The sea breeze was invigorating, and gentle waves slowly propelled Lapras, carrying Ace and Zinnia, to the location indicated by the old man, Colin.
The sea surface was currently vast and endless, with no sign of an island whatsoever, leading one to question whether the Illusionary Island truly existed.
Ace took two feathers from his backpack and held them, closing his eyes to silently sense his surroundings.
Zinnia, seeing this, moved slightly away from Ace and remained quiet.
The sound of the waves crashed softly. As Ace held the two feathers, he gradually sensed an anomaly around him.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes. Before him, a slowly rotating passage appeared, and Celebi materialized seemingly out of nowhere.
Celebi looked at Ace, then let out a sharp cry. Instantly, the surrounding seawater violently surged, and the phantom of an island slowly emerged before Ace.
Time flowed gently. Soon, the phantom gradually solidified, and the seawater beneath Lapras's feet slowly turned into sand.
Ace leaped off Lapras and landed on the beach, crouching down to grab a handful of sand.
The texture was real, not illusory.
"Please help me search for a kind of fruit."
Just as Ace stood up, Celebi's voice rang out via telepathy: "This fruit is on this very island."
Leaving those words, Celebi was sucked into the passage and instantly vanished from the space.
"What the heck?"
Ace frowned slightly. Celebi was asking him to find a fruit?
But aside from telling Ace that the fruit was on the island, Celebi gave no other context and had now disappeared without a trace. How was he supposed to find it?
"Lord Ace, was that..." Zinnia began.
"It's fine, just a friend."
Ace briefly explained, then recalled Lapras. He turned to Zinnia and said, "Let's go, let's get on the island first. We need to find a suitable place to start training you."
Following the beach, they ascended to the high ground of the island. Before Ace and Zinnia was an extremely flat grassland.
In the distance, there was a large expanse of forest.
Ace looked at the grassland and nodded. This place was indeed suitable for special training.
Rummaging through his backpack, Ace pulled out the giant, half-human-sized hourglass.
He set the hourglass on the ground. The colored fine sand slowly trickled down. Looking at the sand, Ace instantly understood how to determine the speed of time on the Illusionary Island.
The method was simple: watch the rate at which the sand fell.
Currently, the fine sand in the hourglass was falling at an extremely slow pace, indicating that the flow of time on the Illusionary Island was slowed down. Seven days spent on the island meant only one day had passed in the outside world.
When the sand began to fall faster, Ace and the others would leave the Illusionary Island. They would re-enter once the time flow slowed down again.
Although he didn't quite understand why the hourglass exhibited this state, Ace didn't worry about it. As long as he could rely on it to steal extra time, it was excellent!
Leaving Chansey, Blastoise, and Tyranitar to train Zinnia, Ace took the rest of his Pokémon and walked toward the depths of the island.
The island wasn't particularly large. Ace quickly reached the forest bordering the grassland.
Shortly after entering the woods, a strong sense of danger instantly hit Ace's mind. Without a word, he fiercely threw a Poké Ball.
The next moment, as Victreebel landed, its slender vine whip lashed out, colliding with the sharp claws that were rapidly striking toward the back of Ace's head.
"Zhi-zhi..."
A grating, metallic screech sounded as the vine whip deflected the opponent's sharp claws. Ace had already dodged away.
Seeing the claws ultimately land on the ground, Ace frowned slightly: "Zangoose."
The Zangoose that missed its attack fixed its fierce gaze on Ace, treating him like an enemy. It suddenly charged forward, delivering a X-Scissor toward Victreebel.
"Leaf Blade."
Victreebel charged forward as well, its two leaves slashing out like blades, clashing with Zangoose's X-Scissor.
Sparks flew instantly. Both Pokémon were forced back, but as Victreebel retreated, it violently opened its leaves, spraying a stream of Acid toward Zangoose.
Zangoose adjusted its posture in mid-air. After landing steadily, its sharp claws fiercely scraped the ground. A sheet of sod flew up, acting like a shield in front of Zangoose, blocking the Acid attack.
"Sizzle-sizzle-sizzle..."
The sweet-smelling Acid corroded the sod with a sizzling sound, quickly dissolving it completely.
Taking advantage of the Acid being blocked, Zangoose dashed out from the side, delivering another X-Scissor slash.
Ace's eyes narrowed, and he snapped his fingers.
Victreebel instantly understood. Its slender vine whips plunged into the ground, and its body lifted high. Its twin leaves flapped, firing Razor Leaf at the Zangoose, which had no time to dodge.
"Bang."
A puff of white smoke billowed, and Zangoose disappeared. Clearly, it was the Substitute move!
So where is the real Zangoose?
Ace looked at the fully corroded ground and saw a hole appear. It was obvious that Zangoose had taken refuge there.
Victreebel landed, pulling fiercely on its vine whips.
The next moment, the ground cracked, and Zangoose was lifted by the vine whip. Only now could Ace see that Victreebel's vine whip had pierced Zangoose's shoulder and hoisted it up.
Sleep Powder had already been injected into Zangoose's body. The now-unconscious Zangoose was utterly incapable of resisting.
"The Pokémon here are high-leveled," Ace remarked, watching Victreebel fling Zangoose away. He was quite impressed by the strength of that Zangoose.
After dealing with Zangoose, Ace recalled Victreebel and continued deeper into the forest.
However, he hadn't walked far when a pool of extremely clear spring water appeared before him.
Ace crouched down, cupped a handful of the spring water, and after drinking it, he nodded: "It's fresh water, and it's potable."
Ace looked at the several Quagsire by the shore. This type of Pokémon has extremely strict requirements for water quality, needing clear, nearly potable fresh water for their habitat.
Thus, Quagsire are excellent water quality inspectors in the wild. If you find a water source with a Quagsire, the water is generally safe to drink.
The few dull-looking Quagsire showed no hostility. Seeing this, Ace released Gardevoir, sending his "translator" to communicate with them and see if he could gather any information.
Gardevoir listened to Ace's request and nodded, then walked toward the Quagsire.
Being fellow Pokémon, and with the Quagsire showing no hostility, Gardevoir quickly began conversing with them.
After about three minutes of communication, Gardevoir returned to Ace's side and conveyed telepathically: "Master, they don't know of any berries nearby."
Ace frowned slightly.
No berries? So what kind of fruit is Celebi asking me to look for?
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