Chapter 200: You Thought I Was Undergoing Arduous Training, But I Was Actually Taking It Easy
2024-05-15 Author: Samsung Charmander (Author Name)
"Hah!"
From the base of its half-bloomed flower, Ivysaur lashed out with six tough vines, which shot out like nimble snakes.
"Six of them?"
Gary, standing beside him, was momentarily stunned. He was an expert on the Kanto starters, and an Ivysaur should only be able to use four vines at most.
He'd never seen one use six.
It seemed this wasn't your average, run-of-the-mill Ivysaur.
The vines lashed out, tightly binding the stiff-moving Kabutops and Omastar. Before they could break free with brute force, Exeggutor shot out a ball of purple energy, lulling the awakened prehistoric Pokémon back to sleep.
The two Pokémon executed a perfect combo.
Hearing the commotion from the fight over the golden pickaxe above begin to die down, the two guessed that a new Hiker King would soon emerge from the group.
Once the coronation ceremony of the Hiker King was complete, they would probably continue digging for fossils. It was only a matter of time before they were discovered, so the two had no choice but to speed up and work together to capture them.
"Come on out, my beauty!"
With that thought, Gary released another Pokémon. It was a green, bipedal insect nearly as tall as a person. Its two arms were sharp scythes, and just by standing there, it exuded a sharp sword intent that seemed capable of slicing through anything.
This was a Pokémon like a samurai!
"Scyther, use False Swipe!" Gary ordered.
"Chya!"
Scyther vibrated its wings and charged forward. Its speed was impressive. As it neared its target, it flipped its scythe-like arms and struck its opponent soundly on the head with the blunt side of its blades.
False Swipe, a move that causes damage but isn't fatal, was an essential skill for capturing Pokémon. It was precisely because of this that Gary had been able to so easily capture over sixty Pokémon.
"Go, Poké Ball!"
The two threw their Poké Balls simultaneously. This time, they were just using ordinary Poké Balls. Their Luxury Balls were running low, and they had to save them for more high-end captures.
"Let's keep going! There are still eleven left, let's go!"
Gary showed Ash the back of his handsome head and charged forward with his two Pokémon. He even beckoned to the side.
"Little Light Bulb, stick close to me. I'm taking center stage now."
Pikachu: "?"
"Damn that guy..."
Seeing Gary gradually take the lead in capturing the fossil Pokémon, and even luring Pikachu away, Ash, who had never been one to be outdone, couldn't stand it. He immediately threw out a Poké Ball and hurried to catch up.
If he has two out, then I'll send out two as well.
Right now, Pikachu was really just a convenient light bulb, not counted as a Pokémon.
Pikachu: "?"
A flash of red light revealed a light-blue turtle Pokémon in front of Ash. It had a pair of cute, swirling ears on its head.
It was the long-unseen Wartortle.
Upon appearing, Wartortle saw its trainer running, so it got on its hind legs and started running too. As it ran, it raised a hand to its brow, squinting as it scanned its surroundings, its battle intent soaring.
Let this turtle see what kind of small fry the opponent is this time!
"Oh, Wartortle, you're here to make up the numbers... you're on backup. You don't need to fight, just stay by my side," Ash said with a smile.
"War?"
Wartortle scratched its head, running along with a completely bewildered expression.
*****
"The 5th one!"
"The 8th one!"
"The 12th one!"
Soon, thanks to the combined efforts of Pallet Town's two great jinxes, they had managed to capture all twelve of the prehistoric Pokémon in this Deep Pit Cave in less than ten minutes.
All twelve were from the Kabuto and Omanyte families; no other strange creatures appeared.
After a quick survey, the two had essentially explored the entire Deep Pit Cave. It was a tunnel stretching for several hundred meters with no forks—just a single path to the end.
Ash breathed a sigh of relief. Maintaining high-intensity battling and capturing in the oxygen-deprived deep pit was quite stressful.
"So, that's all of them, right?"
"What are you talking about?"
Gary was still standing there, catching his breath with a hand on his hip while fiddling with his phone. Hearing Ash's question, he gave him a look of utter disbelief, as if seeing an illiterate fool.
"Do you remember how many the Pokédex said there were at the beginning?"
He tapped his Pokédex, trying to get it to repeat the initial number.
"Please do not repeat such a low-level question. Did Professor Oak teach you your primary school math? That's hilarious. Hee hee."
Gary: "..."
He could tolerate people looking down on his grandpa's math skills, but he could never forgive being insulted himself. Gary's handsome face instantly turned livid, and he looked like he wanted to smash the Pokédex on the spot.
Besides, you never even answered in the first place!
"There were thirteen!"
After all that, Ash also suddenly recalled the number. The Pokédex had said thirteen, but they had only caught twelve.
Adding the first eight they caught, this meant that the two of them now had a total of twenty prehistoric fossil Pokémon.
"Twenty isn't a small number. That could be considered a small colony..."
When it came to serious business, Gary's expression became uncharacteristically stern. His slow, methodical tone took on the kind of rigor you'd only expect from an academic researcher.
"Prehistoric Pokémon generally live and reproduce in small groups. Twenty is barely enough to reach that number... but most importantly, within a small group, there will always be a king."
"A king?"
Ash stared blankly. This was touching upon a gap in his knowledge.
"Yes, a king. A king powerful enough, both in its primal bloodline and its own personal strength, to suppress all its subordinates." Gary nodded, his tone becoming exceptionally serious, not at all like he was bluffing.
The rules of the prehistoric world were extremely simple. Brains didn't matter.
Whoever was stronger was the boss.
In that era, Ash could have probably gone there and become an overlord of his own territory.
Since these twenty prehistoric Pokémon all avoided the limits of their lifespan by hibernating, then their most powerful king must also be hibernating here!
But this left Gary puzzled. He had been keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings during the battle. With all the commotion they'd made, even a drugged Pokémon would have been woken up by now. So where was this king?
In a certain mysterious Soul Space.
Perhaps because their physical bodies were so close, and because the two visiting souls could now exit their hosts, Gary's Soul Space and Ash's Soul Space had lost their boundaries, temporarily merging into one.
Green: "..."
Looking at his fellow townsman sitting before him, rocking in a grand master's chair, even someone as composed as him couldn't stop his eyebrow from twitching. Green, who had always been strict with himself and was still persisting with his meditation training every day even without a body, could never approve of such a training method!
"Don't tell me this guy trained the same way back on Mt. Silver?"
An image suddenly popped into his mind:
At the summit of Mt. Silver, under the heavy snow, Red had placed an old grand master's chair in front of his wooden house. Before him was a small charcoal stove. He was petting his electric mouse with one hand while gently rocking the chair, his eyes half-closed.
From time to time, he would lift a cup of light tea and take a small sip.
You thought I was undergoing arduous training, but I was actually just taking it easy?
He quickly shook his head, dismissing the impossible thought.
To grow so powerful, arduous training is an indispensable process!
Red: "?"
Then, Green thought of something else. A smirk, like that of a victor, suddenly crossed his serious and reserved face as he spoke:
"But based on their performance just now, Gary's level is a cut above Ash's, wouldn't you say?"
As their counterparts in this world, the respective strengths of Ash and Gary served as a metric for comparing their own.
"Indeed."
Red didn't refute him. Instead, he nodded in agreement.
Judging from their performance after entering the Deep Pit Cave, Gary was superior to Ash by a significant margin in terms of strategic thinking, judgment, and even basic knowledge.
They had yet to battle any powerful foes, so it was impossible to tell what the gap was between them as trainers in terms of combat power.
At this thought, the rocking of his grand master's chair suddenly stopped. Red looked at Green, his face devoid of any expression.
He uttered a single sentence.
"But what does that have to do with the fact that I'm stronger than you?"
Green: "..."
(end of chapter)
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