Chapter 330: Peat Blocks and Ursaluna!

Beyond the nine generations of mainline Pokémon games, there are various other derivative series games.

Such as Mystery Dungeon, Pokkén, and Ranger, and so on.

This lump of peat in front of him, which looks a bit like a dull gray brick, if Luo Mu really didn't mistake it, should be an essential evolution item from the Pokémon Legends series, "Pokémon Legends: Arceus," appearing in the Hisui region, which is the ancient Sinnoh region, to evolve into a Pokémon named Ursaluna.

Ursaluna is a Ground/Normal-type Pokémon, standing at the top of the evolution chain for Teddiursa and Ursaring.

Its power and bulk are excellent, meeting any requirement needed for a powerful Pokémon.

However, just as the Hisui region mentioned earlier was the predecessor to the Sinnoh region, Ursaluna, as a Pokémon active in the Hisui region, has long since vanished from the vast expanse of history.

Nowadays, no one knows if the Pokémon species Ursaluna still exists in the world; even the evolution line of Teddiursa to Ursaring to Ursaluna has been confirmed to end with Ursaring as Teddiursa's final evolution.

Although his own Arcanine is also a Hisui Pokémon, and there is a Hisui Growlithe by Sali's side.

But this cannot constitute the reason why an evolution item like peat would appear in the Asado Desert of the Paldea region, which is half a planet away from the Hisui region and the Sinnoh region.

"System, can you detect if these things are real peat?"

【Ursaluna is quite strong, especially with the combination of Sturdy and a Flame Orb; the power is invincible and explosive. Host, my lord, do you have the idea of catching a Teddiursa or an Ursaring?】

It is probably because both Iron Treads and Great Tusk, these two Paradox Pokémon, appeared in this Asado Desert simultaneously, and they fight all day long, so the secret sour seasoning growing in this cave was trampled by these two guys who need to recover from fatigue and exhaustion.

Since it wasn't dug out from this cave, does that mean it is related to Great Tusk and Iron Treads, or perhaps something else?

There are too few clues; it is completely impossible to infer.

Luo Mu sighed; this was also a situation he had not anticipated at all.

It is no wonder that the secret seasoning has become an unknown endangered state in the outside world.

Ending the exchange with the system, Luo Mu revealed a thoughtful expression.

A strange fragrance permeated around the leaves, as if possessing some kind of attraction, luring creatures to eat it quickly.

Under the gaze of Serperior and Dragonite, Luo Mu squatted down, picked up a piece of dull gray peat, and asked in his mind while examining it carefully.

In this pile of plants gnawed unevenly, Luo Mu could ultimately only find three plants growing near the corner, not harmed by Great Tusk and Iron Treads.

The struggle between the two Paradox Pokémon caused the originally vast area of secret sour seasoning to be trampled, leaving only three lone seedlings, but the situation should be better than when the protagonist and Penny arrived in the game.

But this thing has absolutely no trace of seeds after maturing, and it is incredibly fragrant; didn't you see the Dragonite by Luo Mu's side casting a drooling, eager gaze at the secret seasoning, with crystal droplets seeping from the corner of its mouth?

Even Serperior, who possesses strong self-control, is reserved and noble, frequently cast glances at these few plants of secret seasoning.

Directly putting down the peat in his hand, Luo Mu, surrounded by Serperior and Dragonite, arrived at that pile of plants destroyed into a mess, and his head was spinning.

【It is real; here in total there are eleven pieces of peat, which are genuine evolution items, and the possibility of them being dug out from here has been excluded.】

Like those berries that emit a fresh scent after maturing, they are all for spreading the seeds inside the berries to all corners of the world with the help of various creatures.

The plant as a whole looks like an ordinary branch, but its leaves present a certain special yellow; those are not withered yellow leaves, looking like a piece of yellow crystal with slightly dimmed light.

"... I understand, let's talk about it later."

Luo Mu simply decided not to think about the reason why peat would appear in the Paldea region for now.

Although he had long prepared for the worst, the situation before his eyes still exceeded Luo Mu's expectations.

Luo Mu identified the species of these few mature secret seasonings through the leaves; the yellow leaves should be sour seasoning!

Unlike the pink sweet seasoning, white salty seasoning, green bitter seasoning, and red spicy seasoning, the yellow sour seasoning possesses an extremely excellent fatigue recovery effect.

In the air, besides the earthy smell of soil and the special scent of ancient and future left by Great Tusk and Iron Treads, there is more of the special fragrance emitted by a certain plant.

At that time, the seasoning was only enough to make sandwiches for the protagonist, Penny, and Ao Ao Jiaofu, three people; perhaps only one lone seedling remained.

Misfortune is what fortune relies upon; fortune is where misfortune hides.

Although the large patch of secret seasoning originally wanted is gone, eleven pieces of peat items were gained.

It can be considered a balance of income and expenditure.

Luo Mu took out three wooden boxes to place the collected mature secret sour seasoning inside, and then called Dragonite and Serperior to collect the peat and store it in his spatial backpack.

Luo Mu also rummaged through the pile of soil for a long time, but he only saw a pile of withered roots and rotten seasoning leaves, completely seeing no trace of seeds.

This made Luo Mu unable to help but suspect Iron Treads and Great Tusk.

Could it be that even the seeds of the secret sour seasoning were harmed by them?

Although plants have an artificial asexual reproduction method called grafting, based on the few bags of seeds given to him by Professor Arven, Luo Mu believed that secret seasoning definitely has seeds.

Finally, Luo Mu could only refill the dug-up soil, hoping he missed those sour seasoning seeds, and that new secret seasoning could continue to grow here in the future.

Lei He leaned against the car window, so bored that she had already started counting the number of Shieldon and Phanpy.

These Shieldon were relatively docile, showing absolutely no tendency to attack the off-road vehicle.

They seemed to have been driven out by those two big guys Luo Mu called Iron Treads and Great Tusk, and thus had no choice but to live nearby.

Their normal habitat should be those pseudo-canyon areas formed by rock mountains; after all, the rock mountains surrounding them can effectively block small-scale sandstorms, ensuring the safety of the young Phanpy.

Just as Lei He had grown tired of counting Shieldon and was pondering exactly when Luo Mu would return, the Shieldon and Phanpy moving leisurely around the off-road vehicle seemed to discover some threat approaching; they emitted a few roar-like sounds resembling warnings, and in the blink of an eye, curled up their bodies and rolled away until they disappeared.

The next instant, Dragonite descended from the sky, the airflow stirred by its flapping wings raising a cloud of sand and dust.

"... Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough!"

Lei He, caught off guard, almost choked on the sand grains that suddenly blew into her mouth.

But this was not the focus of Lei He's attention at this moment.

She looked at Luo Mu in surprise; from the time Luo Mu departed to his return, the time was just over half an hour.

Subtracting the time for traveling back and forth and the time for processing the spoils, did he only spend ten minutes subduing those two super-large guys with very formidable strength?!

She had not seen Fire God, Lei Zhishen, Ice God, or Sea God with her own eyes, so she didn't know how powerful they were; Luo Mu suppressing Fire God was, to Lei He, nothing more than a short sentence composed of a few words.

But when Lei He recalled her first reaction of wanting to retreat and run away the moment she saw Iron Treads and Great Tusk, at this moment, she suddenly understood even more deeply just how perverted the strength of a Champion-level Trainer truly is.

Recalling Dragonite, Luo Mu sat in the passenger seat, fastened his seatbelt, looked at Lei He who was staring blankly beside him, and spoke to remind her: "Not leaving? If we set off for the Asado Lookout now, we might arrive before midnight."

"Ah, okay!"

Coming to her senses, Lei He blinked her eyes, and her gaze toward Luo Mu became much more eager.

Ignition, handbrake, gear shift, stepping on the accelerator, all in one smooth motion!

Driving the off-road vehicle that roared like a monster in the desert, Seeing Lei He headed toward the tilted watchtower she had scouted countless times, knowing its route by heart.

At this moment, besides an unprecedented sense of relief, her heart was filled even more with excitement and fervor.

With Luo Mu present, whether there was one or ten clay puppet giants, there was nothing to fear; once she found the official's notebook proving that the Calamity Treasure was not a fairy tale but truly existed in history, she could delve even deeper into the ancient past!

It was not until nine o'clock at night that Luo Mu saw the rather peculiar silhouette of the tilted watchtower through the car window.

Seeing Lei He slammed her foot on the brake; the wheels emitted a somewhat sharp screech, and moments later, the off-road vehicle came to a steady stop, the engine killed and the headlights switched off.

Seeing Lei He rummaged through the back seat, which was piled high with miscellaneous items, and pulled out two fully charged high-power flashlights, handing the first one to Luo Mu: "Please hold this for now; it's a spare."

"I still need to prepare some tools for entering the tomb—pah, for the expedition below; you can wander around the vicinity of the tilted watchtower for a while."

Taking the flashlight, Luo Mu blinked: "Don't you plan to rest for a night before exploring the tomb chamber?"

"After all, you've been driving all day today."

"No need."

Seeing Lei He shook her head; in the past, when grave-robbing, going several days without sleep to study routes was the norm, so mere fatigue from driving a day would not affect her ability to crack mechanisms or locate the main tomb chamber.

Seeing Seeing Lei He persist, Luo Mu found it hard to say anything more, pondering that if she faltered later, he would simply have the system guide the way and lead her straight to the destination in one go.

Although the system's function was now reduced to providing directions and reminders, Luo Mu felt this was actually better.

Otherwise, as for himself rushing about to complete missions, was he the system's marionette or a puppet?

(End of Chapter)