On the road leaving South Area Three, everyone kept up their training without slacking.
The Stony Cliff Titan Klawf's claws were certainly delicious, but after eating such wonderful food, you had to show your gratitude by continuing to train hard.
"Haa!"
Training as they walked, Artazon was already coming into view.
Now that they were this close, there was no need for Aerodactyl and Genesect to keep flying them along. With just a bit more walking in the morning, reaching Artazon on schedule would be no problem.
Genesect did not mind either way. Even without switching into its high-speed flight configuration, it could still float along at an easy glide.
Aerodactyl, on the other hand, was pretty clumsy on the ground, so it beat its wings and rose up into the sky, starting its own free-flight time.
"Hey, don't you want to come out and stretch a bit?"
[Ah ah, we're about to run into so many people all at once, I'm a little scared. But it's really comfy inside the Strange Ball…]
Ever since going into the Strange Ball, Celesteela had clearly found her comfort zone. Unless it was absolutely necessary, every time Hikaru asked whether she wanted to come out, the answer was always a refusal.
Her personality was getting more and more like Pochi's…
Could it be that "Strange Ball = mango cardboard box"?
"Mango."
Hikaru directly wrote two big characters for "Mango" across the Strange Ball's surface.
There, now it felt right.
Deoxys couldn't come out at all, Celesteela didn't want to, and Soul-Heart didn't count.
The rest of the partners were basically all nearby. Torterra had also come out on its own last night to get some air, mainly to inspect the stock of Herba Mystica.
With the collection progress going up, the big turtle was quite satisfied. Though compared with Sweet Herba Mystica, it still liked Bitter Herba Mystica more.
Because of its Careful nature, it especially loved bitter flavors.
People say "those who can eat bitterness will have bitterness to eat," but that saying did not apply to Torterra.
"As for your body, there aren't any obvious signs of growing to Titan size yet. The Titans only got that big after eating the herbs over a very long time. Next time we dream, we'll hand these Herba Mystica over to Calyrex."
"Let Calyrex cultivate them, then send them into the Entralink to let the Entree Tree care for them. That way we can harvest them on a large scale."
"After coming to Paldea, are you two still able to enter the Dream World?"
Hikaru asked Torterra and Lilligant.
"Doré!"
Lilligant gave a firm nod. She happily started talking about what she saw in the Dream World last night. Calyrex had reclaimed a whole lot more farmland, and several unexplored floating islands had appeared.
Last night when she saw it, the Big-Head King had been sitting there fishing.
"What, Stardew Valley's progression has already reached the fishing phase?"
"Doré~"
Exactly! Lilligant nodded. And somehow Calyrex had gotten hold of a beat-up Old Rod from who-knows-where, then spent the entire night sitting on a brand-new floating island just fishing.
Calyrex has obtained the item [Old Rod]!
"But the Dream World doesn't have a general store or any place that buys fish. What's Calyrex going to do with all those fish it's catching?"
In "Stardew Valley," fishing is one of the fastest ways to build up money early on, a key objective no newbie player can ignore.
But this is the Pokémon world!
Most of what you fish up is Pokémon!
Hikaru hadn't visited the Dream World recently, but knowing that the partners could still enter it normally even far from Unova put his mind at ease.
In far-off regions from Unova, the Dream World link was originally unstable. Now, probably thanks to the Entree Tree's partial recovery plus the existence of the C-Gear, everyone could enter the Dream World anytime, anywhere.
"Tonight I'll go into the dream and see what's going on, and while I'm at it, I'll do another maintenance check on Zekrom. It should be back to its stone form with Kyurem by now."
"Speaking of which, could the appearance of new floating islands also be tied to the Entree Tree's restored stability? Maybe it's linking to dreamscapes from other distant regions too."
"Regions related to water and fish… the Orange Islands, the Sevii Islands, Alola, Oblivia… there are quite a few."
On this journey toward faraway towns, even Entei had finally come out for some fresh air.
Even inside the Dream Ball, Entei could use its mysterious power to observe everything going on outside. But whenever they arrived in a new region, it always liked to come out once or twice to step on the land itself.
"If you can enter the Dream World anytime, it basically means you can keep training even while asleep, right?"
Entei suddenly raised an interesting point, and Lilligant and the others all had their eyes light up.
Hikaru thought it over. "That does sound convenient. But if you're training in your dreams and still working while awake, won't that be exhausting?"
"After all, training in the Dream World is real. From the outside it looks like we're asleep, but in truth our consciousness is in another dimension."
Entei said, "I don't think that's something we need to worry about. You've gone into the Dream World plenty of times. When you wake up, your mind and body are still fully refreshed, aren't they?"
"My impression is that the Dream World itself carries a kind of restorative energy. It's an otherworld specifically meant for everyone to 'rest' in."
"Last night, I also returned to the Dream World and found the Dream Tree to observe it. Through the dream, I checked in with the Entree Tree as well. The old tree has sprouted new buds, but there's still a lot it can't remember."
"What's certain is that the Dream World most likely contains an energy similar to Pass Powers and Star Pulses. That sort of energy saturates the Dream World, carrying the dreams of living things and restoring our stamina and spirit."
"But that recovery is purely natural regeneration. If you take damage in reality, you can't expect to fully heal just by sleeping."
Entei had originally been a phantom, a myth born from a girl's dream. In truth its essence had not been that of a Pokémon. Only later, after being acknowledged by certain powerful beings of this world, had it become a newly recognized Entei outside the original roster.
Hikaru said, "You've dug pretty deep into dream research. Sounds like you could write a paper on it. That's impressive."
Entei shook its head. "I'm not human. Writing papers really isn't for me. The reason I can observe so much is mostly because my Trainer is Molly, and her father is Professor Spencer Hale. As the professor's stand-in, I've picked up a bit of research talent too."
"At least in this field… And I don't know if it's my imagination, but I vaguely heard a strange call. It might not be calling me though. It seems more like it's calling you."
Hikaru blinked. "Huh? Why do you think that?"
Entei pondered. "Because that voice seemed to be saying something like 'start the challenge,' or something along those lines."
Hikaru suddenly remembered.
"A big challenge inside the dream… are you talking about… the Dream Gauntlet?"
…Wait, is that really something we're bringing out now?
What new brilliant plan has the Great Deity of Sinnoh come up with this time?
The Dream World looks like a very simple and pleasant alternate dimension, but it holds quite a few hidden mechanics under the surface. For example, even the labyrinth realms contain dreams, and the future can be foretold through those dreams, as well as proper prophetic visitations.
And in the main world's dreams, there's also a challenge mechanism called "Dream Gauntlet." Clear it in the dream and you receive rewards that you can carry back into reality.
"In the real world I have to climb towers, and in the dream I still have to climb towers?"
Entei replied, "Perhaps… or maybe they'll make you the gatekeeper. Next time you go into a dream, see if you can hear that voice again. Based on what you just described, the only one who can mutter away in everyone's dreams like that is the Great Deity of Sinnoh, right?"
"Come to think of it, have you ever considered dragging other Trainers into their dreams to challenge them, and then constructing a set of rules yourself?"
Entei suddenly floated an odd proposal. "Besides, the C-Gear will become widespread soon, won't it? When every Trainer has one of those devices, it means they'll all be entering their own dreams."
"In their dreams, they'll meet Pokémon and play around in different dream locations. If you set up a mechanism that every dreamer can challenge, maybe even a tower that transcends time and space… then no matter if they're alive or dead, they could fight side by side."
"That sounds like a buffed-up version of the online world," Hikaru mused. "But with my current level, I can't construct something that massive, and I don't have enough rewards to hand out either."
"The point of building a facility like that is still what we ourselves get from it. Our priority is cultivating our own partners. It'd be better to leave this dream challenge system to the Great Deity of Sinnoh to refine, assuming that really is what it has in mind."
The Dream Gauntlet only exists in Hisui, and only the main character Akari can enter it to challenge.
But from the perspective of the timeline, maybe other people also received Arceus's prophetic dreams, which is how the various regional challenge facilities came to be?
Well, that's not quite accurate either, since in the same era in parallel there's also Beishang's "Path of Solitude," which is another kind of challenge facility.
"If we really drag the whole world into dream-challenges, that would be even more intense than a World Championships. Driftveil City and Wyndon City would be the biggest losers there, since in my dreams you can actually challenge legendary Pokémon. Can you really do that in reality?"
Entei was only idly spitballing. After realizing that the idea was still way too immature, it dropped the topic. But Hikaru had already seen right through its thoughts.
"You… you're not thinking of having Molly enter the dream challenges, then using your broken crystallization power to 'mod' some illegal Pokémon into her team so she can stomp all the challengers, are you?"
"That way Molly can get an achievement like 'clearly only six years old but has twenty years of battle experience,' right?"
The last person to hold that title was Ash, but at the moment Ash only had a few years' worth of battle experience, nowhere near twenty. And yet his age stubbornly remained stuck at ten, not budging in the slightest.
Entei, having its scheme exposed, started to look a bit guilty.
"The first person to create bizarre Pokémon was you, wasn't it?!"
"If you're pointing fingers, what exactly is that Giant King you modified?"
Hikaru protested, "That's something I modified myself with technology. But your crystallization power…"
Entei shot back, "That's something I cultivated myself too."
For a moment, Hikaru had nothing to say.
He'd actually been shut down by this phantom Entei.
How infuriating. You cheat-engine Entei!
"…Let's just check how our new rookie hero is doing with his training."
Having won the verbal round, Entei was in a great mood. To prevent Hikaru from coming up with some world-shaking counterpoint, it hurried to change the subject.
"Charcadet is doing quite well, right? By the way, didn't you consider having Larvesta and Charcadet learn Sacred Fire?"
Charcadet was swinging its hammer, sparring with Riolu as they moved forward, trading blows while walking. This was training both their accuracy and their ability to land hits.
However, just as before, with Riolu's sharp senses, Charcadet almost never managed to connect. The tiny Solar Knight had turned the session into a marathon, entering its "chase-and-kick" mode.
Then: flash, flash, Solar Punch!
And then it grabbed a lump of mud off the ground and hurled it at Riolu.
Little Snack, deploy!
In a Pokémon battle, that actually counts as a legitimate move.
Mud-Slap!
Hurling mud at the opponent's face and other weak spots. It lowers the opponent's accuracy!
Now, technically speaking, this move should be something Charcadet is unable to learn, since it's a Ground-type move. But if you "manually" toss mud, does it still count as Mud-Slap?
Come on. If cats and dogs and pigs and even tadpoles can learn it, and a humanoid shape can't even throw a clump of mud? How is that reasonable?!
So: just throw!
Riolu, after taking that Solar Punch to the face, couldn't open its eyes. So it simply shut them all the way.
The blue-furred pup's ears rose with the surge of Aura.
Mind's Eye was supposed to be a state in which, with razor-sharp vision, you see right through your opponent's movements: in defense, you slip past incoming attacks; in offense, your blows never miss.
But if your eyes are closed, does the Mind's Eye shut off as well?
It still had Aura.
Invisible Aura suffused the sky and ground. Everything alive carried an Aura. By watching its currents, you could grasp the other side's movements.
Riolu's claws swung.
Extreme Speed: one punch hammered right into Charcadet.
Then, claw turned into palm.
A burst of invisible force shot through the armor, blasting the little knight backward.
Force Palm!
Striking the opponent with a shockwave delivered through the body. Sometimes it leaves the target paralyzed!
Traditional martial arts are all about redirecting force.
"Ka-ka-thud!"
Charcadet hit the ground, just as predicted dropping into paralysis. Hikaru waved at him.
"Hey. Use that item I made for you last night."
Oh right, Master's item! Charcadet's eyes lit up like a little light bulb.
Right, the orange pulp drink!
Charcadet pulled a bottle of medicine out from behind itself and chugged it down, glug-glug-glug, shaking off the paralysis.
"That's a drinkable medicine?" Entei watched with great interest.
Hikaru said, "Yep. Potions and status-healing medicine are all over the market, but most of those are sprays or external use. I blended matching Berries into them and created a medicine that can restore all status conditions."
Apothecaries are one of the hidden professions in the Pokémon world.
In the games, anime, and manga, the people who make Pokéblocks could be considered one type of apothecary. In Hoenn, you also see NPCs who sell various brews.
But when it comes to truly powerful apothecaries, you have to mention the Sun & Moon manga heroine Moon. She's the only Trainer type in the triple-line story officially labeled "apothecary."
Moon's game counterpart is the female protagonist from Sun & Moon, Selene. She isn't just an apothecary, but also a researcher and an archer. She favors Poison-type Pokémon, and by mixing different toxins and Berries, she can concoct all kinds of miraculous medicines.
The most famous of these is the "No-More-Pain Miracle Medicine," a special concoction made from a Mago Berry. Using it, she instantly healed the male protagonist Sun's leg.
Hikaru had also been studying the important references and giving them his own twist.
"That secret medicine's official name is 'Omniblock.' It restores some HP, cures abnormal conditions, and then prevents you from getting any status condition for a certain period afterward."
"In terms of practicality, it's a bit like a Full Restore. But because it has that additional special effect, I think in actual battles it might be even more valuable than a Full Restore."
"That said, most Pokémon can't understand how to use healing items on their own, so they can only hold Berries into battle. Charcadet is an exception. Its Egg Group is Human-Like. Anything humans can use, it can learn to use too."
Entei nodded. "I see. So you've added the effect of Safeguard into it as well. For this potion of yours, aside from special plants you need… what else?"
Hikaru answered, "Sweet and Bitter Herba Mystica, plus Larvesta's scale powder."
"If we added Celebi's leaves or Ho-Oh's Sacred Ash, we could get a similar effect. Although those two are actually more effective used directly. Of course, any Pokémon that can learn Safeguard and drop specific materials would work too."
After drinking the orange pulp potion, Charcadet's strength returned and he continued sparring with Riolu, running and fighting as they moved forward. The two of them just ran circles around the main group, so they never got too far away.
As for the wild Pokémon, at first some of them still had the guts to peek from the edge and watch. But after Riolu blasted them all away with two Earthquakes, none of them dared approach again.
You, you, you… that Riolu's level is all wrong! There's no way we have wild Riolu that strong around here!
Hikaru sighed. "Looks like no matter how many potions Charcadet drinks, he's still on the back foot."
Entei said, "So, shall we try it? See if he can grasp Sacred Fire?"
"Technically speaking, the right to use Sacred Fire is something only Ho-Oh can grant. But… I'm not part of the original roster."
"My Sacred Fire might have been given to me by Ho-Oh in a dream… but maybe, using my power, other Pokémon can also learn Sacred Fire."
As a rule, Sacred Fire is one of those signature legendary moves that can only be 'legally granted' if you become Ho-Oh's underling.
But Entei's suggestion made Hikaru feel that there was no harm in trying.
Charcadet's Ability is Flash Fire, amplifying its flames by borrowing outside fire. It had already absorbed a bit of residual blue flame before, though it hadn't changed much at the time.
Of course, if Charcadet is going to evolve into Armarouge, Sacred Fire, as a physical Fire-type move, actually isn't ideal for it. The same goes for Larvesta. Once it evolves into Volcarona, it can learn Fiery Dance, a move just as powerful but more suitable.
"But you can't look at Sacred Fire purely as an attack. Ho-Oh's power is embedded in it. If we master it, we might even be able to mass-produce Sacred Ash."
Charcadet was born from charcoal and flame.
Ho-Oh's Sacred Ash, on the other hand, was born from the great fire at Bell Tower, scattered as purified power.
Fireless ash, holy embers… it all lines up, doesn't it?
"The next step is passing on the flame."
Riolu's attacks were ferocious, and not just because of level differences, but also sheer combat experience.
At that moment, another partner made a move.
Victini was nibbling on a cookie. After watching for a bit, it pointed its tiny hand at Charcadet.
Falling behind, are we?
Don't worry. I'll help you!
Victini giggled, sharing a portion of its strength with Charcadet. Bathed in that power, Charcadet burst into roaring flames.
Boom!
Intense Aura surged into Riolu's twin claws. Faced with Charcadet's charge, it neither dodged nor flinched, but met it head-on with Aura.
The one most stunned by all this was Chien-Pao.
The "cheese snow leopard" had already realized that little blue pup was trouble, but this was beyond trouble.
Looking around at this whole crew, it felt like everybody was hiding terrifying power, none of them weaker than it was. That big lion in particular gave Chien-Pao a real sense of crisis.
"Hm?"
Entei noticed the way Chien-Pao's narrowed eyes were staring, seeing that the snow leopard was stretching out a paw as if it wanted to tap him. Entei let out a sharp huff, startling Chien-Pao into jumping in fright.
Ah! That really ticked the leopard off.
Back in the day, I was the most expensive of the Four Treasures of Ruin!
By all rights, a "huff-grade" lion at your level has no right to huff at me!
But Chien-Pao's eyes narrowed even more. It had already keenly noticed that this so-called Entei wasn't in a normal Trainer–Pokémon relationship with its "tamer." At most, they were just peers and travelling companions.
Heh. So that means there's an opening, doesn't it?
Whatever Entei can't do, I can.
Whatever Entei fails to do, I'll do my best to handle.
The "cat-slot" that's missing at my tamer's side? That belongs to me now.
You can go. I'll huff in your place.
Chien-Pao rushed up to rub itself against Hikaru's side.
It never realized that, watching it, Hikaru had suddenly gotten a new idea.
"Emotion is the source of energy in Unova. Dreams and ideals swirl together like a vortex, giving birth to the Light Stone and Dark Stone and the power of Pass Powers."
"If I forged a disaster-free treasure sword and then gathered people's feelings into it, then buried it in the snow…"
"Would that let us mass-produce 'Chien-Pao'?"
(End of Chapter)
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