“Kyuu~”
Having finished a whole pot of Moomoo Milk, Squishy’s turquoise body looked even more crystalline under the light, showing no trace of last night’s exhaustion from passing out.
Mishiro checked its condition, confirmed it was fine, then served the cake and food on the table.
Malva’s wire transfer had already arrived—at least until Team Flare dissolved, he wouldn’t have to worry about feeding his Pokémon.
“Gacha?”
Looking at the mouthwatering spread, enticing aromas wafting into its nose, Excadrill was stunned.
Its stomach growled betrayingly, forgetting its dread of Squishy for the moment.
“You must be starving, right?
Haven’t eaten since last night,” Mishiro said with a smile, treating Excadrill completely as one of them, digging in together with Squishy.
He was starved himself, especially after digesting so much information at the coffee shop.
He felt mentally exhausted, but it wasn’t time to rest yet.
Excadrill hesitated for a moment, eyes lingering on the food, unable to resist temptation.
It grabbed a bowl of mashed potatoes and poured it down its throat, just like Mishiro and Squishy—zero manners, but nobody was here to criticize it anyway.
After a satisfying meal, Excadrill sat on the floor with contentment, its impression of Mishiro rising a notch.
It had never tasted anything so delicious before.
“There’s plenty more good stuff in the future!”
Mishiro patted his chest, confident in his cooking skills.
Squishy poked its head out from his pocket, eyes full of anticipation for the future upon hearing this.
After cleaning the kitchen and living room, Mishiro returned to Excadrill, opening his arms with an expectant smile: “Are you ready, kids?”
“Gacha?”
Excadrill blinked, remembering what he said about making it stronger.
But how was that possible?
A mere human, just slightly better at cooking.
Seeing it still doubted him, Mishiro said no more.
Some things required seeing with one’s own eyes to believe.
He intended to let practice speak for itself!
“System, system, did you have lunch yet?”
[???]
“As long as you’re alive.
Open the Path of Cultivation for me.”
Mishiro invested his last 100 Legend Points without hesitation.
Soon, new text appeared in front of his eyes:
[Notice—The Path of Cultivation carries certain risks]
[Upon activating the Path of Cultivation, the selected Pokémon will be dispatched as a clone to a randomly chosen location suitable for enhancing its strength.
Once the one-hour countdown ends, it will automatically return.
If the clone suffers heavy damage during the journey, it will automatically return to the main body and inflict a severe weakened state on the original body]
“Hmm…
Travel Frog?”
Mishiro frowned slightly, feeling a strange familiarity.
It seemed this feature relied heavily on luck, though he didn’t know what the Pokémon would encounter inside.
He selected Excadrill and activated the training.
Instantly, Excadrill—who was sitting on the floor with a full belly, still skeptical of the human’s words—turned into a flash of white light and vanished on the spot. Find the original chapter at novelping(.)com.
Next, in Mishiro’s vision, a globe map of the Pokémon world expanded.
Excadrill’s avatar appeared on the map, wandering aimlessly across it before finally stopping in eastern Kalos at a location labeled “Abandoned Mine.”
[Excadrill has set off on its training journey]
…
“Gacha?!”
What’s going on?
Wasn’t I just inside the house?
Excadrill snapped back to reality, realizing it was standing inside a completely unfamiliar cavern.
Natural green energy crystals embedded in the surrounding rock walls emitted a glow like stars in the night sky, dispelling the dark and creating a mysterious, serene atmosphere.
Right in front of it lay a vast underground lake, its green waters pulsing with vitality, silent and deep.
“Gacha…”
Excadrill stood up in a daze, recalling Mishiro’s words.
To make it appear here without its knowledge…
Could this be what that guy meant by…
The path to getting stronger?
It looked around, seeing no sign of Mishiro, nor sensing any other Pokémon’s presence.
Relaxing slightly, it stepped toward the green lake.
However, it didn’t notice that a pair of compound eyes formed of multiple hexagonal crystals was silently observing this uninvited guest from beneath the lake surface.
[Excadrill has arrived at the deepest part of the Abandoned Mine]
[Finding no danger, Excadrill drops its guard completely and wanders around, looking for a spot to sleep]
[The legendary Order Pokémon, Zygarde, is peeping at Excadrill from nearby…]
Mishiro: “???”
What on earth?!
Although he couldn’t directly see the visuals of the Path of Cultivation, he could follow Excadrill’s encounters through the text.
Seeing the latest prompt, he froze completely.
“Where did another Zygarde come from?!”
Meanwhile, far away in the deepest depth of the Abandoned Mine, a massive Order Serpent submerged in the lake twisted its body into a giant question mark, its mind surging with confusion similar to Mishiro’s.
“Where did this little rat spring from?”
Zygarde’s mind was full of question marks.
Controlled by its core, its main body possessed immense intelligence, silently monitoring the world’s ecological balance since ancient times.
Ever since sensing an indescribable abnormality last night, it had awoken from a brief slumber, investigating via cells scattered across Kalos—yet finding nothing.
It felt as if that bizarre feeling of its own cells being NTR’d was just an illusion.
However, just as it prepared to mobilize cells to go to Lumiose City—the most likely source of the anomaly—to investigate deeply, an Excadrill, totally undetected by any of its cells, broke into the deepest part of this forbidden zone, Terminus Cave, without warning!
“What is going on these past two days?
Everything feels off…
Who…
who is trying to scheme against me?”
Zygarde tilted its head, pondering the question seriously, the lake surface rippling with its movement. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Excadrill, unaware of its situation, had already wandered over to the shore of the underground lake…
“Gacha~”
For some reason, drawing near to this lake gave Excadrill an indescribably refreshing feeling.
Even its injuries from last night felt like they were slowly healing on their own.
Could it be the effect of this lake water?
No!
Excadrill suddenly remembered Mishiro’s words.
Although it was still reluctant to trust that human, looking at the situation, maybe this miraculous lake water was the opportunity he mentioned to make it stronger!
Thinking of this, Excadrill leaned down, eagerly drinking a few gulps of lake water.
The cool liquid slid down its throat, a surge of pure natural energy flowing throughout its body.
Its eyes widened in shock!
The pain and fatigue across its body dissolved in an instant!
So so so awesome!
Yeah!
This wasn’t water, this was pure magic!
Seeing this scene, Zygarde was speechless.
Could drinking its bathwater make it this happy?
One must know, this was originally just an ordinary underground lake.
Over millions of years, soaked in Zygarde’s unthinking emission of power, it gradually transformed into this miraculous water source surging with vitality.
This was the manifestation of a Legendary Pokémon’s power: places where they lingered for ages always became extraordinary.
“I’d better drive it away quickly…
But the lingering aura on it…”
Zygarde had lost its patience, but as Excadrill touched the water, sending out ripples, Zygarde acutely caught a trace of familiar energy fluctuation lingering on the mole through that indirect contact.
Just as it tried to recall where that familiar energy came from, Excadrill on the shore dragged over a massive boulder from somewhere—seemingly wanting to test the lake’s depth—and exerted its steel claws to hurl the stone straight into the lake!
*Splash—!*
[Excadrill picks up a huge stone and hurls it into the lake—Direct hit!
The stone hit Zygarde on the head!]
“Holy crap!
What on earth is that guy doing?!”
Seeing the text content, Mishiro nearly lost his composure.
Inside Terminus Cave, a giant splash erupted.
Excadrill nodded in satisfaction, having confirmed the lake water was harmless to it, and prepared to jump in for a nice bath.
However, the splashed water didn’t fall as usual.
A huge black shadow rose without warning from beneath the water surface, casting a shadow that completely swallowed Excadrill’s figure before it could react.
It was a massive green and black serpentine creature.
Its compound eyes were made of four green hexagonal crystals, and behind its head was a frilled lizard-like black collar adorned with green hexagonal patterns, its flat tail ending in five fan-like prongs.
A suffocating pressure instantly filled the air.
The massive snake head pressed almost right against Excadrill, while a deep, majestic voice boomed directly in its mind:
“What can I say?”
Excadrill: “…”
*Gulp*, can we settle this peacefully?