Day 37 of the journey to Kanto. Clear skies.
Reiji woke with a long yawn. He had not slept by the sea in ages, and the waves had kept him up half the night.
Keith was still asleep, so Reiji made breakfast first and fed his Pokémon. Some of them were not convenient for Keith to see, so he left Keith out of it.
After breakfast, Reiji recalled his Pokémon, woke Keith, and had him bring over the Pokémon he had caught yesterday. None of them had high potential, so Reiji told him to release them all.
Once Keith finished eating, they set off again, following the coastline toward Celadon City.
Reiji checked the map, confirmed the route, and climbed onto his mount. They would skip Vermilion City and circle around it from outside the city.
Keith still had to walk. If he got tired, Pidgeotto could drag him along. It could carry one person in its talons without much trouble, but it was too small to ride.
They had not been walking along the coast for long before it was already time for lunch. Time slipped by fast. While they ate, Keith went down to the shore to try his luck and see if he could catch a few Magikarp.
The result did not change. He failed to catch a high-potential Magikarp. Those first few Pokémon had probably burned through his luck, and luck was not something he could rush.
Just as they were about to leave, they heard a lively commotion from the nearby town. The two went in out of curiosity, and everywhere they turned, people were talking about fossils.
"This dragon-bone fossil was just dug out of Grampa Canyon. Excellent collector's value..."
"You're charging way too much."
"Heh, it's the only piece available right now. Of course it's expensive. So? Do you want it or not?"
"Make it cheaper and I'll take it."
The streets were full of small vendors haggling over fossils. A few stalls sold other stones too, but fossils were clearly the main business.
"Boss, Grampa Canyon has fossils?" Keith looked around at all the fossil talk. Fossils seemed valuable, and he was clearly tempted.
"It does." Reiji remembered seeing the canyon on the map earlier. It was not by the sea, but farther inland, in the dry badlands—a huge canyon cutting through the forest.
If he remembered right, the underground cavern there had a sleeping Aerodactyl, along with living Omanyte and Kabuto. Their evolved forms, Omastar and Kabutops, should be there too.
That made it worth a look. With luck, he might pick up something useful and pad out his private funds.
As for the Aerodactyl?
He would decide when he saw it. Its strength was unknown, and if he could not beat it, catching it was just wishful thinking.
Aerodactyl's profile had mentioned something interesting. Modern revived Aerodactyl were not Dragon-type, but ancient Aerodactyl, the ones that ruled the open skies, had been Dragon-type.
That meant the sleeping Aerodactyl might be a true ancient survivor with Dragon/Flying typing, not Rock/Flying. It was an ancient species, after all, with a pterosaur-like body.
In that case, Lance's Aerodactyl might really be Dragon-type instead of Rock-type. Calling him a Flying-type Elite Four member was probably a little unfair.
Of course, Reiji would have to see it first. He could not know whether that surviving Aerodactyl had Dragon typing without checking it himself.
Still, Dragon/Flying was a rough combination. An x4 Ice weakness alone was enough to make life miserable.
No wonder Lance still struggled against Lorelei even after becoming Champion. With that many bad matchups, beating her would be the miracle.
After walking through town, Reiji decided to pause the trip and visit Grampa Canyon. Before leaving, he turned to Keith and said, "Fossils are just extra money. Pokémon are what you build your future on. Catch the rest of your Flying-types first. You'll have plenty of other chances later."
"I understand, Boss." Keith knew they would part ways once they reached Celadon City. If he still had not caught the right Pokémon by then, he would have to leave with only the ones he already had, and that would be a shame.
Having Reiji help him choose talented starter Pokémon was an opportunity he could never buy with a few broken fossils. He understood which mattered more, and he had no intention of wasting such a good start.
Talented Pokémon were not something he could normally touch. He could not afford them, so he had to make this chance count.
"Ask the fishermen around here. They should know where to find Magikarp. Camp outside town tonight and wait for me."
"I understand, Boss." Keith waved goodbye and went to find the fishermen. They did not know how long this stop would take, so he had to make use of every moment.
Reiji watched him leave, then released Pelipper and flew toward Grampa Canyon. The canyon was obvious on the map, and from the air, he soon saw a long, brown gash across the land.
From above, he could also see treasure hunters in sun hats swinging pickaxes through their sweat.
"This place really is busy." Reiji and Pelipper landed on a rocky ridge. Under the brim of his cap, he looked down at the treasure hunters below. Someone stood every dozen meters or so, and the constant clink of metal on stone echoed through the canyon.
He had no idea what fossils they were trying to find. If they wanted Helix Fossils from Omanyte shells, Evolution Mountain had more than enough of those.
As he scanned the canyon floor, someone below suddenly shouted in excitement.
"I found one! I found one! It's a claw!"
"Where? Where?"
"Is it a fossil? Even if it isn't, you can use it to make claw-type items. You lucky bastard!"
"Haha, I'm calling it early today. I'll see you guys at the tavern later. Drinks are on me!"
The man left with the claw bone, grinning the whole way. The others kept swinging their pickaxes, hoping they could dig up something valuable and finish early too.
"Darkrai, sense the area. See if there's anything good nearby." Reiji watched the man leave and decided he wanted to be lucky for once too.
Since he already knew the best things were in the underground cavern, he had no intention of wasting time on the surface. If the surface had nothing he wanted, he would have Hanhan dig straight into the cavern.
"Nothing. I don't sense any energy fluctuations in the surrounding rock." Darkrai opened its eyes and shook its head. Fossils would not give off energy waves in the first place.
"Forget it. Check whether there's a cavern under the canyon." Reiji left the rocky ridge. If he wanted to enter the underground cavern, he needed a hidden spot where the rock layer was thin but stable enough to dig through.
If the rock was too brittle, digging could collapse the cavern and bring Officer Jenny down on the whole area. That was the opposite of quietly making money.
"There is. A very large one." Darkrai slipped into the canyon to sense more clearly. The cavern was separated from the canyon by only one rock layer, and breaking through would not be difficult.
They could not dig from inside the canyon. That would basically announce to everyone that something valuable was underground.
"Find the thinnest part. We'll dig down from there." Reiji rode Pelipper around the edge of the canyon, searching for a quieter area while Darkrai checked the thickness of the rock.
After more than ten minutes, they reached the steeper upper section of the canyon, and Reiji had Pelipper land.
The terrain there was too steep. There was no path in and barely any place to stand, so no treasure hunters had come this far.
Most fossil finds came from the middle and lower sections, where the treasure hunters had gathered.
At the upper section, Reiji had Darkrai keep checking the rock layer. Once Darkrai found a weak point, he rode Pelipper into the canyon, stopped above the canyon floor, and released Rhydon.
"Rhy..." Rhydon used Rock Climb to cling to the steep wall and waited for Reiji's order.
"Rhydon, dig into the wall from here." Reiji did not even have a place to stand, so Hanhan needed to make one first.
"Rhy." Rhydon swung its claws at once, carving out a standing platform before digging deeper into the rock.
Once Hanhan had opened the tunnel, Reiji had Pelipper land on the new platform. He took out a flashlight and entered the passage with Poliwhirl and Pelipper.
At the end of the tunnel, everything ahead was pitch-black. There was no light at all. Hanhan stood by the opening, and somewhere inside, water dripped steadily.
"Rhydon, go outside and move a rock over to block the entrance." Reiji sent Hanhan to seal the way in, then shone his flashlight down into the cavern. The darkness swallowed the beam, which meant the floor was far below.
When he looked up, he realized where they had broken through. They were near the top of the cavern, almost a hundred meters above the floor, close enough to the ceiling that he could touch it.
Darkrai had guided Rhydon into opening a hole near the cavern roof. The air was also strangely cold, so Reiji shivered and pulled on his puncture-resistant jacket.
Thud.
A heavy sound came from outside. Hanhan's footsteps followed behind him. Reiji did not turn around. He simply recalled Hanhan into its Poké Ball. With the entrance blocked, he could explore at his own pace.
The treasure hunters had not been driven away, which meant Ash had not arrived yet, Aerodactyl had not appeared, and the League had not sealed the area. He still had time to search.
Once Ash arrived, the screams from Ash's group and Team Rocket's trio would wake the Aerodactyl. The League would definitely lock the place down and turn it into a research site for sleeping ancient Pokémon. Getting in after that would be difficult.
"Pelipper, take me down." Reiji checked everything on his body that might make noise and secured it. Then he climbed onto Pelipper again and recalled Poliwhirl, planning to release it after they landed.
"Peli... Peli..." Pelipper called softly, and the echo carried a long way. The cavern was enormous.
"Shh. Keep it down." Reiji did not want to wake the sleeping ancient Pokémon. In the anime, it had taken a violent explosion and several people screaming inside the cavern, with the echoes building on themselves, to wake that Aerodactyl.
He had Pelipper stay quiet, and they slowly descended toward the cavern floor. When they landed on the damp ground, Reiji shone the flashlight upward, but the beam vanished into darkness. Visibility was poor, and the walls seemed to absorb the light. Strange place.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The moment his feet touched the ground, every step echoed through the cavern. The noise made him stop almost immediately.
He knew how to muffle it. Either walk barefoot or wrap something around his shoes so the hard soles would not strike the ground directly.
Barefoot was out of the question. If he stepped on something sharp and cut his foot, he would lose more than he gained. Dying from tetanus down here would be too stupid.
He had Gengar spit out the backpack and pulled out two clean towels he had kept. He did not destroy everything he picked up; if something looked new and useful, there was no reason to throw it away.
After wrapping the towels around his shoes and tying them tight, the tapping finally disappeared. Reiji released Poliwhirl again, with Darkrai and Gengar waiting in his shadow, and began exploring with three bodyguards.
"Darkrai, can you sense anything?" Reiji was not sure whether the cavern had anything valuable. If it did not, he would have to catch the Aerodactyl. He refused to leave empty-handed.
A sleeping Aerodactyl should be easy to catch with a Poké Ball. What worried him was provoking a terrifying ancient beast in a cavern so dark he could barely see. That was not a smart gamble.
"Yes. This way." Once Darkrai reached the lower cavern, it really did sense something useful.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Darkrai led Reiji to a pool of water. Around it, Reiji saw clusters of clear, glittering stones.
"No, not gems. Water Stones." Reiji picked up a blue stone and found that it was a mid-grade Water Stone. There were also Water Gems and Damp Rocks. The Water-type resources here were rich.
He quickly collected the Evolution Stones on the ground. There were several just in that spot. He also picked up the Water Gems and the irregular pieces of Damp Rock, storing them all away.
After that, he kept walking and collecting as he went. He did not know how large the cavern was, but it seemed to stretch toward the middle and lower sections of Grampa Canyon. He picked up who knew how many Evolution Stones along the way, but not a single high-grade one.
A cavern no one had entered for millions of years should have produced at least one high-grade Water Stone.
Maybe someone else had discovered this place long ago and came down whenever they needed money. Leaving the low-grade Evolution Stones behind would let them mature slowly, especially with so much Water-type energy gathered here.
He ignored the fossils along the way. He even saw several living ancient Pokémon, but he did not try to catch them.
He was not sure whether catching one would wake the others. If the sleeping Pokémon stirred, the treasure hunt would be over.
If he wanted to catch ancient Pokémon, he could wait until he had explored most of the cavern, then choose a few with decent potential and take them away. Keeping them in the lake in front of the cabin as ornamental Pokémon sounded nice, and he could raise them quietly until he had the strength to show them.
As he walked, he touched anything that looked even slightly interesting. He did not want to miss anything valuable, and that habit really did turn up a few good finds.
"Shell Bell?" Reiji looked at the shell in his hand. A question rose in his mind, but once he opened the item panel, he understood what the Advanced-tier item did.
Shell Bell. When the holder damages an opponent with an attack, it restores a small amount of HP.
So it was an HP-recovery item. Not bad. He kept it.
"Hard Stone? A Rock-type item." Reiji silently put away one of the brown stones scattered across the ground. He had only touched it casually, but it turned out to be an item. Down here, he could almost step on a Gem without trying.
There really were plenty of good things here. He picked up so many Gems his hands nearly went numb. Water Gems were the most common, which meant Slowpoke's evolution resources were settled.
Next came Rock Gems and Ground Gems. Anything that was a Gem reflected the flashlight, so spotting them was easy.
Evolution Stones still depended on Darkrai. Without Darkrai's sensing, Reiji could only stumble onto them by luck, and anything he found that way counted as a bonus.
While Reiji happily collected treasure underground, Ash's group heard the fossil rumors and arrived at Grampa Canyon.
Ash was not the only one. Gary came with his cheer squad, and Team Rocket's trio arrived too.
Reiji noticed none of it. He was still deep in the cavern, staring in shock at what his flashlight had just revealed.
A complete skeleton lay before him. From its shape, it belonged to a Flying-type Pokémon. The frame was broad and massive, and the parts touching the ground had already begun to fossilize.
Reiji circled the skeleton with his flashlight. In the end, he still reached out and touched it. The panel identified it as Aerodactyl bone.
"It really is a Flying-type Pokémon's skeleton." Reiji's eyes sharpened. This Aerodactyl was huge, far bigger than the 1.8-meter average listed in books. Its strength while alive was hard to judge. If it had been Elite Four-tier, he had struck gold.
This was probably what a true adult Aerodactyl looked like. He began touching the bones one by one. When he reached the claws, a different panel prompt appeared.
"Razor Claw?" Reiji had not expected another item material. These small, unremarkable things scattered through the cavern were high-quality materials, not finished items. They would need processing before use.
He stored the Razor Claw and kept checking the rest of the skeleton, finding several more Razor Claws.
Razor Claw. A sharply hooked claw. When held by a Pokémon, moves become more likely to land critical hits.
After putting the Razor Claws away, he touched Aerodactyl's jawbone and teeth. The panel that appeared made his breath catch. His heart started beating faster. He had found something incredible.
[Dragon Fang: When held by a Pokémon, it increases the power of Dragon-type moves. (Boost: 20%) (Level: 68%)]
"Damn. An Elite Four-tier Dragon Fang. A Dragon-type item." Reiji had not expected this kind of surprise. He quickly took out pliers and pulled the tooth free from Aerodactyl's jawbone.
That Dragon Fang was only one tooth. Aerodactyl had an enormous mouth full of teeth. He had hit the jackpot.
After pulling out every tooth, he found that only two were Elite Four-tier Dragon Fangs—the two largest front fangs.
Some of the remaining Dragon Fangs were Advanced-tier, and a few were quasi–Elite Four-tier. Most of the rest were Razor Fangs. He had been a little too optimistic.
Still, Razor Fangs and Razor Claws were not just held items; they were evolution items too. They would sell for plenty.
Two Elite Four-tier front fangs were already enough. And if the teeth counted as Elite Four-tier Dragon Fangs, then...
He immediately touched Aerodactyl's jawbone, and the panel appeared again.
[Sharp Beak: When held by a Pokémon, it increases the power of Flying-type moves. (Boost: 20%) (Level: 65%)]
Another Elite Four-tier item material. Reiji removed the beak bone as well, leaving the skull without its beak.
This Elite Four-tier Aerodactyl skeleton had already given him three Elite Four-tier items. Even if he never caught the living Aerodactyl, this trip was worth it.
The problem was that he had no use for Dragon-type items right now. He did not own a Dragon-type Pokémon, so selling them might be the only option. There was no rush, though. If he ever caught a young Dragon-type, the items would become useful.
He carefully stored the item materials and continued checking the bones. He even dug out the buried leg bones, but the claws on both feet had already fossilized. The panel listed them as Claw Fossils, so he took one and left the rest.
Fossils were mostly collector's items unless someone wanted to revive a Fossil Pokémon. For revival, one fossil was enough.
Aerodactyl was different, though. Reviving it also required Old Amber, because the amber contained Aerodactyl's genetic material. That sort of thing only existed in League research facilities. For an outsider like him, reviving Aerodactyl would not be simple.
This Claw Fossil was more of a souvenir. He had come all this way, so he might as well bring back a local specialty.
Still, ancient Aerodactyl really had been Dragon-type. Otherwise, it would not have produced Dragon Fangs. No wonder it had been the ancient ruler of the skies.
"Right." Reiji suddenly thought of something and moved to the dirt beneath the Aerodactyl skeleton. He gently scraped the soil aside.
He had already checked the whole skeleton. Every valuable item material was gone, leaving only bones. What was he supposed to do, take them home and make soup?
He had been wondering what else Aerodactyl might have left behind, and that made him think of Dragon Scales from Dragon-type Pokémon. If Aerodactyl had scales, they should be in the dirt below it.
He dug for a long while and scraped through the soil, but he found no scales.
He had never seen an ancient Aerodactyl. Who knew whether a Dragon-type ancient Aerodactyl even had scales? Modern Aerodactyl did not, but modern Aerodactyl were not Dragon-type either.
Still, he did not come away with nothing. He dug out another Elite Four-tier item.
[Hard Stone: When held by a Pokémon, it increases the power of Rock-type moves. (Boost: 20%) (Level: 62%)]
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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