After resting for a while, Ethan mounted Absol again and continued moving forward in the direction of the sun.
"Abbsssss!"
Absol hadn't run far when it suddenly stopped cold. Its horn, sharp like a scythe, started moving from side to side as if searching for something, until it halted, pointing in a specific direction.
"Absol, are you saying the exit of the Secret Kingdom is that way?"
Ethan asked with some doubt. Absol nodded immediately.
"Alright, then let's see what's at that exit."
Nodding, Ethan decided to follow that direction. In fact, he still had no idea where the treasure Tyranitar had been protecting was located, so exploring the exit of the Secret Kingdom seemed like a good idea.
Upon receiving the command, Absol sprinted quickly toward the indicated point.
As time passed, Ethan noticed a blurry shadow in the distance. By its shape, it looked like... a structure?
"A structure?"
"Maybe that's what Tyranitar was protecting."
A hunch rose in his mind: that place must be some ancient ruins.
As they advanced, a gigantic stone cave appeared before his eyes.
"What a huge stone cavern..."
"What could be inside?"
Ethan stopped at the entrance of the tunnel.
He hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to go in.
After all, he had already captured the guardian—Tyranitar—so theoretically there shouldn't be any danger.
With his Pokémon accompanying him, Ethan rode Absol deeper and deeper into the curved passage until they reached the depths of the cave.
After about thirty seconds of walking, a wide underground space appeared before him. It was completely empty; aside from scattered piles of stones, there were no signs of life at all.
"Hold on a second... could those be... Smooth Rocks?"
Upon observing them in more detail, Ethan's eyes widened in astonishment.
Those brown rocks had embedded yellowish crystals that emitted a faint glow in the darkness.
"No doubt about it, these must be Smooth Rock."
"No wonder Tyranitar's sandstorm was so powerful... It must have strengthened itself by eating these rocks for years."
"On top of that, the Rock-type energy in this Secret Kingdom is so dense that there must be an entire vein of Smooth Rocks under the ground."
Ethan looked up toward a corner of the tunnel and noticed clear signs of excavation—certainly Tyranitar's doing. Those rocks were likely the result of its constant digging.
It seemed that the cave had once been a mine... now abandoned for unknown reasons.
"This is a real stroke of luck."
"With so many Smooth Rocks, Sandslash will be able to improve its control over sandstorms tremendously."
"And Cacturne or Vibrava—who can learn the move Sandstorm—would also have an ideal place to train and master it here."
Ethan's eyes sparkled with excitement.
The effect of Smooth Rock is simple: when a Pokémon holds it and uses Sandstorm, the duration of the storm is extended.
In other words, the rock contains the very power of the desert, enhancing both the duration and strength of the phenomenon. It even helps Pokémon learn the move more easily.
When Sandslash was learning Sandstorm, Professor Harris had to request a Smooth Rock from the laboratory... but that one was tiny compared to the ones Ethan had in front of him.
"This is what you call striking it rich overnight."
Ethan's eyes shone intensely.
He quickly crouched down and began collecting all the Smooth Rocks on the ground.
There were thirteen pieces in total. The largest was the size of a human head; the smallest, about the size of a fist. Evidently, these were Tyranitar's personal "stash" it had mined for itself.
Smiling in satisfaction, Ethan stored all the rocks in his backpack and looked around.
The walls still contained multiple embedded yellow crystals, and with some digging, new Smooth Rocks could definitely be extracted.
"Huh? And what's that?"
Suddenly, Ethan noticed something strange on a section of the wall: it seemed to have... writing?
"Charmander, come here for a moment."
He picked him up and used the flame on his tail as a lantern, carefully illuminating the area.
In the firelight, Ethan distinguished what looked like a stone door on the wall, carved with strange symbols and characters he had never seen before.
He walked around the door, examining it carefully, but no matter how much he looked at it, he couldn't understand any of the engraved text.
"Could this be... an ancient mural?"
Then, Charmander's flame illuminated further and revealed a carved figure in the stone.
Seeing it clearly, Ethan was completely stunned.
"Regirock!"
Etched into the wall was the figure of Regirock, one of the three Legendary Titans—the Rock Pillar of legend.
"Regirock... the Pokémon sealed away by humans of the past..."
"Wait a minute... could the real Regirock be sealed behind this door?"
"If I remember correctly, in the game you had to open a stone door like this to catch it."
"Let me think... Ah, right! In the game there was a place called Desert Ruins, with a wall engraved in braille."
"You just had to examine the wall and follow the instructions in the code; doing so opened a passage that led directly to Regirock's chamber..."
"So, could this door be something similar?"
"If I can decipher the symbols and follow the indicated actions, maybe a path will open to the place where Regirock is!"
Ethan's eyes began to shine with excitement. It was nothing less than a legendary Pokémon, and a Rock-type at that. If he could capture it...
Just imagining it made him drool. He stared at the carvings with burning eagerness.
... But he didn't understand a single word.
Well, he vaguely remembered the steps from the game: right, right, down, down... then use the move Strength or Rock Smash, right?
Though, of course, that was a long time ago; he wasn't even sure anymore.
Besides, none of his Pokémon knew those moves... and realistically, in the real world maybe there was no need to use moves to push stones around, right?
Even so, Ethan decided to try.
He repeated the movements just as he remembered them and, upon finishing, gave the command: "Everyone, attack the stone door with everything you've got!"
(End of chapter)