With Ray Chu himself serving as living proof, the trio's desire to train was instantly ignited. Every day, they not only completed every task Ray Chu assigned them to the standard he required, but also secretly added extra training of their own, competing with one another all the while.
Their efforts spurred Dapple and Gengar on as well. Aside from a certain Jigglypuff who kept saying she wanted to become a battling Pokémon without ever actually doing anything about it, and the utterly unmotivated Ditto, everyone began training as they traveled.
Amid this productive atmosphere, Ray Chu and his group crossed the forest and entered a stretch of rocky hills. There, they encountered a group of Golem and fought their way straight through the entire colony before arriving at Lavender Town to the northeast.
From a distance, the town was shrouded in thick fog. Even though it was broad daylight, not a single ray of sunlight penetrated the haze, giving the entire town a gloomy, oppressive air.
Few pedestrians were on the streets, and those who were hurried to and fro. The town itself felt quiet and desolate, a stark contrast to the cities they had passed through before.
Ray Chu could clearly feel Gengar beneath his feet becoming much livelier. It was obviously quite comfortable in this place.
Lala, meanwhile, pressed timidly against Ray Chu and whispered that she didn't like this place at all.
As the group walked through the streets, they saw very few Pokémon. Instead, factories lined both sides of the road, constantly belching filthy smoke into the air. This was clearly the main reason the town's air quality was so poor.
"Looks like capitalists get their claws into everything, no matter what world you're in!"
As Ray Chu remembered it, this was supposed to be a peaceful and beautiful world, and the cities they had passed through so far had borne that out.
Yet everything he saw in this town challenged that impression. There wasn't even another Pokémon in sight, and for a moment, it almost reminded him of the world he had lived in before crossing over.
Dapple called out a few times. She had a very bad feeling about this town, and when she saw wastewater pouring from one of the factories into a nearby river, her expression grew especially grave.
Ray Chu frowned as well.
He didn't believe the League could possibly be unaware of all this. Yet if a factory like this was allowed to exist here, there had to be some inside story he didn't know about.
Ray Chu made sure to remember everything he saw.
Before long, a light rain began to fall.
The pedestrians on the streets hurried along, each searching for somewhere to shelter from the rain. Dapple tugged on Ray Chu and pointed toward a tall tower not far away.
As they approached, they found the area around it completely barren. No one seemed to live nearby. Only the solitary tower stood there, looking as though it had been abandoned for years.
Ray Chu pushed at the door.
It was unlocked and opened easily.
Through the dim light, they could make out a broad hall on the first floor. There was some old furniture and a brick fireplace, but the place looked as though no one had lived there in years.
"Charmeleon!"
Ray Chu released Charmeleon. The bright flame on its tail illuminated the entire room.
The group exchanged glances and headed inside.
The farther they went, however, the darker their surroundings became. A steady chill drifted down from above.
Not far away was a staircase leading to the second floor. It was pitch-black, without the slightest trace of light. Even the glow from Charmeleon's tail struggled to drive back the darkness.
Suddenly, faint giggling drifted out of the shadows.
A flicker of firelight appeared and vanished.
Lala immediately grabbed Ray Chu's arm. From the way her entire body was trembling, she had clearly been frightened.
Ray Chu patted her hand and told her not to be afraid.
With a swish, a gray shadow appeared beneath his feet. Ray Chu pointed upstairs and told Gengar to scout ahead.
Gengar nodded.
Its shadow flickered, and it vanished on the spot.
A short while later, it returned from upstairs and shook its head, indicating that it had found nothing unusual.
So they proceeded to the second floor.
The moment they arrived, Lala froze and shot Gengar an angry look.
Stretching away into the darkness on both sides of the staircase were rows upon rows of gravestones. The gray-white stone markers stood there in solemn silence.
Gengar innocently spread its chubby little hands.
They were just gravestones. There was nothing scary about them.
It even floated over to one of the graves and casually sat down on top of it.
To a Ghost-type Pokémon, this place wasn't frightening at all. If anything, it was extremely comfortable.
But why were there so many graves inside this tower?
Ray Chu shook his head, then noticed the inscription on the gravestone beneath Gengar.
"Grave of Marowak."
He nodded to himself.
So this was a cemetery for Pokémon. The local townspeople had probably buried them here.
Still...
There were far too many graves.
Ray Chu couldn't help thinking back to the chemical factories he had seen earlier.
"Sirfetch'd!"
Dapple suddenly turned sharply to one side and cried out in warning.
From the darkness, a Psyduck came staggering toward them.
There was something very strange about its expression. It looked even more vacant than an ordinary Psyduck, and wisps of smoke drifted from its body, blending into the surrounding gloom.
"Sirfetch'd!"
Dapple called out a warning, but Psyduck paid no attention. It continued staggering toward them.
Dapple's eyes sharpened.
She suddenly thrust her leek forward—
And, astonishingly, it passed straight through Psyduck's body.
The moment Dapple's leek passed through it, Psyduck abruptly opened its mouth, revealing a maw full of sharp teeth as it let out a piercing shriek.
Its body twisted into an impossibly grotesque shape and lunged at them!
Lala immediately screamed at the top of her lungs.
At the critical moment, a light as brilliant as the sun burst from Ray Chu's right hand.
He thrust his hand forward.
The tremendous radiant energy completely vaporized the ghostly Psyduck!
But the attack seemed to provoke something.
Accompanied by eerie, cackling laughter, Pokémon ghosts of all shapes and sizes began emerging from the darkness.
Seeing the terrifying ghosts closing in from every direction, Lala's large blue eyes filled with tears.
Even Gengar looked nervous. It might have been a Ghost-type Pokémon itself, but it had never seen so many fellow ghosts at once.
Ray Chu, however, stood there in a slight daze.
[KILLED GHOST PSYDUCK].
[GAINED A LARGE AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE.]
[LEVEL +1.]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 31.]
After a long absence, the notification panel activated once again, informing him that he had leveled up.
Ray Chu didn't use levels as a measure of strength, but he had a vague feeling that every time his level rose, his abilities improved by a tiny amount.
He had deliberately taken part in battles before, but the experience he received had never been much. If the opponent was too weak, the experience gained from victory was practically negligible.
As time went on, he had become rather indifferent to it and stopped placing much importance on battling. After all, most of his improvement still came from his own training.
What he never could have expected was that accidentally killing a single ghost Pokémon would raise his level outright.
That immediately left him itching to try it again.
Especially with so many hostile ghosts surrounding them.
They were practically piles of walking experience points.
---
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