The Land of Extreme Ice was a Special Advanced-level secret realm with the Ice-typing. It was one of Drakoria's eighteen Special Advanced-level secret realms and was located in the northeastern region of the country.
At the same time, one of Drakoria's eighteen National-Level Gyms, the Ice-type Gym, was situated near the Land of Extreme Ice.
Its Gym Leader was Anthony, a seventy-year-old Ice Elite who ranked tenth on the Elite Rankings and was also the current head of the Willow family.
The Willow family was one of Drakoria's major Ice-type clans and currently stood at the pinnacle of Ice-type trainers within the country.
At the very center of the Land of Extreme Ice stood a colossal iceberg over ten thousand meters tall.
As for how deep the iceberg extended beneath the surface, no one knew even now.
Centered around the iceberg was an endless expanse of pure white frozen earth, with boundless cold enveloping the entire Land of Extreme Ice.
The temperature was distributed according to distance from the iceberg. The farther one moved away from it, the warmer it became.
Even so, the temperature at the outermost regions remained around minus ten degrees Celsius.
Near the iceberg itself, temperatures could drop to minus fifty or sixty degrees Celsius. At such temperatures, even some Ice-type Pokémon struggled to endure.
As a result, the closer a Pokémon lived to the iceberg, the stronger it generally was.
However, over the past six months, the temperature throughout the Land of Extreme Ice had been steadily dropping.
The outermost areas, which had previously been around minus ten degrees Celsius, had now dropped to more than minus twenty degrees.
And the temperature around the central iceberg had fallen even further.
Because of this continuous temperature drop, a large number of Pokémon had begun migrating outward.
Even some Ice-type Pokémon that had originally lived near the iceberg had started moving toward the outer regions because they could no longer withstand the increasingly harsh cold.
This outward migration caused a significant increase in the number of Pokémon living in the peripheral regions, yet food and resources remained limited.
As a result, the Ice-type Pokémon that had originally inhabited the outskirts found survival becoming even more difficult.
So in order to survive, some Ice-type Pokémon had no choice but to leave the secret realm and pass through the realm gate into the outside world.
Most Pokémon living inside secret realms would never willingly leave, because the energy within the realms was better suited to their survival.
If they chose to leave, it generally meant that something had gone wrong with the secret realm itself, or that they could no longer survive there and were forced to seek a new home outside.
At this moment, more than ten thousand Swinub had gathered near the secret realm gate.
The territory where they had originally lived had already been seized by a group of much stronger Bergmite.
Even if they wanted to migrate elsewhere, it was useless. Any place that had food had already been occupied by stronger Pokémon.
So if they wanted to survive, their only option was to leave the secret realm.
However, the realm gate was currently being blocked by a Pseudo-Champion Glaceon.
The powerful aura emanating from it prevented the Swinub from advancing. They didn't even dare attempt to force their way through.
For wild Pokémon, when facing stronger opponent, most would instinctively retreat—that was their way of survival.
"Distribute the food first."
Looking at the Swinub before him, all in poor condition, Anthony, dressed in a thick winter coat, spoke to his subordinates.
"Yes, sir!"
His subordinates immediately began handing out food.
The Swinub hadn't had a proper meal in quite some time. Now that they finally had food to eat, much of the anxiety in their hearts eased.
Filling one's stomach was the first requirement for survival.
That hold true for both humans and Pokémon.
Throughout history, whenever commoners rebelled against a dynasty, it was because they couldn't get enough food and were on the verge of starving to death.
If you gave them food—not even enough to be full, just enough not to starve—they wouldn't rebel.
Rebellions happened only when there was no way left to live.
The same principle applied to the Swinub. Without their territory, they no longer had a stable food source, and under those circumstances, they had no choice but to leave the secret realm.
Although a Pseudo-Champion Glaceon was currently guarding the realm gate, preventing them from passing through, that situation wouldn't last forever.
As time passed and hunger continued to grow, especially once some of them began starving to death, they would no longer care whether the Glaceon was stronger than them or not.
They would desperately try to get out no matter the cost.
Several batches of weaker Ice-type Pokémon had already left previously.
Because their numbers were relatively small and their strength was limited, Anthony had quickly arranged for them to be relocated to other secret realms under his management.
But the number of Swinub was simply too great—there were forty to fifty thousand of them altogether.
A population of this size couldn't simply be placed into another secret realm—or even several secret realms.
Doing so would severely disrupt the ecological balance of those realms. As a result, they could only continue keeping the Swinub here for the time being.
However, this was not a long-term solution.
The temperature in the Land of Extreme Ice was still steadily dropping.
Right now, it was the Swinub losing their territory and wanting to seek survival in the outside world. But before long, it could very well be the Bergmite who had taken their territory coming next.
Driven out of their territory by stronger Ice-type Pokémon, they would then follow the same path as the Swinub.
As the temperature continued to fall, situations like this were absolutely unavoidable, and would only get worse.
Eventually, if even higher-level Pokémon started trying to leave, then even though Anthony was a Pseudo-Champion, he would be powerless to stop them.
Therefore, finding the reason behind the falling temperatures was the true key to solving this disaster.
Watching the Swinub finally calm down after filling their stomachs, Anthony secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
However, a report from one of his staff members immediately caused his expression to become serious again.
"Gym Leader, the temperature has dropped another three degrees."
The day before yesterday, the temperature had been around minus twenty-one degrees Celsius, but now it had reached minus twenty-four degrees.
Almost every few days, the temperature within the Land of Extreme Ice would decrease further—by three or four degrees at the outermost edges and by over a dozen degrees at the very center.
If they couldn't find the cause of the continuous cooling, then following the current trend, the temperature of the Land of Extreme Ice would eventually fall to a level where even Ice-type Pokémon could no longer survive.
And there were over a hundred million Ice-type Pokémon living in this secret realm. What would happen to them?
If they weren't allowed to leave, they would eventually freeze to death here.
But if they were allowed to leave, no one knew how to accommodate such an enormous population of Ice-type Pokémon.
So the answer remained the same as before: they had to find the cause of the temperature drop.
Solve that problem, and this disaster would naturally be resolved as well.
"Gym Leader, a group of Spheal is heading this way."
Bad news came practically one after another. Just as the Swinub situation was dealt with, here came another group.
"How many?" Anthony asked.
"About over a thousand."
Anthony let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the number wasn't too large.
If the population had reached the scale of the Swinub group, then the daily food consumption alone would have been astronomical.
"Dylan, go handle it," Anthony said to a middle-aged man beside him—his eldest son.
And Dylan was the father of Rowan, one of Julian's few close friends.
"Understood. I'll handle it right away," Dylan nodded and left.
*****
Upto 30 chapters ahead on patreon :-
patreon.com/ReduxMagister