Chapter 41: Steven's Purchase, Inventory Running Low

On the other side, Azalea Gym. It was the first time Bugsy had seen Steven, and he was quite reserved. Regarding Steven's inquiry about how to find Xiang Guangtai, Bugsy could only scratch his head, feeling a bit helpless:

"I don't know where the other party is either. Anyway, it's near some village in Johto. The package was sent from Blackthorn City."

Steven was a bit speechless, but considering that he was the same sometimes, for example, when someone sent him a letter not long ago, he was also running around the map and couldn't find him, and at that time he was digging stones in Granite Cave and didn't know what was happening outside at all.

Ha, he probably caused a lot of trouble for everyone at that time... And now, he had also experienced this feeling of not being able to find someone.

It really is a different time.

"... Craftsmen will collect rare materials in the wild; I can understand that. I have done such things before." Steven smiled, although he couldn't get the craftsman's address from Bugsy, at least he had another clue.

Blackthorn City.

If it's a courier, it must be sent from the Pokémon Center, so as long as you find the corresponding mailman who received the goods, or the Pokémon responsible for the courier, you can find the sender's location and place.

But his time was running out. The investigation in the Johto region had been going on for several days, and he had to rush to the Kanto region immediately to attend the fossil exhibition at the Pewter City Science Museum.

At the same time, Steven didn't suggest buying the Eviolite to Bugsy, just held it in his hand and looked at it for a while.

"It is indeed an incredible magical stone. Even if I am not a Pokémon, I can feel a strange energy when holding this stone."

"Eh, is that so?" Bugsy felt it was incredible, and Steven nodded, smiling and responding to him: "I often dig various stones in the wild and caves, and some of my Pokémon are Rock-types, so I am very keen on stones."

Bugsy thought for a while: "That craftsman told me that this stone had been further polished by him, so it is better than normal stones of the same type and can stimulate the Pokémon's potential for a long time. That's probably what he meant."

"Better than stones of the same type?" Steven keenly realized the strangeness in this sentence!

Without comparison, it would be impossible to say such a thing. The craftsman's words are rigorous.

And if there is such a comparison, it means that the other party has seen another Eviolite that is ordinary and has already been used somewhere!

"So that's it! Sure enough, this kind of stone might exist in other regions, and he used to work in the Sinnoh region... Speaking of famous digging locations in Sinnoh... The Underground!"

Steven made a guess and believed that there should be other Eviolites in the Sinnoh Underground. This discovery and guess made him feel happy and excited, but considering that as the Hoenn Champion, going to Sinnoh for too long would have a very bad impact, and he couldn't reply in time if anything happened...

It's a headache. Should he just give the Champion position to Wallace?

But that guy said something about participating in the Pokémon Contest and having no time... Right, that guy seemed to say he was going to Sinnoh to hold some Wallace Cup. Wouldn't it be fine to let him help him dig stones!

Well, could he refuse such a sincere request from a friend?

Steven decided that before going to other regions, he needed to arrange the Champion's work properly, but considering that the Hoenn Elite Four were all street wanderers, Steven couldn't help but have a headache.

Why don't we have people who work seriously in our region, like the kind who like to wear glasses, read books every day, and work overtime crazily.

"Thank you, I think I have obtained some useful information!"

Steven thanked Bugsy and returned the Eviolite to the other party, and Bugsy was also a bit confused. Suddenly, Steven proposed to have a battle with Bugsy.

"Eh?! With the Champion?"

Bugsy was quite surprised. Although he became the Johto Gym Leader at the youngest age, he didn't think he had this strength to battle with the Champion, and Steven said:

"This is to witness the power of the Eviolite with my own eyes. Please must have a Pokémon battle with me!"

At the same time, Steven lowered his head and looked at the online shop page displayed on the screen of the Pokémon device. After a little thought, he still placed an order.

Maybe these sculptures also used some special stones, and some special effects were written on them?

Steven bought the Lairon sculpture and swept away all the inventory of Lairon in one breath.

As for the delivery location...

"Sorry, Bugsy, can you help me receive the courier?"

————

Of course, besides Steven, the professors who had paid attention to the Travel Workshop before naturally saw the news of the new carvings.

It's just that most of them didn't dabble in sculpture, and these stonemason and wooden carving crafts were not the direction they should study, but the special buff effects written on the carvings were a bit beyond common sense, making the professors suspicious.

Among them, Professor Elm saw the Arceus sculpture and saw the effect note on it, and the inventory showed 3.

"Can make Pokémon hatched from eggs grow more powerful? This sculpture... how can it have this ability?"

"Speaking of which, I have never seen the shape of this Pokémon. Is it from other regions? But why is the label Unknown Pokémon?"

"Ah, is it an original artistic Pokémon image?"

Professor Elm pushed his glasses, first feeling that this effect was a bit beyond common sense and violated science.

But soon, he thought of the ruins everywhere. Things that were beyond common sense and violated modern scientific theories were often unearthed in the ruins, and in the final analysis, so-called common sense was just the induction and summary of existing phenomena.

Some things won't be believed to truly exist if you don't witness them with your own eyes, and the shape of this sculpture... the Pokémon shown is one he has never seen before.

As a professor specializing in egg groups, Professor Elm had the idea of buying a sculpture to see, but seeing the price below couldn't help but make him shrink back.

Although he is the big professor responsible for the main research in the Johto region, the price of 100,000 is not to say it's expensive, but is buying this thing a private purchase or is it counted in the research funding?

And he always felt that the cost-performance ratio was not very high. The sculpture was described as only the size of a palm.

And as for the image, Professor Elm believed that this was probably a small hobby of the workshop craftsman, who created a kind of Pokémon as an artistic image. In fact, many artists and sculptors would do this.

"Uh eh! Why did the inventory decrease?"

Professor Elm was refreshing the shop interface on his computer, but suddenly found that the total inventory had changed from 3 to 2!

Someone bought it?

"Hiss... should I try it with the mentality of being deceived? If it is really related to the Pokémon egg group, then this is quite important research material!"

"Oh oh, the inventory has become 1! Who is buying it!"

Professor Elm gritted his teeth and finally pressed the order option.

"Is this that workshop? Talking about stones related to evolution, I only saw sculptures."

Sinnoh region, Sandgem Town, Rowan's Laboratory.

Professor Rowan is a professor in the Sinnoh region. He lives here and conducts research on "Pokémon Evolution."

His appearance looks older than Professor Oak, with gray hair, a rough white beard, and always wearing a white or brown windbreaker, with a blue vest and long-sleeved shirt inside.

After receiving the news from Professor Oak, Professor Rowan attached great importance to this matter. After all, a strange stone that can be connected to evolution might be of great help to his research.

However, after he paid attention to the workshop, he found that there were no such evolution stones in this workshop. After waiting patiently for several days, the new products were actually sculptures?

But a Pokémon sculpture attracted Professor Rowan's attention, although he didn't know that Pokémon. But he always felt that the appearance of this Pokémon... was very "Sinnoh-style"?

He always felt he could see the shadow of Dialga or Palkia.

The name marked on the stone carving is "Unknown Pokémon."

"The appearance of this product, just looking at the photos, looks like it was just unearthed from some ruins. If this is imitation ancient craft, the imitation is too good, right? It's simply fake, or is it real?"

"Is the owner of this shop a grave robber?"

Professor Rowan had groundless associations, but because of the existence of this special Pokémon, he had some interest. The sculpture also had a special introduction page, saying it had unique functions, but saying it could make Pokémon learn moves after evolution was a bit strange.

Of course, some Pokémon have special talents, which Professor Rowan has studied. Some Pokémon with excellent talents can indeed learn some moves after evolution before evolution, such as Riolu. This kind of Pokémon has a very small chance to learn "Aura Sphere" before evolution.

Riolu looks like a blue humanoid puppy and is called the Emanation Pokémon. Just like its classification, before evolution, it cannot master the ability of aura and can only barely sense ripples. However, special Riolu with extremely high talent can master the power of aura during the Riolu period.

This is also a very magical phenomenon related to Pokémon.

Where exactly is the difference between evolved and unevolved Pokémon? Are those Pokémon without evolutionary forms regarded as a kind of "complete form" Pokémon?

However, some Pokémon that were once thought to have no evolutionary forms suddenly became able to evolve after new items appeared, such as Electivire and Magmortar.

This is the real reason why Professor Rowan bought the Arceus sculpture.

If the function of this sculpture is true, then it can be regarded as a special item for studying evolution, and items for teaching moves have existed since ancient times and are not particularly rare things. Just like the technology product TM developed now, isn't this thing magical?

"The inventory has become 1? Who is buying these things? Forget it, although it's a bit expensive, let's place an order!"

"200,000!"

"After buying it, I should inform Cynthia. She has a rich understanding of these things."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 42 =====