Pokémon Court C.215 *Title Hidden*

“Did you figure anything out?”

After a long while, Ishi asked softly.

“Not yet…” Maki replied, holding an ancient document in one hand, while her thumb was in her mouth, nibbling on it… It seemed to help her focus better.

“Keep it up,” Arvin said. Maki was the only one here who understood some of the ancient texts, and they had to rely on her to find Regirock.

Based on the clues from the two other ancient ruins, Maki had thought she could uncover the secrets of the Desert Ruins. However, upon seeing the actual site, she found herself bewildered by the overwhelming amount of information.

“Give me some time.”

With that, she immersed herself completely, deciphering the messages and secrets hidden within the texts.

The other five watched quietly, not daring to make a sound. Time passed slowly. About half an hour later, with an exclamation from Maki, everyone perked up, looking at her expectantly.

“Did you find something?” Terrance asked.

“Yeah, Arvin, release your Swampert and have it use Water Gun to wash the ground beneath us, then clean up the muddy water!”

“Got it!” Arvin responded, pulling out Swampert’s Poké Ball and issuing the command.

They found a higher spot to watch as Swampert used Water Gun to wash away the sand-covered ground. After cleaning away the mud, they finally dared to proceed down.

“This is——”

It turned out that the ground inside the ruins was also made of rock, just covered with layers of soil. Maki squatted down, frowned as she examined the cracks on the ground, and said, “Just as I thought.”

“We can start trying to awaken Regirock now,” she said.

“So soon?” Murasakibara was surprised. Everything seemed to be going too smoothly.

“Listen, it’s just a ‘try’, no guarantees it’ll work,” Maki said helplessly. “We finally made sense of the translated information, but this thing on the ground has confused us again.”

“What do we need to do?” they asked.

“Among our Pokémon, does anyone know the move ‘Ancient Power’?” Maki asked.

“Ancient Power?” They looked at each other.

Ancient Power is a Rock-type move that harnesses mysterious energy to form rocks for an attack. Quite a few Pokémon can learn this move.

However, after exchanging glances for a while, they awkwardly realized that none of their Pokémon knew it.

“I have a Piloswine that knows Ancient Power, but I left it at another place. As long as we get back to a Pokemon Center, I can transfer it here,” Albert said.

Maki thought for a moment, “I guess that’s all we can do.”

Terrance shook his head. “A round trip will take at least two days; it will waste too much time. As long as the Pokémon knows Ancient Power, it should be fine, right?”

“Yes…” Maki replied.

“I think there should be Pokémon capable of using Ancient Power in this area, like the Baltoy we saw earlier. They can learn Ancient Power.”

Ishi suddenly realized and exclaimed with excitement, “Yes, we can just temporarily catch one, so we don’t need to go back to the city.”

They all nodded, agreeing that this was a feasible plan. However, the task of selecting and capturing a Pokémon was clearly not easy.

“Leave it to me. We have a dozen spare Poké Balls. I don’t believe we can’t catch one!” Arvin said.

“I’ll go with you, no need to make it so troublesome. Leave choosing a Pokémon that knows Ancient Power to me while you handle the battle and capture,” Terrance said.

Arvin nodded. “Alright, no problem.”

“Then you two take care of it. The rest of us will stay here. We haven’t fully grasped the information yet. Even with Ancient Power, success isn’t guaranteed. We still need to decipher it further….” Maki said.

“3 hours, you have only 3 hours to capture it. We’ve been moving around for too long. According to our schedule, it’s time to rest. We must conserve our energy, especially in the wild,” Ishi said.

“Got it,” Arvin replied. “We’ll take Volbeat with us. You guys use the spare electric lamps for now.”

Terrance and Arvin began retracing their steps to find a Pokémon that knew Ancient Power, while Maki and the others stayed at the center of the ruins, continuing to study the secrets of the patterns representing the ancient text information.

****************

“Among the Pokémon we’ve seen, Baltoy has the highest probability of knowing Ancient Power. As long as we find the group of Baltoy from earlier, there shouldn’t be a problem,” Terrance told Arvin.

Arvin hesitated. “There were about a dozen Baltoy in that group. It might be difficult for just the two of us to handle them.”

“True, and they’ll be more alert after what happened earlier. They’ll be very cautious if they see us again. But it’s not a big issue; we’ll just have to act quickly.”

“Heh, I love capturing new Pokémon…uh, although this time it’s more out of necessity.” Arvin and Terrance quickened their pace.

Soon, they found the group of Baltoy. Without hesitation, Arvin called out his Weavile and Marowak, while Terrance sent out Mismagius and Beautifly, starting a new round of battle.

Although it took more effort than when they attacked with four people, they eventually managed to knock out the Baltoys.

“…Sorry for knocking you out twice,” Arvin said apologetically, but his eyes were already scanning the group. “Terrance, which one used Ancient Power earlier?”

“That one,” Terrance pointed.

“Alright.” Arvin immediately threw a Poké Ball.

To humans, these Baltoy looked identical, with no noticeable differences in size. Arvin had to command two Pokémon to deal with several Baltoy at once, and in the chaos of battle, it was impossible for him to notice which Baltoy used Ancient Power.

But Terrance was different. Even among the same species of Pokémon, he could spot differences. There’s no such thing as two identical Pokémon. Identifying them is a basic skill for a Breeder.

Terrance had noted a distinctive feature of the Baltoy during the battle, so he easily pointed it out later.

But, even without Terrance, Arvin’s Pokémon could recognize it. Pokémon have better eyes for such details than humans. What looks the same to humans can appear different to Pokémon.

“It went smoothly,” Terrance said.

The Baltoy had used Ancient Power during the battle, making Terrance’s task easier. He had offered to help with the assumption that none of the Pokémon would directly use Ancient Power, but now they could move quickly. They captured the Baltoy and headed back immediately.

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