As the referee's voice echoed in the arena,

  Julian simultaneously heard a notification in his mind from the system, firming that his reward had been added to his system space.

  With his current points totaling 25,078, and the bonus from the ret mission, he finally surpassed the 25,000 mark.

  His attention was drawn to a particur item in the system mall.

  Golden Legend Fragments: Collect ten pieces to obtain a plete golden legend that upgrade Purple aptitude to Golden aptitude.

  Pokémon Trainers with Purple aptitude achieve Champion status, while those with Golden aptitude bee Battle Legends.

  Currently, the pinnacle of Trainers is the Champion; there are no Battle Legends iehough all nations aowledge that Champions embody the essence of Battle Legends.

  This revetion was uncovered in a certain ruin, located on the high seas.

  Upon its discovery, several powerful nations dispatched teams to iigate.

  This information subsequently became publiowledge, though it remains fidential among most Trainers.

  Acc to Pokémon schors from Drakoria, a Pokémon with Golden aptitude, if nurtured properly, could rival first-level legendaries.

  Presently, the first-level legendaries that have emerged from ruins or fidential realms possess extraordinary powers that even Champions ot tend with;

  if faced directly, it is certain that Champions would not survive.

  Fortunately, the known first-level legendaries are mainly elusive and not ined to destru.

  Otherwise, a powerful legendary could easily obliterate aire nation.

  In tries like Babath Kingdom, a single Draeteor from Rayquaza could reduce it to rubble.

  Currently, ordinary legendaries, including legendaries like Moltres and Latias, are sidered to have at most Purple aptitude.

  There's ihod to elevate a Pokémon with Purple aptitude to Golden;

  su upgrade seems limited to first-level legendaries, which is a sensus among nations.

  Thus, a try possessing a Golden-qualified Pokémon that successfully matures could potentially bee the stro nation in the world.

  All nations are stantly researg ways to enhance Purple aptitude to Golden aptitude, but only they are privy to their progress.

  However, rumors occasionally surface about a nation developing a potion to enhaitude.

  Suews is met with great excitement.

  If a Champion-level Trainer is likeo a nuclear on, f the bae of national strength, then possessing a legendary-level Trainer marks the moment when a nation no longer fears first-level legendaries and asserts its dominan the p.

  The prospect of the Golden Legend gives Julian the opportunity to elevate Metagross's aptitude to Golden.

  At 25,000 points for one fragment, and 250,000 for ten, it represents a remarkable deal for acquiring a Golden-qualified Pokémon.

  After purchasing, the points were deducted, and he held the Golden Legend fragment in his possession.

  However, upon viewing the cost of the sed fragment, he couldn't help but curse: "F***!"

  This caused Wren, who was about to apologize to Julian, to freeze momentarily, her face draining of color, unsure if she was the target of his ire.

  If she offended Julian, the sole heir of the Walker family, even as a pseudo-Elite, she feared she would find it difficult to navigate life in Drakoria.

  "I'm not upset with you; just recalling some unpleasant experiences," Julian crified, notig her expression.

  The price tag of the sed Golden Legend fragment wasn't 25,000, but 100,000 points—four times that of the first.

  With additional fragments beyond that, the accumuting costs were projected to exceed even the price of a Mewtwo.

  As expected, things were not as favorable as they had seemed.

  "Ah well, it's still a beautiful day. Let's just wash up and sleep. Everything else wait until the dream," he mused.

  "The system returem," Julian grumbled.

  He wasn't keen on leaving the fragment in the system's iory; they were useful only when ten were collected, leaving the remaining fragment effectively worthless.

  In respoo his frustration, the system dispyed:

  "Once sold, non-refundable."

  "F**ker" Julian swain, feeling he had learned a valuable lesson from the system.

  Despite months of diligent point accumution, he regretted wasting them on what felt like an unworthy iment.

  He seriously suspected that the system had lured him into acquiring the Golden Legend fragment just to strip him of his precious points.

  Wren, meanwhile, had a nagging suspi that Julian was venting frustration at her but cked proof.

  Even if she did, she wouldn't dare front him.

  Regardless of her status as a pseudo-Elite, Julian's advanced capabilities made any petition futile, especially with his pseudo-legendary Metagross.

  "What else do you want?" Julian prompted, notig her hesitation.

  "Master Walker, how is your Metagross s? Even as a pseudo-legendary, it shouldn't have been able to defeat my Steelix so easily," she asked.

  Looking at Metagross, still nursing some injuries from the battle, she observed that they had nearly healed at an astonishing rate.

  "Do you have a 1 billion?" Julian replied suddenly.

  "What?" Wren was taken aback, fused by the abrupt ge in topic.

  "You could i one billion into Steelix, and it would bee incredibly powerful," he expined.

  Wren: (⊙_⊙)

  Staff: (⊙_⊙)

  What is unseen is not part of human nature.

  Julian's Metagross, despite being only at level 49, possesses an i advantage due to its cssification as a pseudo-legendary Pokémon,

  but this makes the leveling process signifitly slower than that of ordinary Pokémon.

  Even at this level, Metagross is formidable enough to tend with pseudo-Elite Pokémon, including Wren's, who stands at the pinnacle of that category.

  Julian has ied more resources and energy into Metagross than into his other Pokémon—Lueltan, and Dragonair—because he envisioagross as his ultimate Trump Card.

  In the realm of trainers, having six main Pokémon means that a superior test dition is not solely based on uniform strength, but rather a bance of diversity.

  An absolute Trump Card take on multiple Pokémon of equal strength.

  This is evident in examples such as Ash's Pikachu, Red's Charizard, Steven's Metagross, and thia's Garp, all reized as their respective trainers' Trump Card Pokémon.

  Metagross is Julian's starter Pokémon, refleg the tradition of the Walker family, who have always relied oagross as their Trump Card—Julian is no exception.

  Iuragross has risen to meet Julian's expectations through its own hard work.

  Gently, Julian pressed his hand against the cross oagross's forehead, eling Aura energy.

  The Pokémon appeared rexed.

  Julian then advised, "Sieelix is your primary Trump Card, it's best to allocate more than half of your resources to it. That's how you truly make progress."