The collision between Meteor Mash and the metal door sent out a violent shockwave, accompanied by a deafening explosion-like sound that reverberated in Julian's ears.
Fortunately, he had already used his psychic powers to block his hearing—otherwise, he would've been deaf by now.
Once the dust settled, Metagross looked at the metal door, now showing only a slight dent, and fell into a contemplative silence.
This door was even sturdier than it had expected.
"Meta!"
Metagross reared back and delivered another Meteor Mash.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
It struck the door seven or eight times before finally stopping.
Julian noticed something strange—the lab's structure was absurdly sturdy. Despite the violent tremors from Metagross's repeated attacks, not a single crack appeared on the surrounding walls.
Even his own family's labs couldn't compare to this level of structural integrity.
Looking at the metal door again, it looked almost the same as before. Aside from a slightly deeper dent, its structural integrity was still frighteningly high.
"Met—"
Seeing that Metagross was about to continue, Julian quickly stopped it.
"Metagross, stop."
He stepped closer to look at the door.
"The tech here is far beyond what we have in our world. Their metallurgy must be on a whole different level."
Given Metagross's destructive power, those punches just now would've injured even an early-stage Champion-level Pokémon. Yet, the door barely budged.
At this rate, even if Metagross Mega Evolved, it'd take at least an hour of nonstop attacking to break the door down.
"Moltres!"
Julian released the fiery legendary bird and pointed at the door.
"Flamethrower!"
A torrent of scorching flames engulfed the door. After ten seconds, the flames died down—but the metal was only slightly reddened.
A Flamethrower that could melt steel and vaporize rock had barely affected it.
"Are we really going to have to grind it down slowly?" Julian muttered.
He could definitely open this door—there were multiple methods.
For instance: heat it with Flamethrower, cool it with Water Gun, then hammer it with Meteor Mash. But that would take way too long.
Just then, the Poké Ball at his waist containing Melmetal began shaking.
"Ah, right—almost forgot about you!"
Julian grinned and released Melmetal.
As soon as it came out, the liquid-metal Pokémon lunged at the metal door and started gnawing on it.
A door that could withstand Metagross's Meteor Mash and Moltres's Flamethrower… couldn't withstand Melmetal's metal-dissolving saliva.
Melmetal's favorite food was metal, and the rarer and harder the metal, the more it liked it.
You could clearly see the metal door being chewed apart by Melmetal at a speed visible to the naked eye. Before long, the internal structure behind it came into view.
Roughly twenty minutes later, Melmetal had completely devoured a hole straight through the door.
"Keep eating," Julian said, patting Melmetal's shoulder before stepping through the newly created entrance.
"Mel!"
Melmetal nodded excitedly. To it, this metal door was the most delicious thing it had ever tasted—far superior to any metal it had consumed before.
"So it's a collection room…"
Inside the metal door was a collection of ancient stone tablets, each inscribed with symbols from the proto-ancient Pokémon Script.
Pokémon language could be divided into three categories:
- Proto-Ancient Pokémon Script (Prehistoric, nearly indecipherable)
- Ancient Pokémon Script (Difficult but partially understood)
- Modern Pokémon Script (Widely known by scholars)
Most qualified Pokémon researchers could read Modern Pokémon Script, but Ancient Pokémon Script was far more challenging, with only a handful of experts mastering it.
As for the proto-ancient Pokémon Script, not a single scholar in the world could fully decipher it. The language was too obscure, with no reference materials, and bore zero relation to Ancient Pokémon Script.
Julian gently ran his hand over the surface of the stone tablet. The characters had been worn away by time, leaving them hard to read. By feeling the carvings, he could just barely trace their outlines.
"Dawn is eternal… Darkness is immortal…"
He murmured the translation under his breath.
Surprisingly, he could read it. Not because he had studied it—why would he bother learning such an esoteric thing?—but because one of his past daily mission rewards had granted him the ability.
At the time, he thought it would never come in handy. Yet now, it turned out to be exactly what he needed.
The moment he finished translating, the text on the tablet began to glow and twist unnaturally.
"Meta!"
"Tres!"
Julian immediately stepped back as Metagross and Moltres swiftly moved in front to shield him. Even Melmetal, still munching on the door, noticed something was wrong and rushed over.
The twisting, glowing characters looked as though they were coming to life, evoking a strange feeling of familiarity.
The burning sensation in Julian's chest intensified.
Clutching his chest, Julian looked at the stone tablet—and suddenly understood…
In the next second, the characters vanished, and in their place, eight Unown appeared, floating in midair.
"So it was your companions trapped here… No wonder."
Looking at the eight Unown in front of him, Julian finally understood why the two Unown (? and !) inside his body had reacted so strongly earlier.
These eight Unown took the forms of the letters A, S, D, F, G, H, J, K.
---
Pokémon: Unown (Psychic)
Level: 0
Potential: None
Ability: Levitate
Held Item: None
Gender: Genderless
Moves: None
TMs: None
Egg Moves: None
Note: Living characters of a proto-ancient script. When 28 are gathered, miraculous things may occur.
---
Last time, the "?" and "!" Unown had merged into him before he had time to react, so he hadn't had the chance to use his Probing Eyes on them.
Now that he had time…
The results shown by the Probing Eyes surprised Julian. He had seen the information of countless Pokémon before—even those of First-class Legendaries.
But the Unown were by far the most peculiar.
The eight Unown floated toward him, only to be blocked by Metagross and the others.
"No danger! No danger!!"
A message echoed in Julian's mind from the two Unown inside him.
"Metagross, let them through," Julian said.
As Metagross moved aside, the eight Unown floated in front of Julian, uttering strange sounds. Then, they began circling around him.
After a few loops, one of the Unown suddenly dove into Julian's chest. Then the second, the third…
Within a few moments, all eight Unown had merged with him. Together with the two he had obtained earlier, there were now ten Unown inside him.
And the first two he had gotten were the most unique ones among all Unown—Exclamation Mark (!) and Question Mark (?). The remaining twenty-six forms were all based on alphabet letters.
His body showed no adverse reactions—Julian had already adapted to their presence.
But something else changed.
With the arrival of the eight new Unown, his psychic power surged.
A tidal wave of energy erupted from him as his Advanced-tier psychic abilities broke through to the Master-tier.
"Pseudo-Elite…"
Julian clenched his fists, feeling the immense psychic force now coursing through him. This level of power… rivaled a peak pseudo-Elite Psychic-type Pokémon.
*****
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