After feeling Feebas's warning, Lionel raised his hand to touch the headlamp on his head, turning it up and scanning the area ahead.
When the light fell on those two shiny "points of light" and he saw the appearance of the "monster" ahead, he instantly relaxed his tense nerves and tentatively called out:
"Sableye?"
"Yammi?"
Sableye slowly raised its head, its eyes, which looked like polished gemstones, filled with confusion, as if asking, "Why are you calling me?"
Lionel felt completely at ease, lowered his voice, and said as gently as possible:
"Could you please move to the side a bit so I can pass?"
"Yammi?"
Sableye blinked its gemstone eyes, looking at Lionel as if it didn't understand.
Seeing Sableye's bewildered look, Lionel pointed to the gap beside it and repeated with more emphasis:
"Move over there a little and let me pass, okay?"
But Sableye still tilted its head. At some point, it had picked up a dusty stone and was struggling to scratch at the crystals on it with its claws, completely ignoring Lionel's words.
The tunnel was already narrow, and with it blocking the way, there was almost no space to pass.
"It seems I'll have to push it a bit." Lionel helplessly gave Feebas on his chest a look. "Feebas, prepare to attack. Use a light attack, just enough to drive it away."
Feebas understood immediately and jumped out of the Inflatable Fish Tank, ready to strike.
The Bullet chat in the Livestream room instantly became interested:
"Is it time to fight? That Sableye coming out just now really gave me a fright!"
"Same here, I thought I'd run into something unclean!"
"..."
Lionel took a deep breath and softly ordered:
"Feebas, use Water Pulse!"
Feebas vigorously flicked its tail fin, and a circle of gentle water ripples spit from its mouth, attacking Sableye.
The Water Pulse hit, and Sableye was knocked off balance, causing the stone in its arms to fall to the ground with a "clatter." It finally stopped scratching the stone, its gemstone eyes glaring at Feebas with the anger of being disturbed.
"Yammi!" it screamed, suddenly turning into a dark shadow and instantly appearing in front of Feebas, attacking.
Feebas simply slapped its tail, using the ground's rebound force to bounce away instantly, dodging Sableye's attack.
"Quite fierce." Lionel frowned. "Feebas, use Icy Wind. Freeze its claws and don't let it use Fury Swipes."
Feebas immediately opened its mouth, and a breeze carrying cold air gushed out, accurately landing on Sableye's claws.
The cold air instantly condensed into a thin layer of ice. Caught off guard, Sableye let out a "hiss" from the cold, quickly retracted its claws, and shook them vigorously, trying to break the ice.
Taking advantage of its distraction, Lionel quickly squeezed through the passage while shouting to Feebas, "Stop the power!"
Feebas immediately stopped the Icy Wind, and only then did Sableye break free from the ice's restraint.
But seeing that Lionel had already walked ahead, it seemed a bit frantic and picked up the stone on the ground, wanting to throw it over;
Yet it stopped its action the moment it saw Lionel look back, instead hugging the stone and letting out a dissatisfied low Growl at Lionel's back.
After walking a few steps, Lionel looked back and suddenly noticed that where Sableye had been standing, there was a clear indentation on the rock wall with several small crystal fragments embedded in it. The stone it had been holding was exactly what it had scratched out of this indentation.
"So it wasn't intentionally blocking the way; it was digging for crystals."
Lionel suddenly realized. He had thought Sableye was being difficult on purpose, but it turned out he was the one disturbing its "work."
Lionel stopped, took a small bag of Pokémon food from his backpack, walked back to Sableye, placed the food bag on the ground, and said softly:
"I'm sorry about earlier, I disturbed your digging. Take this as an apology."
Sableye looked at Lionel warily, then at the food bag on the ground, letting out a hesitant mumble from its throat.
It was clearly interested in this bag of fragrant-smelling stuff, but it also remembered being frozen earlier and didn't dare to step forward rashly.
Seeing this, Lionel backed up two steps to show he meant no harm:
"Don't worry, I don't mean anything else. Take your time and eat."
Sableye stared at him until he retreated to a safe distance before cautiously moving to the food bag. It first touched the bag with its claws, and after confirming there was no movement, it quickly tore open the packaging and stuffed a handful of food into its mouth.
The "crunch, crunch" of chewing echoed in the tunnel. Sableye's eyes instantly lit up, a light of pleasant surprise flashing in its gemstone pupils. Its previous anger at being disturbed was long gone.
"Looks like it's to its taste."
Lionel smiled and turned to continue forward.
The Bullet chat in the Livestream room also breathed a sigh of relief:
"So it was a misunderstanding. Sableye is just a little cutie focused on digging stones."
"Look how happily it's eating, its eyes are literally glowing, hahaha!"
"Its eyes are so beautiful, I kind of want to raise one now."
After finishing the food, Sableye raised its head and looked at Lionel's departing back, a hint of conflict flashing in its gemstone eyes.
It looked at the crystals on the rock wall, then at Lionel's backpack. Its gemstone eyes rolled around, and after a brief moment of hesitation, it quickly followed... Lionel had only walked a few steps when he felt a slight sound behind him, like small, light footsteps.
He looked back and couldn't help but smile—
That Sableye was following closely behind, still clutching the empty Pokémon food bag in its arms, its gemstone eyes staring straight at his backpack as if assessing how much "stock" was left inside.
"This little guy certainly isn't shy."
Lionel stopped and turned to look at Sableye.
After being discovered, it didn't hide. Instead, it trotted up to him, raised a claw to point at his backpack, then pointed deeper into the tunnel, crying "Yammi, yammi" while nodding its little head like a woodpecker.
"Are you saying there's good stuff if I follow you?"
Lionel raised an eyebrow, his interest piqued. He said to the camera:
"It seems our little guide is going to take us somewhere good. Everyone, guess what it might be?"
The Livestream room was immediately filled with comments:
"It's definitely where it hides its treasures!"
"Don't Sableye like collecting shiny things? Maybe there are rare ores!"
"..."
Lionel followed Sableye deeper into the tunnel for about ten minutes when a hidden stone chamber suddenly appeared ahead. In the center of the chamber was a pile of miscellaneous items—
There were half-eaten crystal clusters, polished iron ore, and even a few smooth pearls. Clearly, these were Sableye's collections from over the years.
Sableye ran to the stone pile and excitedly rummaged through it with its claws, as if showing off its wealth.
It pulled a gray stone from the bottom of the pile. The stone's surface was smooth and covered with many small black specks, looking quite ordinary.
"What is this?"
Lionel picked up the stone and weighed it; it was cold to the touch and hard in texture. A blue light flashed in his eyes, and the screen in his mind displayed its information:
"Everstone: A Pokémon holding this stone will not evolve."
"It's actually an Everstone!" Lionel was somewhat surprised.
He knew this kind of stone was quite valuable to certain Trainers, especially those who liked small Pokémon and didn't want their partners to evolve;
For example, those noblewomen who kept cute pets like Buneary, Skitty, or Eevee often were willing to pay a high price for an Everstone to keep their Pokémon looking cute.
Sableye seemed to see that Lionel was interested in this stone. It immediately cried "Yammi," patted the Everstone with its claw, and then pointed to Lionel's backpack. The meaning was clear—it wanted to trade this for food.
Lionel calculated in his head. Although he didn't need the Everstone for now, its price was high, and trading food for it was a great deal for him.
He took three bags of Pokémon food from his backpack and placed them in front of Sableye:
"How about these for your little stone?"
Seeing the three bags of food, Sableye's eyes instantly lit up like two light bulbs. Without a second thought, it nodded, quickly grabbed the food in its arms, and then pushed the Everstone, indicating that Lionel could take it.
"This is a good trade!" Lionel put the Everstone into his backpack and explained to the audience on camera with a smile:
"I didn't expect such an unexpected harvest. Based on the appearance of this stone, there's a high probability it's an Everstone!"
Lionel didn't directly tell the audience the result of the identification panel in his mind; he only gave a general guess, giving the audience something to talk about as they looked for the answer themselves.
As soon as his words fell, the Bullet chat in the Livestream room poured out like a tide, the screen filled with the audience's comments:
"I also think it looks like an Everstone. If it's real, you've made a huge profit, streamer!"
"It is an Everstone, my Meowth carries one!"
"Does the rich lady upstairs need a Meowth? I can be your Meowth too!"
"Get lost! I'm a man, damn it..."
After bidding farewell to Sableye, Lionel continued to explore deeper into the cave.
Before walking far, he encountered several Zubat diving from the cave ceiling, letting out sharp Growls.
"Feebas, use Icy Wind!" Lionel shouted.
Feebas immediately released an icy breath. Feeling the ripples of energy that countered them, the Zubat fled in all directions.
After walking a bit further, a Geodude jumped out from behind a rock, waving its fists to block the path.
Feebas easily repelled it with Water Pulse, settling the battle cleanly.
Walking and stopping like this, after a few small-scale battles, Lionel gradually became a bit lost.
There were more and more fork in the cave.
"This place is too winding," Lionel said, looking at the crossroad in front of him, feeling a bit troubled.
Just then, he heard a familiar "Yammi" sound coming from the left fork.
He quickly walked over and peeked in, and immediately laughed out loud—it was actually the same Sableye he had encountered in the tunnel earlier!
Next, an even more magical scene came into view:
Several round Aron were lined up, and each one would step forward and spit out a shiny gemstone or a clear crystal on the ground;
Sableye stood by, grabbing a handful of Pokémon food and handing it over for the Aron to taste. After taking the gemstone, it would move a step aside with a smile, making room for the next Aron to trade.
"Yammi?"
Sableye had just finished handing out food when it looked up and caught sight of Lionel.
It was stunned for a moment, then followed Lionel's gaze down to the small pile of gemstones and crystals beside it. Its gemstone eyes were full of embarrassment, and even its ears quietly drooped, looking exceptionally awkward.
"You... you guy!"
In the Inflatable water tank on Lionel's chest, Feebas tilted its head and stared at this scene, its little tail fin swaying gently, clearly unable to understand Sableye's operation—
It had liked the Pokémon food so much before, so why was it giving the food to other Pokémon now?
It then looked up, its round eyes staring straight at Lionel, full of confusion, as if asking "Why is it doing that?"
Meanwhile, the audience in the Livestream room were already laughing uncontrollably, and the Bullet chat instantly filled the screen:
"I'm dying of laughter! Sableye has become a 'Middleman'!"
"It upgraded using the logic the streamer gave it. Now it's trading food for gemstones, it's too clever!"
"I understand Feebas's confusion! Who would have thought the little guy who loved food would become a 'trading expert' in the blink of an eye?"
"Sableye has stayed in this cave for so long, how could it not have some special skills..."