After defeating Kingdra, Julian teically had already pleted the challeo asd Dragon Mountain. Dragonite could now proceed directly to the summit to soak in the Dragon Pool, but the soaking time would only be one hour.

  The rules on Mountain stated that defeating three Dragon-type Pokémon allowed oo soak in the Dragon Pool for an hour. However, if a challenger could fight their way to the summit, they would earn a full day of soaking time.

  Defeating three Dragon-types was the shortest soaking time offered and rimarily aimed at Elite level challengers.

  After all, for an pseudo-Elite level Dragon-type Pokémon to defeat two early Elite-level and one mid-Elite-level Dragon-types was already a feat worthy of a prodigy.

  Defeating those three Pokémon with a begine-level Pokémon could be sidered genius.

  With a mid-Elite-level Pokémon? That was just average.

  Naturally, Julian wasn't about to end his challenge here. Not only had Dragonite's full potential yet to be unleashed, but he hadn't even pleted his Daily Task yet.

  At the moment, he had only climbed 2,000 meters up Dragon Mountain. His daily task required him to reach 5,000 meters by 5 PM today.

  With about six hours left, he o cover the remaining 3,000 meters. Along the way, more Dragon-type Pokémon might appear to challenge him.

  "Dragoake this first"

  Julian said, handing over a Full Restore potion. This item cost 1,000 system points per dose.

  With the help of the Full Restore, Dragonite's stamina, energy, and injuries were all restored to peak dition. Its aura even seemed a bit strohan before.

  After secutive battles and victories, Dragonite's experience points must have increased, no doubt tributing to its improved dition.

  In the Dragon Mountain challenge, using healing items was allowed. Without them, it would be nearly impossible to make it all the way to the summit.

  After all, the Dragon-types at the summit were pseudo-Champion-level. Battling all the without switg Pokémon? No one could sustain that.

  If Julian was usiagross, he might have had the fideo pull it off. Metagross was his ace, into which he had poured the most resources and effort.

  Dragonite, oher hand, still had room to grow.

  The market sold healing items, but no Full Restore could match the ones from the system's shop.

  In this regard, Julian was essentially bending the rules.

  Even with healing items, serious injuries would typically take time to fully recover. And with battles tinuing along the way, minor injuries would pound into severe ones.

  This often led challeo eventually colpse at the hands of a Dragon-type Pokémon.

  However, with the Full Restore, Julian had an edge. Whenever he used it, Dragonite would immediately return to peak dition—there was no such thing as barely holding on.

  The only thing that remained was aronger Dragohan before.

  After bidding farewell to Kingdra, Julian and Dragonite tiheir climb up Dragon Mountain.

  The higher they climbed, the steeper the terrain became. However, if one looked carefully, there were always footholds to be found, as though they had been pced iionally.

  This wasn't a ce. These paths were the result of tless challengers who had climbed Dragon Mountain before, carving out a route step by step.

  Julian also had a map of the climbing paths, provided by the Drake family. This map represented over a tury of exploration and experience accumuted by the family.

  If Julian hadn't been someohe Drake family wao ally with, they wouldn't have given him this map. At best, they would have granted him access to the Dragon Den a him to fend for himself, like other trainers outside the Drake family.

  For those trainers, gaining access to the Dragon Den rivilege in itself. Whether they could make it to the Dragon Pool was entirely up to their own abilities.

  Help? Sure—if they brought something valuable enough to trade for it.

  After five hours of climbing, Julian finally reached the midpoint on Mountain, about 5,000 meters above sea level.

  The wind here was several times fiercer than at 2,000 meters, and the temperature had dropped signifitly.

  The system task indicator lit up, showing the task as pleted, and 5,000 points were credited to Julian's at.

  "Hmm?"

  Dragours gaze upward, its usually goofy expression now serious.

  "We'll deal with it tomorrow," Julian said calmly.

  Since defeating Kingdra, they hadn't entered any new challengers. They were still outside the core area of this territory.

  However, at this altitude, they were nearing the heart of the domain, and Dragonite could sehe presence of a powerful Dragon-type Pokémon further up.

  Even Julian could feel the intense aura radiating from above—it was a strong wave of energy that only a formidable Pokémon could emit.

  However, with the suing and the clock approag 5 PM, it wasn't the right time to tinue climbing aging in battles. Julian decided to camp here for the night.

  He had Dragonite carve out a rge hole in the mountainside on the leeward side to serve as their shelter. The wind was far to to pitch a tent securely.

  As the sun disappeared, darkness engulfed the Dragon Den, leaving only the cold, silvery light of the moon to illumihe ndscape.

  Ihe cave, Julian had already lit a camping mp. He sat fortably, eating a self-heating hotpot with a cold soda by his side.

  Alternatiween bites of hotpot and sips of soda, he seemed more like someone enjoying a camping trip than taking on a serious challenge.

  The Poké Ball taining Slowking on his belt began to wobble slightly.

  "Alright, alright, just otle"

  Julian said with a resigned smile, tapping the Poké Ball.

  Even is Poké Ball, Slowking wouldn't stop monit him.

  If the Dragon den didn't restrion-type Pokémon, Slowking would have been out here cooking for Julian. There was no way it would allow him to eat something as uhy as a self-heating hotpot.

  Iheir Poké Balls, Pokémon's energy ption dropped to a bare minimum, so there was o worry about them going hungry.

  Dragonite, however, was enjoying the fi Dragon-type Pokéblocks during this challenge. For now, its treatment was top-notch.

  But Julian couldn't help notig something strange. Was it just his imagination, or had Dragonite's belly grown noticeably rounder in just two days? Could the high-quality Pokéblocks be causing it to overeat?

  "Dra?~"

  Dragoilted its head, notig Julian's gaze fixed on its belly. With a curious expression, it patted its stomach, as if inviting him.

  Dragonite: 'Wanna give it a pat?'

  Julian hadn't inteo, but how could he refuse when Dragonite offered so enthusiastically? He reached out and gave it a couple of pats.

  The squishy, bouncy feel was oddly satisfying—almost addictive.

  "Maybe I should catch a Snorx one day," Julian mused. "Then I could just sleep on its belly every night."

  After all, it was said that Snorx's stomach was the most fortable bed in the world.

  That said, statistics showed that a signifit number of trainers who slept on their Snorx ended up crushed to death when the Pokémon rolled over in its sleep.

  Despite knowing the risks, many trainers couldn't resist the allure. Nearly every Snorx trainer had tried it at least once. Some survived; others didn't.

  And then there were the lucky ohe trainers who happeo have Snorx that didn't roll over in its sleep.

  Julian chuckled at the thought. 'With my physique, I should be able to handle a Snorx rolling over... probably.'