"As I recall, the Rock area should be the territory of Duraludon. There shouldn't be any Pokémon on the upper floor bold enough to provoke a Duraludon," Nick said.
The upper floor of Area Zero had basically all been explored by them, so they knew about every remarkable Pokémon in each region.
"Oh! There's a Duraludon here?" Gary said in surprise.
"Yes. Why? Gary, do you have some interest in Duraludon?" Nick asked.
"I do. Do I have your permission to catch and raise the Duraludon here?" Gary asked.
"No problem. As long as you can conquer it, you can take it away," Professor Sada said.
As long as it wasn't a Paradox Pokémon or a protected Pokémon, any other Pokémon could be taken away if it was conquered.
Gary sped up eating the rice in his mouth.
After eating and drinking his fill, he rested at the observation station for half an hour. Then Nick, Gary, and Garke set off.
All three of them could travel by Flying Pokémon.
Gary rode Charizard, while Nick and Garke rode Talonflame and Porygon2 respectively. This was exactly why Professor Sada had asked these three to investigate—because they each had a Flying-capable Pokémon, which made moving around very convenient.
Garke held a hand-drawn map, which was naturally a map of the upper area. Following the route marked on it, they quickly arrived at the Rock area on the upper floor.
Rocky terrain stretched out everywhere, dotted with many holes that connected to different caves through the cliffs.
From high up, the situation below could be seen at a glance. There were Phanpy and Donphan, Numel and Charizard, Gogoat, and various other Pokémon moving about on the cliffs.
Moreover, the potential of these Pokémon was not low. Especially the Pokémon that had evolved into their final forms—almost all of them had potential above Gym Leader level, and Quasi-Elite potential was quite common as well.
Gary felt a bit envious when he saw it. If only he had been able to come to the Great Crater of Paldea from the very beginning, he could have directly captured these high-potential Pokémon and saved a great deal of resources.
"Lower your flying altitude. Garchomp live on the cliffs here. They leave their young in the Rock area and occasionally patrol it. If they see us, they'll attack the moment we're on the ground," Garke said.
Like Tyranitar, Pokémon such as Garchomp had very little maternal affection. They would care for their offspring while they were still Pokémon Eggs, but after the child was born, they would toss it into the Rock area after a while, indifferent to whether it lived or died.
Because Gible and Gabite couldn't fly, they were unable to find their mothers. They spent most of their time living underground and in caves.
Gabite in particular had extremely high medicinal value. Many Pokémon hunters would go to any lengths to find one, using its molted skin to make medicine. Since ancient times, people had believed that medicine made from Gabite's scales could cure incurable diseases.
But in modern times, the mystery of the scales had been solved. Gabite's scales could only restore a fatigued body to full vitality—yet even that was more than enough to make Pokémon hunters target them.
Everyone landed near the center of the Rock area. Since they wanted to investigate the change in how the Pokémon here were distributed, the problem most likely lay in the central region.
After landing, everyone began walking, observing their surroundings as they went. They discovered that the closer they got to the center of the Rock area, the fewer wild Pokémon there were.
"It seems there really has been a change. There are fewer and fewer wild Pokémon around here. Something must be threatening their survival," Garke analyzed.
"Could it be a Paradox Pokémon?" Gary asked.
"I'm not entirely sure. Let's speed up."
Everyone quickened their pace and walked for an hour, finally arriving at the central region of the Rock area. It was covered in rocky ground, but there were many gaps. These gaps had been made by the Pokémon that lived here, because there were many Rock-type Pokémon in this area. They all fed on minerals, so they would dig holes to search for the ore hidden underground and within the mountain walls to eat.
Gary and the other two began searching for the Duraludon, because the Duraludon was the boss of this area, and it was most likely the cause of the commotion.
"Vee."
Eevee suddenly cried out.
"Did you find something?" Gary asked.
"Vee."
Eevee nodded and led Gary along a certain path, with Gary following closely behind.
Seeing this, Garke and Nick raised no objections and followed along. After climbing several slopes, they found a Pokémon in a rocky pit area.
[LV59 Duraludon / Elite]
It was exactly the target of their trip.
"Found it."
Garke and Nick were also surprised. They had been worried they'd come away empty-handed, but they hadn't expected to find it so quickly.
"Vee."
Eevee looked proud, wearing an expression that seemed to say, Praise me.
"Garke, is this Duraludon the biggest one in the area?" Gary asked.
"Yes, this should be the one," Garke said.
Although this Duraludon only had Quasi-Elite potential, its level had already been raised to the limit of its growth. This showed that the Duraludon had survived here for a very long time; otherwise, its level wouldn't be maxed out.
"What's it doing?" Nick asked.
At that moment, the Duraludon was facing a chunk of iron ore, repeatedly slamming its body against it. Each time it struck, the iron ore would shatter into fragments—but each collision also left thin scratches on the Duraludon's own body.
"This is the Duraludon polishing its body by training against the ore," Garke said.
"It's really hardworking." Nick hadn't expected that even the strongest Pokémon in the Rock area was still training itself. Its willpower was truly impressive.
Gary, however, had a different view.
This Duraludon was already at max level. If its potential wasn't raised, its level wouldn't improve at all. Continuously polishing its body would have no effect. After all, having eaten the ore here since it was young, the Duraludon's body wouldn't gain much improvement from this kind of training.
Gary suddenly stood up and leaped into the rocky pit with Eevee.
Garke: ???
Nick: ???
Both of them were baffled. Why had Gary suddenly acted?
Bang!!
The Duraludon, hearing the sound near its body, stopped ramming the ore. It turned around to look, and the moment it saw Gary and Eevee, it immediately let out a roar.
"Tsk!"
The Duraludon didn't take a battle stance. Instead, it tried to drive Gary and Eevee away so they wouldn't disturb its training.
It had never seen a human like Gary before, and it had no idea that the human standing before it was a dangerous creature second only to Legendary Pokémon.