After obtaining the token, the old man Yoshi gave Terrance some advice and precautions. As Terrance was leaving, the old man's cloudy gaze remained fixed on him.
It had been decades since the Super-ancient Pyramid had been developed. To this day, fewer than twenty Hoenn Trainers have reached the top, and in recent years, very few people have even come here. Yoshi, a Trainer of modest talent, had long been stuck at the threshold of the top tier. He too had never been able to conquer the Super-ancient Pyramid. He had made countless attempts, but in the end, he could not resist the erosion of time. His body was now no longer capable.
"Youth… how enviable."
Continuing toward the pyramid's entrance, Terrance's heart gradually calmed as he went deeper.
"I'm clearly going upward, so why is this called the entrance to the first floor…" Terrance felt puzzled.
Soon, he arrived at the location of the entrance marked in the map booklet.
"Although the Super-ancient Pyramid has a large number of Pokémon and they're extremely powerful, it's said that the most troublesome part is actually the environment inside…" Terrance observed his surroundings as he walked.
At this moment, the cries of various Pokémon intertwined into a chaotic symphony, but after the noise, everything fell into sudden silence, as if Terrance's arrival had caused some change. It was quite strange.
He could be certain—the sounds weren't coming from outside…
The entrance, or rather the gate, looked like a void leading to another dimension. Terrance swallowed hard and stepped in together with Mismagius.
In that instant, Terrance felt as if he had entered a different time and space. The sensation was extremely uncomfortable—nauseating and dizzy. The moment he stepped in, the dim environment made his mood grow heavy. Hearing crackling sounds, Terrance looked at the ground in disbelief.
Electricity…
The ground here was actually shrouded in electricity.
The strong current passed through Terrance's shoes, causing his feet and legs to go numb instantly. Fortunately, the voltage wasn't too high; otherwise, without noticing, he would have been electrocuted on the spot.
"Is this really the inside of the pyramid?"
"Forget it… On the first floor, the Pokémon here probably all have moves that can inflict Paralysis."
Terrance remembered this key information. As a flash of red light appeared, the newly summoned Gardevoir quickly coordinated with Mismagius, forming a protective system around Terrance.
What made the Super-ancient Pyramid so troublesome was that the Pokémon within were perfectly integrated with the environment, making it almost impossible to detect the timing of their attacks.
They had barely taken a few steps when the first attack arrived. From behind a hill, a group of Plusle and Minun seemed intent on driving out the intruders from their territory, letting out threatening cries.
Even Gardevoir and Mismagius hadn't noticed their movements. Golden electric currents shot in, and the Confusion barrier created by Gardevoir immediately crackled with electricity.
"So that's it, the Pokémon here have completely merged their presence with the environment. No wonder I couldn't sense anything besides the electricity." Psychic power flickered in Terrance's eyes as he felt astonished. These small, cute creatures could actually leave marks on Gardevoir's Confusion barrier?
Judging from the previous attack, it seemed to be only a warning. They hadn't gone all out.
"Looks like we haven't entered the range where they'll launch lethal attacks yet. But the surroundings are quite interesting… is this a paradise for Electric-type Pokémon?"
Luckily, Terrance hadn't brought the Rotom Pokédex with him. Otherwise, in this kind of environment, it might have short-circuited.
This group of Plusle and Minun did not stir Terrance's desire to battle. These Pokémon were probably among the weakest on this floor, offering little combat value. Moreover, time was limited this time. Terrance's main goal was to explore more floors and quickly familiarize himself with the environment to better plan future real combat training.
"Let's go," Terrance called out. Mismagius and Gardevoir immediately withdrew from the alert range of the Plusle and Minun, heading toward the entrance to the next floor marked in the map booklet.
"A paradise for Electric-type Pokémon"—this had been Terrance's initial description of the environment upon entering, but he quickly took it back.
The essence of Paralysis wasn't limited to electricity alone. At some point, Terrance and his team had wandered into a foggy area. What was terrifying was that the fog here was entirely composed of paralysis powder, and as the powder swept toward them, a group of Vileplume appeared.
Even though they had been cautious all the way, these Vileplume attacked without reason… These spores were all part of their hunting traps. This time, it wasn't that Terrance and his team had trespassed into their territory; they had been treated as prey.
One, two, three—although Oddish wasn't a rare Pokémon, Vileplume was still its final evolution. Seeing over a dozen Vileplume appear at once made Terrance slightly surprised.
After forming a formation to surround Terrance and his group, the buds of the Vileplume burst open with a bang, and the surrounding paralysis powder became even denser. If Terrance hadn't been protected by the Confusion barrier, he would have already been affected. It is said that during the seasons when Vileplume produces more pollen, every step it takes causes its petals to shake off pollen like thick clouds, turning the surrounding air yellow. The current situation was even more complex than those seasons; it was no longer a matter of the air being yellow or not. The dense spores had already begun to erode Gardevoir's Confusion barrier. If Gardevoir did not fight back, the barrier's collapse would only be a matter of time at such a concentration.
"Whap!" "Whap!"
It was the first time these Vileplume had encountered such stubborn prey, and they began vigorously flapping their petals to spread pollen. These petals, covered in toxic spores, were their favorite weapons. Once their prey was paralyzed, Vileplume would seize and devour it. Additionally, due to the massive size of their petals, Vileplume had difficulty lifting their heads, so to Terrance, each one looked gloomy. Combined with the environment here, it was extremely unsettling.
"Mismagius, put them to sleep. Then Gardevoir, use Misty Terrain to disperse these spores," Terrance sighed as he gave the order. He had no intention of getting entangled. In this situation, without Psychic-type Pokémon for protection, it would have been truly dangerous. Bringing Gardevoir and Mismagius had indeed been the right choice.
During their time on the first floor, Terrance and his team were attacked a total of fourteen times. Fortunately, each encounter ended without real danger. What was frightening was that the Pokémon's methods of attack were endlessly varied. What puzzled Terrance the most was that all their tactics were somehow tied to "Paralysis." It seemed that the environment here was extremely suitable for Pokémon to master moves related to the "Paralysis condition", to the point that Terrance began to question the original purpose behind the pyramid's construction by the ancient people.
Sometimes, just a single glance was enough to plunge Terrance and his group into danger. At other times, Ghosts hidden in the void would launch attacks with Lick…
Inside the pyramid, Gardevoir and Mismagius were unable to detect the approach of hidden enemies at all and could only defend passively. Compared to facing moves like Thunder Wave and Stun Spore, attacks like Glare and those from Ghost-type Pokémon gave Terrance an even bigger headache. Gardevoir, who had been maintaining the Confusion barrier the entire time, had already expended a considerable amount of energy. And so far, although they hadn't suffered any real damage, they hadn't even found the entrance to the second floor.
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