiches and took her Beautifly to special training.

However Max seemed unhappy by all of this.

Ash decided it ignore him for now, picked up his sandwich and took a big bite.

"I still think her Torchic is very pitiful!" Max suddenly said after Ash finished his sandwich.

Ash wasn't surprised, Brock was stunned, and Torchic, who was eating happily beside him, raised his cute little head.

"Look, May has only been with her Beautifly recently. Just now, she left her Torchic alone and went to practice with Beautifly!" Max explained, "Maybe she is starting to think Torchic is not that cute at all!"

After he finished speaking, Ash knocked him softly on the head!

"Oww!" Max gave a short cry, holding his head, "Big Bro, why did you hit me again!"

"Max, you still can't understand the bond between a Trainer and their Pokémon." Ash shook his head, looked at Brock, and didn't explain any more other than two last sentences.

"I, too, understand where you're coming from, Max. But you have to take a deeper look into this."

Ash knew that Max had to become a real Trainer to understand these small things.

At this moment, Nurse Joy happened to pass by and saw Torchic and Mudkip eating next to Ash. She asked curiously, "Are those Torchic and Mudkip here your Pokémon's?"

"Yes, Nurse Joy!" Max learned to answer quickly, "Mudkip belongs to my Big Bro, who also had a Grovyle, which he teleported back not long ago! And Torchic here belongs to my sister!"

"Really? That's great, you guys did a great job of training them!" Nurse Joy sincerely praised them, especially Mudkip, who has very good muscle building, and less so Torchic, who still looked to be agile.

Brock came over immediately and said, "I am so honored to be praised by you, Nurse Joy! Would you like to go on a dat-!"

"I don't think so, Brock! She must be very busy to do anything with you!" Max interrupted Brock before he could shoot his shot.

"Well, today there is a birthday for a kid who is going to be a Pokémon Trainer. Now I have to prepare for the health checkup of Torchic, Treecko and Mudkip, which one of them will be given to the Rookie Trainer! It would be great if those little children can grow up healthy too."

Not all Rookie Trainer's Pokémon are received from Pokémon Professor, so the other three and Ash, who set off from Pallet Town were able to avoid all the unnecessary things thanks to Professor Oak's attention.

And now among the four people, only Ash was still holding on to his dreams, and his performance was also exceptionally good.

As they said, "A person without a dream is as good as dead!" (Moon Tzu, The Art of Dreams).

Of course, Professor Oak had also given the best to Ash because of this. After all, this also brings immense glory to Pallet Town and the Kanto Region in general

There was no Pokémon Professor here in Slateport City, so Nurse Joy is also the one responsible for handing over the Hoenn's Royal Starter Pokémon to some of the more lucky Rookie Trainers.

After completing their health check, Nurse Joy smiled and said, "The three Pokémon are all very healthy. Now let's let them leave the Poké Ball and do some routine exercise!"

"Ash, Brock, Max, would you three help he a bit? There has been a recent influx of injured Pokémon's in the area, so I'm very concerned. There was even a Trainer who brought their Aggron not long ago, and that poor Aggron looked depressed as if it had been beaten horribly!"

Ash stood there, speechless, without anything to say other than nod along to what she said.

"Max, could you let them leave their Poké Balls?" Nurse Joy was ever so gentle, she handed the Poké Ball to Max, who was very eager to try it out.

"Thank you so much, Nurse Joy!" Max took the three Poké Balls and threw them out one by one according to the symbols of Grass, Fire, and Water on them, "Come out, Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip!"

The look in the young Torchic's eyes made Ash turn his gaze to it immediately.

It was a sharp, hot, and full of power look!

The other two were a little less than satisfactory.

The small Treecko eas a shy girl, and the little Mudkip was a crybaby.

At this moment, May contacted the Pokémon center, "Nurse Joy, I found a Wailord that was knocked ashore by the sea and seems to be very weak!"