Chapter 44 Obtaining Apricorns, The Hidden Turtwig

On the other side, after gathering enough timber, Guangtai cast his gaze deeper into the forest and proceeded with the Doublade into a simple exploration of the interior.

"If I spell out Celebi's name using symbolic slate plates, would it make plants grow even faster? The ability of symbolic slate plates is to establish a corresponding connection with Pokémon, and in forests where Celebi has legendary appearances, the trees always grow exceptionally lush."

"I'll try it when we get back. Let's first see if it can make herbs and crops grow rapidly, and since it makes trees flourish, it means the fertility of the soil will also recover rapidly."

Fleece-shearing divine beasts and mythical Pokémon?

A small shear isn't really shearing.

Upon entering the forest for exploration, Guangtai spotted several Pokémon, such as the common Spinarak, Pidgey, and Caterpie.

There were Paras with mushrooms growing on their backs, Burmy hanging from the branches, and Kricketot standing on tree tops making sounds like a xylophone.

Along the roadside were motionless Sunkern, Budew in groups of three to five, Sentret standing on their tails, and a drowsy Murkrow.

On the ground, a Dunsparce poked its head out of a burrow, while a Croagunk stood by the roadside staring right at him.

"H... Hello, I'm just passing through."

Guangtai greeted the Croagunk. The latter puffed out its cheeks, emitted a low ribbit, and stared at Guangtai with dead fish eyes, its head turning slowly like a machine.

Venturing deeper into the woods, perhaps there were other terrains further inside. Following the guidance of the trees all the way would lead into the Shinto Forest of the Northwest Mainland—an ancient forest fraught with danger everywhere.

"I remember the villagers saying that previously someone ventured deep inside with his Bidoof to cut firewood, only to be attacked by a Scyther. But we aren't on the same route, so there's a high probability we don't need to worry."

Guangtai recalled the warning from the villager earlier, but his own exploration inward was primarily to check if there were any Everstone Minerals.

Hard work pays off. Soon, Guangtai discovered pink Everstone Minerals, possessing almost the identical properties of rock salt!

Impurities in the salt veins gave the rock salt a pink or beet-red hue, though they were somewhat difficult to spot under the cover of trees and stones.

[Uncommon Material: Everstone Mineral.]
[Description: A crystal-clear mineral. It is a favored food of Grass-type and Rock-type Pokémon, capable of attracting them to gather at the place where it is tossed.]
[Acquired Corresponding Craft: Lure Bait Crafting]
[Acquired Knowledge: 1]
[Rapid Mining: Mining Efficiency +10%]

"If Everstone Mineral can count as rock salt, then it should be considered a crystallization of surface rock salt."

Guangtai began mining and soon packed a bag to take back, while the Doublade also packed a small bag. The breath of the wind drifted through the forest, and as the mining went deeper, the traces of nearby Pokémon began to dwindle.

"Speaking of which, the Pokémon that appeared earlier weren't very strong... and surprisingly, I didn't see any Oddish."

Oddish could be described as ubiquitous Pokémon. As the most important and fundamental creatures in the ecosystem of the Pokémon world, they had distributions almost everywhere. Yet Guangtai hadn't even seen a single Oddish along the way.

Furthermore, his luck was similarly poor regarding fruit trees bearing normal berries; it seemed this area wasn't within the growth range for berries... or perhaps the yielded berries had already been eaten by Pokémon.

Soil without soft earth could also grow berries, except they would grow slowly and yield very few fruits.

Crack...

Guangtai heard a strange sound.

Could he have reached the territory of a Scyther? No, there were no slashing marks around; it was said that Scyther would cut down trees to sharpen their scythes.

Soon enough, Guangtai discovered something incredible!

It was... Apricorns!

An Apricorn tree stood not far away, bearing some dark-colored fruits on its branches. Surrounding it was a small patch of grass, rising from the ground like a small platform. The terrain here was somewhat strange, and the trees surrounding the Apricorn tree all kept a distinct distance from it.

The land where an Apricorn tree grew indicated that the soil here was extremely fertile.

A round Pokémon, looking just like an Apricorn, rolled over!

"Hisuian Voltorb!"

Guangtai hadn't expected to see this Pokémon so soon. However, after hiding behind a tree and observing for a long time, he found no other Voltorbs nor that largest Hisuian Electrode. Meanwhile, this Hisuian Voltorb giggled, and immediately afterward sprayed a large pile of electrified seeds from the hole on top of its head, rolled around in place a few times, and used the move Rollout!

The Rollout slammed into the Apricorn tree, causing the dark Apricorns to fall onto those seeds. Then, that Hisuian Voltorb giggled and rolled away.

Wait, it just came over to crash into it?

He somehow felt it was a bit mischievous and quirky.

"No, this might be a method of sowing seeds. It is said that the composition of Hisuian Voltorbs is very similar to Apricorns, and they tend to wander around giggling and spraying seeds from the hole on top of their heads..."

"Who knows, at some point these seeds might combine with those Apricorns and eventually turn into some kind of egg."

"Pokémon eggs always appear suddenly without any warning, and up to now, no one has ever witnessed the exact moment an egg appears."

"However, there are also some Pokémon whose development doesn't require the process of an egg. For instance, Exeggutor—if Exeggutor's faces fall off its body, they turn into its pre-evolved form, Exeggcute."

"I've witnessed a truly rare scene. Perhaps this is the reproduction method of Hisuian Voltorbs, completing development similar to Exeggutor and Exeggcute through the combination of Apricorns and seeds. Then, suddenly one day, these Apricorns turn into Pokémon."

After the Hisuian Voltorb rolled away, Guangtai walked under that Apricorn tree and directly gathered all the fallen Apricorns and electric seeds.

[Rare Material: Black Apricorn.]
[Description: A black Apricorn with an indescribable fragrance. It can be used as a raw material for crafting Poké Balls. Some Pokémon love its flesh, eating the inside while leaving behind the hard shell.]
[Acquired Craft: 1]
[Apricorn Processing Craft (B+): In the past, artisans who made Poké Balls hollowed out and fired Apricorns, placing special net-weaving inside capable of catching Pokémon to craft Poké Balls. Most of these Poké Balls made using Apricorns possessed special characteristics.]
[Missing: Net-Weaving Craft.]
[Craftable: Hisuian Poké Ball (Requires Jade, Iron Scrap, Brown Apricorn).]
......
[Uncommon Material: Voltorb Seeds (from Hisuian Voltorb).]
[Description: Seeds scattered by Hisuian Voltorb, which seem to parasitize on Apricorns. If gathered in large quantities, they appear to generate electricity, acting as natural storage batteries.]
[Acquired Knowledge: 1]
[Seed Mutation: Seeds of herbs, crops, or berries you plant have a 5% chance to mutate.]

"Turns out they aren't Electric Seeds, but rather a relatively rare Pokémon material. The population of Hisuian Pokémon should be small, which is why its seeds are uncommon materials. But when sprayed, they really looked just like Electric Seeds, crackling with electricity."

Most of the mature Apricorns had been knocked down by the Hisuian Voltorb; the remaining immature ones couldn't be harvested. Besides, it was said that if too many Apricorns were picked, the Apricorn tree would wither and die.

On the ground, there were also many long-rotted Apricorns. It seemed that the sowing process of the Hisuian Voltorb wasn't going very smoothly.

"Even if the climate of Shinto is similar to Hisui, this ultimately isn't Hisui, so it's impossible to produce Hisuian-form Pokémon on a large scale. This is probably why the number of those Voltorbs is so small; they are searching for Apricorns to increase their numbers through continuous sowing."

"And because Hisuian Voltorbs are always giggling and randomly discharging electricity, all the Pokémon nearby have left, simply because growing Apricorn trees here attracts that careless discharging ball. When emotional, the electricity accumulated in its body is released all at once from the hole on top of its head, which always shocks people and Pokémon nearby. It seems that in ancient villages, people would seal the wooden hole on their heads and drive them out of the village."

Guangtai recalled the Pokédex entries he had read when playing the game. The part about Hisuian Voltorbs being driven out of the village was truly somewhat amusing.

"The direction it left in was... taking the trees as the center, heading further northwest. That direction should be the habitat of Petilil."

Today's harvest was already more than enough. Guangtai left contentedly with the Doublade, memorizing the route to this place, and the Doublade even made marks on nearby trees.

However, Guangtai mentioned: "What if the trees have strong recovery capabilities, or some Grass-type Pokémon happens to pass by and restores the marks to their original state?"

The Doublade pondered for a moment, then looked around and spotted a few rocks. The two sharp swords immediately fluttered into action, dividing the labor with precise chops and slices!

They casually hacked at the stones a few times, crafting a supremely crude stone sculpture!

"You!"

How's that? Although the craftsmanship is terrible, at least it's distinct in its badness! That way, there's no need to worry about losing the way back!

As the human and swords departed, the surrounding bushes rustled.

A turtle-like Pokémon poked its head out of the bushes, with a special tender sprout atop its head. Upon seeing that both the Hisuian Voltorb and Guangtai had left, it seemed to heave a sigh of relief.

"Na..."

Turtwig carefully observed the surrounding environment, and confirming there were no more uninvited guests, it quietly crawled out of the shrubbery. Its earthen shell carried several strange plants on its back, among which a large patch of red was particularly eye-catching.

It was Power Herb and Nature Mint!

It came to the back of the black Apricorn tree, quickly dug a small pit, and then lowered itself into the pit, straightening the leaf on its head while using the move Photosynthesis.

The shell on its back seemed to merge with the surrounding soil, nurturing all the plants on its body with the aid of the fertile earth as it settled down to rest in peace.

However, this land was frequently visited by Voltorbs... Turtwig thought with a trace of distress, should it find a new place to live?

The forest lately was truly chaotic... mantises, large bears, black ghosts, rolling electric balls, and strange stone-mining giants.

"Cele!"

A strange ethereal giggle echoed by Turtwig's ear. It instantly opened its eyes in shock, raised its head from the small pit, and looked around in all directions. That grass-green Pokémon appeared out of thin air beside Turtwig, giving it a huge fright!

A Pokémon it had never seen before... Turtwig felt somewhat nervous!

Was this Pokémon also after the plants on its back?!

"Cele..." The grass-green Pokémon approached Turtwig, whispering in muttered murmurs, and then pointed in the direction Guangtai had left. Turtwig understood the meaning of the grass-green Pokémon; it looked hesitantly in that direction, then shook its head.

If it went to live in human territory, the plants on its back would be plucked clean!

The grass-green Pokémon shook its head instead, indicating that she had seen many, many plants inside that human's land, and the vitality of that land was quite abundant!