After checking the training of all the Pokémon in the Solar Farm, Ethan left the farm.
Then, he directly passed through the Secret Kingdom passage and arrived at Sandslash's Secret Kingdom.
Under the dense Rock- and Ground-type energy that covered the place, Sandslash, Vibrava, Rhyperior, and Tyranitar were still carrying out their respective training.
After checking the training progress of those four Pokémon as usual, Ethan headed toward the territory of the Piloswine.
Thanks to the large quantity of Ice-type resources that had been used to transform it, the temperature in the Piloswine territory was clearly much lower than in other areas.
The cave where they lived, moreover, was covered by a layer of frost that gave off waves of icy air.
Boom, boom, boom!
As soon as they sensed Ethan's arrival, the Piloswine immediately came out to receive him, bringing several Swinub with them.
"It seems things are going quite well for you here."
Ethan greeted the leader of the Piloswine, making it let out excited cries.
Ever since it had left that impoverished snowy mountain Secret Kingdom to come to this place, the Piloswine leader felt that the decision it had made back then had truly been wise.
"Is this the Swinub that awakened the Rock-type Hidden Power move?"
After exchanging a few words with the Piloswine leader, Ethan found the objective of his visit.
Inside the cave, he saw a Swinub greedily devouring Pokémon food.
Last time, after Ethan captured a large number of Swinub and Piloswine in the snowy Secret Kingdom, Professor Harris had made them drink an awakening potion.
Among them, more than ten Swinub and Piloswine had managed to awaken the move Hidden Power, but only this Swinub had awakened the Rock-type Hidden Power move.
Now, Ethan had come precisely to capture this Swinub, raise it until it evolved into Piloswine, and afterward find a way for it to learn the move Ancient Power, so that Piloswine could finally evolve into Mamoswine.
In the process of Piloswine evolving into Mamoswine, an atavism phenomenon would occur, and that was precisely one of the breakthrough points they were looking for in their research on life energy.
In fact, during this time, Professor Harris had been constantly trying to make those Piloswine and Swinub learn the move Ancient Power.
But the results were not good. Since they did not have a complete learning method for the move Ancient Power, they could only induce the Pokémon to comprehend it on their own.
Precisely because of that, Ethan had decided to capture this Swinub that had awakened the Rock-type Hidden Power move and train it personally to see what would happen.
The capture process was extremely simple. This Swinub's personality was quite similar to that Sandshrew from back then: a typical glutton.
Ethan simply promised it that it would have Pokémon food in unlimited quantities and, without further ado, that Swinub happily went into the Poké Ball on its own.
After successfully capturing it, Ethan immediately began its training.
Since the main objective of capturing it was to make it learn the move Ancient Power in order to help with the research, all of Ethan's training focused on improving its mastery of Rock-type energy.
Swinub, as a Ground- and Ice-type Pokémon, could also learn quite a few Rock-type moves, such as Sandstorm, Rock Slide, Rock Tomb, and Stealth Rock.
Taking that into account, within Ethan's team, both Rhyperior and Tyranitar were true experts in Rock-type moves, so Ethan directly left the task of teaching those moves to Swinub to the two of them.
When Swinub managed to learn them, Ethan would take it to battle so that it could gradually perfect them in battle.
In addition, throughout this entire Rock-type energy training process, the development of the move Hidden Power remained one of the key points. As it became familiar with the move Hidden Power, Swinub could deepen its understanding of Rock-type energy more and more, thereby laying a solid foundation for learning the move Ancient Power.
...
When one devoted oneself completely to training, time always passed very quickly.
Half a month vanished almost in the blink of an eye.
And during that time, the number of outsiders arriving at Solaria Town increased noticeably.
What the villagers found strangest was that, among those visitors, a large portion were foreigners.
"Why have so many foreigners come here?"
"Has something happened in the town recently?"
Seeing those foreigners with clearly different skin tones, some tourists seemed very confused.
"Didn't you know?"
"In two days, the town's Pokémon Gym is going to officially open."
The Solaria Town tour guide looked at that visitor with a puzzled face and approached with a smile.
"I do know about the Gym, of course. But what does that have to do with all those foreigners?"
The tourist was still confused. The news of the Solaria Town Gym's inauguration had already spread throughout society.
In fact, one of the reasons that visitor had come to Solaria Town was precisely to see the Gym's opening ceremony.
"Hehe, then you really haven't heard. Those foreigners are, in reality, Trainers in training from other Leagues. They have come here precisely to challenge Leader Ethan."
"And tomorrow, Leader Ethan will face all the Trainers in training who have come from different parts of the world in the Gym!"
The guide began explaining it enthusiastically, making the visitor's eyes gradually open wider.
"I'm not joking with you. In reality, this has already gone viral on the internet."
"Right now, many of the tourists coming to the town have come precisely to see that battle."
"In fact, the tickets to watch the Gym battles sold out as soon as they went on sale!"
Upon hearing that, the visitor immediately showed an expression of regret.
"In reality... I'm a scalper."
Saying that, the guide immediately moved closer to the tourist...
...
"Have all the Trainers in training attracted by that rumor already arrived?"
At the same time, inside the Solaria Town Gym, Ethan was standing on the rooftop platform, looking down.
"Facing the Trainers in training from all the Leagues... Although I trust your strength, doing something like this still seems a little risky."
"If this time you manage to repel all the challengers, naturally the Gym's fame will explode all at once. But if you lose during the battle, the blow to the Gym will be just as enormous."
Naira was standing beside Ethan. Looking at the challenge applications that kept arriving without stopping, she could not help showing a tense expression.
"Don't worry. Since I dared to accept the challenge, naturally I have full confidence. As long as an Elite-level Trainer does not come personally, I have absolute certainty of winning."
A smile full of confidence appeared on Ethan's face.
Right now, he had two hidden cards in his hand: Mega Evolution and Melmetal. His confidence was absolute!
In addition, that was also the reason why he had set the challenge for the day before the Gym's official opening: from the very beginning, he had not planned to battle using the normal challenge rules of the Pokémon Gym!
(End of chapter)