Chapter 19 ⇾ Changes and Death of the Ancient Tree

"So you agree?" Cole asked when he saw the Helioptile's expression soften.

Mm-hmm~

It nodded frantically.

Pleased with this, Cole said, "Since you're being so reasonable, I'll let bygones be bygones. Here... take this to eat."

As he spoke, he loosened his grip on the Helioptile, placed it in his palm, and gave it back the berry it had returned earlier.

"Hebi~" The Helioptile hugged the berry happily and started munching away, finishing it in no time at all.

Its body was very small, barely larger than Cole's palm, so it could move around easily while being held in his cupped hands.

"Hebi~"

After quickly devouring the berry completely, the Helioptile reached out its tiny hand to him again.

"Want more? You sure can eat a lot!" Cole said in surprise, looking at its tiny adorable frame. He took out another berry and handed it over, "Here's one more, but this is the last one, okay? It's not good to eat too much at once."

The berries he had were quite large, each about the size of an adult's fist. He was worried the poor thing might burst its stomach eating two at once.

"Hebi~ Hebi~"

The Helioptile, whether or not it had actually listened to his words, just nodded randomly before eagerly starting to eat again.

Seeing it eating with such gusto, Cole turned to Daisy and Popplio and said, "Alright, we can head home now."

"Woo~?" — Aren't we going to catch a Pokémon that knows Stun Spore?

Popplio asked curiously.

Cole gestured to the Helioptile in his hands and said, "Look, with this little guy here, we don't need to find a Pokémon with Stun Spore anymore."

"Woo!" — Hmph!

Seeing how happy he was, Popplio thought he particularly liked that yellowish four-legged lizard and snorted disapprovingly.

✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲

After returning, Cole introduced the new member Helioptile to Talonflame, Fearow, and the Diggersby family.

The Diggersby family warmly welcomed it, but Talonflame and Fearow seemed quite surprised to see it.

So you finally managed to sneak your way in!

It turned out this Helioptile was a frequent visitor to the mountain, often trying to sneak in to steal food every few days, only to be caught by either Talonflame or the other birds and thrown back outside. They were already very familiar with it.

The key thing was how persistent this little one was — even though it never succeeded and always got scolded, it kept coming back again and again.

Looking back now, could this have been fate?

Seeing the fierce Talonflame, Helioptile became a bit scared. It shook its two long ears and quietly hid behind the human's back.

Cole didn't know about its history with the mountain. He smiled and reassured it, saying, "What's past is past. As long as you behave from now on, we won't hold anything against you."

Hearing this, Talonflame nodded — if the boss said so, it certainly had no objections.

Only then did Helioptile breathe a sigh of relief and step out from behind Cole.

✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲

And so, Helioptile became Baifeng's second Pokémon and settled down on the Ascendant Mountain.

After resolving Daisy and Popplio's hidden energy circuit issues, Cole's daily life returned to normal. Each day was spent either cultivating berry trees or training Pokémon, with study time during breaks, and occasionally helping his mom and sea lion activate their hidden energy circuits.

Life was busy but fulfilling.

With Helioptile's Thunder Wave helping, Daisy and Popplio's "operations" were always completed successfully, and their activated hidden energy circuits steadily increased.

This brought very noticeable changes to both Pokémon.

First, the amount of Pokeblocks they consumed daily increased, indicating that their efficiency in storing Source Energy was improving, with Daisy showing the most obvious changes.

There was no helping it — her energy circuits were far more complex than Popplio's. When one part was affected, it influenced the whole system. The activation of hidden energy circuits caused her entire energy network to operate at high speed.

Because of this, Cole had to greatly increase the frequency of combing through, compressing, and purifying her Source Energy.

Then there were the physical changes. He hadn't expected that activating hidden energy circuits would have such a beautifying effect on both Pokémon.

Daisy's figure became increasingly proportionate and tall. Gardevoir typically average around 1.6 meters in height, and his mom had previously been even shorter than the average Gardevoir. But after the hidden energy circuits were activated, she actually started growing taller.

Who would believe that someone who had been a mother for over ten years could still grow taller?

After some time, Daisy's height gradually reached about 1.7 meters before the changes began to slow down.

Besides height, her appearance became increasingly enchanting. Those bright eyes were like the moon in the sky, the short green hair more verdant than new leaves, the floor-length dress white as snow, and those long legs...

Such beauty — wouldn't it make old lechers' hearts flutter?

Cole silently vowed to himself that he must protect this increasingly beautiful mother of his!

Popplio's changes were mainly reflected in its physical condition. While its deep blue skin became increasingly clear and pristine, the biggest change was in its throat.

Previously, when it sang, Cole really wanted to cover his ears. But now its voice had gradually improved, transforming from completely tone-deaf to something of a musical prodigy.

After some time, its singing actually became soul-soothing.

At first, these changes weren't obvious and no one noticed, until one day when Diggersby commented, "Popplio's singing is quite nice!" Everyone suddenly realized that its vocal qualities had changed.

The most memorable sound for Cole was the cry of that Milotic he encountered while drifting at sea. Although much time had passed, that sound remained deeply etched in his mind like heavenly music. After hearing it, any songs or music he heard afterward seemed to fall short.

Now that Popplio had undergone such changes, he began to look forward to its future.

As its voice improved, its control over Water Gun also became increasingly masterful. Now whenever it used Water Gun to control the moisture in the air to water the orchard, everyone thought it was using Rain Dance.

In fact, it didn't even know Rain Dance.

Although it took Popplio this long to achieve a Rain Dance effect with Water Gun, and using it wasn't as convenient as actual Rain Dance, what it pursued wasn't just the move's effect but control over the technique.

There was a fundamental difference between achieving effects through the move itself and actively forming desired effects through controlling attribute energy.

As for Helioptile, Cole hadn't yet activated its hidden energy circuits.

On one hand, this was because it was too young, seemingly born not long ago, with its body not fully developed; on the other hand, it was because paralysis couldn't be applied to Electric-type Pokémon, so they needed to find another way to block its pain receptors.

Helioptile was very satisfied with its new life. Cole had kept his promise — it could eat berries freely, and there was an even more delicious supply of Pokéblocks. There couldn't be a happier life than this.

It had never seen its parents since birth, and from the time it became conscious, it often went hungry, sometimes going several days without food. This was why it used to frequently come to this mountain to steal. This experience had taught it to greatly cherish food.

For example, one day when Cole was thinning out the fruits on that specially cared-for Oran Berry tree — removing small fruits that weren't growing well or were too densely packed to ensure the remaining ones would grow better.

Unexpectedly, Helioptile had snuck over at some point, and when he cut off a fruit and threw it to the ground, it immediately picked it up and put it in its mouth, crunching it down in two bites.

Unripe small fruits had no taste and were even somewhat sour and astringent, but it could eat them without changing expression.

By the time Cole noticed, its belly was so round and full that it lay on the ground unable to move. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this.

Like Daisy and Popplio, Helioptile completely fell in love with the spa treatment after experiencing it once, never expecting such a special benefit from following this human.

This further strengthened its unwavering resolve to follow in Helioptile's footsteps.

✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲

As days passed, July arrived, and the Oran Berry trees at the mountaintop began to bloom one after another. Cole started considering their pollination needs.

Following the contact information Ramos provided, he made an appointment with the pollination agency and agreed on timing — they would send staff with pollination Pokémon once the Oran Berry trees began widespread blooming.

When the Oran Berry flowering period arrived, the agency staff came to the Ascendant Mountain with a group of Vivillon as promised.

Because the energy rating of his fruit trees was very high, their flowers were particularly appealing to the Vivillon.

The agency staff were experienced — they could roughly judge the trees' energy rating just from the Vivillon's reactions, and were surprised that this client owned such a high-quality orchard.

Professional pollination Pokémon were quite different from wild ones. They had received strict training and were very disciplined during pollination, with set rules about where to start and end, unlike wild Pokémon who worked haphazardly.

Afterward, the agency staff would bring Vivillon to the mountain every few days until most of the fruit tree flowers had withered.

The agency's fees were reasonable. After Cole paid, they enthusiastically offered to continue cooperation in the future, even offering discounts. The high-quality flowers were also beneficial for their pollination Pokémon's growth, which explained their enthusiasm.

The eastern district of Coumarine City had a good environment and plenty of usable land, so there were many plantations and orchards. However, most were ordinary farmers growing fruit trees mainly to sell the berries as food to regular people.

Orchards like the Ascendant Mountain that could cultivate many high-quality fruit trees were rare, so the pollination agency was naturally eager to maintain good relations.

Moreover, Cole was a client referred by Master Ramos who, as the city's Gym Leader, was one of the most powerful people in Coumarine City.

✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲

One day, Cole made a rare visit to the Coumarine Gym to see Ramos, only to find him looking worried. Upon asking, he learned that the ancient tree sapling had died after all.

When he saw the old man, he was tending to a new ancient tree seed.

"I hope it can sprout successfully." Ramos sighed as he spoke.

This new seed was one he had obtained from elsewhere. He had been troubled by the death of the previous ancient sapling and decided to try again.

Captain Sanders's research institute no longer had any more ancient plant seeds for Ramos to "waste", since these things weren't easy to find, so he asked friends to get one from somewhere else.

This one was different from before — it wasn't a Lum Berry seed.

Cole asked, "What happened to the previous ancient tree?"

Ramos shook his head and said, "I wish I knew the reason."

"Is that sapling still around? Could I take a look?" Cole asked.

"It's still here." Having invested so much effort in nurturing it, the old man couldn't bring himself to dispose of it even after it withered, "Go ahead and look if you'd like."

Led by Ramos, Cole indeed saw the ancient sapling's "corpse", which the old man had completely uprooted from the flowerbed.

He picked up the withered sapling and found its roots were indeed very weak. While not much different from modern fruit tree roots, compared to its developed tree pattern, they seemed inadequate.

While Pokémon could actively absorb energy by eating berries and Pokémon food, the most basic method of obtaining energy was still passive absorption through energy circuits from the air.

The same was true for fruit trees' patterns.

Through his research, Cole discovered fruit trees had two methods of obtaining energy — not the organic energy maintaining their life, but the mysterious energy unique to the Pokémon world stored in their tree patterns.

One method was absorbing free energy from the air through the upper part of the tree pattern (crown), while the other was drawing energy from the earth through the lower part (roots). This was similar to how plants obtain organic energy — using leaves for photosynthesis on one hand, and roots to absorb nutrients from soil on the other.

Modern fruit trees' root patterns had atrophied, so their main way of obtaining mysterious energy relied on absorption from the air through the upper part of the tree pattern, while the lower part only served as a bonus.

The key was that modern fruit trees had evolved to adapt to this way of drawing mysterious energy, but ancient plants couldn't — they needed both methods simultaneously to grow successfully.

Living things are complex and diverse, containing countless inexplicable mysteries. Although the mysterious energy and organic energy in fruit trees were different things, they were closely related — if one system broke down, the other would inevitably be affected.

Cole suspected the ancient sapling died because its incomplete root development prevented it from drawing enough mysterious energy from the earth, which affected its organic energy circulation, causing it to remain weak and eventually wither.

Of course, incomplete root development would also affect the tree's organic energy absorption — it was a double blow!

However, these were just his guesses, unverified — he couldn't guarantee his theories were correct.

At this point, Cole suddenly noticed Ramos holding a very thick book titled "Complete Guide to Ancient Plants."

He had an idea and asked, "Elder Ra, could I look at that book you're holding?"

Ramos smiled and said, "Oh? Have you become interested in cultivating ancient plants too?"

As he spoke, he handed the book to the kid.

"I suppose so — after all, I've been researching fruit tree cultivation, and there are always commonalities between different types of plant cultivation."

Ramos nodded in agreement, "That's right — as they say, knowledge in one area can help understanding in others. There's no harm in learning more; it will all become nourishment for your growth."

Cole nodded and started browsing through the book.

The book contained findings from botanists' dedicated research, including many ancient plant illustrations. These illustrations were mostly reconstructed from excavated plant fossils, and Cole found himself becoming genuinely interested as he looked through them.

"Elder Ra, look at this." Cole suddenly pointed to an illustration in the book.

"What is it?" Ramos followed his finger to see him pointing at an illustration of an ancient Lum Berry tree, "Is there something wrong?"

Cole casually explained, "Look at the proportions — the ratio between the roots and the whole tree!"

The Lum Berry tree in the illustration had a very developed root system, almost larger than its crown.

After his prompt, Ramos instantly saw the issue. He picked up the withered sapling and compared it to the picture.

"The root proportions are wrong!" He muttered.

"Exactly — while this sapling's roots look fine to us, compared to this reconstruction, the roots clearly haven't developed properly. How could the tree grow large with underdeveloped roots?"

"You're absolutely right!" Ramos exclaimed excitedly, "The ancient environment was different from today's — there must be some related factors affecting plant development."

Seeing that the old man had discovered the problem, Cole didn't say more — this hint was enough.

Though he couldn't be certain his theory was correct, Ramos was still in the research phase, and trying different approaches couldn't hurt.

This old man had helped him so much, so of course Cole hoped his research would succeed.

✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲

Sure enough, some time later, he learned from Ramos that his new sapling was growing well and very likely to thrive - this time, the old man was full of confidence.

✲✲✲

T/N: If you want more chapters like this, check out my Patreon! Take a look at my other translations too, you might like them!

For just $1.50 you can access all the extra content, and descriptive images, costs only $2!

That's it and happy reading! (-‿◦)

https://www.patreon.com/mrblackwing