Chapter 293: Bought it from a Site
Following Heracross, Dalton unexpectedly saw Julian and was overjoyed. He rushed over excitedly.
"Boss Walker, did you get lost too?"
Julian looked at the man in front of him, wondering if this "fool" had spent so much time in the forest that his brain had started malfunctioning.
He looked at Dalton for a while. Although the man looked a bit disheveled, he didn't seem injured.
"Where's your shirt?"
Sure enough, Dalton was bare-chested. The forest temperature was quite low—even at midday, it was only about 15 or 16 degrees Celsius.
"When I woke up, my clothes were gone," Dalton replied sheepishly.
"Boss Walker, did you come looking for us?"
Finally, some intelligence returned to him. Dalton realized Julian wasn't lost but had likely come to find them.
"What else? You think I came here for a vacation?"
Julian shot him an angry look, then pulled a mountain jacket out of his backpack. Julian was about 1.8 meters tall, while Dalton was over 1.9 meters.
Fortunately, mountain jackets were usually oversized, so Dalton could still wear it.
"Your mission deadline passed days ago, and none of you returned to school or could be contacted. Teacher Frank got worried and asked me to come find you," Julian said.
He considered himself lucky. First, he'd run into Barry and the others, who told him where Dalton might be. Then he sent Heracross to look, and it actually worked.
"Here."
As promised, Julian handed over five jars of Tri-Honey to Heracross, whose eager, expectant eyes made him feel too guilty to continue chatting with Dalton.
"As expected of Boss Walker. Only you could come up with such a clever way to find me."
Dalton gave Julian a thumbs-up, his face filled with admiration.
With his build and that expression, however, it was hard for Julian to feel proud.
"So, tell me, how did you end up separated from Luis, Shen and the research team? Weren't your mission boundaries supposed to be on the outskirts of the White Mountains?"
At this, Dalton's face darkened with anger. "It was all because of that idiot leader from the research team. We spotted a Venusaur group on the outskirts, along with a bunch of Ivysaur and Bulbasaur."
"That idiot thought the Venusaur must have been leading the Ivysaur and Bulbasaur to some mysterious location for evolution."
"So he insisted on following them. So, we followed. With the three of us, we could handle being closer to the inner perimeter."
"But then we ran into a pack of wandering Haunter and Gengar."
"They used Hypnosis on all of us."
"When I woke up, Luis, Shen and the research team were all gone."
"I don't even know what's going on with those two now. If anything happens to them, I swear I won't let that research team off the hook!"
After hearing the full story, Julian finally had a clear picture of what had happened.
"Luckily, the Haunter and Gengar didn't mean to harm you. If it had been Mismagius or Banette instead, you'd all be dead by now."
Ghost-type Pokémon were notoriously dangerous, though some were less so than others. Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar fell into the latter category, being known more for their mischievous nature than outright malice.
In the wild, it wasn't uncommon for trainers to fall victim to wild Haunter's Hypnosis. Upon waking, they might find themselves stripped of their belongings, missing important items, or dumped in an unfamiliar location.
Dalton was lucky—at least his pants were still there.
"If you're unharmed, then Shen and Luis should be fine too. Plus, they have their partner Pokémon to protect them."
"We all have also taken survival training. Staying in a forest for ten days or so shouldn't be a problem. The research team, though... I'm not so sure about them."
"If they're all together, they might still stand a chance. But if they're scattered like you were, that's a different story."
The research team members were mostly academics with little to no combat ability. Even if they had Pokémon, their battle skills were usually lackluster. That's why they issued escort requests in the first place.
"If they die, they die. As long as Shen and Luis are okay, I'm fine with it," Dalton said indifferently.
Julian shot him a glare. "If they die, your mission not only fails, but you'll also face an investigation from the Trainer Association. Your personal reputation will take a hit too."
A failed mission combined with the death of all escort targets? No one would want to hire you after that, especially for escort tasks.
And once a trainer's credibility rating dropped, certain tasks would become off-limits.
"Then let's find the research team quickly!" Dalton said, now anxious.
It wasn't that he cared about the research team's survival or his credibility score. As a descendant of a prestigious family, he didn't need to rely on missions for resources.
He had taken on this mission solely because of Shen's invitation, with Luis also joining in.
What truly worried him was the embarrassment. Failing his very first mission and losing the escort targets? That would be an embarrassment of epic proportions.
Shen came from a third-tier noble family with many members, so she often needed to take on missions to supplement her income.
No one expected their first mission together to go so disastrously.
"How do we even find them? I only found you because I got lucky," Julian said, rolling his eyes.
One by one, the Heracross returned in defeat. They hadn't found the humans they were looking for.
Not finding them wouldn't have been a problem—if none of the Heracross succeeded, they'd all be in the same boat.
But one Heracross had succeeded, and that made all the difference.
Jealousy burned in the eyes of the Heracross, their leader especially furious with the one that hogged all the spoils.
Five whole jars of honey, completely devoured, not even a single drop left. The jar licked so clean it was almost reflective.
'Who in the world raised this selfish brat? Oh, wait—it was probably me'
"Boss Walker, what's wrong with them?"
Dalton stared at the Heracross, which now looked utterly disheartened. Its expression resembled someone who had just watched their girlfriend run off with someone else—completely heartbroken.
"Emo"
Julian walked forward, from his seemingly small backpack—or rather, from the hidden storage of his system space—he pulled out over a dozen jars of honey.
"One jar for each of you."
Though the Heracross weren't able to find Dalton, they had at least tried.
Julian wasn't the type to act like a heartless capitalist.
Seeing the Heracross light up with joy as they received their own jars, Dalton watched Julian's bag with curiosity.
That small backpack had already produced a jacket earlier, and now it had spat out all this honey. How did it hold so much?
"What are you staring at? I got it off a shopping site after someone sent me a referral link. It has huge capacity."
Julian explained, as he slung the backpack over his shoulder again.
"Boss Walker, do you have any food in that bag of yours? I've been eating nothing but tree sap and wild berries for days. My taste buds are about to shut down."
"Here."
Julian reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a can of beef stew.
Dalton blinked. That can was definitely larger than the pocket it came out of.
"Let me guess—also from that shopping site?"
"Exactly. It's pretty impressive, huh?"
"When we get back, I'm signing up to shop there too!"
Dalton wasted no time popping open the can. "This beef stew is incredible!"
"Eat up, once you're done, we're heading out to find Shen and the others."
*****
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