Chapter 515: Returning to the Paldea Great Crater!

Regarding how to test the durability and destructive power of the little Tinkatink's new hammer, Luo Mu also had an idea.

He directly called for Arven and Paul; calculating the time, the two of them should be arriving from the Grape Academy soon anyway.

Thinking of this, Luo Mu simply sent the Snover, who was currently cooperating with a Shuang Nai Xian to use berries grown from its own body to create new desserts, to the farm gate.

Not long after, the Snover returned leading the two of them over.

Because the Grape Academy required students to wear their school uniforms even when going out, Paul was still wearing that uniform which did not quite match his appearance.

But fortunately, it was now late autumn, about to step into winter, so the Grape Academy's uniform had naturally changed to the autumn version, which looked at least more pleasing to the eye than the short sleeves and three-quarter pants of the summer uniform.

As for Arven, he looked quite suitable in this outfit, which nicely highlighted the temperament of this melancholic young man.

In Luo Mu's view, Arven suited the Grape Academy uniform, while Hearing Hearing Nimo suited the Grandma Ju Zi Academy uniform, and as for Penny, she had never even worn a school uniform.

"Big Brother Luo Mu!"

Arven, who was trying to beg the Snover to let him taste the berries it had grown, saw Luo Mu standing there waiting, his eyes lighting up as he waved and greeted him.

Ever since hearing that he could go down into the Paldea Great Crater with Luo Mu, his mood had visibly improved, and his entire melancholic temperament had been significantly diluted.

At Arven's call, Paul, who was about to address Luo Mu as "Teacher," froze, cut off his words halfway, and forcibly changed his tone to quietly call him "Big Brother," secretly glancing at Luo Mu with a sense of hidden satisfaction.

Seeing the two had arrived, Luo Mu, secretly sighing that the timing was perfect, beckoned them to come over quickly.

"You've worked hard, you can go play now."

Luo Mu patted the Snover's head, indicating it could go find the Ninetales and the others to play.

But the Snover shook its head; with Arven and Paul here, it also wanted to train, striving to complete its evolution as soon as possible.

Since the Snover was being so proactive, Luo Mu didn't drive it away, considering letting the Snover clash with Paul's Quilava later, letting it understand the helplessness of having a four-times weakness to the Fire type and the cruelty of the human world.

Finishing his thoughts, Luo Mu looked at the two again and asked, "How about it, you didn't tell Hearing Hearing Nimo when you came out, did you?"

"No, no."

The two exchanged glances, nodding repeatedly, guaranteeing that Hearing Hearing Nimo knew nothing about this matter.

Not to mention Arven; even Paul, during these days since Hearing Hearing Nimo's return, had somewhat wanted to avoid her.

After all, Paul was a trainer capable of battling Ash from morning till night, even fighting for a day and night straight.

But for Hearing Hearing Nimo, whose personality was slightly similar to Ash's, Paul had absolutely no way of dealing with her.

He liked gaining practical experience through battles and training, but battling Hearing Hearing Nimo was completely different.

This woman was truly the type who would sincerely say that Pokémon battles should be fought with full effort, then send out her main team that had cleared all the Gym Leaders' challenges, and beat you up with a face full of excitement.

In a word, she could fish in the pond of low-level players without a shred of shame.

Paul was nearly numbed by Hearing Hearing Nimo's torment; nowadays, while his Torterra's other abilities hadn't been trained to Paul's satisfaction, its resistance to taking hits had rapidly increased under the pair of "Iron Fists" belonging to Pawmi.

It was all about having thick skin and flesh.

As for Arven, during his journey he had already witnessed Hearing Hearing Nimo fishing in the baby cup multiple times, having long endured the baptism of wind and rain.

Without Luo Mu needing to say anything, they had already formed a united front, carefully slipping out of the academy.

Once or twice occasionally was fine, but with Hearing Hearing Nimo being so full of energy every single day, the two of them really couldn't handle it.

"That's good then, wait a moment, I'll prepare immediately."

Luo Mu nodded slightly, taking the Snover with him to call out the Tinkatuff who should be in the workshop.

The reason he didn't let Paul and Arven reveal the news to Hearing Hearing Nimo was very simple; it wasn't to "isolate" Hearing Hearing Nimo, but rather because, given the current strength of Hearing Hearing Nimo's team, she simply couldn't serve as a reference object for the quality of the Tinkatuff's new hammer.

On the contrary, Paul and Arven were weak in just the right way, allowing Arven to take charge of attacking while Paul took charge of defending.

"Let me introduce you; this is a Tinkatuff, which just evolved from a Tinkatink."

After briefly introducing the Tinkatuff to the two, Luo Mu didn't hesitate and immediately began the test.

Paul sent out his Torterra, while Arven sent out his most trusted Ao Ao Jiaofu; both Pokémon were their starters and deeply trusted.

Especially the Ao Ao Jiaofu, which had been by Arven's side since childhood, was a hidden powerhouse.

Although it couldn't compare to the Pawmot that Hearing Hearing Nimo had trained with cheat-like speed, it was just right for testing the durability of the new hammer.

Under Luo Mu's direction, Arven first had the Ao Ao Jiaofu attack the hammer held by the Tinkatuff using "Farmer's Three Fangs": Thunder Fang, Ice Fang, and Fire Fang.

Lei Guang, blazing flames, and frost erupted one after another; the effect of Ice Fang was the most unsatisfactory, and under the same biting force, it couldn't even leave a single bite mark on the hammer.

Thunder Fang, benefiting from the destructive power of lightning, left slight traces on the Tinkatuff's hammer.

And Fire Fang, which had an excellent effect, achieved the best result, leaving a row of small pits from flame scorching, but it was still far from biting through the metal plate.

The physical resistance was quite good, but what about energy attack resistance?

Luo Mu then had the Ao Ao Jiaofu use its talent to try releasing an energy attack far stronger than what its base stats suggested.

The Ao Ao Jiaofu's throat sac could store a large amount of energy, and the power released in one breath was astonishing; Luo Mu had also previously had Arven focus on training this unique trait belonging solely to the Ao Ao Jiaofu.

Now, under the prerequisite that the Ao Ao Jiaofu had accumulated a large amount of energy in its throat sac, the sound waves produced by releasing the move "Snarl" were sufficient to reach the destructive level of "Boomburst" or "Hyper Voice."

The only flaw was that the cooldown time for this move was rather long.

"Ao Ao Jiaofu, Snarl!"

Pointing at the hammer raised by the Tinkatuff, Arven issued the command.

"Roar—!"

Under Paul's surprised expression, the Ao Ao Jiaofu took a deep breath, and a roar like booming thunder exploded; covered in Dark-type energy, visible sound waves mixed with turbulent airflow struck the hammer held high by the Tinkatuff like a cannonball! With the Tinkatuff's current strength, it was unable to mitigate the full impact of this move.

In just the blink of an eye, the hammered-away hammer flew several meters away carrying the Tinkatuff with it, looking just like a certain Thunder God who flies using a "Meowth Hammer."

Paul and his Torterra wore remarkably similar expressions, their slightly fierce triangular eyes staring in surprise at Arven and the Ao Ao Jiaofu.

You guys have such a trick up your sleeve!?

A moment later.

The Tinkatuff, which had flown over ten meters away, returned carrying its hammer; Luo Mu stepped forward to look and saw an extremely conspicuous dent on the hammer, but it was still far from piercing through it.

The Tinkatuff was heartbroken, planning to dash back as soon as the test ended; to summarize, the new hammer not only had excellent physical defense but also possessed a considerable degree of resistance against energy attacks. If the Tinkatuff had enough strength, it could even stand the hammer upright in front of itself to use directly as a shield, then counterattack with a hammer swing to send the opponent away.

After finishing the durability test, Luo Mu had Paul and his Torterra get ready again.

It was time to conduct attack power and impact resistance tests.

"Thump—"

Torterra walked out slowly, looking at Paul with some unease.

Why did it have to endure Pawmi's iron fists at the Naranja Academy, and now that they were outside, it still had to be hammered like a Diglett?

Paul tried to encourage Torterra with a stiff tone.

"Rest assured, with Brother Brother Qingmu and Lei Guan Wang at Luo Mu's home, you won't die."

Torterra: "."

So should I even say thank you? Even though Torterra was extremely reluctant, among the Pokémon present, it had the strongest impact resistance; it had to take this iron hammer blow.

To give Torterra a bit more sense of security, Luo Mu specifically called Comfey over, and only then did Torterra hesitantly agree.

Under Paul's command, Torterra took a deep breath and without hesitation performed the signature move of turtle-type Pokémon—

Withdraw into its shell!

Torterra's defense rose! Meanwhile, Luo Mu looked at Tinkaton and nodded slightly, signaling it could swing the hammer.

"Kanu!"

Tinkaton's gaze sharpened; it gripped the hammer handle with both hands, let out a loud shout, and swung the hammer in its hands down at Torterra! The hammer cleaved the air, descending like a meteor, and amidst the whistling wind, a crisp freezing sound rang out.

Tinkaton swore it absolutely did not mean to do it.

Events were unpredictable; even it hadn't expected that in this instant, through Ao Ao Jiaofu's Ice Fang attack, it had unlocked a move hidden within its bloodline—

Ice Hammer!

The hammer in Tinkaton's hands became covered in solid ice; from its appearance, it looked like a hammer of ice, carrying bone-chilling cold as it landed powerfully and heavily directly onto Torterra's shell.

Crack—

Torterra's shell was struck directly by Tinkaton's hammer, sending it bouncing up; frost rapidly spread, and within a few breaths, it turned into a lump of ice that crashed onto the ground.

Splashing ice shards reflected the astonished faces of Luo Mu, Penny, Ao Ao Jiaofu, Xue Li Guai, Comfey, Paul, and Tinkaton.

Not good!

With this four-times super-effective Ice Hammer, even if Torterra had ten thousand lives, it couldn't withstand it!

Startled, Luo Mu quickly summoned Moltres to thaw Torterra.

As the frozen ice melted, Luo Mu pulled Torterra's head out with his bare hands.

As expected, Torterra was spinning with swirl eyes; it had been directly knocked out by Tinkaton's single hammer blow.

Luo Mu could only hurriedly have Comfey use Grassy Terrain combined with Floral Healing and Aromatherapy to treat Torterra.

Tinkaton, like a child who had done something wrong, stayed listlessly to the side with its head bowed.

Only after Torterra regained consciousness did Tinkaton apologize to the still-shaken Torterra and to Paul, whose expression was complex, for accidentally using the "Ice Hammer" move.

Fortunately, Paul also knew that Pokémon sometimes learned new moves due to force majeure, so he did not hold it against them.

He merely pondered that he indeed needed to follow Luo Mu's suggestion and prepare a "Sitrus Berry" for Torterra to mitigate the threat of Ice-type moves.

After the incident settled, Luo Mu satisfied Xue Li Guai's request, letting it fight Paul's Crocalor.

The result was naturally that Xue Li Guai, tender in every sense, was burned by Crocalor until it cried out loudly, finally understanding how Torterra felt when facing Ice-type attacks.

After leaving the two of them to eat lunch at the farm, before the two returned to the Naranja Academy in the afternoon, Luo Mu called Penny aside separately, instructing him to prepare well for the trip to the Paldea Great Crater in two days, before letting him leave.

Two days passed in a flash.

After all, since they were heading to the danger-filled Paldea Great Crater, neither Geeta nor Clavell made him attend classes; they directly approved paid leave, telling Luo Mu to prepare properly.

During these two days, aside from making preparations even more thorough than for his previous trip to the Paldea Great Crater, Luo Mu was simply handling various large and small matters at the farm.

He was most concerned about the construction of the new orchard; seeing the Applin, led by Flapple and others, gradually adapt to life in their new home and each choose apple trees to inhabit.

Luo Mu knew that this batch of new apple trees would soon bear a harvest, and their deliciousness would be no inferior to the special selection apples of Kitakami, and could even surpass them.

By then, Luo Mu would be able to proudly introduce this batch of apples to Chairman Zhi Mi.

October 30th.

October was nearing its end, and November, representing the harsh winter, was about to arrive; before that, Luo Mu brought Penny, who had already requested leave from the Academy, and went straight to Mesagoza.

Geeta had said that for the procedures to enter the Paldea Great Crater, they should just go to Brother Brother Qingmu.

This time, with Penny following alongside, considering his safety, and since the mission wasn't urgent enough to require descending deep into the night, Luo Mu chose to descend into the Paldea Great Crater during the day.

Since it counted as normal working hours, Brother Brother Qingmu's resentment was minimal; he maintained a decent office worker's smile throughout, leading Luo Mu and Penny all the way to the entrance of Area Zero.

The familiar "beep" sounded; amidst Penny's excited expression, the mechanical voice confirming successful authentication echoed within the sealed room.

【Identity Authentication: Paldea League Elite Four Brother Brother Qingmu, access card key correct, palm print recognition passed, iris recognition passed, descent gate opening, please beware of falling hazards】

Accompanied by the precise sound of mechanical operation, the large door made of special metal split apart from the center, and a wild wind immediately surged into the room.

Fortunately, all three grabbed the handles specially installed within the room to maintain their balance.

Waiting until Dragonite appeared from the Poké Ball at Luo Mu's waist, the raging winds surrounding them were immediately suppressed; as the Flying-type Elite Four, Brother Brother Qingmu glanced at Dragonite with slight surprise, feeling that its control over air currents seemed somewhat absurd.

Penny gazed into the distance, looking at the ethereal sea of clouds covering the great crater; for a moment, he was actually stunned.

This was too shocking! Under Brother Brother Qingmu's gaze, Luo Mu had Penny sit in front of him and gently patted the Dragonite beneath them, signaling that the two of them were seated firmly.

Dragonite let out a melodious dragon cry, took a few running steps, and amidst the backdrop of Penny's screams, spread its dragon wings and plunged vertically into the sea of clouds.

Brother Brother Qingmu's gaze followed their retreating figures; the corner of his mouth lifted in an imperceptible arc as he murmured softly, "Safe travels."

(End of Chapter)