After choosing the leftmost cave entrance, David and his Pokémon walked for about another ten minutes.
The surrounding environment suddenly began to change.
The cave, which had been dark as night, now displayed faint phosphorescence appearing on its walls as they ventured deeper.
David and his Pokémon leaned in for a closer look.
"This is..."
For safety, Ralts directly used Psychic to remotely retrieve one of the light sources from the wall.
David held it up to his eyes, then carefully touched it, discovering it was just an ordinary stone.
However, due to some unknown influence, this small stone emitted a faint, light pink glow.
A subtle Fairy-type energy wave emanated from it.
Looking up at the surrounding walls, there were countless such stones densely covering the rock surface.
It was their combined faint glow that illuminated the cave.
"It seems your feeling was right, Ralts. We've come to the right place."
David tossed the stone in his hand, and after thinking briefly, he smiled and said to Ralts.
For so many ordinary stones to be infused with Fairy-type energy—if he wasn't mistaken—there must be something valuable here.
According to the information David had read before, when an environment showed such obvious signs of change, it meant one of two things:
Either powerful Pokémon capable of altering the natural environment through their own energy radiation were nesting nearby, or there was a treasure containing immense energy hidden here.
Pokémon capable of influencing the ecosystem on their own would have to be at least Champion-level, which clearly wouldn't appear in a place like this.
So now, only one possibility remained—there must be an extraordinary treasure here.
"Not bad, Ralts! It seems you're quite the lucky one!"
"Ralts?"
Facing her Trainer's teasing, Ralts simply looked at David with a puzzled expression.
"Let's go! It looks like we won't have to travel much farther before we reach our destination."
After speaking, David led the way forward, and Ralts and Riolu, concerned for his safety, quickly followed.
As they delved deeper, not only did the cave become brighter, but thousands of glowing stones illuminated the deeper parts as if it were daytime.
Moreover, the rich Fairy-type energy didn't even require detection—bright pink mist seeped out from cracks in the rock walls everywhere.
In this environment, Ralts, who had been somewhat exhausted after dealing with the Ariados colony, immediately recovered.
When they reached the deepest part of the cave, the sight before them nearly made all three of them freeze in amazement.
Hidden deep within the cave was a small underground lake.
Yes, a lake.
Based on David's estimates from their journey, they should have reached the center of the mountain by now.
He had expected to find some kind of treasure here, but he never imagined he would discover an entire underground lake.
The silver lake water was calm, like a mirror, with only the occasional drop of dew from stalactites on the cave ceiling creating gentle ripples.
The entire lake seemed enveloped in rich Fairy-type energy. The silver surface of the lake intertwined with the pink mist hovering above it, forming a dreamlike and magnificent scene.
However, none of this was the main attraction. The most important thing David saw was a piece of land in the center of the lake.
An unimaginably large Moon Stone stood there.
David roughly estimated from a distance that this Moon Stone was at least nearly three meters tall and over two meters wide. Even for someone of David's background, it was the first time he had seen such a massive Moon Stone.
Without rushing directly toward the Moon Stone's location, David, as usual, first carefully observed his surroundings.
And indeed, there was an unexpected discovery.
It was then that David noticed several inconspicuous small holes in the mountain walls around and above the lake, all facing that Moon Stone.
Faint light emanated from them.
If he remembered correctly, the path they had taken seemed to be slightly uphill, so if David wasn't mistaken, they were already very close to the summit of the mountain.
It seemed that at night, moonlight would stream through these small holes and converge on that giant Moon Stone, replenishing the energy it emitted.
This was probably why the lake water had remained so full of energy for such a long time.
Looking at this Moon Stone, David recalled that both Clefairy and Jigglypuff evolve using a Moon Stone.
The energy of moonlight is inherently linked to Dark-type, Fairy-type, and Ghost-type Pokémon.
Examples included the Dark-type Umbreon, the Fairy-type's powerful move Moonblast, and the Ghost-type Legendary Pokémon Lunala, among others.
So it was not surprising that this lake contained abundant Fairy-type energy.
It was the diffusion of this Fairy-type energy that had led to the emergence of this unique environment.
David looked around and found a narrow path that led directly to the center of the lake.
"Let's go!"
They followed the path before them, walking toward the giant Moon Stone in the center of the lake.
"Clefairy!"
Just as they were about to reach the lakeside, a group of pink figures blocked their way.
It was then that David and his Pokémon realized there were other Pokémon near the Moon Stone.
Led by several Clefable, the Clefairy—who had just been performing some kind of ritual beneath that Moon Stone—instantly blocked their path.
However, as Fairy-type Pokémon, the Clefairy were clearly not as aggressive as the Ariados colony and did not attack David and his Pokémon.
"Ralts!"
"Clefairy~"
As a Fairy-type Pokémon herself, Ralts felt a natural affinity for these Clefairy.
Seeing them approach, she went forward to communicate with them.
After some discussion, David and his Pokémon finally understood that what they had witnessed earlier was a preparation ritual. The Clefairy's evolution ceremony would take place beneath that Moon Stone.
During this ceremony, suitable Clefairy would bathe in the Moon Stone's radiant glow and evolve into Clefable.
Just as Ralts felt a strong affinity for them, these Clefairy and Clefable also felt great closeness upon seeing Ralts, who was also a Fairy-type.
Despite being two different species of Pokémon, they instantly connected.
The leading Clefable then stepped forward.
It warmly invited Ralts to participate in their ceremony and told her that all Pokémon participating in the ritual beneath this sacred stone would have a chance to receive the blessing of moonlight.
For Fairy-type Pokémon, this offered tremendous benefits.
Before Ralts could react, David, standing beside her, directly accepted on her behalf.
Clefable then turned its gaze to David, and after sensing no hostility within his Aura, it also warmly invited David to observe their evolution ceremony.
And so, David, with Ralts and Riolu, followed behind the Clefable, embarking on the narrow path leading to the center of the lake.