Grandpa Ashford's house wasn't far from the institute, so they arrived quickly.
And it wasn't just Auron and the others—Ashen Vale had tagged along as well.
"Have a seat first. I'll bring the thing out."
Once they reached the institute, Flint Jonas told everyone to sit on the sofa, then went into the storeroom to fetch the item.
"Here, this is it. Auron, see if you can tell what it is."
Auron looked at the black, pitted stone inside the glass dome and activated his system ability.
Item: Ordinary meteorite
Function: None
He froze for a beat, then said, a little delicately,
"Uh… it's just a normal meteorite."
"Hm?"
Flint's brows drew together.
"That can't be right. This fell out of Rayquaza's mouth."
"Uh… Grandpa Flint, did you consider it might just be Rayquaza's food—something it accidentally dropped while eating?"
Auron ventured the guess, looking a touch sheepish.
"Sigh, fine."
Flint glanced at the meteorite and sighed, then turned back to Auron.
"Alright—no time like the present. I promised you back then that you could go into my treasure vault and pick one thing as a reward. I'll take you to choose it now."
"Nice!"
The moment Auron heard that, his interest spiked. He sprang to his feet, ready to head inside with Flint.
"Old Mo, I want to admire your treasure vault too. I'll help Auron weigh his options—how about it?"
Ashford stood up suddenly and set a hand on Auron's shoulder.
Flint looked back at Ashford with a touch of disdain.
"Old man, you're afraid Auron won't pick the good stuff, is that it? You think I'm like you? I'll explain clearly whatever he chooses."
Ashford only smiled without answering, but a slight twitch of his fingers brought Electivire out at his side.
Flint's mouth twitched. "Fine, fine. If you must come, then come."
And so Auron and Ashford followed Flint into the adjoining room—Flint's personal treasure vault.
As for Dad, he booted up a computer with practiced ease and began logging something.
"Holy crap!"
Auron had barely stepped into the passage when he spotted a brown stone slab under a table, being used to prop up the leg.
He stared at the slab, then at Flint, then back again, back and forth, until Flint, half proud and half tsundere, deigned to explain:
"It's a slab filled with Ground-type energy. Here, it's just a table prop. Impressive, right?"
Auron hadn't been entirely sure it was the Earth Plate, but the moment Flint said it contained a large amount of Ground-type energy—well, that settled it. It really was the Earth Plate.
Silently, Auron gave a thumbs-up in his heart. Impressive indeed. If Arceus finds out you're using its Earth Plate to prop up a table, it's going to blow a gasket.
"It looks like it's filled with Ground-type power, but it's not useful at all. Pokémon can't carry it, and using it to prop up a table is simply putting a thing to use,"
Ashford remarked from the side. It was after passing through his hands that they learned it contained a large quantity of Ground-type energy, but there wasn't a thing he could do with it. Pokémon couldn't carry it, and even if they did, there was no boost to Ground-type moves.
Auron gazed admiringly at the two old masters before him—though he couldn't help wondering what their expressions would be like if they knew the truth.
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They continued forward, while Auron took a moment to check the slab's information.
Item: Earth Plate
Function: Arceus-exclusive item. When held, adds the Ground type; Judgment becomes a Ground-type move.
"Tsk tsk, that's really something. Shame it's a species-exclusive."
Auron sighed, then quickened his pace to catch up.
The passage wasn't long. In no time, they arrived at a vault door. Flint opened it, and the three stepped into the room.
Inside stood rows of shelves, each laden with various items.
First, on the very front shelf, sat a Silver Crown.
Used on a Pokémon, it could—in this world—potentially raise the Pokémon's aptitude.
"Hm?"
Auron's gaze landed on a glass vial of gray powder. Information surfaced before his eyes.
Item: Sacred Ash
Function: Revives a Pokémon whose time of death does not exceed two hours.
Auron's heart gave a jolt. This was practically a second life for a Pokémon.
In the real world, when a Pokémon lost a battle, there were three stages.
The first stage was loss of ability to battle.
Typically this was the defeated state right after a match: the Pokémon's eyes would spiral, and after a short rest to recover some stamina, it could stand again.
The second stage was the near-death stage.
This occurred when, after losing the ability to battle, the Pokémon suffered another heavy strike, or when conditions like Poison, Toxic, or Burn went untreated for a time, pushing it to the brink.
The final stage was death.
Fail to treat a Pokémon in the near-death stage in time, and it would die outright.
But this Sacred Ash wasn't like in the games—where it targeted the near-death state. Here, it revived the dead directly. That was a bit broken, wasn't it?
"Thinking of choosing that one? Giving a Pokémon an extra life isn't bad,"
Flint asked, noticing Auron staring blankly at the Sacred Ash.
To be honest, Auron was tempted. But after some thought, he still shook his head.
He'd barely stepped in—he couldn't just lock in a choice now. At the very least he had to see everything before deciding.
"I'll keep looking."
"Alright."
They went on. The items on the shelves were all valuable, but many didn't really interest Auron.
For example, on the second shelf were the Skull Fossil, Armor Fossil, and Root Fossil. Auron wasn't particularly keen—after all, fossil revival technology hadn't been developed yet. Even if he took them, they wouldn't be useful.
Farther along were more common things—Razor Fang, King's Rock, Lucky Egg, Scope Lens—standard held items.
"Huh? A Dragon Scale?"
Auron stared at the iridescent scale on the shelf and exclaimed.
He suddenly remembered: not only Politoed and Slowking evolved by special means—Seadra evolving into Kingdra was a special evolution too, and it did it with precisely this Dragon Scale.
"Yep. Dragon Scale. It's got a faintly cool Dragon-type energy inside, but it's one of those items that won't actually amplify move power when held. Its only advantage is that it looks nice,"
Ashford said offhandedly from the side.
Indeed, the only reason this piece had made it into the vault was that it was pretty to look at.
Auron nodded and kept going, eyes roaming the shelves as he walked.
"These two slabs?"
"They're about the same as the one propping up the table outside, but one of these is filled with Flying-type energy and the other with Water-type energy. There were three, but, well—you know. One's under my table."
Flint offered the explanation as he watched Auron.
Auron couldn't help a wry smile. Good grief—listen to that tone; he makes it sound like they're not even worth the trouble.
He shook his head helplessly and looked ahead again.
"Holy crap!"
He'd barely taken two more steps when a blue crystal caught his eye.
(End of this chapter)