After the battle ended, Terrance immediately departed from Ever Grande City for Mauville City.
Mauville City is the closest city to the Hoenn Desert, so Terrance resupplied there first.
After leaving the Mauville Shopping Mall, Sharan followed behind Terrance carrying bags upon bags of supplies. Seeing that his assistant looked neither flushed nor short of breath, Terrance was a little surprised. He hadn't expected Sharan's stamina to be this good.
"Give me the supplies. You can just wait for me in Mauville City from here on."
"Uh… aren't you taking me with you?"
"What would you go there for? The desert climate is harsh. For you… it'd probably be hard to endure that environment." Terrance shook his head. That was one reason; another was that he would mainly be training Pokémon and exploring ruins in the desert. Bringing along a burden would only make him act cautiously, so it was better to leave Sharan in Mauville City.
"But…"
Sharan hugged the packages, about to say something, but Terrance cut her off.
For this trip, Terrance still felt it was best to go alone.
Seeing Terrance's resolve, Sharan felt utterly helpless, but there was nothing she could do. She could only state that she would stay in Mauville City and wait for Terrance to return.
"Mm, sorry to trouble you. Hand over the packages."
…
…
One day later, the Hoenn Desert.
The desert stretched endlessly, rolling and vast. Under the scorching sun, waves of heat rose from the sand, making even breathing feel incredibly difficult.
Terrance walked through it wearing a sun-protective jacket, an ice pack hanging around his neck, and a sun hat on his head. As he walked, he couldn't help but yawn.
This season… it's even hotter than the last two times I came here. Thankfully, Castform is nearby to cool things down.
"Arcanine, Altaria, Castform and Rotom Pokédex, we need to speed things up," Terrance called out.
The last time he came to the Hoenn Desert was four years ago. He had already forgotten where that mysterious ruin was, meaning he had to start searching from scratch.
They had been searching for quite a long time now and had indeed found several ruins, but none of the ones they entered matched the one in Terrance's memory, which left him rather frustrated.
A few hours earlier, to speed up the search, Terrance had sent out Mismagius and Gardevoir to search separately. Meanwhile, he continued searching while having Castform guide Altaria and Arcanine in training the Sunny Weather secret technique.
In the desert environment, training Sunny Weather was extremely efficient. With many major battles awaiting him, Terrance naturally couldn't miss such a good opportunity.
As he headed toward the unknown, Terrance also made sure to check on the training progress of his Pokémon.
"Rotom Pokédex, show me their data."
After Gardevoir had completely absorbed the Genetic Potion, the absorption progress of the other Pokémon had also increased.
"Altaria: vocal talent development level 46%."
"Arcanine: Reversal development level 99%, Close Combat development level 55%, Morning Sun development level 44%, Thrash development level 62%."
"Castform: Fire Type, Water Type, Grass Type, Rock Type, Ice Type, Electric Type, and Flying Type development level has each increased by 7%."
At the moment, only these three Pokémon were kept by his side, so the Rotom Pokédex only checked the absorption status of the Genetic Potion for these three. On Altaria's side, because most of its focus wasn't on absorbing the Genetic Potion, its progress was slower than the others', but the absorption speed was still not slow. At this rate, it would likely be fully absorbed in about two months.
By then, Terrance was very much looking forward to what Altaria's Erase Technique would become. As for this period of time, Altaria's main training consisted of using the Flame Orb to train the Sunny Weather secret technique, Flame of Life, as well as the music techniques Terrance had secretly learned from Lisia.
"It's just a pity that the Rotom Pokédex's data chip can only detect the absorption level of the Genetic Potion and can't scan the training progress of other moves…" Terrance rubbed his chin, feeling that it might be necessary to find a scientist to collaborate with and upgrade the Rotom Pokédex again. Perhaps he could even try loading more breeding knowledge into it, turning the Rotom Pokédex into a Pokémon training system capable of identifying a Pokémon's potential and talent at a glance and judging the appropriate breeding direction.
At the very least, a Rotom Pokédex that had absorbed Terrance's breeding knowledge system already vaguely possessed the demeanor of a Breeder. What if it could integrate the knowledge systems of other Breeders as well?
Terrance's playful curiosity was stirred.
"Putting that aside for now, Arcanine should master Reversal within the next two days, though it probably won't have many chances to use it in the short term. What's interesting is that perhaps due to training the Sunny Weather secret technique, its development speed for the Morning Sun move is unexpectedly fast, jumping straight from 4% to 44%," Terrance thought. Maybe combining the Sunny Weather secret technique with Morning Sun would produce exceptionally astonishing results.
Terrance finally turned his attention to Castform. Its improvement was very balanced, steadily absorbing the effects of the Genetic Potion, with each type talent increasing by 7%. Taking its original foundation into account, Castform's Water Type development level had already reached 99%, and it would soon be able to completely absorb the component of the Genetic Potion that enhanced Water Type talent.
"Back then, because of Dragonair's Dragon Orb, Castform's Rainy Weather talent became exceptionally strong. It looks like that advantage really can't be erased."
Compared to the development of attributes related to other weather conditions, Castform's training efficiency for the Rainy Weather attribute is extremely high, always far ahead of the rest.
"Within two days, their strength will undergo a slight change."
As Terrance was making this assessment, they arrived outside a ruin. This ruin wasn't the mysterious one from Terrance's memory, but it still caused him to show a peculiar expression.
This ruin…
Terrance frowned, rubbing his temples as he fell into deep thought.
"It's very similar… far too similar to the ruin where I obtained the Larvitar fossil."
Seeing this ruin, Terrance's eyes gradually brightened. He quickly recalled Arcanine, whose size was too large, and Altaria, which would be inconvenient inside the ruin, then entered directly with Castform and the Rotom Pokédex.
Inside, it was just as dark as ever. The Rotom Pokédex very consciously activated its lighting function. The powerful Rotom Pokédex could be said to be even more effective at dispelling darkness than Pokémon using Flash. Terrance exchanged a glance with it, and then each of them explored in a different direction.
"There's no path over here, Roto."
"Come over this way," Terrance said.
Terrance still remembered that a Regirock seemed to reside within this ruin. He had crossed paths with that Regirock twice before, and both times he had ended up in a sorry state. But if they met again this time…
Heh heh.
Terrance faintly chuckled. This time, he would beat it so badly it wouldn't even be able to burrow into the ground, to prove how much his strength had changed.
At the same time, upon hearing this, the Rotom Pokédex quickly flew over to Terrance's side, and together they climbed a set of steps…
"I don't remember coming here before, but this should indeed be Mirage Ruins…"
Compared to four years ago, the internal structure had changed greatly, making it difficult for Terrance to navigate based on memory alone. However, since he had Gallade with him, a single Teleport would be enough to leave later, so Terrance relaxed and continued exploring freely.
Entering a corridor, he roughly surveyed the surroundings and knocked on the wall a few times, but didn't discover anything noteworthy. He just ended up with a hand covered in dust.
"I feel like the atmosphere here isn't right, Roto," the Rotom Pokédex warned.
"It should be fine," Terrance reassured it.
Boom!
In the next moment, the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground came from the direction of the corridor they had entered from. The corner of Terrance's mouth twitched. Had the way back been blocked?
"It's not a big deal."
Glancing at the Rotom Pokédex, Terrance's expression remained unchanged as he continued forward.
After a while, they arrived at an area with several pitch-black caves. After a brief consideration, Terrance decided to investigate them one by one from left to right.
"Strange, haven't you detected any Pokémon presence at all yet?"
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