The fall of Crobat caused all the Golbat in the cave to suddenly lose their backbone.

Up until that moment, they could ignore Cain's attacks without worry thanks to Crobat's presence.

But now that Crobat had fallen, their momentum vanished instantly.

Cain's Pokémon, of course, took advantage of the opportunity and launched a fierce counterattack against the Golbat.

Slowking, for his part, was no longer participating in the battle. He stood imposingly in the center of the field.

If one were to replace the white Shellder shell on his head with a wind-blown mane, his appearance...

Being elegant is for life. (Ichiya: MEEENNN !!!!!!!!!!)

Power, well, that gets upgraded along the way.

The energy around Slowking, after defeating Crobat, exceeded its limits, and just when it peaked... it compressed again.

Finally, a loud rumble echoed!

Slowking had successfully advanced to Elite level!

A level 60 Slowking is not the same as a level 59 one. They are two completely different forms.

Now, if Slowking had to face Crobat again, he wouldn't need the support of any other Pokémon.

With just the Trick Room move, he could dominate the battle.

Adding his initiative advantage and type advantage, he could easily drag Crobat across the ground.

This result was exactly what Cain wanted to see.

His first true Pokémon had reached the Elite level! This marked the beginning of the transition of his front-line team to this new level.

The other Pokémon in the main team weren't far behind in levels.

After defeating the Golbat, both Drapion and Weavile leveled up, reaching level 57.

Weavile, with its type advantage, had defeated two Golbat simultaneously, delivering an excellent performance.

Drapion, for his part, showcased his Sniper ability in full.

After defeating his own opponent, he immediately went to assist other Pokémon.

Partly because he had gone too long without battling.

At least Weavile had been out with Cain before; Drapion, on the other hand, hadn't been in combat for quite some time.

Besides them, Honchkrow and Gengar had already reached level 57, very close to the Quasi-Elite level cap.

Florges, at this moment, was still at level 58. It was Cain's Pokémon closest to Elite level after Slowking.

The next to advance would depend on who pushed the hardest.

As for the second combat line, they also made significant gains.

First, Swampert, who had long been stuck at the Advanced level cap, deliberately sought out a Quasi-Elite level Golbat. Though he ended up severely injured, he managed to win and level up to 50, officially reaching Quasi-Elite level.

This was a major milestone for the second line.

They lived up to Cain's expectations: just as his first line reached Elite level, his second line reached Quasi-Elite.

And both achievements happened on the same day.

Politoed also leveled up to 45, a fairly decent improvement.

Blaziken, on the other hand, had already gained several levels along the journey due to constant battles. This time, facing stronger enemies, he only played a minor role and gained one level, reaching 42.

But Pupitar advanced to the Advanced level, reaching level 40, a true qualitative leap.

He now needed just one more evolution to become the legendary Desert Tyrant: Tyranitar.

Both the Key Stone and Mega Stone were already prepared.

Once evolved, his power would skyrocket.

Lairon also reached level 39, just one step away from Advanced level.

More importantly, when Lairon reaches level 42, it will evolve into Aggron, and Cain had its Mega Stone ready for a long time.

In the future, Mega Aggron would be Cain's main tank, a true impenetrable wall.

In short, this prolonged battle in the cave resulted in a huge leap in strength for Cain's entire team.

Currently, Cain already had three Elite-level Pokémon: Mismagius, Slowking, and Altaria.

If all could perform at their best, Cain could be considered, without exaggeration, an Elite-level Trainer.

Of course, there was no problem with Mismagius, but Altaria hadn't been trained by him from the beginning, so their coordination was still not perfect.

Altaria was aware of this, but couldn't do much to change it.

Lately, she had even been thinking of handing over her two offspring to Cain for training.

For the sake of their future, Altaria believed this was an excellent decision.

After all, she had spent a long time watching Cain, seeing him grow from weak to powerful. Even now, he no longer depended on her help, which deeply impacted her.

After all, not much time had passed.

For Altaria, it had only been a few months.

Cain had achieved in months what had taken her decades.

Altaria then understood how much a good trainer can help their Pokémon, and how these Pokémon, in turn, fully trust their trainer.

That was also the main reason why she and Cain couldn't achieve Mega Evolution together.

After eliminating all the Golbat and with Slowking reaching Elite level, Cain approached Slowking to heal his wounds with some medicine.

Even though he had leveled up, Slowking was in quite a sorry state.

After treating him, Cain also healed the rest of the team, taking a brief rest.

Then, he collected the Elite-level Crobat and several Quasi-Elite-level Golbat.

These Pokémon had significant value.

Especially the Crobat. Its value even surpassed that of the Elite-level Cofagrigus he had sold at the previous auction.

It was a wild Elite-level Pokémon, highly sought after by Pokémon traders.

Even the Hunter Guild would probably be tempted.

As a tracking Pokémon, Crobat is excellent.

After checking the Pokémon's condition and capturing those he needed, Cain withdrew some of the weaker ones.

He still didn't know what lay ahead, so he preferred to be cautious.

In any case, now that Slowking had reached Elite level, Cain felt much more at ease.

After all, at this level, almost no Elite Pokémon could interrupt Slowking's Teleport move.