Chapter 269: The Treasure Hidden in the Stone

He parted ways with the Soul-Eye.

Baimu returned to the waterfall cave.

He first examined the black block; the thing had quite a few pits and dents on its surface, clearly chewed on by the starving Soul-Eye.

But it was hard enough—at least that Soul-Eye's bite force hadn't been able to crack it open.

He turned all six sides over and over, finding not a single gap; every part fit together seamlessly, like a single piece cut by a lathe.

"A metal block? Super-ancient tech? Some modern industrial product?"

He studied the black box curiously. Logically speaking, the thing was a bit heavy, as if it were solid inside.

So what on earth was it?

"Take it and ask Lailaisa—she might have an answer." Baimu thought of the Young Lady researcher from the Devon Corporation he'd met when selling the Leaf Stone, trusting that her broad experience would let her recognize it.

He also took out the black rock the Soul-Eye had handed him before leaving—equally large, equally heavy, and shaped into an irregular long bar.

Presumably there was some kind of crystal or gemstone inside?

Given the Soul-Eye's habits and diet, it wouldn't store ordinary rocks in its nest.

"You grind it a bit and see?"

Baimu handed the stone to Aggron. "Last time you helped me make four million; this time maybe we can earn even more. When that happens, we'll be rich!"

He switched to a coaxing tone.

Mawile heard "rich" and her eyes lit up too—last time the trainer said "rich," he'd taken her shopping at the mall for a whole day.

"Kido~ kido~"

She patted Aggron's thigh and flashed a smile that said "it's all on you."

"Guu-roar…"

The big monster felt the pressure weighing on it. It clearly wasn't a professional at this—its specialty was fighting—yet everyone kept counting on it?

Still, when they'd made that four million earlier, it had genuinely been happy with the trainer for a while, even though, having no real sense of money, it had no idea what counted as good or bad.

In any case, it had no appetite for this stone; there probably wasn't any metal inside.

It raised its sharp claws and began lightly scraping the surface.

As the mixed black-and-gray stone dust kept falling away, a hint of translucent orange-red was revealed.

"—Stop!"

Baimu suddenly called a halt.

"Roar?" Aggron looked at him in confusion, not understanding why he'd shouted to stop.

Mawile was equally puzzled, but quickly noticed the trainer seemed very tense and excited. "Kido?"

"Cough, cough, let me catch my breath—I'm a bit nervous." He stared at the crystal glowing orange-yellow under the flashlight beam, never having imagined he'd encounter something like this in the Rock Tunnel.

Half a minute later.

He waved his hand. "Keep going! Don't scrape the spots where the crystal's already showing!"

"Roar!"

Aggron growled in response and kept scraping the rock with its sharp claws—swish, swish, swish—sending stone dust flying into a hazy cloud. Baimu paid it no mind at all, his eyes locked on the rock.

Soon, an entire orange crystal, mottled on the outside, appeared before Baimu.

Though it looked rather blurry, he could faintly make out a gray round bead inside, and within the bead a fairly pure sky-blue.

"Roar… roar?"

Aggron saw the thing and hurriedly pulled its own Mega Stone out of its Kong Dong for comparison.

Looks like it matches, huh!

Mawile compared them too and felt it seemed to match.

The two couldn't help but look at the trainer, only to find him taking deep breaths repeatedly, as if suppressing something.

"A Mega Stone—!"

Baimu could hold back no longer. He excitedly punched the air, like pulling five golds in a ten-pull, completely unable to resist the surging emotion.

He took out his phone and compared it with Mega Stone images he'd collected, quickly finding three color-matched possibilities—Steelixite, Absolite, Abomasite.

All three Mega Stones had a gray base with blue-and-white stripes, distinguished by the shade of blue and white.

Under blurry lighting, Baimu couldn't really compare them well, but in his heart he was ninety percent certain this thing was a Steelixite.

Because in the Pokémon remake games, the Steelixite was picked up in the Rock Tunnel.

Of all the regions, he'd played the Hoenn series the most, so the impression was deepest.

Didn't expect it, really didn't expect it.

He'd actually obtained a Mega Stone from a Soul-Eye, and as a gift from a "friend," no less.

The latter probably didn't understand what a Mega Stone meant to humans, but the fact that it only took it out to give away at the very end showed it treasured the thing too.

"A great gift, truly a great gift."

Baimu couldn't help feeling ashamed of his earlier stinginess—the Soul-Eye had given him such a precious treasure, yet he'd only been willing to hand over a small jar.

"…" He rubbed his somewhat stiff face. "Do you guys still remember the way to the Soul-Eye's nest?"

"Kido?"

Mawile sensed the change in the trainer's emotions but didn't understand the reason—still, she did remember the way.

"To bring warmth to a friend."

Baimu patted her head. "Otherwise I'd really feel unworthy of accepting it."

Mawile was still puzzled. She wriggled free from the trainer's big hand messing up her hair and led him toward the Soul-Eye's nest.

Halfway there.

They suddenly heard a faint rumbling, like an earthquake.

But All Baimu knew this was most likely the sound of a group of Roggenrola moving together — why had these guys suddenly gotten so worked up—

"I Possess a Scroll of Ghosts and Gods"

No way.

He exchanged a glance with Loudred and Boldore. Though he felt it was unlikely, he couldn't help worrying about Dusclops's safety.

The three unconsciously quickened their pace. When they arrived near Dusclops's den, they saw the Roggenrola practically filling the tunnel, and their hearts involuntarily tensed up.

"Roar!

Boldore let out an angry roar.

The roar carried extremely far inside the cavern, and was deafeningly loud. The wild Roggenrola blocking the road turned their heads, and upon seeing the tall Boldore, they panicked.

"Make them clear the path!"

All Baimu hurriedly waved his hand. Boldore roared again, and a path for them to pass through immediately appeared.

The three continued toward the den, and the scene of Dusclops's Pokéblocks being snatched clean while it lay battered and bruised on the ground involuntarily surfaced in their minds.

This made him unable to help shouting out, "Dusclops!"

His voice spread outward.

From the end of the pitch-black path, a hesitant and uncertain voice slowly emerged.

"Dus, Dusclops!"

All Baimu hurried over toward that direction, and then—

And then he saw the bizarre scene of several Roggenrola spitting out various gems or crystals onto the ground, taking the Pokéblocks from Dusclops, and standing aside with smiles to let the next Roggenrola step up to trade.

Not a single one was fighting over them, even though the delicious Pokéblocks were sitting right there on the side.

"Dusclops?"

Dusclops looked up at All Baimu, then down at the small mountain of gems and various crystals piled beside it, its expression a little awkward.

"You, you bastard."

The latter speechlessly covered his forehead. Loudred also turned its head away with a look of "I can't bear to watch," while only Boldore scratched its head, not understanding what was going on.

"Looks like I was being overly sentimental. Well, you've lived here for so many years, you must have been thriving long ago. If you can trade with me, why couldn't you trade with other wild Pokémon?"

All Baimu sighed, opened his backpack, and handed over all the premium Pokéblocks inside, "Here, these are for you."

"Dusclops?"

Dusclops had originally thought he came to reprimand it. Seeing so many premium Pokéblocks placed beside it, it was at a loss, "Dusclops, Dusclops!"

It had nothing to give in return!

All Baimu seemed to understand what it was thinking and comforted it: "It's fine, these are a gift for you. I'm not short on this stuff. I'll bring you more in the future when I get the chance."

"Dusclops?"

Dusclops didn't understand his words, its heart fully immersed in pleasant surprise, just like All Baimu seeing a Mega Stone.

At this moment.

The joy the two felt was the same.