During these 40 days, Alex stayed underground in the Pewter City Team Rocket in order to be there when Elise and Daniel returns. In the two weeks Daniel and Elise trained together, it seemed to have gone well because both showed a rather positive opinion about these two weeks. Alex gave Daniel an item of 3.5 million as a reward. He also said that this item was especially effective for the Pokemon species Butterfree. He also told Elise that she had passed the test and was now officially his direct subordinate. During the conversation, Alex again had asked Gardevoir to keep a track of Elise's emotions and update him from time to time. Alex was now sure that Elise was not a spy from the Alliance or any other organization.
Alex looked at the info of his Pokémon, and it was the same as yesterday.
In the 40 days, Alex had noticed several things that were usually on the back of his mind.
The first thing that caught his eye was that Pokémon from level 45 start to level a lot slower than before.
Alex had thought that levelling up speed when one enters Elite-level was slow. But now, even that speed feels super fast.
After 40 days, most of his Pokémon only levelled up once, which looks really bad compared to his 2 weeks on the mountains.
Although Pokémon generally levels faster in the wild, the gain of experience becomes lower and lower as more time is spent in the wild.
Alex even has a theory why that is the case, though it's just one of his guesses.
He had felt the Pokémon in unknown dangerous places, like in the wildness, levels up faster than in a place they know and properly understands the dangers residing there.
Alex didn't know exactly why a Pokémon gets such a "buff" in an unknown dangerous place, but he felt that his theory of "buff" was true. Maybe the reasons are not, but the effect sure is.
The longer a Pokémon stays in an unknown dangerous place, the worse the "buff" gets.
When the Pokémon has understood most of the dangers of a place and has gotten used to feeling it, the "buff" becomes almost negligible.
This explains to Alex why wild Pokémon don't level faster even if they are "training" in the wild all the time.
Alex had the feeling that a Pokémon also needs to train a certain amount of time in a safe zone so that they don't become numb to dangerous training environments. If all you do is experience thrill all the time, nothing is thrilling anymore.
But that was just one of Alex's hypotheses, and he doesn't have the slightest bit of evidence to support this theory. Just the feeling when he observed the information of his Pokémon day by day when they were training on the mountain.
The Pokémon they fought on the mountain range where he was last with his Pokémon were probably another reason his Pokémon had levelled up so fast.
As Alex's Pokémon battled numerous Pokémon at a level higher than them on a daily rate—some even at level 50—it would have been weird if they hadn't levelled up so fast.
But even in this area, Alex noticed that the level of progress was getting slower and slower in the last few days.
Even if the next level up is always more difficult than before, Alex noticed that even the daily progress was a bit lower.
But Alex noticed an even more important thing in 40 days.
Ditto had levelled up 2 times, which is not slower than even a Shallow Diamond Pokémon.
For Alex, this was evidence of a theory that he had previously thought possible.
Alex was now sure what the two most important factors for the level speed of a Pokémon are: "Talent" and "Level."
They are the most important and also the hardest to change factors.
Level: After a Pokémon has levelled up, the next level will automatically be harder than the previous level. That is a factor that cannot be changed and is more of a natural law of the Pokémon world.
Talent: Depending on the talent of a Pokémon, the Pokémon starts to level more slowly when it has reached a certain level.
Every trainer knows about the "level" factor, and Alex, of course, also knows it. But Alex only now understood how the two important factors react with one another.
Alex's theory is explained like this.
He first gives a number from 1 to 10 to both factors when a Pokémon has reached a certain level.
These numbers should roughly show how difficult these factors make a Pokémon reach the next level.
Alex's Ditto and Crobat are taken as an example.
-----------------------------
When Ditto was LV 35 and had Silver potential.
Level number: 2.5 (it is still relatively easy compared to later)
Talent: 3.5 (Ditto's talent has started to make it difficult to reach the next level.)
-------------------
Crobat LV 35 with Gold potential.
Level number: 2.5
Talent: 1
-------------------
A Pokémon at LV 35 and have Diamond potential.
Level number: 2.5
Talent: 1
-----------------------------
When Ditto was LV 40 and had Silver potential.
Level number: 5.
Talent: 6 (Ditto's talent has started to make it difficult to reach the next level.)
-------------------
Crobat LV 40, Gold potential.
Level number: 5.
Talent: 1
-------------------
A Pokémon at LV 40 and Diamond potential.
Level number: 5.
Talent: 1
-----------------------------
In these three examples, you can clearly see that talent only at a certain level begins to make the levelling up more difficult for Pokémon.
But even if more talent doesn't make a difference for this level, it doesn't mean that it doesn't make a difference from a certain level onwards.
Alex believed that it was the main reason Ditto could keep up with a Shallow Diamond Pokémon and even levelled up at the same speed.
He knew, however, that Shallow Gold would soon begin to no longer be the value 1 in terms of "talent".
Probably from level 45, Ditto will start levelling more and more slowly because of his talent. Or maybe, this will only happen from level 50, but Ditto might not be that lucky.
Alex also noticed another thing, or it's more appropriate to say that it's a thing he had thought about a lot.
He knew from the beginning that the move [Transform] is a special move in terms of Move Mastery.
Alex heard that practising this move to Master-rank is really challenging and takes a very long time. But he had underestimated how long this time will be.
Ditto has been Alex's Pokémon for more than 1 year, and he has been practising this move ever since then. Not to forget, [Transform] is an Innate talent move.
Alex also didn't have the feeling that it would move to Master-rank anytime soon.
Ditto with a Master-rank [Transform] is just too rare in Pokémon trainer's world for it to happen easily.
Fortunately, Ditto is now an S-rank Pokémon, and a few years should be enough for it.
.....
After all of Alex's Pokémon came in front of him, Alex said with a smile, "Ok, the Alex tournament #3 starts today."
"Because 7 participants are taking part this time, one of you will automatically advance to the first round. I wrote 7 numbers in this box on pieces of paper, and I will now start drawing for the participants."
Alex didn't want to cheat his Pokémon in the matchups, so he would draw the number for them.
Crobat complained why he was the one to draw the numbers for them, but Alex ignored it.
"Don't worry, I won't cheat and randomly draw a number." (AN: I will really draw random numbers for the Pokémon so that no one can say that it happens because of the plot if some readers are dissatisfied. haha)
1 vs 2
------------ semi-final------------
3 vs 4
-------------------------------------finale
5 vs 6
------------ semi-final------------
7th
Alex said a Pokémon and then pulled a number from the box.
He did this 6 times, and the tournament tree had its candidates.
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Crobat: 3
Scizor: 7
Gardevoir: 4
Ditto: 6
Bastiodon: 1
Blaziken: 5
Umbreon: 2
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Bastiodon vs Umbreon
--------------------------semi-final-------------
Crobat vs Gardevoir
----------------------------------------------------finale
Blaziken vs Ditto
--------------------------semi-final-------------
Scizor
*****
[EN]: Now, it is time to bet. Who do you think will win? My bet is on Blaziken.
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