Chapter 62: Wu Neng Presumes on His Seniority (Patreon)

Whether or not it matched what he'd guessed, Renan felt he needed to make a trip back to the DanMachi world.

For one, he could use the Falna to check on the state of his mana.

For another, Renan had a vague sense that after absorbing so much moonlight, his physical constitution and mental strength had already reached the upper limit of what a Lv1 Falna could bear.

Put another way, it was time for him to level up.

That said…

Renan currently held exactly one use of the authority to pause Pokémon spacetime.

To keep some accident or danger from stalling his progress in the future, he obviously needed to earn another "save" opportunity before returning to the DanMachi world.

The day after they left Mt. Moon.

Renan and Misty didn't bother measuring the length of Route 3 with their own feet. They simply boarded the bus waiting outside the Pokémon Center.

It took only a little over three hours to reach Pewter City.

After stepping off the bus, Misty stretched. "Should we eat first? Or just go grab the Boulder Badge?"

That was what the girl asked.

She didn't seem to think there was anything off about what she'd said.

And when you thought about it, she had a point. According to the League Conference handbook, when a Trainer goes for their third badge, the Gym Leader's Pokémon top out at Lv24.

With Renan's current team, as long as he kept Shellder, Glameow and Cleffa, the three who hadn't grown up yet, out of the fight, and also skipped Pidgeotto, who was badly countered here…

Then whether he let Charmeleon, who had reached Elite class and was about to evolve, simply tank everything, or let Nidorino, who had learned several Water- and Ice-type moves at the Cerulean Gym, fight from a type advantage, he could win the battle with relative ease under normal circumstances.

But the moment the girl finished speaking, a faint, barely audible snort of derision sounded beside their ears.

Following the sound, they saw a middle-aged man whose eyes were hidden beneath the brim of his cap. He wore a T-shirt and looked rather slovenly overall.

Seeming to notice Renan and Misty looking at him, the man lifted his head. "Brock, the Gym Leader of the Pewter Gym, is one hell of a Trainer. It's not like any stray cat or dog can just walk in and beat him."

"Huh?" Around Renan, Misty might not be much of a Yamato Nadeshiko, but she was gentle and kind enough.

That was only because the girl had her eye on stealing his tactics and breeding techniques. As a half-student to the boy beside her, she naturally had to rein in her temper.

Besides, Renan himself wasn't the type to fly off the handle unless provoked.

After all these days of traveling together, the two of them got along quite harmoniously.

But that never meant Misty had no temper at all.

Walking down the street and getting called a stray cat or dog out of nowhere? As someone from the Cerulean Gym, how could she possibly put up with that?

"Mister, did you skip brushing your teeth this morning? Why does your mouth smell so awful?"

As she spoke, the girl even pinched her nose, as if there really were some stench in the air.

In a way, Misty wasn't even acting.

The man had clearly spent some time out in the wild, and he seemed a bit lazy too. Faintly, the clothes on his body carried the sour, rank smell of sweat that had dried and fermented.

Normally, unless someone like that provoked them first, neither Misty nor Renan would ever have crossed paths with him.

On the other side, the middle-aged man obviously hadn't noticed the girl's disgust.

Or rather, he'd noticed, but didn't care at all.

He simply opened his mouth, apparently ready to keep mocking them.

But the next second, the man discovered he couldn't produce a single syllable. Not only that, his whole body had lost the ability to move, bound by some invisible force.

As the former Gym Leader of the Pewter Gym, Flint's strength as a Trainer was only ordinary, but his eye for things was remarkable.

He realized almost at once that someone had used Confusion on him.

His gaze swept quickly over the surroundings, and soon he pinned down his target: the black-haired boy standing beside the girl, who hadn't spoken until now and wasn't making the slightest attempt to hide it.

Seeing the man look his way, Renan, a faint blue glow flickering around his pupils, curled the corners of his mouth. "Judging people by their looks is a good way to kick an iron plate and wreck yourself. Would you agree?"

He didn't say anything too harsh, because there was no need.

A psychic who could control someone with Confusion that easily had to be Elite class at the very least.

Against an existence like that, anyone with a working brain, ordinary person or Trainer alike, knew better than to provoke them.

Flint fell silent.

He suddenly regretted it. He'd been so sure that having eaten a few more years of rice than these kids gave him the right to lecture them, and he'd let it go to his head.

Renan still wore a faint smile. "So what should you be doing right now?"

As he asked, he loosened his hold on the Confusion a little.

Flint knew how to bend when he had to. He immediately bowed ninety degrees toward the two of them. "I'm sorry. I was blind. I didn't recognize who I was dealing with."

Renan turned to his traveling companion. "What do you say?"

Misty couldn't be bothered to make a big deal out of someone like this. Hearing him, she took the boy's hand. "Let's just leave it at that."

"Okay, I'll go with what you say."

Even so, before leaving, Renan snapped his fingers at the middle-aged man, seemingly at random.

After he and Misty had walked another twenty-odd meters, Flint, still standing where they'd left him with a dazed look on his face, finally scratched the back of his head and muttered to himself, "What was I about to do just now?"

…

In the end, the middle-aged man was nothing more than a minor interlude.

Renan and Misty quickly left him behind and forgot all about him.

They found a small restaurant with decent online ratings and ate Pewter City's specialty dish, "Rock Barbecue." Then they wandered the streets for half an hour to help the meal settle.

Only when it was nearly one in the afternoon did the pair reach the entrance of the Pewter Gym and knock on the door.

"Is anyone there? I'm Renan, the Trainer who booked a Gym challenge for this afternoon."

About two minutes after Renan's voice faded, the doors of the Pewter Gym opened on their own.

As they walked into the hall, the incandescent lights hanging from the ceiling came on one after another, revealing a huge rocky battlefield not far ahead.

Right behind the battlefield sat a slightly dark-skinned young man with spiky black hair, cross-legged on the floor.

The young man was named Brock. He was the current Leader of the Pewter Gym and specialized in Rock-type Pokémon.

When he'd received the challenge request yesterday, he had clearly already checked Renan's basic background.

He knew the other party already had two badges to his name and wasn't a novice Trainer.

Now, seeing the boy appear, he began the opening speech he gave every time a challenger came: "Trainer Renan, hello. I'm Brock, Leader of the Pewter Gym. We're about to have a 3v3 Pokémon battle with a four-move limit. As the Gym Leader, the strongest Pokémon I can send out are Veteran level, and I can't swap Pokémon freely during the battle. You, on the other hand, may substitute as many times as you like."

"If you're ready, then let's begin."

Renan nodded. "Okay."