One of the Dugtrio returned from beneath the ground several minutes later. The 3 heads looked unusually excited as they emerged, and one of them was carrying something carefully between its jaws.
Another Dugtrio followed with a second stone, while the third carried another.
Gladion's eyes widened with excitement as he crouched beside them. He carefully took the first stone and examined it from different angles, feeling the energy inside it with his psychic senses. "You actually found them," he said with genuine excitement.
"These are fully formed Mega Evolution Stones. They are not pieces of meteorite that might eventually become stones. They have already gone through the entire process."
He looked at the other stones and smiled. "I knew the theory had merit, but finding actual examples this quickly is better than I expected."
He closed his eyes and connected his mind to the three Dugtrio. His psychic ability allowed him to communicate with them without speaking aloud. 'How deep did you have to travel to find these stones?'
Gladion asked through the mental connection. The Dugtrio sent him an image of the underground tunnels they had travelled through, followed by an impression of the enormous depth beneath the surface.
Gladion's expression slowly changed from excitement to surprise as he understood what they were showing him. 'That deep?' he thought, before looking toward Sabrina.
"No wonder the Draconid people never found them. These stones are buried far deeper than the parts of Meteor Falls they regularly explore."
Sabrina looked at the stones in Gladion's hands with growing interest. "So these have been sitting underneath this place for thousands of years without anyone discovering them?" she asked.
Gladion nodded while continuing to study one of the stones. "That seems to be the case. The surface caves are already difficult enough to explore. If the stones are buried this far underground, the Draconid people could have lived here for generations without realizing what was beneath them."
He turned one of the stones in his hand, watching the faint energy inside it shift. "And I am pretty sure this one is a Salamencite."
Sabrina's eyebrows rose. "A Salamencite? That would be an extremely valuable Mega Stone."
Gladion gave a quiet laugh. "That is what makes this situation so funny. They just sold me access to this mining site in exchange for a Salamencite, which means I now have permission to explore an area that could contain God knows how many Mega Evolution Stones. They also gave me an Alpha Bagon."
He looked toward the deeper tunnels with an amused expression. "I am pretty sure that no matter how peaceful the Draconid people are, they would probably try to kill me if they discovered that they had unknowingly given me access to a place containing this many valuable stones."
Sabrina stared at him for a moment before shaking her head. "You are saying that you have essentially been given permission to mine their land because they wanted one Mega Stone, and now you have discovered that their land might contain an entire underground collection of them?"
Gladion nodded. "That is exactly what I am saying. From their point of view, they probably believed they were making a very good trade. They received something they wanted, and in return they allowed me to survey an area that they considered useful mainly for ordinary minerals."
Sabrina looked toward the cavern entrance where the Draconid people had disappeared earlier. "But why would they want the Salamencite so badly if they are so isolated from the rest of the world? They do not trade with outsiders very often, and they certainly do not seem interested in building some huge army. Why would they need that kind of power?"
Gladion's expression became more serious. "To research it," he answered. "I have been studying Meteor Falls for quite some time, and there is something unusual about the Draconid people that most outsiders do not know. They have records concerning Mega Evolution that go back much farther than most modern researchers realize. They have apparently known about certain Mega Stones for centuries."
He looked at the Salamencite again before continuing. "And there is one Mega Stone in particular that makes their interest much easier to understand."
Sabrina already seemed to know what he was about to say, but she still asked, "Which one?"
Gladion smiled slightly. "The stone connected to Rayquaza."
Sabrina's eyes widened. "Rayquaza?"
"Yes," Gladion replied. "Rayquaza is not simply another Legendary Pokémon to the Draconid people. They worship it as the Dragon Lord, and their history is deeply connected to it. They have spent generations trying to understand Rayquaza, its connection to Mega Evolution, and the mysterious energy that allows it to reach its Mega form. If they can study other Mega Stones, they might be able to understand the process better and eventually learn more about the Mega Evolution of their own Dragon Lord."
Sabrina remained silent for a few moments as she looked at Gladion. She had noticed something about him for a long time, something that she could never fully explain.
His psychic aura was far stronger than hers, and that alone made him unusual. But his knowledge was the truly strange part. Gladion seemed to know things that he had never openly researched.
He knew ancient history, obscure Pokémon locations, unknown forms of evolution, and secrets that even experienced researchers had spent decades trying to uncover. It did not make sense.
She knew he was special because she could feel it whenever they were close. His psychic presence was different from anything she had encountered before. But his abilities alone did not explain how he kept making connections that other people missed.
There were times when Sabrina suspected that Gladion knew far more than he ever told her.
Yet she trusted him.
That was what mattered.
He was her closest friend, and their relationship had grown into something deeper than friendship. She did not need to understand every secret inside his head to know that he had never given her a reason to doubt him.
Trust, she had learned, was not about knowing everything about another person. It was about believing that they would not use what they knew against you.
Gladion finally broke the silence as he looked back toward the underground tunnels. "I will have to send Kai here with a proper mining team. The miners can work on the surface and collect the ordinary minerals and stones found throughout this section."
"That gives us a perfectly reasonable explanation for why we are interested in the area." He pointed toward the rocks around them. "There are already enough valuable materials here to make the operation profitable, so nobody will find it strange if we start mining."
Sabrina understood immediately. "And while the normal mining team works near the surface, Kai will secretly handle the deeper sections."
"Exactly," Gladion replied. "The mining team will focus on the resources everyone expects them to find. Kai can take responsibility for the deeper exploration, especially in areas where the Dugtrio locate the mega evolution stones. We do not need to take everything immediately. That would only attract attention."
He looked down at the Mega Stones in his hand and carefully placed them into a container. His excitement was still obvious, but now it was mixed with caution. "We cannot let the Draconid people discover that they are sitting on what could essentially be an underground gold mine of Mega Stones. They trusted us enough to give us access to this area, and I would rather keep that trust than turn this into a fight."
Sabrina gave him a suspicious look. "You realize that if they ever discover what you found, they are going to ask some very difficult questions."
Gladion smiled. "Then I will answer them honestly."
Sabrina raised an eyebrow. "You will?"
Gladion looked completely serious for a moment before adding, "I will honestly explain that my Pokémon discovered several unusual stones while conducting a completely normal geological survey."
Sabrina stared at him.
"That is technically true," Gladion added with a grin.
She shook her head, but she could not stop herself from smiling. "You really have an answer for everything, do you not?"
"I try to," Gladion replied. "It makes life easier."
-----Author Notes------
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