Chapter 117: Ancient Crown

Boom!

A Night Daze infused with Dark Energy struck Arbok's head, sending both combatants flying backward.

Zoroark quickly stabilized itself, retreating back to Sato's side.

Arbok, however, was blasted across the cavern, landing on the opposite side of the pool. Surprisingly, it had no visible external wounds.

But black blood gushed from its eyes, nostrils, and mouth, while its body convulsed violently, thrashing so wildly that it left deep whip-like marks on the ground.

Shiny Arbok's sheer life force was startling to witness. At this moment, even Sato didn't dare to approach carelessly.

For a full ten minutes, Shiny Arbok writhed and struggled, then, at last, it stopped moving.

Thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump-thump…

Something strange happened.

The Luminous Pokémon at the entrance of the cavern started vanishing one by one, dissolving into tiny glowing specks that floated away.

Upon closer inspection, they had all transformed into glowing fireflies, even Weezing, which Sato had captured earlier, was no exception.

All of them disappeared!

Ariados tapped one of the fireflies with its foreleg, these transformed Pokémon were real, physical beings. It was as if they had been fireflies all along!

This finally solved one of Sato's biggest doubts, the endless waves of luminous Pokémon he had fought earlier had likely been temporary constructs, created only for battle.

Sato turned to look at Shiny Arbok's lifeless body.

Its once pure-white form had begun to shrivel, its once smooth scales had dried and wrinkled, its once ruby-red eyes had lost their luster, turning into two dull black stones.

Suddenly, countless green light particles began rising from its body, unlike the Luminous Pokémon, these lights didn't turn into fireflies. Instead, they merged into the surrounding cave walls.

A few minutes later, the entire cavern fell into eerie silence. Apart from Sato and his Pokémon, there were no other signs of life.

A sudden chill crept through Sato's body as he watched everything unfold.

Crossing the shallow pool, he approached to the Shiny Arbok's corpse.

Once a Pokémon of stunning beauty and purity, now, just a dried-out husk.

"Hmm?" A faint purple-black glow flickered from within Arbok's skull. Sato drew his dagger, carefully cutting away the dried flesh.

The purple-black glow grew stronger, soon, he uncovered a gel-like, soft mass, shaped like a solid lump.

"Ssss!"

"Gengar!"

Suddenly, Ariados and Gengar rushed forward, eyes glowing green, staring hungrily at the mysterious purple-black substance.

Their desire to obtain it was overwhelming!

Sato blocked them for now, instructing Gengar to hold the substance with Psychic and seal it inside a container.

This thing came from that eerie Arbok. Sato wasn't about to let his Pokémon consume it blindly.

"We'll analyze it first. If it's safe, then you can have it."

Though still restless, Gengar and Ariados nodded obediently. There were only two Poison-types in his team, so in the end, they would each get half, no need to fight over it.

Continuing his search, Sato soon found Arbok's nest, where he discovered a Bright Powder, a Light Clay, a Shiny Stone, a Moon Stone, and a Dawn Stone.

All of them were of exceptional quality, and the three Evolution Stones were far purer than the cheap ones sold in stores, making them highly valuable.

Clearly, Belle had an obsession with radiant, glowing objects. Sato pocketed everything without hesitation, feeling no guilt whatsoever.

After conducting one final thorough search, he found nothing else useful.

What he truly wanted to uncover was the origin of this Luminous World, or perhaps, some hidden treasure buried within it.

Crossing the shallow waters once more, Sato refused to give up, this time, he released Carvanha, instructing it to search the lake's depths for anything concealed underwater.

A few minutes later, Carvanha surfaced, darting excitedly toward Sato while twisting its body.

"You actually found something?"

Sato was momentarily stunned, but considering that Belle was capable of swimming, it wasn't too surprising that it had hidden something underwater.

Judging by Carvanha's excitement, the object must have been quite large, as even with its strength, it couldn't bring it up alone.

"Gengar, go check it out!"

The two Pokémon dove back into the water. Being a Ghost-type, Gengar could ignore terrain restrictions, making it incredibly useful for such tasks.

Before long, Gengar emerged, using Psychic to slowly pull out an iron-gray ancient crown!

Sato took the crown, which carried a distinct aura of history.

Though aged, it had no visible signs of damage.

After a moment of thought, Sato stored it in his backpack. He could faintly sense that a weak, mysterious energy resided within it.

Retracing their steps, Sato and his team returned to the entrance.

-----------------------------

Once they had fully rested, Carvanha and Gengar carried Sato back up, following the same method they had used to enter.

Experiencing the reverse gravity again left Sato just as amazed as before. He had no plans to reveal the existence of the hidden space beneath the Swamp.

For some reason, he had the strong feeling that this place held even greater secrets. Perhaps one day in the future, he would return.

As they resurfaced, the sun was beginning to rise, and the fireflies had completely vanished, likely having returned to the hidden world below.

Sato suddenly remembered, he hadn't actually captured the real Shiny Weezing yet. His mission was still incomplete!

Spending another two days searching, he finally found the Shiny Weezing on the westernmost side of the Swamp.

Aside from its uniquely bright green color, it was completely ordinary in every other aspect.

After successfully capturing it, Sato took a short break before heading directly toward his next mission's location.

The second mission: Totodile of Volcano Lake.

.....

Not far from Luminous stood a long-extinct volcano, whose crater had been filled with rainwater over time, forming an enormous lake known simply as Volcano Lake.

Recently, a wild Totodile had been spotted in Volcano Lake, drawing the attention of many adventurers trainers, all eager to capture a starter Pokémon.

This mission was entirely different from capturing Weezing.

Luminous Swamp was dangerous, inhabited by highly toxic Pokémon that adventurers preferred to avoid, which was why very few had taken on the Weezing capture mission.

Volcano Lake, on the other hand, posed little danger.

The target Pokémon was not strong, merely an unevolved Totodile, and the environment wasn't particularly threatening.

However, there was still one major challenge to this task, Luck! With such a vast lake, capturing a single Totodile was pure chance.

To make things worse, the high influx of adventurers had alarmed the wild Pokémon, making them even warier.

Sato never considered himself "chosen by fate", so this was a low-priority task, mainly something he had taken on to train Carvanha.

With the Young Elite Tournament approaching, Carvanha was the only Pokémon in his team that hadn't reached Elite level. A dedicated training regimen was essential.

However, whether or not he was truly "chosen by fate" wasn't something Sato could decide…