There was no doubt that Steven's gift was extraordinarily generous.
Of course, the fact that he could hand over such valuable items without batting an eye was largely due to both his background and his current status.
Sato understood this very well.
Steven's gift was one of a kind, so he didn't feel the slightest dissatisfaction that the presents from everyone else were nowhere near as valuable as those from Steven and Drake.
During the battle against Groudon, Sato had mainly focused on rescuing top Trainers such as Steven.
Among those he had saved were no fewer than a dozen Elite Four-level Trainers.
None of them were the type to repay kindness with ingratitude. After Sato regained consciousness, they visited him one after another, each bringing some of their own treasured possessions as gifts.
Since they had learned that Sato specialized in Water-type Pokémon, was planning to build a Rain Team, and was also a psychic, every one of them had thoughtfully chosen gifts that suited his needs.
For example, he received four Mystic Water items that boosted Water-type moves.
He also received three Twisted Spoons, which enhanced Psychic-type moves.
Among all the gifts, however, the most precious were undoubtedly a Damp Rock and three Spoink Black Pearls capable of storing psychic power.
The usefulness of the Damp Rock hardly needed explanation.
It was one of the most important held items for a Rain Team, greatly extending the duration of rain.
The three Spoink Black Pearls were equally priceless.
According to the Elite Four-level Trainer who had given them to him, they had all been taken from Elite Four-level Spoink, and each pearl could store 100 points of psychic power.
With these three pearls, Sato's available psychic reserves increased dramatically.
Besides these valuable Pokémon items, an Elite Four-level Trainer who also specialized in Water-type Pokémon gifted Sato two Pokémon perfectly suited for a Rain Team:
A Swift Swim Poliwag & a Rain Dish Lotad.
Their information was as follows.
Pokémon: Poliwag
Level: 5
Type: Water
Ability: Swift Swim
Gender: Male
Known Moves: Water Sport, Water Gun
Egg Moves: Bubble Beam, Mind Reader
Tutor Moves: None
TM: None
Held Item: None
Ivs:
HP: 26 / 31
Attack: 30 / 31
Defense: 27 / 31
Special Attack: 26 / 31
Special Defense: 21 / 31
Speed: 29 / 31
Overall IV Rating: Purple (Total IV: 159)
...….
Pokémon: Lotad
Level: 5
Type: Water / Grass
Ability: Rain Dish
Gender: Female
Known Moves: Astonish, Growl
Egg Moves: Leech Seed, Razor Leaf
Tutor Moves: None
TM: None
Held Item: None
IVs:
HP: 30 / 31
Attack: 26 /
Defense: 28 / 31
Special Attack: 27 / 31
Special Defense: 30 / 31
Speed: 25 / 31
Overall IV Rating: Purple (Total IV: 166)
...….
For various reasons, Sato had never managed to gather all the Pokémon he originally planned for his Rain Team.
Now, thanks to the help of that Elite Four-level Trainer, the lineup was finally almost complete.
His current Rain Team consisted of:
Swampert
Pikachu
Shiny Pelipper
Poliwag
Lotad
Blastoise
Starmie
Tentacruel
Lanturn
Cloyster
Among them, only the first five were true Rain Team members.
Blastoise, Starmie, Tentacruel, Lanturn, and Cloyster were considered reserve members.
In other words, the core lineup still lacked one final mainstay.
According to Sato's original plan, either a Swift Swim Kingdra or a Technician Scizor would perfectly fill that last slot.
Overall, however, Blastoise, Starmie, and Tentacruel were already excellent choices.
Even if he couldn't obtain Kingdra or Scizor anytime soon, his Rain Team could now be considered essentially complete.
Once the excitement settled, however, another problem immediately surfaced.
He had accumulated far too many Pokémon. There simply wasn't enough time to personally train all of them.
Fortunately, Steven's generous gift reminded him of Takeda Jiro's Day Care.
After careful consideration, Sato decided to leave Kecleon, Blastoise, and Starmie—three Pokémon that had already been largely trained—in Takeda Jiro's care, asking him to continue raising them.
That reduced Sato's active roster to Swampert, Pikachu, Kadabra, Bagon, Vibrava, Poliwag, Lotad
Ditto (his utility Pokémon) and the shiny Natu, who still hadn't truly accepted him, didn't require active training.
It was also worth mentioning that after Sato woke up, he released Skarmory back into the wild.
Skarmory had only been temporarily recruited during the crisis. Having lived freely for so long, it disliked being tied down.
After asking for its opinion through telepathy, Sato honored its wishes and set it free.
Two days later, Nurse Joy finally approved Sato's discharge.
Instead of leaving the still-rebuilding Fallarbor Town immediately, however, he chose to remain.
While there, he accepted Alliance reconstruction missions, digested everything he had gained from the battle against Groudon, and simultaneously began preparing Swampert's promotion to the Elite Four level.
"Hey! Tyler! Over here! Over here!"
At noon, on a western street in the rebuilding Fallarbor Town, a brown-haired boy waved excitedly while shouting toward Tyler behind him.
Wearing a construction safety helmet, Sato was leading Swampert and the others in transporting lumber.
Walking at the front was Swampert.
With his godlike strength, he naturally carried the heaviest load.
Each of his hands dragged a massive bundle containing well over a dozen giant logs, each nearly as thick as a water barrel.
Every single log weighed at least 150 kilograms, yet Swampert pulled them effortlessly as though they weighed nothing.
Next came Kadabra.
Using its immense psychic power, it levitated four enormous logs while calmly following Sato.
Behind Kadabra was Vibrava.
Despite its size, the Dragon-type Pokémon possessed considerable strength, carrying an entire log by itself while flying steadily after the group.
Pikachu, Bagon, Lotad, and Poliwag weren't slacking off either.
Except for the relatively stronger Bagon, however, the others lacked the strength to move a log individually, so the four of them worked together to carry a single massive log.
Anyone paying close attention would notice a little tagalong following behind them.
It was an unusually chubby Natu.
Secretly, it was using its psychic power to reduce the weight of the log Pikachu and the others were carrying.
Sato was currently carrying out one of the League's daily reconstruction missions in Fallarbor Town.
His job?
A lumber carrier.
The work was simple, but the rewards were outstanding. For every log transported, he earned one League Contribution Point.
Sato naturally couldn't pass up such generous rewards.
Although Steven's gifts had greatly enriched him, League Contribution Points remained an extremely valuable currency that he wanted to accumulate whenever possible.
Following his principle of combining training with work, he quickly assigned all of his Pokémon to this highly effective—and highly rewarding—weight-training exercise.
Over the past several days, he had earned an impressive 2,000 League Contribution Points.
Meanwhile, Swampert and the others had effectively strengthened not only their physical power, but also their psychic endurance, stamina, and willpower.
More importantly, after working together day after day, the bonds among the team had grown even stronger.
The newly joined Bagon, Lotad, and Poliwag had quickly integrated into the group, happily following their newly acknowledged boss—Pikachu—as they caused mischief everywhere they went.
With work doubling as training, time seemed to fly.
Before anyone realized it, evening had arrived once again.
As night approached, Sato finished transporting the latest shipment of logs, collected that day's League Contribution Points from the mission office, and took all of his Pokémon to a nearby restaurant that had already been rebuilt for a hearty meal.
Although Bagon was still small, it was every bit as much of a glutton as the others.
It also had extremely refined tastes, eating only the highest-quality meat.
Its digestion was astonishingly fast. Only after raising one himself did Sato realize how terrifying its appetite truly was.
From morning until night, Bagon needed at least six meals a day before it was satisfied.
And meat was merely its supplementary food.
Its true staple diet consisted of Dragon-type cultivation resources such as Dragon Blood Ginseng and Dragonbone Fruit.
Fortunately, like most Dragon-type Pokémon, Bagon digested Dragon Blood Ginseng and Dragonbone Fruit far more slowly than ordinary meat, only needing to consume them once every few days.
Even so, every meal Sato now paid for was incredibly expensive.
Each one easily cost well over a hundred thousand PokeDollars.
Had he not already accumulated considerable wealth, he simply couldn't have afforded it.
He estimated that even if he possessed 100 million PokeDollars, these Pokémon would probably eat him broke within a month or two.
After dinner, Sato took everyone to soak in a hot spring to ease the day's fatigue.
Later that evening, he returned with all of his Pokémon to a wooden cabin he had built in the wilderness of the latter half of Route 114.
Beside the cabin lay an obviously man-made marshy lake.
From time to time, Barboach could be seen happily rolling around in the mud.
In the dead of night, precisely at midnight, Sato opened his eyes from meditation as scheduled.
Then, riding on Swampert's back, he headed toward the very center of the marshy lake.