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The wild Pokémon living inside the cave were mostly Geodude and Golbat. In a place like this, Water-type Wartortle and Psychic-type Kadabra could truly shine.
Under Sato's deliberate training, the two Pokémon had already helped him repel several waves of attacking wild Pokémon along the way. Through these continuous battles, both of their levels rose rapidly.
As Sato pushed deeper into the cave, he finally began encountering the Whismur line. First came Whismur, then Loudred—and eventually, he even ran into an Exploud wandering near the outer area.
This short-tempered Pokémon attacked the moment it saw Sato, without bothering to distinguish friend from foe. It immediately unleashed its signature sound-based moves and charged forward aggressively.
"Kadabra, use Disable to seal its sound moves. Wartortle, finish it with Aura Sphere."
Sato had already put on Whismur soundproof earmuffs. Seeing Exploud rushing in while firing off Boomburst, he instantly issued commands via telepathy to Kadabra and Wartortle, who were also wearing soundproof earmuffs.
Now at level 26, Kadabra released a powerful psychic fluctuation upon receiving the order and successfully used Disable, sealing Exploud's Boomburst for several seconds.
In an instant, the deafening roar coming from Exploud's mouth was abruptly cut off.
"Wartor~!"
At the same time, Wartortle let out a cry and began rapidly condensing the Aura energy within its body, forming a basketball-sized Aura Sphere, which it launched straight at Exploud.
With Wartortle now at level 32, the full-powered Aura Sphere packed considerable strength. Coupled with type advantage, the level-41 Exploud was blasted several meters backward and severely injured.
Seizing the opening, Kadabra immediately ended Disable. Crossing the spoons in its hands, it released a streak of multicolored light that struck Exploud squarely—Psybeam activated.
After taking Kadabra's full-powered Psybeam, the already heavily wounded Exploud could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground with an unwilling expression.
However, although Exploud was swiftly defeated by the combined efforts of Wartortle and Kadabra, the intense battle still attracted the attention of nearby Whismur and Loudred. The moment Exploud fell, more than a dozen Whismur and Loudred rushed in.
Immediately, Uproar was unleashed in unison from their mouths. The entire tunnel began to shake violently under the high-frequency sound waves, and large chunks of rock started raining down from the ceiling.
"This is bad—we can only retreat for now. Kadabra, Teleport!"
Seeing the Whismur and Loudred swarming in, Sato knew things were about to go south and quickly gave the order through telepathy.
Kadabra, with its high intelligence, had already judged how dangerous the situation was. The instant Sato issued the command, it used Teleport, taking Sato and the others away from the spot.
In the next moment, Sato and his Pokémon reappeared in a section of tunnel more than ten meters away.
"Swampert, use Hammer Arm and smash all the falling rocks!"
But the danger was not over yet. Rocks were still pouring down from above. Left with no choice, Sato released Swampert to deal with the situation.
"Pikachu, Iron Tail! Kadabra, Confusion! Wartortle, Rapid Spin!"
At the same time, he ordered Pikachu and the others to assist Swampert in blocking the rockfall.
The moment Swampert emerged from its PokeBall, it didn't even wait for Sato to finish speaking. It immediately began swinging its fists wildly at the falling rocks. Under the force of its powerful punches, every single rock was smashed into dust.
Any stray rocks that slipped through were promptly shattered by Pikachu, Kadabra, and Wartortle.
After a dozen seconds, the tremors in the tunnel gradually subsided, and the rockfall finally stopped. However, the path ahead was now completely blocked by rubble.
"I knew this would happen. This promotion mission really isn't easy at all. Swampert, I'll have to trouble you—move the rocks ahead."
Looking at the heavily blocked tunnel, Sato felt mentally exhausted as he spoke, handing over more than ten gem-grade PokeBlocks to Swampert.
"Swamp~!"
The panting Swampert showed a hint of displeasure at first, but the moment it saw the gem-grade PokeBlocks, all dissatisfaction vanished. It quickly devoured them all and then happily trotted off to move the rocks.
"Hah, I knew this would work. The carrot-and-stick method never fails."
Watching Swampert obediently head over to clear the rubble, Sato thought with a hint of amusement.
This Swampert, which Sato had captured in the sewers, had long since been thoroughly subdued.
At the beginning, it had been rather defiant. But after being beaten repeatedly by Nidoking, Crobat, and Roserade, it quickly learned to behave.
That said, since not much time had passed, this Swampert still tended to slack off when following Sato's commands—unless it was given some benefit, it would only use about fifty to sixty percent of its strength.
Sato was well aware of this little trick, but he didn't call it out directly. Instead, he simply reduced its daily rations slightly.
It was also worth noting that this Swampert possessed monstrous strength. Although it couldn't compare to his own Swampert, its raw power was still at least five or six times that of an ordinary Swampert.
As such, for Swampert, anything weighing under five or six tons was basically a toy.
Soon enough, with the help of this Pokémon-version excavator, the blocked tunnel was cleared. Sato then led his Pokémon forward once more.
After another dozen minutes of cautious progress—during which he avoided several more waves of Whismur and Loudred attacks—Sato finally reached the end of the tunnel.
To his astonishment, the tunnel opened into a vast underground chamber roughly half the size of a football field. Inside, he saw numerous man-made stone statues.
Some depicted humans, but most represented Pokémon. Due to various reasons, however, the majority of the statues were badly damaged, making it difficult to discern their original forms.
What surprised Sato even more was that this ancient-looking underground space was not empty.
Someone was already there.
The person wore a miner's helmet and held a pickaxe, excavating the ground nearby. At their side stood an Aggron and a Claydol, both wearing miner helmets as well and assisting with the digging.
At this moment, a bamboo basket beside the mysterious miner already contained several stones that looked quite unusual.
"Oh? Someone else actually made it here. Don't tell me—you're a rock enthusiast too?"
As soon as Sato entered, the person stopped digging, slowly turned around, and spoke to him with mild surprise.